Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2)

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There is also a lot to see in the outdoor area of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.  There were some parts that were closed because of recent storm damage (downed trees…at least one piece of art: R. Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome).

The first sculpture we saw was near the entrance – a silver tree.

Some areas are relatively wild: horse nettles, thistles, shelf-fungus, mallows and grasses.

I was thrilled to photograph a butterfly since I’ve seen so few larger ones this year.

The design on the upper level of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House was attractive. We got tickets (free) when we first got to the museum, and entered the house less than 2 hours after our arrival (enough time to do a broad look at the art on display inside the museum). Pictures are not allowed on the inside of the house. I liked the main living room but felt the rest of the house was claustrophobic (low ceilings and narrow hallways).

There were two installations of Chihuly glass.

There was a giant spider sculpture. It was a good place to take a little rest.

There were several animal sculptures along the trails. I photographed a bear with a fish, a smiling pig, and arabbit with an itching ear.

Water features are near most of the trails. I appreciated the structures in one of the streams to ‘slow the flow.’

There was a turn out from one trail to view quartz crystals in boulders that often contain imprints organisms from long ago in parts that are not crystals.

We probably spent at least as much time outdoors at Crystal Bridges as we did inside! It would be interesting to go again in a different season…maybe next spring.

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 1

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The training to become a Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) started last week. Some weeks there is only one session…sometimes there are more sessions or field trips or chapter meetings. September and October are going to be busy months this year! The first class was at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center starting at 6 PM. I went a little early do some late afternoon photography in the garden areas near the building. I always enjoy the rain garden area with the duck sculpture almost covered with vegetation this time of year. There were goldenrod soldier beetles on the asters and golden rods….skippers on the asters. A mallow was beginning to fade nearby.

On my way from the rain garden to the build I noted what looked like a large basket beside the sidewalk; I didn’t try to open it.

In the raised bed near the door there were several interesting plants…including some chard and an oak leaf hydrangea in bloom.

Inside I met the rest of the people that will be in the class with me. There were handouts that included a Missouri Master Naturalist tote bag. Since we all got one, I am thinking about making some Zentangle patterns on the back so that I can easily identify my bag!

The lecture topics were History of Conservation and Insects. I appreciated that we had a break to walk around between lectures since my back starts hurting if I sit for longer than an hour!

I am using a blank book my daughter picked up at a recent conference for note taking since the activity is part of my learning strategy (forces me to pay closer attention). The charts are evidently not going to be posted or sent to us so my notes will be what I will have from the class.

I find myself comparing this class with the one for Maryland Master Naturalist 9 years ago; but realizing that whatever they do here in Missouri for training is geared for the type of volunteer opportunities available here….and the volunteer work is why I am in the training!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 7, 2024

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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.

Rare ‘Doomsday’ Oarfish Surfaces in California, Just the 20th Discovered in the State Since 1901 - Usually lives as far as 3,280 feet below the surface. Scientists conducted a necropsy, but they couldn’t discern a reason for the elusive fish’s death. Scientists aren’t totally sure why oarfish and other deep sea-dwelling creatures sometimes surface, but they suspect the animals may be disoriented, sick or injured.

Owl-Inspired “Bionic” Fan for EVs Reduces Fan Noise 50% While Improving Efficiency 10% - Making EVs even quieter!

Do you have knee pain from osteoarthritis? You might not need surgery. – Article written by researchers in Australia about the updated treatment guidelines for knee osteoarthritis that stress exercise, increasing physical activity, weight management, and pain medication (in moderation and not opioids). The links at the end of the article include an online exercise program specifically for knee osteoarthritis.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Skyscraper Set to Close Amid Controversy – Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Built in 1956. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007.

Rebuilding the Genome of Woolly Mammoths - Typically, ancient DNA fragments yield short snippets of DNA and provide an incomplete picture of the genomic puzzle. However, the woolly mammoth skin sample showed promise. The team assembled the first 3D reconstruction of the woolly mammoth’s genome, which had 28 chromosomes; the order of genes was very similar to that of the Asian elephant. They discovered: the specimen was female; differences from modern elephants in the genes related to hair follicle development and, more broadly, hair maintenance; cooling and dehydration can preserve the molecules in their original locations.

