Kingfishers are usually too fast for me to photograph but there was one that had a favorite place along the road to the beach at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (in November). He kept a close watch on the cars that parked along the road but evidently realized that the narrow band of water between him and the road was enough security. He kept his perch while protesting.
What a photogenic bird!
The December hurry and flurry is in full swing already for me. I seem to be a little behind in a number of areas.
The front yard needs raking because the oak tree waited to drop its leaves until about a week ago and it had been very wet since then. The leaves need to be raked even though it will be a cold and miserable job.
The gifts that have to be mailed are purchased - which is good. But they need to get in the mail this week. And there are more on the list to be ordered and sent directly to the recipients. I appreciate the Amazon wish lists!
I am barely started on sending out cards. It is more time consuming since I want to write at least a short note in each one. My goal is to do at least a few every day over the next week and hope they all get done.
The house needs a good cleaning - the floors and bathrooms are OK but many surfaces (particularly the bookcases) are very dusty.
And items to be donated are piled in the dining room.
It is all easily corrected…and I’ll feel a lot better about the holiday when it is!
Part of the joy of December - the brightness in the season of short days - is holiday events. This year I volunteered at two events that ended up being in the same weekend. They were both so much fun I’ll do the same sort of thing next year! Somehow being part of the set up and behind-the-scenes logistics for an event makes it even more of a celebration.
I enjoy the decorations like the ones I posted about yesterday and the ‘pot people’ at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant farm decked out for the season.
Baking is an integral part of holidays for me…and it is so much better to share the products rather than overindulge. My favorite homemade goodies to donate for events are the always popular oatmeal raisin cookies and coconut macaroons. I was glad there were none leftover this year!
One of my volunteer jobs was to help bundle up donated boxwood and holly - to be sold at one of the events. I bought some and then took some of the remains at the end of the day for a vases and pitchers in my kitchen. It was the final bit of decorating around my house. What a reminder of the ‘good beginning’ of December!
The Howard County Conservancy hosted a Colonial Holiday Celebration at Belmont yesterday. I volunteered to help with set up and registration so had enough time before the event started to photograph some of the decorations that partner organizations had created in the first floor room. They had done a fabulous job. There were lots of good ideas to consider for some future Christmas decorating: cranberries at the end of narrow ribbons hanging from the chandelier, a bowl of cranberries; garlands of pine boughs, cones, and boxwood; magnolia leaves and dried hydrangea flowers in an unused fireplace; arrangements of oranges studded with cloves, apples and pineapples; homemade ornaments of dried apple slices, whole pomegranates drying, dough handprints; greenery tied to everything with narrow red ribbon; popcorn and cranberry garland.
It was close to sunset by the time I left. The windows of the house glowed in the soft evening light.
Looking in the other direction the horizon glowed with color, the pond reflects the trees, and the magnolia in from of the house stands sentinel.
We’ve been to Chincoteague many times but the visit last November offered a first for us: climbing the steps inside the Assateague Lighthouse. It was the first thing we did when we got the wildlife refuge! I included my husband in the picture to provide some size perspective. The steps spiral around the inside. There are windows at the landings…and we stopped briefly at every one; by the time we got to the top our legs felt like cooked spaghetti.
The view from the top provides a different view of the refuge (which is actually on Assateague Island). The picture shows the bridge between the refuge and the town of Chincoteague.
The last picture is closer to ground level and shows our first view of the lighthouse as we came up the path - a short stroll from the parking long through the fall foliage of mid-November.
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.
Now that our weather has turned decidedly cold - I have all my winter clothes out. I have lots of options but I find myself thinking more about what helps the most to keep me comfortable in the cold:
Shoes. My hiking boots are the warmest shoes I have. The thick soles - insulating my feet from the cold ground are the most important part of the shoe. I have some clogs which are my second warmest shoes; they are open in the back but their soles are thick and I wear them with thick socks if it isn’t wet or snowy.
Gloves. If it is cold when I go shopping - I have discovered that I am more comfortable putting my coat in the trunk of the car before I leave my garage….putting on gloves with my indoor winter wear (typically sweatshirt and jeans)…and walking fast between the car and the store. If I wear my coat into the store, I get too hot. Wearing the gloves keeps me comfortable for the minute it takes for the short walk. Somehow my hands are the first part of me to get cold. I also have mega-gloves for when I need to work outside (shoveling snow, for example).
