The Garden Magazine 1905-1924

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Internet Archive has 34 volumes of The Garden Magazine – a New York based magazine “devoted to planting and managing the grounds about the home, and to the cultivation of Fruits, Vegetables and Flowers". The magazines are a window into the way life was during the early 1900s. I enjoyed browsing them all! Click on the sample images below to see an enlarged version….better yet – browse a whole volume (or two or three….maybe all of them)  by following the link.

The Garden Magazine V1 (1905)

The Garden Magazine V2 (1906)

The Garden Magazine V3 (1906)

The Garden Magazine V4 (1907)

The Garden Magazine V5 (1907)

The early issues had little color except for some of the covers and a few ads. Note that the ad for Japanese Iris included some birds among the flowers.

The Garden Magazine V6 (1908)

The Garden Magazine V7 (1908)

The Garden Magazine V8 (1909)

The Garden Magazine V9 (1909)

The Garden Magazine V10 (1910)

Farming was important to a lot of people and so - was an important aspect of the magazine…in all seasons. Note that Kodak was already advertising in 1909….and that the photographer was not always male!

The Garden Magazine V11 (1910)

The Garden Magazine V12 (1911)

The Garden Magazine V13 (1911)

The Garden Magazine V15 (1912)

The Garden Magazine V14 (1912)

Unusual garden features like Japanese lanterns and plants like lotuses/wisteria featured in some issues – popularizing new things for the garden. C. Coles Phillips’ work was part of a Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen ad in 1912.

The Garden Magazine V16 (1913)

The Garden Magazine V17 (1913)

The Garden Magazine V18 (1914)

The Garden Magazine V19 (1914)

The Garden Magazine V20 (1915)

An overhead view of an idealized farm and a vine covered façade of a stately house featured on some covers. Cannas and poinsettias were plants of interest. Victor-Victrola ads depicted the sounds of the world come to your home.

The Garden Magazine V21 (1915)

The Garden Magazine V22 (1916)

The Garden Magazine V23 (1916)

The Garden Magazine V26 (1918)

The Garden Magazine V27 (1918)

As America entered World War I food was featured in covers – the slogan ‘America’s Part: to keep the Horn of Plenty Full.”

The Garden Magazine V28 & 29 (1919)

The Garden Magazine V30 (1920)

The Garden Magazine V31 & 32 (1921)

The Garden Magazine V33 (1921)

The Garden Magazine V34 (1921)

By 1919, the wounded were home. Davey Tree Surgeons was advertising…trees were a big topic. Gladiolas and other flowers in the garden were becoming a bigger business too.

The Garden Magazine V35 (1922)

The Garden Magazine V37 (1923)

The Garden Magazine V38 (1924)

The Garden Magazine V39 (1924)

The cover art for the last issues reflects the aesthetics of the 1920s….more children, relaxed fashion, abundant flowers.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 19, 2023

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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.

Risk of fatal heart attack may double in heat wave and high fine particulate pollution days – A study from China that included 202,000 heart attach deaths.

July Was Likely Earth’s Hottest Month on Record – The last sentence of the article: ‘Well, this is probably one of the coolest summers you’ll ever see in your life.’ ... It is quite scary to put it this way.

Climate Change Temperatures Killing Death Valley's Bristlecones – 70% mortality rate over the past decade.

The Australian town where people live underground – Coober Pedy…where most of the people live underground in abandoned opal mines or intentionally excavated spaces!

Looking Down on the Andes – Pacific Ocean, Atacama Desert, Andes…Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Image taken from the International Space Station.

Supermarkets to the Rescue — Coles Joins Virtual Power Plant – A grocery chain in Australia. Maybe some supermarkets (and other big box stores) in the US will do similar things.

In a Chilean Forest Reserve, the Remarkable Darwin’s Frog Endures – The endangered frog is a smallish leaf mimic with a pointy nose. Males whistle to attract mates. After females lay their eggs on the ground, males swallow them, holding them in their vocal sac as the young metamorphose. Six to eight weeks after hatching, small adults make their exit through the males’ mouths!

