Ten Little Celebrations – March 2021

/

The overarching celebration of the past few months and March is family staying healthy. I’m listing 10 additional ‘little’ celebrations from my notes about March. The weather got warmer in March and 5 of the celebrations are outdoors!

  • Pine cones – Early in the month, before much was blooming – I celebrated finding pine cones on the ground at Centennial Park to photograph…quickly since there were too many people around to be comfortable for longer.

  • Howard County Conservancy outdoor greeter (volunteering) – I am beginning to volunteer again…outdoors and distanced and masked…but enjoying the interactions with people new to the place and the people I’ve met in prior years. I’m celebrating the small step toward a restart of activities I missed during the pandemic.

  • A day warm enough to walk without a coat – Celebrating springtime.

  • Finding a feather to photograph – Finding a feather is always a serendipity event. This time it was a tiny feather mixed in with tulip poplar seeds I was sweeping off the deck. It was a double celebration: finding the feather and then the photoshoot with a macro lens.

  • Skunk cabbage, shelf fungus, daffodils, crocus, plum blossoms – So many things to photograph. Celebrating the sights of spring.

There were two celebrations related to the vaccine:

  • My husband and I getting vaccinated – We were so relieved to get an appointment…and then to get the first dose of the Moderna vaccine 6 days later. It was something to celebrate….and a beacon of hope. We’ll get the second shot in early May.

  • My daughter and son-in-law getting vaccinated – Also a big relief because both are working at a university that has stayed open (with a mask mandate). They got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a few hours after they were notified of the availability.

And then there are three miscellaneous celebrations:

  • Spice cake muffins – My husband was bored with our usual meals….so I made muffins as a special treat. We celebrated the tasty (and different than usual) treats.

  • Getting everything on the grocery list – It seems like there is always something that is not available in the store when our shopper fills our order….and then we had a time when everything was in stock. It was a celebration just because it hadn’t happened before!

Successful road trip practice – I am practicing driving at highway speeds to be ready – once I am fully vaccinated – to make road trip (and extended visit) to see my parents. I am celebrating the successful practice and the anticipation of seeing family that I haven’t seen for over a year.

Zooming – March 2021

/

The sunny March days have been so pleasant – great times to be outdoors and photographing what I see. I’ve been venturing out from home a bit more too – Brookside Gardens, Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, and Centennial Park. There are still zoomed images taken through my office window (birds and the moon framed by tree branches); the sunrise and daffodils are from my house as well. Overall - this is just the beginning of the season for spring flowers. Can you find:

  • Skunk cabbage (Mt Pleasant)

  • Mourning Dove (my house)

  • Shelf fungus (2 of them - Mt Pleasant and my house)

  • Witch Hazel (Brookside)

  • Gingko tree trunk and branches (Centennial)

  • Blue jays (my house)

  • Dried hydrangea flowers (Brookside)

Enjoy the slideshow for March 2021!

Getting outdoors on these spring days is a mood boosting activity as well as good exercise. I’ve gotten comfortable enough wearing a mask that I just keep it on if I’ve in a place where I might encounter someone else on the trail. I enjoy it in the moment and then again when I view the images on my bigger screen monitor…and formulate the blog post. The activity is a bright core with tendrils of benefit that are longer lasting.

House & Garden Gleanings

/

I have finally browsed all the House & Garden magazines I found on Internet Archive…from 1901 to 1993! I started back in November 2020….and browsed one or two of the volumes on most days. This post is the grand finale from the volumes I browsed through in 2021 – featuring a few items that caught my attention from the 1940s onward that I haven’t already featured in a blog post (previous posts: Newport Teahouse and Green Animals on 3/12,  The White House in 1940 on 1/21, House & Garden Magazines on 12/16/2020).

In the volume from the second half of 1941 – a page of old-fashioned Christmas tree decorations. I was surprised that the paper chains that I made in the 1960s had been around since at least the 1940s!

18 21 01 (39).jpg

The cover of the volume from the first half of 1942 featured “Planning a Defense Garden” – a reminder of the impact of World War II.

20 21 01 (1).jpg

In the volume from the second half of 1962 – pictures of the White House. I would have been in the second grade.

There were two things I’m highlighting from the volume from the first half of 1970.

55 21 02 (1).jpg

The first is an advertisement for a ceramic stove top. It was the first time I’d seen one in the magazine. It took a long time for the technology to mature!