Scarves. It is amazing how much extra comfort a scarf can provide when it is very cold. It seals off air leaks around the neck…or can be pulled up to partially cover the face if it is really cold.
Hoodie. I like to wear a hoodie under my coat. It is a good layer too…if it isn’t quite as cold as I thought. In really cold weather I wear a knit hat and pull the hoodie up over the hat!
The cormorants were plentiful at Chincoteague when we were there in November.
The first day we saw them in several wet places along the main rode
And then a group on the mudflat just before we reached the beach area. They were preening in the late afternoon sun - unfurling their wings.
One swam way from the group and then flew off low over the water. I like the light on the wings showing the ways the feathers spread as the bird first leaves the water.
The next day we found the birds in the same spots although I didn’t realize it at the top. Doesn’t the post this cormorant is on look the same as the post in the first picture?
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!
Every year when I decorate for the holidays, I enjoy the personal history the ornaments represent.
From the 1960s, there are red tree shapes with gold braid (my mother gave them to be years later when she was cleaning out Christmas ‘stuff’),
A ceramic candle holder of carolers given to me by a friend from early elementary school, and
A Madonna and Child from an elderly neighbor that lived across the street when I was in late elementary school.
From the 1970s, there are handmade felt birds. I made two of each kind. In recent years they have decorated banisters rather than the tree.
From the 1980s, the collection includes angels left behind by the previous owner of the house we bought in Virginia,
Some heritage glass ornaments from the Smithsonian,
Dough bears made by my sister just before we got pregnant with our daughters (her first, my only), and
Ornaments that my mother-in-law bought during her first Christmas with us.
In the 1990s, my daughter chose a white artificial tree (the cat is from the 2000s and is not a Christmas ornament) and
Homemade ornaments (my favorite is the purple eggshell).
By the 2000s, the tree was already full. One of the few additions were copper coated leaves that my daughter bought as a gift to us while she was away at college. I like them so much I put them in the window as sun catchers.
In the
2010s, I added an owl cut from light wood that I bought on our trek down the east coast to Florida in fall 2013 for the Maven launch.
I’ve also wrapped the small boxes (empty) we’ve accumulated over the years to put in a sleigh beside the tree - they are my latest ‘decoration’!
Several courses finished in November: Modern and Contemporary Poetry from University of Pennsylvania, What Future Education from University of London, and Childbirth: A Global Perspective from Emory University. It is hard to compare them because they were so different. I enjoyed the variety of them…and looked forward to each week of new material. Earlier in my life, I chose courses largely based on the ‘fit’ toward my career goals. Now - the decision is based totally on my interests and I am discovered that my interests are very broad!
Two of the courses that started in October, continued through all of November and into December as well.
Water: The Essential Resource from National Geographic Society. The course is focused on teaching the topic to 4th-8th graders. I’ve learned some new things about the topic and about teaching.
Philosophy and the Sciences from the University of Edinburgh. The first part of the course was about cosmology and the second is about cognitive science. The presentations are informative about the science and thought provoking about the relationship between science and philosophy in these two areas.
Two new courses started in November and continue into December.
Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth, and Life from University of Copenhagen. The Cosmology section of the Philosophy and Sciences course dovetailed very well with the first weeks of the Origins course. Both presentations were very well done. At this point of the course, the discussion is on the ‘life’ part. The snowball earth theory, impact of mass extinctions, and new DNA/molecular analysis to compare life forms are all new since I got my undergraduate degree in biology!
Recovering the Humankind’s Past and Saving the Universal Heritage from Sapienza University of Rome. This course has just started and is the only course that will continue through to January. I am already bracing myself; it will seem odd to only have one course for a few weeks! The first week of the course was thought provoking - pointing out the indications we have that people have not always viewed history or remains of prior cultures in the same way.
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!
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.
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’ - as had been the usual for the past few months. Here are my top 10 for November 2014.
Noticing the seasonal change
A warm day. November had some perfect outdoor days this year. I celebrated by spending most of one of those days outdoors and, realizing that the warmth would be over soon, celebrated the warm sun and blue sky.
