Josey Ranch Birds

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The lake at Josey Ranch in Carrollton, Texas is my favorite place to look for water birds. There were not very many this time…only a few of the winter birds have arrived. The two resident swans were still there, and they were both on the water preening.

A Great Egret was in the shallows near the cattail bed. I didn’t see it get any fish was it was strutting around

And flying short distances to continue searching. By the time I left, it was standing almost hidden by the cattails…looking out toward the lake.

There were mallard pairs – probably year-round residents.

The American Coots were the most numerous birds. They were interacting with each other…seemingly having spats…taking off running across the water to separate themselves.

There were a few Ruddy Ducks…with their upright tails.

The first Northern Shovellers had arrived. One male looked scruffy (and angry) to me!

As the season progresses, there will be bore Ruddy Ducks and Northern Shovellers…Scaups will also appear. In the previous winters, there always seem to be a few Bufflehead as well. I saw a cormorant in the air but didn’t see any in the lake this time.

90 Years

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Both of my parents are 90 years old this year. I’ve been thinking about the events of their lives and what has happened in the world during their lifetimes.

Their lives began during the Great Depression. They were both born at home; both families were living in rural Oklahoma and grew most of their own food. They were too young to fully realize the stress around the country…secure with their family and small rural community.

Their school memories are from the 1940s --- the World War II era. Their fathers were too old to go to war so the impact of the war on their families was indirect…primarily the rationing programs. Both went to schools where there was only a small cohort at each grade level. Later in their lives they attended high school reunions occassionally – keeping in touch with that small group that had mostly scattered across the country.

They were in college in the early 1950s – the boom years with the GI Bill funding returning veterans and college being encouraged for those just graduating from high school. My parents were ‘first generation’ to college for their families. They married, left the farm, and had 3 of their 4 children during the decade. My dad’s career stayed related to agriculture initially – at first requiring a lot of traveling and then into management of grain storage.

By the 1960s, they were in Texas living in a small city…children in public schools, living in an air-conditioned house (an important thing in the Texas summer). The big health improvement was the availability of the polio vaccine (we all got the vaccine via sugar cubes at school) and the waning of smallpox around the world even though we were still required to get updated vaccines when we traveled to Mexico.  In the mid-60s my mother returned to college for a degree in education…a career she started in the 1970s. My dad’s parents moved from Oklahoma to the same small city in Texas.

In the early 1970s, they moved to a suburb of a big city. They bought a house that accommodated the whole family, including my dad’s parents. My dad had transitioned completely from an agriculture related career to financial management and planning. My mother was teaching. All 4 of their daughters graduated from high school and went to Texas colleges (the last one just starting at the end of the decade). One daughter got married. My parents’ fathers died during the decade. Somehow everyone managed to stay ahead of inflation and pay mortgages that were high interest compared to today.

The 1980s were a very busy decade with careers of the whole family in high gear. My father was coming adept at digital spreadsheets…my mother was focused on reading for students in upper elementary and middle school. The youngest daughter graduated from college. One daughter (me) moved halfway across the country to the east coast and two others got married. My maternal grandmother died. Toward the end of the decade, the first two grandchildren were born.

In the 1990’s, my parents retired from their careers; they travelled and took care of grandchildren and helped with home maintenance (a total of 5 houses in the family!). Three more grandchildren were born, and the older ones started school.

Similar activities continued in the 2000s changing as the grandchildren got older…the oldest ones starting college.

In the 2010s, travel and engagement with family continued in a similar way for the first part of the decade; by the middle of the decade someone else was doing the driving on road trips and they stopped driving completely by the end of the decade. My paternal grandmother died; she had been living in the same house with my parents since the 1970s. Health challenges began to emerge for both parents…intermittent at first and then slowing them down in the last years of the decade. They both benefited from cataract surgery. Other surgeries and injuries required more recovery time…and sometimes recovery was not complete.

The last road trip was for Thanksgiving in 2019…to be with a grandchild. Not long afterward the COVID-19 pandemic locked down travel and they discovered the comfort of ‘stay at home as much as possible.’ Recently they have transitioned to primary care practice that comes to their home for checkups, blood work and most other health needs. Their children and grandchildren come to them now. If they leave their home, it is a very special event. Four of their five grandchildren have college degrees – one has an MD…another a PhD. There aren’t any great-grandchildren – yet.