Moths With 11-Inch Tongues? - More than 150,000 recognized moth species, though likely another 150,000 or so, give or take, remain undescribed. Many of these species feed birds and bats like some form of “aerial plankton.” Out of the hundreds of caterpillars one moth might produce, few survive to metamorphose into moths. But those that do provide a critical service both as food for nighttime predators and as pollinators, often evolving to be the only ones that can get the job done. Every species of yucca in North America, including the famous Joshua Tree, requires pollination exclusively from yucca moths.

Spooky, stealthy night hunters: revealing the wonderful otherworld of owls - Owls occur across all continents other than Antarctica, spanning an environmental gradient from the freezing Arctic (home of the stunningly beautiful snowy owl, of Harry Potter fame) to the hottest deserts (home of elf owls).

What to know about beech leaf disease, the 'heartbreaking' threat to forests along the East Coast – I remember this entering into Master Naturalist conversations in Maryland before the COVID-19 pandemic…but the cause was a total mystery at that point. It was interesting to get an update. There is still no known way to control or manage disease, but progress has been made; large numbers of foliar nematodes cause the disease (the interfere with chlorophyll production and the trees starve). It hasn’t been that long ago that the Emerald Ash Borer killed almost all the ash trees…before that wooly adelgid killed the Eastern Hemlocks….and earlier, in the mid-1900s, the American Chestnut succumbed to blight. The eastern US forests are very different than they were 100 years ago and the pace of diseases seem to be increasing.

Some Randolph Caldecott eBooks

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14 books by artist/illustrator Randolph Caldecott are the ‘books of the week’ – all freely available from Internet Archive. He was a British and illustrator who died in 1886 so half of these were published after his death. Enjoy the sample images and follow the links to see more!

The Fox Jumps over the Parson's Gate (1883)

The three jovial horsemen (1890)

The house that Jack built (1878)

He began the trends we still see in picture books today! The positioning of pictures and words…the reduction in words when pictures tell the story…etc. The Caldecott Medal is name after him; it is an annual award for “"most distinguished American picture book for children" and was first awarded in 1938.

Hummingbird Moth

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While I was doing the daily check of my miniature pumpkin vine (it now has at least 8 pumpkins), I noticed a hummingbird moth on one of the leaves. I took initial pictures with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) then hurried inside to get my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX-70 HS) with more optical zoom capability. Note: Click on any of the smaller images to see an enlarged version.

Fortunately, the moth has stayed on the. I got a few shots with the bridge camera

Before the moth took off to get some nectar. The wings move so fast that even in bright sunlight, they are blurred. Note the coiled proboscis as the moth flies away in the last shot.

The moth didn’t go far. It rested on a nearby flower. Maybe the morning was a little too cool for it to be moving around a lot. A little research revealed that it was a Snowberry Clearwing….probably a male.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 12, 2023

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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.

Neolithic Necklace from Jordan Reassembled – Jewelry that was beautiful long ago…and still is. Beads of stone and shell primarily.

UNESCO Recommends Adding Venice to List of World Heritage in Danger – UNESCO is indicating that Venice’s proposed solutions are “currently insufficient and not detailed enough and should be subject to further discussions and exchanges.” I’m a little surprised that Venice hasn’t been on the list for years.

'Time-traveling' pathogens in melting permafrost pose likely risk to environment – Quantifying the risks using simulations. The results so far estimate that 1% of the invaders (ancient pathogens) are unpredictable…some could cause 33% of the host species to die out while others could increase diversity by up to 12%. Outbreak events caused by ancient pathogens represent a substantial hazard to human health in the future.

In Peru, discovery of ancient ruins outpaces authorities' ability to care for them – Lima is home to more than 400 known pyramids, temples and burial sites, many of which predate the Incas and are known in Spanish as "huacas"…and archaeologists continue to find/dig new sites! 27 sites are open to visitors…the rest are deteriorating (or actively being destroyed by looters or squatters).