55 21 02 (26).jpg

The second is a story from the Ladew Topiary Garden. We went several times when my daughter was young in the early 1990s since it is not far from Baltimore.

In the second half of 1971 volume – there is an ad for a Sears lamps that my parents bought (the chain and table versions) and gave to us a few years later. We donated them sometime in the mid-1980s.

67 21 02 (14).jpg

There was an article about the White House (again) in early 1973. This was about the time I got married.

Longwood Gardens was in the Christmas issue in 1977. This was years before I visited the gardens.

In the volume from the middle of 1985, there was an article about Mount Vernon. We had moved to the Washington DC area in 1983 and Mount Vernon was one of our favorite places to take family members that came to visit.

In the fall of 1986, the magazine had an article about Dumbarton Oaks. My husband and I were attending some Smithsonian Associates programs around that time and Dumbarton Oaks was one of the places we toured. I remember it was the first place I saw a black squirrel.

In early 1987, the magazine had some pictures from Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. We had friends that lived in the area that we visited about that time, but I never toured the house until 20 years later when I was there for work and had an afternoon on my own.

There were repeats of locations too – Mount Vernon again in 1989

And Ladew Topiary again in 1992 (which might have been close to the time we took my daughter as a toddler).

There was an article about Monticello in 1993.

Overall – I enjoyed browsing all the magazines….a little history…reminders of places I’d been…ideas for what I might do in my own home (or not).

Frustrated Racoons

/

A pair of racoons came to our bird feeder on the 14th….were there for just over 3 minutes from 2:15 – 2:18 AM. The only reason we know is that the camera we have on the feeder captured the visit. This time there were two of them and it looks like they both made the attempt. Check out the action in the two slide sequences below using the arrows to move through the series.

The action started at 2:15:32 AM with a racoon already climbing up the deck support. It used one paw to reach for the feeder but put too much weight on the feeder….the springs expanded and the black metal ‘leaves’ covered the seed access holes. It retreated down the deck support…turned on the railing and descended (headfirst) to the deck floor where there was another racoon. The second one looked longingly up at the feeder before exiting the scene with the first. It was over by 2:16:12 AM.

But wait – at 2:17:50 AM the camera recorded another sequence. It started with a racoon on the railing below the feeder. The animal started up the deck support then stopped and returned to the railing before it got to the feeder level. It stood on its hind legs and tried to reach for the feeder…couldn’t reach it. It then climbed (headfirst) from the railing down to the deck floor by 2:18:58 AM.  Again – there was another racoon down there. It’s impossible to know for sure if it was the second racoon making an attempt at the feeder…or the same one that had tried the first time. I’m choosing to think it was the second one --- that they both took a turn.

They both left the scene frustrated – this time. They’ll be back.

Daffodils in the Brush Pile

/

Looking out my office window - I noticed a clump of daffodils was blooming in the brush pile at the back of our yard and went downstairs (inside and then from the deck) to get some pictures. Our neighbors have always had daffodils around the base of one of their trees and I had planted some bulbs slightly in front of the tree line in our yard several years ago to establish a similar stand in our yard. The plants come up and bloom well before the leaves are on the trees. My subsequent project to gradually extend the ‘forest’ into our yard by putting small brush piles over the areas where the grass does not well (too much shade) covered the place where I planted the bulbs…but they are hardy enough to come up and bloom anyway! And they provide a marker for how much I have extended the forest leaf mulch area into our yard….probably at least 6 feet. It’s much better than having thin grass/soil showing in that area.

I also noticed that one of the larger branches in the brush pile had some shelf fungus growing --- decomposition and nature recycling itself in action!

2021 03 IMG_7131 (3).jpg

As I walked back up the incline toward the deck stairs, I notice a leaf from last year with some neatly drilled holes. I wondered if the holes were already made before the leaf fell.

2021 03 IMG_7131 (4).jpg

Overall – a very satisfying short photo shoot in our yard!

Our Yard – March 2020

/

It was a great March day – cold in the morning, warming to the mid-50s by the afternoon, and almost no wind. My plan was to walk around the yard - see what was coming up and clean out the compost bin…restart with the small amount of veggie kitchen scraps I had accumulated over the past few weeks. I did the compost job first: using a pitchfork to move the contents from the old turtle sandbox (my compost bin), dumping the bucket I keep on my deck for kitchen scraps into the near empty bin, putting a layer of leaves from last fall onto the top. I’ll be adding a layer and/or stirring it up every week now that it’s warmer.