So many changes have occurred since they were born. Electricity and indoor plumbing were just beginning to be available on farms when they were born. They bought their first air-conditioned home in the early 1960s. Computers came along in the 1980s.

And now – my sisters and I are thankful they are still with us – still enjoying living independently in their home with support from the family, neighbors, doctors, and house cleaners – getting close to celebrating 70 years of married life.

A Carrollton, Texas Yard

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There is still looks a lot of green in Carrollton, Texas….maybe looking better than summer since it is not so hot that everything looks parched. The cosmos are at their tallest…a mini-jungle of green and orange – still blooming and attracting insects.

The vegetation in the garden areas is intermixed with leaves that have fallen and are beginning to decay; the leaves are not deep enough to smother the plants that are still growing. The old toys and watering cans are almost covered with summer growth. An old bird house is rotting among the thick growth of the garden.

How long with the summer garden linger this year? There have been some cooler days…but not a frost….yet. Many will have a sudden demise at the first hard freeze.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 6, 2021

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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.

Why do we hate trash birds? – A little about the way we dismiss birds we see frequently (maybe too frequently) and the difference in the birds viewed that way in the US and Australia. The Australian white ibis is nicknamed ‘bin chicken’! Here in the US, some people think of pigeons and Canada geese and mallards as ‘trash birds.’

Flu and heart disease: The surprising connection that should convince you to schedule your shot – Flu vaccines save lives…particularly lives of people with heart disease. An improvement the article suggests: make sure cardiologists stress the need to get the flu vaccine to their patients – not just assuming the primary care doctor will do it.

AAA: Vehicle auto safety systems often fail when driving in heavy rain – I’ve observed this several times but is the first time I’ve seen the recommendation to ‘avoid using cruise control in wet and slippery conditions.’ The cars should probably provide warning messages more overtly to not rely on certain driver aids in bad weather.

By 2500 Earth could be alien to humans – The projections of models used now are out to 2100…that is not far enough into the future. We can’t assume that we’ll succeed in reversing climate change by that time…or maybe we are collectively so pessimistic right now that we think the world will end by 2100.

How to make sustainable choices for a long life and a healthy planet – A summary of some recent studies on health/diet choices and the relationship to climate change. It turns out that it’s pretty easy to eliminate some of the most unhealthy items like soft drinks and foods with lots of sugar. It’s a learning experience to shift to meals to plant based protein…for me – it’s still a work in progress.

The plastic recycling system is broken – here’s how to fix it – I agree that it is broken…but I’m not sure that what is suggested in the article would be enough. We need packaging solutions that are not plastic at all! I have tried to eliminate as much single use plastic as I can since even with perfect recycling, I’m not sure I want things like food to be in plastic packaging (how can we know that the plastic is safe for food). There are so many items that you can’t buy without plastic packaging. The consumer is forced to be part of the problem even if they want to be part of the solution.

How a simple tummy-rub can change babies' lives – Maybe baby massage techniques should be incorporated in all baby care courses, videos, and books!

7 underrated creepy creatures – A little hold-over on the Halloween theme.

From Homes to Cars, It’s Now Time to Electrify Everything – My existing house has a gas hot water heater and furnace; the other appliances are already electric and I drive a plug-in hybrid which means that most of my around town driving is in an EV. But I don’t have solar panels. My plan is to move in the next year or so and quickly arrange for solar panel installation and transition the house to be all-electric. Next step would be the addition of battery storage. I’m also intrigued by the idea of a wind wall (see next item on the gleanings list).

This ingenious wall would harness enough wind power to cover your electric bill – This could be something that would work for more homes and businesses than solar...particularly if they were relatively inexpensive to produce. There is an aesthetic appeal too.

Longwood Gardens – Macro Photography

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I took more macro pictures at Longwood Gardens than I ever have before. I was using my phone with a clip-on macro lens and a clicker that was hanging around my neck. I seemed so easy to move the phone into position with one hand and click the image with the other. It all started while we were standing in line to enter the gardens. There were plants around even there. The couple in front of me was interested in the images I was getting.

The conservatory was full of plants that often look like abstract art when viewed with a macro lens. My favorite is the leaf with the larger veins almost glowing…white dots making an aura alongside.

In the meadow – there were lots of asters and plants going to seed.

