Flower Macros – January 2021

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This past week has been a swirl of stressful news…events in DC, pandemic stats and the UK variant, realizing that too many people have complete trust in and idolize a person (our President) that is not trustworthy. I did several rounds of macro photography of flowers to try to regain my equilibrium…maybe the activity helped for a little. I used my phone with a 5x magnifying glass (built-in LED) attached with a rubber band; I had my clicker on the lanyard to control the shutter so I could focus on getting the phone into the position I wanted with the other hand.

The first-round subject was some alstroemeria petals that has fallen from the bouquet I bought more then 3 weeks ago. I embedded them in a thin sheet of ice. I popped the ice off the lid I had used as a container and put them on a red glass plate. I quickly discovered that pouring a little water on the ice made it easier to get the images I wanted….petals, ice with bubbles and cracks, red glass plate underneath – sometimes all three and sometimes just ice and glass.

The second-round subjects were the flowers I bought in the early morning of January 6th (the events of the day are probably going to be seared in my memory a much as the day Kennedy was assassinated and 9/11). There are alstroemeria in the bouquet that were buds on the day of purchase and are now fully open. There are also other flowers….they call it a ‘field mix’ and I like the variety! Enjoy the slide show.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 9, 2021

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

Coronavirus FAQ: How Do I Protect Myself From The U.K. Variant? - I added this one at the last minute…it’s scary…a good prompt to evaluate the precautions you are taking to not get COVID-19 with this more contagious variant circulating in the US. We are so close to having vaccinations broadly available!

When Only a Hippopotamus Will Do – Learn a bit about hippos. Did you know that there is a ‘wild’ population of hippos in Columbia’s Magdalena River, escaped from Pablo Escobar’s menagerie after his death?

Plastics pose threat to human health, report shows -- ScienceDaily – Awful….and there is relatively little being done to control this source of toxins in our environment.

Top 25 birds of the week: Terrestrial Birds! - Wild Bird Revolution – Most of the birds are relatively drab – lots of browns and off-white feathers….but interesting patterns. - the better to blend in with their environment. But there are a few surprises that are quite different from the rest.

From Ancient Rome to Contemporary Singapore: The Evolution of Conservatories – THE DIRT – I like conservatories….this article includes some history that I hadn’t thought about before…a bit more from the perspective of how conservatories fit into the cultures that created them.

Operation Ponderosa: Saving a Forest, Pandemic Edition – Several reasons this article caught my attention: it’s about 1) the Davis Mountains in Texas…a location I’ve driven through on road trips between Dallas and Tucson, 2) fieldwork and also done by a woman during this pandemic year, 3) the Ponderosa pine’s importance as ‘sky islands’ in this arid part of the country, 4) the impact of fire, and 5) how genetic testing informs forest restoration efforts.

Trees are out of equilibrium with climate -- ScienceDaily – I might have gotten a bit stuck on trees for this gleanings collection. This study found that factors other than climate often limit where trees grow...that few trees grow everywhere the climate would appear to support their growth.

Ancestral Puebloans Survived Droughts by Collecting Water from Icy Lava Tubes | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – New Mexico’s El Malpais….a place I’ve visited several times.

Migration and disease in the Iron Age - Current Archaeology – A skeleton of a man with tuberculosis that died between 400 BC and 230 BC in Britain but was born elsewhere based on analysis of his molars that developed in early childhood. Did he contract the disease early in his life or after he arrived in Britain?

Canyon De Chelly, Walnut Canyon Park Pages Added to Traveler – I’ve been to both these places so was glad they were added list of Essential Park Guides on this site. The guides are collections of articles about each park…and good references when planning a visit or to see some pictures of the park!

Bowerbirds: Meet the bird world’s kleptomaniac love architects – Elaborate structures of sticks and often colorful found objects…to attract a mate.

Ice Bubbles

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Sometimes there is a surprise opportunity for a photo shoot. Last week I was out putting seed in our bird feeder – and noticed that there was ice melting on the green lid of a bucket. Sycamore leaves and tulip poplar seeds had been on the lid before the snow fell… and were trapped in the snow melt that had refrozen overnight. The bubbles and pattern of water/ice were perfect for some quick photography.

I like finding things like this rather than trying to create them although there might be some value to creating some opportunities. Maybe as the cut flowers fade – I’ll experiment with immersing them in water and putting them in the freezer (now that it’s cleared out enough to have the space for this type of experiment) - creating ice bubbles and patterns to photograph.

Sunspot Photography

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My husband got a new lighter weight lens for his camera and has been experimenting with it handheld.  He has a solar filter for it so the sun has become one of the subjects that he can photograph from our backyard or driveway.

Sometimes the sun is not very interesting but toward the end of the year there were sunspots! Here is his selection of the best that he got on 12/29.

