Gleanings of the Week Ending October 30, 2021

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 23, 2021

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 16, 2021

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.

19 Months in COVID-19 pandemic

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.

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 9, 2021

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.

Earth is dimming due to climate change – Decades of measurements of earthshine indicate that the Earth is becoming less reflective with warmer oceans (and fewer bright clouds).

Kilauea Resumes Eruptions At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park – Exciting times on the big island…

In UK, Interest in EVs Spikes Amid Fuel Shortages – There have been stories about Ford and GM strategy recently too….lots of indicators that many people will be buying EVs sooner rather than later if enough are produced.

NASA lander records the largest ‘Marsquakes’ ever detected – The lander has been on the surface since 2018!

Dental care: The best, worst and unproven tools to care for your teeth – Hmm….I wonder how much this research will change what dentists advise?

Baby Poo Has Ten Times More Microplastics Than Adult Feces – A scary result…and no ideas on how to reduce exposure (and we don’t know exactly what harms it might cause)….just more research needed. Very frustrating.

Coastal Northeastern US is a global warming hotspot; 2 degrees Celsius of summer warming has already occurred – From Maine to Delaware…the area is warming faster because of climate change linked alterations in the ocean and atmospheric conditions of the North Atlantic.

2021 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest Winners Highlight Global Wildlife and Nature – Beautiful…and thought provoking. My favorite was the artsy one at the end…a high key image.

Paradigm shift in treatment of type 2 diabetes to focus on weight loss – There are probably other chronic ‘diseases’ that have become more prevalent over the past few decades that could be improved with weight loss….but it is hard to lose weight…and keep it off. It requires permanent lifestyle changes.

A Leisurely Trip to Kansas – Another post that includes pictures of a rough green snake. I’ve been on the lookout for them since my son-in-law sent a photo he took with his phone!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 2, 2021

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The oil-field ‘fugitive’ that can slip into the water supply – The methane leaks into ground water are yet another reason fossil fuel is problematic. The industry evidently can’t or won’t clean up…making moving away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible even more urgent – although climate change should be enough for the world to be doing that already.

Top 25 birds of the week: Brown Birds – Not all birds are colorful! Watching small brown birds can be just as much fun though.

Ancient Human Presence Revealed At White Sands National Park - Researchers Push Back Date Of Human Arrival In North America Thousands Of Years – Fossilized footprints in the gypsum sand playa deposits…dated to the Late Pleistocene.

Mexico’s Ancient Inhabitants Moved Land and Bent Rivers to Build Teotihuacán – Still more being learned from an archaeological site that has been studied for many decades. LiDAR is one of new technologies that is yields a lot of new information.

Poorly circulated room air raises potential exposure to contaminants by up to six times – COVID has prompted more detailed research on this topic…and the discoveries should be used to improve building ventilation systems to help control other air-borne diseases.

Why colorful food is good for you – I like the colors and flavors….it’s an added benefit that they are also healthy choices!

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Will Launch Into Orbit in December – Finally!

River research reveals scale of macroplastic pollution – A plastic bottle takes a long time to break down….450 years and requires UV light. With so many bottles getting into rivers around the world, it is important to understand how they travel…how they begin to breakdown. They are going to be around for a very long time and, right now, more are still entering the rivers.

Research shows more people living in floodplains – From NASA. Tragedies that are getting worse as population increases and climate change causes flood risk changes.

Making Beetles Pee Can Protect Your Garden – Maybe this is also a pathway to an effective way to control insects like aphids without pesticides!

Schoolyard Volunteering

I volunteered for a pilot program about climate change concepts (carbon capture, water infiltration, urban heat island) for 6th graders held on their own school grounds. It was a positive learning experience for me…and the students as well. Howard County Conservancy held training beforehand so when the first one was held I was relatively well prepared….but the first time through is always tricky. My station was about carbon sequestration; the students measured the circumference of trees on their schoolyard to estimate the weight of carbon in the tree and the weight of CO2 absorbed by the tree. The students became more coordinated with the process as they measured more trees:  using a tape measure - 137 cm up from the ground and then measuring the circumference. Teams of 3 worked well (2 for the tape measure and one recording results). Then in the last part of the session we use a table to determine the carbon in and absorbed by the trees.