There were a few bugs on the plants too – milkweed bug and some bees.

Several ‘lessons learned’ from the day –

  • Wear a big hat and use the body and had to shade the areas I am photographing. It’s easier to see the screen (to make sure the right part is in focus) and reduces shadows.

  • Review everything in the pockets of the photovest and reduce as much weight as possible. In places with plenty of places to refill my water bottle – a smaller one would be better. I should have left my small point and shoot camera at home (every bit of weight counts!). I was glad I decided not to carry my monopod.

It worked well to

  • Pace ourselves by sitting down occasionally on available benches (sometimes taking pictures while sitting!)

  • Wear a bandana to keep the sun off my neck and the V in front. It worked better than sunscreen! It also offers a bit of padding where the photovest sometimes rubs the back of my neck.   

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2021

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Celebrating fall…

Fall view from my office window. The view from my office window includes a tulip poplar and a red maple…the first has leaves of yellow…the second red although it will be the last to turn completely and let go of its leaves. Celebrating the most colorful views of the year from my office window.

Haircut. We’ve perfected getting haircuts while wearing a mask…still wait a little longer between haircuts than we did pre-pandemic – so it is a celebration to have neatly trimmed hair!

Morning walk in the neighborhood. Cooler mornings and days. Celebrating very pleasant temperatures for the whole day (although a jacket may be required in the morning).

Middle Patuxent River with students. Celebrating the restart to volunteering that I did pre-pandemic. The river is so beautiful when I am standing in the shallows in my big boots!

A new low weight for the year and a beautiful sunrise. Taking off the pounds is hard….but I am doing it! I celebrate every new low weight for the year. Recently I was in the right place to see the sunrise on the same day. I bought and enjoyed a slice of pumpkin roll to celebrate both!

Getting out cool weather clothes. It’s not a whole new wardrobe – but one I haven’t worn in months. I always celebrate my favorite clothes as I hang them up (and also the ones I am packing away). I didn’t have anything that I decided to put in the donate pile!

Patuxent Research Refuge. Celebrating the closest wildlife refuge to where we live. There is always something to see there and I always chide myself for not visiting more frequently.

Smell of butternut squash in the oven. It’s that time of year where the smell pumpkin pie spices fill my kitchen…celebrating the special foods and family events that will continue through the end of the year.

Popcorn with butter. Most of the time I eat popcorn with just garlic salt….it’s a special celebration to have it with butter (and much higher calorie)!

Longwood Gardens. A beautiful place…and a celebration every time we go. Some parts I enjoy again and again…and sometimes there are sights that are totally new.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 30, 2021

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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.

Environmentally friendly ways to cool homes – This will be an increasingly ‘hot’ topic for individuals and various levels of business and government. Many electrical utilities are already seeing increased energy consumption during the summer.

What’s Up with White Squirrels and Black Squirrels? – I haven’t seen any white squirrels but we have the occasional black one in our neighborhood (in Maryland).

Medical errors keep killing patients – but there are laws, incentives and mindset changes that could reduce the death toll – Medical mistakes are s leading cause of death, behind heard disease and cancer. This should not be the case. Surely incentives can be used to force changes to the unacceptable status quo.

Deaths linked to ‘hormone disruptor’ chemical costs billions of lost US productivity – A study that included more than 5,000 adults ages 55-64 done by NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The people with the highest concentrations of phthalates in their urine were more likely to die of heart disease than those with lesser exposure. I am no longer storing food in plastic containers unless they phthalate free…the bigger problem is cosmetics/hygiene products. It’s hard to know which ones have it.

Why are you seeing lots of vultures now? – Our area has resident turkey and black vultures…we see a few all year long. In the fall we might see an uptick because of vultures from further north migrating through.

Mushroom consumption may lower risk of depression – Yet another reason to enjoy mushrooms in your diet!

US Moving Towards 30% Electricity from Wind & Solar – By 2026! That is not that far away. I know I’ll probably have solar panels on the roof of my house well before that (and probably some energy storage as well).

Possible Mammoth Butchery Site Found in Arctic Circle – On an island off the northern coast of East Siberia. At the time the animal was killed (26,000 years ago), sea levels were lower, and the island was connected to the mainland.

Nature-based activities can improve mood and reduce anxiety – A metastudy that looked at 50 studies and 14,321 NBI records done by the University of York. Interestingly – they didn’t find that the activities improved physical health!

