Snow Day - December 2013

Yesterday was a snow day! I didn’t go sledding or make snow ice cream like we did years ago when my daughter was in elementary school. But I savored the serendipity of an unanticipated day at home.

The snow started falling in the early morning and made a beautiful wintery scene by the time it was light enough to see the neighborhood. The snow and the cold was just the incentive I needed to stay indoors and make progress on the ‘to do’ list for the house.

Writing notes for the Christmas cards

Re-caulking the base of the shower

Reorganizing the freezer

Emptying, cleaning and reorganizing the cabinet of plastic containers

I rationalized that shoveling the driveway made no sense while it was still snowing but it stopped shortly afternoon and I ventured out. It didn’t take long to do the shoveling but I realized when I went indoors that I was exhausted. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and cheering my accomplishments.

Bok Tower Gardens (Florida) - Part 2

I posted about the tower at the Bok Tower Gardensyesterday. Today the focus is on the plants and a few animals. Lizards seemed to be everywhere and it was warm enough for them to be very active.

The squirrels were acclimated to people. This one listened to the carillon concert with us - keeping his back to us as he perched on a neighboring bench.

The slide show below shows a number of other features in garden: a metal Venus flytrap sculpture among tropical vegetation, oranges glowing in the sun, bees on an agave flower, a Monarch butterfly on orange and red flowers, coral stones used for paving with moss growing in larger indentions, a pineapple type plant, a spider web, the center of a cycad.

Bok Tower Gardens (Florida) - Part 1

Bok Tower Gardens is on Iron Mountain in Florida near Lake Wales. It is surrounded by orange groves growing in the red-brown soil that gets it color from oxidized hematite.

 The tower itself is on the summit of the mountain which at 295 feet above sea level is one of the highest points in peninsular Florida. The gardens were built by Edward Bok at his winter home in Florida. He was inspired by something his grandmother instilled in him. There is a small sign with the quote near the tower (see photograph to the left). He died in 1930 but the gardens and tower still keep the spirit of that goal alive. Enjoy the slide show below for a quick look at the tower itself.

There are grills with mosaics and stone sculptures and friezes. Birds and plants are popular topics in stone.

The grill work that is covered in mosaic adds additional colors to the tower. There are no regular tours inside the tower but there are enough doors and balconies visible from the outside to image some of the internal structure. The carillon is housed in the upper part of the tower and there are concerts scheduled a couple of times a day.

Even the top of the gate in the fence around the tower is decorated with bird images.

The tower is only the high point (physically) of the garden. The museum is informative, the food is pleasant, and the gardens are full of lush plants (and spiders and birds and squirrels). I am planning two additional posts from our visit to the gardens in November: one on tiles and fountains and another featuring the plants. There are many plants in this outdoors in this garden that we only in conservatories in Maryland.

Herons in Florida - November 2013

The two types of herons that were easiest to spot in Florida when we were there in November were the Great Blue Heron and the Tricolored Heron (formerly known as the Louisiana Heron).

The Great Blue Heron is a bird we see in Maryland as well and I’ve posted pictures of it before. They look the same everywhere. Some of these pictures include mangroves - a sure indication that these birds are much further south than Maryland.

The Tricolored Herons were new to me. Their range is much further south than Maryland; they thrive throughout Florida. These herons run in the water as they pursue their prey - very different behavior than the patient stalking style of the Great Blue Heron.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 7, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Snowman - Our family’s favorite holiday video - now available on YouTube.

Goldenrod Seeds - Chris Helzer’s photos posted to his ‘The Prairie Ecologist’ site

Khan Academy - I’m taking two Coursera courses about education (E-learning and Digital Cultures from The University of Edinburgh and Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom from University of California, Irvine). The number of resources I’m discovering on the web through these courses is staggering. This is one of them.

Psychedelic Images of Terrifying Viruses - The colorization of microscopic images of viruses is done to make it easier to study the structure. You can look at them from that perspective or enjoy them as art! Be sure to look at the comments section for Luke Jerram’s glass sculptures of microbes (other images of the glass here).