Inflammation discovery could slow aging, prevent age-related diseases – Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered that improper calcium signaling in the mitochondria of certain immune cells (macrophages) drives harmful inflammation. Creating drugs that increase calcium uptake by mitochondrial macrophages could prevent harmful inflammation and slow age associate neurogenerative diseases.

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Oman’s Ancient Towers – 4,000 years old! And there are over 100 known towers found today in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The purpose and function of the towers remain largely a mystery although water might be involved. They appear to be built close to places where there is/was access to surface water.

Lake Tahoe’s Clear Water Is Brimming with Tiny Plastics – Its water contains the third-highest amount of microplastics among 38 freshwater reservoirs and lakes around the globe! Lake Tahoe is also full of garbage ranging from sunglasses to car tires; 25,000 pounds of debris was removed from the lake between 2021 and 2022.

Dementia becomes an emergency 1.4 million times a year – And these patients are 2x more likely to be seeking emergency care after an accident or a behavioral/mental health crisis. Once a person with dementia is in the emergency department, it can be a very disorienting experience. "Even routine blood draws from unfamiliar staff can be a very scary experience for a patient with advanced dementia."

Decades of public messages about recycling in the US have crowded out more sustainable ways to manage waste – To often we overlook waste reduction and reuse in favor of recycling.

Steel Industry Pivoting to Electric Furnaces - Iron and steel production accounts for 7% of carbon emissions worldwide – using coal in blast furnaces. But – progress is being made. 43% of planned steelmaking capacity globally will rely on electric-arc furnaces, up from 33% last year! Even so – the rate of transition needs to be increased to stay on track for only 1.5 degrees C warming.

2 Ernst Kreidolf eBooks

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Internet Archive has 2 books by Ernst Kreidolf -  published in the early 1900s. He was a Swiss painter know for illustrating children’s books that include flower people.

The first book was published in 1909 as a portfolio - Ernst Kreidolf – of his early (pre-flower people) works.

The second book was published in 1922 - Alpenblumenmärchen – and includes his best known images.

There are other books written during the early 1900s but not scanned and available yet. Later versions of the books were translations to English and are still under copyright protection.

Josey Ranch Feathers – July 2023

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There is an area at the edge of the smaller pond at Josey Ranch (Carrollton, TX) that seemed to have more feathers. Maybe birds tend to preen there…or maybe the breeze carries the feathers there – either on the water surface or into the grass. Many of them seem to have a lot of down rather than being flight feathers. Some look very fresh with all the parts neatly zipped…still the way they were when maintained by the bird. Others have been on the ground long enough to be bedraggled. Most of them are white although there are some brownish tones in some.

Most of these pictures were taken from the same spot! Using the optical zoom on my Canon Powershot SX-70 HS on a monopod…I simple turn all around to get the feathers visible in every direction. It was still within the magic hour after sunrise…. lots of good light to highlight the feathers and their background. I like the structure of the feathers – the gentle curves – the delicate wisps of down – the magic of birds.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – July 2023 (1)

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It was in the 90s when I visited Hagerman in July…early afternoon so not yet the peak for the day which would be over 100. As usual, I started my visit on the dusty wildlife loop – using my car as a blind and with the air conditioner working to keep the car cool even when I temporarily open a window for photography. I photographed a few birds near the ponds: Great Blue Heron, Snow Egrets, and a Great Egret.

There were still colorful wildflowers in the meadow areas…lotuses blooming on one of the ponds. Some of the plants are already producing their seeds.

I headed back to the butterfly garden near the visitor center. I appreciated my hat and darkening glasses! The garden is not large, but densely packed with blooming flowers; there is something to photograph at every turn! I had my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX 70 HS) on a monopod – which made it easy to stand on the path and use the zoom to compose the images I wanted.

More from Hagerman tomorrow (butterflies and grasshoppers).

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 5, 2023

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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.

Four key questions on the new wave of anti-obesity drugs – Several of the drugs were originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes but now are popular weight loss drugs.

