Brookside Gardens – April 2021 (1)

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Like all gardens, Brookside Gardens changes quickly…always something different to see. In April, it’s time to be cautious around the Canada Geese. They can be very territorial around their nests. The one I encountered was evidently not nesting but walkers were watching it closely as they made their way past.

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I noticed a snoozing Mallard and American Robin in the same area.

Along the mulch (rather than paved) trails seem to be more comfortable for the birds. I heard some noises in the leaf litter under the bushes to the side of the trail and was patient enough to see it was a Wood Thrush….and got some portraits.

Of course, there are a lot of spring flowers and trees. Some of them (like the camellias) suffered some frost damage a few weekends ago (we had a couple of nights when the low got into the 20s). Still – a lot of the plants that bloom this time of year are cold tolerant.

The new leaves are often as interesting as flowers. The shapes and colors are worth noticing!

Tomorrow, I’ll continue the photographic tour of my latest visit to Brookside: deciduous magnolias and tulips.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – April 2021 (2)

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Hiking back from the skunk cabbage patch at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I noticed the tree canopy over the trail. It was a great spring day….cool, sunny with occasional puffy clouds.

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I looked at the shelf fungus again – from the top and bottom.

The larger woodpecker holes on a high branch seemed larger than last hike but I still didn’t see or hear the bird.

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I was surprised to see a patch of daffodils in the woods. They probably started out as a few bulbs….but had proliferated over the years.

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Ranger the Barred Owl was very relaxed. He opened his eyes when I first walked up to his area but then dozed – deciding I was not a threat.

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There were bees active at one of the hives.

The redbuds are blooming. I like that they bloom all over - even on the larger branches.

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As I was eating a protein bar for my lunch, I noticed a black feather….maybe crow-sized…

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And some dandelions.

The pear tree in the orchard is blooming. I hope it makes pears this year; the past few years the flowers or small fruit have been ruined by late frosts.

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Overall – an enjoyable April hike on a familiar trail.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – April 2021 (1)

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Before one of my volunteer shifts at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I hiked a little. It had changed a little since March. The spring beauties were in bloom along the trail.

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A tree had fallen over the trail. It was so rotten that the upper part had broken apart. It was relatively easy to step over.

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I took some zoomed pictures of the loose bark and knots with moss growing around them on the part of the trunk that crossed the trail..

A little further down, a male woodpecker was working a shallow hole. It was so focused that it didn’t notice me walking by.

 The furthest point on the loop hike was the patch of skunk cabbage I’ve been monitoring the past couple of months. The leaves are unfurling now although sometimes the purplish reproductive parts are still visible in the much at the base of the leaves.

In the picture below, there is maturing a maturing seed pod in the lower part of the picture…the next stage of the ‘golf ball’ structure inside the decaying spathe.

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The spice bush is blooming in the same area.

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Tomorrow I’ll write about the second part of the hike.

30 years ago – April 1991

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After the flurry of guests that we had in March 1991, we were back to being on our own in April….new challenges. My daughter was at a temporary family day care during the day for most of the month; it seemed to be working well but I rejoiced that not only did she remember her original day care provider after several weeks away, but she seemed thrilled to be back in that situation by the end of the month.

My husband was in the process of moving from Johns Hopkins to Applied Physics Lab for his work. It was a big ‘win’ in terms of work and a much shorter commute for him. We made a weekend trip to his Johns Hopkins office to move some items like plants and files. The heavier books were already on the way to the new office. We might have been the only people in the building. My daughter enjoyed pushing her stroller unimpeded in the hallways.

I was traveling to Atlanta frequently for work and by the end of the month was quickly getting to a stopping point on that project so that I could start the next one which would involve a longer commute. There was an announcement about a ‘work from home’ pilot and I wondered if I would be able to participate to avoid the long commute at least one day a week.

The trips to Atlanta – sometimes done in a long day (intense meetings in the middle) – were the first travel I’d done for work since my daughter was born. It felt odd to be so far away from her. At the same time – I savored the quiet time on the plane - enjoying good books. I was using a card I’d received from my Grandmother as a bookmark. It took some effort to carry enough reading material with me on those trips….it made the briefcase heavy since this was well before electronic books!