Homelessness – From Our World in Data. Interesting…but frustrating too. I was glad that they emphasized when the data is not consistently collected…and the analysis gets very tricky.

Only One Country Is Making Progress on Electrifying Everything – Unfortunately it is not the US…it’s China. The country that electrifies most rapidly and builds the most renewables to power its electrified economy will be the most competitive economy globally.

As Arctic Thaws, New Evidence of Looming ‘Mercury Bomb’ - Scientists estimate that the amount of mercury in the atmosphere has grown sevenfold over the last 500 years, primarily from burning coal. Air currents are carrying airborne mercury toward the Arctic, where it is absorbed by plants, which then deposit the toxin in the soil. Over centuries, mercury has built up in the frozen ground, such that today, Arctic permafrost may hold more mercury than the atmosphere, the oceans, and every living organisms combined. As the region warms, melting permafrost could liberate this buried mercury.

Rare Fossils Give Clues to How Tardigrades Survived Mass Extinctions by Hitting the Snooze Button - Tardigrades are known for being some of the most resilient animals to exist, capable of surviving extreme temperatures, pressure, radiation and starvation—they can even withstand exposure to outer space. Only four known fossils of tardigrades have been found to date, and all of them are preserved in amber, or ancient tree resin; recently they were reanalyzed using confocal fluorescence microscopy. Cryptobiosis is the secret to tardigrades’ incredible resilience, and it appears to have evolved in two tardigrade linages (at least). In survival situations, these hardy creatures will expel the water from their bodies and suspend their metabolism almost completely allowing them to outlast unfavorable conditions of their environment.

Five ways the brain can age: 50,000 scans reveal possible patterns of damage - Results could lead to methods that detect the earliest stages of neurodegenerative disease. Dementia and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, had links to three of the five patterns. Intriguingly, the researchers also found evidence that the patterns they identified could potentially be used to reveal the likelihood of more brain degeneration in the future. Other patterns were linked to conditions including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and one combination of three patterns was highly predictive of mortality.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – August 2024

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I hadn’t visited Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge since last March – since I shifted my visits to my dad to 2-day road trips…seeing him in the afternoon after a 7 hour drive and the next morning before a 7 hour drive. There has been no time to make the side trip to Hagerman. But this month, I went for more days and made time for a Hagerman stop on the way home. I arrived about 45 minutes past sunrise.

There were still lotuses blooming in one of the ponds…a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron (with a dragonfly in the air) were in the same pond.

There was a juvenile (still had some white splotches) Little Blue Heron on one of the larger ponds that I photographed it with a Great Egret and a Snowy Egret for size comparison.

One of my photos of a Great Egret had a cormorant taking off in the background. Not far away there was a cormorant that was obviously a Neotropic Cormorant. The range map for this species shows that they might be breeding at Hagerman…but are not there year-round.

The pumpjacks in this picture were both active.

There was a small pond that had a lot of birds (herons and egrets). I took a regular image then two panoramic versions.

The light was just right for blue water…the magic of the hour after sunrise.

In the pollinator garden near the visitor center (which wouldn’t open until 9…after I continued toward home), I saw a milkweed pod already releasing its seeds with milkweed bugs in various stages of development.

Sunflowers are always photogenic…and one of them had a Green Metallic Sweat Bee!

I am not sure what kind of seed pods these are…but the shapes are full of curves.

There were volunteers working in the garden….and turning on sprinklers. The trumpet vine was almost completely desiccated. It has been very hot and dry this August there.

It was a good stop…a nature fix before the 6 more hours of driving to get home.

Other Texas Sights – August 2024

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I made short visits to two other locations on my last trip to Dallas. The Welcome Center on US 75 just after entering Texas from Oklahoma always has some native plants blooming. It was about 100 degrees when I stopped so I quickly photographed the hibiscus that seemed to be thriving in the heat.

The beautyberry has more purple berries that last time I saw it.

The second place was Josey Ranch Lake in Carrollton. I haven’t visited since last winter since it is not near my dad’s assisted living home. It was about 100 degrees and very humid…so I did most of my looking from my car. The water was very low. I saw some birds in the shallows, but they were far enough away that I wasn’t sure what they were. Finally - I got the impression that one was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron although it was hard to be certain. It was so hot that it seemed like the humidity just above the water was visible! When I got back to the hotel, I loaded my pictures onto my Mac and confirmed the identification; the light was so bright that the camera could ‘see’ better than my eyes could.

