Gleanings of the Week Ending June 14, 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.

10 Top National Wildlife Refuges to Explore - I’ve only been to 2 of the 10 (Chincoteague and Wichita Mountains but I’ll take the opportunity to see more if I am in the area of these. I was surprised that Merritt Island (Florida) did not make the top 10.

The Sleep Schedules of Some of History's Greatest Minds - I was surprised at how many are on a 10PM to 5 or 6 AM schedule (which is similar to what seems to work best for me!)

The 10 Cutest Animal Flash Mobs in the World - The hummingbird video (#6 on the list has music to enjoy while you watch the hummingbirds getting fuel for migration. It’s a strangely relaxing frenzy!

The Finest Examples of Art Nouveau Architecture in Central Europe - I am more interesting in architecture since I took the Roman Architecture course last spring.

Articles that appeared recently about two of my favorite places: Mesa Verde National Park and Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Road Salt Creating Beefier Butterflies - A little extra salt causes developmental changes (and they are different for male and female Monarch butterflies) that could be beneficial….and then at some point the extra salt becomes toxic.

Company man or family man? Fatherhood and identity in the office - Research published just in time for Father’s Day.

Common heart drug's link to diabetes uncovered by researchers - The study found that statins can activate an immune response that stopped insulin from doing its job properly….and that taking Glyburide suppressed the side effect. It is a bad thing to take a drug that then requires us to take another drug. How do we determine when the bad side effects multiply beyond the benefits of the cocktail?

Most comprehensive 'world map of research' yet: Researchers analyze 15 million scientific articles - Articles used from the analysis were published from 1996-2006. There are three clusters of countries: biomedical, basic science and agriculture/fisheries. The US is in the biomedical cluster, Singapore and Japan are in basic science and most of the developing nations are in agriculture/fisheries.

Fruits, Vegetables, and Disease Risk - Which vegetables are the most nutrient rich? This article points to a recently released report that include a list (available here).

Squash Blossoms

Earlier this week I noticed that the zucchini squash plant I have in a large pot on my deck had almost as many buds as it had leaves! The weather has been cool and the many of the leaves still had tears caused by hail a week or so ago.

A little over a day after the first two pictures were taken, most of the buds opened. I glanced out my kitchen window as I fixed my breakfast to see the plant full of blooms.  What a cheerful view to begin the day (and I’ll be even happier to see some squashes).

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This morning the squash has more blooms!  In the morning light, the green veins seen on the outside of the blooms contrasted with the glowing yellow.

In addition, the blossoms from a few days ago have a deeper color in their curls - another stop along the timeline of a zucchini squash.

CSA Week 1

I signed up for a medium share at the Gorman Produce Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for this season and yesterday was my first pick up. My husband and I were out on other errands so we drove over even though the farm is less than a mile from our house.

They provided two reusable bags for each member to use for the season. There was a chalk board listing this week’s full and medium share items. I walked around to pick up everything for the medium share:

• Tatsoi
• Cilantro
• Arugula
• Pac choi
• Mizuna
• Garlic scapes
• Red butter lettuce
• Romaine lettuce

 I’m going to be eating a lot of fabulous vegetables this summer - mostly in salads. The refrigerator has been reconfigured to accommodate the extra amount of greens.

On the way home we clocked the distance and the round trip would be 1.5 miles…a comfortable hike. Maybe the CSA will turn into a healthy choice from both a food and exercise perspective!

On Houses

The 4 houses I’ve owned (sequentially) over the past 40 years reflect the change in my needs over the years and lessons learned from owning previous houses.

The first house was purchased in an area where we’d lived in an apartment for several years. It was convenient to my work and my husband’s grad school location. We chose the particular house because it had 4 bedrooms rather than 3 and it had a country kitchen. Two lessons learned: painting the outside of a house is hard work even if it is half brick and insulation matters (that house was hard to keep cool in summer and warm in the winter).

The second house was selected in a week-long trip halfway across the country. We triangulated work locations and bought in a neighborhood that made our commutes about equal (but in opposite directions). We liked the house because it had a country in kitchen, big trees in the yard, and extra insulation has been added by the previous owners. Some lessons learned: miles and commute time often don’t correlate, older houses tend to have problems (the air conditioner compressor quit two weeks after we moved in), and maintenance (sometimes expensive) is required (we only lived there for 3 years but had to have the outside painted and the roof replaced).

