Poinsettias

Poinsettias are a frequent sight this time of year. They are a welcome large bloom in the shortest days of the year and seem to be included in more displays every year. It does not seem that long ago that we only saw red ones but now they come in all shades between white and red. I’ve been collecting images for this post over the past week or so. The large colorful parts of the plants are actually bracts…with the flower of the plant being the small structures surrounded by the colorful bracts. The undersides of the bracts often have prominent veins that may be a different color than the other tissue. Enjoy the varieties of poinsettia in the slide show below…they’re a colorful part of the winter holiday!

3 Free eBooks - December 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for December 2014.

Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Douglas W. Druick, Henri Loyrette, Michael Pantazzi, and Gary Tinterow. Degas, 1834–1917. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1988. Available from the Metmuseum site here.  This is the catalog for a large scale retrospective exhibit of Degas’ work in the late 80s. There are lots of examples of his works and his process for their creation. There are many other similar books on the Metmuseum site that make it worth browsing.

Wilson, Charles William. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton. 1880. There are four volumes available via the Internet Archive: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and Volume 4. With all the wars that have happened in the area between 1880 and today - I wonder how many of the places depicted in the drawings are still standing. Many looked very old in 1880!

Hariot, Paul. Atlas colorie des plantes medicinales indigenes. Paris : Librairie des sciences naturelles. 1892. Available at the Internet Archive here. I always enjoy a book of botanical prints - which is what this is. I like the way the prints are an intersection of art and science. There is another book from the same author that I am looking forward to viewing too.

Winter Solstice Hike

One of the new traditions I am starting this year is taking a Solstice Hike. I got the idea from a guided hike conducted by the Howard County Conservancy yesterday (yes - a day early…but Saturday was a better day for the event than Sunday). The hike started at Belmont Manor and Historic Park and hiked down to the Patapsco River through the Patapsco Valley State Park that almost surrounds Belmont. The keyword about the trail is down; it was that getting to the river and then uphill for the way back!  My Fitbit counted about 9,000 steps and the equivalent of 40 flights of stairs. The pace was comfortable and there were no difficult parts of the trail.

It was about right for a winter hike. I bundled up and stopped periodically to take pictures. The first stop was the pond and the cypress tree. We had noticed on a hike before last fall’s BioBlitz at Belmont that there were knees by the pond and then noticed the large trees at the water’s edge. Some of the knees are in the water but most of them are in the grass around the pond and are scared from mowers.

As we started into the forest we noticed a tree with distinctive bark. I took a picture of the trunk and up into the tree to help with identification. I think I is a black tupelo/black gum since the bark does look like ‘alligator’ hide and the branches make a pinwheel pattern coming out from the trunk.

With the vegetation of summer gone, I started looking more closely at the base of trees. They usually provide a firm hold to the earth for the tree. There was one tree with a splintered trunk that still had a stump firmly in the ground.

I like the winter scenes that still have a bit of green from moss

Or ferns.

I photograph just about every shelf fungus I see as well!

Finally we see the Patapsco River.

At the water’s edge there are sycamores with their roots being undermined by the river.

As we begin the hike back we see the distinctive trunk of a Honey Locust.

Next year I might do another guided Solstice Hike…or I may just hike with friends. The point is some outdoor time on the shortest day of the year!

Another new tradition I want to try this year is a First Day Hike in a State Park. There are parks all over the US participating. To find one near you - check the http://naspd.org/  site (the logo at the bottom of the page goes to a form to select your state)! I hope the weather on January 1 is as good for hiking as the weather was for the Solstice Hike.

Brookside Conservatory - December 2014

Brookside Gardens cancelled their Garden of Lights display this year but the conservatory has the model trains on display…and is a great (warm) place to spend some time on a winter’s day. I always see something new and wonderful in the conservatory. Sometimes it is something that just happens - like the pink begonia flower that fell into a pool of water

Or noticing the cycads near the front entrance that have always been there but have recently been trimmed so that more of the plant structures show.

There is a cactus display near one corner - with threatening long thorns next to

More benign looking desert plants - sometimes with a surprising amount of color.

The water feature running through lush plants always is attractive.

But I made my way to the model trains rather quickly….following the mothers with very excited young children. Watching the trains was more fun with the chatter of children experiencing them for the first time.

