Zooming – July 2021
/The images this month are from Maryland, Missouri and Texas! The collection is skew toward plants but here are a few birds and dragonflies. There are at least two high key images as well. Enjoy the slide show for July 2021.
Road trip from Maryland to Springfield, Missouri
/I started out on another road trip last week…heading to my daughter’s house in Missouri and then, after a few days, continuing to Dallas, Texas for a family wedding celebration. This post is about the first part of the road trip. The trip was planned shortly after I got back from the last one….before the dramatic uptick in the COVID-19 cases in southwest Missouri due to the delta variant. As I started out – I realized that I felt less secure on this road trip than the one I made in April/May. During the previous trip, the cases were beginning to trend downward across the country and the number of vaccines per day was high. I anticipated by July that many areas of the country would have enough people vaccinated to have very low numbers of cases and instead things have gone in a different direction – a drop off in people getting vaccinated and the delta variant becoming the dominate strain in the pandemic. And very few people are still wearing masks anymore! On this road trip, I am avoiding indoor spaces when I can – and wearing a mask otherwise. That meant I took my food with me for the road…and put on a mask when I went into the rest stop buildings. Until I got to Missouri – I was about the only person I saw wearing a mask. In Missouri, more people were wearing masks at the rest stops…but not everyone. The news about what is happening with the delta variant is beginning to get out to the general population – hopefully.
It stopped at almost all the rest stops along the way. At the very first stop – South Mountain – a trucker that arrived at the vending machines about the same time as I did, bought my soft drink before I could get my credit card out! His generosity and the pleasant conversation for a few minutes brightened my perspective for the rest of the trip. It also was wonderful to see a pollinator garden and a tiger swallowtail.
The next stop was Sideling Hill – still in Maryland. I noted that the periodic cicada damage was still evident on some the trees. The big road cut is always impressive; I took a picture from the building walkway and then from the parking lot – waiting for a truck to go by to get a size comparison.
Then there were 4 stops in West Virginia. The state had turned off the hand dryers in the rest stops and filled the paper towel dispensers. I enjoyed the drive through the state – clean rest stops, highway in good condition, light traffic, curvy and scenic. The most interesting rest stop was one with sunflowers (not blooming yet). Most of them were short enough that I could look down in the center of the plant where the flower bud was beginning to form; there was one very tall plant that had grown through an open area of the building overhang!
I had one rest stop in Kentucky before I got to the hotel near Frankfort, Kentucky. It looked like the thunderstorms in the forecast were going to happen for that last hour of the drive…but it just looked threatening. Only a light rain came down…no lightning or thunder.
The next morning, I was away from the hotel by 6:30 AM. The cloud cover did not make for a pretty sunrise.
The next stops were in Indiana…and the time shifted to CDT. I stopped at a McDonald’s (needed a rest stop) but then highway rest stops. I bought gas but didn’t used that as a rest stop. I finished eating the carrots and grapes I had packed to eat as I drove.
The route through Illinois is short…only one rest stop…a Welcome Center. And then the bridge over the Mississippi River in view of the arch at St. Louis (no pictures while I’m driving!).
The clouds looked ominous again as I drove through Missouri. There was more traffic (trucks, pickups pulling trailers) because I had joined I-70. The second stop had a Route 66 theme with pay phones (not functioning) as part of the display.
I made good time and was out my daughters by 2:30 PM and unloading my car. I unloaded the fragile household items (like larger framed pictures) to store her basement until my husband and I move to the area. I waiting until the next day to clean up all the packing material…fold it neatly to use for another load the next time my make the trek between Maryland and Missouri.
Breakfast on the Deck
/Now that the deck staining is complete, and we’ve moved the furniture back and hung the deck curtains to block the afternoon sun – I am having breakfast on the deck. My breakfast is in 2 parts: a first breakfast at about 7 AM which always includes dark chocolate (usual herbal tea to drink) and then a second breakfast about 10 AM which varies more. On the morning I took the picture it was crustless quiche with sunflower seeds on top with diet Pepsi.
I open at least one of the drapes so I can see the maple tree. The birds are generally active during the early morning – blue jays and grackles were the noisiest on the morning I took the pictures. The vegetation is so thick this time of year that they are heard more than seen.