We’ve created projects for ourselves….things similar to what we normally do but usually don’t have enough time to enjoy in a methodical way. It’s one of the positive aspects of the precautions we are taking to avoid getting COVID-19. Over the past few months, he has sold some of his older and heavier lenses…replaced several with the new one that is lighter and thus easier on his back for when we are hiking/birding (mostly a future plan at this point). The reduced weight and the improved motion stabilization technology make it easier to use handheld. He may become more of a monopod (rather than tripod) user too.

I got a new camera for Christmas and will do some experimentation of my own in the next few weeks.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 2, 2021

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

2020 Year In Review: Top Stories From Around The National Park System – Issues discussed in the post: COVID-19, Great American Outdoors Act, border wall, invasive species, wildlife issues, climate change, crowding in the parks, wildfires.

New Discoveries in Human Anatomy | The Scientist Magazine® - So much study of human anatomy over the years….and there are still new discoveries.

50 Satellite Images from 50 Years of NOAA | NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) – Visuals from NOAA – beauty, science, education….so much has happened over the 50 years of NOAA’s existence.

2020 Year In Review: Parks, A Pandemic, And Photography – Lots to see in the National Parks…I hope to be able to get out and see some in-person before the end of 2021.

Top 25 birds of the week: Birding! – Wild Bird Revolution  - And I want to travel to some birding festivals too!

Recycled concrete could be a sustainable way to keep rubble out of landfill: Can even outperform traditional construction, says researcher – ScienceDaily – A Canadian study…seems like the results should be pertinent to the US too. The research indicates that “recycled concrete can be a 100% substitute for non-structural applications”….and might also be a substitute within more structural applications as well if innovations in the composition of recycled concrete continue.

Top 10 States For Renewable Energy, & Their Renewable Energy Splits  - Interesting mix of states on the list with quite a difference in the amount of hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass among the top 10. California is the only one with all 5. But there are 5 states that have 4 of the 5.

Scientists reverse age-related vision loss, eye damage from glaucoma in mice – ScienceDaily – Hopefully this research will translate into treatment for people.

Take a Virtual Tour of the World’s Largest Circular Tomb, Augustus’ Mausoleum | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The virtual tour takes a little bit to load….but is worth it. Note that the ‘chapters’ are along the bottom of the screen.

Desalination breakthrough could lead to cheaper water filtration – ScienceDaily – Increasing efficiency of reverse osmosis filters by beginning to better understand how they work. This is something that will be more important as climate change and our own production of pollutants makes obtaining clean water more challenging.

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The sunrise on the 1st day of 2021 was blocked by clouds but the one on the 31st was good. I took a picture of it that included a large electrical transmission tower and some birds making some morning moves!

Hopes for 2021

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I followed my tradition of putting away holiday decorations on New Year’s Eve…taking a few pictures as I made my way around the house taking things apart…gathering it all to take downstairs to the storage bins and boxes…packing is all away. I put the maple seedling and dried sunflowers I’d kept in my office window out in the front flower bed….a cleaning out to begin the new year.

I started thinking about what I hope will happen for us in 2021. Here’s my wish list for the country –

  • A transition of national leadership….and immediate focus of that new team on the response to the pandemic and initiation of actions based on data and wisdom rather than political whim…thus calming the mental stress that was increased by the leadership-created-chaos of 2020.

  • Organized rollout of vaccines across the country – setting reasonable expectations of the process and the results of the program.

  • Pace of economic recovery increasing as the pandemic subsides.

  • Approaching pre-pandemic types of activities by fall 2021.

For myself and my family – I hope that

  • We all stay vigilant protecting ourselves for getting COVID-19…and we get the vaccine before mid-year.

  • We can visit in-person (also by mid-year).

  • I get to return to my volunteer gigs!

  • By the fall, there will be in-person birding festivals to enjoy

It could be better….the vaccination rollout happens faster than it appears to be at this point!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2021!

Most Memorable of 2020

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Looking back on 2020 – there is so much that was different than prior years. There has not been a year of my life with so many significant types of upheaval: COVID-19 pandemic, environmental disasters (fires, hurricanes), racial strife, and strident politics. Today I am writing about the way this year was different for me as an individual with those upheavals as the broader situation.

Early year travel…then no travel. In prior years, I enjoyed travel throughout the year – being away from home a week or less at a time and daytrips. My original plan for 2020 was to spend a week of each month in Texas with my family. The early part of the year started out on that plan – a visit with family and a birding festival in Laredo, TX in late January and early February. We talked with an HHS person in the San Antonio airport; she was headed to the base where some of the first cruise ship passengers were arriving for their quarantine period. Once we got home, we hoped the virus was going to be limited to the few groups from cruise ships that were talked about in the news….and we started paying more attention. It quickly became apparent that telephone calls and Zoom meetings would have to take the place of the trips to Texas. We did some 2-3 hour outings for some outdoor time in the fall; we wore masks even outdoors and distanced from others; now that the infection rate is higher in our area and it’s often too cold to be outdoors for very long, we are not attempting more than walks around our neighborhood.