The third house was selected to resolve the too-long commute problem. Again we triangulated and this time it worked better. We chose the house because it had 4 bedrooms - 3 quite large - and large closets. The house had a dining room which we never used because the kitchen included a breakfast area….and it was a newer house. The lessons learned: triangulating does not work as well as having one parent with almost no commute when there is a young child, low ceilings make a house seem claustrophobic no matter how good its layout is, and steep driveways are treacherous in bad weather (my car turned sideways in the icy driveway).

The fourth house, where we are now, was chosen because it was so full of light and it had a covered/screened deck. The neighborhood was nestled across from farms and was full of children close to my daughter’s age. And we found that the public schools were excellent once we settled in (lesson learned - we should have checked that before we moved…we were lucky).  The lessons I have learned/am learning from this house: don’t wait around to make small renovations and the way sound carries in a house may be important for a multi-generational household. This house has lots of room but creaks in the floor boards and noise carrying through ductwork is significant; we aren’t a multi-generational household yet but I find myself glad that it won’t happen in this house! In addition - while I like high ceilings overall, I have come to realize how much space is wasted by a two story foyer and den.  Long term I want to minimize stairs too.

All those lessons will be applied to the selection of the fifth house….sometime in the next few years.

Lull in the Flower Beds

The very last iris is blooming in our flowerbeds. We have a sea of green that is studded with potential:

There lilies are sending up their bud stalks (not all of them yet - but every day I notice more emerging above the dense core of leaves). That part of the flower beds will be full of yellow and orange by the time the hot weather is consistent.

The blazing stars are clustered around the bird bath. They’ll be almost the same color as the irises as some point.

The dahlias are purple and pink and white…..I don’t dig them up in the fall and our winters are cold enough to challenge their survival. Most of the plants from last year seem to have survived the winter.

I’ll miss the color at our front door for the length of time it takes the new flowers to begin their season.  Right now I have to simply love the green!

Bees

There seems to be a bumblebee that enjoys hovering outside the window I prefer to settle into for reading. There are not any flowers more than a story off the ground so the hovering does not last long but I’m surprised at the number of times there is a bee there.

Today I am celebrating bees photographed this spring: on snapdragons at Longwood gardens,

On wisteria at Brookside Gardens, and

On honey suckle at Watkins Glen State Park.

While I was looking for bee pictures in my recent photographs I found a picture of a small wasp on maple flowers from back in April  (this was photographed with the 8x loupe…on a cold day when the wasp was not very active). It doesn’t belong in a ‘bee’ post but I couldn’t resist including it. I enjoy the serendipity of photographing something like this….and the red color of the maple flowers is one of my favorite signs of spring.

Building a Garden Border

Rather than carrying all the self-pruned branches from our oak back to the woods, I decided to use the longer ones to form a border for my Chaos Garden. I used some gold garden stakes to make brackets about every 3 feet and then wove the sticks through them. I got more enthusiastic and retrieved some sticks from the branch pile I’d made in the woods from previous years’ trimming.

I was thrilled when one grew shelf fungus within weeks of becoming part of the garden border.

The border grew dramatically with the plum and oak trimmings of the past week. I left the branches on the limbs but bent them down into the other branches - increasing the connectedness of the branches so that the brackets were not the only elements holding the whole together. Some parts are not high enough that I will have to wait before I add anything more. Of course - this is a garden border that will naturally decay. Will it simply settle slowly so that I can refresh it from the top? I’ll enjoy the month/years of observing the garden border.

More about the Chaos Garden in another post…..

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 7, 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.

Now that I am taking an Exoplanets on Coursera, I am noticing a lot of articles in my news feeds about them: 'Neapolitan' exoplanets come in three flavors, Astronomers discover two new worlds orbiting ancient star next door: One may be warm enough to have liquid water, First light for SPHERE exoplanet imager: Revolutionary new VLT instrument installed, Astronomers find a new type of planet: The 'mega-Earth', Diamond planets may be more common than astronomers thought, Super Earths Found Circling Ancient Star, Harsh space weather may doom potential life on red-dwarf planets, and The Closest Known Potentially Habitable Planet Is 13 Light-Years Away

Exploring the Parks: Musings from El Morro National Monument - Always a nice reminder to see a story about a place I’ve been and enjoyed!

Hundreds of "Hidden" Paintings Discovered at Angkor Wat - Using de-correlation stretch analysis on walls with traces of pigments.

Is the food industry really concerned with obesity? If people eat less, profits will decline - Consumers have to be savvy enough to see the healthy food that gets shifted to the background by marketing of (mostly unhealthy) processed foods.

Are your pets disturbing your sleep? You’re not alone - We have two cats. I ignore them during the night and early morning but my husband responds to their nudges to be scratched…..and so they now ask for more scratches during the night (my husband reports this while I sleep through it all)!