Zooming - December 2014

There is a lot of Northern Hemisphere Christmas imagery in this month’s zooming series. It is the time of year that we bring green indoors for decorating - to contrast with the view from most of our windows of bare tree branches. We notice the subtle changes in color and texture now that the leaves are brown mulch on the forest floor - raked away from the lawn.

Enjoy the zoomed images…and take a closer look at decorating in your area too!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 13, 2014

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.

Drugs in the environment affect plant growth - Water treatment is unable to remove many of the drugs from sewage….so they are showing up in the water supply. This study was about the impact of the drugs (still in low concentrations) on plants - and they did find some changes. It looks like this is another dimension to think about when it comes to sustainability of the planet.

Art That's Made with Snow and Ice - Maybe I’ll try a simple pattern in my backyard when we get a good snow! The spirals appeal to me.

Climate change already showing effects at Kennedy Space Center - Not so surprising since it is right on Florida’s Atlantic coast. We were there in November 2013 and noticed how close much of the visible infrastructure was to the sea. There is a lot of commercial development along that coast too; it will probably face similar challenges.

Finding infant Earths and potential life just got easier - Did you know that Cornell has an Institute for Pale Blue Dots?

What really helps women achieve a good work-life balance? - The problem is broader than a time conflict based on this research. It points to a ‘glass cliff’ phenomenon whereby women and minorities are more likely to be placed in leadership positions which are risky or precarious….which exacerbates any ‘fit’ problems at work and thus impacts the perception of work-life balance.

Food: The rarely-seen robots that package what we eat - Two videos (pancakes and salami processing) and a short explanation. They are much faster and more reliable that people!

A Quick Tour of Germany's National Parks - Wow! Lots to see in Germany.  The post includes links for additional info about each one.

The Wonderful Geometry of Budapest's Spiral Staircases - Dizzying images…also beautiful.

Chesapeake Bay region streams are warming - I live in the watershed for the Chesapeake Bay. All the states have programs to monitor and improve the water quality flowing into the bay. It is challenging with so many things changing.

Early warning signals of abrupt climate change - Signals of a reorganization of the Atlantic ocean’s circulation….bad news. 

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 06, 2014

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.

12 Ways Airports Are Actually Getting Better - Some good trends. I’ve noticed the increasing number of art work particularly - like the floor mosaics in one of the DFW terminals.

Wanderers - A short video. Wish we were doing more space exploration these days….thrilled that the Orion test flight yesterday was successful.

WHO Report: Climate Change to Cause 250,000 “Extra Deaths” a Year by 2030 - Not good.

This Linguistic Family Tree Is Simply Gorgeous - It’s only the Indo-European languages….not all the world’s languages. It would be interesting to see all of them in this same format

Apple Crisp - Yum. I have some apples in my refrigerator I need to use up quickly….this will be a good way to use them!

The Chemistry of Poinsettia Plants - Did you know that the pigment in the red leaves changes color with pH? This could be a project to try as your poinsettia sheds its petals!

Losing air: barrage of small impacts likely erased much of the Earth’s primordial atmosphere - Since I am in the middle of an ‘Origins’ course on Coursera - I am noting this type article more. There is geochemical evidence that Earth’s atmosphere may have been completely obliterated at least twice since its formation. This research investigates a possible mechanism.

Citizen science increases environmental awareness, advocacy - Talking and thinking are enhanced by doing when it comes to really understanding something. It happens is so many areas of life.

New Model of Media Consumption in 'Age of Interruption' - 15 hours a day is the average…that is almost every waking hour! I’m disappointed that they did not have statistics for the ‘retired’ segment of the US population. The average hours are a bit high for me (very high on days that I am leading nature hikes!) and the distribution (at least for me) is heavily skew toward computer (tablet and laptop) rather than the other types of media….largely because of courses, ebooks and the amount of writing I like to do. And there is another difference too - I am not sedentary in front of my laptop when I am at home (Swopper chair).

The weird world of everyday liquids - I’m always liked these kind of images. There are videos worth viewing too.

Pomegranate Project

I always enjoy pomegranates this time of year. The jewel-like shape and color of the fruit seems appropriate to the season. Earlier this week I decided to try making designs with the seeds before enjoying them as a snack. I only managed to get 5 designs created, using an upside down white bowl as a platform, before I got too hungry to continue!