Leaves flying. The breezes took the leaves from the trees and swirled them up and across and over the roadways. The view was a serendipity celebration on the way to someplace else. Did the idea of confetti for celebratory parades come from the natural process of leaves swirling away from the trees in the fall?
First snow of the season. We got our first snow the day before Thanksgiving! It was the perfect low impact snow: melted almost immediately on sidewalks and streets, stuck to grass and roofs enough to make everything pretty. I celebrated the beauty…and that I didn’t have to get out of the house at all.
Food
Thai food in a quiet restaurant. I was a little too far from home to get there for a lunch and I celebrated finding a quiet Thai food restaurant where the ambience was pleasant and the food was tasty. I read my Kindle book and savored the place…celebrated a lunch out.
Cranberry orange relish. It tasted so good. I like it so much that I eat it more as a dessert than a relish! I’ll eat up the batch I made for Thanksgiving over the next week or so….and then make another! This is one of my favorite foods between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is part of the celebration of the season for me.
Hot ginger root and lemon ‘tea.’ I enjoy the subtle flavor of fresh ginger in hot water. Sometimes I don’t even need the lemon…or the tea. The ginger root tea is the new additional to the celebration of the season this year.
Activities
Chincoteague - bald eagle soaring over the highway. It was hard to pick what I celebrated the most about our weekend in Chincoteague but I finally settled on the bald eagle soaring over the highway as we headed home. There is something about the bird that makes me celebrate every time I see one in the wild. They’ve made quite a comeback since the dark days of DDT.
Nature hikes (field trips). The fall season elementary school field trip nature hikes for the Howard Country Conservancy ended this month. I celebrate the enthusiasm and curiosity of the children - their joy at being outdoors.
Poetry experiments. I am never going to be a poet but the Coursera poetry course did give me ideas for word experiments…and I celebrate that spark that prompted it all.
The prospect of staying at home for several days. For some reason - it seemed like I was out and about more this month than in the past year and I realized as I headed into the Thanksgiving weekend that the prospect of staying at home for a few days was something I wanted to celebrate. I can remember years ago when my husband and I were working full time, my middle school aged daughter told us that instead of going away for a 3 day week that she wanted us all to just stay home! And we all celebrated the ‘at home’ vacation. I am feeling like that again right now.
The cranberry orange relish, pumpkin custard, and gingerbread molasses scones were made yesterday.
The roast is in the crockpot.
The potatoes (sweet and russet) and parsnips (au gratin) are poised to go into the oven.
We’ll light the logs in the fireplace and eat a small salad as football blares.
It’s our tradition.
In the short silences of the day -
Maybe on a neighborhood walk after the big meal, during halftime of the football game -
We’ll talk of the wonder of our lives:
That our long careers were satisfying…
That our family is well…
That the future is full of potential…
That we live the way we wish to live…
And we are full of thanks.
We have already had some very cold days in Maryland this year - where the temperature did not get above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That has prompted some thinking about the cold weather to come. What will I do differently than last winter?
I’ll empty the bird bath in the late afternoon or early evening on very cold nights and then refill it in the morning before I have breakfast. That habit would provide liquid water at sunrise and a few hours afterward for the birds when they are usually active around our deck. The bird feeder is hanging nearby but the bird bath has been very popular the past few weeks (when it isn’t frozen like it was when I took the photograph).
There will be a snowflake photography kit kept in a plastic container on the deck so I won’t have to wait for everything to cool down before I can get snowflake pictures. It will include: colored glass plates and a jewelers loupe.
An old coat and scarf will be kept in the trunk of my car. It is very easy to misjudge the cold when I am leaving the house since the car is in a garage. I’ve become more aware that a scarf makes a huge difference on bitter cold - or windy - days. I should also try to replace clogs with closed shoes. I rediscovered hiking boots last winter and wear them particularly on cold days when I know I will be outdoors.
I'll wear leggings under my jeans when I am outdoors on very cold days. They work better for me than long underwear!
Hot drinks are always welcome on cold days. Tea has been my hot drink of choice for years but I am changing to hot water flavored with ginger root and lemon this year.
