Brookside Gardens in March – Part II

When I went to check the skunk cabbage last week at Brookside Gardens, a disgruntled titmouse gave me the eye. That was the only bird I managed to photograph as I walked around the gardens.

The growth that I had noticed between two rocks by the stream last month is now blooming – narcissus.

There were also small flags

And crocus in bloom.

March had been off to a warm start but we had some cold days just before I went to Brookside so I was pleased to find some trees that looked undamaged by the cold.

The camellia was a pleasant surprise…and fortified me for what came next.

A magnolia was evidently in full bloom when the weather turned cold. Now all flowers are brown. There could be a few buds that may still open. I’ll check next time I go. It's a very large tree that usually is full of large pick flowers....maybe not this year.

It was warm enough that there were a few insects out and about. Do you see the insect in this picture? (Hint: a little left and down from center.)

Brookside Gardens in March – Part I

Last week, I missed the shop in the Brookside Gardens conservatory; it was closed for inventory. But the conservatories were open and full of color. The variegated crotons were lush even though a lot of the other foliage had been severely pruned…giving room for a lot of new growth.

Some of the plantings they had been putting in the soil when I visited toward the end of January were blooming. I was fascinated by the structure of the flowers…and their color.

My favorite picture from this walk through the conservatories was of this desert plant – somehow the light and the shape of the leaves appeal to me.

There were snap dragons – mostly pink ones.

And orchids in lush groupings planted in urns.

Every time I see this bush with the red puffs – I always want a bottle brush that is this shape and color!

One of the examples of new growth because of the pruning was this new leaf that will expand to a huge leaf that is all green. I was surprised that the new leaves have so much red in them.

Tomorrow I’ll post about the sights outside in the gardens.

Two Big Trees

Last week on a misty morning, I heard the noise of chain saws and heavy equipment coming from the back of a neighbor’s house. By the time I got out on my deck to look, one of the uppermost branches had be cut off and was being lowered to the ground. It was a very tall tulip poplar that was at the edge of the forest and evidently had moved around a lot during the last wind storm – enough to cause the homeowner to decide it need to come down before it fell on the house.

I went upstairs to my office to get a better vantage point. Yes – there is a reflection that gets in the right side of the images…but I decided to document the process from my office. The crew had a truck with a tall boom. A person was on the controls for the truck and a person was up in the tree….and another man went up to attach ropes to the next branch to be cut so that it could be lowered slowly to the ground.

Another big branch – being lowered to the ground.

And the person going up to attach the rope to the next branch (he looked like he enjoyed the job!).

The branch comes down. Notice the rope that is holding it up…and will allow for it to be gently lowered to the pile.

And now the big trunk begins to come down. Note that the tree is not hollow or rotten. Tulip poplars are notorious for toppling in strong winds…and evidently they don’t have to be sickly for it to happen.

And then I realized that they were cutting down two trees instead of one. Here is the last cut to take the second tree down and

The big trunk being gently lifted to added to the pile.

Then it was all about clean up. It took about 7 hours of work for the crew to get the 2 trees down (and one branch that was rotting from another tree) and everything cleaned up.

I felt depressed that two trees at the edge of our forest were gone…but no one wants a tree to fall on their house.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 11, 2017

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.

Making “Kate Tectonics” – A short video about the history of geology.

Melting Glaciers in Canada Now Major Contributor to Sea Level Rise  and Climate-driven permafrost thaw – It’s been so warm this winter in our area….and elsewhere as well.

Elite ‘Dynasty’ at Chaco Canyon Got Its Power from One Woman, DNA Shows – DNA analysis is having an impact on our understanding of prehistory. This is an example from Chaco Canyon.

How Tibetans survive life on the ‘roof of the world’ – The Tibetans manage survival in thinner are differently than the people of the Andean Altiplano.

Could you survive on just one food? – I wouldn’t want to…how boring. But is it interesting to think about the pluses and minuses of single foods. Potatoes turn out to be a viable choice – hence the Irish population boom that busted when the potato blight came along.

