October 01, 2020

Zentangle® – September 2020

October 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Just as in prior months of the pandemic…I had a lot of Zentangle® tiles to choose from – getting to the 30 to showcase in this post. There are 16 square tiles in various colors of card stock and lightweight cardboard. Note that all the tiles this month are made with dark ink (usually black) and I will make a second pass on the tiles to color them later; I have discovered that I enjoy coloring tiles as the wind down to bedtime.

The rectangular tiles are all made on lightweight cardboard from between layers of cans in cat food boxes. The short side is 3.5 inches and the longer side is the width of the cat food box.

I can’t resist the gingo pattern and have started making ones with more ‘leaves’…trying to always keep to an odd number!

I’ll do a post later this month with tiles that I’ve colored…trying to pick the top 10 is going to be more challenging than the selection for this post!

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

September 24, 2020

Gobolinks

September 24, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I found a book published in 1896 – made available on Project Gutenberg – that is prompting a project: Gobolinks by Ruth McEnery Stuart and Albert Bigelow Paine.

The book has a short introduction describing how to create the images (folding a paper…putting blots of ink on one side then closing the paper to create the ‘shadow’ side) and then some poetry about what the images ‘look like’ – goblins or insects or birds on a wire (lots of opportunity for imagination).

I decided to try some of my own gobolinks…using some food coloring that has been in the cabinet so long it had dried out completely. I rehydrated it and made a first attempt with some printer paper. Dropping the color from the food coloring bottles made huge, dark blobs!

After a few days, I decided to try again with some lightweight cardboard/card stock tiles that I could later overlay with a Zentangle pattern. I folded them in different ways.

My plan was to make a drop of food coloring and then moved the color around with a toothpick before closing the fold. I quickly realized that the lightweight cardboard absorbed the food coloring very quickly (glad I had a newspaper layer underneath). The others turned out reasonably well although the color is very dark. I’ll use the white gel pen when I overlay the patterns.

And I’ll dilute the color next time I make some Gobolink tiles!

September 08, 2020

Coloring Zentangle® Tiles

September 08, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I enjoy making the Zentangle tiles. Recently I’ve discovered that making a second pass at tiles – coloring them – is also very enjoyable. Here are two tiles - original and then colored. The look is quite different!

I’ve picked 8 others from the ones I’ve been working on for the past week. Coloring is a bit faster than the creating of the original tile, but it is Zen in the same way. It’s very easy to keep focus on the task rather than bouncing around to all kinds of thoughts. And when I’m done – I savor the creation…then let it go.

Allowing at least several days between the original creation and the coloring means that often the tile seems ‘new.’ I don’t remember the order I made the original pattern. The two rounds of activity on the tile are separate endeavors.

September 02, 2020

Zentangle® – August 2020

September 02, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

There were a lot of tiles made in August….more than 3 per day. Picking just 31 of them was challenging. 16 of the ones selected were rectangles cut from separator cardboard in boxes of cat food. The rounded shapes in some of them are inked indentions from the cans of Fancy Feast! My plan for September is to limit myself to 2 tiles per day…but then ‘color’ old tiles if I want some more ‘pen in hand’ time. The rectangular tiles created with black ink are prime candidates for this activity.

There are two series that I developed during the month and some of them made it into the 31 selected: 3 of the ‘5 gingo’ series

And 4 of the ‘x string’ series.

And then here are the rest of the square tiles.

Most tiles were made in my early morning outdoor time on the deck…and I am increasingly sitting in a chair using the back of my iPad as a surface for the tile. I like the freedom to grab a pen and some tiles and just go wherever I want in the house or yard. That means there is no shading (don’t want to deal with the pencil and tortillon rolling around)….and I’m fine with that sacrifice.

The new pen I am experimenting with is a white Sakura Gelly Roll 08. The Sharpie Ultra Fine points are still my favorites, but I am experimenting with other pens that I have around. It’s been over a year since I got quite an assortment at the CZT class and I want to use them before they dry out.

August 23, 2020

Completed “to be continued” Zentangle® Tiles

August 23, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Over the past week, I finished all 18 of the “to be continued” Zentangle® tiles that I posted about last Sunday. I used a different color pin for my second pass at each tile so that I could easily tell the part that I added. Most of the time I used patterns that contrasted…but a few times I continued with the same one. All except one were completed in my early morning hour outside on our screened deck. In the mosaic below I’ve included the partial and completed tiles side by side.