It’s Time to Ban Gas-Powered Landscaping Equipment – We already have some electric landscaping equipment: blower, trimmer, weed eater. The mower will be next. I am looking forward to it since I notice the exhaust smell and get a scratchy throat every time I mow.

Zooming – October 2021

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I selected 19 images to represent this month.  Here are some stats:

  • The normal locations for photography: home(2) and neighborhood (1)…and then day trips to Patuxent Research Refuge (5) and Longwood Gardens (11).

  • 6 indoors (including the conservatory at Longwood Gardens and a high key image of a day lily from my office)…the rest outdoors

  • 17 plants (2 fiddleheads and 6 waterlilies), a bird and squirrels

Enjoy the slideshow for the October zoomed images!

I’m saving most of the fall foliage pictures for next month!

Longwood Gardens – October 2021

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We took a day trip to Longwood Gardens in mid-October. The website was encouraging ticket purchase before coming and cautioning that it is no longer possible to leave/return as we had usually done for lunch; the gardens also open an hour later than pre-pandemic. We arrived a few minutes before our ticket time and the garden opening at 10. There were others that had the same strategy…a line formed. I took a few macro pictures of the plants near our place in line while we waited. It was a little disconcerting that only about half the people put on masks inside the visitor center and there were several busloads of children that arrived - enlarging the crowd in the building. We exited to the gardens as quickly as we could and headed to the conservatory.

We chose to wear a mask in the conservatory too – as did about half the people in the building. There is construction closing the west end but still plenty of mums, tropical plants, children’s garden, and cactus to see in the part that is open. Even the hallway of bathrooms in the conservatory was very lush with green walls. Enjoy the slide show of zoomed pictures from the conservatory!

I’ll post about the water lilies and fiddleheads and macro photographs later. There were a few pictures I took as we walked about through the forest and meadow and then enjoying the display of fall squash and gourds…but I spent most of my time experimenting with macro photography with my phone.

We spent about 3.5 hours in the gardens…then were tired and hungry enough to call it a day. We stopped at a fast-food drive thru…then parked and ate…before continuing home.

Photographing a Day Lily

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I noticed a stalk of day lily buds in the front flower bed recently – one of the few day lilies that bloom both in the spring and fall; it was something to bring inside rather than leave for a deer to eat! There were two types of photography I wanted to do with the flowers: macro and high key. Fortunately, several of the buds were mature enough to complete their development in my office.

The high key images were done with the first flower early in the morning with my Canon Powershot SX70 HS – handheld but stabilized on my knee as I sat in an office chair rolled to the far side of the room so that the zoom would focus. I had the vase with the opening flower positioned in front of the lamp.

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I tried three different positions for the flower. Which do you like best? I think the last one is my favorite.

Later in the day, the flower had opened completely, and I put the vase in my office window that gets afternoon sun.

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Another bud matured and opened a few days later…my opportunity for doing some macro shots. I used my phone with a clip on macro lens…discovered that my clicker’s battery was dead so I used voice commands to take the hand held pictures (voice commands do not work as well has the clicker since the timing is not as exact). The vase was on the window ledge on the cloudy day.

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I started out taking macro images of flower parts.

Then I noticed some white ‘foam’ and then something that moved. There were tiny insects on the flower and remaining buds! The one with defined antennae had very delicate looking wings. In the last image, it looks like one of them has just shed its skin (and is standing on it). The one with the wings might be an adult and all the rest are larval stages of that insect.

Cancer Diary – Entry 4

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After a two week wait, the appointment with the surgeon occurred. The office was in an area that I hadn’t been to before - part of a major academic institution with a surgeon that was a specialist in the type of surgery I needed. My husband accompanied me as a second set of ears. Neither one of us has prior experience with cancer or surgeries like I needed so we anticipated it would be a learning experience even though we had prepared ourselves by reading the information provided by my endocrinologist and following some of the references with internet searches.

The appointment lasted about 1.5 hours and most of the time was spent with the surgeon and his assistant talking. They explained the procedure…setting expectations – and answered questions. I had come with a few but there were no big surprises since we had done our ‘homework.’ The prognosis is very positive since the cancer was discovered early through the monitoring that had been part of my annual physical for the past 7-8 years. They did a couple of tests to hone the exact type of surgery needed…and then the last few minutes were with the scheduler. Their schedule is so busy that the surgery is almost 3 months out. Evidently there are a lot of these type surgeries happening right now – maybe because of a backlog that developed during the pandemic and prior to vaccine availability.

