Ten Little Celebrations – December 2022

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Ten little…and big…celebrations for December 2022. The big ones include:

A 70th wedding anniversary. That’s a lot of years for a relationship to thrive….and for both to still be healthy enough to enjoy life and the celebration!

Winter holiday. They happen every year, but it doesn’t reduce the joy of the virtually back-to-back family celebrations that flow into January: a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas, New Years and then another big anniversary. I’m celebrating now and savoring the anticipation of more still to come!

And then there are the little celebrations that are more like the other months of the year:

Finding puzzles. When I first started looking for puzzles, I didn’t find any that I likes and then I found 2 at a thrift store and another 4 at a pharmacy….and celebrated the finds!

Gardens Aglow at Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Celebrating a walk-through holiday light display in Springfield MO. If we hadn’t found it, I would be missing the Brookside Gardens lights in Maryland.

Getting the wreath on the door. The kittens prolonged the time it took to get our house decorated this year (some trial and error with how they would respond). The wreath was one of the last things we did…and I celebrated that the decorating was done!

Getting to stay home on a rainy day. Celebrating that I can usually rearrange plans to avoid getting out on a cold, rainy day!

Hot tea with orange peel. Celebrating a little hint of citrus….and probably the vitamin C as well.

Macro photography at Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Celebrating the beauty of native plants through all the seasons…..particularly close-up.

New glasses. This is my first time to get transition lenses. I am celebrating not needing to juggle my sunglasses on and off on road trips!

The plastic vase works. I was a little skeptical that the flat plastic vases would expand and hold a large bouquet....celebrated when the one I tried worked great! Now I feel more confident giving them as gifts!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 24, 2022

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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.

H5N1 Bird Flu Detections across the United States (Wild Birds) – A map of US counties where bird flu has been detected in wild birds as reported by the US Department of Agriculture.  It would be great if data could come from the National Wildlife Refuges (reporting through the US Department of the Interior) since they often have concentrations of wildlife and staff that would be monitoring the flocks. I know that there were instances of bird flu – primarily in snow geese - that the Bosque del Apache NWR staff were reacting to when we were there the November before COVID-19 curtailed our travel.

Electric car sales drive toward cleaner air, longer lives – Another reason my next car will be an electric rather than a plug-in-hybrid that I have now. However – this should probably be seen as an offset to the negative impacts on public health that climate change will bring; the air could be cleaner, but it will also be warmer and more turbulent. I am becoming less certain that my lifespan will last into my 90s like it has for my parents.

Living the lava life on Mauna Loa – A satellite image from NASA’s Landsat 9. It shows how close one of the flows came to Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) project habitat. Fortunately, the most recent mission there concluded in May 2022.

The Dead Sea is dying – The lowest exposed place on Earth…water level dropping 4 feet per year…salt formations and sinkholes.

Beyond cola: the strange flavors of soft drinks – Carbonated drinks were invented by Johann Jacob Schweppe in 1783. They were sold in glass bottles and that were recirculated. Regional delicacies. Everything changed with the advent of plastic bottles in the 1970s. Moxie, state beverage of Maine, continued independently for a long time – bought by Coca-Cola in 2018. Soft drinks had a heyday in the years of Prohibition. Follow the link for the whole article, more soft drink history.

Construction of the world’s largest radio telescope begins – Square Kilometer Array (SKA) – one in Australia and one in South Africa. Construction will be completed by the end of the decade, but observations will begin in 2024.

Flameproofing lithium-ion batteries with salt – Finally….hope this solves the fire problem with lithium-ion batteries and, if so, moves into new battery manufacturing quickly.

The 120-year search for the purpose of T. Rex’s arms – A little history of T. Rex finds…and the various ideas about why the animal had such puny arms.

A new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria – Work to find a new treatment for Klebsiella pneumoniae infections that are resistant to common antibiotics with some strains fatal for 40-50% of infected people. A new strategy: weakening bacteria with an existing drug previously used to treat herpes that alters its surface layer to make it easier for the immune system to kill the bacteria. The idea works in the research model…effectiveness in human beings yet to be confirmed.