Sometimes I take supplies to make a Zentangle tile after I’ve eaten the dark chocolate. On this morning I was surprised at how cool it felt….I opted to make the tile indoors.
Overall – the morning is the most pleasant time to be on the deck in the summer. Some outdoor time is a great way to start the day.
30 Years Ago – July 1991
/In June 1991, we had guests from Texas at our house. In July 1991, we went to Texas. I remember it vividly and was surprised when I looked back through my notes from the time to find that we were only there for 4 days. It seems like we did so much: went to the Dallas zoo, did a lot of water play with hoses and plastic bins big enough for each 23 month old girl to have her own, and explored several playgrounds where the swings were big favorites.
It seemed like my daughter had a step increase in language and coordination…..and became a lot more opinionated about what she wanted to do. Maybe that last part was a precursor to her ‘terrible twos.’
We had two rounds of colds – before and after the trip to Texas. My husband did the best which was good since he was settling into his new job. My daughter had an eye infection along with her cold. I had an eye and ear infection that took 3 different antibiotics back to back; finally the last one worked.
The garden my mother-in-law had tended the previous summer was producing tomatoes, chives, dill, oregano and sunflowers. She died in Fall 1990 and we felt closer to her in the garden she had created than at the cemetery where she was buried.
Home Maintenance
/We’ve been catching up on some home maintenance this month.
My husband had started the process to get the deck stained back in June but there were so many rain days that it was only completed recently, and we moved all the furniture back that had been stored underneath the deck in the interim. The table had accumulated quite a lot of pollen and dust. We also hung the curtains to block the sun in the afternoon. I’ll start spending some time on the deck in the mornings.
We also fixed a divider piece between vinyl and carpet flooring that had come loose. I held the piece while my husband hammered in some longer nails with small heads. It is great to have it firmly in place again.
Last but not least, I discovered another chair that belongs with a kitchen table my daughter has in Springfield. It needed some wood glue and screws tightened before it was in good repair…ready to be taken on my next road trip to Springfield…and left there.
It feels good to be working off out ‘to do’ list of things that need to be done around the house!
Day Lily Portraits
/Day lily flowers are at their best outdoors in the morning….just after they open.
We have day lilies in three areas of our yard: the front flower bed near the garage, in the back in an area close the house that now gets too much shade for them to do well, and at the base of the oak.
Most of the buds are eaten by deer before they can open so I try to cut the flowers if they manage to open outdoors and the buds when they are large enough to continue their cycle in a vase. The images below show a bud that opened indoors on the first morning….and one that had opened the previous morning.
I like to try high key images with the day lilies indoors as well.
The flowers dry and fall off after they bloom. They retain some of their color and I like the curls, twists, and wrinkles.
I also photograph them with the clip-on magnifier for my phone…and the clicker to cause the phone to take the picture (making it easier to hold the phone steady). The color and texture look different when they are magnified. The pollen is visible if a petal did not cover it as the flower dried.
16 months in COVID-19 Pandemic
/16 months into the pandemic with vaccines available to anyone 12 or older…and the Delta variant is surging in some areas where the percent of the population vaccinated is low. Unfortunately - Springfield, Missouri is one of those places. It is frustrating that the deaths and the start of long term disabilities from COVID-19 that are happening now could have been avoided via vaccination….that the impact on lives of individuals and the economy (through increased health care and loss of productivity for those that became ill and didn’t fully recover) will be part of the legacy of (what I hope is) the late stages of the pandemic in the US.
I was at home in Maryland – a state with a high vaccination rate – for most of June. Even with Maryland’s stats, the Delta variant has me still wearing a mask any time I am in an indoor space like the grocery store (early morning when there are not many people around) or doctor’s offices (catching up on appointments I put off during the pandemic). We are still in takeout mode for restaurants and my husband wears a mask when he picks up our food. At other stores, we are doing curbside pickup. I wear a mask at the Farmers Market even though it is outdoors because it is difficult to keep distance while I am shopping. By this time, I had hoped we would be at the point of not needing masks, but the variants have changed the situation.
We are enjoying outdoor places: Brookside Gardens, Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, Centennial Park, and Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. We choose times where there won’t be many other people around – usually in the mornings. I’m glad we’ve been able to avoid crowds/not wear masks since sometimes the temperature is warm enough that masks would be uncomfortable. Our yard is a great place to enjoy the outdoors as well; I enjoy yardwork in short bursts…when it’s not too hot.
