Tulips at Longwood Gardens - May 2014

The timing of our visit to Longwood Gardens on May 2 was near perfect for the tulips just as it had been for the cherry blossoms in Washington DC back in April.  The day was near perfect for enjoying the gardens too: mostly sunny and near perfect temperature. 

We arrive about 10 minutes before the gardens opened. The beds of tulips in front of the entrance building gave us a hint of the colors that were to come.

It was quite a challenge to pick the images to include in the slide show below. Tulips come in so many colors…and there is a surprising variety in the shapes as well. Hopefully you enjoyed tulips growing in your area too!  They are a sure sign of spring.

On the Road to Philadelphia

Last week we made the trek into Philadelphia to pick up by daughter after her conference; she’d arranged to spend a few days with us in Maryland before flying back to Arizona. We left after the morning rush hour traffic and I managed a few pictures through the car window.

The Domino Sugar sign in Baltimore

The trees along the highway

The bridges over the Susquehanna River

Some of the big buildings of downtown Philadelphia

And a closer look at a building façade while we drove around trying to find parking.

We were going to the Mutter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the nearby parking along the river was blocked off because of overnight flooding (the water had retreated by the time we arrived at mid-day but the muddy sediment remained).

And then we were on foot and it was easier to get a closer look at some of the buildings. I particularly liked the church courtyard (First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia) next to the Mutter Museum.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 03, 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.

A Ranking of the Deadliest Animals in the World - The mosquito is the only one more deadly than humans!

Rainbow Slime Recipe for Play - I couldn’t resist…it’s pretty and fun looking…a great activity for the child in us all!

Two items about bees: 5 Facts about Bumblebees—and how to help them (the bumblebees were very active on a redbud blooming in our area) and The Waggle Dance of the Honeybee (this is not a new video…but timely as the bees become more active this year).

10 Spring Cleaning To Dos for Your Digital Abode: Part I - This is a list written for teachers but it makes sense for others as well! Part I is the first 5 of the 10.

Some of the Strangest and Most Artistic Rooftops in the World - The ones that are green with vegetation are my favorites.

Exquisite Macro Photos Reveal the Miniature World of Insects - My favorite is the dragonfly catching a ride on the seed puff.

Mount Baldy at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to Remain Off-Limits Indefinitely - Sand behaving in unexplained way….the world is not always easily understood.

Ethereal Silk Scarves Feature NASA's Photographs of Space - I want one of these for Christmas!

Elegant Animal Illustrations Created Using a Morié Pattern - The owl captured my attention…..and then the bats.

Optimizing sweet potato production - Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods. I’m glad they are becoming more appreciated. I’ve always had good luck growing them too.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - April 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10 for April 2014.

Home again. It’s always sweet to come home after being away no matter how much I enjoyed being away.

“New” clothes. I am tired of winter clothes so I celebrated a warm day in April when I needed to raid the summer clothes for something to wear. I am looking forward to getting out all the summer wardrobe and doing some focused purchases in May.

Outdoor projects. Our April was pretty cool but we did some sprucing up outside our house. We put new mulch around the trees, got the gutters all cleaned out and mowed the lawn for the first time. It felt good to be out and getting things done.

Indoor to Outdoor projects. There were several projects that appealed to me that started indoors and will be moved outdoors in early May.  I am celebrating that all the seedlings I have in small pots are growing very well and will be ready for the garden soon. The bins we buy cat litter in have worked well as pots that I’ll just move to the deck and let the seedlings grow to maturity; reusing rather than recycling is very appealing.

Spring blossoms. The cherry blossoms were the highlight of April….big celebration. Dandelions bring more mixed feelings; the yellow blossoms are cheery but they are way too plentiful!

Outdoor volunteer gigs. There is always a serendipity celebration when I combine being outdoors and doing something good in the community.

