Ten Little Celebrations – December 2021

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It’s a season full of celebrations. In my family we have celebrations associated with a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas…and then ones associated with the beginning of winter. Here’s my top 10 for the month:

A winter day at home. Being at home enjoying the forest through the window….still one of my favorite places to be…even in winter. I like I particularly in the morning when the sun first hits the treetops with golden light.

Flannel sheets. The week we change from percale to flannel sheets has a lot in common with decorating for the holidays….it is a celebration of the season…full of warmth and snuggles. It’s such a treat to get into a bed made with flannel sheets prewarmed by a heated mattress pad!

Brookside Gardens lights. Our walk around the lights at Brookside Gardens was even more celebratory this year since we didn’t do our traditional visit to the garden lights in 2020!

Pumpkin roll. Our grocery bakery has this treat seasonally. My daughter is the one that introduced me to them several years ago so the celebration is a special food of the season that prompts me to savor the positive impact she has always had on my life.

My birthday…my parents’ wedding anniversary. Celebration abounds in December for my family…every year.

Coursera course – Anatomy of the upper and lower extremities. What a great way to fill up the lulls this month. It’s challenging enough to require my full attention! Celebrating the course…grateful to the Yale faculty for producing it…Coursera for hosting it.

Druid Hill Park for birding. Celebrating the walk around the park as we did it…and in hindsight that it was before the Omicron variant was spiking in our area.  

My mother’s experience coming home from the hospital. I am celebrating that she is getting focused therapy that is showing positive results….more than any previous hospitalizations.

Telephone conversations. Celebrating all the alternative communications we have…since I didn’t travel in December. Even though we do texts and emails and zoom…somehow the telephone seems to be the one where the deeper communication is occurring (maybe because it is synchronous, one on one and not as ‘quick’).

Quiche. When I make quiche…I simple use what I have on hand – so I am celebrating that one I made recently turned out great!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 25, 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.

New copper surface eliminates bacteria in just two minutes – One of the emerging technologies to fight bacteria (and viruses) without antibiotics. Copper is already being used in some applications, but this materials research developed a new structure of copper that is more effective and faster. The article didn’t comment about durability…but still very promising finding.

Home Battery Storage: The (Solar) Rich Get Richer – There is beginning to be more equity in solar panel installation….but storage is still a challenge at lower incomes. Some states have programs that may be the wave of the future and there are incentives in pending legislation. Hopefully a positive momentum will build over the next few years.

California Readies Launch of Largest Food Waste Recycling Program in the U.S. – Part of the county where I live in Maryland has curbside pickup of food waste for composting…but not the part where I live. I have a backyard compost bin…but many people do not so there is still considerable food waste going to the landfill.

10 Winter Birds to Spot During the Christmas Bird Count – Seen any of these in your area?

Why is snow white? – 3 videos…the last one with more ‘bonus’ explanations (such as why polar bears are white).

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Pigment – This post was a bit confusing since it wasn’t explicit about which colors were from pigments ( as in the red of cardinals) and which were from light scattering caused by the physical structure of the feathers (for example, in blue jays). Read more about this non-pigment phenomenon particular for blue feathers here.

Winter is coming: Researchers uncover the surprising cause of the little ice age – New research shows that the little ice age in the early 1400s occurred when the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapsed after a warming period which flushed Arctic ice into the north Atlantic, cooling it and reducing its saltiness. Could the AMOC collapse again with ice melting because of climate change? Existing climate models do not model the impacts of ice melt (making the north Atlantic cooler and less salty)!

From blood clots to infected neurons, how COVID threatens the brain – An overview of the research into how COVID-19 impacts the brain; there is still a lot more to be learned about this - probably one of the most devastating aspects of ‘long Covid’. It appears that the cognitive impact experienced by some COVID-19 survivors improves over time, but half the patients in one study were not back to normal after a year. It is a very sad prospect for individuals and for or society.

Watch This Giant Phantom Jellyfish With 33-Foot-Long Arms Float Through the Deep Ocean – The video is less than a minute…worth watching.

AAA Electric Vehicle Infographic — The Good & The Bad – My current car is a plug-in hybrid….the next one will most likely be an EV.

Favorite Foods of December 2021

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November and December and January are probably the peak months for me to try some new recipes…and making old favorites…enjoy ramping up the foods we enjoy in winter!