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The Pandemic. By March, we had an inkling that COVID-19 was not going way and that there was more around in the community that anticipated. The grocery stories started having shortages of toilet paper and disinfecting products and hand sanitizer. Fortunately, we had an adequate supply of those to last until the stores had them again (although maybe not the brands we bought previously – what happened to Formula 409?). I went to an ‘over 65’ shopping hour at a local grocery in March and it was crowded enough that it scarred me into switching to grocery delivery for 2 months. I tried to keep 2-3 weeks of food in the house at all times. We bought over the counter medications that might help symptoms if we got sick. By the summer I was comfortable going to the grocery store again – masked and going at 6:30 AM every other week and, now, extending to every three weeks. We do curbside pickup at some local stores and restaurants. My husband has virtual and in-person appointments with his doctors, but we both delayed routine optometrist and dental checkups that started to be due; those appointments and my annual physical can wait until after we are vaccinated.

Cultural, environmental, and political drama. The pandemic would have made this a challenging year but with the cultural, environmental, and political drama happening as well – the news was overwhelmingly bad…traumatically bad. The trauma of seeing the murder of George Floyd by a policeman brought to the consciousness of the country that racial equality before the law is not something the US has achieved…and the varied response to the event showed us more about how deep the challenge runs in our culture…and highlighted other manifestations of inequality in our country. Because of our ‘stay at home’ strategy during the pandemic, we didn’t witness any unrest – but the news prompted some donations and solidified our votes in November. There were environmental disasters – fires in the west, hurricanes on the Gulf Coast; neither impacted us directly in Maryland, but it was very easy to be traumatized imaging how awful it must be for people trying to take precautions to not get COVID-19 but having to evacuate and then returning to find their home gone or damaged. The political drama – much of it seemingly intentionally done to sustain a level of chaos – continued through the end of the year; I became more angry as time went on that the leadership of the country – in a year of extreme national stress – seemed to be acting to increase the trauma.

Virtual birding festivals and conferences. I saved some positive things to write about for the last of this post….we all need something positive to sustain ourselves. My husband and I both enjoyed virtual birding festivals and conferences in 2020. They added variety to our weeks; we appreciated the work of the teams that made the transition to virtual because they took us away from our immediate environment (not quite as good as travel but the best we were going to do during the pandemic). We hope to be back to some in-person events in the second half of 2021. The ones we did virtually in 2020 were:

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  • May – Cape May Spring Festival (New Jersey)

  • June – Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Education Conference

  • July – Get into your sanctuary (NOAA)

  • July and August – Sara Via Climate and Sustainability Webinars

  • September – Yampa Valley Crane Festival (Colorado)

  • September – Puget Sound Bird Fest (Washington)

  • October – Cape May Fall Festival (New Jersey)

  • October – Hawaii Island Festival of Birds

  • November – Crane Fiesta (New Mexico)

  • November – Patuxent River Conference Reflections

  • December – Maryland Water Monitoring Conference

  • December - AGU

At home. I spent more time at home this year than every before in my life (that I can remember…maybe I spent more time at home from birth to 4 years old). It’s been different but not hard. The house is well situated with forest to the back and a 30-year-old neighborhood street to the front with lots of trees as old as the houses; the views from the windows are all good – and there is wild life (birds (including an occasional wild turkey!), squirrels, deer, chipmunks, and racoons (seen only on the bird feeder cam in the wee hours of the morning)). Individuals and couples take walks…the neighborhood does not feel vacant or isolated. Inside - my husband and I have plenty of room to enjoy our individual projects/activities then be together for meals and shared activities…settling into a comfortable way of living in the house together and probably becoming more synchronized emotionally than we have since early in our marriage – simply because we are around each other more.

Conscious efforts to sustain healthy mental and physical health. As we’ve gotten older, we have become more intentional about our lifestyle – making sure we get enough exercise…eat healthy…assess our feeling and act to keep them positive. During this year – we have increased our focus. I had time to process the bounty of the CSA season (June-October) and am just now beginning to see that we have space in the freezer again. We eat well but keep our portion sizes reasonable; we haven’t gained weight…maybe we’ve lost a few pounds. We both try to get some outdoor time as frequently as we can – walks, yard work, reading on the deck, photography (stars/planets, sun, plants, animals, and snowflakes) etc. It was easier before it got cold. More of our exercise has shifted indoors at this point. We do things to brighten our mood – flowers, purchases to use for projects (mounted insects, clickers and magnifiers for cell phone photography), special pens, special food – things to make each day a little different.