I was glad I had taken pictures of the other birds that were further away too…since they were juveniles of the same species!

Savoring these two short stops for a nature fix….

Windhaven Meadows Park in Plano TX

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Last week, I visited Windhaven Meadows Park in Plano TX. It’s close to the hotel that I prefer when I go to Dallas. My original idea was to explore the trails on my own but then a plan emerged to have brunch with my sisters, nieces and their babies in the park. I went to the park earlier in the day to see what was there…and take most of my pictures. The day was already warm at 8 AM.

I went a short distance on one trail away from the playground area noting things that might interest a 2-year-old if he ever ventured from the playground (he didn’t). There was grapevine, leaves with lots of holes in them, pecans in the tree and on the ground, and a stump that had been cut recently enough that rings could be counted.

In the other direction from the playground, there was a meadow with some flowering plants and milkweed with seedpods. The Osage orange is easy to identify this time of year because of the large fruit (in the tree and on the ground).

An Eastern Phoebe was perched in a tree.  The yellow color stumped me at first but then I read that their fresh fall plumage is yellow; that area will be white later!

There was also a crow in the same tree.

In the picnic pavilion (and elsewhere) the grackles were cleaning up. I noticed that this time of year the males lose their tail feathers…making them look much shorter. It also appeared that the female was much more aware of the situation than the males (she kept an eye on me rather than eating all the time).

The big draw of the park for children is the playground. I took pictures before any arrived. There are several different play areas…. including a water area with water shooting up from the ground or coming from a spigot to travel through troughs. Later – the water area was the most popular area since the temperature climbed very quickly into the 90s (and beyond). My grandnephew explored the playground thoroughly…spending the most time in the water area…taking a break for brunch and then making the rounds again.

I will probably visit the park again for the trails…and the changing seasons of birds and vegetation.

Lake Springfield – August 2024

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We set out to the Clay Henshaw Memorial Access on Lake Springfield since we had not viewed the lake from that perspective before. It was a little too late in the morning for birding, but I took a few pictures of flowers growing in the area.

There was a large (lotus?) leaf on the water surface that had interesting patterns of green in the deteriorating leaf that curled upward at the edges.

The sun was very bright, and we could feel the temperature rising.

We headed over to the boathouse…. which is our favorite place on the lake. The area around the building is full of native plants created by the area Master Naturalists…some with seed pods already.

As we started toward the meadow, I noticed that that the purple martins have already left. There were a few birds near the feeders…and the moon was visible in the nearly clear sky.

I took pictures of dragonflies that landed on the paved path or in the grass long enough for me to photograph. Most of them didn’t…they were on the prowl for breakfast.

The thistles were attracting skippers, but I didn’t see larger butterflies feeding in the meadow.

The sunny meadow had a lot of tall vegetation…not as colorful as earlier in the season. Many of the meadow plants are producing seed now. The goldenrod has not started blooming yet.

As we got to the far side of the meadow, a bird flew into a tree. I got several reasonably good pictures: a Great Crested Flycatcher!

There are two trenches made by storm runoff in that area…and both are dry right now. It’s been a dry August here.

We turned around and made our way back to the car…pleased with our morning activity before the heat of the day became overwhelming.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 31, 2024

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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.

A 13,600-year-old mastodon skull is unearthed in an Iowa creek - Researchers will now scrutinize the bones to look for “any evidence of human activity, such as cut marks.”

Wildlife Photographer Captures Intimate Photos of Alaska’s Grizzly Bears – The bears of Lake Clark National Park. Wildlife photographers from around the world started coming to the Kenai Peninsula in Lake Clark National Park around 15 years ago, but they can’t get up close to the bears without a trained guide close by.

Solar Energy Revolution Brewing In Arkansas, With An Assist From GM - As of Q1 2024, Arkansas ranked #27 on the state-by-state rankings of installed solar capacity tracked by the Solar Energy Industries Association. One area that has seen some healthy activity is rooftop solar and other small-scale projects. According to the figures kept by SEIA, a single utility-scale solar project in Chicot County accounted for an outsized share of the 1,122 megawatts of installed capacity (140 megawatts). Last week GM announced that it has entered a PPA for electricity from the largest ever solar energy project in Arkansas so far, the Newport Solar project. Located in the town of Newport, the 180-megawatt project comes under the umbrella of the firm NorthStar Clean Energy, a branch of CMS Energy.