Sweet smell of success: Simple fragrance method produces major memory boost – A study done by the University of California, Irvine on older adults…participants reaped a 226% increase in cognitive capacity compared to the control group. A product based on their study and designed for people to use at home is expected to come onto the market this fall.

How the US is fighting back against deadly floods – Identifying flood plains…not building back in them after a flood.

Old-Growth Trees, Some Dating To 17th Century, Protected at New River Gorge – The Burnwood Loop – where I want to hike first in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve!

Does Cooking with Gas Stoves Hurt Indoor Air Quality? – Yes…but how much is the better question. 12.7% of current childhood asthma in the United States is attributable to gas stove use.

A quick look inside a human being – Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI)…using a portable scanner to visualize dynamic processes in the human body such a blood flow.

Why it's so important to figure out when a vital Atlantic Ocean current might collapse - Humans are changing the fundamental processes of the Earth faster than we can understand them. The collapse of the current would have effects around the planet: temperatures in Europe would fall, heat in the tropics would rise, rainfall would decrease across the Sahel in Africa, the summer monsoon would weaken across Asia, and sea levels would rise even faster in the eastern US.

New Thermal Activity on Geyser Hill in Yellowstone National Park – Short video from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

‘Perfectly Preserved’ Glassware Recovered From 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck – The shipwreck was located 1,148 feet below the surface in waters between Italy and France. Two remotely operated vehicles (ROV) were used to scan the site and recover artifacts.

Short bursts of daily activity linked to reduced cancer risk - A total of just 4.5 minutes of vigorous activity that makes you huff and puff during daily tasks could reduce the risk of some cancers (i.e. cancers associated with physical activity such as liver, lung, kidney, gastric cardia (a type of stomach cancer), endometrial, myeloid leukemia, myeloma, colorectal, head and neck, bladder, breast and esophageal adenocarcinoma (cancer of the esophagus) by up to 32 percent.

eBotanical Prints – July 2023

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Twenty-one more books were added to the botanical print collection this month. Eight of the books are ‘nature prints’ (a process in which an object as a leaf or flower) is pressed into a plane surface to make either a direct printing surface or a matrix); the images made via nature print this month were from the late 1700s.

Garden Books from Montgomery Ward from a few years before and after I was born are available on Internet Archive…clues about what home gardeners were planting during those years.

The most recent book was about liverworts and hornwarts of New Zealand – published in 2008. I chose a drawing for the sample image but there were many color photographs as well.

There were 3 volumes of American Grasses from 1899-1900 and 3 volumes of flora from the Pacific states from the 1944-1960.

Overall – quite a range of publications!

The whole list of 2,675 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the July 2023 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 July 2023 eBotanical Prints!

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V1 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1787

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V2 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1788

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V3 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1788

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V4 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1789

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V5 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1789

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V6 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1790

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V7 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1791

Ectypa plantarum Ratisbonensium, oder Abdrücke derjenigen Pflanzen, welche um Regensburg wild wachsen V8 * Hoppe, David Heinrich * sample image * 1791

The Garden Book - Montgomery Ward - 1949 * Montgomery Ward * sample image * 1949

The Garden Book - Montgomery Ward - 1950 * Montgomery Ward * sample image * 1950

The Garden Book - Montgomery Ward - 1951 * Montgomery Ward * sample image * 1951

The Garden Book - Montgomery Ward - 1952 * Montgomery Ward * sample image * 1952

The Garden Book - Montgomery Ward - 1953 * Montgomery Ward * sample image * 1953

The Garden Book - Montgomery Ward - 1954 * Montgomery Ward * sample image * 1954

A flora of the liverworts and hornworts of New Zealand * Engel, John J.; Glenny, David * sample image * 2008

American grasses. I, Descriptions of the species * Lamson-Scribner, F. * sample image * 1900

American grasses. II, Descriptions of the species * Lamson-Scribner, F. * sample image * 1899

American grasses. III, Descriptions of the species * Lamson-Scribner, F. * sample image * 1900

An illustrated flora of the Pacific states - Washington, Oregon, & California V2 * Abrams, Leroy; Ferris, Roxana Stinchfield * sample image * 1944