Overall – at the end of 2020, I am feeling optimistic about 2021 and pleased that my husband and I have responded with resilience to the changes in our lives during the past year. We had ups and downs but on the whole managed to sustain ourselves and to enjoy parts of every day (for me it was easier when the television was off, and I wasn’t reading my news feeds).

Zooming – December 2020

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I took fewer pictures in December…and shifted toward macro rather than zoomed. It was an indoor month because of the cold and the activities associated with holidays. Still – there were pictures of birds and snow – sunrise and sunset…the wintery scene. I’m going to bundle up to take more walks even in the January cold!

10 Objects that Defined 2020

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BBC Future had a blog post last week that listed 37 objects the defined the year. It prompted me to create my own list…what objects will I remember most from 2020. I didn’t limit myself to objects that would be good for a time capsule…some of mine are perishable…but everything on the list is a physical object that will remind me of this pandemic year from now on.

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The face mask – I’d never worn a face mask before this year…and it took some getting used to. The masks were hardest to wear when it was hot…but now that the weather is colder they are not as bothersome. It could also be that I am more adept at wearing them now. There are some that are ‘in the mail’ from my daughter – ordered a few weeks before Christmas to see me through to a time we don’t have to wear masks (hopefully in 2021 when a large number of people have been vaccinated and new cases plummet).

Hand sanitizer – We never leave the house without a bottle of hand sanitizer. At first, we thought we’d be using huge amounts of it but the places we go often have dispensers…and we aren’t out and about away from home that frequently.

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Bar soap – At home – we use soap and water on our hands rather than hand sanitizer. We switched from liquid soap dispensers to bar soap in our house with it was hard to get the dispensers early in the pandemic. My husband has gone back to the soap dispensers, but I like the artisan bar soaps and will continue to enjoy them even after the pandemic. Added benefits: the ones I am using don’t seem to be as hard on my skin….and I buy bar soap in paper or cardboard packaging so no plastic!

Pecan topped custard (pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash) – I discovered pecans put on the top of custard stay on the top (like pecan pie)…and will always associate that dish with the pandemic for years to come.

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Haystacks – I made haystack cookies (Chow mein noodles coated with melted chocolate/butterscotch) for the first time; it all started when I realized I was missing the holiday cookies from events usually held in December – but cancelled for this year. Making this treat helped improve my mood for the different sort of holiday we had this year. I’ll probably add it to my repertoire of sweets for the holidays going forward.

Bird feeder cam – We got the bird feeder camera in early 2020, before we understood that a pandemic would dominate the year. It was something we enjoyed all year long…a continuing project to learn more about the birds that visit out back yard feeder.

Cut flowers (from the CSA and then from Wegmans) – In previous years I would cut flowers occasionally at the CSA…for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’d buy flowers. This year I got flowers every week during the CSA season and now I buy flowers every time I go to the grocery store. It’s something easy to do that brightens my mood every time I see them….and my husband likes them too.

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Magnifying glasses with lights – There have been so many photographic mini-projects during the pandemic…things we could do without leaving our neighborhood. Most of the time we already had the equipment we needed…but the magnifying glasses with built-in lights were new…and I found myself using them for a lot of different things…some of them not involving photography.

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Layered Zentangle tiles – I moved from making Zentangle patterns (sometimes with shading) to using that as just a starting point…adding coloring and highlighting – sometimes in stages rather than completing the tile all at once. I had more time to spend making tiles…and I enjoyed taking the tiles in a different direction than previous years.

Home – It’s a physical and emotional place…but an assemblage of objects as well. Over this year, my perception of it has deepened because I have been surrounded by it for more hours. There are some objects that I’ve found easier to put in the donation pile…others that I have used more frequently….a few that are rediscovered objects to treasure. My appreciation of my house and home has increased dramatically.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Soup for a winter day. Pureed sweet potato, a few pieces of beet (both have great color), garlic, onion powder, Italian seasonings, left over brisket, beef broth with pumpkin seeds and Chinese noodles on top. Yummy and pretty too.

Through my Office Window – December 2020

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I am appreciating the view from my office window more this year than ever before…it is a great view of the natural world. We’ve seen wild turkeys twice (no pictures!) and one evening 9 deer came through (usually we see 2-4 at a time). There are the usual critters that I almost always manage to photograph: the finches, crows, white-breasted nuthatch, a pair of cardinals,

The squirrels,

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The mourning doves,

The red-bellied woodpecker, and

The Carolina wrens.