A few days before the appointment – I got family news that one of my aunts was in the hospital diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and the evening after my appointment I learned that she was in the process of being released – returning home under hospice care. She is only about 8 years older than me! I grieve that her life is ending….also grateful that my cancer is a more treatable kind with a very high survival/cure rate.

When I am thinking objectively, the reassurance from the doctors that 1) this type of cancer is one of the most treatable and 2) the delay is not problematic is believable; however, on an emotional level, I realize that I need to keep busy over the interim between now and mid-January to keep myself from becoming overly anxious. Before we got home from the appointment, I had already decided to make a 2-week road trip to Texas to see my family….and to do more decorating than I have in recent years for November and December. I was glad that my husband was with me and was supportive of what I wanted to do. I plan to visit my daughter during my road trip and there will be a public observing night at the university’s observatory on the first evening I am there…an opportunity for me to see her at work! (We did ‘take your daughter to work’ days when she was growing up….so this could be our first ‘take your mother to work’ event!)

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 23, 2021

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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.

Roman noblewoman’s tomb reveals secrets of ancient concrete resilience – This research has application to the future: transitioning to Roman-like concrete could reduce the energy emissions of concrete production and installation by 85%...and improve the longevity of concrete by orders of magnitude.

How to bring more clean energy into our homes – It’s hard to know what to do that will make the most difference in decarbonization. Electrification is good…as long as the energy used to create the electricity is renewable. This article is explaining one attempt to make it simpler…but it doesn’t seem like it goes far enough.

Does the world need more sharks? – Evidently when sharks decline, herbivores increase and seagrass declines….resulting in less carbon sequestration in sea vegetation. So – more sharks would improve our climate change situation!

The incredible opportunity of community schoolyards – Transforming paved public schoolyard by adding trees, gardens and stormwater management systems and opening them to the public after hours….what’s not to like? It is good for children and the community…and reduces the heat island around the school.

Recycled concrete and CO2 from the air are made into a new building material – Potentially another way to reduce the energy and emissions to produce concrete…but there is still a challenge to make it strong enough for all the current places we use concrete - to make calcium carbonate concrete viable in the future.

10 Writing Awards for Cool Green Science – Some of the 10 have probably be in my gleanings before…but they are worth looking at again.

We need to talk about your gas stove, your health and climate change – 35 years ago, I thought gas stoves were wonderful….but I haven’t had one since 1986, and I won’t buy a house in the future with one (or I will replace it immediately). My current house does have a gas hot water heater and furnace…but I plan to jettison those too. And I don’t want a gas fireplace either!

Clean air matters for a healthy brain – I check the Air Quality Index on Weather.com and there are too many days that the PMI2.5 level is ‘yellow’ where I live now in Maryland. I try to not spend a lot of time outdoors on those days.  It’s another something to think about when/if I move out of the area.

The American Bumblebee Has Vanished From Eight States – The 8 states are: Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon. That doesn’t mean other places are much better. They have declined 99% in New York; 50% in the Midwest and Southeast.

Large scale solar parks cool surrounding land – The observation is interesting. I wonder if the solar parks that I’ve seen frequently around airports in the US are large enough to make up for the heat island effect of all the concrete and asphalt surfaces of the airports.

Cancer Diary – Entry 3

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There were two weeks between my cancer diagnosis and the appointment with the surgeon. It’s a time of waiting. The challenge is to stay focused rather than anxious. I kept to my routines that have been honed over the years to keep stress productive rather than destructive:

  • Writing things down…and letting them go. Setting a goal of journal entries of about 2,000 words per day…documenting whatever I am thinking about.

  • Creating Zentangle tiles as islands of calm that result is something of beauty.

  • Sticking to routines of life like grocery shopping and a haircut and yardwork…savoring the activity and the results.

  • Browsing at least 4 books per day. Internet Archive makes it easy and costs nothing. My interests are broad so there is always a good supply on my ‘to browse’ list.

  • Staying in touch with family. My daughter calls 3-4 times a week. I talk to my mother once a week. Texts fly almost daily with my sisters and daughter.