Waxwings really have wax wings – We don’t have enough berry producing plants in our neighborhood to attract these birds….wish we did.

Delivering on spider silk’s promise – I’ve been hearing about spider silk coming to the market (shoes, jackets) but it hasn’t happened yet and it may not except for specialty products where cost is not a key driver.

What you don’t know about the Vikings – An article with pictures from reenactments and artifacts – from National Geographic.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #77 – It’s been two years since the #76 was published…I hope they come out with more frequency. My favorite of this group is the Northern Pintail. I like the light on the wings…and the water droplets splattering from the feet.

What happens when a massive redwood tree falls – 10-12 coast redwoods have fallen at Muir Woods National Monument during past two months…lots of work for the trail crew…but also new forest homes in the now horizontal tree trunks.

A March Sunrise

It won’t be so easy to catch a sunrise from our front porch as the days get longer and the leaves fill the trees. The tree in the foreground is an oak and many of the others are that are silhouettes of bare branches now are maples. All of them will become effective drapes on the sunrise color.

I’ve just finished taking a Coursera course on Ancient Egypt and learned about Khepri – a god in the ancient Egyptian religion connected to the rising sun. It’s a word to add to my vocabulary describing that special light that is so great for photography in the early morning:

Khepri light.

Skunk Cabbage @ Brookside Gardens

I’ve been looking for skunk cabbage sprouts every time I’ve gone to Brookside Gardens since I saw the plants emerging from the swampy area at Mt. Pleasant Farm back in January. Earlier this week, I finally saw some. They are in the wet area crossed by the boardwalk between the Brookside Gardens Conservatory and the Brookside Nature Center. I’d noticed the plants in previous years among the cypress knees.

The weather had been cold the previous days and I wondered if their contractile roots had pulled some of the plants back down into the soil. Since some of the plants seemed almost buried in the mulch under the cypress trees.

I zoomed in to two different hoods trying to see the ball shaped flower within – but they appeared to be empty. The structures are still interesting. Once I saw one of them there were quite a few just barely above the mulch.

Centennial Park on a Cold Day

A few days ago, it was sunny but in the 40s and I thought I’d take a short walk at the park – bundled up in my coat and hat. I underestimated the effect of the wind! It was unbearably cold so I took a quick look around for anything worthy of a photograph….and spotted a Great Blue Heron on the other side of the lake. At first I was seeing only the back of its head (I think it was investigating some trash as the edge of the lake); it was about ready to give up when the bird turned so I could get a profile shot.

The water was not a pretty color because the wind was stirring up the water. But I experimented with bordering the picture with the red railing from the fishing pier. I liked the texture of the water in motion. The ducks, geese and seagulls were off the water. I saw some gulls in a tree and two geese eating grass along the road side as I left. There were daffodils bloom in the woods (not sure why someone planted them there) and there were a couple of robins looking for worms in the grass.

It was a much shorter outing than I’d planned but I was glad to be out and about.

Making (Zentangle®) Tiles

I’ve been experimenting with cutting 3.5 x 3.5 inch squares for Zentangle tiles from items I would typically put into the recycle pile. Some packaging is not worth it: boxes of protein bars are too small to be worth the effort (two tiles per box) and some is textured (Lindt dark chocolate bars) and some is a little too dark or heavy (like the quart size food bags). The one I’ve come to like – a lot – is the Wegmans Sparkling Water box. It makes 12 tiles – avoiding the parts that are perforated. Sometimes there is writing on the cardboard which reduces the number of tiles to 11. That is worth it! My old paper cutter is getting workout.

The golden brown on the right in the image below is the color of the box. Note that some of the tiles from the Sparkling Water box have imprints of the can tops…but that just gives me a ‘string’ on the tile before I even start!

I like the way the color of the Ultra Fine Point Sharpie blends into the cardboard too.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Signs of Spring? – Part 2

The first part of this post was posted last week after a walk around our yard…on a warm afternoon. I posted the series of American Robin images first…now for the rest of what I saw --- There were some milkweed pods in the litter of one of our flower beds (yes – I let some plants go to seed there); there is the first milkweed bug of the season too!