Rice Pudding

I had a container of left-over rice from a Chinese food delivery on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I knew I wouldn’t eat it right away, so it went into the freezer. A few weeks later I decided to make rice pudding (recipe). It started out easy since the rice was already cooked. I used cinnamon instead of nutmeg and honey instead of white sugar called for the recipe and didn’t measure the raisins (probably added at least double the amount!). The results were yummy but could have used even more raisins (I added some to the top of the serving in the picture). Next time I make it I’ll round up on the milk as well. It seemed a little to dry for ‘pudding’!

Quiche

I made a quiche with what I had in the refrigerator and pantry…made up the recipe as I went along. It turned out to be high protein!

  • 6 eggs

  • 1 cup milk

  • 1+ cup ‘Mexican blend’ grated cheese (didn’t measure just make a layer of cheese that I mixed with the veggies before I poured the egg and milk mixture over it)

  • 1 red bell pepper

  • 1 cup shelled edamame

  • Pumpkin seeds on top

Yummy and colorful too!

Chocolate Mousse (made with avocado)

Yummy 2 servings of the dark chocolate treat (I made half the recipe…using honey for sweetener and cocoa powder as the chocolate) and ate it over 2 days for 1st breakfast rather than my squares of Lindt Dark Chocolate. It turns out that is slightly less calories than the Lindt! It appeals to me because the ingredients are so straightforward….not as processed as the commercial chocolate.

Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese

I started with this recipe but then modified it because I wanted to use beet root powder rather than red food coloring….and add a citrus note to the flavor….and avoid refined sugar. Here’s my markup of the ingredient list (I didn’t end up using any milk in the glaze even though I forgot to mark it off).

It was partially successful. I didn’t like that the pancakes turned brown on the outside (they were red on the inside). The big success was the ‘cream cheese glaze’ which melted very nicely over the pancakes and the orange flavor was wonderful. I will be using it on gingerbread cookies (and anything else I want a little touch of sweetness); it would be excellent on raisin bread toast, for example.

Hope you are enjoying old and new treats for the holidays too!

My Favorite Photographs of 2021

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It was a challenge to pick one picture from each month of 2021 to feature in this post….but a worthwhile exercise. I did not use consistent criteria for my choices, so these images are special for a variety of reasons.

January for witnessing interesting bird behavior – A bluebird on our deck railing looking up at our bird feeder full of other members of the flock…waiting a turn!

February for learning to make high key images – A high key image of a lily….the flower purchased at the grocery store. I had just watched a video about high key photography and was thrilled to have some easy successes.

March for beauty old and new – The crocus were out at Brookside Gardens but I found the remnants of last seasons flowers more interesting.

April for a bird trusting that I wasn’t a threat– A bird looking rather assertive. I had paused its search for food in the leaves to make sure I wasn’t a threat; evidently I wasn’t because it went back to its search a few seconds later.

May for memorializing a bird – A juvenile little blue heron in the cattail leaves at Josey Ranch in Carrollton TX. It had a broken wing so I think of this image as a monument to its short life.

June for something that only happens every 17 years – The periodic cicadas seemed to be thick everywhere – even our yard. This one was under our red maple.

July for interconnection in nature– Back in Texas…am insect on a cosmos flower on a cool morning.

August for the fragile beauty of a new butterfly – A monarch butterfly seconds after it emerged from its chrysalis is our front flower bed.

September for capturing a small thing, seeing it better than I could with my eyes – Some birds nest fungus in the mulch at Howard County Conservancy. I was thrilled that I had my gear (phone, clip on macro, clicker) even though I hadn’t planned to do any macro photography!

October for being in a river – More macro photography – this time the wing of an insect on a rock just above the water line….photographed on a volunteer gig before the students arrive.

November for the colors of the flower – Another view of a cosmos flower. I like it when the light is such that a black background is possible.

December the new orb sculpture at Brookside – A surprise (for me) at Brookside – I hadn’t seen this sculpture before…and I also enjoyed the holiday lights (missed them last year).

Cancer Diary – Entry 6

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A month of waiting for surgery and almost another month to go….assuming that the hospital does not become overwhelmed with treatment of COVID-19 patients and the surgery is cancelled/postponed. I am not anxious about the possibility….yet; my concern has been ramping up over the past few days with the hospitalizations in Maryland increasing and the indicators that the Omicron variant’s being more contagious than the Delta variant….and knowing that a lot of people are gathering for the holidays (more than last year….with vaccinations available, a lot of people made big plans for this year prior to Omicron emergence). By early January – the medical system could be very stressed. There is little I can do to improve the situation aside from staying healthy myself; I am trying to keep myself busy and focused on other things.