Cherry Basil Crumble Bars - I am intrigued by the idea of using beans in the crust/topping and pairing cherries with basil

Are MOOCs the Future of Online Education - Infographic about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that includes currents statistics and some pros and cons about taking a MOOC.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #55 - I couldn’t resist including this one. My favorite, of course, is the peacock.

Ye Old Parasites - A study of decomposed feces from one of a castle’s latrines has shown high concentration of roundworm and whipworm parasites that plagued crusaders around 1200. Aside from being an interesting footnote to history on its own, it helps explain why so many crusaders died of malnutrition. The detailed genetic information of the parasites from 1200 compared to their modern forms can also guide treatment development to parts of the genome that are less likely to evolve (and become resistant).

What it’s like to grow old, in different parts of the world - Jared Diamond at TED.

Photos of Tiny Animals on Fingers - Enjoy!

Christmas Stuff - Part 1

My strategy for decorating the Christmas tree had always been the same: 

• Arrange the ornaments evenly around the tree so that no part of the tree looks ‘undecorated’ and
• Try not to put similar ornaments next to each other. 

This year I decided to ignore the second part of the strategy and to intentionally group like ornaments. Some are grouped by shape or color. Others are full of family history:

Inherited from my mother-in-law more than 20 years ago.

Ornaments my mother gave to me when she decided she had way too many ornaments. I remembered when she bought them when I was in elementary school.

Dough ornaments my sister made. She wrote the year on the back - 1988.

Grouping the ornaments has made the important ones stand out more - and the trees is still decorated all over.

Pomegranates - The Fruit of December

I always associate pomegranates with December because of: 

• Their color - the deep red of the edible seeds reminds me of Christmas and red velvet cake and candy canes,
• Their appearance - the shape looks like an ornament to me and its size that fits easily in the hand is also appealing, and
• Their easy availability in the produce section of the grocery store this time of year. 

I always cut the top and bottom from the fruit before I cut it into quarters. There is always some juice that leaks out onto the cutting board when it is cut. If there is a lot of it, I use a straw to slurp it up.

I stand at the kitchen sink to eat a quarter of the fruit each morning; the view out the window and of the fruit always sends my mood in a positive direction.

Eating a pomegranate is a messy endeavor. The membranes and peel cradle the seeds; splatters and seed flying are common. I’ve considering whether using a small spoon to tease out the seeds would be better but I always decide to just enjoy the fruits as one eaten without tools. When I am done, the membranes and peel go in the trash and I wipe the splatters of juice and wayward seeds from the cabinet (sometimes on both sides of the sink!).

Roseate Spoonbills in Florida - November 2013

Roseate Spoonbills are easy to spot because of their color and size - and then fascinate with their unusual bill and the way they feed. In November at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge they gathered with other birds to feed in the pools where there lower water level concentrated the small animals and the spoonbill sifts through the mud to find them. The pools are so rich that the spoonbills were with egrets and ibis.

The Busy-ness of December

Here we are in the early part of December - the prospect for a flurry of activity looming with a higher probability than a flurry of snow. Here’s a list of things for the month (so far): 

• Decorating the house.
• Writing an annual Christmas note to include with our Christmas cards (a general one for most….individual note for a few).
• Volunteering at a local non-profit’s holiday sale.
• Taking my husband to the airport for an early morning flight….then picking him up five days later from a late flight back.
• Deciding on gifts for family and friends…buying…wrapping…sending/delivering.
• Re-caulking the shower base in the master bathroom.
• Donate boxes of used books and VHS tapes.
• Finishing all Coursera courses I’ve started.
• Preparing the house for company.
• Shopping for holiday foods - red velvet cake is at the top of my list right now.
• Viewing the holiday light display at a local garden.
• Seeing the new Hobbit movie. 

Does it all have to happen in December? Not all of it….but I’m so jazzed by the holiday season that I always get more done in December than just about any month of the year!

Alligators in Florida - November 2013

Alligators were easy to spot when we were in Florida in November. The biggest ones were at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They loll on the banks of the waterways. It’s easy to image that they are smiling to lull their prey into a fall sense of security. In reality they have eaten recently and are not likely to move much from their comfortable spot.

