Home Again – Day 1

/

My time away from home on the road trip (Maryland to Texas to Missouri and back to Maryland) was from April 17 to June 2. It was my longest time away from home since my junior year of high school when I traveled with an Up with People cast/traveling high school; I was away from home for semester length stints then. This time was very different both because of the intervening years of experience, returning to my own home/husband rather than my parents, and more recently impact of the pandemic but there was a similarity too – coming home was a return to the place I felt most secure after going out into the world with some anticipated trepidation.

The first thing I did when I got home to Maryland was to walk down the driveway taking a few pictures. I had missed almost all the iris blooms. There were only 2 flowers remaining…no more buds. The day lilies were beginning, and the deer had not eaten very many (yet). The Virginia creeper was vigorously growing up the oak tree. The trees and yard had filled out while I was away.

I unpacked the car…tried to disperse items close to where they could be put away. For some reason I was exhausted even though the drive had been easy…and sedentary. Being home again felt odd instead of ‘normal.’ I was grateful that my husband had kept things in good order while I was away. Somehow the list in my head of what I needed to do felt overwhelming. More about that in tomorrow’s post.

Road Trip Home

/
_Resized_20210523_090636_.jpg

The closet in the guest room of my daughter’s house in Springfield MO was the best….but after being away from Maryland for more than 6 weeks (in Texas and Missouri), I was very ready to head for home. It was a rainy morning as I started out at 7 AM. I stopped as I was backing out and rolled down the window to take a picture of the rosebush by the driveway.

20210601_065157.jpg

I’d selected a different route than my previous road trips between Missouri and Maryland with the beginning and end segments the same as before: Springfield MO to St. Louis MO via I44 (the same), St. Louis to Charleston, WV via I64, Charleston WV to Morgantown WV via I79, Morgantown WV to Hancock MD via I68 and the I70 for the rest of the way home (the same). I made a stop for the night in Lexington KY which was slightly more than halfway.

My first stop was to buy gas about 1.5 hours into the drive. It was a rest stop as well and I bought a Stuckey’s pecan roll remembering that I always wanted to try one as a child and not remembering if my parents ever bought one for me. It was way too sweet, but I managed to eat half that first morning and the rest on the second morning of the road trip. The rest of the stops that day were at interstate rest stops – which I prefer – except the last one for buying gas so that would have a full tank for the next day. I also picked up a chicken teriyaki bowl from Subway for my dinner at the hotel. The drive was easy – no accidents and the few places the road was under construction did not slow be down much; I made it to the hotel within half an hour of the prediction my car’s nav system had made when I first put in the destination.

The second day was an even better road trip day. I got off an hour earlier…just as it was getting light. The highway was in good condition all the way and very scenic (Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland). The traffic was light (not many trucks) and I enjoyed the curving roads through the Appalachians and Alleghenies. The rest stops were less than an hour apart and I stopped at most of them; I only needed one stop for gas – shortly before I got into Maryland. I was in Maryland by noon and home by 3 PM.

This route will be my first choice from now on; I’ll be retracing it in July when I head back to Missouri and then Texas. I will probably choose a different hotel…one that is easier on/off and not at so close to the center of Lexington. Otherwise, I’ll do everything else about the same: use the interstate rest stops when I don’t need gasoline, eat food I already have the car during the trip as much as possible, wear a mask when there are a lot of people around.

Springfield, Missouri Farmers Market

/

My daughter took me to the Springfield, Missouri farmers market two times. I was overwhelmed with the place (and the household moving activities we were embroiled in) during the first visit…didn’t buy anything! The market is held under a covered pavilion with food trucks and a few vendors extending beyond the covered area. And it has more vendors than just farmers! The second visit was easier for me because we were done with the hardest parts of the moving and the market was more familiar.

I bought a large bulb of fennel with feathery top and a large mug for next winter’s hot tea. When we returned to the new house, my son-in-law promptly put the bulb in water to keep it fresh longer but we both started eating fennel with almost every meal (except breakfast).

20210606_094652.jpg

I noticed some murals on the buildings around the pavilion and took some pictures with my phone. There are probably more…I’ll look around more next time I visit later this summer.

The experience prompted me to realize that I should frequent the farmers market back home in Maryland…as a substitute for my not participating in the CSA this season (too much anticipated time away from Maryland to handle a weekly share).

Springfield, Missouri Yard

/

My daughter and son-in-law recently bought and moved to their first house…one with a beautiful yard. At first, I enjoyed the yard from the sunroom in the early morning before the moving activities began. All the windows are screened so the pictures are not great --- I was thrilled to see the hummingbird (probably a ruby-throated) and a woodpecker (probably a downy). It appeared that a pair of cardinals were nesting in a cedar. There were squirrels and bunnies around as well. Later the pea plants my son-in-law is growing for a project were moved from their rental house and were put on the brick patio where they would get some sun for part of the day.