I enjoyed this project…and may do it again in a few months. There are other variations I’ve thought of: 1) make a collect of 6 tiles with the same string (a relatively simple one so it is easily duplicated) and then use different patterns to complete them; 2) make a squiggled string with a lot of spaces on 5 tiles (not identical) and pick 2-3 patterns to use on all of them…..I’m sure others will occur to me. But I still enjoy making just one tile at a time without any plan for what the next one will be like. One ‘project’ a month is more than enough!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

**Melons.** We have 2 melons from this week’s CSA share – a cantaloupe and a watermelon. I was relieved that the watermelon was not huge since my refrigerator was already very full. The cantaloupe was the first to be cut. I enjoyed the first bites while I worked.

August 16, 2020

“to be continued” Zentangle® Tiles

August 16, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

My new Zentangle project is a challenge to myself – to stop partway through creating a tile….then wait a few days before finishing. I have created 18 partially completed tiles (see below). I will ‘complete’ them over the next week or so using a different color ink….so I can distinguish the two parts.

I tried for variety in the types of patterns and they are not all ‘half’ done…some are more and some or less. It’s feels good to try something different!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Registering for the (virtual) Hawai'i Island Festival of Birds. I registered for the festival that will be held October 15-19 with virtual explorations and presentations from the Big Island. It’s free! My husband and I weren’t birders when we made our trip to Hawai’i in 2015, so this is an opportunity to learn a little bit about the birds there…and think about another trip to the island…maybe to attend some future year of this festival.

Dryer repair. Our dryer stopped working a week ago. The repair person came and determined the correct part to order. The part should come and the repair completed in another week. We did a load of clothes that we normally hang up to dry; there is no problem with having enough clean clothes. We are starting to use old and guest towels. So we are not desperate….yet – and likely it will be repaired before we have any big inconvenience.

August 05, 2020

A Wanderer in…

August 05, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I found a series of books with titles beginning “A Wanderer in…” by Edward Verrall Lucas published in the early 1900s and enjoyed the photos/ colored plates; Internet Archive has digitized versions of 6 books (5 places):

Holland (1908)

Paris (1921)

92 20 07 (4).jpg — London (1913 and 1916)

Various artists produced the colored illustrations…sometimes with no attribution in the book. These were commercial books intended to capture the look and feel of the places – highlighting distinguishing features. Some of those features are still in views we associate with the cities today.

When I read books from the early 1900s, I always think about my grandparents growing up during those years. They were mostly in Oklahoma – far away from these places. Only one of them finished high school. I wondered how much world history/geography she learned in high school. How many books did they have? Did any of the books that saw have photos and colored prints like these?

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Tropical Storm Isaias. Lots of rain but not as much thunder as originally forecast. I spent my usual early morning hour on the covered deck. It was raining the whole time with birds and frogs making noises in the still dim light. The rain became music…getting quiet…then louder. Complex. The forest sounds of water on leaves and branches different than the sound of rain on the roof of the deck. For most of the hour, there was no breeze at all. Then just a flutter for a few seconds that caused as cascade of droplets from tree leaves and the long-tubed wind chime to move. Here are the two Zentangle tiles I made…along with enjoying my morning caffeine and doing some reading.

August 02, 2020

Zentangle® - July 2020

August 02, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in July – 31 Zentangle tiles. The square tiles are card stock (light blue and ecru) and the rectangular ones are lightweight cardboard from cat food boxes. There were some series this month – where I made several tiles with a similar aspect – strings made three lines thick, circular voids (bubbles), and amoeba voids. I am continuing the last one into August. I tried to group the series in the same area in the display below.

I had a lot of tiles to choose from this month and I think the series is driving that increased production. It’s fun to have a theme to start the tile off.

July 25, 2020

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 25, 2020

July 25, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

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.

Native Americans Crossed the Pacific Long Before Europeans | The Scientist Magazine® - Using DNA to find more definitive answers.

Forest Surprise: A Wolf Story – West of Flagstaff ---- probably a Mexican grey wolf male…trying to find a new territory and exploring a restored forest appealing.

See Archaeological Treasures Unearthed by U.K. Residents During Lockdown | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The uptick in gardening and yard work leads to finding things in or on the ground…and then people having plenty of time to find out more about what the objects are. Something positive happening during the pandemic.