I saw a bee investigating something in the leaf litter too. The day was so warm that the insects probably thought it was spring already.

The crocuses are come up through the leaf mulch left in the flower bed. I’m going to plant some out in the yard next fall since I like the look of the flowers in the lawns of Belmont.

 The miniature daffodils are blooming too.

There some of the larger and taller ones that are still green leaves and buds. When the leaves first emerge, they sometimes have kinks that straighten out before they start blooming.

The red maple is blooming. This time of year is it easy to tell the difference between this tree and other maples. All the others look dull compared to this red.

There is a tree in the forest behind our house that has lost its top and there are woodpecker holes around the wound in the part that remains.

There is a holly that has sprouted under a downspout – not a good place for a holly so I will have to pull it next time I put on my gardening gloves.

Part 1 was posted last Friday.

A Little March Snow

I’d taken pictures for a second post about signs of spring in our yard….but then I woke up to snow! I got a picture at first light since I was sure it would melt away quickly. There were already deer tracks through our back yard.

As it got a little lighter, the snow on the pines and back into the forest gave the scene from my office window a new look.

There was a robin that kept moving around in the red maple that is blooming.

The tulip poplar seed pods from last summer are mostly empty of seeds at this point; they make a little basket for snow accumulation.

The miniature daffodils in the front yard are blooming and they caught the snow as well. They handle it better than the larger and taller flowers that sometimes bend to the ground with heavy snow. These daffodils are progeny of bulbs that my mother-in-law bought for us over 25 years ago and I’m always thrilled that they are so durable through the snow.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 4, 2017

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 tale of four skulls: what human bones reveal about cities – History from a different perspective!

I spent a week exploring how we’ll have to live in a post-water America – We often take water for granted – turn on the faucet and it comes out. This article was about taking a different perspective and might be a shift in thinking we’ll be required to make in the future.

New map highlights bee population declines across the US – Not good. The declines are occurring in key agricultural regions.

10 Must-see Sites of Iran’s Historical Architecture – There are 20 UNESO World Heritage Sites in Iran. Too bad that part of the world is not a safer travel destination. Enjoy the pictures!

Our Water on Drugs – Treatment of water started out focused on sewage…then expanded to include nitrogen and phosphorous. Now the residues of drugs and personal care products are becoming a concern.

Popular heartburn drugs linked to gradual yet ‘silent’ kidney damage – Proton pump inhibitors (like Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium and Protonix) taken over prolonged periods can have significant risks.

Cocoa, Caffeinated ‘Black Drink’ was Widespread in Pre-Contact Southwest – A ‘caffeine trade network’ brought cocoa and yaupon holly to the southwest….and the residue from the drinks are found in pottery. One of the first analyzed was from Chaco Canyon!

The Country’s Most Famous Bald Eagle Pair Just Laid Another Egg – The Bald Eagles at the US National Arboretum are keeping 2 eggs warm! See them on the nest cam.

6,600 spills from fracking in just four states – Drilling down on the stats – 26% in Colorado and 53% in North Dakota occur at wells that experienced more than one spill…the industry should be using this data reduce the risks of additional spills.

New Discoveries from Cahokia’s ‘Beaded Burial’ May Rewrite Story of Ancient American City – Some of the ‘men’ buried in an elite grave excavated in 1967 were women based on a new evaluation of the skeletons!

Signs of Spring? – Part 1

We have had an unusually warm and snow free winter in our area of Maryland. This morning there is a cold snap and I am wondering if some of the pictures of our yard I took for this blog over the past few days are of things that will be frost damaged next time I walk around. I have been seeing one or two American Robins are warm days for the past week or so. The robin in the slide show below was in a neighbor’s yard – looking for and finding worms. It looked like a fat and healthy bird enjoying the bounty of our neighborhood lawns without a lot of others of his kind around. It is easy to associate a personality with this bird on a mission!