It also seemed like there were more letters exchanged that April – mostly with family. Everyone seemed to have a busy month – travel to San Francisco for a class, 2 people moving, another getting pregnant, ducklings escaping their enclosure to make friends with dogs, and birthday celebrations. Reading about the flurry of activity was quite a contrast with our lives this year during the pandemic and, to a lesser extent, without the challenge of careers. There were lots of comments about how pretty the spring trees and flowers were; that hasn’t changed.

Cherry Blossoms

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While our plum tree is the first tree in our yard to bloom, the cherry is not far behind. There is a time when they are both blooming. The cherry blossoms are lighter pink and larger…in the foreground in the picture below with the cherry in the background.

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Early in the month I did some experimental pictures of the cherry blossoms – high key, dark background, and blurry green. I like the high key version to see the details of the flowers and the subtle color…pink buds, tinge of pink in the flowers, the star in the center, the green leaves.

We had a hard frost after the tree started to bloom and then some very breezy days. I noticed that the petals were whirling away from the flowers earlier than I thought they would. It was sunny enough to photograph the flowers even with the breeze moving them around (particularly if I zoom rather than trying to get close)!

We won’t be going down to see the cherry trees in Washington DC as we have in previous years; the pandemic has made it too difficult. The trees around the Tidal Basin generally bloom earlier than our tree. I’ve been reading articles about the flooding around the Tidal Basin trending up in recent years…killing some of the trees, flooding/damaging walkways. It’s sad to think about changes like that.

I am choosing to enjoy the cherry tree in my front yard….its blooms are always part of my celebration of spring.  

A Second Road Trip Practice

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My first mini road trip for the initial hour of the route from my house in Maryland to Texas was back in March; I opted to change my route after the amount of highway construction I encountered on that day. The practice for second-choice route (up US 29 and then west on I-70) was a few days ago and easier/more enjoyable/the route I will take for the ‘the big road trip.’

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I set out just after sunrise as I had the first time. I took a picture of the fading blooms of the plum and cherry trees in our front yard…and the sunrise as seen from our driveway (oak tree on the right edge of the image) before I left.

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My destination was a rest stop about an hour from my house that I have stopped at many times before – the South Mountain Westbound Welcome Center. There were a few more clouds in the sky…the temperature was still a little cool. I took pictures of the playground I hadn’t noticed before (is it new?) and the fading daffodils.

After the rest stop and getting a soft drink from the vending machine - I got back in the car and went to the next exit to turn around and head back toward the east. I was back home again just a little over 2 hours since I left.

The lack of construction on route made for a much more pleasant drive that my first practice. I refined my set up in the passenger seat of the car based on that previous experience: a canvas gardening tote with short sides…lots of pockets for hand sanitizer, lip gloss, masks that I will need for when I am out of the car or going through a drive through for food, sunglasses. I’ll add snacks like peppermints and protein bars for the longer trip. The ice chest will be in the front floor of the passenger seat.

When I got home my husband had done a curbside grocery pickup that included cake; he enjoyed the carrot cake and I had the red velvet! It was a great splurge for a late morning snack.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 10, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Green Colours! – So many beautiful birds…

150-Year-Old Boxwoods Lost To Blight At Carl Sandburg Home – My daughter and I visited the Carl Sandburg Historical Site in 2003 when we were on our way from Maryland to meet family members coming from Texas for a Georgia vacation. It was the first time I had driven a car with a nav system! We enjoyed walking the grounds and touring the house more than we expected. It’s sad that the boxwood there will be cut down.

What early-budding trees tell us about genetics, climate change -- ScienceDaily – Our plum and cherry trees are the ‘fruitless’ kind but they were in full bloom when our temperatures dipped into the mid-20s. I wonder how many orchards are going to have less fruit this year.

Hope and Peril for North America’s “Snow Parrot” – A parrot that lives in pine forests. Their range once extended into the US from northern Mexico, but they’ve been gone since the 1930s.It’s only in the past few years that their migration and winter grounds in the Mexican state of Durango have been discovered. There are efforts to safeguard the free-living birds and continue captive breeding programs in zoos (like the San Diego Zoo) with the plan to begin reintroducing birds into the wild in the future.

The Kodak Brownie: The Camera That Made Photography Accessible – My mother was taking pictures of her siblings in the 1940s….with a Brownie. There is one of her twin sisters (maybe 4 or 5 years old) peeking over the windowsill of the bathroom window (they were standing in the bathtub!); I always wondered if she had help on the inside positioning them while she got outside to get the picture. It must have been a warm day since the window was open!