Anticipating travel. In April is celebrated the anticipation of traveling to Rhode Island next fall and a vicarious trip to Hawaii through my daughter. I started looking at web sites and reading books (current and very old). I like the before and after of travel as much as the travel itself!

Photography adventures. This month I continued my explorations with the loupe and been very pleased with unfurling leaves and minute flower parts. The other adventure was an initial foray into time lapse photography with the seedlings. I always celebrate the successes….and try to forget the images that didn’t quite work out.

Sunny window. I like sitting in a sunny window on cool (or cold) spring morning….celebrating that I have the time and place to do it!

Spring events. Howard County sponsored a WomenFest in April. I exceeded my expectations!

Downtown Dallas

I’ve never spent a lot of time in a down area so I noted my perceptions as I moved around in downtown Dallas one day last month. It was a week day and the rain has held off on a warming spring day - making for a pleasant time to be in the city.

Tall buildings can be overwhelming up close. It is hard to get enough perspective on them without the frame including a lot of other buildings too.

I found myself using the zoom on my camera to capture the top of buildings.

I felt dwarfed and decided I was more comfortable with the older buildings that were not as tall. I also enjoyed the spaces that had been opened up into small urban parks and medians with trees. The downtown area had more vegetation than I expected.

The structures that were lower still seemed even more interesting. It was easier to see their architectural elements and enjoy their size.

I like the sculpture and the light fixtures that did not require a zoom at all.

These sculptures in a median seemed to fit right into the Dallas scene.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 26, 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.

20 Cities Leading Rooftop Solar Revolution - It’s good to see the technology gaining momentum across the US. The report this article references is here.

Five Volcanoes Erupting at Once - On Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.  And some other views from above gleaned by Dan Satterfield from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites: sand and soot in NW China, Sahara sand blowing north into Greece and the Balkans, the green view of the Nile delta and the Suez Canal, and a sea breeze front along the Florida coast.

For The Children's Sake, Put Down That Smartphone - I’m glad this topic is being brought up more now. Children need the attention of the adults in their lives.

Finding turns neuroanatomy on its head: Researchers present new view of myelin - The higher in the cerebral cortex one looks -- the closer to the top of the brain, which is its most evolved region -- the less myelin one finds. Not only that, but "neurons in this part of the brain display a brand new way of positioning myelin along their axons that has not been previously seen. They have 'intermittent myelin' with long axon tracts that lack myelin interspersed among myelin-rich segments.”

Cheap, high-quality lenses made from droplets of transparent silicone - Wow - this will make the type of photography I am currently doing with a loupe even easier! I’m going to watch for these new lenses to become commercially available.

Spectacular Macro Details Reveal the Intimate Life of Snails - Beautiful images from a Ukrainian photographer.

Top 10 functional food trends for 2014 - Meeting nutritional needs with food….what a concept! It appears that a lot more people are becoming savvy about food and the food industry is trying to keep up.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Teff Cookies - I have some teff flour in my refrigerator…..this might be a good recipe to try although I prefer peanut butter alone rather than with chocolate chips.

An Interactive Atlas of the Valley of the Kings - This is the intro article from the ‘Free Technology for Teachers’ site. The Atlas itself is available from the Theban Mapping Project.

Dozens of Virtual Tours and Webcams on One Google Map - This is another pointer from the ‘Free Technology for Teachers’ site for a great resource.  The Google Map is here.  Some of the links are broken. The Lascaux Caves one was fabulous!

Dallas Arboretum - March 2014

Late March is probably one of the most beautiful times of year to walk around the Dallas Arboretum. We went on a week day so it was overly crowded. It was sunny and cool - comfortable with a light jacket. I took so many pictures it has taken be a month to pick my favorites to include in the slide show below. The Dallas spring was almost a month ahead of our spring in Maryland this year!  Enjoy this celebration of springtime!