An illustrated flora of the Pacific states - Washington, Oregon, & California V3 * Abrams, Leroy; Ferris, Roxana Stinchfield * sample image * 1951

An illustrated flora of the Pacific states - Washington, Oregon, & California V4 * Abrams, Leroy; Ferris, Roxana Stinchfield * sample image * 1960

Zooming – July 2023

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The photographic opportunities bulged with the addition of a trip to St. Louis along with the monthly trip to Texas…. local walk abouts in our yard and neighborhood…the Lake Springfield boathouse too. They all added up to a lot of zoomed images taken with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS). I enjoyed choosing which ones to include in this month’s post!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 29, 2023

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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.

An elegant enigma – A shipwreck discovered 30 feet below the surface 15 years ago…what we know (and don’t know) about it after study of the 1,500 objects recovered including textiles in 4 chests. The name of the ship is still unknown but the construction indicates it was a Dutch trader constructed around 1645 and sank around 1660.

At Peru temple site, archaeologists explore 3,000-year-old 'condor's passageway' – A 3,000 year old sealed corridor in a massive temple complex built by the ancient Chavin culture.

Does Nature Need a Trigger Warning? – A thought provoking post. Predators must be part of our conservation actions…and need to be valued as they are rather than simplistically.

Two-Hundred Years of Written Observations of Kīlauea's Summit Activity – On August 1, 1823, an English missionary visited the summit and published his observations (I found the book online -available on Internet Archive…Chapter 6 begins on page 121…image below). Mark Twain visited in 1866 and trekked across the caldera floor to Halema’uma’u, watching “a heaving sea of molten fire of seemingly limitless extent.” There are several links in the article that are worth following. My favorite is the USGS Views of a Century of Activity at Kilauea Caldera – A Visual Essay.

How Texas is racing to thwart the heat  - Unfortunately, planning for heat is not as well-developed in the US as planning for other hazards like flooding so many cities are scrambling to take proactive measures to cool their streets down and protect people from the dangerous impacts of overheating. In urban heat islands, temperatures can be up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than less populated areas. Austin, TX has a climate resilience plan that includes strengthening emergency response and future-proofing new facilities and infrastructure. It also developed an urban forest canopy for the city to ensure cool outdoor spaces. The city has now applied for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant to plant more trees after finding the tree canopy coverage was helping Austin to adapt to hotter temperatures. In 2021, San Antonio became the first city in Texas to participate in a pilot project to lower pavement temperatures by applying a coat of paint that reflects the sun's rays. I was disappointed that other large cities in Texas (like Dallas and Houston) were not mentioned in the article. My impression of Dallas is that there is a lot of concrete.

Detecting spoiled foods with LEDs – A potential improvement in non-invasive monitoring of fruit and vegetable freshness.

Joshua trees are dying. This new legislation hopes to tackle that – A compromise law…sets up a conservation fund and requires the state to develop a conservation plan and companies to obtain a permit from the state to cut down or relocate existing trees.

The looming 840,000 ton waste problem that isn't single-use plastics – Carbon and glass fiber composites used in wind turbine blades, hydrogen tanks, airplanes, yachts, construction, and car manufacturing. "This is a huge opportunity," said Dr Wei. "And not only because various modes of recycling are cost-effective and minimally impactful on the environment. In an era of mounting supply chain disruptions, local recycled products can provide a more immediate product when compared to imports and create a burgeoning advanced manufacturing industry."

National Park Visitors Warned to Be "Prepared to Survive" Heat – My husband and I have avoided trips to the western national parks in summer since the 1980s…primarily to avoid crowds but now ‘excessive heat’ is part of our rationale too.

The ocean's color is changing as a consequence of climate change – The color shifts have occurred in 56% of the world’s ocean based on analysis of data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite, which has been monitoring ocean color for 21 years. Tropical oceans have become steadily greener. Changes in color reflect changes in plankton communities, that will impact everything that feeds on plankton. It will also change how much the ocean will take up carbon, because different types of plankton have different abilities to do that. 