The second school was an earlier start…out of the house at 7 AM! It was also a cooler day (in the 60s and lower 70s) so more comfortable wearing a mask. The students are mostly too young to be vaccinated yet. I took a quick picture of my front flower bed and the morning sky before I left the house.

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My first assignment was carbon sequestration for 2 student periods and then water infiltration for the next three periods of the day. Many of the trees we measured were about the same size – probably planted when the school was built. We learned that even the grassy areas of school yards don’t have good water infiltration – maybe because the mowers used on them are heavy enough to compact the soil! And even the water retention ponds (which were dry during the session) did not let the water soak in. The mulched areas under the trees were the only areas that showed good infiltration. Most of the rain that falls simply runs off rather than soaking in close to where it falls.

There was some break time between periods, and I observed some sparrows taking dust bathes in a bare spot near the edge of the school ground.

Overall – the students seemed to enjoy the program and collected data that they will use in their classrooms. I had my best experiences ever with this age group. Middle school is such a mix of student maturities…but the small groups made it relatively easy to engage all of them and keep them focused on collecting information about their school yard in a consistent, organized way. My lesson learned was that signing up for the full 5 periods is a bit overwhelming…probably won’t do that again!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 25, 2021

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: September 2021 – Such a variety of birds in the world!

The Love Stories of Sleepy Lizards – An Australian lizard…they are monogamous and have a surprising threat display. They have been studied for over 40 years.

Searching for the Fisher Kings – The Calusa of south Florida…a capital on a man-made island made of shell. Surviving the Spanish but not the British.

New Coal Plants Dwindle Amid Wave of Cancelled Projects – Good! We need to be ramping up generation of electricity with renewables….and dramatically reducing the methane released by the oil and gas industry in their extraction processes…and then begin to reduce our need for oil and gas in areas that can be electrified (like transportation and heating/cooling).

Explore Life Under the Microscope with the Winners of the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Contest – Photomicrography frequently creates art from reality that it too small for our eyes to see without the magnification and specialized equipment.

August 2021 global climate summary – From NOAA. Two global maps (temperature and precipitation). Where I live, August was hotter and slightly wetter than the average (averages from 1981-2010 for temperature…from 1979-2020 for precipitation).

People synchronize heart rates while listening to stories – Thinking about the brain as part of physical body….looking at the brain-body connection more broadly.

Study Links Transportation Noise to High Rates of Dementia and Alzheimer's – From Denmark.

Indigenous Resilience Center Launched at the University of Arizona – My daughter did her graduate work at University of Arizona; I’m glad they are launching the center to find and implement culturally appropriate solutions to the challenges of climate change.

The chemistry of dahlia flower colors – Also explains why there are no blue dahlias.

Our Oak

Looking up into our oak that grows near our mailbox, it looks like fall is well underway. The flags left from the periodic cicada larvae this summer have dropped their leaves and the rest of the leaves are turning now too. I’ll need to do a round of mowing soon to keep the leaves from getting too thick on the grass. The Virginia Creeper has grown a lot this year…reaching higher into the tree than ever before. It’s a native and climbs with suckers rather than rootlets; it only damages the tree if it gets too heavy; right now, it is well within the range that the tree can handle.

That’s not to say that the tree is in great shape. Oak decline is happening all over the Mid-Atlantic. There are stressors are thought to weaken the trees: climate change, tree age, site conditions, history of disease. Our tree is probably 30-40 years old (the house is about 30 years old but the tree was planted as a sapling)…not very old for an oak. There is pavement on two sides of the tree (the street and our driveway) so soil compaction might be a problem. It has always had mulch and grass around its base and there are no exposed roots.

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The stressors might have weakened our tree enough to make it vulnerable.  The way some of the leaves look is indicative of Bacterial Leaf Scorch. It will be years before the tree succumbs – finally starving (i.e. leaves turning brown and falling early…not continuing to produce food for the tree during the entire growing season). We’ll shore up its defenses by watering it during drought…keeping the fallen branches and debris picked up around its base. And eventually cutting the Virginia Creeper.

Annual Flu Vaccine

It’s that time of year again – time to get the annual flu vaccine. This year it was very easy for me; I went to my grocery store pharmacy just as I did last year… right after they opened. There was no line, and their system already had all my information. I filled out a form on a clip board, provided an electronic signature, and got the shot.

I refrained from buying myself a treat like a piece of cake or a soft drink -went to the nearby thrift store instead. I found 2 pairs of ‘like new’ leggings that are easy additions to my fall wardrobe!