The birds that we only have around during the winter are the dark-eyed juncos,

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The red-bellied nuthatch,

The white-throated sparrow,

And the red-winged blackbirds. We have the red-winged blackbirds near the neighborhood pond in the other seasons, but they don’t venture to our forest and feeder except in the winter or during migration. They are almost too heavy for the feeder, so they don’t get enamored with what it provides.

The view from the window – the forest, the bird feeder and bath, the winter yard…the best in the house.

Maryland Water Monitoring Council Conference

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The Maryland Water Monitoring Council Conference went virtual this year. It was held on the mornings of December 3rd and 4th rather than all on one day as the in-person event. I appreciated that scheduling since webinars for a whole day can be overwhelmingly intense. And now – they’ve made the presentations and session videos available! I highly recommend the Dr. Rita Colwell plenary session: Oceans, Climate, and Human Health: Lessons from Cholera for COVID-19. The video is in the ‘Morning Plenary Session Day 1’ and the charts (which are visible in the video) are posted at the link for the 9:15 AM slot on day 1.

I bought the Kindle version of Dr. Colwell’s book A Lab of One’s Own: One Woman’s Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science. It’s a thought-provoking book for me as I think of my life and women I’ve known – my mother’s generation, my own, and my daughter’s. There is much in the book that even non-scientist women will recognize in their experiences of work. In my case – I didn’t know any scientists growing up, but I did observe women that ran a mill, was a traveling dietician for small town hospitals, and teaching math/science to high schoolers and at colleges. In my own generation, I had quite a few peers in the computer industry…and noticed the thinning of the ranks as my career moved forward. By the time I retired, there were 2 or 3 female CEOs in the industry…but there was not a robust pipeline of women behind them. In my daughter’s generation, it is still not unusual to find one or no female faculty members in physics departments. Improvements have come…but very slowly…and the pandemic has taken us back decades (in the accessibility of childcare, for example).

The sessions I watched at the conference were Clean Waters, Healthy Humans (VB Room 2) on Day 1 and PFAS: News on an Emerging Contamination (VB Room 3) on Day 2. The talks were very good and I appreciated the virtual format – much more comfortable that crowded rooms where the bottom of the charts were blocked by heads of people….trying to take a few notes (the old fashion way with paper and pen)…overeating with all the goodies provided between sessions. Now that the videos and presentations are out, I’m going back to look at some of the other presentations that I didn’t get to ‘live;’ I am looking forward to that in this lull week between Christmas and New Year’s.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Sunrise the day after Christmas. I noticed pink clouds to the west and then went to check the east from an upstairs window. Perfect timing. I took pictures through the window since the temperature outside was in the 20s.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending December 26, 2020

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

35 Beautiful Winter Scenes to Get You in the Holiday Spirit – We had our first snow a little over a week ago…our Christmas was windy and rainy….I enjoyed these snowy pictures from around the world to get me back into the ‘winter wonderland’ mood.

Time capsule for 2020: the 37 objects that defined the year – This prompted me to think about what objects represent the year for me…maybe just a top 10 though rather than 37!

Top 10 Discoveries of the decade – From Archeology magazine

NOAA Research’s top 5 stories from 2020 – NOAA models track smoke movement – and locust swarms; scientists explore the impact of the COVID-19 response on the environment; carbon dioxide continues to rise; Dungeness crab larvae are already showing effects of ocean acidification; and a new roadmap for tracking ocean and Great Lake acidification

Top 11 Clean Energy Developments in 2020 – Some good news….nice to find these in a year that was dominated by bad – sad – horrific news (pandemic, fires, hurricanes, cultural/political strife).

Glucosamine may reduce overall death rates as effectively as regular exercise, study suggests -- ScienceDaily – It’s a correlation finding…not cause/effect. But the correlation was found by assessing data from over 16 thousand people over 40 years of age.

In boost for renewables, grid-scale battery storage is on the rise – Another good news story.

Photography in the National Parks: Winter Wonderlands – More wintery pictures of beautiful places.

Stonehenge's Continental Cousin - Archaeology Magazine – Archaeology in a German potato field! Evidence of concentric rings of oak posts, graves, pits filled with sacrifices, a village of long houses near the circle, alignment with sunrise on days halfway the solstices and equinoxes….no fortification.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Camouflage – Ending this gleaning list with birds. There lots of birds that blend into their environment!

Japanese Art

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The 10 volumes of Japan: described and illustrated by the Japanese were published in 1897. The illustrations were colored by hand. They were published by J.B. Millet Company in Boston but advertised as “written by eminent Japanese authorities and scholars; edited by Captain F. Brinkley with an essay on Japanese art by Kakuzo Okakura.”

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I found them by following a comment about the evolution of nature photograph made in a Smithsonian blog post; the example they used for colorizing photographs of plants was made by Kazumasa Ogawa. The first photographs in each of the volumes are his.

Each volume also includes examples of silk fabrics.