Egyptology History eBook

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Internet Archive has John A. Wilson’s 1964 book Signs and Wonders upon Pharaoh: A History of American Egyptology - freely available and browse worthy.  The title focuses on American Egyptology but there is contextual information about work by archeologists from other countries as well. All over the world – Ancient Egypt has fascinated people and the finds are more than just objects in museums. They have influenced architecture, art, fashion…concepts of beauty and culture. Enjoy the sample images below (click to enlarge) and browse the book directly by following the link above.

Macro in the Garden

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My garden plot has done reasonably well for its 1st season. I am letting all the wildflowers bloom and make seeds. The bulbs will hopefully be more robust next year too. The plot has been a joy to see at every stage – a reward for my efforts to plant and keep watered.

The added benefit is the variety of plants for macro photography (using Samsung Galaxy S10e phone). My goal is to make the rounds at least once a month since the plants change throughout the season. The highlights this month are the poppies making seeds and the sunflower just beginning the process. The red leaves are a rosebush next to the patch of wildflowers and bulbs.

Next to the wildflower garden, I have a vine of miniature pumpkins. There are three that are getting  bigger every day.

I noticed that the petals of the showy flowers have spikes at the tip that shortens as the petals unfurl. When I first started looking at the flower, I noticed some small insects were there. I wondered if they were pollinators; then a black carpenter bee came, and I switched to video mode. Clearly the carpenter bee was the pollinator!

In the front yard – there were three types of mushrooms growing where the large tree was cut down well before we saw our house; I know it was there because of the depression and general bumpiness caused by the decaying roots. The most numerous mushrooms this time were white blobs pushing up out of the grass.

In closer looks – they remind me of toasted marshmallows!

The second type was darker and still had rolled edges. They had previously been the most numerous kind I’d seen in the area…but not this time. I wondered if there is a fungi succession when it came to tree stumps/roots.

The third type was a single specimen….more delicate looking than the others. I see it elsewhere in the yard.

 The macro world….easier to observe with my phone in hand!

Our Missouri Neighborhood – July 2023

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July has been hot…though not as hot as Texas. I’ve appreciated being home. The month started dry but then suddenly we got 2 inches of rain in 2 days after teasing with clouds and forecasts for rain that didn’t materialize. We have a good vantage point for the sunset over the neighborhood pool house from our patio.  

I saw a large red-eared slider on the move across the neighbor’s yard behind our house; it appeared to be moving in the general direction of the ponds. By the time I got out of the house with my phone for the picture, the turtle was at the tennis court…and quickly discovered the fence barrier. I noticed that the back of the turtle appeared wet; I wondered if it (she?) had been laying eggs – maybe in some damp, mulchy place. I assume the turtle managed to get back to the pond; I didn’t stick around in the heat of midafternoon.

About a week later I walked out into the eastern side of our yard to photograph the sunrise from two perspectives over neighbors’ houses.

More recently I took a morning walk around the ponds. We have more Purple Loosestrife that ever this year at the edge of the ponds….which is not a good thing since the state says it is “a noxious weed in Missouri and should be removed as quickly as possible.” Maybe it takes some finesse to remove it with propagating it? I hope eventually we’ll eradicate it and plant something native – like buttonbush (one of my favorites).

Note that the second picture (above) is near the willow tree…the one that had grown around a stake. There seem to be more plants around the base of the willow this year than I noticed last year.

Asian honeysuckle – another non-native invasive plant – is also growing in clumps around the pond. I wonder if there are children that pull the flowers to taste the nectar? I remember doing that as a child…and taught my daughter to do it too!

There are maple seedlings that are growing in the areas that don’t get mowed and a small clover hill that is full of blooms even with the occasional mowing.

I tried an artsy picture of the sun glint on the water silhouetting the shore vegetation. It looks like a picture that could have been taken at night!

Bullfrogs are some of the more recognizable sounds at the pond. It is harder to see them. This one was under one of the loosestrifes. I heard another one not far away while I was photographing this one.

As I headed back to our gate, I saw a robin on our fence…observing me!