I walked around the yard on a subsequent day and took pictures that I could label with the trees/scrubs I could easily identify…and then more detailed pictures. The backyard has a decorated gate…and lots of great plantings. We learned from a neighbor that the owner before last was a Master Gardener…and many of the plantings from that time have endured! The dogwood was already growing seeds. There were swamp irises still blooming and some other plants with lots of buds that I wasn’t sure what they are, but I anticipate some native perennials that will be good for pollinators. The holly was blooming. There are a lot of evergreens and ferns in the space between the house and the neighboring house. I’ll document the evergreens there during a winter visit.

The side and front yard have the largest trees: Southern Magnolia, Oak, and River Birch. The magnolia was shedding more leaves than usual after some extreme cold last winter…but it had lots of buds and is starting to bloom. The maples and redbuds (in back and front) are smaller; all of them have produced many seeds this year. There are two types of native hydrangeas (wood in the back and oak leaf in the front).

Even the edges of the driveway are scenic. There are brick walkways in every direction from the drive into the yard; they are littered with magnolia leaves. Even the water spigot is special. Some miniature roses were just starting to bloom in the bed between the garden room and the driveway as they moved into the house…with lots of buds.

20210523_110837.jpg

The house is great…the yard is amazing. What a wonderful home!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 5, 2021

/

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

Infographic: Animals of Different Species Hybridize | The Scientist Magazine® - Hybrids that fill a new environmental niche.

Britain’s Medieval Population Suffered From Cancer - Archaeology Magazine and Cancer rates in medieval Britain were around ten times higher than previously thought, study suggests | University of Cambridge – The same story from two sources. Cancer rates prior to the modern tumor-inducing chemicals from industry and tobacco were higher than previously thought.

Cities Have Distinct Microbial Signatures: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - Samples collected between 2015 and 2017 in transit stations in major cities. More than 4,000 known species…and 14,000 species that had DNA sequences not found in any database!

Top 25 birds of the week: Resident Birds! - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Biodiversity! - Wild Bird Revolution – So many bird pictures! I’m doing a little catching up this week.

The Blooming Mid-Atlantic – Near where I live…places I have been for vacation/birding.

Photography In The National Parks: Seeing The Forest For The Trees – A little lesson in photographing forests and trees and leaves from Rebecca Lawson

Greenland glacial meltwaters rich in mercury -- ScienceDaily – The study looked at nutrients in glacier melt…not expecting to find the high level of mercury. Now there are lots of questions about the potential impact on fishing – Greenland’s primary industry.

The nature reserve with a 500-year plan - BBC Future – Zealandia, an ecosanctuary in Wellington, New Zealand enclosed by a 5.3-mile predatory exclusion fence.

Arizona’s Meteor Crater – Another place I’ve visited… as seen by an instrument on Landsat 8.

Cicadas Fall Prey to a Psychedelic-Producing Fungus That Makes Their Butts Fall Off | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – I think I saw one with a white butt on my first walk around my yard!

Zentangle® – May 2021

/

So many tiles to choose from! I colored the patterns (drawn with a black ultra-fine Sharpie pen) using miscellaneous gel pins that my sister had from the last years of her teaching career; the large number of colors and types of the pens prompted me to make a lot of tiles – even though some pens were drying out and stopped working before the tile was finished. The iridescence of the many of the gel pens does not show up well in the scanned imaged; the actual tiles look more interesting than the scanned versions! There were 91 images to choose 31…more challenging than usual. Enjoy the May Zentangle mosaic…..

I like gel pens for fill rather than drawing of patterns since the pens tend to skip and blotch more easily than the Sharpies.

The gel pens were a great diversion for my time in Texas in May. I’ll look forward to using them again next time I am in Texas.

--

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Road Trip from Dallas to Springfield

/

The car was mostly packed the night before; I got up and made mushroom and ham quiche for the family breakfast and left about 9:30 AM – hoping that the morning rush hour north of Dallas was over. The drive was estimated (by Google) to be about 7 hours but the day was misty and there was a chance of thunderstorms.

The rest stops along the way were much as I expected – fewer people wearing masks than when I drove from Maryland to Texas back in April. The rest stops were not crowded and were clean. All were quick and comfortable stops.

The same cannot be said for fast food places, truck stops and the travel plazas (turnpike). They were crowded and not as clean. And virtually no one was wearing a mask. Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri do not have high vaccination rates, so it was disconcerting.