2021 03 IMG_3953 (2).jpg

I took stock of our early spring bulbs. The regular sized daffodils I planted about 5 years ago are just beginning to bloom but the miniature ones that started with a few bulbs my mother-in-law bought for us over 30 years ago are blooming profusely. I’ve discovered that they last a long time as cut flowers as well.

The crocuses are fading at this point. There seem to be fewer each year although I have started noticing them in different places than where the bulbs were originally planted. Maybe the squirrels move them around (and sometimes eat them).

The day lilies are coming up. The deer have already nibbled the ones that are around the base of the oak tree near the mailbox.

The mini clover we planted last fall appears to have survived the winter although it hasn’t started growing a lot yet. I hope it will expand its growth and bloom/make seeds. Near one of the patches we filled in with clover, there is a small plant with blue flowers already blooming. The Maryland Extension has a page on ‘spring weeds’ which helped me identify it as

2021 03 IMG_3953 (9).jpg

Speedwell

It’s a weed but not invasive. In a recent webinar for Brookside Gardens volunteers about sustainable gardening, I learned about spring weeds that can often be left alone. They cover what would otherwise be bare ground, offer food for pollinators in early spring and will be overtaken by other plants as the season progresses. In this case, it’s likely that the mini clover will grow over the area during the summer and there won’t be as much speedwell next spring. Even if there is some – I’d rather have a yard that provides food for pollinators…particularly early in the season!

Green Zentangle® Tiles for March 2021

/

St. Patrick’s Day was my prompt for cutting some green cardstock tiles for a March Zentangle project; I cut the tiles to have no waste of the cardstock pages so they are 4.25 x 5.5 inches. I’d got the cardstock from my sister – left over from her teaching days when she retired. The color was dark enough that it required use of gel pens which I generally use only for highlighting - a change of pace (and challenge). The pink gel pen on the green paper was not very appealing to me. Later in the month I started using the black Ultra Fine Sharpie again.

The two favorite tiles from the project were the last ones I created! On one I made flower patterns with the white gel pen then added black auras and green poke leaves with Ultra Fine Sharpies. The other one was a grouping of 5 pattern clumps with connections made with circles, auras, and fills.  

--

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.

Racoon at our Feeder

/

Our squirrel-proof bird feeder has been mostly effective against squirrels and racoons. Recently we had our first bird feeder camera recording of a racoon that managed to get seed…for a max of 13 seconds! All the other the racoon visits the animal has gone away totally frustrated.  This time the racoon managed to support most of its weight on the frame of the deck rather than the feeder for those crucial seconds. As soon as the animal grabbed the feeder with both paws….the spring stretched enough to close the access to seed.

Clips of the whole sequence are below. Use the arrows to move back and forth and see the black metal leaf close down over the access hole for the seed as the racoon puts both paws onto the feeder.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 13, 2021

/

Spring is starting here in Maryland…we have a clump of crocus up and blooming in our front flower bed!

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: March 2021 – Starting off the gleanings for this with bird photographs. I found myself looking at eye color as I enjoyed this group of 25.

Satellite imagery shows northern California kelp forests have collapsed – I had read a story about this previously….but this article include visuals: satellite image and underwater images of what it look like before…and the urchin barrens that are there today.

Kauri trees mark magnetic flip 42,000 years ago | Science – Analysis of a tree preserved in a bog. It lived during the Laschamp Excursion (the last time the poles flipped) The climate instability lasted about 500 years.

Giving Wildlife Room to Roam in the Face of Climate Change – The importance on microhabitats in wildlife conservation particularly as climate changes.

Small Particulates From Burning Fossil Fuels Kills 8.7 Million People Each Year – And this is a form of pollution no one escapes….unless you choose to live in an enclosed and continuously filtered environment (like on an planet that does not support life as we know it). Right now, there are areas outside cities that have lower levels of the small particles in their air but eventually the continued increase in particles and circulation within the atmosphere will spread the ever increasing particles over the entire planet.

Even for Solitary Squirrels, It’s Better to Know the Neighbors – Red squirrels that have the same neighbors year after year…live longer! The study was done in a remote area of Canada over 22 years.