There was little in my activities this month on the critical path toward my surgery other than continuing to take the medication. The surgery date was moved forward by a couple of days and an appointment made for a pre-surgery COVID-19 test. I was glad there was a lull; I thoroughly enjoyed my daughter’s whirlwind visit (road trip for her) for Thanksgiving and then had time to focus on supporting my sisters’ from afar as my mother was hospitalized. Fortunately, the hospitalization was short, and the follow-up seems to be improving her condition rapidly; her quality of life is improving beyond what it was a month ago! And I am relieved that I didn’t need to make an unplanned road trip to Texas.

We ventured out for a walk around Druid Hill Park and through the Christmas lights at Brookside Gardens. Both were enjoyable outdoor experiences…good for our mental health. There are other outdoor activities we’ve planned…but on our own in uncrowded settings rather than organized events. The more we learn about Omicron, the more cautious we are becoming.

It’s cold enough that I have ramped up indoor activities… another effort to avoid thinking too much about my cancer. I am spending considerable time on a Coursera course: Anatomy of the Upper and Lower Extremities (from Yale University). During the holidays, I spend more time cooking…making more complicated recipes and trying new things. And there are the regular things like Zentangle tiles and book browsing that I can ‘do more’ too. I’ve started buying flowers every time I got to the grocery store since the view from my window now is bare trees; on the plus side, the birds are easier to see.

Overall – this month of waiting has not been hard at all. At this point, my mental perspective is about the same as it was a month ago although I find myself bracing for the possibility of the increases in hospitalizations from the pandemic causing a postponement of my surgery…an event that would be a major setback from my perspective.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 18, 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.

Monkeying Around with Venom – Hadn’t heard about ‘Snake Detection Theory’ before; it is the idea that snakes have exerted a selection pressure on the origin of primates’ visual systems, a trait that sets primates apart from other mammals. This paper is some recent research that supports the theory.  A condensed description of the research paper is found here.

Why climate lawsuits are surging - Lawsuits are becoming tool to force change…in conjunction with activism, policy and science. There have been some successful lawsuits…and more in the pipeline. Sometimes the suit is about better enforcement of environmental laws…and sometimes it is about climate protection for future generations becoming a constitutional issue.

Florida to Feed Starving Manatees, as Pollution Shrinks Food Supplies – Florida farm runoff caused alga blooms that cut the penetration of sunlight into the water so much that it killed the seagrass that manatees eat…and there have already been more than 1,000 that have starved. It is estimated that there are about 8,000 manatees remaining in Florida waters. It is unclear that the seagrass can be restored.

Top 25 birds of the week: December 2021 – Enjoying bird photographs!

How volcanic eruptions helped the ancestral Puebloan culture flourish – Response of people to the stresses of abrupt climate change evidently resulted in larger population centers…universal pottery making and turkey cultivation…more sedentary living…increasing social inequity.

Major Contract Awarded To Rehabilitate Section Of George Washington Memorial Parkway – The parkway is along the Potomac River between Great Falls and Mount Vernon. It was one of the first beautiful and history things we discovered when we moved to the area in 1983…and long overdo for renovation. Parts of it carry a lot of daily commuter traffic in Northern Virginia.

The impact of drugs on gut microbes is greater than we thought – Most people are aware of the impact of antibiotics, but other drugs impact the gut microbes too…and some of those drugs are treating chronic conditions so are taken for years. It appears this study was mostly about methodology to tease out the impact of drugs vs the underlying disease….much more work still to be done before concrete recommendations can be made.

The race to make vaccines for a dangerous respiratory virus – RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). There are currently 4 candidate vaccines and one monoclonal antibody treatment that are in last-stage trials. It appears we are at the cusp of much faster vaccine development times because of what happened to develop the COVID-19 vaccines.

The tomatoes at the forefront of a food revolution – The idea is to use Crispr modification to sustain the productivity of the tomato crop as the climate changes.

Chronic exposure to air pollution may increase risks for ICU admission or death among COVID-19 patients, study finds – Sometimes it is hard to separate the role of the environment on health disparities. This study analyzed 6,500 COVID-19 patients admitted to 7 New York City hospitals.