You Can Now Explore All 48,000 Panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Online | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – I was glad to see this online version of the quilt is available – complete with search and zoom. I found the square for a person that I’d worked with in the 1970s and saw him at IBM sponsored conferences in the 1980s. Our early career crowd was scattered all over the country by the time he died in 1993.

Eleven Awesome Owls from Around the World – Good pictures and a short summary characterizing each bird.

Turmeric could have antiviral properties -- ScienceDaily – It’s already one of the supplements I take…as an anti-inflammatory. This study points to it being anti-viral as well.

Stain Solutions | U of I Extension – A good reference although in recent years the laundry detergents and cold water often get stains out.

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy the beautiful birds!

Solar Will Kick Most of Texas's Remaining Coal Fleet Offline – Good news for air quality in Texas. Evidently the growth of utility-scale PV production is rapid changing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market.

Infographic: How Breastfeeding Protects Mothers | The Scientist Magazine® - Research about the mechanism behind the observation that women that breastfeed their children have reduced long term risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

83 20 07.jpg — **Circular voids.** I am starting a series of Zentangle tiles that have circular voids in otherwise dense tangles. I got the idea from some Mordecai Ardon paintings (slideshow on Internet Archive here) like Fatal Eclipse shown at the right. My first two tiles are below.

Compost bin. Between rain showers – I put on the boots I have for river field trips and got all my containers of kitchen scraps and spent flower stalks (mostly day lilies) out to the compost bin. It took 4 trips! There have been more things recently that produced more kitchen scraps than usual: fresh corn on the cob, cantaloupe, cabbage cores, and tough onion/leek tops. I’ve learned to save cucumber skins for use in smoothies so those get eaten these days and veggies like beets and carrots just get a thorough scrubbing rather than being peeled. I put all the new scraps on one side of the bin and then turned the other side over on top of it. I should deteriorate very rapidly.

Fresh flowers in the house. There are now small bouquets from the CSA cutting garden in my office and on the kitchen table. The one below is the one in my office. I like having flowers in my field of view! It’s a way I show kindness to myself.

May 17, 2020

Zentangle Gallery Board, Friendly Downy Woodpecker, Abu Simbel, Iris, and Puzzles

May 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Visit from a Downy Woodpecker. Just before 8 AM I was sitting beside the window in my office and suddenly a downy woodpecker flew to the screen and made noises like it was trying to tell me something. It flew back to the maple. About an hour later it happened again! This is a bird that comes frequently to our feeder. I’m wondering if she is a little frazzled with nestlings right now.

**Making a Zentangle gallery board.** I’m prepping for a program I will be delivering soon…wanted something that I could easily use to show many tiles and patterns quickly. The session is short, so I need to make every minute count!

Pictures of when Abu Simbel was moved - Life Magazine December 1966. I remember being fascinated with Ancient Egyptian history beginning in 1965…so I imagine I was interested in this article from 1966 although I don’t remember it. The pictures are dramatic even by today’s standards.

Replenishing the puzzle supply for my parents. My almost-90 year old parents are about to run out of puzzles. They enjoyed them pre-pandemic but have gone through their supply faster for the past couple of months and can’t get out to shop for puzzles right now. Most of the puzzles they had were 2nd (or 3rd or…) hand so I got a little sticker shock looking at new ones and then discovered that lots of people are buying more puzzles than usual. I ordered 4 from Walmart am at looking at more now (trying to figure out an effective way of finding out which ones they’ve already done). In January I had planned to travel a week of every month to be with my parents, but the pandemic put a stop to that after one trip…so I’m ordering puzzles to fill parts of their days.

**More iris stalks in my office.** I am composting the old iris stalks in the garden and cut two more to bring indoors. There is still one left outside. These two stalks seem to have larger flowers. They were growing in a different location and may be happier there than in the front flower bed irises. I have discovered that I enjoy having flowers from my flower beds/garden in my office.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

April 29, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/28/2020 – Little Celebrations

April 29, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

**Making echinoderm prompted Zentangle**® tiles. *Jurassic echinoderms France* is full of plates and worth browsing; it’s available on Internet Archive here. Four sample images are below. I’ve only made one Zentangle so far but I’m sure the patterns will pop up in the tiles I make over the next few days.