Say 'aah' and get a diagnosis on the spot: is this the future of health? - Analyzing the color of the human tongue. The proposed imaging system can diagnose diabetes, stroke, anemia, asthma, liver and gallbladder conditions, COVID-19, and a range of vascular and gastrointestinal issues.

The weird way the Los Angeles basin alters earthquakes - The enormous five-mile-deep (8km), sediment-filled basin that LA is built upon plays a surprising role in the effects felt above ground. Imagine the Los Angeles basin as a giant bowl of jelly – the dense rocky mountains and underlying rock make up the bowl, while the sediment fill is represented by the gelatinous mixture. If you shake the bottom [of the bowl] a little bit, the top flops back and forth quite a bit. And atop this quivering mass of jelly is the megacity of Los Angeles. Other cities built on basins: Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Mexico City, and Tehran.

Rethinking the dodo - The Dodo was the first living thing that was recorded as being present and then disappeared. Researchers went through all the literature on the Dodo encompassing hundreds of accounts dating back to 1598 and visited specimens around the UK, including the world's only surviving soft tissue from the Dodo, in the Oxford Museum. They confirm that the bird was a member of the columbid (pigeon and dove) family. Contrary to previous assumptions about its demise, it was almost certainly a very active and fast animal.

Elite Woman’s Grave Found in an Abandoned Fortress in Mongolia - The fortress of Khar Nuur was part of a system of walls and fortresses that spanned nearly 2,500 miles. Radiocarbon dating of the burial indicates that it dates to between A.D. 1158 and 1214, after the fortress had been abandoned, and likely between the fall of the Khitan or Liao Empire in A.D. 1125 and the rise of the Mongolian Empire in A.D. 1206. The researchers explained that the burial is one of only 25 graves dated to this period that have been found in Mongolia. The woman was between the ages of 40 and 60 at the time of death, and she was dressed in a yellow silk robe and headdress made of materials likely imported from China. Her coffin, made of non-local wood, also contained gold earrings, a silver cup, a bronze vessel, a gold bracelet, and coral and glass beads.

The banana apocalypse is near, but biologists might have found a key to their survival - Today, the most popular type of commercially available banana is the Cavendish variety, which was bred as a disease-resistant response to the Gros Michel banana extinction in the 1950s from Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB). For about 40 years, the Cavendish banana thrived across the globe in the vast monocultured plantations that supply the majority of the world's commercial banana crop. In the 1990s, a new strain of the Fusarium fungus started causing problems….and the research race was on to save bananas.

Florida is building the world's largest environmental restoration project - In February 2023, a large digger broke ground on a multi-billion-dollar project that has been decades in the making: building a reservoir the size of Manhattan Island. The reservoir, which is part of an historic restoration of the Everglades ecosystem, is intended to help bring a secure, long-term supply of clean drinking water to Florida's residents. The whole project is due to be completed in 2029.

Streetlights Helping Trees Defend Against Insects - Streetlights left on all night cause leaves to become so tough that insects cannot eat them, threatening the food chain. Decreased herbivory can lead to trophic cascading effects in ecology. Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects, which could in turn result in lower abundances of predatory insects, insect-eating birds, and so on.

Hume’s Game Birds

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Allan Octavian Hume was in British India as a civil servant from 1849 to 1882; during that time, he also pursued his interests in ornithology. The 3 volumes on game birds were published in 1879. Charles Henry Tilson Marshall organized the plates for the books that were produced by multiple artists. The volumes are available from Internet Archive.

The game birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon V1

The game birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon V2

The game birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon V3 

In 1883 he began the process to donate his collection to the Natural History Museum in London.  The material that went to the museum in 1885 consisted of 82,000 specimens of which 75,577 (258 being type specimens) were finally placed in the museum where it continues to be the single largest collection of Indian bird skins.

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2024

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The heat of summer is still with us…but there are signs of fall too. Lots to celebrate in August.