In a small ditch next to the parking lot of the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex, there was a small alligator. At first his eyes were closed but as more people walked by his place, his eyes slowly opened. These animals have an ancient look about them…and the eyes fit with the rest of their appearance. There is an emptiness about the eyes; how is alligator consciousness different (or similar) to our own?

Sometimes an alligator looks particularly well feed. Doesn’t the middle of the large one above look particularly rounded? I wonder what he ate.

Brown Pelicans in Florida

The Manatee Observation Deck at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was a great place to see pelicans; there were a lot of them all three times we were there in mid-November. The birds have large wingspans and, with photography, it is easy to capture the way the long feathers at the end curl in flight.

Their heads are up above the plane of their wings when they fly - like herons and egrets. The head looks very large with the length of the bill and the pouch. They look ancient.

At the observation deck there were adults with distinctive coloring

And more ‘brown’ mono-colored juveniles.

Unfortunately - we only saw a manatee once during our week in Florida and it was at Bair Cove boat ramp on the other side of the Haulover Canal from the Manatee Observation Deck. It was a ‘blob’ just under the water….so I didn’t get a picture good enough to share.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 30, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Early Uses of Chili Peppers in Mexico - Capsicum residue found in different kinds of vessels…showing that chili peppers may have been used in a variety of ways in the centuries before the time of Christ.

Mind the Clock - Inforgraphic about the various ‘clocks’ in the human body.

Feathery Fungi - I almost enjoy finding shelf fungi…and these turkey tails seem particularly appropriate for the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Cataract Surgery Saves $123.4 Billion in Costs, Delivers 4,567% Return to Society - I hope that this kind of analysis is done for more kinds of medical interventions. Cataract surgery may be a bright positive star compared to other procedures.

Washington: A world apart - There are a lot of Super Zips (zip codes where the average median household income is $120K and 7 in 10 adults have college degrees) around Washington DC. The graphic at the beginning of the article is interactive - put in your zip code to find out the income and education for your zip code.

The Unsung Women of Tech - 13 women highlighted by Computerworld as part of the celebration of Ada Lovelace Day back in October.

Stunning Macro Details of Uniquely Beautiful Snowflakes - Just in time for winter….some snowflake photographs.

Maps of What the Earth Would Look Like If All Ice Melted - Lots of coastal population centers would be underwater.

Glaciers Sizzle as They Disappear Into Warmer Water - Audio recordings may be a viable complement to other measurements of ice melt.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Bundt - Yummy Bundt idea…and I still have lots of pumpkin in my freezer.

Maven Launch on 11/18/2013

We were at Cape Canaveral on November 18th for the Maven (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) Launch. The day before the launch, we toured the Vehicle Assembly building and saw the launch pad with the Atlas V rocket, Centaur, and Maven (at the top) from the fence surrounding it. 

Our viewing location for the launch was on the causeway that crosses the Banana River. We boarded the bus about 3 hours before the launch, ate a picnic lunch sitting on beach towels (fortunately we were not in an area with fire ants), and used an umbrella for shade when it got a little hot. The clouds built up right before the launch time…but not enough to stop the launch at the very beginning of the planned window. The slide show below includes some selected pictures. They don’t capture the most stunning part of a launch: the sound. It is sound that is felt as much as heard … different from any other experience I’ve had … and well worth the effort! A launch is a celebration of accomplishment; the mission is built and on its way. It will be months before the science phase of the mission starts when it gets to Mars.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving prompts me to think about:

• What I am thankful for
• Traditions 

Being Thankful

Thanksgiving Day is the annual prompt to take stock - to acknowledge and appreciate. Are the aspects of our lives for which we are thankful also the aspects that contribute to our feelings of happiness? For me - I think they are. And Thanksgiving Day 2013 finds me celebrating an abundance of good vibes:

Family (husband, daughter, parents, sisters, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins). Most of the family is far away this Thanksgiving but 2013 has been a better year than 2012 - the trend is good and I’m thankful for that.

Health. Feeling well enough to do all the things that make life wonderful ---- it’s not something I take for granted. I’m thankful.

Coursera. I am hooked on the many offerings from Coursera. It seems like I have 3 or 4 going almost all the time. The topics, quality of presentation, and cost (generally free) are all worth being thankful. It is one of the areas of technology that I appreciate without any reservations.