Starting the What is Contemporary Art? Coursera course. It is my 3rd class from MoMA. For some reason – I am interested in classes that are different from my typical science or history classes I’ve taken in non-pandemic years.

Watching a Glenn Randall Photography webinar on light for landscape photographers. It was something my husband found out about and set up for us. We watched on the television in the den. Now I have some vocabulary for some of the type of light I enjoy early or late in the day! I realized that some of the wonderful light on the sandhill cranes in the early mornings at Bosque del Apache is ‘glow light’ from the sun 20 minutes away from coming up behind us.

Making sweet potato custard. Probably my favorite food creation during our ‘stay at home as much as possible’ time has been sweet potato custard. This is the second time I’ve made it. I cook the sweet potato in the oven when we are baking something else…then peel it and save it in the refrigerator until I’m ready to make the custard. The sweet potato goes into the Ninja food processor with 4 eggs, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon cloves and 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (this time I was trying to use up some powdered sugar so I used the higher amount). After processing and scrapping down the sides, I add in enough almond milk to make the consistency about right….processing again to get it thoroughly blended. After pouring it into the backing dish, I cover the top with chopped pecans. It cooks for 15 minutes at 425 degrees and 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

It never lasts long since both my husband and I like it a lot.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the monthly post about 10 little celebrations. Again – the overwhelming celebration (the same as in March) is that in April 2020

Everyone in my family (in Maryland, Missouri, and Texas) is well…and taking all the recommended precautions to stay that way.

Now for 9 other celebrations….all from home (or easy walking distance):

Talking to family far away. It’s such a boost to talk with family – know that they are doing fine – that we all have pleasant homes and a few people with us. It’s good to let whatever anxiety has accumulated to melt away and celebrate family.

Grocery delivery. At first the idea of grocery delivery made me anxious. Now I find that the arrival of another delivery to our front porch is a cause for celebration. We have good food at low health risk.

Fashion as Design Coursera course. The whole course was interesting. I learned a lot more – and maybe differently – that I anticipated. I celebrated the whole course.

My history in wardrobe terms. The Fashion as Design prompted a whole project - thinking about my wardrobe from the 1960s to today. It was a fun project and I celebrated the memory of my favorite clothes.

Life in the Universe Pandemic Series. I’m a fan of Charles Cockell’s mini-lectures on astrobiology and I enjoyed his book (Bruntsfield Brook) as well. I watch/listen to the videos in clumps…glad I became aware of them shortly after he started.

Hiking into the forest. The whole hike was one big celebration. I am already looking at the forecast and planning another hike.

And then there are three birds I am highlighting as April celebrations: rose-breasted grosbeak, piliated woodpecker, and goldfinch. I celebrate the view from my office window each and every day. It is becoming a wall of green now that the trees are leafing out.

April 08, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/7/2020 – Macro Cecropia

April 08, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Taking pity on the red-bellied woodpecker’s contortions…..refilling the bird feeder. I noticed the woodpecker late in the day on Monday…waited for it to dry out a little yesterday morning before I refilled the feeder. The pictures are clips from our birdfeeder cam videos.

Putting away groceries. The non-perishable groceries had been sitting in the back of my car since Saturday evening. We had put them there after they were delivered….to give any coronavirus time to dry up and die before we put them away.

Washing the plastic table covering – making a Zentangle mosaic. I’ve had the covering for over 20 years and have generally just wiped it down thoroughly. It was time it seemed grubbier than usual, so I put it in the washer with a few towels. I hung it over some deck chairs to let it dry thoroughly afterward. Then I made a mosaic of Zentangle tiles under it when I put it back on the table. Now we have new art to look at while we’re eating…during the pauses in conversation.

Creating some face mask variations. My husband discovered that his favorite pizza place does not deliver to our area….so he will pick it up as he has done in the past. He’ll wear a face mask as recommended by the CDC. I got some hair ties (covered rubber bands) in our last grocery delivery and I have coffee filters on hand. He had some old handkerchiefs to make his. If I must go out, I’ll make mine from a bandana or washable silk scarf. We are not going out very often so it will be easy enough to launder the cloth part of the mask after each use.

Catching up on Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series:

Is the heroic age of exploration over? (absolutely not!...this is probably my favorite video in this series so far)
Where did life begin?