Webinars have been a boon during the pandemic and this past month included one of the most thought-provoking: The Institutions of Extraterrestrial Liberty. It was an interdisciplinary 4 days of sessions (Day 1: https://tinyurl.com/4t7zjv72 Day 2: https://tinyurl.com/2f9n4b72 Day 3: https://tinyurl.com/48rbba2k Day 4: https://tinyurl.com/5bbey7pr)).
I’ve been thinking about the most effective pandemic coping mechanisms for me…deciding that the variety of strategies I’ve developed over many years have all contributed. It is having many familiar strategies to choose from that is important….and utilizing them often – together or alone. There are some that are part of my daily routine: journaling, 12,000 steps, browsing 4 online books, mindfulness/yoga, blog post, noting something I am celebrating, creating Zentangle tile. My office is arranged such that the view from the window is a wall of trees with a roof at one side where birds occasionally perch. My husband and I try to plan one ‘field trip’ each week – a garden walk, birding, hiking, astronomy. Overall…we’ve settled into a routine that is sustainable.
I have road trip plans for the next month….and will be taking precautions to stay well while I am on the road and visiting family.
Cicada Aftermath
/
The Brood X adult cicadas are gone; the outdoors is quiet in comparison to the way it was a month ago. The trees are showing the impact of the large numbers of cicadas that emerged this year…but not all the trees were impacted the same. Our oak seems to have the most small-stem breakage from the cicada eggs deposited under the bark…the larvae hatching and dropping to the ground. The stems split and the leaves past the split die. The condition is called ‘flagging.’
Some of the leaves are already falling off the tree; they’ll be mulched into the yard the next time we mow.
There are other insects that enjoy our oak. I noticed that some of the leaves on the ground have holes in them. Without the cicadas, the leaves probably would have stayed green and on the tree for the rest of the summer.
The sycamore is impacted to a lesser degree.
It appears from the yard that the small branches are falling off more quickly than the oak’s.
I took some zoomed pictures of the sycamore branches. The color and shapes appeal to me.
Soon the aftermath of the Brood X will all be underground….the larvae beginning their 17 year journey.
There was a story in the news of some research into the blue jay and grackle die off recently….looking at whether the fungus that seemed more prevalent in the cicadas this year might have impacted the juvenile birds that ate them. The die off occurred in the same areas where Brood X emerged.
A Good Year for Virginia Creeper
/The Virginia Creeper seems to be growing lusher in our yard each year….maybe a step above the trend this year. I am letting it grow up the trunks of our sycamore and oak (planning to cut it back if it ever gets up too high in the tree and start interfering with the tree’s own leaves/food production).
The plant clings to vertical surfaces with disks rather than roots so I am letting it grow on the basement wall that borders the chaos garden – for now. The gentle arch and changing color of the leaves as they mature appeals to me.
Supporting native plants in my yard has become increasingly important to me over the past few years – glad that I have native trees already present (oak, maple, sycamore, tulip poplar, black walnut). The Virginia Creeper is the ‘vine’ I am encouraging – it’s easier to love than the native grape that grows so rapidly and gets out of control…or the trumpet vine that needs more sun than I have and also tends to overwhelm everything around it. The Virginia creeper produces tiny seeds that provides winter food for birds and the leaves support several insect species. Virginia Creeper is the host plant for Virginia Creeper Sphinx moths. I’ll be looking for the caterpillars on the plants in my yard!
Zentangle® – June 2021
/30 Zentangle tiles selected from the tiles made in June after I returned home from the road trip to Texas and Missouri. They are all rectangular rather than square and colored with old Sharpie Ultra Fine pens that are low on ink or have failing tips. Maybe I’ll buy a new set of colorful pens in August. Enjoy the June mosaic.
I’ll be going to Texas and Missouri in mid-July and am anticipating another round of tiles colored with gel pens that at my parents’ house in Texas. Until I leave on the road trip – I’ll be picking the Sharpies that are still functioning. I might start drawing tiles and saving the coloring for when I am in Texas!
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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.