Dangerous landfill pollutants ranked in order of toxicity -- ScienceDaily – The technique can help landfill managers mitigate risk for a particular site rather than taking generic actions that might not address the biggest problems.

For the First Time in 75 Years, a New Invasive Species of Mosquito Was Found in Florida | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine  - The mosquito that can carry yellow fever and other diseases was found in Florida last year. That does not bode well for keeping tropical diseases at bay in the US as the climate continues to warm.

Scythian people weren't just nomadic warriors, but sometimes settled down: Varied diets and limited mobility challenge stereotypes of ancient steppe populations -- ScienceDaily – Not all Scythians were nomadic. The majority of them might have remained local…farming millet and raising livestock!

Lessons from Darwin's "Mischievous" Birds | The Scientist Magazine® - The striated caracara of the Falkland Islands…we’re familiar with the crested caracara from the south Texas.

Newly Restored Pompeiian Frescoes Capture Hunting Scenes in Vivid Detail | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Part of an ongoing conservation initiative funded largely by the European Union launched in 2012.

Browsing a few Sabine Baring-Gould Books

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Sabine Baring-Gould was an Anglican priest and eclectic scholar that lived from 1834-1924…and a prolific author throughout his long life. This week I am featuring 12 of his books available from Internet Archive that I browsed in March. Evidently - he often did his own illustrations for most of the books. Pick one or several to browse through…a trip through time to a place through the eyes of Baring-Gould.

Germany (1886) with collaboration of Arthur Gilman

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A Book of Dartmoor (1900)  

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A Book of the Rhine from Cleve to Mainz (1906) with color illustrations by Trevor Hadden

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An Old English Home and Its Dependencies (1898) illustrated by F. Bligh Bond

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13 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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It’s been over a year now. I am doing the post for this month a few days early in celebration of getting my second Moderna vaccine shot and having only mild side-effects (sore arm, a few aches) that were gone in less than 48 hours. Our county did 2,190 second doses of vaccines on the day my husband and I got our shots…in the US 54.7% of the people over 65 years old had gotten a second dose.

In the past month:

  • Volunteering is on my radar again. It’s not the same or as much as pre-pandemic yet…just a start.

  • Taking mini road trips at highway speeds has become a prelude to anticipated longer road trips. The first ones were a little discombobulating….I need the practice. The little trips sometimes are primarily for the drive; it feels good to be out and about in the springtime too.

  • Continuing curbside pickup for groceries rather than shopping in the store was a reluctant decision but based on Maryland’s increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and % positive tests. The state has ramped up to about 70K vaccinations per day; but, so far, there are not enough people vaccinated to start bringing the numbers down. Similar trends are being seen across the country – reversing the decline from the previous month.

  • Transitioning away from webinars is happening gradually. I enjoyed two from MoMA and one from Brookside Gardens…but am  drawn by the better weather to get out and about – leaving less time for webinars.

In the next month – I am anticipating a longer road trip …seeing family I haven’t seen since pre-pandemic ….enjoying the warming trend of spring!

The Cat in Springfield

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My daughter sends us photos of her cat with text messages. She’s had him for a year and we’ve yet to see him any other way since he’s in Missouri and we’re in Maryland….no one has been traveling.

Still – with the photos and texts…we are enjoying the cat vicariously….and I am sharing the bounty from this past month.

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3/2 Someone is enjoying the sunshine

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3/6 He sleeps in the most ridiculous positions sometimes

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3/11 He is so majestic in his tote bags

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3/14 Gotta monitor all the birds in the yard. They aren’t on daylight savings

3/15 Dude was snoring on my slippers last night

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3/16 Sunset filing cabinet nap

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3/21 At his desk, working hard

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3/28 He has several desks in his home office

3/31 Part of my office snoozes standing up too

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3/31 Normally he does this or splays out

4/1 My breakfast buddy. He got cold last night and slept against us the whole early AM

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Gleanings of the Week Ending April 3, 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.

New wearable device turns the body into a battery -- ScienceDaily – I’m always forgetting to charge my Fitbit until the low battery warning message comes up. It would be great to never need to charge it!