Noticing a Northern Flicker in the yard – next to a robin. I saw the robin first through my office window then noticed the other bird when it moved. I had on my computer glasses, so my distance vision was not great. Then I used the zoom on my camera to id the bird…and take the picture in the next second.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the first installment of macro photography with our mail-order bugs. Today I am featuring the Cecropia Moth. It’s the one pictured in the lower part of this picture – our order from The Butterfly Co.

I used my smartphone with a clip-on macro lens for this session. The Cecropia is the largest moth in Maryland. This one is a male based on the antennae. They are somewhat feather-like in that they have a central rib…but the stems off the rib are different. The Cecropia stems seems to be in pairs and there might be tiny fibers connecting each pair. I’ll have to get more magnification with a loupe next time (and be very careful not to break the antennae off).

A few years ago, we had the caterpillars at the Wings of Fancy exhibit at Brookside Gardens, so I am more familiar with the caterpillar than the adult moth. I didn’t unpin the specimen for this round of photographs but I know that it doesn’t have mouth parts….all the calories for the life of these moths are eaten when they are caterpillars. The adult form is only mating and laying eggs!

The wings have scales – sometimes looking like scales on butterfly wings…other times looking fur or hair-like. Another opportunity for my next round (using the loupe rather than the clip-on lens).

The downside of the loupe is that it works best sitting on the specimen…and inevitably some of the scales will come off. I am giving my husband the opportunity to photograph the bugs before I do anything that might damage them. Tomorrow’s post will be about the Luna Moth.

April 04, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/3/2020 - Gleanings

April 04, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

2020 04 IMG_8728.jpg — **Photographing the sunrise.** I seem to get busy and miss the sunrise most mornings…but not yesterday!

Catching up on Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series:

Noticing more sycamore leaves emerging. There are now three buds that have popped…lots of tiny leaves.

Making experimental face masks from materials I have at home….for when/if we need to go out. I made a mask with a paper napkin, small binder clips, the cut off top of a small gift bag (for the loops). The napkin would be replaced after each use…the rest sprayed with Lysol. It would probably fit better over the nose if I made some pleats. Even better using a scarf (or paper towels) and two hair ties/covered bands. (How to videos I watched). This is all about protecting others; I don’t want anyone to get sick if I happen to be an asymptomatic carrier.

Started Fashion as Design course on Coursera. The week 1 optional 2-hour video of 4 speakers and then Q&A (Under Review and then Reading) on the topic was well worth it.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the normal weekly gleanings post….

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.

25 Photos of Madeira's Dreamy Fanal Forest by Albert Dros – Calming nature. It is a quite different forest than the one I see from my office window. Both views are much appreciated.

Tips for how to stay happy in troubling times - BBC Future – Hopefully, some of these work for you. I find that limiting the time I spend catching up on ‘news’ is the one I need to keep reminding myself about; it’s so easy to get absorbed in all the pandemic news (none of it good). I want to be informed but not 24/7.

Monarchs Covered 53 Percent Less Area in Mexico this Winter | The Scientist Magazine® - The last paragraph of the article was the worst news: “The butterflies have already begun their journey north but there is not enough milkweed in Texas to support the butterflies’ reproductive cycle this spring.”

How your personality changes as you age - BBC Future – It seems like there are a lot of positive general trends in personality as we age: more altruistic and trusting individuals, willpower increases, a better sense of humor, more control over emotions. They’re calling it ‘personality maturation’ and it continues until at least the 8th decade of life! And its observed across all human cultures.

Top 25 birds of the week: Eagles - Wild Bird Revolution – Never can resist the birds….

On This Scorching-Hot Exoplanet, a Forecast of Molten Iron Rain | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 640 light-years outside our solar system

Tour A National Park from The Comfort of Your Couch - Hmmm….I’m going to start working my way through the virtual tours….Maybe one a day?

Unprecedented preservation of fossil feces from the La Brea Tar Pits: A 50,000-year-old Snapshot of Los Angeles trapped in asphalt -- ScienceDaily – The La Brea Tar Pits have been studied for more than a century….but apparently there are still things to learn from them. Fossilized rodent pellets found in context (so definitely not modern, they also were radiocarbon dated to ~50,000 years ago). They are preserved along with twigs, leaves and seeds….an intact woodrat nest!

Massive Mammoth-Bone Structure Found in Kostenki, Russia - Archaeology Magazine – A circular structure about 41 feet in diameter…made with bones from at least 60 mammoths.