  • Volunteering is more limited with the pandemic still impacting it…but it did resume this fall and I count it as a ‘routine’ even though it didn’t happen last fall or spring.

  • Making a daily blog post…building up the posts to come out in the days ahead like I always do before travel. Now I am doing it so that I don’t have to worry about appointments or the surgery itself making it difficult to get posts ready to go.

  • Exercise….sticking with the 12,000 steps per day and the 30 minutes of mindfulness/yoga. I feel better physically and mentally with this sustained routine.

There have also been special ‘projects’ undertaken during this waiting time…keeping myself busy -

  • Day lily photograph – both zoomed and high key. I recognized the opportunity as soon as I saw the stalk of buds in my front flower bed.

  • Day trip to Longwood Gardens. Getting out and about on a beautiful fall day in a relatively safe way as the pandemic continues.

  • Savoring seasonal food – replacing salads with soups on cool fall days and enjoying the combinations of flavors. Green salsa is my favorite condiment right now.

  • I continued my quest to lose a few pounds – watching my calories and nutrition (Cronometer app). My goal it to be in the best possible health I can be going into surgery.

  • Getting trees trimmed. Our sycamore is brushing our roof and a skylight. It is so tall that I’ve arranged for an arborist to trim it and our plum tree; it was about a 3 week wait between getting the estimate and the work being done. Hope the weather cooperates!

Overall – the two weeks has been a time for me to Internalize the new reality…and anticipating a new normal after surgery. I’ve also gone from 1 medical related portal to 4! It would be great to somehow have them all consolidated but medical care in the US is often fragmented along specialty or provider network lines rather than focused on integrated patient care.

Cancer Diary – Entry 2

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The appointment with my doctor was at 8 AM. I had printed out my list of questions and walked outside to see how cool it felt before I got in my car. There were two surprises near the driveway: a stalk of late season day lily buds that the deer hadn’t eaten and the Virginia Creeper on the oak beginning to turn red. I unplugged my car…and set out.

Since I was the first wave of patients at the medical building, there were still places available close the building in the ‘fuel eff low emit parking’ lane. I was a few minutes early and noted that the landscaping around the building has been transitioned to native plants.

It was so quiet with no one else around that I heard water burbling just before I went into the building and looked over the railing to see a shady rock garden with water coming from one of the larger rocks at one level down from the main entrance. I hadn’t noticed it before.

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It was a pleasant way to start the morning – noticing the beauty in the natural world. Even so – my first blood pressure reading of the appointment was a little high; I was relieved that after my conversation with the doctor (getting all my questions answered and a plan for what I should do prior to my appointment with the surgeon), my blood pressure was well within the normal range. It was an indicator that, for me, being armed with information is an important way to reduce the stress of the situation….also an indicator of the skill of my doctor which is also reassuring.

Later in the day, I called my parents to share the cancer news (made sure one of my sisters was with them when I did) and to delay my road trip to see them until at least after my appointment with the surgeon…and maybe after the surgery itself. It was not an easy conversation but necessary; there is a history of sharing health situations within the family that guided me. A part of every cancer journey is taken alone…and part is shared; for me, the shared times make the part walked alone easier.

Overall – by the end of the second day into my experience, I felt more knowledgeable and optimistic about the eventual outcome. I was also beginning a conscious effort to keep my normal positive mental attitude over what might be an extended period.

Cancer Diary – Entry 1

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This is the first in a series of posts that I am writing as I make my way through the medical system after a cancer diagnosis….not focusing directly on the medical diagnosis or treatment…documenting the timeline, feelings and swirl of decisions that emerge over the coming weeks…and maybe months.

My doctor called in the early evening to give me the diagnosis from my biopsy. I appreciated the call and how he stayed positive re successful treatment but emphasized the next steps that needed to be taken. My first reaction was to fit in the surgery with what I already had on my calendar – which included almost a month-long road trip.  I shared the news with my husband; he was surprised since I am so rarely sick at all; I’ve only been in the hospital overnight twice in my life….and one of those was when I had my daughter!

During the hour or so between going to bed and getting to sleep, realized that my priorities needed to shift. I was too anxious about the diagnosis to not get the surgery as soon as possible. Early the next morning I sent a message via the doctor’s portal to indicate the change in my thinking. And started looking up fact sheets from the surgery center he’d recommended…and finding resources that rounded out what he had told me on the phone. I started a list of questions for the appointment with the doctor the next day….focused on the surgery and the medications required immediately and then after the surgery.