I’m noticing the advantage of having the 40x optical zoom on my camera (rather than 30x of my previous camera or 0 optical zoom of my smart phone). The image stabilization is good too; all these were taken hand held – no monopod or tripod.

Disappointment at Conowingo

The weather was a little warmer than usual when we made our trek to Conowingo last week. The weather turned out to be the best part. The eagles must have finished their breakfast by the time we got there and were not very active; this was the best picture I got – from all the way across the river. You can tell that those rocks are favorite perches (all the ‘white’).

The black vultures were not very photogenic either. The big grouping that usually eyeballs cars going over the dam from a fence only numbered three birds. The others must have been out and about – maybe at some substantial carrion site.

At first I thought the cormorants would redeem the trip. There were at least two of them and they were within photographic range. But then I realized that the reason they were staying in one location was a tangled (and trashed) fishing lure rather than a fish (you can see it (light green) and the line that evidently snagged it to the rocky bottom in the middle picture below).

There were a few gulls about. I tried taking pictures of them as they landed or flew up from the water. The one with the orange spot on the bill is a Herring Gull. The other one could be a Ring-billed Gull since the beak looks like it has black instead of orange toward the end.

There were two Canadian Geese in the shallows on the other side of the dam abutment – almost out of camera range.

The same was true for a flock of pigeons. They usual are on the dam structure but they must have been startled by something because a large number left the dam at the same time and moved to the rocks.

On a botanical note – the Princess tree buds still look the same as they did last time we were at Conowingo. The buds on the tulip poplars (at the end of the twigs) seem to be getting larger.

On the way home, I took a picture of the mounds of salt along I-95 near the tunnel (through a dirty window). Generally the salt piles are significantly reduced by this time of year….but not this season. I wonder what will happen to it since the salt storage buildings are probably already full.

Zentangle® – February 2017

February is a short month…but a huge one in terms of the number of Zentangle® tiles I made over the course of the month: over 90! I got some new Ultra Fine Point Sharpies and enjoyed having so many colors. I also continued to use recycled materials for tiles as well. My favorite is the boxes from the Seltzer water cans. The light brown seems to go well with many colors of ink.

While most of the tiles were the square 3.5 x 3.5 inches, I did quite a few on the backs of 1970s business cards. They are a good size for bookmarks.

The 4 x 6 inches white cards – cut in half – area a good size for non-square tiles too.

February was a big month for Zentangle production! Hope you enjoyed the 28 our of 90+ that I chose to include in this post.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

February Rainbow

A few days ago, thunderstorms were forecast and once the rumbles started I turned off my computer/other electronics. It seemed like the sun came out again very quickly after a short heavy rain….and I glanced out the window. There was a rainbow! It’s a little unusual for us this time of year when we normally have snow rather than rain. The rainbow’s location was more toward the northeast since the sun is further to the southwest in the afternoon this time of year.

I took the picture from my front doorway. The trees with reddish looking branches are maples. They are already blooming. The branches on the far right of the image are the oak that is near our mailbox.

Zooming – February 2017

As I was creating the zoomed images into collages, I was drawn to color in my February collection of photographs.

• Witch Hazel
• Peacock feathers
• Blue jays
• Flickers
• Skunk cabbage
• The light blue of dove eyelids
• Sunflowers

Enjoy the zoomed images from February!

A Morning Tea at the Belmont Carriage House

The Howard County Conservancy held their annual Volunteer Tea yesterday at the Belmont Carriage House in Elkridge, MD.

I packed up two books to swap, some Zentangle tiles to give away as book marks, and Dark Chocolate Pudding (made with an avocado, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla) as a sweet indulgence among the scones and egg salad sandwiches. I have a picture of one table at the set up….and then about half way through. There was a lot of friendly conversation and enjoyment of food. I intended to come home with fewer books that I took…but there were so many books (many people brought more than 2!) that I came home with three…and have already read the one about Montezuma Castle (I got it because I enjoyed walking around the place during an Arizona visit – see the post here).

On the short walk back to my car, I took a picture of the barn built from stone found in the area; it could be used for a geology lecture!