The science of why hawks are one of nature’s deadliest hunters – Birds and bats….The birds steer toward a fixed point in the swarm instead of singling out a bat. It’s a good strategy against a gathering of prey!

Old Dominion in 1916

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I enjoyed finding familiar scenes in Walter Hale’s drawings of sights in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia in the book We Discover the Old Dominion that was published in 1916. The text was written by his wife, Louise Closser Hale who was an American actress, playwright, and novelist.

The three sample images I picked from the book are places I have been in recent years. It was interesting to see how they looked in the time before World War I!

The first image is South Mountain (in Maryland). It’s now a rest stop on I-70; in 1916 there was a toll house there and the road was much more rustic.

The second is the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry – still a scenic spot today and part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

The third is the White House. It looks very similar today --- although there are barricades and fences that weren’t in place in 1916.

Several other Hale books are available on Internet Archive as well: A Motor Car Divorce from 1906, Motor Journeys in 1912, and We discover New England from 1915. The vision of the couple traveling together and creating a book as a product of their experience is appealing – and provide of historical view of the places they saw. Walter Hale died in 1917. Louise Closser Hale continued writing (but not travel books) and went to Hollywood – portraying older women in movies until her death in 1933.

Finley Park Light Display

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My daughter recommended the drive-through light display at Ozark, MO’s Finley River Park. She had gone with a friend and then had dinner at the Ozark Mill Restaurant on the other side of the river.

The park was not crowded when we got there, and we enjoyed a leisurely drive through the lights – many of them animated.

Ozark is a suburban community south of Springfield…population of about 22,000. Kudos to the community for providing this display!

Our short drive from our home and the park was a good experience too – on curvy two-lane roads in the dark. It provided the ‘over the river and through the woods’ vibe for the evening!

A Different Kind of Vase

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I bought several of the MODGY Expandable Flower Vase back in October when I toured the Museum London (in London, Ontario). They are great gifts because they are flat and light (easy to wrap/ship) – made of heavy, reusable plastic that expands when it is filled with water. What a clever idea! Last week I finally picked the one I would keep – the Louis Comfort Tiffany Field of Lilies vase. When filled with water, it was stable on the windowsill; adding the bouquet was very easy and the cinching at the top makes it easy to position the flowers!

I’m giving away the others I bought…but maybe I’ll order some additional vases. There are so many to choose from on the MODGY site!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 17, 2022

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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.

Winners of 2022 Environmental Photographer of the Year Use Art to Tell Important Stories of Our Planet – Photography with a message

Rare good news from the Amazon: gigantic fish are thriving again – Pirarucu, an air-breathing fish that must rise to the surface every 15 minutes or so…can grow to be 10 feet long, weigh up to 450 pounds…are valued for their meat. The fish are making a comeback thanks to sustainable fishing programs in northern Brazil.

Stunning Winners of the 2022 Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest – Capturing a place…and a tiny amount of time.

Top 10 Discoveries of 2022 – from Archaeology Magazine

Remains of last surviving Tasmanian Tiger discovered in museum cabinet – Finding and following the trail of an older female thylacine that was trapped and sold to the Beaumaris Zoo in mid-May 1936. She died in September 1936. The zoo transferred her body to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery where taxidermist preserved the hide, and the skeleton was broken apart and positioned on 5 cards. Both hide and skeleton were used by the museum for educational purposes…and then forgotten. They were found recently in a cabinet in the museum’s education department.

Best of 2022: Top Astrophotography That Captured the Beauty of the Cosmos – Quite a few from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Volcanic activity increases worldwide – There are 47 volcanoes around the world that are in ‘continuing eruption status’…more than double the normal. The article includes short videos of several of them.

The rich marine life under frozen ice – Phytoplankton and organisms that eat it….discovered by geologists trying to get a mud core, hitting rock, then seeing organisms when they reviewed what the camera on their equipment recorded!