Ten Little Celebrations – June 2021
/After being away from home in May…being in Maryland again rippled with little celebrations associated with home. Here are my top 10 little celebrations from June 2021:
Scenic drive from Lexington KY to home. Light traffic, good highway, beautiful scenery….I took a picture to celebrate being back in Maryland.
Farmers Market. I’ve been going every week and it’s a celebration every time. The piles of produce fresh from the local farms (and artisan bread) make it a happy errand…and then I enjoy the bounty in meals all during the week. It’s a great substitute for belonging to a CSA (which is not practical for me this year because of my traveling).
A good watermelon. There was a sign in the produce section of Wegmans for seeded watermelons. I always remember them from my childhood….sweeter than the ones without seeds that we find more frequently in stores today. I bought one – hoping it would live up my expectations. And it did. Celebrating a watermelon as good as I remembered!
Yard work. An hour of work (several of them on mornings when it is still cool enough to be pleasant)…2 wheelbarrow loads to the brush pile or compost bin….celebrating a neater yard and satisfaction of encouraging native species.
Apple crisp. While I was away, my husband did curbside pickup for his groceries. He somehow got a huge bag of apples. Some of the excess apples made a great apple crisp…celebrating bounty (and not wasting food).
Howard County Conservancy Mt Pleasant. Every time I hike there, there is something new to celebrate – most recently dragonflies and a black-crowned night heron.
Maryland sunrise and partial solar eclipse. Celebrating being in the right place at the right time to see it.
New crowns. I had anticipated that getting 3 new crowns was going to be uncomfortable but was pleasantly surprised that my expectation was way over the top; there was almost no discomfort during the drilling or sensitive areas afterward…. celebrated that it happened that way.
New computer glasses. Hurray for seeing better…and the red frames.
The Institutions of Extraterrestrial Liberty talks. There were 4 days of webinars….and I found many of them very thought provoking. I celebrated the content…and that they were made available by the sponsors of the virtual conference. (Day 1: https://tinyurl.com/4t7zjv72 Day 2: https://tinyurl.com/2f9n4b72 Day 3: https://tinyurl.com/48rbba2k Day 4: https://tinyurl.com/5bbey7pr)
Mini-Landscapes
/I enjoy photographing the mini-landscapes of my yard more that the larger ones; it’s hard to get enough distance from our big trees to get the whole thing. Photographing the small assemblages of plants to capture their world is a more satisfying project. I like the diverse shapes of ferns and violets and other small plants gradually covering stepping-stones under our deck.
One fern was thriving by a downspout when we moved the deck furniture near it (for the deck to be stained). The starburst shape of the fern…the heart shapes of violets. Now we’ve moved the furniture back to the deck and the fern is more isolated.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
I liked the wavy shapes of the fungus growing on a stump. This picture could be in a forest…but it is not. The stump was from a bush growing at the corner of our garage that I recently cut down! It’s a bit of serendipity to notice something interesting and beautiful in an unexpected place.
I battle the deer for the day lilies. The deer usually win. The brown stems in this picture are the ones the deer got. I cut all the stems with larger buds to take inside. They might have been saved by their shorter stalks, the milkweed plant that was growing between them and the yard where the deer would be, and the house/bushes behind them.
New Computer Glasses
/I had noticed over the past few months that I was able to see the birds and cicadas fluttering in our backyard maple with my computer glasses…and my vision was not as great for the computer screen distance. So - it was not a big surprise that I needed new computer glasses when I finally got my eyes checked recently. It turned out that my eyes had gotten better since my last checkup(back in May 2019) – at least when it comes to distance vision.
I’d gotten brown plastic frames previously – thinking they were only glasses to wear around the house. Almost as soon as I got them, I realized I should have gotten more colorful frames, so I had already thought about colors before my appointment…just in case I needed a new prescription; red or turquoise were the top contenders. The technician showed me frames in both colors and the red ones appealed to me the most. Here they are with last summer’s straw flowers.
I’m savoring crisp computer-screen-distance vision….and the color of my frames every time I see myself in the mirror!