July is a great month to be outdoors in the morning…but the afternoons have been stifling – good time to be indoors with air conditioning.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 22, 2023

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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.

The ground is deforming, and buildings aren’t ready – Underground climate change in urban areas where heat islands underground cause enough expansions and contractions to damage building foundations…particularly in older buildings.

How noise pollution impacts nature – A study out of Vail, Colorado, showed that increased trail use by hikers and mountain bikers disturbed elk so much the cows birthed fewer calves. Another out of Grand Teton National Park showed that backcountry skiers scared bighorn sheep during winter when food was scarce, with potentially lethal consequences.

Hospital understaffing and poor work conditions associated with physician and nurse burnout and intent to leave - The study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that physicians and nurses, even at hospitals known to be good places to work, experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want hospital management to make significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety. The solutions to high hospital clinician burnout and turnover, they say, are organizational improvements that provide safe workloads and better work-life balance NOT resilience training for clinicians to better cope with adverse working conditions.

The simple ways cities can adapt to heatwaves – Heat monitoring and planning is become more important for cities…the climate emergency in cities is a health emergency.

New biodegradable plastics are compostable in your backyard – New plastic made from blue-green cyanobacteria that isstronger and stiffer than previous plastics from the same raw ingredient. They can be recycled…but also degrade rapidly in the environment.

Giant Hand Axes Discovered in England Point to Prehistoric Humans’ ‘Strength and Skill’ – More than 300,000 years old perhaps from an interglacial period. Early Neanderthal people inhabited Britain then…and maybe other archaic human species too.

Germs, genes and soil: tales of pathogens past – DNA sequencers and powerful computational tools…applied to ancient microbes…probing their role in human history. This article describes how the work is done, ethical considerations…using examples of what has been accomplished so far. The field of archaeogenetics is just beginning.

Back from the Dead: New Hope for Resurrecting Extinct Plants – There is a global effort to digitize herbaria specimens which had helped identify holdings of extinct plants…sometimes finding seeds. And then the challenge is how to best attempt to grow old seeds.

Pain risk varies significantly across states – Pain due to arthritis varies geographically in the US – with the moderate to severe pain being 23% in West Virginia vs 7% in Minnesota.  There is also a difference between people that did not complete high school…and those who obtained at least a bachelor’s degree – with the delta being greatest in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Alabama. There is a need to focus on the macro-level policies (i.e. generally at the state level) while continuing current individual interventions.

The Acropolis Adopts Crowd Control Measures for the First Time – The post-pandemic travel surge is overwhelming at some places – including the Acropolis!

Louis Raemaekers’ World War I Cartoons

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There are two books of Louis Raemaekers’ World War I cartoons available on Internet Archive. He was a Dutch editorial cartoonist noted for his anti-German stance that moved to London in 1915. His collected cartoons published in Raemaekers Cartoons (1917) were quickly translated into 18 languages and distributed worldwide in neutral countries – the US being one of those neutral countries. Themes that appear often in the cartoon are the death of culture/civilization, widows, and controlling Germans (represented by the Kaiser and bulky men with German helmets).

Raemaekers Cartoons

According to the Wikipedia entry for him:He toured the US in 1917 shortly after the US declared war on Germany, giving lectures and interviews….by October 1917, more than 2,000 American newspapers had published his cartoons. The popularization of his work is regarded as the largest propaganda effort of the First World War.

America in the War

America in the War was published in 1918. The cartoons often depict Uncle Sam riding to the rescue and troops fresh to the battle…but there is often a hint that the war was more challenging than they anticipated.

St. Louis Jewel Box

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The Jewel Box is a 1930s vintage greenhouse in St. Louis’ Forest Park. There was a major renovation in 2002 so the building is in excellent condition. The plants are primarily around the edges of the interior leaving space for weddings and other events. Our visit was on a Monday morning – the only other people we saw were people outside working on the water lily pond and the flowerbeds around it.