Road trip adventures that didn’t become problems. In the first hour of my road trip to Dallas I saw a skunk and an overturned semi-truck. The skunk abled away from the road (i.e. did not become roadkill) and the semi was on the oposite side of the highway!

Finding puzzles. Keeping the supply of puzzles coming for my dad at his assisted living home is a little more challenging since he requires ones with 500 or fewer pieces…and they can’t be small pieces. I was celebrated a couple for a reasonable price and the used book/puzzles sale from Friends of the Library is coming up in a few days where I should be able to get a good supply for $2 each.

A cooler than expected morning in Dallas. My dad likes to take walks in the neighborhood where he lives so I celebrated the morning when I was there was cool enough for the activity (it didn’t start raining until a couple of hours later when I was starting the drive back to Missouri).

Getting the whole yard mowed. I am celebrating that my stamina has improved enough that I can mow the whole yard on one day (my husband made it a little easier by buying an extra battery so I’m more confident of having enough power for the mower even if the grass is a little wet).

A rainy day. It’s been a drier August than usual. I celebrated when I heard it raining in the early morning hours.

Starting the stepping stone path in the new garden area. The narrow grassy area between a pine tree and our flower beds that I am converting to other plants is progressing well this summer. It is currently a compost area for grass clippings, pine needles, and leaves. The hostas that I planted last spring in the area are doing well. I celebrated the milestone of putting done the first two stepping stones that will lead from the patio to the yard through the area.

No tax day for school supplies/clothes. Both my husband and I intentionally made some purchases on Missouri’s no tax weekend for school supplies/clothes…celebrating the annual starting of a new school year. He got 2 pair of jeans and I got some packs of card stock: black and bright colors.

Registering/starting a class at the university. I am celebrating being back in a university classroom after more than 40 years. It feels good!

Multiple types of fungus on a stump in a neighbor’s yard. The stump is deterioating rapidly now. I’m celebrating that there are interesting fungi doing the work.

The Paris Olympics. Celebrating the efforts and sportsmanship of the athletics…seeing their dedication and joy.

A College Class…after 40 Years

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Going to a college campus for a class was almost a ‘new’ experience since I hadn’t done it for over 40 years.

The campus was newer and bigger than the university I attended in the 1970s. There was more construction and different types of parking that I’d experienced before. I set my nav system for a parking lot close to the building where my class was located; it took me to the parking lot but not on the side that had an entrance! I used the nav system to help me find the building to…and still walked past it because I wasn’t looking for the name of the building in the right place. As I walked in the building, the doors leading to the first floor were taped saying there was construction on that floor…realizing that my class was supposed to be on the third floor; I took the door to the stairs that were off the lobby between the outside doors and the doors to first floor. I stopped at a lady’s room then found the classroom…both similar to 40 years ago.

The class I am taking is a field class about woody plants so there is a short lecture segment at the beginning and then the rest of the session is outside either around the campus or on field trips at various locations around Springfield MO. The professor had posted the charts for the first class and the syllabus for the course on Brightspace earlier in the week; I had looked at the charts and printed the schedule page of the syllabus…brought a notebook for recording notes in the field.

It turned out that the professor had printed copies of the syllabus and worksheets for when we were out in the field (around campus). The amount of paper was reminiscent of my long-ago college days. My earlier idea of using my phone to take pictures and notes in the field was not looking as realistic.

I did try to take some pictures of the woody plants that were part of the first class but the only ‘good enough’ picture were from black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) (1 picture) and buckeye (Aesculus) (2 pictures).

Juggling the cell phone on a lanyard and taking physical notes is cumbersome. I’m going to try a slightly different approach for the next class which will be a field trip to Springfield Botanical Gardens….maybe taking my bridge camera (better optics so I don’t need to get as close to what I am photographing) and wearing my photovest (with lots of pockets in the front) so the notebook can be taken in and out more easily.

I am not taking the class for credit, but I am still trying to learn the common and scientific names for the woody plants viewed in the course. It might take some study techniques I’ve not used for a very long time. I want to find techniques that do not involve making paper flashcards!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 24, 2024

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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.

Warming waters and nutrient overload: A dangerous combination threatening our rivers and lakes - Food webs are becoming less complex in warmer, nutrient-rich waters. This simplification means shorter food chains and a degraded functioning ecosystem.