New Desalination Technologies Spur Growth in Recycling Water - Desalination is not just for seawater. The technology is also important for reusing agricultural water and industrial effluent.

Views of Venice - Art Added to Street View Imagery of Venice - This article is on a ‘tools for teachers’ site but the visuals over the google street view are fun for everyone. Visit the site and click on the ‘menu’ button in the upper right to see the art work that can be overlaid of the street view.

Wind Turbines and Birds: What’s the Real Story? - Bats are impacted too. The key question still seems to be - how can we develop wind turbines that avoid the negative impacts to biodiversity (and avian/bat mortality).

A Complete Primer for All the Species of Cats - A collection of a series of posts about species of wild cats.

New health services needed for rise in 100-year-olds - With more people living to 100 years and beyond - the need to hone health services(particularly palliative care) for them is becoming more important.

Tree Trimming

A recent rain weighed down the plum tree branches enough to convince me it was time to trim the tree. I got out a step stool, the saw, and the long handled pruners. I cut off low branches and ones that were growing more horizontal that vertical. Afterwards I took a closer look at the layers within the branches - the delicate color changes from the bark to the sapwood (cambium, xylem), and then the heartwood.

Next up on my ‘to trim’ list was the oak. Oaks do a lot of self-pruning so the main work I do on the treat the edge of our yard near the street is focused on the lower branches when they grow low enough to brush the tops of vehicles in the street or our car as we pull into the driveway. It was harder work than the plum tree; the branches were larger and a bit higher too. There were many tiny acorns on the branches.

I also found an oak marble - almost a ‘glow in the dark’ green.

I cut open the shell and found the insect larvae suspended inside the sphere.

The branches were quite lot and I wove them into the brush ‘fence’ around my chaos garden….more about that in another post.

Letchworth State Park (New York)

Letchworth State Park is probably a crowded place on weekends in the spring…and all the time during the summer. We were there on a week day that was a bit cool last week - when the people in the park maintenance crew were more numerous that the visitors!  There was plenty of water for the 3 major falls in the park to be spectacular. I’ve included my favorite views of the park below.

We entered at the Mt. Morris (east) end of the park. The drive is along the top of the gorge. There are overlooks of the river.

And then there is a view of the middle and upper falls from one of the overlooks!

We stopped to take the path for a closer look. Part of the path was closed but we got close enough to see a portion of the lower falls.

I took a zoomed view of the rocks of the gorge carved by the water.

The upper falls and middle falls are within easy walking distance of each other. We parked and hiked first to the upper falls. The shape of the falls is a horseshoe.

The sheer volume of water plummeting over the edge throws mist up

And keeps the cliff very damp. The vegetation looks very green but the scars of rock slides on the edges of the gorge near the falls are obvious.

There was a large patch of May apples flowering near the path to the upper falls. I took front and back pictures of them.

And there was a huge dandelion!

We walked back to the middle falls. The path was close enough to the falls that the mist kept it damp (too wet to open up the camera too). It was very much like the mists at Niagara Falls. I waiting to take this picture from further up the gorge.

I also liked the little streams that were trickling over the sides of the gorge to get to the river. The rocks in this one were thick with bright green algae.

The picnic tables built by the CCC of stone (pedestals and tops) were numerous in the park and we rewarded ourselves with a picnic lunch after are hikes to the falls.

Memories of my Mother-in-Law

Even with the passage of over 20 years since her death - I still think of my mother-in-law frequently. She would have been 79 years old today. The things she left behind when she died suddenly in her mid-50s are still some of the handiest things in my kitchen - reminders of her best wishes for me from the beginning of my relationship with her son.

When I use one of her wooden spoons or the mini-food processor or the flower shaped plastic for opening too-tight lids, I often think of the years she missed….events I would have enjoyed sharing with her: the activities of my daughter’s growing up…the career highs and lows….the experience of becoming post-career.

One of the knives she bought - serrated and perfect for slicing tomatoes - broke recently and I felt like it was a small part of her that was gone rather than a tool. The wooden handle on her breadknife cracked but I still keep it in the drawer.

In retrospect, there was so much about her that I did not know; there were some discoveries after she died. Not knowing doesn’t matter now.

The memories evoked by the items I use so often in the kitchen are fond ones.

Two Falls at Montour Falls NY

We saw the sign for the Village of Montour Falls and followed the arrows to the falls. The Aunt Sarah’s Falls is directly across the street from the sign! There was a small parking lot and we got out to take pictures. There has been rain recently so there was plenty of water rolling down over the rocks. Several years ago we had seen the falls during a drier season and the rocks were barely damp.