Top Websites for Urban Planning – 2022 – From Planetizen. This year they highlight an increased attention to the social and environmental outcomes of planning…enabling identification/resolution in the intersections between the built/natural environment and the lives of people.

Exploring a forgotten Jewish Land – The Beta Israel in northern Ethiopia. The 100,000 strong population fled to Israel in the 1980s to escape war and famine.

Maya and US Southwest Archeology eBooks by Earl H. Morris

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A little archaeology from the early 1900s…books available from Internet Archive with great illustrations made immediately after excavations:

Preliminary account of the antiquities of the region between the Mancos and La Plata rivers in southwestern Colorado  (1919)

The Temple of the warriors at Chichen Itzá, Yucatan (plates) (1930)

Earl H. Morris did archaeological field work from 1912 to 1940….contributing artifacts to institutions that supported his work and a myriad of publications until his death in 1956. Both books are well worth the time to browse.

The first book’s pictures of pottery from the southwest reminded me of a visit to the Arizona State Museum’s The Pottery Project room….it was a place to savor shapes and patterns…I spent more time in that room than any other at the museum.

Gardens Aglow

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We walked through the Gardens Aglow event at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Springfield, MO last Friday. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our first winter holidays in Missouri…will become an annual tradition from now on.

We got there shortly after the opening at 5 PM. There were a steady stream of cars arriving but there were people directing parking which eliminated confusion; it was a short walk from where we parked to the entrance and there was no line although next year I will plan to buy tickets in advance.

My husband and I had enjoyed the Brookside Gardens lights during the many years we lived in Maryland and found ourselves comparing the two displays. The lights in both places used the gardens as a theme and the trees as scaffolding. The lights at Mizumoto seemed brighter (maybe slightly larger LEDs?) and they had more water to use for reflections/dark areas of the display.

In some ways it was easier to photograph the lights this year because the animations were changes in light color within a fixed grid rather than across a space. I liked the wall of color…watching as it moved through a cycle of colors.

There was a weeping cherry in lights; the tree underneath was probably a weeping cherry too!

The arched bridge over a water feature became magical with all the lights and a shed looked like a gingerbread house.

I managed to notice two Japanese lanterns and maybe next year I will try to photograph more of them. They don’t have lights themselves but offer a link to the place that is not as obvious looking at the lights.

There were several butterflies along the way that were photo opportunities…a person could become the body of the butterfly! This was something new to us…lots of fun; I was glad they had a small butterfly too (but didn’t see any children getting their picture taken).

We spent about an hour strolling the loop through the garden…enjoying the lights and happy noises of people around us.

Springfield Conservation Nature Center - December 2022

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It was a foggy morning at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center; I opted to do macro and zoomed images rather than landscape compositions…and am relatively pleased with the way they turned out. There are remnants of the native plants in the area around the nature center: berries providing splashes of color along with the subtle colors but interesting shapes of dried plant parts and seeds…

The Beautyberry near the main entrance has wrinkled berries now that there has been more wintery weather.

I took a short walk down one of the trails. Some desiccated fungus on a downed limb was close enough to the trail to photograph.

Another branch had some interesting lichen that seemed to be growing more upward that usual. I regretted that I didn’t have a better camera with me to photograph it.

The other end of the branch must have broken recently…the shape reminded me of an open mouth or cave surrounded my lichen!

I long ago had ago had this stump be cut/exposed. The bark was gone from around the edges, but the rings were still easily visible. I didn’t take the time to count them.

The patches of missing back on a standing tree (probably dead) were probably the work of something looking for insects – maybe a woodpecker?

I started taking macro pictures of tree trunks…realized that it was more interesting if there was a patch of something rather than just the bark; lichen is the most common find…a bit of green and different shape among the crinkles of bark.

As I walked on the path, the floor of the forest was covered with small plants protruding from the thick layer of leaves. I realized that these small plants were an indicator that the area was not overly browsed by deer as so many places in Maryland had been…and a good indication that the native plantings I want to add around my house will survive!