Stonehenge’s giant Altar Stone came all the way from north-east Scotland – here’s how we worked out this astonishing new finding – It evidently came from north-east Scotland at least 430 miles from where it is today!

Over half of iron deficiency cases in large health system still unresolved at three years - Factors associated with a higher likelihood of getting iron levels back to normal included older age (age 60 and up), male sex, Medicare insurance, and treatment with IV iron alone. Younger patients, females, and Black individuals were most likely to remain iron deficient or experience longer lags in getting their iron stores back to a healthy level.

What the Mesopotamians had for dinner – Small clay tables date to 1730 BC or earlier…are about preparing food! The instructions are terse, clipped. And as is the case for many old recipes, from all vintages of the human relationship with cuisine, amounts are not specified. Here is how one of the stews is made: for the lamb stew known as tu'hu, first you get water. Then you sear leg meat in fat. In go salt, beer, onion, rocket, coriander, Persian shallot, cumin, beets, water. Crushed leek and garlic and more coriander, for a fiery taste. Then add kurrat, an Egyptian leek. The beets turn it an electric red.

Cleaning up the aging brain: Scientists restore brain's trash disposal system – Using a hormonal like drug to help the glymphatic system of the aging brain to remove toxic buildup more effectively (as younger brains do).

Plant disease could spell apocalypse for citrus fruits - Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as “citrus greening” disease. The economic impacts are dramatic in some countries. In Brazil, production has fallen by more than 20%, 60% in Guadeloupe and plummeted by more than 90% in Florida.

U.S. Wind Generation Hit Record in April, Beat Coal! – Hope this begins happening more often. It should as more wind energy comes online and coal plants are shut down.

Our skin is teeming with microbes. We should learn to love them - Zoom in on any square centimeter of the skin on your body and you'll find between 10,000 to one million bacteria living there. The skin microbiome is second only to our guts when it comes bacterial diversity. This is quite surprising if you think about it. Compared to the safe, warm and moist habitats of our mouths or guts, the skin is an inhospitable place.

Maine! Ghost Plant – A parasitic plant I learned about in my general biology course….and was thrilled the first time I saw it in the wild years ago. I haven’t seen it since.

Five ways science is tackling the antibiotic resistance crisis – Natural products, the promise of AI, combination therapies, immune assistance, efficient diagnostics….and we need more.

American Agriculture in the early 1990s (ebooks)

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Liberty Hyde Bailey edited 4 volumes of the Cyclopedia of American Agriculture between 1900 and 1910. It was a time when horticulture and agriculture were becoming more organized at universities and Bailey was a proponent of America as a ‘great agricultural civilization.’

The books are easily browsed on Internet Archive and the photographs clearly reflect the ‘state of the art for agriculture’ in the early 1900s when they were written. I selected two sample images from each of the 4 volumes. (click on the image to see a larger version)

 Cyclopedia of American agriculture : a popular survey of agricultural conditions, practices and ideals in the United States and Canada V1 Farms

Through my Office Window

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My office is my favorite room in my home. There is a garden area I can see through a window while I am at my computer. It has several garden ornaments, and is crowded with violets and iris leaves….and a spikenard in bloom. The yard beyond is sprinkled with fallen river birch leaves that are yellow. It’s a great place to watch robins searching for worms.

The area is shady for most of the day – from the river birch in the morning and from the house in the afternoon. There is a short time when the sun shines on the stainless-steel iris. I am documenting the blooms of the spikenard as well.

The windowsill of that same window can also be a platform for high key type photographs. This one of a dried black-eyed susan has the silhouette of the river birch in the background.

On the other side of the room, the glass paneled door looks out onto the patio under the deck and I can photograph barn swallows that congregate on the light fixtures and the ceiling fan blades before leaving all at once for their next stop.

The 4 windows of my office make it almost a garden room.

Registering for a College Class

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I registered for a class at Missouri State University last week – Identification of Woody Plants. It has been over 40 years since I did this last! Lots has changed in those years.

  • I didn’t need to go through an admissions process ahead of time or get transcripts sent because I am part of the cohort of people over 62 years old that can attend classes at much reduced cost (MSU 62). I called their office a week before the registration day to confirm. I also asked about the pre-req for the class I wanted to take; I had the pre-req in my long-ago college experience but without the transcript, how would they know? I was advised to email the instructor to get a waiver…which I did and they waived the pre-req for me.