I made the drive in 7.5 hours slowed a little by the wet weather and construction zones that required reduced speed. There were no accidents that slowed down traffic – fortunately. It was a bother to stop and pay tolls the old-fashioned way going through Oklahoma. I researched getting a toll tag and discovered that the Oklahoma system apparently does not integrate with any others. The ideal toll tag for me would be one that worked for Texas and Oklahoma toll roads (as long as it didn’t interfere with the tag I have that works along most of the east coast).

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2021

/

After being at home in Maryland for over a year, May was spent is 2 different environments – Texas and Missouri. The celebrations this month are like other months…with the change in setting making them unique.

Little blue heron. Seeing a juvenile little blue heron (at Josey Ranch Lake) was unexpected…such a beautiful bird to celebrate.

2021 05 IMG_4362 (12).jpg

Cherry crisp for breakfast. I had intended to make the dessert for a after-the-fact celebration of my Dad’s 90th birthday. Instead we ate it for breakfast (warm and fresh from the oven) with ice cream….with a side of little sausages to the side for protein. Yummy!

Tree trimming. My parents got their trees trimmed prompted by a broken branch that needed to be cut before it fell. The crew did an excellent job and left them the larger branches cut into fireplace lengths to dry for next winter. Plus - there are some even larger pieces that will make excellent stands for pots in my sister’s yard. The city yard refuse truck came and took the first big pile of small branches about mid-way through the trimming and took the rest the next week. We all celebrated that the job was done quickly and was interesting to watch.

2021 05 IMG_4457 (11).jpg

Mother’s Day. I celebrated my mother (that I was visiting) and my own motherhood (with my daughter later in the month). The mother-daughter thread is a precious one.

Shampooing hair. I celebrated when my mother still shampooed her own hair – realizing that as we get older, celebrating what we can still do is healthier than grieving for things we cannot.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Doesn’t everyone celebrate when the cake is flipped…the pan lifted off…and it looks so great on the plate? I made it for a belated birthday for one of my sisters.

Rebuilt swan’s nest. The swans’ nest at Josey Ranch Lake was flooded by a deluge of rain…. they were frantic immediately afterward but quickly rebuilt. I celebrated the resilience of nature.

Getting to Springfield. After driving in mist/rain and road constructions between Carrollton TX and Springfield MO, I celebrated getting to my destination: my daughter and son-in-law’s house they had purchased the day before.

_Resized_20210521_170728_.jpg

Pineapple whip. My daughter and I enjoyed the Springfield unique treat on a hot afternoon. I got mine in a cup swirled with blueberry whip. Tasty! A great way to celebrate a break in the moving activity.

Competent movers. The move was only a few blocks….and most of it was done via loads in our cars. The larger furniture was moved by a crew of three. I celebrated that we were able to make the arrangements quickly, that they were on time, worked quickly and competently….and that I didn’t have to help move any of those heavy pieces!

Zooming – May 2020

/

I was in Texas for more than a month; all the zoomed pictures for May 2020 are from Carrollton TX (either at my parents’ house or nearby). The usual subjects – plants and birds dominate but there is an occasional squirrel or insect….and the big claw picking up branches after the trees were trimmed. It was good to finally be able to see my family again after more than year – be in place other than my house. Wherever I am, there always seems to be something to observe and photograph. Enjoy the slideshow!

Josey Ranch Swan Rebuilds

/

I went back to Josey Ranch Lake (Carrollton, TX) a few days after seeing the drowned swan nest – and discovered that the pair had rebuilt – higher this time – and one was sitting on the nest (maybe they already had a new egg)!

The other swan was out on the lake – showing off a bit.

My 90-year-old father was with me…enjoying looking through binoculars to see the swans and other birds as well as wildflowers. There were pigeons and grackles and mallards that are always around. The mallards were on the bank dabbling in the muddy areas of the grass. A male red-winged black bird made a lot of noise in a tree….making him easy to locate. Dad discovered that it was easier for him to hold the binoculars steady when he was sitting on one of the park benches.

The little blue heron was in the same place I had seen it last time and it appears that it is injured (wing)…benefiting from being close to the swans’ nest (the swans will drive away most predators) but it won’t last long if the injury won’t heal.

2021 05 IMG_7431 (4).jpg

I saw a bird flush as a jogger went by and managed to zoom in to where it landed on a grassy berm. A killdeer! My dad couldn’t find it with the binoculars; the birds blend in very well. Once I looked away…I didn’t find it again with my camera either!