3 Free eBooks - April 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 April 2014.

Boston Architectural College. The year book of the Boston Architectural Club: containing examples of modern architecture. Boston Architectural Club. 1929. Available from the Internet Archive here.  There are quite a few year books available but I picked this one to highlight because it has pictures of the Bok Tower. I created the collage below with pictures from this 1929 book (black and white) and some that I took last November. The antennae (lightning rods?) have been added.

French Silk Sample Book. 1895. Available from the Internet Archive here.  This is a book of actual silk swatches that has been scanned! The surprise to me was how ‘modern’ some of the fabric patters were.  I included some of them in the collage below.   

Stuart, James. Revett, Nicholas.The antiqvities of Athens. London: J. Haberkorn. 1762. Two volumes available on the Internet Archive: Volume 1 and Volume 2.  This was a reference in one of the Roman Architecture lectures on Coursera and I was thrilled to find the books available on the archive. I appreciated the attention to detail in the drawings. They must have taken pains to get exact measurements of many of the buildings….and some of them were in much better shape in 1762 than they are today.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 19, 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.

New city wall discovered at ancient Roman port - The Roman Architecture course I took via Coursera has increased my interest in anything new related to the topic. Evidently Ostia was on both sides of the Tiber rather than just the south side!

On Your Mark, Get Set, Grow: A Guide to Speedy Vegetables - I timely article. I am still in the mode of starting plants indoors to plant in the garden after the last danger of frost! The idea of micro greens appeals to me.

Spectacular Spring Photos of Cherry Blossoms in Japan - Cherry blossoms - a great bounty in the spring.

Scientists re-define what's healthy in newest analysis for human microbiome project - Evidently we still have a lot to learn about the microbiome. This study’s primary finding was how diverse the microbiome is....each person harbors a unique and varied collection of bacteria.

Watch 220 Years Of U.S. Population Expansion - There is an animated version….and then a map for each decade from 1790-2010

8 Photos worth the Wait - My favorite is the first one: the monarch butterfly chrysalis covered with water droplets

Researchers Say Mesa Verde National Park's Far View Reservoir wasn’t for Water - A ceremonial structure rather than a reservoir?

Food, Dieting, and the Power of Good Nutrition: The Meatless Monday Interview with Dr. Joel Fuhrman - An advocate for everyone to become savvier about nutrition

Future Technologies - An infographic from Richard Watson: Top 10 Innovations by 2050. What do you think?  One example: 40% likelihood of 150 year human lifespans.

Brookside Gardens Buds and Flowers - April 2014

Every spring I rejoice with the new growth at Brookside Gardens - the leaves unfurling, the early flowers opening. It is such a relief after the drabness of late winter. This week we have experienced some cold days (again); the images in this post were taken earlier in April on a warmer day.

I’ve been experimenting with the 8x loupe for much of this spring’s photography and noticed small features of opening leaves and flowers more than ever before.

Some leaves start out with pleats along their vein lines

Some flowers lift to the sun

And others bow.

Some fruit trees bloom so early that they are frequently caught by hard frosts.

The center of some flowers stays in the deep shade of the surrounding petals.

Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms

The Jefferson Memorial has always been one of my favorites in Washington DC and I took quite a few pictures of it as we made our way around the tidal basin last week. The Roman Architecture course I am taking (Coursera) caused me to look at the structure more thoroughly.

Ionic columns

Marble steps at the front

Triangular pediment

Barrel vault with coffered ceiling at the entrance

Dome with coffered ceiling (no oculus)

It is one of the many buildings patterned on the Pantheon in Rome.

I enjoyed taking pictures of the building from different vantage points around the tidal basin….enjoy the views in the slideshow below!

Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC

The cherry blossoms were at their peak around the tidal basin in Washington DC late last week.

It was probably the best walk around the tidal basin in my 30+ years in the area:

the blossoms were near perfect, the temperature was pleasant,

there were lots of people but few crowds, and

the monuments (Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson) were nestled in the blooming trees.