Last but not least – I took one picture looking upward through the winter tree branches. Maybe next month I will do more landscape images from around the nature center….or maybe it will be cold enough to hike down to the water and take some ice pictures!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 10, 2022

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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.

Adults living in areas with high air pollution are more likely to have multiple long-term health conditions – A study of more than 364 thousand people in England. Respiratory and cardiovascular problems dominate but neurological and common mental conditions were also observed.

Best of 2022: Top 50 Photographs from Around the World – The first of the year in summary type articles. I had seen some of these photos before…but not all of them. They are worth a look.

Larger wheat harvest in Ukraine than expected – Based on satellite imagery, 94% of the winter crop was harvested…including 88% in areas not controlled by Ukraine. Some Ukrainian grain made it to global markets…however Russia is reaping the benefit of a significant portion of the harvest.

Medieval woman’s burial in Switzerland yields gold broach – A wealthy burial from a 7th century AD cemetery…excavated prior to construction work. The article didn’t say whether the finds would be going to a museum…or be reburied with the skeleton elsewhere.

More Than 52 Million Birds in the U.S. Are Dead Because of Avian Flu – It began last year in Eastern Canada and has affected flocks in 46 states since then. Wild and domestic birds are impacted…and there is a risk of infections in people too.

Study finds that experiences of daily stress decrease as people age – As we get older, we begin to deal daily stressors better. It’s a positive aspect to aging!

Archaeologists Find 1,900-Year-Old Snacks in Sewers Beneath the Colosseum – The debris from 1,900 years ago: olives, nuts, meats, cherries, grapes, figs, blackberries, and peaches!

Biodiversity unbalanced as ice-free Antarctic areas grow – Non-native species invading Antarctica

Idaho’s Potato Belt – 1/3 of the US potatoes are grown in the Snake River Plain….satellite images from NASA’s Aqua and Landsat 8.

Dam safety: New study indicates probable maximum flood events will significantly increase over next 80 years – This is a paper about 546 dams in Australia. We need to extend this type of analysis around the world…to improve the integrity of critical infrastructure into the future.

Coles Phillips eBooks

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Coles Phillips was an illustrator known for his stylish images of women for books, advertisements, and the covers of popular magazines. I browsed two of his books on Internet Archive recently:

A Gallery of Girls (1911)

A Young Man's Fancy (1912)

More of his magazine covers can also be found on Internet Archive (list here).

He died relatively young in June 1927; Life magazine featured one of his creations on the cover in July 1927 (and a 2-page illustrated obituary). His last Life magazine cover was in September 1927. The illustrations are available from Internet Archive via the link above.

He was one of the artists that depicted the greater freedoms of women in the 1920s. I wondered, as I realized how young he had been when he died, how his art would have evolved had he lived through the great depression and World War II.

Kittens! – Month 4

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Month 4 with our 3 kittens…..they are still kittenish but beginning to make cat noises…and always trying something new. Here’s my notes for what’s happened with the kittens over the past month.

Two of the kittens (Sooty and Puma) like the cat hammock that we kept from our first cat. It’s been in storage for almost 20 years because our next cats didn’t like it!

We tried putting up our Christmas tree…gave them time to adjust to it without ornaments. They climbed it, knocked off branches…then got sick. We opted to forego a tree completely this year even though we think now they were sick from something contagious that they all got and then recovered.

When they were sick, my husband let the kittens have the run of the 1st floor (except for our bedroom) during the night rather than sequestering them in their suite….and we’ve continued now that they’ve recovered – keeping the main bedroom and bathroom a kitten-free zone at night. We hear them at the door occasionally. I am the first one out and about in the mornings. I got my camera and photographed the kittens right after I emerged earlier this week: Pooky as in the hallway near a scratching pad, Sooty was comfortable in a pile of jackets my husband had left in a chair after the kittens knocked over the coat rack (damaging it a bit), and Puma was already waiting for my husband at the bedroom door.