21 Months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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And the pandemic continues …

Just as the Delta Variant seemed to be waning, the Omicron variant appeared…just starting its sweep of the country now; it’s too early to predict its impact over the next few months as the usual cold weather in much of the country and indoor holiday celebrations provide the ideal conditions for the spread of airborne infections (like COVID-19). It helps that more and more people are getting vaccinated but there are wide disparities in vaccination rates across the country.

Things are different than a year ago –

  • A year ago we were wondering when we would be able to be vaccinated…now we are have been vaccinated and boosted.

  • I wear KF94 masks now all the time rather than double masking with cloth masks like I was a year ago.

  • I am going to the grocery store every week rather than every 3 weeks.

  • My daughter came for a short visit at Thanksgiving (road trip from Missouri) – last year we settled for talking on the telephone.

  • My husband observed the Lunar Eclipse with the local amateur astronomy club…rather than just planning on going to some of their sessions. They are still doing virtual meetings.

  • We did some virtual birding events like we did last year but we also attended a Druid Hill Park (Baltimore) birding walk.

  • I traveled to Texas (road trip) to visit my family….something I would not have done last November.

Some things are the same:

  • We are still not eating in restaurants; we do get takeout occasionally…about the same frequency as we did last year.

  • My husband is attending the virtual AGU meeting.

  • We both enjoyed the Crane Fiesta from Bosque del Apache for the second year in a row.

From a mental health perspective, I am probably less anxious about COVID-19 than I was a year ago because I am vaccinated and my masks are KF94s…that protect me as well as others. I am frustrated that COVID-19 is still a pandemic. I acknowledge being uncomfortable in crowds….and realize that it could be years before I choose to go to a concert or fly on an airplane or go into a grocery store on a weekend. Maybe it is more than COVID-19 that has caused the feeling; there are so many events in the country that surprise me (not in a positive way) and avoidance, under the umbrella of being COVID-19 vigilant, is my way of coping.

From a physical health perspective, my cancer diagnosis and coming treatment are my priority…the health of my 90s-year-old parents is a close second. I’m anticipating trips to Texas – hoping that there won’t be an emergency trip to Texas before my surgery. My confidence in making road trips safely (from a COVID-19 perspective) is high based on my 3 road trips since being fully vaccinated in April: carrying all food with me, air purifier to run in hotel room, KF94 masking any time I am inside, making most stops at interstate rest stops.

I am anticipating a quiet holiday at home this month…and then a lot of action in the first half of 2022!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 11, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Shorebirds! – Always lots to see looking at birds!

Everglades' Wading Birds Had Mixed Success In 2020 – Overall wading bird nesting in South Florida has increased…but is still a fraction of the target. In 2020, an early arriving rainy season impacted the availably of food for chicks.

De-cluttering may not help people with dementia – People with moderate dementia perform better surrounded by their ‘usual’ clutter!

U.S. Is World’s Top Generator of Plastic Waste – Not surprising. And the US should take the lead in figuring out what to do about it: how to produce less and recycle more.

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC – Still a lot of mystery about how the mosaic got from its recovery when Lake Nemi was drained by Mussolini and then becoming the top of a coffee table for 45 years. It was seized in 2017 and returned to the Italian government.

Roadrunner: Meet the Real Bird Behind the Cartoon – I can remember seeing one a little north of where my parents live now (north of Dallas) in the 1980s…but they are probably long gone from that area now. I’ve seen them in west Texas more recently; one was at a rest stop between San Antonio and Laredo. They always seem to thrive in relatively harsh environments.

The bustling hidden world of hedgerows – The closest we come in North America to hedgerows are fencerows or windbreaks….and even those have been reduced over the years. Near where I live the advent of glyphosate/Roundup ready crops has eliminated the herbaceous growth along the edges of fields which in the past included milkweed and other plants that were attractive to butterflies and other small animals.

Master Artisans Fixed Mistakes Made by Apprentices at Ancient Egyptian Temple – I enjoyed the 6 minute video in this post…it’s quiet enough to hear the birds in the ruins.

Managing water resources in a low-to-no-snow future – We need to be thinking of adaptations to this manifestation of climate change now rather than waiting since the solutions will be challenging….take time to design and construct.

Old-fashioned rice custard – I have a container of rice from some Chinese takeout…..and plan to make this rice custard. I am anticipating that it will be yummy (and high protein too).