One recent change: the scaffolding that had been around the Washington Monument since it was damaged by an earthquake is gone (i.e. repairs are complete).  The flight path for Reagan National Airport is along the Potomac so I managed to catch a picture of a plane descending with the cherry trees and paddle boaters on the tidal basin.  Enjoy the slide show from our walk around the tidal basin!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 12, 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.

Blood test could detect solid cancers - Another discovery that started with bioinformatics. It seems like the biological research arena is exploding with findings that are teased out of ‘big data.’ Biological research has met the computer age!

Viewing Nature’s Beauty through a New Lens - Watch the 4 minute video from Louie Schwarzberg imbedded in this post. I liked the bats and cactus sequence the best!

Yes! Yellowstone is a Volcano - A set of 3 videos. They were filmed in 2009 but I just found them. I remember a decade ago when we visited Yellowstone and my daughter being intrigued that is was a ‘super volcano.’

The Gamification of Education - Infographic that includes a timeline of gamification technology applied to education

Find the Closest National Park with This Handy Map - A handy map for planning a US National Park vacation. And just to add some incentive - a post about macro photography in the National Parks.

Global Air Quality Crisis - It is estimated that 7 million people died in 2012 due to air pollution. That makes air pollution the highest environmental risk on the planet.

Senior Discounts (list 1 and list 2) - Two lists posted by Feisty Side of Fifty/Baby Boomer Women. Some of them start at 55…many more at 60….and more at 65.

Jane Goodall: How she redefined mankind - An interview of Jane Goodall at 80.

New York Public Library Releases Thousands of Historic Maps to the Public - Yet another example of the revolution in libraries. They are making the content of their fragile historical collections that used to be accessible to very few people available to anyone with access to the Internet because high quality digitization has come to the fore.

You'll Never Look at Pond Water the Same Way after Watching This Video - There are so many good videos in my list this week. This one encourages me to collect water from the nearby river….and take a look through the microscope!

Fiddleheads in the Brookside Conservatory

I always look for ferns sending up their fiddleheads through the leaf mulch in the spring. They have not appeared outside in my part of Maryland…but there were some fiddleheads among the ferns in the Brookside Gardens conservatory.

The plant in the conservatory was a tree fern I have been checking every time I got to the conservatory. There were coils with coils….tight spirals that would uncurl into the fronds.

Star Magnolia at Brookside Gardens

The Star Magnolia at Brookside Gardens was just in bloom this past weekend on the southeast side of the Fragrance Garden (map of Brookside Gardens). It is one of the earliest blooming deciduous magnolias. The slide show below shows the whole buds and flowers.

Using the 8x loupe, I took some more detailed images of the blooms at various stages: the flowers just beginning to emerge from the bud,

The petals opening a little but still curved inward,

The expanding petals opening outward,

Opening more,

And, finally, the center of the flower.

Narcissus

Narcissus and spring ---- they go together. The flowers in this post were in my parents’ garden in Dallas but the flowers are frequent sights in Maryland this time of year as well. As I write this (back home in Maryland) I see a patch of daffodils that a neighbor planted at the edge of the forest; they started out in a smaller area 20 years ago and have multiplied - and seem to be in sync with the red blooms of the maples.

I used my 8x loupe to capture images of the central flowers from different perspectives.

And there was a tiny spider that was very still on his flower while I captured his portrait.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 5, 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.

Bridging Two Worlds - Lynne Quarmby is a cell biologist….that paints. See some of her art work here.

Several interesting paper sculpture posts: From Zim and Zou (my favorite is the bird in the first image), Massive Paper Installation Feels like You’re Walking Inside a 3D Painting and Bird Sculptures

Wish you could fertilize crops with pee? Urine luck - Article from Grist. It caused me to wonder about 1) how sustainable thinking looks for solutions that are better for the planet….but may be less expensive too, 2) how often sustainable also means ‘closed loop’ (i.e. there are no bad bi-products that build up as ‘waste’) and 3) infrastructure changes that will enable sustainability (in this case -bathrooms and sewer systems could be enablers, but different than they are today).