I’d forgotten about the crocus bulbs that seem to have planted in the lawn around Belmont. They’ll done by the time the grounds need to be mowed.

The front of the Manor House still seems too open without the large English Elm that had to be removed because of Dutch Elm disease.

I’m still savoring the look of my new car (the red Prius Prime!).

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 25, 2017

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.

Busy Bees: Patterns of pollen and nectar foraging specialization by bumblebees over multiple timescales using RFID – At the top of my list this week…the paper (link is at the bottom of this post), is authored by my son-in-law and daughter!

Automatically darkening windows in a wide range of colors – Maybe insulating drapes will not be needed in the future…although I like the idea of windows that generate power rather than just changing color.

From Vector to Zoonotic: A Glossary for Infectious Diseases – Some of these words are used in news stories without definition….how strong is your knowledge of what they really mean?

How Blizzards and Extreme Cold Impact Birds – We haven’t had any extreme cold in our area this winter….but it may be happening somewhere. This article talks about the studies about how birds cope with the cold; some succumb to the cold itself and some starve because their food source becomes unavailable.

Why Killer Viruses are on the Rise – An outcome of our increasing impact on environments that previously were wildlife habitats.

Winning images of the Underwater Photography of the Year Contest – Eye candy…but educational too.

NASA’s Osiris REx takes its first image of Jupiter – We saw Osiris REx launched last September so I always take a look at any new news about it.

Torpid Turtles, Tortoises, and Terrapins – Examples from turtles in the US…several are common enough in Maryland that I’ve seen them.

The oldest grave of the Netherlands, “Trijntje” – A facial reconstruction of a woman buried 7500 years ago.

The Feather Atlas – A feather reference. I hope I remember this exists the next time I find an interesting feather!

Brookside Gardens with a Cell Phone

Earlier this week it was such a warm day that I wanted to get out and about - chose to go to Brookside Gardens. About halfway there, I realized I had forgotten my camera but then realized that I had my new cell phone (a Samsung Galaxy S7); it was time to experiment with the cell phone camera. I headed to the boardwalk between the conservatories and the Nature Center. The skunk cabbage was still not up under the cypress trees but there were crocus

And some dried ferns that were catching the sunlight (they look like big feathers!).

I walked toward the ponds and saw other early bulbs blooming

And turtles taking advantage of the warm day to come out of the mud at the bottom of the pond. I was beginning to learn about the camera in the phone; it does zoom (8x) but it’s all digital so the zoomed images sometimes look fuzzy.

As I trekked toward the witch hazel I had seen last time I visited Brookside – I saw a butterfly and managed to get a picture! It looks like a Question Mark Butterfly…hope there were others it found that were out and about.

Then I found the witch hazel trees again. They were still very bright with streamers around their blooms.

Some trees still have fried leaves clinging from last fall.

I learned that the camera in the cell phone does relatively well close up too.

As I completed the loop back to my car, I noticed some greenery between rocks (daffodils?) near the stream and wondered how the bulbs got wedged in that location.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2017

Usually February has been a low-key month with weather dampening activity. This year – the weather has been mild – and my celebrations have been more active than usual for February.

I celebrated outings to 1) Conowingo (for Bald Eagles), 2) Brookside (for witch hazel and snow drops), 3) Mt. Pleasant (skunk cabbage), and

4) State College (to see my daughter and son-in-law.

There were also learning experiences to celebrate: 5) the TED dialog with Yuval Harari (I enjoyed his “A Brief History of Humankind” via Coursera back August 2013) and 6) The Changing Global Order course on Coursera (from Universiteit Leiden).

There were new (big) purchases to celebrate: 7) a Samsung Galaxy S7 and

8) a new Honda CR-V for my husband (I am celebrated more room for me in the front passenger seat than in his previous car…and I am still celebrating my Prius Prime every time I drive it).

Two things for myself that I celebrated this month: 9) a short haircut that maximizes the little bit of natural curl my hair has and 10) lots of lots of Zentangle tiles (new pens and more time than usual to create tiles).

I had a lot of celebrate in February 2017!