I am still planning another road trip to Texas in October so getting the flu shot in September means it will be fully effective by then. I am hopeful that the high rate of infection and hospitalization along my route will be reduced by then – and that hospitals will not be as overwhelmed as they are right now…just in case some accident occurs along the way.  

On the same day I got the flu shot – we had a very hazy day in Maryland and it was attributed to the California wildfires. Signs of climate change are everywhere. For me – getting the flu shot is an action to avoid a health issue at a time when the pandemic and climate change are straining the resources of our country to deal with those disasters – making it even more challenging to take the strategic actions to reduce and mitigate the climate change going forward.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 18, 2021

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.

Young female black bears in Asheville, North Carolina, are big, have cubs early – More research needed…it’s still not known what is causing them to be so much bigger and mature early…or if the population is increasing or not. It is clear that there are quite a few bears and lots of opportunity for interactions between people and bears – many not healthy for the bears.

The alarming risks of mixing common drugs – It is a problem that is acute in most elderly patients with good medical care. Their various doctors have gradually built up the medications…and the regime to take them all appropriately becomes daunting. Hopefully it will become best practice to constantly review and minimize drugs that are prescribed.

Work Of First African American Painter With International Reputation Explored – Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

Hummingbirds can smell their way out of danger – I was thinking a lot about hummingbirds this past week after my success photographing one at Brookside Gardens.

Praying Mantis – I see these more frequently in the fall…but not every fall. There are so many mantis egg cases, there should be plenty to see; I need to improve my observation skills.

How much energy do we need to achieve a decent life for all? – The most important take away from this study: “energy for eradicating poverty does not pose a threat for mitigating climate change.” That is good news

The lost generation of ancient trees – The ancients are dying….and there are not enough trees old enough to replace them. There are various ways being tried to veteranize younger trees so they can play the role of ancient trees in ecosystems.

Fall Armyworms are Attacking Lawns and Crops on an ‘Unprecedented’ Scale – Hmmm…maybe this is a prompt to reduce or eliminate the grassy portion of the yard.

Mammoth Cave National Park: The World's Longest Cave Is Longer Than Before - 8 more miles mapped bringing the total to 420 miles!

Hand pollination of crops is of major importance – I was surprised that hand pollination is already used for important crops like apple, palm oil and cocoa.

18 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

18 months into the pandemic and the US is experiencing high rates of delta variant infections. The number of new cases is higher than it was in September 2020 and the number of new deaths is a higher too although not as much as the new cases; the vaccines and early treatments are reducing the number of deaths somewhat. The most people in the hospital and dying are unvaccinated. More schools are opening this fall – mostly with mask mandates. There is a lot of concern for the children under 12 since there is not a vaccine approved for them yet.

On a personal level, I am glad I am fully vaccinated, and that the KF-94 masks protect me as well as others. The availability of higher quality masks is one of the differences from last year when I was still wearing cloth masks (2 of them) that were protection for others – not necessarily for myself. I wear my mask anytime I am not at home indoors (like the grocery store) and outdoors when I am near other people (like at the Farmers Market). We are not eating in restaurants…but getting takeout occasionally. I haven’t done another road trip in the past month.

I am attending training for volunteer gigs coming the fall – ones that are primarily outdoors. Those will start in a few weeks if the local schools manage to avoid major COVID outbreaks that would force them to close. There are some places where it appears the delta variant has already peaked (like Springfield MO) but I’m glad I am not planning another road trip until mid-October when (maybe) the overall infection rate will be lower that it is right now on my route to and from Texas.

I wish I could see an clear end of the pandemic, but it may just be wave after wave of variants…some that the vaccine might not be effective against. I’m glad that masks are effective against respiratory spread in general and have grown accustomed to wearing one.

It is frustrating that COVID is still demanding so much of our attention at a time when we need to focus more on actions to address the larger rolling disasters of climate change.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 11, 2021

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.

Wind Energy Accounted for 42% of New US Power in 2020 – And solar was 38% of the new energy. And 8 east coast states have large offshore wind projects in the works in the years ahead. Hurray! It’s a good trend and it looks like the slope of the trend will keep increasing for wind and solar (decrease and go to 0 for new natural gas).

How people respond to wildfire smoke -  Another reason to slip on a mask.