  • The course catalog and schedule are all online now rather in paper/soft cover books. I knew that there were only 7 slots remaining in the course I wanted to take before I headed to registration.

  • The registration for the MSU 62 cohort was held the week before classes started which is later than I usually registered back in the 70s. I arrived just after they opened. The receptionist for the event handed me forms and sent me to tables/chairs to fill them out. The course I wanted to take was not on the paper version of a course list on the tables, so I was glad I had the numbers for it written down to enter in the appropriate places on the form. I also had the printed version of the email exchange with the instructor. I was so focused on the requirements for my degree 40 years ago…now I am just taking whatever interests me and not for credit.

  • When I finished the forms, I joined the queue in chairs waiting for advisors…and thoroughly enjoyed a donut while I waited. I don’t remember ever having food provided when I registered for college classes before!

  • The advisor got me admitted and registered very quickly. She discovered that I already had a number with the university (maybe because I had donated back in 2020).

  • After that I was routed to a second person that printed out my concise schedule and talked to me about setting up my computer accounts, books and parking permits. It appears that the only cost is going to be for the parking pass – quite a bargain even compared to the costs I had in the 1970s. In addition, the textbook for the class I am taking is listed as ‘optional’ so I am waiting to buy it until after I hear what the instructor says in the first session.

Less than an hour after I entered the building, I was walking back to the parking garage. Along the way I photographed the colorful school mascot (bear) at the corner of the building. I am looking forward to this course…not so different from the way I always looked forward to the fall during my education-intense years…but savoring that I won’t be taking any tests!

Annual Checkup

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The medical system often seems to be full of extra steps. I had to change my primary care physician recently because the old one moved…so I chose one in the same system since I was overdue for an annual checkup. It turns out that the first visit is just a ‘getting to know you’ and the annual checkup will have to be a second visit. I’m glad I picked an office close to where I live! The earliest appointment I could make is a little over a month away now…but at least it is scheduled, and the doctor made a good first impression. She’s young enough that she could be my doctor for as long as I live in the area. I like that she specializes in 65+ patients.

There is nothing particularly pressing in my question list…at least I got through the list with the doctor even though we didn’t have time to discuss any of them in depth. It would be stressful to wait if I had health issues that I was anxious about.

I’m beginning to understand my grandmother’s aversion to going to the doctor unless she knew something was wrong. She didn’t have many ‘annual checkups’ and took no prescription medications. In her years after 65 she did get flu shots, a skin cancer removed on her face, and a check after she hit her head when she tripped over a shallow step. She lived to be 98 years old and died peacefully in her sleep at home. The only problem that was not detected until too late that impacted her quality of life was macular degeneration, but at the time there wasn’t much they could have done to help her even if it had been detected earlier.

My plan is to continue my annual checkups and the associated follow-up – at least for the near term. But I’ll re-evaluate as time goes on.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 17, 2024

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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.

Ultrafine particles (UPFs) linked to over 1,000 deaths per year in Canada's two largest cities – Particles smaller than PM2.5 that primarily come from vehicle emissions and industrial activities. The study was done in Montreal and Toronto neighborhoods from 2001 – 2016. The findings associate long-term exposure to UFPs with a 7.3% increase in the risk of non-accidental death. Respiratory deaths saw the highest increase, at 17..4%, followed by a 9.4% rise in deaths from coronary artery disease.

Eureka: Why Was Monet Obsessed with Water Lilies? - From 1890 to 1927, Monet would create more than 250 paintings of the water lilies. He had found his subject and there would be no need for another. Besides, as the artist said in an interview, “the water flowers are only an accompaniment.” The real subject was that fickle, forever fluid thing called light, which Monet said changed every seven minutes in Giverny.

The History and Mystery of Glastonbury – A satellite image from January 2024. A little history lesson too: Before the Somerset Levels were drained and converted into agricultural land in the 18th century, the region was a flooded swamp. Glastonbury Tor towered above the water as an island, drawing attention as a site of worship for pagans and Christians.