It didn’t take long before all three were at the door…Pooky got nervous and retreated to the scratching pad. As soon as the door opened, they all streamed into the bedroom as if they had never been there before.

Sooty is the only one that likes the bathroom sink…and he doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone needing the sink.

When I was in Texas, I noticed some ‘space cats’ catnip toys. The cats will be getting them as part of their Christmas.

Previous Kittens! Posts: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, week 1, week 2, month 1, month 2, month 3

Crocheting Again

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I learned to crochet early on, probably when I was about 10 years old. My grandfather taught me! He didn’t crochet himself, but he read the instructions and taught me the basics. I can remember the setting: on the couch in his living room as my grandmother looked on. It was several years after the accident that had caused one of his legs to be amputated; he wore a prosthesis (primitive by today’s standards). My memories of him before the accident are vague, but I remember his interest, attention, patience, and kindness to me and my sisters all the years afterward. As I’ve started up crocheting again…thinking about how I learned…I realize that I was the only grandchild that he saw all the way to adulthood.

I don’t remember anything I made early on…I picked up crocheting again when I travelled with Up with People my junior year of high school. There was a lot of time on the bus between shows. I made slippers to use for rehearsals (wore them out very quickly), a hat and scarf. The hat and scarf were dark blue to match one of the colors from the tweed coat I wore then. I still have them but haven’t worn them in a long time. I tried on the hat and discovered that the yarn had degraded somewhat…making it less stretchy, too tight to be comfortable.

I made crocheted stars for Christmas tree ornaments in white shortly after I married…and then in red more than a decade later.

In my early thirties and before I had my daughter, there was another burst of crochet activity. I made some yellow dollies. I don’t remember why I chose the color! Around the same time, I was still making my own blouses for work and crocheted ecru or white pieces to sew into the neckline. I remember being very pleased with the results and wish I’d saved the crocheted part when the blouse fabric wore out.

I also made three crocheted scarves in red and green (wore them together for Christmas then separately at other times) and variegated pink with black. I’m not sure when I made them…probably about 20 years ago since I remember wearing them during my career and I’ve been post-career for over a decade.

Now – I am crocheting again. My initial project is to make a series of cotton scarves to keep the sun off the scar on my neck so that I don’t need sunscreen all the time while the scar fades. So far, I have made ecru and black scarves…am working on a white one. Light green and turquoise crochet threads have been purchased! It feels good to be crocheting again and making something that fits my need (cotton, colors, length) exactly.

Another aspect that pleases me about this new crochet project is the wooden bowl that was given to me in the 1970s by a friend I’d known all my life. I hadn’t used it for salads since its finish was damaged, but it is the perfect size and shape to hold the thread and my project….and reminds me of the good experiences I had growing up with her.

Through all the years and projects – crocheting has been an activity that I can do some deep thinking while making an item I need. Maybe that’s why I restart crocheting all over again.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 3, 2022

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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.

Drought hit large portion of the globe in 2021, state of water report says – Bad news for water: the negative trends are stronger than the positive ones.

Bloating common among Americans – I am so glad I discovered that I was lactose intolerant; it’s been relatively easy to change my diet to avoid bloating completely!

Do students really eat that badly? – Yes and no…and alcohol plays a negative role.

Fungi that cause lung infections may be spreading across the US – Infection causing soil fungi Histoplasma, Coccidioides, and Blastomyces – evidently the diseases are more widespread now than in the 1950s!

White House unveils its holiday décor, including 77 trees and ‘We the People’ theme – Getting in the mood for December celebrations!

From Patches to Pies, Illinois Knows Pumpkins – A little pumpkin history…and a satellite image (NASA’s Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager) from after the pumpkins are harvested.

Cranberry bogs in Plymouth County – A satellite image of production of another seasonal food: cranberries! Massachusetts supplies about 25% of the cranberries grown in the US (outpaced only by Wisconsin). The cranberry bogs look pink/red in the natural-color image at the beginning of the article.

We’re told to ‘eat a rainbow’ of fruit and vegetables. Here’s what each colour does in our body – Love the colorful foods!