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There are structures pictured too – a bridge, a gate, greenhouse.

I liked the display of shoes – for different types of people…and sometimes for specific work!

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Often the last illustrations in a volume are of historical art.

Browsing through…looking at the illustrations…a snapshot of Japan just before 1900…great activity for indoors on a cold winter day!

All 10 volumes are available from Internet Archive here. (Note: there might be 5 more volumes…but they are not available on Internet Archive.

Remnants of Snow

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Once we had snow on the ground, the cold kept it there for a few days. There was slow melting in the daytime but hard freezes at night – down to 20 degrees on one night.

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I decided to try some 5x magnification photography with my phone using a magnifier with a light feature. A rubber band held the magnifier positioned over the phone’s camera which allowed me to hold it with one hand and use a external clicker to take pictures (I could have used voice commands but they aren’t as reliable as the clicker which I wore on a lanyard around my neck).

The depth of field makes it challenging to have everything in focus, but I picked images for the slideshow below where the blurred part is not essential to seeing the remnants of snow. I think some of the structures were just as they fell as snow and others were from re-freezing that occurred over several nights.

All these were taken in the early morning…very cold…on my front porch. The day was cloudy so the majority of the light was coming from the magnifier’s LED.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 19, 2020

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

How Has Photography's Relationship With Nature Evolved Over the Past 200 Years? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A little history…that I used as a prompt to look for some of the works on Internet Archive. I’ll post about what I found for Kazumas Ogawa in a post next week.

Infographic: Deciphering Diet from Blood and Urine Samples | The Scientist Magazine® - Full article also available and more interesting that the infographic! The approach is still not perfected…but it may eventually help us get to personalized nutrition plans without as much trial and error that is required now.

Connection between gut bacteria and vitamin D levels -- ScienceDaily – Lots more needed to understand Vitamin D. This study indicated that blood tests for Vitamin D might not be useful at all since they don’t measure active Vitamin D….and active vitamin D is what correlates to gut bacteria…and potentially bone health. “Maybe it’s not how much vitamin D you supplement with, but how you encourage your body to use it.”

Get a Bird's-Eye View of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Across the Globe – Some beautiful places…from overhead.

How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline - Yale E360 – Insect declines….then birds. Lots of reasons to focus on planting natives a much as we can. I’m glad the forest behind my house is full of native trees and that I’ve replaced 2 bushs in the front of my house with natives. The challenge is to control the small but prolific invasive plants growing on the forest floor and into our yard enough for non-natives to survive. There used to be native jack-in-the-pulpits in our forest until several years ago.

How do we separate the factual from the possible? New research shows how our brain responds to both -- ScienceDaily – This article was frustrating. The study found that factual language is something our brains respond to. That’s not the issue at this moment in our nation’s history. The problem is the use of factual language about something not factual! Maybe this article is why we need to be more worried about public discourse/pronouncements.

It's One Hot Place Deep Down On The Floor Of Yellowstone Lake – About studies at Yellowstone Lake…the sensors and what they are revealing.

Shuttering fossil fuel power plants may cost less than expected -- ScienceDaily – Interesting…but I hope we’ll retire them all well before 2035 with the cost of renewals coming down so quickly. It will make economic sense to just do it!

Keeping Black Bears Wild And People Safe – This article is about black bears in Smokey Mountains National Park and the BearWise program more broadly. We do have Black Bears in Maryland and they occasionally show up in our area; there was one that showed up at our nearby elementary school a few years ago – caused a school lockdown until it wondered off.

Meet the Dipper, the Songbird That Swims – Evidently they are easier to spot in Colorado during the winter when they are concentrated long streams that remain unfrozen…but they are in the Rockies all year round…Dippers are elevation migrants (higher in the summer….lower in the winter). Maybe some post-pandemic trip we’ll look for them!

Ice Day

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The snow changed to sleet then rain around 3 PM and then the temperature dipped below freezing again overnight leaving it looking like snow on the ground but there was an icy crust on top of the snow and the streets were rutted ice. The gutters of the house were clogged with snow that had become icy. So – we had an Ice Day after a Snow Day.

I took some pictures in the early morning darkness. The temperature was about 25…and it looked like there was still white everywhere…the street looking white too. I’d heard a vehicle go by and there were enough cracking sounds to indicate that the street was not clear…was not turned to slush by an application of salt.

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As the sun came up, the street looked treacherous and our driveway looked snow packed. I took some zoomed pictures of the azalea outside our front door with ice nodules held by its leaves.

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I had scheduled a donation pickup from our front porch which I changed to leave in the garage – although I’m not sure they will come…maybe the street will be better by this afternoon.