Soot from Asia travels express on a highway to the high Arctic : Research Highlights – Soot in the Arctic traced back to its source.

Working outdoors linked to lower risk of breast cancer among older women -- ScienceDaily - Outdoor workers are able to make more vitamin D which may be protective, say researchers. This is an observation…but might indicate a thread for future research.

World's first dinosaur preserved sitting on nest of eggs with fossilized babies – An fossilized Oviraptorosaur, a bird-like theropod, found on a nest filled with its 24 eggs.

Stealth Chemicals: A Call to Action on a Threat to Human Fertility - Yale E360 and Air pollution: The silent killer called PM 2.5 -- ScienceDaily – Products of human ingenuity that are negatively impacting our health.

94% of older adults prescribed drugs that raise risk of falling: From 1999-2017, more than 7.8 billion fall-risk-increasing drugs were prescribed to older adults in the US, and deaths from falls doubled -- ScienceDaily – In my 50s, my doctor prescribed a blood pressure medication that made me dizzy. When I complained about it (citing the danger of becoming dizzy and falling down stairs being a greater risk than the benefit of lowering my blood pressure to the level she was attempting), she decided I didn’t need the medication since I was taking half the lowest dose tablet. I hope that the medical professionals prescribing the fall-risk-increasing drugs are more careful about how they are using them now for older people particularly…but for younger people too. Sometimes it seems like the trend is to always ‘treat with drugs’ to address a specific problem rather than integrating for the overall health of the individual.

Was This Helmet Worn by an Ancient Greek Soldier During the Persian Wars? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Found by a dredging vessel off the coast of Haifa, Israel.

50 Birds: Adventures in Backyard Birding – Birding can be done anywhere. Many people have discovered the joy of bird watching from home during this pandemic year.

Joshua Trees: An Uncertain Future For A Mojave Desert Icon – A big fire and climate change….are the Joshua Trees doomed?

Health declining in Gen X and Gen Y, US study shows -- ScienceDaily – The long-term trends are not positive; the US was already seeing decreases in life expectancy and increases in disability/morbidity pre-pandemic. The study pointed to the increase in unhealthy behaviors over the past decades that medical treatment cannot overcome. Based on the response to public health measures attempted in the US for the pandemic, it’s difficult to be optimistic that any kind of intervention could be broadly effective.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were two celebrations related to the vaccine:

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

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

And then there are three miscellaneous celebrations:

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

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

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

Zooming – March 2021

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

  • Skunk cabbage (Mt Pleasant)

  • Mourning Dove (my house)

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

  • Witch Hazel (Brookside)

  • Gingko tree trunk and branches (Centennial)

  • Blue jays (my house)

  • Dried hydrangea flowers (Brookside)

Enjoy the slideshow for March 2021!

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

Road Trip Practice

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I drove 2 hours out-and-back along the route I would take to drive from my home in Maryland to Texas; the pandemic year dramatically reduced my driving as highway speeds…and I need practice before I set out on a longer drive!

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I started out around 6:50 AM…with the sunrise still a few minutes away and the clumps of daffodils set to welcome the morning light in front of our house.

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My idea was to drive to the first rest stop along the route – which is on I-66 going west from the Washington DC beltway. I was able to stay on cruise control for almost the whole hour even though the route has significant Saturday traffic. Construction stretches all along that route of I-66; it would be awful during a rush hour. I missed the exit for the westbound rest stop but needed to turn around anyway. I stopped at the east bound version after the exit and entering again going east – because I was watching very carefully for the exit.

There were cars and trucks at the stop, but I didn’t see anyone out and about. I put on my mask. There was a sign on the door to the restroom saying that a mask was required and a sign on the water fountain saying it had been turned off because of the pandemic. Part of the picnic area was roped off but the sign was unreadable; perhaps the new-looking stumps of two large trees and the muddy sidewalk might have been the reason for the closure rather than the pandemic.  I wondered if anyone stayed around long enough to sit on the Virginia benches.   

As I headed back toward home – I thought about what I’d learned from the road trip practice:

  • The I-70 to I-81 route might be better than I-95 to the Washington Beltway to I-66 to I-81 because of the miles of construction on I-66.

  • Plan to carry all the water needed for the hours on the road in the car rather than relying on opportunities to refill reusable bottles.