Volunteer work for Neighbor Ride and Howard Country Conservancy. I am thankful for non-profit organizations in my community that provide me with a meaningful way to give back to my community by volunteering. Somehow volunteering has more personal meaning than simply donating money.

Home. Every time I travel I realize how thankful I am to have a home to welcome me back. Coming back from Florida just a few days before Thanksgiving means that we are cleaning house first thing Thanksgiving Day…and then relaxing to have our feast.

Traditions

There are activities that are like clockwork this time of year

Three cobs of Indian corn are hung on the front door. They are over 5 years old but dried corn lasts a long time. I like the colors - the dark, muted colors of fall - against our dark green door.

Food

Brisket cooking in the crockpot. My husband does not like turkey so we cook something else that will result in a lot of left overs - a brisket. It totally fills the crockpot. Our big meal with be in the evening so I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to start the main course like I did when we were eating the feast at midday.

Cranberry orange relish from the Wegmans recipe. This was a tradition started last year. I liked this relish so much that I’ll never make the old boiled cranberries in sugar recipe ever again.

Pumpkin custard and baked potatoes and cooked in the same oven. We always make custard rather than pie and, since our family is small, the custard goes into the oven 1.5 hours before meal time at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Then at 1.25 hours before meal time the potatoes go into the oven as it gets turned down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The custard is done about 0.5 hours before meal time and is taken out to cool.

Old videos. This is the new ‘tradition’ starting this year. We’re going to dig out 20 year old videos of our daughter as a young child - to recall a trip to Florida from that time in our lives and contrast the Florida of 2013. Next year we’ll look at some other old videos.

Pervious Thanksgiving posts 

• 2011
• 2012

Enjoying the Birds at Florida Beaches

The weather was too cool and windy to swim, so we enjoyed watching birds on the beach instead….at Canaveral National Seashore, Cocoa Beach and the beaches near Melbourne.

The wind made for some ruffled feathers. The terns would quickly turn into the wind and preen to resume their usual sleek look.

Or sometimes they just tolerated their ‘punkish’ look.

A willet and sanderling fed side by side on the goodies left from the waves rolling in. 

And the best of the rest are in the slide show below!

Road Trip to Florida

Our destination was Melbourne FL and we did the calculation between flying/car rental and driving - deciding that for two people without significant time constraints, it was less expensive to drive. The drive from Maryland to Florida is a trek on I-95. One passes around Washington DC and Richmond VA and then I-95 becomes a highway that misses any major city. I had thought we might see some fall color as we traveled southward; there was a little in Virginia but by the time we got to North Carolina, the pines dominated the roadway. There were miles of them. Sometimes there was a cotton field visible along the highway. Once past the Roanoke Rapids, there were more swamps and broad rivers. It was still sweat shirt weather all the way from Maryland to South Carolina where we stopped the first night.

By the time we got to Florida, it was warm and wet. I enjoyed the dolphin sculpture at the welcome center. Since it was raining, we stopped for lunch at MacDonald’s rather than picnic.

As we got out of the car the rain slowed down and I noticed two wood storks on a grassy area next to the parking lot. What a great way to start out our week in Florida! I’ll be posting more about our time in Florida over the next few weeks.

The road trip to Florida included a return trip too. On the way back I captured the sunrise in Georgia. We were up early for a long day of driving to get back to Maryland.

Great Blue Heron Reflections and a Turtle Lunch

Several weeks ago, I photographed a Great Blue Heron in the pool beside the bridge on the north side of the Centennial Lake in Maryland.

The bird was very still at first but then started moving around the edge of the pool - reflected in the water. After plunging into the water, the wings were arched to fling water off the feathers.

And then I noticed that the bird had caught something. It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the pictures that I realized it was a turtle!