The best picture of the morning was of our backyard. I didn’t realize until I was reviewing the pictures that I’d gotten the shadow of a dove in flight! My intent was to document the low place in our backyard making a little stream of melt water….but sometimes the unexpected happens and makes for more than a documentary picture.

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Snow Day

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Sunrise

I kept checking to see if had started snowing even before it was daylight….and noticed the sunrise. It was a good way to start the day even without snow falling.

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I enjoyed the pumpkin roll I had gotten at the grocery store when I went to buy half and half for the (potential) snow ice cream for my breakfast. It still wasn’t snowing.

Snowing

And then it started. The temperature was 30 or 31….so it didn’t stick immediately to the street and sidewalk, but our deck is raised….and started accumulating snow. Soon there was a dusting. The juncos still found the seeds I’d spilled on the deck…scratching the snow away. The small openings in the mat on the front porch started to fill. Even leave litter turns beautiful with a dusting of snow.

The leaves on the azalea by the front porch caught snow…the occasional red leaf stands out. I went out on the deck to photograph the stairs down to the yard; the dark mound on the landing mid-way down must be racoon poop after one of their visits to our bird feeder.

Snowflakes

All the equipment to try snowflake photography was outside to get cold: the glass plate in a bowl, the magnifiers, the wireless clicker to cause my phone to take the picture. The snow was coming down fast enough that it was a challenge to not get too much on the plate. The snowflakes were often already clumped into larger structures on the way down (there were ‘flakes’ falling that were quite large…gauzy looking). So – not a great day for photographing snowflakes. I did get to experiment with the clip on 65x magnifier with its own light and the 25x jeweler’s loupe. Both are used resting on the plate with the phone positioned above them; it makes it easier to hold everything steady for the photos. Hopefully, we’ll have another snow – an opportunity to try again.

Snow Ice Cream

We got enough snow to make snow ice cream (a little over 3 inches)! I skimmed off the top inch just as the sleet started (later it rained), filling a large bowl. I had already measured out a cup of half-and-half, ½ teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of pepper candy chips. The snow was still so icy after I used the mixer to blend everything that I added another cup of half and half and even then it didn’t taste as creamy as I thought it would….but it looked pretty with the bit of color from the candy and we ate it anyway.

After 2 bowls of snow ice cream, I was so cold I sat in front of the fire in the fireplace – getting warm on one side at least. It was a good end to our snow day.

House & Garden Magazines

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Internet Archive has quite few volumes of the House & Garden magazines digitized; they are in volumes with 6 issues each (like were in physical library reference sections). A search for the title “House & garden” provides a long list with all the volumes having a publication date of 1901 in the metadata (which is when the magazine was first published)!  It’s not possible to find the volumes for a particular year of interest on the list.   I am still working my way through the volumes…slowly but surely…but I am featuring 9 of the volumes in this post that I’ve already enjoyed.

The earliest volume is from July-December 1901. I always pay attention to books from 1901 because that is the year my paternal grandfather was born (earlier in the year). His parents had immigrated to the US from Eastern Europe and were tenant farms in Texas. Their lives were a far cry from the houses and gardens depicted in the magazine. I did find something familiar in this volume: pictures of Biltmore near Ashville, NC. George Vanderbilt would have been still alive when the article was written, and his daughter (born in 1900) would have been a toddler. What different environment it would have been to grow up in such a place!

I enjoy thinking about how people lived the magazine depict…the types of materials used for flooring and roofs...plumbing and lighting…elaborate gardens with water features…cottage gardens…architectural features like built-ins, garden rooms, and porches. The covers are often the only color pages in the early volumes…easy to spot when browsing through. Here are some samples:

July – December 1908

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There are pictures of the White House Rose Garden as it was during the Reagan administration in the September – December 1984 volume.

I’ve been browsing the volumes in no particular order so far, keeping track of the ones I’ve browsed…eventually I’ll have to go back and try to find the volumes I somehow missed.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Groceries. Snow is in our forecast and we had no half-and-half to make snow ice cream! I opted to make a quick trip to the grocery store for it and other items to avoid going again for 3 weeks. I went at the usual early time and it seemed like there were a few more people (maybe others that wanted to get ‘snow day’ foods) but still easy to stay distanced and find everything on the list quickly. I wore two masks; my daughter had talked about double masking now that our masks have been though the laundry enough times that the fibers might not be as tight. My glasses anti-fog wipe treatment worked just as well as it did with one mask.  I bought a slice of red velvet cake and ate it for my morning snack…felt like I had too much caffeine in me shortly afterward….but still enjoyed the treat. Overall – a good morning errand and reward!

Anticipating Snow

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We are excited to have snow in the forecast for Wednesday.

Visions of snow ice cream!

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I previously bought peppermint candy chips to be ready for the winter…sugar and vanilla we always have on hand. So – the ingredient we are missing is half-and-half.