  • Rest stops are likely to be as well maintained as they were pre-pandemic, but I’ll still be using a lot of hand sanitizer rather than spending time washing hands and using the blower hand dryer.

  • There is more traffic than I anticipated at 7 AM on Saturday mornings on interstates – at least around Washington DC.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 27, 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.

Alexander Calder – Modern from the Start – An exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). There are pictures and a videos of the exhibit on the site. I watched the webinar on the 25th  when it was live and am in the process of looking at the rest of the site now.

Doug Tallamy’s List of Best Plant Genera for Supporting Moths and Butterflies | pollinator-pathway – Arbor Day is coming up in most areas (it varies by state depending on the best tree planting time. If you are thinking about planting a tree (or trees), think native and ones that support moths and butterflies!

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Colours! - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Communication! - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy a double dose of bird photographs this week.

New skin patch brings us closer to wearable, all-in-one health monitor -- ScienceDaily – Still in the research phase…but a step forward. I like the idea of a blood pressure measurement that can be linked with other data throughout the day.

Is the Western way of raising kids weird? - BBC Future – We tend to think that the cultural norms we grow up in are the ‘best’ – but that may not always be true.

On U.S. East Coast, Has Offshore Wind’s Moment Finally Arrived? - Yale E360 – Reliable source of wind and proximity to populous markets….maybe the false starts are finally in the past for this renewal source of energy.

10 virtual tours of spectacular buildings around the world | Top 10s | The Guardian – More places to visit virtually!

Slideshow: Watch Insects in Motion | The Scientist Magazine® - Some technologies researchers are applying to better understand how insects have become such successful fliers.

How the Loss of Soil Is Sacrificing America’s Natural Heritage - Yale E360 – At best 24% of Corn Belt topsoil is gone…at worst 46%....and topsoil is still being lost. The study found that the main source of erosion is not water runoff but tillage…and right now only 15% of acreage in the heart of the Corn Belt is ‘no-till.’

Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at Age 70 | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Wisdom, an Laysan albatross, returns to Midway Atoll again. Her chick for this year hatched on February 1. She has outlived the person that originally banded her!

House & Garden Gleanings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There was an article about Monticello in 1993.

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

30 years ago – March 1991

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The event of March 1991 that I remember without looking back at my notes of the month was my dad turning 60 years old. My notes helped fill in the details. He and my mother flew from Texas to Maryland to spend a week with us; 6 red balloons, a pair of Rockport dress shoes and a pecan praline ice cream cake were some ‘special’ things for the celebration. My 18-month-old daughter thoroughly enjoyed the week with them and the addition of the turtle sandbox to her ‘things to do outside.’ She enjoyed it just after it was purchased while it was still indoors – getting face to face with it (also note – one bare foot…the other with the shoe still on in the picture).

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My husband and I benefited from the emotional support from that week. Both of us were going through work and health anxieties that improved over the next few months but peaked in March.

My daughter was facing challenges from us encouraging her to walk more on her own (even up and down stairs) and the beginning of ‘potty training.’ She wanted to be outside as much as possible. She still liked to pick up leaves to carry around while she explored.

She was not talking well but increasingly more opinionated about what she wanted (and didn’t). She enjoyed carrying around her toys and dancing. The family day care provider commented that she enjoyed dancing so much that once she started…all the other children danced with her.

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Near the end of the month – while my parents were visiting, my family day care provider let me know that her mother who had been with her for the past 6 months had died and that the day care would be closed for the next few weeks. I quickly found other day care for the interim; the visit of my parents helped the temporary transition to the other day care. I’ll always be glad that my daughter had the attention of the older woman for those few months…extra attention and cuddles are so important for young children (and often an joy of older adult to provide). When I arrived to get my daughter in the afternoons, it always seemed like she was either being held by or standing close to the older woman; when they made eye contact it was obvious: they had a special bond.

And now – moving ahead 30 years – my dad will be celebrating his 90th birthday! Hopefully, the pandemic situation will improve with more vaccinations and I’ll be able to see him soon.

Reflections on the Mt Pleasant Farmhouse

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Last time I walked around Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I started thinking about the changes around the front of the farmhouse since I first saw it back in fall of 2013. The large tulip poplar in front of the house had already been cut down; over the years I noticed the increased weathering of the stump and its roots have decomposed too. It’s a favorite place to find snake skins and sometimes small snakes…spiders…ants!