Summer Plans
/My theme for this summer is catching up….and consciously maintaining practices that sustained my wellbeing during the pandemic. Being at home right now is such a pleasure: there are mornings cool enough to comfortably work in the yard or go for a hike, there are fabulous seasonal veggies and fruits available from the farmers market…and I am catching up on all the health-related checkups I put off for over a year. My husband organized our house’s heating/cooling system check up, asphalt driveway sealing, and deck re-staining. And I am continuing my high-volume book browsing (Internet Archive is like a candy store for books!), Zentangle making, getting 12,000 steps per day, a bit of yoga, writing down what I am celebrating/thankful for, writing blog posts….days are full…never boring!
Being able to go to Texas to see my aging parents in May was an important milestone…a relief from the time we had to stay at home where I could only see/hear them virtually. I’ve already planned another trip for July and will see more of the family then at a wedding. The big event for my parents after I left was a large mulberry tree being cut down in their yard. It had been ailing for some time and finally the rot around an old spilt was significant enough that the big trunks could crack apart at any time with the potential to damage three houses! My sister sent me a picture midway through the cleanup. I found myself wishing I would have been there for the drama! There is grief for the old tree….but also relief that it didn’t fall and cause a lot of damage.
Being vaccinated gives me confidence to make the plan to drive to Texas in July and then again in September. I had anticipated that I would be more confident in July that I was back in April just after I was fully vaccinated…but the delta variant has reduced my confidence and I’ll keep wearing a mask when I am not sure everyone I am encountering has been vaccinated. I’ll be making the drive over 3 days with a stop in Springfield MO to visit my daughter where they are having a surge of cases due to the variant. I am glad she got moved to her new house during the lull in cases in late May. She is back to curbside pickup rather than going into any store.
I have opted to not volunteer this summer…waiting until the fall to get back into those activities…but the decision isn’t because of the pandemic. The type of volunteering I enjoy the most is outdoors; in the summer it tends to be in the hotter part of the day which is sometimes problematic for me; I don’t want to cancel at the last minute because the temperature is too high or the air quality is not good. Toward the end of the summer there will be training for the new fall programs – I’m sure the pandemic has changed them a bit – and then I’ll get back into the fray.
Overall summer 2021 has been enjoyable so far and I am looking forward to the rest of it!
30 years ago – June 1991
/Looking back at June 1991 – it seems that life had a faster pace…almost an unsustainable pace but common in families where the adults work and the child is less than two years old. We had company for 2 weeks out of the month. The first was a visit from a sister that had recently moved into a new house and needed a break for the flurry of that activity; we enjoyed several outings to the park and Ladew Topiary Gardens…discovered that McDonalds was an excellent place for lunch with a 21-month-old.
The second visit was a sister’s family – that included their daughter (a week older than my daughter). We prepared the girls prior to the visit by showing them pictures and videos of each other; it worked…they were immediate buddies. We went to parks and several museums (one was The Cloisters which was a children’s museum then and is now a wedding venue, another was Rose Hill Manor Park & Museums)…read books, splashed in the small pool on hot days, and enjoyed every inch of our house and yard. One was talking more…the other seemed to enjoy more complex books. We all had ‘Maryland is for Crabs’ t-shirts! In the picture below my daughter is hugging a tree along the Cunningham Falls State Park boardwalk – one of the outdoor places that was enjoyable for everyone in our group.
Being outdoors…doing something with water…was one of my daughter’s favorite activities. We had tomato plants and gladiolus getting ready to bloom in the garden around the oak tree.
A summer cold made the rounds. My daughter had it for a few days…mine lingered and I eventually went to the doctor – got medicine for ear and eye infections.
In world news – children in Iraq were dying of cholera and other water borne disease…the Kuwait fires were slowly being extinguished.
Overall – it was a month full of juggling work with home life. I can’t say that it was a balancing act…it was more of a blending and using every minute optimally…exhausting but rewarding.
By the end of the month, I already had plane tickets to visit Texas in July. My husband would be with us on the flight down then continue to San Diego for a conference…the blending rather than balancing strategy again.
Gleanings of the Week Ending June 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.
Top 25 birds of the week: Terrestrial Birds – Several ancestors of chickens in this group!
3D-printed material to replace ivory -- ScienceDaily – ‘Digory’ made of resin and calcium phosphate particles….can be used to restore old ivory artifacts.
Managing Colorado River risk | Science – The reduction of water in the Colorado River basin over time…the challenge of managing that reduction for 40 million people that depend on the water source.