Road Trip Preparation

Being ‘on the road’ for 11 days requires some planning. Even though I’ve done it enough times before that I should be ‘experienced’ there is always a niggling worry that something might be forgotten. The usual things are on the list: 

• Pick up tourbooks from AAA.
• Check the travel times between destinations with Google maps.
• Load the lodging reservation information details onto my Kindle - and print the summary.
• Plan the food for ‘picnic’ meals. I am making Pumpkin and Ginger Scones the day before we leave and will take the ones left after we enjoy them fresh from the oven. Also on my list are hummus and veggies, nuts (cashews, peanuts, soynuts). This has been a great year for apples so they’ll be the primary fruit for the road.
• Arrange for house/cat sitter.
• Water the house plants right before we leave. I have a sweet potato that sprouted recently; I planted it in a large pot indoors and have a grow light for it; it is growing very rapidly. My plan is to baby it through the winter and then plant it outdoors in the spring….so that next fall I’ll have quite a crop of sweet potatoes - but it needs to survive our being away.
• Look at forecasts for destinations before packing. Weather is pretty changeable this time of year…and where we are going is generally warmer than Maryland….but is it warm enough to get out the warm weather clothes again?
• Checkout ebooks from the library and make sure they are transmitted to the Kindle. I am not taking any paper based reading material on this trip!
• Create a mindmap for quick reference and re-plans while travelling. The goal is to get the most pertinent information (destinations, addresses, availability, travel times) condensed into a one page reference. Most of the time we can look up information on a smart phone if we need to - unless we are somewhere without cell phone coverage. 

Usually the things we forget are easily remedied - either with a quick purchase or by deciding that it wasn’t so essential after all!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 23, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Bob and Evelyn’s Seven Decade Dance - A short biography of a couple that met and married during World War II

Monday macrobug: milkweed bugs on milkweed pods - Milkweeds are probably my favorite wild plant.

The Future of Travel - It’s not about destination as much as it is about purpose. The larger version (easier to stare at) is here. From Richard Watson.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #52 - I can’t resist including these in my gleanings. My favorite of this batch is the macro shot of the Indian peacock’s head….although the spotted owlets are a close second.

Oklahoma vs. Texas (Water, Not Football) - Oklahoma has set its target to recognize the limitations of its water supplies, and the adaptability of its people, Texas has defined its dwindling water supplies as a problem in need of money. It’s good that the governments of both states are recognizing the challenge rather than ignoring it.

America’s First Amphetamine Epidemic 1929–1971 - This article is from the American Journal of Public Health in 2007...but I just found it recently. The author writes that “consumption of prescribed amphetamines has also reached the same absolute levels today as at the original epidemic’s peak.” Scary observation.

6 trashy exercises: Robin Nagle on thinking more creatively about garbage - How many of these have you tried? I’ve done 1, 2 and 4…but they are exercises that are easily repeated.

Increase in U.S. State Government Expenditures for Research and Development - Usually articles about R&D funding are grim…but the trend is upward for state governments. As our economy improves maybe there is more strategic thinking at the state level - at least in some of the states.

Stunning Portraits of Colorful Siamese Fighting Fish - In lieu of visiting an aquarium…a fishy feast for the eyes

Is Solar Worth It? - The answer is ‘it depends.’ This article identifies a way to figure out the answer for your situation.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in November 2013

The November highlights in our yard are seed pods and leaves. Last year the blazing stars were very popular with gold finches but the birds have not found them yet this year.

The onion flowers have ripened and the seeds rattle in the pods - spilling into the garden.

The cone flower petals have dried and fallen away leaving the spikey seeds. They’ll be more of them next year. (Although the zinnias will be some competition…I put the zinnia stalks I cut from the pots on the deck into the same garden area and their seed pods were quite numerous too.)

The seeds from the tulip poplar are also flying everywhere. They tend to get caught at the edges of our driveway and the corners of the deck.

The seed pods are interesting in structure….the colors in the yard come from the leaves. The green chlorophyll dies first and the pigments in the leaves show through.

I love the sequence of colors in the sycamore leaves in the slide show below.

The maple behind our house was one of the last in the neighborhood to change colors…but it turned its usual glorious red. I enjoy the color on the tree and then as a mass of leaves on the grass. That tree necessitates the most concentrated raking of the season because the leaves all fall at once and are too heavy for the wind to blow them away.

The oak tree often seems to go from green to brown but this year the leaves have displayed more color variety. Each leaf has a unique pattern of rust, yellow, and green.