Thanks to Etsy, You Can Now Purchase a Gee's Bend Quilt Online for the First Time | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Folk art…museums…and a modern outlet to improve the artists’ ability to sell their work.

There’s a Koala in the Backyard – A description of what it’s like to have a koala in a tree near homes – serenading.

Geologists Share Their Concerns With Drilling For Oil In Big Cypress – Hopefully the project will not move forward….a national preserve should prioritize the natural environment, not the degradation or destruction of it.  

Eight ways chemical pollutant harm the body – From Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health: oxidative stress and inflammation, genomic alterations and mutations, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine disruption, altered intercellular communication, altered microbiome communities, and impaired nervous system function.

A Year in COVID-19 Pandemic

/

It’s been a year since the WHO declared the COVID-19 Pandemic. This time last year was chaotic with shortages in grocery stores and trying to figure out how to reduce our risk of getting the virus; in March 2020 even the medical professionals didn’t always have the equipment they needed to protect themselves and the public was not yet being encouraged/mandated to wear masks. Shutdowns were just starting.

A lot has happened since then. For some, the impacts of the pandemic year will continue for a long time. For me – I am more aware than ever of how fortunate my family has been to stay well and to now be getting vaccinated. My parents and nieces were the first to get vaccinated; my parents because they were over 75 and my nieces because they are medical professionals. Then my sisters and me.  My husband and I managed to make an appointment to get vaccinated the first time our county health department notified us that appointments were available to us (notified on a Sunday and appointments were available on Friday…we took the first available). We got the first shot of the Moderna vaccine last Friday and already have our appointments for the 2nd dose; we’ve been recording our side effects (minor) using the vsafe.cdc.gov tool. My daughter and son-in-law got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last Saturday. They experienced a few more side effects – were glad they had the Sunday to rest – but were able to teach their classes at the university on Monday.

In our state (Maryland), the rollout of the vaccine seems a little chaotic, but it appears that a lot of people are anxious to be vaccinated and the supply is slowly increasing. The state has scaled up the capacity for getting shots in arms by increasing the number of sites providing vaccines. I was in the throes of trying to figure out when pharmacies got supplies of vaccine so I could make an appointment when we got the notice from our country health department. The site my husband and I went to was well organized and kept people moving through with plenty of distancing. We filled out a survey and made our second appointment via our phones while we were waiting the 15 minutes after the shot.

In the past month – I have started mini road trips to get used to driving again. It’s a great time of year to begin to get out and about more…choosing outdoor activities and locations where there are not many people around. Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant and Brookside Gardens have been my favorite destinations so far.

I have started wearing KF94 masks that fit me better than any of the cloth ones I have.

As soon as I am fully protected by the vaccine (in mid-April), I will be taking a road trip to Dallas to see my parents. The CDC’s recent guidance has helped me begin planning the trip. I will be wearing my KF94 mask during times I might encounter other people on the road trip down – to protect others…and to reduce the risk to myself from any variants that the vaccine might not handle effectively. I’ll get takeout or drive through food rather than going into a restaurant. And then I’ll stay in Texas for several weeks for a good visit and maybe get some projects done for my parents while I am there. My Dad will be reaching the 90 year milestone this month.

I enjoyed 3 birding festivals in one weekend during the past month: Laredo, Niagara, and Bosque del Apache. It was a very cold weekend…the webinars a welcome distraction. I am continuing some webinars but skewing toward more outdoor time in the coming weeks.

I am also preparing to resume my volunteer activities. The organizations have changed and are offering training for the programs they are doing now and anticipating the ramp up as more and more people are vaccinated and the infections continue to drop in our area.

The % positive from testing in Maryland is the one I am using to decide if I will resume going into the grocery store rather than doing curbside pickup. Right now, it is looking good so I might do my own shopping next week! I enjoy picking out my own items…automatically picking substitutes on the fly rather than interacting via texts with a shopper. And I like using my own reusable bags; we’ve been accumulating a lot of paper bags recently!

In the next week or so, the US will pass the 100M vaccines administered milestone (https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations ) and the trends of infections/deaths are declining. Good news…and there is a lot of work being done to help it continue.

Macro Landscapes

/

On my recent walks around the yard, I’ve been noticing the tiny landscapes on the ground….the greens of very early spring. The moss under our deck stays green all winter and now there are tiny plants (clovers and mock strawberry) coming up through it. They’ll stay low growing so we’ll never mow the area.