Death metal: Evidence for the impact of lead poisoning on childhood health within the Roman Empire – A study of 173 skeletons from 5 sites dated AD 1st-4th centuries.
First State National Historical Park Gains 254 Acres – This could be a good day trip for my husband and I…getting there early enough in the morning for it to not be cool enough for a good hike.
Incredible Close-Up Portraits of Solitary Bees Highlight Their Character – Wow! A great project done during COVID-19 quarantine!
Human Teeth Hold the Secrets of Ancient Plagues - The Atlantic – Finding ancient pathogens in old bone….an interview with Johannes Krause, director of the archaeogenetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Teeth are like a time capsule: bits of blood protected by the enamel.
Cool and COVID-safe: How radiant cooling could keep our cities comfortable and healthy -- ScienceDaily – Looking for ways to stay cool at lower energy costs than traditional HVAC systems.
Tiffany Stained Glass at Art Institute of Chicago | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A church window transitioned to a museum and restored…now on display.
Mysterious Ailment Blinding and Killing Birds in Washington, D.C. Area – Glad we’ve had our feeder and bird baths put away for the past 6 weeks or so since we are in the process of getting our deck worked on. Fledglings of blue jays and grackles seem to be the birds impacted the most.
Enjoying Home
/There is so much to enjoy about just being home. Even yard work is appealing! On the third day back – I was out early with the goal of cleaning out the front flower beds. I didn’t have enough energy to set the goal to completing the job…instead strived for two wheelbarrow loads back to the forest/brush pile. It was not too difficult and my long sleeves/gauntlet gloves protected my hands from poison ivy (there might have been one plant) and blackberry thorns.
I took short breaks to photograph tiny mushrooms, blooming clover (the clover we planted last fall in the problem areas of our yard is growing well), cicadas at every turn, and tiny blooms on our bushes.
I already have plans for another round in the front yard and then will begin work on the chaos garden (which is completely wild this year).
My husband and I have enjoyed some short ‘field trips’ to Brookside Gardens and to view the recent partial solar eclipse. One field trip per week is probably about right for us – even though we are still spending most of our time at home. We are choosing venues where there are outdoors…usually in the morning (sometimes very early)…where there are unlikely to be crowds. There are a lot of places we’ve enjoyed in the past that we haven’t been to for over a year!
Since I knew I would be going to Texas several times this summer, I opted to not sign up for the CSA this year; I’m going to the Farmers Market instead which happens ever Sunday. It’s worked well so far. I got spinach, broccoli and snap peas the first week…spinach, squash, and artisan bread with pecans and golden raisins the second week (the spinach is for green smoothies). I’m still a little overwhelmed with veggies since my husband doesn’t eat them…but I know how to freeze any that I have left over!
Last Sunday when I was pulling into the driveway after my trek to the Farmers Market, I noticed a lot of cicadas on the day lily leaves growing around our oak tree. Do you see three in the picture below? The temperature might have still been a little cool for them to be flying around. One of the things I like about our yard is how much wildlife we have around!
I picked up some cicada carcasses from the driveway and did a little macro photography after I put away the produce.
I also brought in some stalks of day lily buds; it’s the same every year at this time – cutting the buds as soon as they are big enough to open in water…before the deer eat them!
I enjoy just about everything about being home…rejuvenating myself for my next foray away in mid-July.
15 months in COVID-19 Pandemic
/15 months in….The pandemic is waning - although not as rapidly as it would be if more people were vaccinated. It is frustrating that we have not reached herd immunity levels via vaccinations already. At this point, there are vaccines available to all over the age of 12; many states have closed their mass vaccination sites and transitioned to smaller venues due to lower demand. The variants are causing localized surges in cases among unvaccinated people; so far, the vaccine is still effective against the variants although a bit less so for some variants. I am continuing to wear a mask any time I am in close proximity to other people (particularly indoors)…thinking about those that are too young or impacted by immunological challenges. I’m glad that most states are working to address vaccine hesitancy….hoping that those efforts will increase the numbers of people vaccinated enough to achieve herd immunity but worried that some areas of the country will continue to be hot spots for COVID-19 into the future. As time goes on, it is harder to be sympathetic with people that refuse the vaccine…and then get sick…and increasing the probability that at some point a variant will emerge that the vaccines don’t stop.