Trek to and in Druid Hill Park – Part I

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Last weekend we drove into Baltimore for an Audubon sponsored birding walk at Druid Hill Park. It was our first birding event since before the pandemic – outdoors for 1.5 hours in a park with less than an hour to commute into the city and the back home afterward. It was a cool, cloudy morning – cold enough to wear a mask comfortably which we both did once the group started the walk and it was hard to maintain distance.

The walk started at 8 AM and the clouds occasionally parted enough for good lighting. I saw more birds that I was able to photograph. Canada Geese flew overhead and there were ruddy ducks, buffleheads, grebe, and gulls on the lake in the park. They were too far away for great pictures…but I like the light around the gulls. There were also a lot of smaller birds – cardinals, Carolina wrens, down woodpecker, gold finches, house finches, etc.. The only one I photographed was a norther flicker what perched almost right overhead!

There was still some great fall color. The rose bushes (red leaves) were enjoying the cooler weather.

There were some areas of the forest that still had lots of leaves on the trees…like our backyard was several weeks ago. I also saw a small tulip poplar tree; I hadn’t realized that there leaves get much larger when they are young; this one still had green leaves while the big trees around it were already bare showing off their many seed pods.

More tomorrow about our trek to the park…and then home again…through Baltimore.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk

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I spotted a hawk in our red maple tree…managed to take some pictures. My first ID was ‘Cooper’s Hawk’ but then when I looked at the pictures on a large monitor – I decided the head was too rounded….which skews the ID to ‘Sharp-Shinned.’

We see them occasionally in our yard, probably because we have two bird feeders and a bird bath. Once we took our feeders down for a few weeks to encourage the hawk to move on, but the environment is rich enough in the forest behind our neighborhood (the buffer area for the Middle Patuxent River is a wildlife corridor) that they are not frequent visitors anyway.  

It was a beautiful bird in the morning light…feathers a bit fluffed in the cold….the red eye seeing all. The tree was a great place for the bird to observe the scene and for us to observe the bird! I took my pictures through a pane in the French door near our breakfast area…a lazy bit of birding on a cold morning.

Last Images from Texas

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I was checking my SD cards in all my cameras and discovered some ‘new’ images from my last days in Texas during November.

There were still roses blooming on the oldest rosebush at my parents (about 30 years old)..

The cosmos were attracting butterflies. There might have been monarchs migrating through since some seemed larger than others.

The place still had a look of summer.

Over at Josey Ranch Lake….there was a different story. More winter migrants had arrived.

Scaups

American Wigeon

Pied-bill Grebe

There were also more American Coots that before…and they were not happy to have so many of their kind around…squabbles were happening frequently with one or both birds running across the surface of the water.

A Great Egret was hunting in the shallows and

A Great Blue Heron had waded into deeper water for a bath.

Overall….the images were a way to savor the good experience of my weeks in Texas last month.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 4, 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 driverless cars will change our world – A little realism in the projections….rather than hype. Hopefully by the time I am old enough to no longer want to drive myself, driverless car options will be convenient and safe.

Ubiquitous food additive alters human microbiota and intestinal environment – The research was about carboxy methyl cellulose specifically. As I read the article, I wondered if this additive -that isn’t really about the nutritional value of the food at all – is one of the ways ultraprocessed foods are bad for us in unintended ways.

120 Volt Heat Pump Water Heaters Hit the Market and Make Gas Replacements Even Easier – This is good news. I’ll be watching as these come on the market…see how they are reviewed. I am assuming a line will quickly form with people wanting to replace their gas hot water heaters!

When Wildfire comes to Nature Conservancy Preserves – The preserves are managed with prescribed burns and forest thinning…and can provide examples of effective ways of managing wild areas against destruction by wildfire.

Children’s Teeth Reveal Breastfeeding Practices in Ancient Peru – A detailed study of the remains of 48 children from 2,500 years ago revealed that they were breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life and were weaned when they were about 2.6 years old. I wonder how many other ancient cultures have been studied this way.

Transparent Solar Windows: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – If solar windows could be produced at reasonable cost….a lot of people would be motivated to replace their windows/power their house. There is a pleasing aesthetic to this type of solar power too.

Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots is a Smart Green Move – A great idea…hopefully it becomes the norm. The first one I noticed was at the Patuxent Research Refuge.

Top 25 birds of the week: Nectar Feeding Birds – Always worth looking at some bird pictures!

The Colon Cancer Conundrum – Research is trying to determine why rates of colorectal cancer are climbing in younger adults….staying level for other age groups.