We followed the arrow onward - taking an angled turn when another sign directed - to find the She-Qua-Ga Falls which is surrounded by the village.

There is a small park and street parking for this falls. Houses and civic buildings in a wide variety of architectural styles border the park. I liked the house next to the falls with Ionic columns.

Watkins Glen State Park in the Spring

Watkins Glen State Park is a gorge with many waterfalls. The main entrance is at the bottom of the gorge but there is another at the top. Either way the gorge trail has stairs and wet stones/pavement. The last time we were there was in fall 2012 - when there was a lot of color from leaves. In the spring - there is a lot of green to contrast with the stone and quite a bit more water.

The gorge trail is a ledge. In one place it goes behind a waterfall.  There are frequently water droplets from overhanging rock. I was glad I had remembered to wear a hat. Waterproof shoes are good too if the day is cool (and wet feet would be uncomfortable). I made a slide show from my favorite gorge images from last week.

While my husband focused on his own photography projects - I managed to photograph a crow

A busy bumble bee

And a tiny fern unfurling its fiddleheads.

Coursera Experience - June 2014

May was a relatively easy month from a course load perspective. I finished two courses:

• The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (Tel Aviv University) - I was surprised at how little I understood of even the events that have occurred in my lifetime. I generally keep up with news but I clearly needed more context than the news stories provided…..or maybe the passage of time has brought enlarged perspective of historians.
• Introduction to Systems Biology (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) - Probably the hardest course I’ve taken on Coursera so far.

And only had one that continued on for the full month.

• The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia (Emory University) - This one has short videos and then pointers to reading. I am supplementing the recommended reading with items from the Internet Archive and some books I got via paperbackswap. This one will be over by the end of June - which is a good think because I have so many more that are starting!

There were two that started right at the end of May.

• The Diversity of Exoplants (University of Geneva) - I am taking this course to understand more about what my daughter’s research is all about in graduate school.
• Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach (University of Minnesota) - I am fortunate to not currently have chronic pain….but prevention is always easier than recovery. And there are others in my family that do have challenges caused by pain.

The challenge increases in June as three more courses start up. There are just so many good courses being offered that I can’t seem to resist.

• Paradoxes of War (Princeton University) - Every course I have taken from Princeton has been excellent….and I’m looking forward to this one.
• An Introduction to Global Health (University of Copenhagen) - This course and the next one on the list are part of my trend to think more globally about issues. There seem to be so many areas that transcend the boundaries of nations and governments.
• Globalization and You (University of Washington) - It will be interesting to find out how this course meshes with the one on Global Health.

It’s going to be quite a course load by the end of June!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 31, 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.

Two items from National Parks Traveler of places I enjoy: Protecting the Saguaro Wilderness and Essential Summer Guide '14: Looking for Ponies at Assateague Island National Seashore.

How Much Your Salary Is Worth In Different Cities - It’s always hard to understand the cost of living in different places. Here is an attempt from Planet Money.

Quinoa Cakes - The recipe has so many good things in it. I think I’ll try it!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Releases 400,000 Hi-Res Images Online to the Public - Wow! Read this article then take a look at the site here….prepare to spend to some browsing.

Melatonin makes old bones stronger - This was a study using rats…so it may not be true for humans…but wouldn’t it be great if it was. Better sleep and better bones via melatonin!

An Interactive Chart of Which Jobs your College Degree Actually Gets - This is a complex graphic. If you really want to look at particular items - go to the interactive version on the creator’s website here.

From chaos to order: How ants optimize food search - Translating observations into a mathematical model that seems to apply to other animals too.

Saturn’s Icy Moon Harbors Ocean - Liquid water exists beneath the icy surface of Enceladus at its south pole…..and that implies the potential for extraterrestrial life there too.

New data show how U.S. states are doing in science - 59 indicators (like state performance in education, the scientific workforce and high-tech business). The article is about the site that provides access to all the data and several ways to visualize it (here).

How Wind and Water Create The World's Most Beautiful Rock Landscapes - The images in the article and the comments are worth taking a look at this link even if you are not interested in how they get created!

Road Trip - Columbia MD to Corning NY

Earlier this week we started our short vacation to the area around Corning NY. It’s an area we have visited more than a handful of times over the past 25 years. The route takes us around Baltimore and heading to York and then Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The Welcome Center as we passed into Pennsylvania has a wonderful display of irises. I remembered that they looked just a gorgeous as the year we drove up for my daughter’s college graduation - about this same time of year. What was different about the rest stop this year was the milkweed coming up in many of the beds; the shoots were so dense that it has to be planted intentionally. Hurray for the state of helping out the Monarch butterflies!