Since last winter we didn’t ever have enough snow to make snow ice cream, my husband and I have decided that I should do a grocery shopping at 1.5 weeks rather than 3 weeks since the last time….for the half and half and other things we’ll need to see us through the holidays (in our case it’s not just Christmas…there is an anniversary and birthday too…all from home this year, connections via Zoom).

Here’s the strategy for making snow ice cream:

Wait until enough snow falls that most of the pollution is out of the air (i.e. 1-2 inches have fallen).

Once there is enough snow – set out all the ingredients (peppermint candy chips, vanilla, half and half, sugar is optional since usually the chips provide enough sweetness, food coloring is optional but helps to know when everything is thoroughly mixed) and the big bowl + electric hand mixer + spatula + serving bowls.

Collect snow with a egg turner or anything with a large flat are to skim the top snow layers and transfer the snow into a large pan. Remember the snow compacts as it makes the snow ice cream. The fluffier the snow is – the more snow the ice cream will require.

Inside quickly put the snow into the big bowl…almost filling it. Add the other ingredients on top. The amounts are somewhat variable since snow has a range of consistencies – I usually start with 0.5 – 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup half and half, and .75 cup of peppermint candy chips. Then mix. Add more half and half if the consistency is crumbly rather than creamy.

Serve and enjoy.

Snowflake Photography!

Another activity to prepare for…probably something to do before enough snow has accumulated to make snow ice cream…photograph snowflakes. I’ve tried it several times in the past. March 2014 was a big year.

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I still have glass plates that will work well to catch the snowflakes…provide good background color. They’ll be out on the deck the night before the snow starts to be cold and ready for collection.

I’m going to try my phone with the lighted magnifier first. It’s only 5x so might not be quite enough for snowflake pictures.

I have loupe with a light somewhere that I need to locate. For both I will attach the magnification to the phone with a rubber band.

I’m still thinking about how to get the plate and phone into focusing range (i.e. close) without being handheld (too much heat generated with my hands). I’ll use voice or an external clicker to signal the phone to take the picture. So – I have a deadline of Wednesday to jerry-rig a set up.

Or - I might end up reverting to the loupes that sit on top of the plate and laying the phone on the loupe – the other end on a box to make it horizontal. The trick it to not add too much heat that will cause the snowflakes to melt too quickly!

I am soooo looking forward to a snow day!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 12, 2020

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

Massive Arecibo Telescope Collapses in Puerto Rico | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Very sad. It was already being decommissioned which was wrenching….but then the collapse meant that even the instruments that might have been usable elsewhere were destroyed. My husband spent some time at Arecibo during his graduate school studies in the 1970s.

What do slight arm movements reveal about our breathing and health? -- ScienceDaily – Evidently it works best during sleep when there is not a lot of other movement other than breathing!

Hegra, an Ancient City in Saudi Arabia Untouched for Millennia, Makes Its Public Debut | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine – Undisturbed for 2,000 years…once an international trade hub although most of the surviving structures are tombs…a few hundred miles to the south of Petra

Proterra Sells Its 1,000th Electric Bus and New Electric School Buses In Virginia & Massachusetts – Electric buses are very appealing…I’ve always hated the sooty exhaust from diesel buses. Buses operate in situations where many people (and children) are in close proximity, so removing buses as a source of city and school pollution would be a good step forward.

Glyphosate may affect human gut microbiota -- ScienceDaily – A bioinformatics tool to predict if a microbe is sensitive to glyphosate – in the soil…in the digestive system of animals. The compound, widely used as a herbicide, biochemically targets plants but the same pathway is also in bacteria.

Opinion: The Biological Function of Dreams | The Scientist Magazine® - Learning more about sleep…and REM sleep in particular.

The mystery of Siberia’s exploding craters - BBC Future – Gas emission craters. Studies have revealed a 3-5 year life cycle: a mound forms…rising several meters, the gas underneath explodes. They tend to form in areas where there is a thick layer of ice over permafrost…with some areas of unfrozen ground surrounded by permafrost…and very deep deposits of gas and oil. The big challenge has been to identify the source of the gas that builds up – because after the explosion it is already gone.

Forest fires, cars, power plants join list of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: Airborne pollution implicated in amyloid plaques, UCSF-led study shows -- ScienceDaily and Air pollution spikes linked to lower test scores for Salt Lake County third graders -- ScienceDaily – Studies that show the impact of air pollution on humans….other reasons to step up the pace of the shift away from fossil fuels. Thinking positively – actions to address climate change tend to improve air quality.

Mistletoe: A Natural and Human History – A plant associated with the season! And there are other species of mistletoe from around the world.

Top 25 birds of the week: December 2020! - Wild Bird Revolution – Beautiful birds….at the end of the gleanings list for this week.