Effigy Mounds National Monument Becomes a Tribal Sister Park To Ioway Tribal National Park – A new type of agreement….hoping it is a good one for everyone.

How to be a sustainable parent – It’s hard since the most easily obtained products are obviously not and there are no pre-defined alternatives that are more sustainable…aside from buying second hand (i.e. reuse) whenever possible.

eBotanical Prints – November 2022

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Another 20 botanical books in November. Four works by Ethelbert Blatter (best known as a pioneering botanist in British India) available on Internet Archive were browsed as well as 3 authored by Frederick Orpen Bower. I noticed that I’d missed browsing the 3rd volume of Bower’s The Ferns until I was writing this post – so I’ll include it with the December books.

The whole list of 2,512 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the November 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the November 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Lehrbuch der Botanik fur Hochschullen * Strasburger, Eduard, Noll, Fritz, Schenck, Henrich, et al * sample image * 1923

A history of British ferns * Newman, Edward * sample image * 1874

My Shrubs * Pillipotts, Eden * sample image * 1915

Plant-geography upon a physiological basis * Schimper, Andreas Franz, Wilhelm; Fisher, William Rogers et al * sample image * 1903

Cape Flowers at Home 1929 - Series I * Marloth, Rudolf * sample image * 1929

Das Kapland  * Marloth, Rudolf; Schimper, Andreas Franz Wilhelm * sample image * 1908

The origin of a land flora : a theory based upon the facts of alternation  * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1908

The ferns (filicales) V1 * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1923

The ferns (filicales) V2 * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1923

Manuel complet de l'amateur de roses : leur monographie, leur histoire, et leur culture * Boitard, Pierre * sample image * 1836

Beautiful flowers of Kashmir Beautiful flowers of Kashmir V1 * Blatter, Ethelbert; Withen, G.A.; Walli, Haldar Joo * sample image * 1929

Beautiful flowers of Kashmir Beautiful flowers of Kashmir V2 * Blatter, Ethelbert; Withen, G.A.; Walli, Haldar Joo * sample image * 1929

The Bombay Grasses * Blatter, Ethelbert; McCann, Charles * sample image * 1935

The Ferns of Bombay * Blatter, Ethelbert; Almeida, Joseph Francis * sample image * 1922

Popular studies of California wild flowers * Rice, Bertha Marguete; Rice, Roland  * sample image * 1920

Mistletoe and holly * Prior, Sophia; Frey, Albert * sample image * 1939

Carnivorous plants * Prior, Sophia * sample image * 1939

Coffee * Dahlgren, Bror Eric * sample image * 1938

Tropical and Subtropical Fruits * Dahlgren, Bror Eric * sample image * 1947

Common Mushrooms * Pray, Leon Luther; Dahlgren, Bror Ericc * sample image * 1936

Unique Aspects of Days – November 2022

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I had a hard time picking the top 10 unique aspects of my November days. There seemed to be a lot of firsts happening during the month!

New electric lawn mower. I made a few turns around the yard with my early Christmas present before our yard crew showed up. Next year I will be doing the yard. I will probably do some spot mowing on a warmer afternoon as soon as all the leaves are off the trees – mulch the leaves into the grass for the winter). What a luxury to have clean air (i.e. no gasoline motor fumes) while I mow!

Cooking a big pumpkin. I’ve always bought pumpkins small enough to fit in my oven previously but the one this year was a left over from my son-in-law’s pumpkin carving event and it was large. I had to cut it in half and then cook each piece separately! I baked and made soup with some of the puree but most of it went into the freezer.

A gaggle of Greater White-fronted Geese. The group was migrating through Hagerman on the day that I stopped on my way down to Carrollton. It was my first time seeing this species.

Pumpkin Custard Quiche. I used some of the pumpkin puree from the large pumpkin to experiment with a high protein dessert/breakfast. I used 2 cups of puree, 8 eggs, pumpkin pie spices, sugar, milk, 8 ounces of Swiss cheese and walnuts on top. Each of the 6 servings were about 21 grams of protein….and my parents ate their whole serving! This is an experiment that will likely become a favorite recipe.