Our National Monuments, a Photographic Testimonial to Wild America – Some more places I want to visit (via an extended road trip perhaps).

A few more notes from November…

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As November is ending - there are a few more items I want to post about….

My 90-year-old mother still enjoys making breakfast herself and my dad. I photographed one of her more elaborate breakfasts when I was visiting: microwaved sausage patty, sauteed peppers, mushrooms and onions + cheesy eggs from a skillet, and a freezer biscuit heated in a toaster oven. I’m glad that modern conveniences (microwave ovens, precooked sausage patties, frozen biscuits) make it easier for her to prepare meals.

A brown-headed cowbird visited out deck on a cold morning….alone, looking very round scrunched down in the cold. It stayed around for a bit. I wondered if it had become separated from a flock or was just enjoying the sunshine and relative safety of our deck.

The sun backlighting oak leaves gives their color more definition. This was a morning that the grass was frosty; by the time I took the picture the frost was beginning to melt but it still added a sparkle around the leaves.

My husband was out at a county park/astronomy site for the lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of the 19th. It was cold but he was prepared for that and stayed until the clouds obscured the moon about 5 AM. He took lots of photos!

Finally – I enjoy finding ways to reuse single use plastic. I’m not sure whether this was a bowl or a dome from a food purchase….but it makes an excellent stand for my laptop when I am using an external keyboard! It allows for plenty of air circulation around the laptop, raises it off the surface of the desk (in case I spill something), and the light shining through it is appealing too!

Zooming – November 2021

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Three locations for my zoomed image collection this month: Maryland (home), Texas (Carrollton), Missouri (Springfield). Enjoy the slideshow of the whole group then look below for thumbnails by location!

Maryland

Texas

Missouri

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2021

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Celebrating a month of Thanksgiving…

A 90th birthday.  Both my parents turned 90 this year. I couldn’t be there for the 1st one (wasn’t vaccinated yet) but celebrated the 2nd on my last trip to Texas in 2021.

Coconut wind chimes. There are wind chimes outside the bedroom I use in Texas….and there were several days where the wind was brisk enough for their sound to be my evening lullaby….a celebration of the day.

Josey Ranch birds. The winter birds in Carrolton, TX are probably more exciting than the summer ones. I celebrated that I was there for their arrive this fall.

Fall foliage…and mowing leaves. The burst of color that is the last hurrah of summer foliage is always worth celebrating. This fall I saw more along the road as I travelled between Maryland and Texas than I did at my house….so I celebrated the effectiveness of mowing the still colorful leaves after I got home.

Narrow bridges over the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. A little driving adventure…a route not taken before. I celebrated an uneventful and scenic hour on two lane roads going from Missouri to Kentucky…particularly the bridges over the big rivers.

Cuddle socks. I love the thick socks I wear in the winter indoors; I celebrate the way they feel and my sister that bought them for me every time I put them on.

Hike with volunteer group. Celebrating being outdoors with people that enjoy it as much as I do…lots of shared field trip experiences before the pandemic and slowly starting up again.

New low weight for the year. Taking off weight requires a lot of focus so I celebrate every ‘new low.’ In November it happened just before Thanksgiving (which, of course, was a couple of weight-gain days!)

Daughter’s visit for Thanksgiving. Finally, we celebrated the holiday with a visit from my daughter. It was the first time she and my husband had seen each other since before the pandemic.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 4, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Predatory Birds – Starting out the gleanings list this week with birds…and photography.

The ingenious living bridges of India – Maybe other kinds of structures could be grown instead of built. The bridges look like Ewok structures from Star Wars movies!

Watch Over 150 Bison Weave Through Traffic in Yellowstone as Winter Migration Begins – I remember bison on the roadway during the early summer we went to South Dakota more than 20 years ago. It is an awesome experience to see them – using the car as a blind.

Chocolate: From Witchcraft to Miracle Worker in Early Modern Europe – A little history of chocolate as it was introduced to Spain.

More than ceremonial, ancient Chaco Canyon was home, new study says – I’ve only visited Chaco Canyon once…want to go again.

Richly Adorned Egyptian Tomb Could Rewrite the History of Mummification – Maybe….there is still testing to be done before the mummy in the tomb is confirmed to be old enough to be the man the tomb was built to hold.

Surprising Tales of Toxic Animals – I enjoyed the historical perspective in the information about several of the animals.

A diet of essential amino acids could keep dementia at bay – I wonder how long it will be before the patent for the supplement is awarded…..and it is released as a supplement. Hopefully there will be testing him humans beforehand.