Backyard View - November 2014

I’m continuing my monthly post of morning images of the trees in our backyard that I started in September and continued in October. Since all the leaves have fallen of this month, I’ll take a hiatus until next spring and then do another series in the spring.

The November trees were colorful…and then bare by the end of the month. At the beginning of the month, the tulip poplar (middle) leaves were mostly on the ground, the maple (right) still had a lot of red leaves and the small locust next to the pine was turning yellow. The images in the slide show below were taken on the

2nd, (still some green in the maple)

3rd, (no more green in the maple and there are more leaves on the ground)

4th, (there was some raking done for the thickest area of leaves)

8th, (the locust has turned completely yellow and it is obvious there will need to be more raking)

11th, (the neighbor’s yard crew did now work, the maple is has dropped a lot of leaves but the locust still has quite a few)

13th and (not leaves on the maple, the locust has lost most of its leaves as well)

20th. (the neighbor’s yard crew blew off the leaves and left bare dirt).

Since the last picture - I raked again. I leave the leaf mulch in areas that are too heavily shaded to grow grass!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 29, 2014

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 Chemistry of Ginger – Flavour, Pungency & Medicinal Potential - This article from ‘Compound Interest’ was timely - with my new favorite winter drink being hot ginger water!

This Menacing Carnivorous Plant Time-lapse Is a Horror Movie for Bugs - I remember sending off for a tiny Venus fly trap plant when I was in elementary school - fascinated by the idea of plants that ate bugs. Now I am even more fascinated by the chemistry behind the rapid action the plant takes to trap the bug! The video is under 4 minutes in length - worth a look.

Scientists study effects of sunlight to reduce number of nearsighted kids - There is still research to be done to fully understand the relationship between outdoor time and nearsightedness…but there is enough evidence already to encourage more outdoor time for children to reduce the lifetime risk of nearsightedness.  The ages between 5 and 9 seem to be critical.

Urban Cartography - This is a collection of maps. My favorite is the mapping of sea level rise on the south part of South Bay (San Francisco). Lots of tech company headquarters are in the vulnerable zone with relatively little rise in sea level.

Gifted men and women define success differently, 40-year study finds - From the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth conducted at Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development.  The study involved over 1600 people that were well established in their careers and lives. Collectively they had published 85 books and 7,572 refereed academic articles and secured 681 patents and $358 million in grants. Their scores on measures of emotional well-being, life satisfaction, personal and career direction, and satisfaction with their relationships were universally high. Then the gender differences become more apparent in other areas such as career path, salary, time allocation, priorities, and family. The finding that both the mathematically talented men and women in the study were ‘happy’ says something good about their resilience and the cultural environment.

Update: American Farm Bureau Federation et al. v. EPA Oral Arguments - This update caught my eye because it was about the Chesapeake Bay - something close to home. There is a Total Maximum Daily Load program for the Chesapeake Bay which is coordinated by the EPA in collaboration with the states whose watershed feeds into the bay.

Gingerbread Molasses Scones - Yum! I made these this week. The only changes I made to the ingredients were 1) whole wheat flour instead of plain flour and 2) no topping. I also used the food processor to mix everything. I did the kneading right in the big pan, cut the pieces of dough, separated them a little, and into the oven they went.

These Parasitic Wasps Trick Trees into Building Them Weird Houses - The oak tree hosts quite a few gall wasps. The video show some of the variety.

An Astounding History of Scientific Space Art from the Past 200 Years - Imaginings of other places….

The Complete Crocodilian Primer - Links to articles about the all the different kinds of crocodiles.

Last Leaf Raking of 2014

The last raking of our yard was done this weekend. I put it off until the loud noises from leaf blowers ended. I prefer to hear the noises of leaves and small animals in the yard and forest while I work. There were only a few places where the leaves were deep enough that the lawn mowing in a few days (the last of the season) would not shred them enough to feed the grass rather than smother it. The base of the maple was the largest area; I had already raked once but the tree still had half its leaves at that point.

I left the leaves in the flower bed. The mint seems to be enjoying the protection of the leaves through the recent temperatures in the teens and twenties; this calls for another small mint harvest to create a pot of fresh mint and ginger ‘tea’.