After Harrisburg the route heads toward Williamsport. It follows a very scenic stretch of the Susquehanna. It is possible to catch glimpses of the river. Many of the islands have been designated Wildlife Management Areas. We noticed this time that US 15 has signs that say ‘Future Corridor of I99.’

The stretch of road through the Allegheny’s - where clouds frequently kiss the rounded mountain tops on either side of the highway - is very scenic but there are no rest stops and very few places to find something to eat!

We made such good time that we rolled into Corning early enough that we forged ahead to take a look at Watkins Glen State Park. More about that in a few days….and Montour Falls….and Letchworth State Park.  It was a waterfall extravaganza!

The Grand Cleanout - May

It is hard to get motivated to reduce the ‘stuff’ in the house without some forcing function. Moving - downsizing into a house that fits the change in our needs (down to two people) - would be the ultimate forcing function but we are not quite to that point. It’s clear that it would take a lot of work because we have been expanding to the available space in this house for almost 20 years. So - I am going to create my own forcing function my starting a monthly ‘grand cleanout’ post. This is a strategy that worked very well in my work life: establish a goal, create a plan to accomplish it, and then monitor progress.

The goal in this case is:

To be ‘move ready’ by June 2015 (i.e. a year from now).

By the time the grand cleanout post for June comes, I’ll:

• Develop some month by month objectives
• Donate the ‘stuff’ I’ve already got piled in the unused dining room (what a mess!) - clearing the area so that I can stage new items that will exit the house in similar fashion. 

And now I've created my own 'forcing function' for the Grand Cleanout!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 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 May 2014.

Daughter’s visit. What’s not to like about having a daughter around! It was a very short visit - every part was a celebration of family.

Jack-in-the-Pulpits. This was the first year I found them blooming at the forest’s edge in our yard. These plants always seem special to me because I saw them only in pictures until I moved to the east coast.

Getting seedlings planted. I got all the seedlings planted and celebrated they were all thriving (until the hail battered a couple to oblivion last week. Still - enough are growing rapidly in there pots on the deck that I am pleased with the results of my efforts to get them started early.

Wall of green. Every my I celebrate the return of the wall of green view from my office window. The tulip poplar and maple trees are through the spring greens and looking as lush always get in summer. The sycamore that I see from my kitchen window is a little later unfurling; it’s leaves will continue getting larger and larger all during the summer.

Blueberries and yogurt. It is my favorite mini-meal in May and June….a way to celebration almost every day.

Driving neighbors. I thoroughly enjoy volunteering to drive senior citizens to their appointments in my community. What a joy it is to have them stay in the community where they have lived for years!

Hiking in the forest. Spring is one of my favorite times to hike: wildflowers, not a lot of biting insects, water gurgling. It was wonderful to be outdoors after the cold and wet!

Phone conversations. I find myself celebrating the normal ebb and flow of conversation with people far away. Sometimes it is the ordinary that turns out to be a treasure.

Birdbath and iris. Every time I go by the front door of my house (either outside or inside) I glance and the view and celebrate!

Chives. Here’s to celebrating plants that just come up every year on their own….and taste wonderful in salads!

Tree Swallows

The tree swallows have been active at the Howard County Conservancy this past month. I haven’t succeeded in photographing them on the wing over the grassy areas but they like to perch on the fence around the community garden and they are nesting in several boxes.

One particular box was along the loop hike for the third grade hikes I was leading; it seemed like there was a bird in the box or on top of the box almost every time I walked by! The bird would fly away if there was too much noise but it would not take long for it to return.

Swallows are fun birds to watch because they are so acrobatic and they seem to make patterns of loops in the air. They evoke the joy of flying with their motions. Do they feel it too --- or are we just translating their movement into our own emotions? 

On Milkweed

Do you recognize milkweed? This is the most common type in our area of Maryland and it seems to be coming up all over right now. I even have one coming up in a front flower bed - which I may decide to nurture and hope the butterflies find it. Years ago we had milkweed plants at the edge of our forest but it either got to shady for them or some other environment change caused them to stop growing there. The corn field near our community used to have milkweed plants along its margins but those are gone as well.

I’m thrilled to see more plants coming up this year since the Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the plants and the caterpillars feast on their leaves.

There are even orange and black milkweed bugs that feed on the plants and are often seen in clusters of large and small insects (a picture from last fall).

 Many other butterflies and bees like the nectar of their flowers. Even humans can smell the sweetness of the milkweed flowers!

These are things to look forward to in the coming months!