A patch of moss can also be found near our chaos garden. It appears to be more yellowish (maybe got too dry) with red seta…the  sporophyte that was at the top of the seta is already gone (i.e. the spores long dispersed). The grass is beginning to grow around the moss and it will eventually be in the path of the lawn mower.

20210308_135132.jpg

There are some weeds beginning to grow too…..coming up in the grass, tulips poplar seeds, and rolls of sycamore bark. The mowing will keep it short. I tend to leave weeds like this…hoping they have deeper roots than the turf grass…better at holding the soil on the slope.

20210308_135202.jpg

The soil a few feet away from the chaos garden must be rich in humus since there seems to be a puff ball or two every year. This one is from last fall. I remember finding it when I was mowing the leaves! It has collapsed but somehow managed to stay relatively intact through the winter. Underground the mycelium is growing and decomposing the humus further with the help of microbes….the makings of healthy soil.

20210308_135218.jpg

The daffodils are up in the oak leaves, old day lily leaves, and tulip poplar seeds in our front flower beds. Maybe I’ll cut a few of the flowers this season to bring their springtime indoors.

There are the usual ‘weeds’ in the same beds. I recognize the mock strawberry. There is a chance that some of the others could be black-eyed susans which I  want for the bees and butterflies during the summer.

There are a few crocuses coming up. There are fewer every year. One came up last year out in the yard…the bulb probably moved there by a squirrel.

20210309_080544.jpg

I looked closely at the joint between the driveway and our front walkway – lots of tulip poplar seeds there. They had made enough ‘soil’ for a small clover and some mock strawberry to grow. And there was a worm using the crack as a highway between the lawn and the flower bed; it was heading toward the flower bed….a much richer place for the worm!

Finally, I checked the bush at the corner of the garage. I’ve been nurturing a young holly to take over for the old bush. I discovered a plant growing in the stump of the old bush…a sure sign that it is rotting. I’ll be cutting it closer to the ground and let the holly take over completely.

20210309_080838.jpg

Overall – these macro landscapes look more springlike than our trees at this point. I’ll wait a few more weeks to photograph the large scale spring landscape.

Found Feather

/

I was out in the yard picking up sticks and sweeping the deck on a sunny afternoon….and found a feather in a pile of tulip poplar seeds. There were no other feathers around so maybe this one fell out as part of a molt rather than a predator/prey interaction. The tip was in relatively good shape, so it probably had joined the pile of seeds sometimes after the last rain. I took it inside to photograph.

20210308_140931.jpg

The feather had a lot of down near the base.  Using my 65x magnifying lens with a light clipped to my phone – it is easy to see the structure of the fluff!

20210308_141425.jpg

The part of the feather near the tip had even more structure although there are already parts of the feather than have split apart…and small debris. If the feather were still attached, the bird would be preening to correct both imperfections. Once a feather falls out, it doesn’t last long in the natural world.

Last Snow of February 2021

/

It snowed for a short time on the 22nd – the last snow of the month. I was disappointed with my first foray out to photograph snowflakes.

They looked like pellets although not always sleet spheres like I had photographed earlier in the month. They were very white…and I could see that some were hexagonal even without magnification.

20210222_081814.jpg

When I used my clip-on magnifying lens with my phone – I saw that they were indeed heavily encrusted snowflakes. They were thick enough that the shallow depth of field with the magnification meant that parts were out of focus.

I tried again 30 minutes later and was surprised at how different the flakes looked. They were still encrusted but not as heavily. The temperature was warm enough that there were clumps of icy flakes --- pieces of structure.

My favorite image of the morning was taken during the second session. The lighting caused a little aberration, but I like the glitter of the ice…and the overall shapes.

s 20210222_084318.jpg

At dusk of the same day, the snow was still on the ground as the deer came through; they never stop for very long in our yard. This time they stopped for long enough for portraits. I’m quite sure the animal in the second image saw me in my window!

Overall – it was a winter’s day to enjoy…my routine pursuits with the added spice of snowflake photography and noticing deer staying a few minutes longer than usual in our back yard.

Zentangle® – February 2021

/

I created a lot of tiles in February – not counting the Valentines themed tiles I already posted. I am continuing my theme of utilizing tile material completely (modifying tile sizes that I cut to leave no small pieces of card stock/cardboard unused. I also started making two-sided tiles when the cardboard is ‘blank’ on both sides; these will lend themselves to hanging mobile type displays eventually. All the tiles were physical ones this month and I will probably continue that way until I use up the Ultra-Thin Sharpie set that I’ve had for a few years now; some of them have run out of ink already.