Devastating Rain in Tennessee – A map of the change in soil moisture between August 20 and August 21. The floods on August 21 in Tennessee (area circled on the map) killed at least 22 people. I was surprised that there was an area of Illinois (to the north and a little west of the flash flood circle) where the soil moisture increased even more; perhaps that area floods frequently and the area is managed with flooding in mind.

New analysis reveals Vesuvius Victims’ diverse diets – From analysis of Herculaneum skeletons. Men got more of their protein from seafood. Women ate more meat grown on land, eggs and dairy products.

Eye provide peek at Alzheimer’s disease risk – Amyloid plaques can form in retinas of the eye. Does their presence there provide a visible biomarker for detecting Alzheimer’s risk?

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild Birds! – Bird photography…..challenging and beautiful subjects for our cameras.

Have you seen a weasel lately? – There is a suspicion that weasels are in the decline…but the data is circumstantial. These are not predators that have been widely studied. The post points to a role for citizen scientists!

Dispatches from a world aflame – Reviews of two books about the recent fires…and the relation to climate change.

Preemption of Green Cities in Red States – At a time when we need to get serious about addressing climate change – a drive by some states to keep local governments from taking any action. There is a cognitive dissonance between historically arguing for local control then usurping that control when the state government does not agree with it. I like local control but acknowledge that higher up the governance hierarchy could make sweeping changes easier. Perhaps some of these state governments will redeem themselves by quickly taking strong action toward climate change reduction and mitigation – soon. The top issue for me when I vote these days has become climate change!

Climate Change Is The Greatest Threat To Public Health, Top Medical Journals Warn – Another reason that actions to address climate change must be at the forefront of our thinking about the future. Medicine cannot make up for the injury we are making to ourselves and every living thing on the planet.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 4, 2021

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.

Entomologists Eradicated the First Asian Giant ‘Murder’ Hornet Nest of 2021 – Includes a picture of the 9 layers of the nest that was carved into an alder tree’s interior.

Turning thermal energy into electricity – It seems like this type of electricity production would have application beyond the military. Even solar panels produce heat and finding a way to automatically harness that into more electricity would be a good thing.  

Climate Change Producing More “Fire Weather” as Far East as Oklahoma – It’s not just the west coast that has a higher risk for fire as the planet gets hotter.

Aztec Pictograms Are the First Written Records of Earthquakes in the Americas – One of the pictograms matched to a 1507 earthquake that coincided with a solar eclipse!

Food systems: seven priorities to end hunger and protect the planet – A thoughtful commentary re ending hunger and improving diets; de-risking food systems; protecting equality and rights; boosting bioscience; protecting resources; sustaining aquatic foods; and harnessing digital technology.

Eating walnuts daily lowered 'bad' cholesterol and may reduce cardiovascular disease risk – There was a similar article about pecans a few days ago. I’m glad I like both walnuts and pecans! However – ½ cup is a lot to eat in one day. Usually ¼ cup is considered a serving.

Top 25 birds of the week: Woodpeckers! – I always enjoy hearing a woodpecker in the forest…and its a special tree to see them in our yard. The piliated, downy, and red-bellied woodpeckers are native to our area.

How to fight microplastic pollution with magnets – Many people filter their drinking water…but the conversation about filtering microplastics is newer. Hopefully filters that are effective and affordable will become the norm. It will take a long time to reduce the microplastic load already in the Earth’s water. We are just not recognizing the damage they are causing.

Americans Moving to Disaster-Prone Areas, Despite Climate Change – I’ve started to think about this more recently so appreciated seeing this post. Taking climate change into account – why would anyone buy property in areas that will be increasingly flood prone or incredibly hot/dry? A house nestled in a forest may look appealing but there are an increasing number of people that have already experienced the hazards of that beauty.

1,800-Year-Old Flower Bouquets Found in Tunnel Beneath Teotihuacán Pyramid – I visited Teotihuacan in the spring of 1966 when my parents took me to Mexico City. It was one of the highlights of the trip. The new discoveries are interesting….and I am thinking about whether I would like to see it again. Maybe in spring of 2026? The article references a site with some great pictures of Teotihuacan – worth a look.

Zooming – August 2021

While I was out waiting for the Monarch butterfly to emerge, I took pictures of other insects and plants…using the zoom on my camera while I sat comfortably on a gardening stool on the front walk that borders the flowerbed. There was a black eyed susan with petals in disarray, flies, aphids on a milkweed leaf, and various insects on the mint flowers. It was a good way to fill in the time. Enjoy the slideshow!