I am putting leaves around the base of the sycamore that came up in our backyard a few years ago. It is growing up: the bark is beginning to peel and it had one seed ball this year.

In a little over an hour, the job was done - mostly. I stopped because the base of my thumb felt raw under my work glove; sure enough - a few layers of skin had been rubbed away by the friction of the rake handle. 

3 Free eBooks - November 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for November 2014.

Fritzinger, Leopold Joseph Franz Johann. Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-popularen Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere. 1867. Available from the Internet Archive here. A volume of color prints of lizards and other reptiles.

Verneuil, Maurice Pillard. Etude de la plante : son application aux industries d'art : pochoir, papier peint, etoffes, céramique, marqueterie, tapis, ferronnerie, reliure, dentelles, broderies, vitrail, mosaïque, bijouterie, bronze, orfévrerie. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts. 1903. Available on the Internet Archive here. It is interesting to see how botanicals were translated into interior design elements in the early 1900s. I’ve made collages of the iris designs.

Adams, Robert. Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia. London: printed for the author. 1764. Available at the Internet Archive here. This book had been on my ‘too read’ list since last fall when I enjoyed a Roman Architecture course via Coursera. The drawings are quite good. The author includes images of the ruins as they were in the 1760s as well as what he thought they were like when they were first built.

On the Way to Chincoteague

We made a weekend trek to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge this past weekend.  There were so many photography opportunities that I will showcase them in several posts over the next few weeks. This post will focus on the trek to get there: leaving home early, crossing Maryland’s Bay Bridge, and making a stop at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland.

We started our drive by 7:30 AM - being glad it was a weekend and there would be no rush hour traffic. The morning was quite cold. Many of the leaves in our neighborhood had fallen in the past week but the pines along this road early in our drive seemed to have protected the deciduous trees growing with them. 

The Bay Bridge is less than an hour along our route. I always try to take pictures as we are driving over. There were no closures so traffic on each span was going one way. Note that the bridges are not the same.

When we got to Blackwater - it seemed like it was going to be too cold for anything to be moving. We walked to the end of short boardwalk and nearly gave up.

Then we spotted the Great Blue Heron standing like a statue. Then it started to hunt for a snack. Not that the neck looks a lot thicker in the second picture. He had been successful in his foraging!

There were ducks too. These mallards look fat - or maybe it is just fluffed feathers. I liked the curls of their tail feathers.

At the end of the wildlife drive there were lots of pines and colorful leaves. There seem to be more sweet gum trees than I remembered from previous visits. The brochure for the refuge explained that they are challenged with rising water levels. What was once marsh has become - or is becoming - open water. Some forested area has become too marshy for the trees.

The visitor center has been renovated since we were at the refuge last (in June 2013) and there is a Monarch sculpture in the garden area behind it. My husband commented that it reminded him of the way the butterflies crowd together in Mexico to keep warm!

Zooming - November 2014

The theme for the November zooming post is fall color and texture. The burst of colors - greens, reds, yellows, oranges - is the finale of the growing season. They are fading fast in our area by the last weeks of November. The leaves crackle as they dry, their color fades to brown or black as they decay to mulch.

The seeds of many plants are surrounded by fluff (milkweed, cattails, and blazing stars) that acts as a parachute for the fall breezes to carry them away from their parent toward a place they can sprout next spring.

Centennial Lake in November 2014

I made a quick stop at Centennial Lake (in Centennial Park in Howard County, Maryland) on my way to an appointment this week after our first very cold weather of the season arrived. Most of the leaves had fallen off the trees but the reflections on the lake were still dramatic. There were a few intrepid souls on the path around the lake. None of them were sitting on the benches. It was a morning to keep moving.

The boat ramp are with the stones that extend into the water is one of my favorite vantage points. I took several vantage points. The angle of light makes a difference!

There were a few trees that retained some color. I wondered if it was the type of tree or the micro-climate along that part of the lake shore since so many other trees had dropped their leaves.

Closer to ground level I noticed some colorful vegetation closer to the ground.

As I drove out - I stopped to photograph a grouping of gingkoes. Most of the trees still held about half their leaves with the ones that had fallen in yellow drifts around their base.