Most of the tiles were made without a plan in mind….I like to start with a pattern and then build a tile from the middle out – or start with a frame…with or without a string. Often I am surprised at various stages along the way – when I finish the drawing in black ink….when I finish ‘coloring’….when the highlighting as been added as a last pass. Sometimes the parts that remain as black lined patterns are a frame or simply the background. The white lines always draw my eye.

--

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.

Zooming - February 2021

/

As I selected the images to include in this monthly post, I found more variety than usual. The experimental high key images are quite different than my usual photography – a type of photography I will continue to use in otherwise poor lighting conditions. There was also a lot of snow….in landscapes and as background to the usual birds. I took more pictures of deer in February too. One subject carried over from last month – the skunk cabbage is still blooming at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant and it’s the only picture taken away from home! Enjoy the slideshow.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2021

/

The biggest celebrations of February 2021 were about my family surviving very cold weather in Missouri and Texas relatively unscathed…..and everyone staying well for another month. Of course – there were a myriad of little celebrations. I easily list one every day – and sometimes choosing what to record is a challenge!

There were more notations than usual about food in February. Some were experiments that were yummy…others were opportunistic:

20210131_160036.jpg

Snow ice cream. We had enough snow this month to make snow ice cream. I always wait for the snow to get at least 3-4 inches deep…then collect the top inch for the snow ice cream. I collect a bowl full then add half and half, chipped peppermint candy/sugar, and vanilla. It’s one of the few times I use my old electric mixer! The challenge is to make only as much as my husband and I can consume right away…we usually each manage a large bowl full. …celebrating a snow day favorite

Broccoli  with orange marmalade glaze. When it’s cold outside, I rarely want salad….this experiment was an easy way to have a ‘hot’ equivalent. I cut up broccoli just as I would for salad, tossed it over a spoonful of orange marmalade in a bowl and microwaved it for a minute or so. A quick stir to coat the broccoli with the melted marmalade, and it was ready to eat! …celebrating ‘hot’ versions of salads

Microwave apple with oatmeal and pecans. I bought a large bag of apples that my husband did not like as well as I thought he would, so I was looking for ways to use them. Breakfast in a bowl seemed to be a good option. I put about ½ cup almond milk in a microwavable bowl then 1/3 cup oatmeal, some brown sugar and cinnamon, a cut up apple, some chopped pecans. Microwave for a minute….stir…microwave for another 30 seconds to a minute…and enjoy. I’ve had it for breakfast several times but realize it would taste good to me any time of day! ….celebrating a new ‘comfort food’

Hot chocolate smoothie. I like smoothies and started experimenting with heating them up. My favorite is made with almond milk, chocolate protein powder, cocoa, banana, and kale. I make it the usual way in the Ninja then put it in a Pyrex measuring cup to heat in the microwave. I stir is several times while I heat…it thickens a bit. ….celebrating a decadent (healthy) treat

There were photography entries on my list too….some attempts that produced images to celebrate.

Snowflakes. There were several snow day during the month so I got several opportunities. I learned to pay attention to the temperature; in general – lower is better! …celebrating the challenge of macro photography outdoors in the snow

High key. This is an example of learning something new….being inspired…and lucky enough to create some interesting images almost immediately! …celebrating learning something new – well enough to be ‘dangerous’

And then there was the variety in the rest of the list:

Multiple virtual birding festivals in one day: Niagara, Laredo, and Bosque del Apache. It was almost overwhelming. We ended up saving some of the webinars until the next day. I was not ‘in the field’ but something that would have been physically impossible: New York/Canada – Texas – New Mexico all in one day! …celebrating the wonders of virtual travel

2021 02 01 IMG_3560 (3).jpg

Quiet snowy Sunday. Sometimes it’s good to have a day to just enjoy the scenery from our windows! …celebrating home

A warmer day in Maryland that Texas or Missouri. Texts were flying across states…the family checking in…worried about water pipes breaking or loosing electricity. My family was lucky enough to come through with relatively few problems! …celebrating family sharing during times of near/potential crisis.