1st snow at our Missouri home. It happened while I was in Carrollton, but I enjoyed it vicariously through pictures my husband sent.

2 Bald Eagles soaring above the highway in Oklahoma. What a great sight driving home from Texas. One was an adult and the other a juvenile. No fighting….just graceful flying back and forth above the highway.

Learning to use a blower to create a pile of leaves. I’m very adept making leaf piles with a rake…but was overwhelmed with the leaves in my daughter’s front yard. She had a new battery powered blower. There was a trial-and-error period but then I managed to move leaves around trees and under bushes…and into piles for her to vacuum up with the mulcher. I depleted 2 batteries (good thing she had 3 that worked with the blower).

Rice Pudding Quiche. After the success of the pumpkin custard quiche – my next experiment was with rice pudding. I used the small carton of rice left over after having Chinese takeout to make rice pudding (with milk, eggs, raisins, drizzle of molasses) with Swiss Cheese (making it more quiche like). Next time I will use a bit more milk since it was a little too dense…but it was still tasty (I drizzled some honey over it to make it sweeter). It’s a good way to use up rice!

Cranberry and tomatillo salsa sauce for Impossible Burger meatballs. Our appetizers for Thanksgiving were Impossible Burger meatballs (purchased frozen…heated in oven). I had barbeque sauce and marinara for dipping…then made a third sauce with chopped cranberries (heated in microwave) and tomatillo salsa. All the sauces were warmed just before we tried them. Everyone agreed that the cranberry and tomatillo salsa was a great flavor with the meatballs – and it looked festive too.

Experimenting with Christmas tree decorations. The kittens are changing our thinking about decorating this year. We put our artificial tree up in the center of our living room using an outdoor umbrella stand for the base (to keep them from knocking over the tree). Right now, we are letting them get bored with the tree, but they’ve managed to dislodge lower and middle branches (they climb up around the center of the tree). We don’t want to use hooks to attach ornaments. I experimented putting Beanie babies on the branches and the kittens knocked them all off as they move around the inside of the tree. So – a series of unique experiences that isn’t over yet!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 26, 2022

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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.

Battle Over Bears Ears Continues in Utah – I am looking forward to visiting Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments and hope that their boundaries stay the way the tribes that have used the area for a very long time want. At some point Utah and the counties that are opposing the size will recognize the values of the tribes and country that want to preserve historical, paleontological, and geologic aspects of these places….and that the state benefits significantly from people visiting. The tourism $ may become more dependable and long term than other uses of the land.

Pyramid and Hundreds of New Kingdom Coffins Found in Egypt - An Old Kingdom pyramid, 300 New Kingdom coffins with well-preserved mummies with names of the deceased, and nearby a pyramid to Queen Neith…a previously unknown Queen.

Long-COVID clinics are wrestling with how to treat their patients – Frustrating situation.

Fenced In: How the Global Rise of Border Walls Is Stifling Wildlife – Border walls have increased since the end of the Cold War! This makes climate change an even bigger challenge to mammals…because they cannot move to better habitat if there is a border wall in the way.

Baby's vaccine responses linked to birth delivery method, study finds – Babies born via Caesarian section have lower antibody levels after vaccinations than babies born naturally.

Scientists Discover More Than 22,000 Endangered Manta Rays off Coast of Ecuador – Larger than any other Manta Ray population.

A Massive Freshwater River Is Flowing Under Antarctica’s Ice – It is flowing at 3 times the rate of the Thames. This finding helps understand some problems with existing models…hopefully it will allow for model updates to predict the impact of warming more accurately on Antarctica’s ice.

A Field Guide to Jackrabbits – Hard to see denizens of the western US (and Mexico).

France Looks to Mandate Solar Panels Over Large Parking Lots – Good idea…maybe it will begin to happen in the US even without a mandate.