These days – I appreciate seeing insects more than ever before. Many times when I expect to see them, there don’t seem to be as many around…or any at all; the stories about the crash of insect populations is observable in the field! It’s one of the manifestations of how humankind is warping the planet. With insects, the impact is direct with the use of pesticides and the herbicides on food/host plants for insects and indirectly through the cumulative effect of more and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that impacts the climate overall.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 28, 2021

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The subtle influence of the moon on Earth’s weather – Tides….and a lot of complex interactions associated with them. High tide flooding will increase as the climate changes for example.

So much ice is melting that Earth’s crust is moving – When the weight of ice is removed, the land lifts upward…but new measurements show that it moves horizontally as well.

Top 25 birds of the week: Spiderhunters and Sunbirds! – Lots of colorful feathers in this group!

Pecan-enriched diet shown to reduce cholesterol – 470 calories per day is a lot of pecans more than ½ cup. I like pecans but will generally stick to about ¼ cup at a time…may skew toward eating pecans over other nuts although walnuts are a healthy choice as well.

California Drought Hits World’s Top Almond Producer – And maybe almonds are a nut that will be increasing in price…maybe driving people away from almond milk. I’ve already made my switch to lactose free milk.

Northern paper wasps recognize each others faces – Each face is unique!

Giant clams have a growth spurt – thanks to pollution – Evidently modern clams grow faster than ancient ones because of nitrates in the water. It doesn’t necessarily mean that are healthy…just that they are growing faster.

Photography In The National Parks: Fun Fact Photography, Part 2 – The post not only includes ‘fun facts’ about the National Parks – it also explains how the images were captured!

What happens to your brain when you give up sugar – A well timed article for me --- I am dramatically reducing refined sugars and artificial sweeteners in my diet (i.e., I still eat foods that are sweet like bananas).  I thought the headaches that occurred in the first week of my new diet were the simultaneous reduction in caffeine but maybe they were also caused by the sugar reduction.

Watch a bolt of lightning strike the Washington Monument – The monument is on a hill and the tallest thing around…..a conduit to the ground for lightning.

30 years ago – August 1991

August 1991 was a stressful month at work for me – several people I depended on took advantage of an early retirement offering from the company and the two projects I was working on were both demanding a lot of time. It might have been one of the highest overtime months of my career after motherhood. Between work and my daughter’s needs, I had very little discretionary time for myself. It was the month I fully appreciated how critical my husband’s support was to enable the peaks of my career.

We had a surprise visit from one of my aunts (with her husband and 2 grandchildren); they only stayed one night but it just added to the overwhelming activity for the month.

We had visited Texas in July and were getting follow up letters in August: my Mother starting her last year of teaching, one sister house hunting and planning to visit in October, another going through similar motherhood experiences with her child the same age as mine, and the sister 8 years younger than me realizing she didn’t know me very well. The documentation I have for the month is largely through those snail mail letters!

My daughter was savoring some activities at home that she had enjoyed for the first time while we were in Texas: dabs of shaving cream to wear around before playing in her pool (a substitute bath) and painting (on paper and herself). She was beginning to use her right hand more although she was not as strongly right-handed as her cousin. She discovered she could make footprints on the deck if she walked with wet feet.

She also remembered music from the Texas visit. Whenever the cassette tape with “Let’s go fly a kite” on it played…she always smiled and clapped when that song played.  

When we went to Wheaton Park we discovered she liked the swings under a large catalpa tree better than the carousel!

It was a time of tension between work and motherhood. The techniques I had for coping were developing - not perfect; over the next few years – I accepted that it was OK to always be developing rather that achieving perfection. But in August 1991, I was pushing for perfection.

I also noted a high ozone day. Looking back, I realize that if there had been action during the 1990s…the climate situation would be better today. I was aware of the greenhouse effect…and that the earth was warming; but in 1991 I thought it was an academic idea, not something that was actionable. Like so many others – I thought it would be very gradual and there would plenty of time for corrective action. So now we are facing an urgent need to pivot --- a challenge to us all. I find myself thinking about what it will be like in 30 years – trying to take actions in my own life to sustain hope for the successful transitions we’ll have to make going forward.