Tree Tapping Isn’t Just for Maples – The 2020 season is over for getting sap from trees – this is still an interesting article about how it is done…and other trees that also have sweet sap. I was surprised to see sycamore on the list.

April 03, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/2/2020

April 03, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Finishing the Coursera course: In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting from MoMA. The last module was about Yayoi Kusama – the only artist featured in the course that is still alive and the second woman.

Making a Yayoi Kusama inspired Zentangle tile. Kusama’s Accumulation 18a from 1962 is made with paper savers (circular adhesives to reinforce holes punched into paper) and charcoal on paper. My tile is smaller, lightweight cardboard instead of paper…and it was brown instead of white. I used some very old paper savers that were a woven material (I had saved them in the office supply cabinet even though I didn’t think I would ever have a use for them); I wondered if the adhesive would still work…was pleasantly surprised when it did. And I used a graphite pencil instead of charcoal. Once I had done the paper savers and pencil…..I diverged by coloring the holes green….and added a black circle on each paper saver (feeling the nubs of the weave). I took a series of pictures of the progression.

Tracking the changes in the COVID-19 Projections. The model gets a daily tweak as new data is available. I made some notes the night before so it could detect some of the changes between the 4/1 and 4/2 version of the model.

The peak for the US overall moved from 4/16 to 4/15…one less day to prepare.
For Maryland the peak moved from 4/28 to 4/29, the peak death day rose from 51 to 53 deaths, and the peak number of ventilators moved from 638 to 659.

Hearing about my daughter’s transition from in-classroom to virtual teaching (university level). My daughter has been calling when she takes her (almost) daily walk around her neighborhood in Missouri. A positive bit of news: her gen-ed class has transitioned to virtual mode. She thought the first class might have been a fluke because about the same number of people attended as were in her classroom before the pandemic; she thought that maybe the students were curious enough to make the effort to attend; but then they joined again for the second virtual lecture…so now she is realizing she and her students have made a successful transition.

Photographing a minute at our birdfeeder. A lot can happen. The gold finches were there at the beginning of the minute – 3-4 of them. Then the female red-bellied woodpecker showed up and scattered the other birds. She ate some seeds at the feeder then got a peanut and flew away. I noticed a female cardinal below the feeder about that time. A second later, a chickadee arrived…quickly got some seed and flew back o the safety of the trees.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

March 20, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/19/2020

March 20, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday…a cloudy day that started out very wet:

Trying another grocery store – first thing in the morning again. We found meat! It wasn’t our usual organic…but we bought it anyway. We also found some spray Lysol but not disinfecting counter cleaner…we are using our backup plan which will involve gloves, open windows and fans on (fortunately we are going to have some warm days). We got the medicines we would need if we got sick and my husband’s favorite protein shakes. Still no toilet paper or cat food. We ordered the cat food online when we got home.

Reducing toilet paper consumption dramatically. We have water in spray bottles beside our toilets now. We haven’t eliminated toilet paper entirely…but we are building up our skills with the water. It should enable us to manage with the toilet paper we have in the house for a few weeks even though we have not been able to find any in stores recently. Maybe this strategy will last beyond this crisis….it would make sewage treatment easier and reduce the number of trees felled to make toilet paper.

Noticing that I am sleeping as well as ever (according to my Fitbit…and not feeling tired). It’s an indicator that I am still handling the stress of the pandemic and changing habits very well. Another indicator from my Fitbit: my resting heart rate has stayed below 65 (normal for me) the whole time.
Cooking sweet potato hash browns. We cook and eat at home most of the time. But I have more time now, so I am beginning to experiment. I got the idea for hash browns from my husband requesting the frozen variety of hash browns when I went to the grocery store…but I changed the potato from russet/white to sweet for my dinner! I scrubbed the sweet potato and cut off the ends…chunked it so it would fit in the food processor with the shredder attachment…cooked them in a little olive oil seasoned with onion flakes and no-salt seasoning. It made a good meal with scrambled eggs…pretty orange and yellow colors on the plate.
Filling the bird feeder. We let the bird feeder hang empty for the past week to discourage a hawk that has become too interested in our backyard. Now we get to observe how long it takes for the little birds to find the seed again. Are the juncos still around?
Unpacking the bin prepped for a Zentangle® class. My plan for 3/19 from back in January was to lead a Zentangle session for my fellow volunteers after a training session for spring field trips. That has all be cancelled – of course. I am unpacking the bin I had already prepped: color zipper pouches with square paper coaster tiles, Pigma Pen 05, and pencils. I am going to use the bin to put all the photos I found in decades-old boxes in our basement…put the smaller bin of pouches on a shelf in my office. I couldn’t resist opening one pouch and tangling!