This New Installation Pulled 20,000 Pounds of Plastic From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – We need to stop producing messes….and clean up the ones we’ve already created. This is one attempt to start a massive cleanup of plastics that are in our oceans.

Bone-loss discovery points to new treatment for osteoporosis – I am glad there is ongoing research on this issue since the existing treatments don’t seem to work that well….often have side effects. Hopefully there will be more effective treatments by the time I might need them.

National Park Service Publications on Internet Archive

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Last September - I browsed 18 publications from the National Park Service that have been scanned and are freely available on Internet Archive. They are all decades old….reflect history of the places. The oldest one is from 1917 (The National Parks Portfolio) which is clearly a snapshot from the early years of National Parks. I was particularly interested in the “Astronomy and astrophysics national historic landmark theme study” published in 1989 – the year my daughter was born and she has grown up to be an astrophysicist! The only park I visited before the publication was Yosemite; the publication is from 1990 and I visited in 1984. I’ve provided a sample image for each volume. Enjoy some armchair traveling with some browsing via Internet Archive…find some correlations in the publications and your own life.

Wind Cave, 1979

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 1980

Astronomy and astrophysics national historic landmark theme study, 1989

Thanksgiving

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So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:

My family staying healthy through the pandemic

My daughter coming for Thanksgiving – the first time she has seen her Dad since before the pandemic

So much good food for the day – some traditional and some new this year (strawberry rhubarb pie and orange corn meal muffins)

Weather good enough for a walk after the big meal

A decoration for the front door that can be composted after the 2021 holidays

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cancer Diary – Entry 5

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My surgery is still more than a month away. The surgeon’s schedule is the ‘long pole’ at this point. There have been a few appointments relative to the upcoming surgery – some additional imaging and adjustments to medication. I noticed some late blooming flowers when I went for some recent bloodwork to check the impact of the medication; it was a cheerful interlude in a cold and cloudy day…with a needle stick coming.

The surgery could have been done in a very short window if the surgeon had been available. Are all surgeon’s experiencing the pent-up demand from delayed checkups/surgeries during the height of the pandemic?

My strategy of keeping myself busy has helped me during the past month. I was away from home for over 2 weeks on a road trip to Texas and Missouri. Being outdoors in the fall foliage – hiking or mowing leaves – continued the annual rhythm of activities that I enjoy. My husband found out about the 3 days of Crane Fiesta webinars from Bosque del Apache only a week before they occurred; it was a treat to hear and see the sandhill cranes again even if it was on a screen rather than being at Bosque ourselves (see the November 20th postings on the Bosque del Apache website for a video fly out (in the AM) and a fly in (in the PM)) ; maybe we’ll be there in person next year.

And now I am anticipating my daughter making a whirlwind visit to Maryland for Thanksgiving! My husband and I are negotiating the decorating we are going to do for December. We’ll see some Christmas lights and make some day trips. My big challenge is to continue my careful weight reduction; I am hovering at the high end of ‘normal’ weight for my height…want to get to the mid-range but it is hard work! I am also on track to browse more books this year than ever before.

Emotionally – I have settled into the waiting time…more accepting of my situation….not becoming more anxious. I am consciously keeping my routine of daily activities that keep me feeling well physically and mentally (i.e. exercise, eating well, making Zentangle tiles, writing things down…and letting them go).

Previous Cancer Diary entries

Volunteer Celebration Hike

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The Howard Country Conservancy chose a great day for a hike in Howard County’s Western Regional Park for their volunteers. While we were gathering in the parking lot, a bald eagle soared overhead….starting the celebration!

It was an easy hike on paved trails for about 1.5 miles. The day was sunny and crisp…perfect for being outdoors. Most of the leaves had fallen but there were still a few trees full of fall color….and even the bare branches looked ‘new’ with their leaves recently blown away.

My attention for most of the hike was more focused on conversations with fellow volunteers than on the scenery of the hike. It was good to socialize…begin to emerge from the limited social interactions that happened during the pandemic.

One sighting in the woods: a large wasp nest high in a tree. It would not have been visible when the leaves were on the trees.  Now that it is no longer maintained by the wasps, it will begin to deteriorate. It seemed precariously attached to the tree branch; I wondered how long it would stay in the tree.

Overall an excellent morning and we all munched on cookies that looked like pumpkin pie slices before heading home!