95% of Steel-Related Emissions from Vehicles Can Be Cut Using Green Steel - Procuring primary steel without fossil fuels is the strongest possible pathway to reduce steel-related emissions from vehicles – and this could be done at scale in the U.S. by the end of the decade. Collectively, automakers are among the largest buyers in the steel market in both the U.S. and EU. In 2022, the auto industry consumed 26% of the 82 million metric tons of steel produced in the U.S., and 60% of all domestic primary steel. In the same year, 17% of the 136 million metric tons of steel produced in Europe went to the auto industry, and 24% of all domestic primary steel.

Lyme disease is becoming more common. But its symptoms aren't always easy to spot - Lyme, is a disease with arthritis-like symptoms, but symptoms can get more varied if treatment is not prompt. It's a type of bacteria that penetrates every tissue in the body. Lyme disease can also cause facial paralysis, heart problems, severe fatigue and painful pins and needles in hands and feet.

Static Electricity May Help Butterflies and Moths Pick Up Pollen - Previous studies have found that honeybees, bumblebees and hummingbirds could pull pollen from flowers through the air with their electric charges. This study looked at 11 species of butterflies/moths from 5 continents.

Multiple urinary metals play key role in cardiovascular disease and mortality, study finds - When analyzed together, the 6 metal-mixture including cadmium, tungsten, uranium, copper, cobalt, and zinc was associated with a 29 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a 66% increased risk of death over the study follow up of 18 years.

Your nose has its own army of immune cells — here’s how it protects you – The nose and upper airway — which includes the mouth, sinuses and throat but not the windpipe — serve as key training grounds where immune cells ‘memorize’ intruding pathogens. These memories allow the cells to defend against future attacks by similar microorganisms.

A Record-Breaking 17 California Condor Chicks Hatched at the L.A. Zoo This Year – Condors usually only raise one chick at a time…but the LA Zoo has found that they will raise more than one chick…and these chicks survive better than human raised chicks when released into the wild after 1.5 years at the zoo.

How the rising earth in Antarctica will impact future sea level rise - In Antarctica, melting glacial ice means less weight on the bedrock below, allowing it to rise. How the rising earth interacts with the overlying ice sheet to affect sea level rise is not well-studied. Measurements show that the solid earth that forms the base of the Antarctic ice sheet is changing shape surprisingly quickly. The land uplift from reduced ice on the surface is happening in decades, rather than over thousands of years.

Eleazar Albin’s Birds and Insects

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The week’s featured eBooks are from Internet Archive, originally published in the 1720s and 1730s. Eleazar Albin, according to his Wikipedia entry, was an English naturalist and watercolorist illustrator. He gives credit to daughter (Elizabeth Albin) for helping with the illustrations on the title page of his “A Natural History of Birds” series…and says that the drawings were made from live birds. The books are worth browsing for their illustrations!

 A natural history of birds V1

A natural history of birds V2

A natural history of birds V3

Sustaining Elder Care – August 2024

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One of my sisters is taking an extended road trip this month, so the 3 of us still around are adjusting so that one of use sees my dad every day. The real crunch will come later this month when another sister will be out of town for a week. It’s a good thing the assisted living home seems relatively calm at this point and dad is getting morning walks, puzzle time, and eating as well as usual.

He likes puzzles with fewer pieces now (up to 500…rarely one with 1000 if there are a lot of clues in the puzzle and the pieces are not too small). I had one puzzle that I took during my first visit this month and there will be an opportunity to buy used puzzles before I go later in the month. We are also starting through some of the puzzles he did months ago; his memory is such that he doesn’t remember them from before…they are a good challenge all over again.

His doctor has taken him off all the supplements he had been taking for years because they were causing him digestive problems. It was more difficult for him to swallow them now too. He gets the equivalent of a multivitamin as a liquid (purchased in powder form and taken mixed with water); he is feeling much better after the change.

Another change that is occurring – he appears to have developed ingrown toenails for the first time in his life. Fortunately, the assisted living has a podiatrist that comes periodically. We are scurrying to buy some open toed shoes for the day after the ingrown toenails are resolved.

The plants one of my sisters planted around the back porch area of the house had required daily watering – which we were all doing as part of our visit with dad – but the house sprinkler system has been fixed and we only need to water on days that it doesn’t run now.

We are beginning to feel that we have a routine that works for us and my dad (and the staff at the assisted living home) although we are very conscious that the routine will need to be tweaked as his needs change.