Houseplants

I have three houseplants on the table in front of the breakfast area window - complete with a grow light to support their growth through the winter.

My experimental plant is ginger. A root that I had purchased to add to stir fries sprouted - and I cut off the two areas that sprouted and put the pieces in soil. They have done very well. The original sprouts now are stems and leaves...and there are additional sprouts at the base.

The aloe that had gotten way to large is survived by some smaller versions of itself as my second houseplant. How long will it be before these small ones graduate to the parent’s pot?

So far the sweet potato vines that I rooted in water and then planted in soil are not doing well at all. It is very frustrating. My goal had been to have three pots of the vines so that I could harvest the occasional leave to add to winter salads. Right now they are acting like they preferred to stay in water rather than grow in soil.

Still these few plants are my brace against the coming drabness outdoors. Right now there is still a lot of leaf color but it won’t be long before the color variety in the outdoor scene will be dominated by browns and piney greens….until it snows and we’ll enjoy the clean white for a few days.

Mt. Pleasant Farm

The Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant has been the site for many field trips for county elementary schools this fall. With only a few more to go - I took the short walk along the kindergarten hike route before the buses arrived; it was another celebration of fall in Maryland. 

The flower pot people are always on display on a shady bench….suitably styled for the season.

Many of the trees are labeled - including this Witch Hazel

And the Saucer Magnolia.

I liked both of them for their color and the way the light was striking the leaves. Somehow the children always enjoy the discovery of the rabbit sculpture under a bush.

Many of the pines seem to have more cones near the top. Pretty soon we’ll be emulating the way the cones hang from the branches on our Christmas tree!

The buses arrived shortly after my walk and my focus shifted to hiking with children and their chaperones….and that too is a celebration of the season.

Neighborhood Walk

We’ve had a few chilly days in our area…some light frosts. Our neighborhood is past the peak of fall beauty. I took the opportunity to walk around yesterday afternoon when it was warm enough for the bees to be active at the few bedraggled flowers that are still blooming.

The oak seems to glow in the sunshine. Up close the leaves look almost drab.

The Indian corn has been on our door for the past few years - for the few weeks between Halloween and the beginning of December.

I’m noticing more leaves in the street gutters this year. The leaves came down with recent rains and are staying put wherever they got wet. I managed to rake and sweep the street gutter in front of my house this past weekend.

The storm water retention pond for our neighborhood is surrounded by trees and cattails. The cattails are exploding and the breeze wafts away the seeds.

This squirrel ran up a large oak as I got close and posed for a picture. Doesn’t he look well fed? His paw reminds me of ET fingers.

Last but not least - I couldn’t resist the colorful fall display of one trees - and the near bareness of its neighbor.

The joys of fall!

Aloe Harvest

I made the decision in September to not bring the big pot of aloe back indoors for the winter. It overwhelmed the breakfast area last year. By mid-October when we started having some cooler days, I dug up two small plants that had come up from the roots of the parent and moved them to smaller pots that would easily fit on the plant table in front of a sunny window this winter.

I also harvested some of the larger plant. Instead of doing a lot of work peeling the pieces - I cut them in small wedges to expose the gooey pulp and piled them into ice trays to be frozen. Now the aloe cubes are popped out of the trays and stored in the freezer in a gallon Ziploc bag. My plan is to thaw a cube frequently to pamper skin and hair all winter long.

Catoctin and Cunningham Falls

Just prior to write this blog post, I wrote a simple poem one about the scene from my office window and plan for the day. Do you see the title down the middle?

It sets the stage for my collection of images from Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park - now about 2 weeks old.  We stopped at the Catoctin Mountain visitor’s center as we usually do and then walked across the street to the short Blue Blazes Still Trail. There was a tree riddled with woodpecker holes and several kinds of shelf fungus (one fungus group had a slug feasting) that I include in the slide show below. The trees still had quite a few leaves. There was lots of color.

We drove over to Cunningham Falls State Park and took the steeper trail to the falls (I was sore for the next few days from that scramble).

As usual - there were a lot of people at the falls….and they were crawling all over the falls. It was hard to get any waterfalls without people!

I settled for the smaller scenes of moss, leaves, and fungus. Enjoy the slideshow!