The stump to the left was cut closer to the ground in the past few years after the tree started dropping branches and there was concern about potential damage to the farmhouse. I remember a hike with kindergarteners when the tree was still there – me standing about 6 feet away from the trunk of the tree…facing the children and their chaperones a little further from the tree…talking about what might live in the tree….they were talking about the birds and the squirrels…I turned around to gesture to the tree….and there at about eye level was a large black rat snake. What I great teaching moment! I pointed the snake out to the group. The chaperones took a few steps back; the children stayed put at rapt attention. We talked about why the snake might want to be in the tree as it slowly moved from its spot of sunshine on the trunk slithering underneath the loose bark until it was out of sight. Later, after the tree was cut down, some groups tried to count tree rings…others used the spot for a group picture.

The walk up to the front door was added in the year before the pandemic. The front porch is often used as a stop for the younger elementary school hikes and most groups were taking various routes over the grass to get there prior to the construction of the walk. The porch is particularly welcome on rainy days. On one such day before the walk was built, my group made it to the porch as the last stop before lunch; as we turned to go…it started raining even harder; we waited for a few minutes, but it didn’t let up and everyone was hungry. We eventually left the haven of the porch and splashed through puddles toward the nature center building – the revised picnic lunch location.

On the far right…across the gravel drive there is another stump. It was a silver maple that was planted in the later 1800s (based on the tree ring count). It was cut down a before the walk was built There was a ‘twin’ silver maple on the other side of the circular drive what was cut down at the same time (hidden by the cedars on the left in the pictures). The stump on the right was sanded and some steps cut into the side so that the kindergarteners could climb up to see (and count) the tree rings.

My history with the house is a few short years. The house has a longer history with the façade mostly from after the Civil War and there is a log cabin of even earlier vintage enclosed by the additions and modifications made to the house over the years. It’s interesting to think about the highs and lows of the family that lived there…the ways they used the spaces…made changes to fit their needs…the technology incorporated over the years (plumbing and electricity, for example). My few years are a short window into the house’s history!

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – March 2021 (2)

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Continuing the sights of my mini road trip to Mt Pleasant….

I noticed 3 trees…for different reasons:

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The light on the curling bark of a river birch.

A hole that looked recent in a high branch of a large tree. I wondered if it might be a woodpecker preparing a nesting cavity although I didn’t hear or see the bird.

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The trunk of a red bud…with my regular camera

And then with my phone and a clip-on macro lens.

There were also some interesting vines around small trees and hanging from low branches…natures ropes and knots.

I always enjoy looking for shelf fungus as I walk on forest paths.

My favorite images are ones that capture the structure of the top and underside…the two pictures below are the same group…but different composition. I can’t decide which is my favorite. I didn’t realize that the tree rings were visible until I looked at the images on the bigger screen at home! The grouping was on the cut end of a tree trunk that had been cleared from the trail after it fell.

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As I headed back toward my car – I stopped to photograph the jasmine…the early bloomer near the picnic area and

Some seed pods (not sure what they are) from last season. The seeds have been dispersed but the pods catch the light…become flower-like again.

Overall – it was a very good walk around Mt Pleasant although I didn’t get down and around the meadow…. that is left for next time.   

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – March 2021 (1)

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I may do more than one mini road trip to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant this month since the plants change so quickly this time of year. I also want to photograph the wood frogs in the small pond in the Honors Garden when they start their mating songs; the pond was still silent and empty this time. Everything was still skewed toward ‘winter’ although there were more signs of spring than when I went at the end of February.

The skunk cabbage bloom is fading…the golf-ball-like flowers are turning brownish…maybe seeds are forming.

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Last time I saw the skunk cabbage there was still snow on the ground along the trail. Some spathes that had black areas at the top during that visit now appeared smaller in size…and one spathe was almost totally black; maybe it had been too damaged to continue flowering.

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Overall, there seemed to be more visible clumps of skunk cabbage than the last time I visited the site. Next time I go, I expect there will be green leaves unfurling.

The witch hazel along the drive to the farmhouse is another plant I check this time of year. It’s an Asian variety that blooms in late winter.

The tree keeps some leaves from last season…that provide a more subtle color than the blooms.

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Other ‘sights’ from Mt Pleasant in tomorrow’s post….