Browsing through emails and feeds with suggestions from others re navigating through the upheaval coronavirus is causing. An email from Coursera (lots for free online courses) had several interesting links that I want to pass along:
- If you or someone you know is learning online for the first time: You can share these 8 tips from our Teaching & Learning team.
- If you’re looking for ways to keep learning with your kids: Talk with parents around the world and share your favorite resources.
- If you’re looking for advice about moving in-person learning online: You can reference these best practices from our Teaching & Learning team.
- If, like Coursera, you and your team are shifting to remote work: You can join others in our community to discuss strategies and share advice.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16, 3/17, 3/18

March 18, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/17/2020

March 18, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Picking earrings to wear that I haven’t worn in a long time. Yesterday I wore some from Orlando FL and today they are from Watkins Glen NY. Earrings are my favorite item to purchase when I travel…small keepsakes that I can wear! Both are over 10 years old, but I still remember where I got them.
Maintaining the compost pile and walking around the yard. I’m trying to get out of the house at least once a day….enjoy that it is springtime here!

Watching the second installment of the Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safari (about Rico the Porcupine). They have established a website where all the videos will be available after they air live. I am watching the recorded version, so I don’t have to pay attention to the time to be online at 3 PM EDT!
Calling family far away, I had planned to be in Texas this past week…but I was already ‘staying at home as much as possible’ a few days before I was going to get on the airplane. Talking on the telephone is the next best thing for keeping in touch until it is not as risky to be out and about in larger groups of people.
Making a Zentangle® butterfly. I was straightening up my office and found a few extra butterfly tiles left from last summer’s experience with summer campers. I couldn’t resist using the tile…thinking that this would be a good activity for anyone needing a quiet calm time. If you want to learn a new pattern, checkout out https://tanglepatterns.com/ . Later in the afternoon. it was warm enough that I saw a real butterfly - a cabbage white.

Watching the 4th video in the ‘Life in the Universe Pandemic Series’ from Charles Cockell - Why didn’t dinosaurs build a space program? His pet gecko, Europa, is part of the lecture too!

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16

January 17, 2020

Maryland State House Ceiling as Zentangle® Prompt

January 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I am always noticing potentials for Zentangle patterns. An easy one was in the skylight at the Maryland State House (when we visited back in December). I made a tile without much thought about deconstruction. The stained glass ‘flower’ is was my primary interest.

2020 01 img246.jpg — I used a string to guide the pointed arc shape around each flower…then just make the curves. I filled in the spaces between the ‘petals’ to add some drama…and then it was just the tried and true Zentangle auras to fill in the rest of the space.

I did a simple step out of the way I deconstructed the pattern after I made the tile!

Zentangle prompts are everywhere! I’ve been looking at books about ancient pottery recently….lots to patterns to glean from them. I try to limit myself to one of the ‘Zentangle prompt’ posts each month, but I am very tempted to do another this month.

January 01, 2020

Zentangle® - December 2019

January 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I made a lot of tiles in December. Some were the round paper coaster tiles that I was making for the tree which are thick enough to make patterns on both sides (so they count as two tiles when I scan them).

The Paradox pattern was one of my favorites this month. Notice how the meta-pattern changes depending on making Paradox clockwise or counterclockwise…and in relation to the positioning of the neighboring instances of Paradox.

Chairs is a new pattern published in December that I enjoyed too.

There are quiet a few instances of the gingo pattern this month as well. It was new in August….and I like it a lot.

December 19, 2019

Christmas Trees at the Maryland State House

December 19, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Another holiday themed outing – driving over to Annapolis to see the trees decorated by garden clubs for each of the counties in Maryland. It’s evidently the traditional display in the central hall of the Maryland State House this time of year. We did it yesterday – a cold but sunny day…and before the wind picked up in the afternoon. I took pictures of just about every tree.

My favorite was the one done for Worcester County – lots of natural material. I particularly liked the pinecones that were cut and painted to look like flowers (they reminded me of zinnias).