That’s about it for now….I’ll probably come up with more as the cold of the season deepens.
The Great Blue Herons at Chincoteague seemed to be everywhere and were concentrating so hard on fishing that they stayed put for photographs. I took over 100 pictures and have selected 9 for this post.
This bird was standing on one leg on the shore. It was a very chilly afternoon and his neck feathers appear to be slightly fluffed to keep him warm.
A very determined bird walked along the bank - intent on finding dinner.
A very cold looking bird standing in shallow water. He moved his head a little (the better to see us) but otherwise did not move at all.
Another actively hunting bird but in a tangled mess of branches
Using those branches to survey the possibilities for dinner
Perhaps mistaking his reflection for something edible.
A bird on the move.
A bird hiding
And emerging.
The look in the herons’ eye make it is easy to imagine the relationship of birds and dinosaurs!
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.
It’s been a busy season for Howard County Conservancy Field Trips for K-4. This is my second fall as a volunteer naturalist. There was an uptick in the number of field trips and there were definitely times that it would have been easier with more volunteers….but I enjoyed every one of my hiking groups. The buses generally arrive about 10 AM and the children are divided into hiking or lesson groups. The volunteer naturalists take 5-10 students with their chaperones on about an hour long hike then there is a big swap and the lesson group gets divided into hiking groups….and the volunteer naturalist guides a second hike. At the end there is hand washing and a picnic lunch (or return to school for lunch).
Everything is outdoors so the weather is sometimes a concern. The last field trip was last Friday and it was, by far the coldest of them all. But everyone dressed for the weather. Some of the children even decided it was worth taking a glove off temporarily to feel milkweed down!
You might be wondering what the pogo stick looking object in the picture is. It is a soil auger that is the favorite of all second graders on the soil hike. Everyone gets to use it and all the students are hands on with the samples collected. It’s my favorite from volunteer naturalists perspective too: it is indestructible, gets participation from everyone (sometimes even the chaperones), and the students are thrilled with transitioning what they’ve learned in class to ‘field work.’
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.
Winter Lodging in the National Parks: The Choices Are Many and Intriguing - I’ve stayed at the Flagg Ranch in early spring….and it did snow while we were there. There are lots of other parks with winter lodging!
Prairie Ecologist’s Photo of the Week – November 14, 2014 - A series of photos of a Chinese mantis (feeding on a sphinx moth).
The strange world inside cheese - cheese=the castle built by microbes
IEA World Energy Outlook 2014: 5 Takeaways - None of the 5 seem surprising to me….only that they rank above other aspects of the world energy outlook. The International Energy Agency is looking out to 2040.
Scientists Have Climbed To the Bottom of the Mysterious Siberian Crater - The bottom is about 35 feet below the surface and is a frozen lake. The depth of the lake is estimated to be 35 feet deep, but it could be deeper. The picture look like it could be on another planet…but this is Earth and there could be more of these forming as the climate warms.
It Turns Out That "Longevity Genes" Don't Exist - Evidently the genetic underpinnings maybe real but they are so complex that this study that included 20% of the people alive today that are over 110 years old could not pinpoint anything that seemed like ‘longevity genes.’ One of the people even carried a gene variant that raises the risk of sudden death caused by irregular heart rhythms!
Epic 4K Sun Video, with Bonus Sunspot Tantrums - A video of the solar surface from the later part of October.
Butterfly Eyespots Deflect Predation - A video that shows just how effective the eyespots on butterfly winds are in saving their lives.
5 Reasons Why You Should Drink Ginger Lemon Tea - This has become my favorite hot drink as the cold weather sets in. I even like hot ginger water (no tea)! I make I in my tea maker (a coffee maker that has never ever made coffee) - putting the chunks of ginger in the carafe. I add lemon in the cup - if I add it at all.
Nothing fishy about health benefits of plant-based omega-3 fatty acid -The chia seeds I have for breakfast almost every morning are high in omega-3….and it’s a good thing!
Major Revamp Planned for D.C.’s South Mall - It’s a long way from happening but the proposal is more extensive than I expected. I want to take a lot of pictures of the ‘as is’ next time I go to the Smithsonian.
Celebrating the whole of life....
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