Emerging Monarch

I went out each morning after finding the Monarch butterfly chrysalis on the day lily leaf; on the second morning that the chrysalis had turned from pale green to clear – the indication that the butterfly was almost ready to emerge. Since I hadn’t seen any Monarchs in our yard this year…I decided to attempt capture the emerging butterfly with my camera.

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I came back 30 minutes later…thought perhaps the chrysalis wall was weakening…that some parts in the middle were beginning to split. I had changed to my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS), mounted it on a monopod, and was sitting on a comfortable stool.

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30 minutes later it looked like the top – above the horizontal row of gold dots - was beginning to split.

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Another 30 minutes and I was out again – zooming in with the camera and thinking, at first, that nothing much had changed. But then I noticed some action on the other side of the chrysalis.

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I changed to video since I knew the emergence would happen very quickly. It is not a great video (I need practice with video as much as I do with macro photography!) but I learned a lot from watching it later. The chrysalis did crack open but not exactly in the way I anticipated. What I was seeing at the top of the chrysalis was the abdomen of the insect which was huge! It must contain the fluid that is needed to expand the wings. The papillae on either side of the proboscis moved a lot at the beginning and I wondered if they were somehow involved in the fluid distribution or simply cleaning up the area around the face. See the video here.

After the video of the main event – I went in to let my husband know it had occurred and came back out to finish the event with some photes. Over the next 30 minutes the butterfly’s wings continued to unfurl and expand. At some point the butterfly ejected the extra fluid in its abdomen.

30 minutes later the butterfly finally opened its wings. Note that the abdomen is smaller than when it first emerged and it is probably a female.

What a great way to start the day!

Macro Photography Practice (5)

Continuing my practice sessions…

Finding the Monarch chrysalis was the prompt for the fifth practice. There are so few of them these days; very different from the 1990s. I sat on a gardening stool to be comfortable and worked to get magnified views of the golden beads and the top of the chrysalis. The water droplets were just nice ‘extras.’

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While I was busy with the chrysalis, a cabbage white sat for a few seconds on a nearby plant. It wasn’t a good angle and the picture is not sharp…but it was the first active insect for my practice session. I’ll be trying for more of these. The trick it to practice enough to be able to focus quickly!

I practiced on a mint flower and a leaf….higher magnification that I’d attempted before.

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There was a sticker like weed (one that I pull when I find it) within easy distance of my seat on the stool so I did a series of images – with increasing magnification. It was a more interesting subject than I anticipated!

I tried the same thing with a nearby day lily leaf – without as much success. The colors are somewhat interesting but my focus is off in some of the images…..more practice required.

Previous practice post: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoors images)

Day Lily Leaves

In the later part of summer, I always cut the day lily leaves when they start to turn yellow so that they come back with new growth that is fresh and green until the frost. It probably reduces the amount of bulb growth underground but the beds are so dense in the beds that it doesn’t matter. Last year it happened in early August. This year the leaves stayed green longer. Maybe we got more rain or maybe the temperatures were better for the leaves to continue growing – or maybe their season is longer now due to climate change. The two areas we have day lilies are in the front flower beds and around the base of our oak tree.

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And every year, one of the tools I use is the old hedge trimmers I have from my grandfather.

He gave them to me when I bought my first house in the mid ‘70s; the handles were already mended. They must be over 50 years old and maybe much older! They are a wonderful reminder of him. I like using them more than the electric hedge trimmers because of the good memories that crowd into my mind when I pick them up (and they don’t bother my hands as much as the vibrations from the electric trimmers do). I also think how much things have changed since he was born in 1901…the way we now live on the Earth with a lot more people and technology that is damaging the planet…how we have to make some difficult changes to enable ourselves and future generations the quality of life on Earth that recent past generations experienced.

The area around the base of the oak was trimmed all the way around. When the new leaves come in they will cover over the mess. I noticed one side was lower than the other and realized the deer must have been nibbling there. The bed near the house was another story. I got about half done – avoiding cutting any of the black eyed susans – when I stopped because of a small discovery.

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Do you see the Monarch chrysalis on the leaf (near the center of the image)? I was surprised to see it since I hadn’t seen any Monarch butterflies or caterpillars this year in our neighborhood. I’m going to take a daily picture of it until the butterfly emerges.

Tomorrow’s post will include a few macro pictures of the chrysalis so stay tuned!