Curbside groceries. I have noticed how different it is from last spring. The shoppers are faster (probably more experienced) and the supply in the store is better. It will be wonderful to shop for my own groceries again but for now I am….celebrating the curbside pickup grocery service.

New Swopper Chair

/

My Swopper chair, that was more than a decade old, broke back in December; the base separated from the pedestal and seat. It could function as a stool that could tilt but had lost connection to the mechanism that enabled the bouncing motion. The new limitation impacted my goal to keep my activity level up all during the day (i.e. minimize completely sedentary time). I tried to shift to a new activity pattern; moving was more clumped than before because it included getting up from my computer to move every hour then having some times that were completely sedentary except some side to side moving on the broken Swopper. I found that I sometimes felt achy even after 30 or 40 minutes of not moving! The Swopper chair had allowed me to move more frequently without breaking my activity at the computer without me even being conscious I was moving…and I opted to buy a new Swopper.

20210223_133707.jpg

Now my office is back to the old ‘normal’ with the new chair and my aches are dramatically reduced.

The chair comes in 3 pieces in a big box: the base, the pedestal with spring, and the seat. Once they are put together…they don’t come apart. Its are expensive but will last a long time. I figure I bounced more than a million times on the old one before it broke, and I hope this new one is a durable.

Staying active every day is a lifestyle choice….one that helps me sustain the ability to do things I want to do for as long as possible.

Ice Shelf

/

The skylight in the roof of our cover deck slopes enough that the snow and ice it accumulates acts like a mini-glacier as it melts. Over the past few days, our part of Maryland stayed cold with melting occurring with the sunshine even as the temperature stayed below freezing. And then everything re-froze overnight. The snow was icy and dense rather than fluffy because the majority fell as sleet….and as it began to slide down the slippery slope of the skylight, an ice sheet formed.

Did the icicles that formed at its edge provide any support?

2021 02 IMG_3777 (3).jpg

It lasted for more than 24 hours with the re-freezing overnight although there was a noticeable erosion of the ice closest to the skylight housing during the first exposure to sunshine.

2021 02 IMG_3812.jpg

I watched it all morning the second day as the sun came up and the skylight began to get full sun as the morning progressed. About noon – the shelf cracked (I heard it rather than saw it)…slid down the rest of the roof and gutter and crashed to the deck below….shattering on impact.

It was awesome to watch this small model of glacier and ice shelf behavior --- think about how the process would translate to a larger scale and longer duration in the Antarctic.

High Key Photography Experiments

/

I watched a webinar about high-key style photography done my Lisa Langell for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival earlier this month….and have been experimenting with the technique since then. The goal is to simplify subjects…and overexpose enough to get a totally white background. I haven’t gotten to the stage of attempting any post-processing; all the images in this post were accomplished in camera! It doesn’t have to be a ‘good light’ day to do this type of photography!

Of course – we had some snow days which are a natural for high key photographic experiments.

The cut flowers were good subjects as well. Most of these were taken in my office with light behind them from a lamp or the window in the afternoon.

2021 02 IMG_3632.jpg

Peacock feathers are also good subjects. I experimented with different exposures and noted the color changes in the images below.

Now the challenge is to recognize opportunities for high key photography – transition a not-so-good day for photography into something quite different!

Sleet and Snowflake Macros

/

I try to do some photography with my phone and clip-on macro lens with every snow event. On the 13th, the snow event was mostly sleet, but I enjoyed looking at and photographing the tiny spheres of ice. I caught them on a red glass plate...and also scooped a few onto the plate from the surface of the deck. Sleet is more durable to rough treatment that snowflakes! The icy spheres have swirls in them…smaller ones are stuck to larger ones…sometimes there is a visible fracture. My lens is a 65x magnification, so these are very small.

On the 19th, the tail end of our cold weather was snow rather than freezing rain. The temperature was about 30 degrees – a bit colder than my previous snowflake photography forays…and it turned out to be an interesting session. The flakes looked somewhat flattened….not as delicate as they might be if the temperature was lower. But – I didn’t have the challenge of inseparable aggregates that was the norm for my sessions when the temperature was just a few degrees warmer. I used a black acrylic tile to catch the flakes and then to photography them. It sat outside on the covered deck for several hours to cool down. I was pleased with the results…chagrined that I had forgotten to turn on the light associated with the clip-on lens; the pictures would have been even better with the extra light….an improvement I’ll make next time!