Noninvasive colorectal cancer screening tool shows unprecedented detection rates - Hooray! It would be great if this or some other non-invasive test became the diagnostic of choice rather than colonoscopy! No one likes the colonoscopy or the prep it requires. Surely the non-invasive test will be less expensive too.

Loblolly pine genome is largest ever sequenced: Seven times bigger than the human genome - This article includes a good explanation of the computational challenges of genomics.

Enormous Climbable Structure - Intriguing design. The sight for the developer is here. There are quite a few of them installed in children’s museums in the US and they all look like lots of fun.

Helpful Infographic Illustrates Polite Dining Around the World - Learn about the cultural nuances of dining in other countries.

Americans using more energy - Not a good trend….Are we using more as the economy improves?

Fair bosses pay the price of burnout - Procedural fairness (structured and rule bound) is beneficial to the organization and employees….but it is hard to sustain without feeling the strain. Should leadership/management training be updated to at least acknowledge that strain and suggest ways to cope with it? Maybe sabbaticals (The Working Vacation) should become more common in non-university organizations.

Daylight saving impacts timing of heart attacks - Should people with heart conditions ‘spring forward’ more gradually?

Dallas Rapid Transit to Klyde Warren Park

When I moved from Dallas over 30 years ago, the sales tax had been increased to fund DART. It seemed to take a very long time for the system to become fully operational but now - what a pleasant surprise the system is! I rode the trains twice on my recent trip to Dallas: once from Love Field to close to my family’s home and once to go into Downtown Dallas. The trip to Downtown Dallas is the topic of this post.

The parking at the train station was free so the cost of the train was $5 for an all-day pass (good for train and buses around Dallas). The train is mostly raised above the roofs of warehouses with occasional street-level crossings. All the flat rooftops made me wonder why the space is not used for solar panels! The closer the train comes to downtown the taller the buildings get.

Once downtown, there is a free bus that cycles through the area called D-Link. The drivers are very knowledgeable. We stopped at the West End for lunch and then got back on the bus until it got to Klyde Warren Park. The park is built over the Woodall Rogers Freeway in the middle of the city. It has activities for just about all ages: playground, food trucks, small tables and chairs, water fountains intended for playing, a putting green, badminton, checker and chess tables, borrowing stalls (books, board games), a dog park…..with plantings just recovering from winter to add some greenery to it all.  There are pigeons to watch too. Even without a child - this park may become one of my favorite places in Dallas!

Mobility with Luggage

On a recent trip, I thought more than usual about how I would manage my luggage because I was taking public transportation (bus and train) from the airport rather than traveling by car. I decided to take a duffel that sits securely atop the roll aboard suitcase, a backpack and a laptop bag. The backpack and laptop bag would be the carry one. The other two would be checked (I have started flying Southwest whenever I can to avoid extra charges for check baggage).

The key items of the packing plan were:

• Heavier items and any liquids/gels went into the checked baggage.
• The laptop bag was the only one I needed to open when I went to the airport: boarding pass, ID and money was in the external pocket. And the laptop came out going through security.
• The backpack contained other high value items (camera, cables, purse) and things I would need while in flight (Kindle, water bottle, lunch, light jacket).

So - how did it work?

• I had forgotten that buses have steps at the door! Fortunately the roll aboard and duffel were stable enough that I could bounce them up and down the steps together.
• I didn't realize the DART train in Dallas would have stairs too. Later I learned to look for the 'handicapped' door which would make for smooth rolling onto the trains.

I'm glad I packed the way I did!

Rhododendron Buds

The rhododendron buds were huge when we walked around Brookside Gardens recently. These were taken without benefit of any extra magnification (i.e. the loupe was not needed for these buds). I am already looking forward to seeing them open into their cluster of blooms as spring progresses.  I already have a ‘note to self’ to photography them every time I visit the gardens over the next few months.