The doctor’s assistant called to confirm that she’d sent my records to the surgeon’s office and to give them a few hours before calling to get an initial appointment lined up with them.

I talked with my daughter and one of my sisters. Both were surprised and supportive of what I need to do.

I called the recommended surgeon’s office and made an appointment as a new patient. It is 2 weeks out…not too bad even though I would like to get started toward surgery faster. I now have yet another medical related portal too!

Overall – 24 hours into the experience, I’m pleased that there is forward momentum. I’m not sure how I’ll handle the 2 weeks of waiting…or the prospect of more weeks before the surgery can occur. Cancer is scary. I’m beginning to think about ways to keep myself busy enough to not be dragged unto a swirl of increasing anxiety.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 16, 2021

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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.

How to Easily Catch Spotted Lanternflies Using a Water Bottle – These insects have invaded Maryland, but I haven’t seen them yet. Maybe this is a reason to put an empty plastic water bottle in the car – just in case.

Exposure to deadly urban heat worldwide has tripled in recent decades, says study – On of the topics in the schoolyard field trip for 6th graders was heat islands – it’s a good example of the impact of climate change around the world.

Smoky Clouds That Form Over Wildfires Produce Less Rain – Drought…forests burning…and then less rain. Aargh!

8 Fall Nature Experiences to Enjoy – There are so many things to enjoy in the outdoors during the fall – as the heat of summer fades away.

Exploring The Parks: 10 Historic Sites To Visit This Fall – More ideas for fall activities. I’ve been to all the sites they list that are on the east coast…but not necessarily in the fall.

NASA and USGS Launch Landsat 9 – The first Landsat was launched in July 1972 – the year my husband and I graduated from high school.

A new solid-state battery surprises the researchers who created it – Solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode – faster charge rates at room to low temperatures. There is a lot of battery research going on now …coming up with batteries that will help achieve the grid storage and transportation needs of the future.

Young People Are Anxious About Climate Change And Say Governments Are Failing Them – It’s not just young people that have this anxiety. Everyone I know has climate change anxiety….and say governments are failing us all.

Wind energy can deliver vital slash to global warming – It’s a component of the technology we need….it can’t solve everything alone but we have it ready to deploy now – and should just do it as quickly as we can. And it’s cheaper than using fossil fuels!

Yale Climate Change Maps 2020 – Results from a spring 2020 poll about climate change.

In the Middle Patuxent River – 2

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Before the students came to our water quality stations at the Middle Patuxent near King’s Contrivance, I did a little macro photography with my phone, clip on lens, and Bluetooth clicker. There was big rock at the edge of the river (very damp) that was covered with green. Moss or liverwort (not sure which).

Nearby there was a wing from an insect. I did a little research after I got home  and decided that it might be from a Dot-lined White Moth. They are a small moth with a wingspan of 25-62 mm. The wing was laying on the sandy rock surface.

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There were also a few plants growing along the bank. It was easy to take these pictures without bending over at all!

A few minutes…and I liked what I captured!

In the Middle Patuxent River – 1

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Another morning in a local river last week – the Middle Patuxent near King’s Contrivance. There are pathways from the neighborhood streets nearby to connect to the Kings Contrivance Loop that are lined with the big trees of the easement along the river.

A part of the Loop trail parallels the river for a short distance and there is a root supported path down to the river in one spot. The river was more silt than cobbles…more big trees had fallen in from the bank since the last time I was there (pre-pandemic). Still – being in the river is a wonderful outdoor experience every time. There are gentle sounds of the water moving…trees ruffled by little breezes. It was a cloudy day but enough light filtered through the canopy to make patterns on the surface of the water.

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I took some pictures of leaves that had fallen recently and were plastered to the sandy beach near the water. Soon there will be a lot more.

And then the students arrived and it was a flurry of activity while we collected and identified macroinvertebrates…decided that, based on our sample, the water quality was poor but not dead. There were macroinvertebrates in good numbers…but skewed toward species that are tolerant to pollution. Some of the students were surprised at how easy it was to step in water just over the height of their boots! They good naturedly made their way to shore, took boots off one at a time to pour out the water.