Bright LEDs could spell the end of dark skies – Hope cities can learn to use LEDs like Tucson…not overuse bright white LEDs.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 19, 2022

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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.

Energy crisis: How living in a cold home affects your health – The coming winter is going to be very difficult for many – particularly in Europe.

Parks of the 21st century: new ways to reinvent abandoned land – Parks always are signs of hope…the greening of places that might have been eyesores in the past. I wondered how much toxic remediation had to occur for some of the sites they described; its encouraging that we can clean up the messes we’ve made in the past!

Alcohol caused one in eight deaths of working-age US adults – The data used from the analysis was pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the CDC has released data for 2019 and 2020 and it shows a larger-than-normal 26% spike in the alcohol-induced deathrate. In 2020, alcoholic liver disease and mental/behavioral disorders were the leading underlying causes of alcohol-induced deaths. Sad numbers….lots of people and their families impacted.

A field guide to the unusual raptors of the Southern US – I was pleased to see the snail kite in this article – a bird I saw on a birding trip to Florida in 2019.

Farmers in China, Uganda move to high-yielding, cost-saving perennial rice – Very positive results. Hopefully we will eventually have perennial forms of other grains (wheat in particular).

The weirdest places you can find wild turkeys – Wild turkeys have made a comeback since the early 1900s…a restoration success story. Part of the Thanksgiving vibe this week!

Breast cancer survivorship doubles – An analysis of Canadian data from the 2007-2001. The study also highlighted the long-term side effects in these survivors…the need for new therapies to improve the health of women after surviving breast cancer.

Permanent Standard Time Could Save Lives, Explained by A Sleep Expert – I don’t like changing to/from daylight savings time; before reading this article, I didn’t care which one we chose to make permanent. Now I am convinced that we should stick with standard time! There are too many negative health impacts to staying on daylight savings.

How to avoid bad choices – The article is about the research on how to teach children ‘decision-making competence’ – not just a measure of raw brainpower but how well someone is able to appraise situations. There are many approaches but the goal is to get children and adolescents to start thinking about risk and danger in a more analytical way….on the way to adulthood.

Blind spots in the monitoring of plastic waste – The amount of plastic waste in rivers could be up to 90% higher that previously assumed. The current measurements are mainly based on surface observations…but plastic can be suspended or sink! This study tracked 3,000 particles from 30mm to larger objects like plastic cup. Knowing where the plastic is helps guide where clean up would be the most effective.

Donald Maxwell Illustrations

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Donald Maxwell was an English writer and illustrator active in the first third of the 20th century. This week’s free eBook selections are 5 of Maxwell’s self-illustrated books that are available on Internet Archive:

A dweller in Mesopotamia (1920)

Unknown Kent (1921)

The Last Crusade (1920)

Unknown Essex (1925)

Unknown Sussex (1924)

These are easy books to browse for the illustrations which are a mix of line drawings and color plates. Enjoy!

Cooking a Big Pumpkin

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One of the 10 pumpkins my daughter and son-in-law bought for their pumpkin carving event was not used.

My daughter volunteered to bring it over for me to use as decoration for Thanksgiving or to cook; I decided to cook it. I had cooked smaller pumpkins whole…but this one was too big to fit in the oven. I cut it in half.

I scooped out the seeds and put the bottom half in a large pan.

After cooking, it for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees (the top half was covered with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator to cook another day), it was soft enough that the pulp could be easily scrapped off the skin.

I filled two of my larger Pyrex containers with it and planned to use some in recipes the next day.

The next morning - I processed the pulp into puree in the food processor. It was a good color…more a yellow orange than a deep orange.

I made 3 recipes and used about 3 cups of the puree: pumpkin oatmeal muffins, pumpkin quiche, and pumpkin peanut powder soup.

I froze 2 cups of the puree, and another two cups is in the refrigerator. I’ll make a pumpkin custard with the refrigerator portion….and then I will cook the top of the big pumpkin. I am going trying a lot of pumpkin recipes over the next couple of months!