I continued the trip way from home over the past month and returned home. It was a huge change after being at home all the time during the pandemic. It was invigorating and stressful at the same time; I became more aware of my changed perception of other people. Keeping distance has become habit. Many times wearing a mask prompts silence too; it’s time to reinstate greetings to people we meet on sidewalks and gardens!
After I got home, the different between my area of Maryland and the places I traveled through (in Texas and Missouri for the most time) were noticeable. The CDC map shows that Maryland’s vaccination rate is higher than where I had travelled – but I noticed that people here are still wearing masks more frequently too. When I got to the grocery store (in the early morning), everyone is masked. At the Farmers Market, most people are wearing masks even though it is outdoors (likely to be close to other people though). At Brookside Gardens, people have a mask with them and put it on if they are close to other people. I haven’t ventured out more than that. My husband (also vaccinated) is still doing curbside pickups rather than going into stores.
I have re-started checkups. Dentist was first; I needed 3 crowns (one a replacement of a 30-year-old crown and the other two were for teeth with big fillings). Optometrist was second; my eyes had changed enough (my eyes has improved!) to need new glasses; I used that as an excuse to get red frames for my computer glasses. There are still more appointments to catch up on everything I delayed since March 2020.
I’ve started wearing earrings and makeup again although not on days I will be wearing a mask.
With all the activity of the road trip, the number of webinars over the past month dropped. Now that I am home again, I am enjoying the Maryland Ornithological Society Convention webinars with my husband. Others are on my calendar for upcoming weeks. There are some that I might watch that were recorded while I was traveling…it’s a bit overwhelming!
Overall, it’s been a good month. I’ve expanded my horizons, but life is not back to the way it was pre-pandemic. There are some aspects that maybe I don’t want back!
Home Again – Day 2
/The second day I was back – I was still exhausted but forged ahead. I started the day with a 6:30 AM trek to the grocery store to restock the refrigerator with fresh veggies and almond milk and eggs which my husband doesn’t eat on his own (he claims he gets his fresh veggies in his takeout orders!).
In a intentional move toward pre-pandemic ‘normal’ – I put on earrings after I got back from buying groceries (I had stopped wearing them during the pandemic; afraid of the mask dislodging them or getting tangled)…wearing ones my daughter had gotten me for Mother’s Day.
My husband had made our taco filling recipe a few days before I returned home and we both enjoyed leftovers for lunch. I picked up some blue corn chips with my groceries and ate my serving as a dip. I extended my serving with some sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes…put some chess on top.
I ordered a summer dress for an upcoming wedding and a smaller docking station for my laptop (responding to the bulk and clumsy configuration of the larger docking station I already have). I also ordered some wool dryer balls since my daughter has found them to be effective. It felt good to follow up on lessons learned from my road trip…start preparing for the next one.
In the early afternoon, I walked around the yard to photograph the periodic cicadas that have emerged this year. This is the third time we have experienced it…the second time in this house. I had seen their bumbling flight in the trees from my office window. At ground level, I zoomed in on the insects in the grass or crawling up tree trunks. There seemed to be a lot of sheds in our cherry tree. Enjoy the slide show of the best cicada pictures from around the yard!
Home Again – Day 1
/My time away from home on the road trip (Maryland to Texas to Missouri and back to Maryland) was from April 17 to June 2. It was my longest time away from home since my junior year of high school when I traveled with an Up with People cast/traveling high school; I was away from home for semester length stints then. This time was very different both because of the intervening years of experience, returning to my own home/husband rather than my parents, and more recently impact of the pandemic but there was a similarity too – coming home was a return to the place I felt most secure after going out into the world with some anticipated trepidation.
The first thing I did when I got home to Maryland was to walk down the driveway taking a few pictures. I had missed almost all the iris blooms. There were only 2 flowers remaining…no more buds. The day lilies were beginning, and the deer had not eaten very many (yet). The Virginia creeper was vigorously growing up the oak tree. The trees and yard had filled out while I was away.
I unpacked the car…tried to disperse items close to where they could be put away. For some reason I was exhausted even though the drive had been easy…and sedentary. Being home again felt odd instead of ‘normal.’ I was grateful that my husband had kept things in good order while I was away. Somehow the list in my head of what I needed to do felt overwhelming. More about that in tomorrow’s post.