And then the time was up - the students headed back to their buses and the river was quiet again. I climbed back up the bank on root ‘steps’….glad that the abundant green on both sides of steep bank was NOT poison ivy!

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19 Months in COVID-19 pandemic

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19 months into the pandemic: the wave of infections from the delta variant is beginning to decline although the US is still experiencing more than 1,000 deaths per day; vaccine mandates are beginning to come into effect; schools are in-person, sometimes finding it challenging to keep outbreaks at bay; booster shots for high-risk Pfizer recipients were approved; it appears that approval for vaccination of children under 12 may be coming soon. So – it is still problematic but there are positive trends.

I am planning another road trip to Missouri and Texas later this month – expecting the trends to continue…the situation to improve along my route from Maryland. The KF-94 masks have protected me so far and I have a good supply for the trip. My concern has shifted away from contracting Covid-19 and toward the ‘what if’ concerns along the way. My road trips so far have been without incident, but I understand that if an accident occurred that required medical attention, the hospitals along my route might be overwhelmed with COVID patients…and that at least some people are so stressed by the ongoing situation that they become angry very quickly. So – I’ll be doing my usual careful driving and limiting my interactions…keeping the interactions I do have to cheerful greetings and checking in/out of the hotel.

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I have enjoyed the volunteering I’ve done this month with 6th and 9th graders. They are old enough to wear their masks as well as I do! And they seemed pleased to be in school and having a field trip experience – more so that pre-pandemic years.

The idea of future pandemics is something I have been thinking about and how we have a new dimension of inequality: people that are vaccinated and people that are not. Most of the people dying from COVID-19 now are unvaccinated. And some percentage of people will recover from the initial infection but with long term health issues that will have health and economic impacts on the individuals and the country. Will that happen with other diseases that are prevented – or made milder – with vaccines: measles, chickenpox, mumps, shingles, pneumonia, whopping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, etc.? Some of those diseases might not kill people but there are sometimes long-term health issues that are expensive to treat and a continuing burden on our health care system. However good the system becomes to quickly produce effective vaccines – it won’t help as much as it should if people refuse the shot!

Even with that concern for the long term – I am thinking positive about the trends for this pandemic and hope that many more people will shift their attention to the present and looming impact of climate change….taking aggressive action to reduce and mitigate as fast as we can.

Neighborhood Walk

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It’s early fall in our neighborhood. There are a few leaves that are turning and falling. I found a pretty one at the base of our oak at the very beginning of my walk. The tree is struggling with the infection that is impacting (eventually killing) many oaks in our area and has already dropped about half its leaves. It will linger for a few more years. The one across the street has lost almost all its leaves already and I wonder if it will not survive the winter.

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As I walked toward the storm water pond, I noticed another oak that was mostly green…except for one branch of yellow leaves.

The pond was too peaceful and quite – no frogs or red-winged blackbirds making morning songs, no turtles coming out to warm up in the sunshine. There was no algae or floating water plants and I wondered if the treatment used to control that ‘problem’ killed the other life in the pond. They are not mowed as far down the slope as they did at one time, but it seems like it would be better to let the vegetation grow a little further up the slope.

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There were plants going to seed…some with candelabra type branches supporting their fluffy seeds.

There were two types of goldenrod. Do you see the out-of-focus bee at the right side of the second picture? I didn’t notice it until I got home and looked at my images on a big screen….glad I captured the image since it shows the value of these late blooming plants to pollinators.

The willow has a tall branch that is dead – lower ones that are still green with slender branches gracefully sweeping the bank and hanging over the water. There are shelf fungus growing up and down the dead trunk.

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There are a few plants still blooming. One was down in the grass and the picture I took looks like it has an arching fuzzy boa spilling from the flower! In reality the fuzzy boa is an out-of-focus grass seed stalk.

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One of the houses has several Rose of Sharon buses planted on the pond side of their fence. I liked the extra wrinkles of the purple one (not completely unfurled).

The milkweed stand at the back of the pond was a disappointment. It was still there was overgrown with invasive pear seedlings that have grown rapidly over the summer. Maybe they will mow the area later in the fall to try to control that invasion for next season although the pear will come up from roots as well as the milkweed.

Overall – a worthwhile walk on a coolish weekend morning before many other people were out in the neighborhood.