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.

After the Rain

The morning after the big rain last week was sunny. I ventured out to capture the aftermath of the heavy rain. Water droplets glistened on leaves.

Some of the fragile new growth on the oak tree had been plucked from the tree and became debris on the driveway.

There were also tulip polar seeds that had been swept by the water into piles.

Curiously - there was one very white feather than must have floated to the driveway after the rain since it did not look like it had been wet at all.

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.

Pummeling of Rain

The spring rains came with a vengeance this week. The tulips bent down.

The door mat was getting scrubbed.

The gutters that we thought to be cleaned out - overflowed during the heaviest of downpours. I caught some splashes into the puddle beside our garage before it drained away.

There was a small branch from the oak tree that had been torn way from the tree and blown onto the front doorstep.

It was the biggest rain of the year to date for our area. After I returned home from being out in it, I celebrated the safety of being home!  And I will celebrate the rapid greening that will come with the moisture and warmer temperatures. It’s the way of spring.

Coursera Experience - May 2014

I finished up two courses in April:

• Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets (Brown University)
• Roman Architecture (Yale University)

They were both thoroughly enjoyable and the Discussion Forums held a rich assortment of pictures that is used as a ‘last hurrah’ for the course material. There are two courses that continue into May and one that starts just at the end of the month:

• The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (Tel Aviv University). I have read one of the reference books I found on Paperbackswap and still have another one to go. I also browsed The Architecture of Cairo course material from MIT which seemed to integrate some of what I was learning at the end of the Roman Architecture course and this one.
• Introduction to Systems Biology (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai). At first, I thought this course was going to take me way back to the biology courses I took as an undergraduate….but then I realized that it was going to do much more than that. This one is integrated biology with all the modeling and statistical analysis I did in my computer science based career!
• The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia (Emory University).  I could resist starting another archaeology related course!

And there are 2 more that start up at the end of May

• The Diversity of Exoplants (University of Geneva). I want to take this one since it is such a hot topic in my daughter’s field.
• Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach (University of Minnesota). There are several people in family that deal with chronic pain; I’m always interested in learning about the current state-of-the-art on topics like this.

Oak - April 2014

I am taking a much closer look at the oak in our front yard this spring using my camera and the 8x loupe. Over the past week or so the buds have come open. The first image is from the 19th. The bud is large but still generally bud shaped.

By the 24th, tiny leaves were in evidence and the beginning of the flowers and catkins were showing.

 

On the 26th, I was surprised at how different the tiny leaves still looked from their final form. They do not look like tiny forms of the mature oak leaf; there is still a lot of unfurling left to reach the mature shape.

On the 28th the catkins had a rosy color and the leaves had gown a bit more too.

And then the rains came and I won’t be able to take more pictures until May….so I’ll continue this closer look at the oak in a post next month.

Sunspots

Earlier this week (Monday, April 27) my husband set up his telescope to try out a recently purchased solar filter. As we looked through the eyepiece, two areas of sunspots were readily apparent (areas A and D in the diagram above.

We managed to line up my camera with the telescopes eyepiece to capture the picture and I was able to see two more sunspot areas (B and C) when I looked as the image on my computer. Pretty good for a first look with the solar filter!

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!

Dandelions

Dandelions grow too easily. They come up every year in the lawn….pre-emergent doesn’t ever get down early enough for us to be rid of them. This year I am feeling a little guilty that we even tried to eliminate them.

Their bright yellow flowers seem so cheerful.

They grow just about everywhere - in good soil and bad.

Supposedly the flowers and leaves are edible. I’ve never quite developed a taste for them although the flowers would add wonderful color to a salad. Maybe I should simply harvest the flowers from the dandelion that comes up in my Chaos Garden.

Their round puffs remind me of childhood - gently holding the stem and blowing the seeds into the wind.

And they are another great object for macro photography!

Lichen and Moss

Lichen and moss are plants that are easier to appreciate with some magnification. My first project simply captured them in the ‘wild’ - on trees or rocks or soil. The collage below shows lichen growing on tree trunks. The images on the left are using the 8x loupe. The one on the right was using the 22x loupe.

The mosses were awakening during March and April when I began the project and I was surprised at the variety that becomes apparent when the plants are viewed through even a the lower (8x) magnification.

Seedlings Finding Sun - April 2014

The small pots of seedlings are going out into the garden soon: cucumbers, tomatoes, chives, cilantro….and one sunflower. My husband and I did a daylong photography session with the tray of small pots earlier this week to see if we could catch the seedlings turning toward the sun. We put the camera on a tripod and set it to take a picture every 15 minutes. The slide show below shows the seedlings moving around as the day progressed. The sunflower seedling is the large one closest to the camera that moves around a lot.

 

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.

Spring Maple

The maple I see from my office window has change a lot in the past month.  The snowy picture of the tree is from mid-March!  

By early April it was tinged in red flowers.

I took some close up pictures. The one on the right is with the 8x loupe. They are small but the color stands out in the springtime forest.

Now the tree looks drabber from afar

But that is just the blending of the red and green as the samaras develop.

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.

Crane Fly Images

The crane flies were so numerous when I was in Dallas in late March that one somehow got inside the house where I found it on the carpet in the den - motionless. I got out my loupes to take a closer look at the insect.

The whole insect fit in the cup of the 8x loupe. The spindly legs and clear wings looked fragile. They were not quite the same as the insect would have been flying low over the grass alongside many more of its kind.

The 22x loupe showed more detail. Next time I’ll try with a brighter light. The flatter the specimen - the easier it is to focus. That is why the wing is better than the upper body.

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.

Book Quote of the Month (about power) - April 2014

Power is the ability to take one’s place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one’s part matter. - Carolyn G. Heilbrun in Writing a Woman’s Life

What do you think about this definition of power? It is easy to accept it as common sense. The definition is appealing to me because, with this definition, power does not require physical strength, large size, or even superior intellect. Power is something that can we wielded by just about anyone that makes a choice to do it. It may require sacrifice and perseverance. In this book, Heilbrun uses short biographical sketches of the lives of women writers to illustrate how they overcame the obstacle of their gender to become writers. Much of what they experienced is the same for women that took any role that happened to be non-traditional in their society.  No one goes against the norms of society without some hardship.

The book was originally published in the late 1980s and still seems very relevant. I recommend it both for the perspective on the history of women writers in particular and women’s struggle to “take one’s place in whatever discourse is essential to action” in general.