From the outside, the Jewel Box has the glass walls stairstep up to a flat roof. The framing of the glass panels has a blue patina. There are trees and grassy areas on the sides of the building…the water lily pond in the front.

Inside there were glass panels that divided the entrance area from the larger open area.

The fiddleheads of tree ferns always get my attention. The interior space was appealing – full of light…lush plants around the edges.

Getting to the Jewel Box required a short walk. There is no parking area close so we parked on Macklind Dr. and followed the sidewalk past a naturalized pond,

A nearby magnolia blooming profusely,

And plantings, including a columbine, in a shady mulched area.

Then we came to the lily pond in front of the Jewel Box. It was an opportunity to photograph them in the morning sun.

We took a different route back to the car after seeing the Jewel Box: past the Colonial Daughter Fountain

Then over to the Korean War Memorial that includes a sundial. We puzzled over the flag on the far left…realized later in the day that it was the St. Louis flag!

The short visit was well worth it – for the architecture, water lilies, learning about a part of Forest Park!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 15, 2023

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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.

See the Rancid, Blooming Corpse Flowers Attracting Hundreds in California – Seeing pictures is good enough for me!

Global diet study challenges advice to limit high-fat dairy foods – Some dietary advice is more impactful that others. New studies show that dairy, particularly whole fat, may protect against high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome.

Dust From the Drying Great Salt Lake Is Wreaking Havoc on Utah’s Snow – Dust makes the snow less white…which means it warms more quickly and melts!

Early Medieval Ivory Pocket Ring Analyzed – The ring was found in the grave of a wealthy Anglo-Saxon woman near Sheffield, England…and it was made from the tusk of an African elephant!

Parts of a Munich synagogue demolished by Nazis are found in a river 85 years later – The site of the synagogue is a parking lot and department store now. About 150 tons of stone columns and a tablet bearing the Ten Commandments were found about 7-8 miles from the site in a river. The synagogue had been built in the late 1800s and had more than 1,500 seats. It was destroyed in 1938.

Cosmetic chemical concerns – Not an exhaustive list/explanation, but worth browsing…there are others that seem to be concerning too (such as sulfates) that manufacturers are saying their products are eliminating.

Astro-tourism – chasing eclipses, meteor showers and elusive dark skies from Earth – We did a trek to Nebraska for the 2017 eclipse…have enjoyed Staunton River State Park Chaos Star Parties. My husband has been to Greenbank and Cherry Springs State Park for similar amateur astronomer events. It would be great if there were more such events but there are fewer people interested (and able to afford the equipment) than birders. Hopefully some of the dark sky sites will enlarge their offerings beyond outreach events for individuals that would like places to set up their own equipment. On the plus side – there are solar eclipses come up!

Native Bees Yield Hardier Flowers Than Honey Bees, Research Finds – When pollinated by native bees, plants produce more diverse offspring….and diversity is increasingly important as our climate changes.

Frogs as pollinators – A previously undocumented interaction…and an example that there are still aspects of the natural world to be discovered.

Older adults who remain more active have a better quality of life, study finds – Not really a new idea…but a study that tried to quantify the impact.

Missouri Botanical Garden – June 2023 (1)

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So much to see at the Missouri Botanical Garden…

The Climatron is full of lush tropical plantings. Intimate landscapes of ferns and bromeliads…

Flowers (including orchids) and seeds tucked into the greenery….

Cycads….

Flowers and stems different than we see in temperature parts of the world.

Out in the summer sunshine…cone flowers and sunflowers thrive.

Daylilies are blooming profusely.

There was a very odd plant in Linnean House. I took several views of it…and should have taken a picture of the tag too!

I found myself interested in objects where the light was not overly bright or overhead.

And there were some places/plants that became immediately special: a large puffball under a bald cypress that was growing before the garden was started, button bush (one of my favorite native plants), and a woodland area with a gurgling stream (artificial but made to look natural, I enjoyed a short rest on a bench).

I appreciated the Stumpery garden….learning a bit about the history too.

And a few more plants I enjoyed photographing….before we went into the restaurant for lunch (and air conditioning) before we headed home.