Getting ready to leave Texas….glad to see the swans on a new nest!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 29, 2021

/

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

How COVID is changing the study of human behavior – Hopefully we are learning something beneficial in the long run from the pandemic….there are also some very depressing aspects of our society that the pandemic has highlighted (that are negative for at least the near term).

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Migration – I am missing the birds I see most during migration times in Maryland this year since I am in Texas.

Kestrel Cam: A Story from Egg to Falcon – Moving from the 25 pictures…to a detailed picture of a small falcon’s life beginning.

Climate change threatens one-third of global food production – We have lots of reasons to make changes…to stop mistreating our planet and let it recover. This is another one.

Saint Petersburg Keeps the Sea at Bay – A big project started in 1979 and operational in 2011…built to withstand a storm surge from the Baltic Sea of 5 meters.

Thirteenth-Century Angkor was home to more people modern Boston – I was surprised….recent studies have shown other ancient population centers were more populous that previously estimated too.

How cities will fossilize – From BBC Future. Thought provoking…using Shanghai Tower as an example to illustrate what could happen.

Flashy plants draw outsize share of scientists’ attention – ‘Aesthetic bias’ when it comes to choices for research (and probably extends beyond plants).

New Monarch butterfly breeding pattern inspires hope – Signs that the monarch butterflies in the western US might be adapting to changing climate. It’s good to see a little positive news about monarchs.

Egyptian Archaeologists Accidently Discovers 250 Ancient, Rock-Cut Tombs – Still new sites to study even in a country that has been intensively studied for many years. This time the tombs are not ‘royal’ – may provide more insight into how ordinary people lived in ancient Egypt.

Sir Arthur Evans eBooks on Internet Archive

/

Arthur Evans was a long-lived British archeologist active in the late 1800s, early 1900s…and well known for his excavations on Crete. He documented his work in books with many illustrations – drawings and photographs; I enjoyed browsing volumes on Internet Archive recently.

The Palace of Minos (Volume 1 in 1921,  Volume 3 in 1930, Volume 4 in 1930) with Joan Evans (his sister). I was disappointed that the archive doesn’t seem to have all the volumes of this book. I liked the way the missing pieces of artifacts were depicted and the photograph of the statue from all perspectives rather than just the front.

Catalogue of Greek Vases in the Ashmolean Museum in 1893 with Percy Gardener. He was the ‘keeper’ of the museum for part of his career. The vases always give me ideas for Zentangle patterns.

26 21 05 (17).jpg

Cretan pictographs and prae-Phoenician script in 1906. They fit a lot on small pieces of stone!

The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos in 1906. Seeing patterns everywhere!

It is awesome to see that Evans managed to publish his finds with so many illustrations during his lifetime. Lots of research has happened since then…but these books are a wonderful baseline - worth browsing and sometimes taking a closer look at the drawings/pictures.

Josey Ranch Lake After a Heavy Rain

/

I headed over to Josey Ranch Lake (Carrollton, TX) late in the day when the heavy rain finally stopped. Lots of water was still running off into the storm drains on the streets during the short drive; I avoided the curbside lane when I could. My goal was to see if the nesting mute swans at the lake had a cygnet.

When I got there, one of the swans was out on the lake – doing a lot of preening.

As I got closer to the area of cattails where the nest was located, there was a sheen of water running over the sidewalk and part of the boardwalk was under water. The white blob in the cattails is the second swan.

2021 05 IMG_7391 (2).jpg

I zoomed in on the blob. The camera focused on the cattails, but the second swan is identifiable. There is a second bird in the picture too…more about that one later.

2021 05 IMG_7391 (8).jpg

I walked further around on the paved bike path, stepping around the drifts of silt and trying not to splash water into my shoes. I found a little better vantage point to watch the second swan. The bird was picking up soggy sticks and dried cattail leaves…trying to pile them up again…frantically moving about as the vegetation sank into the water. Oh no! There must have been about 6 inches of water where the nest had been. The nest had been flooded. No cygnet…no egg…no nest.

2021 05 IMG_7391 (14).jpg

The bird that had been on the lake moved onto the bank still preening. The two birds were responding to the stress of the nest flooding very differently. I wondered which one was the male and which was the female. Was it early enough in the season that they will build another nest and try again?

 Now for the other bird that was near the swans’ nest – a juvenile Little Blue Heron that I had seen previously at the lake. It was standing in the cattails…observing the scene. It had more blue feathers since I saw it a few weeks earlier. The color of the beak and eye ring looks very striking on this young bird. As I looked at my pictures of the bird on my larger monitor, I wondered if the bird had a damaged wing or if it was simply wet. I’ll have to go to the lake again before I leave Texas to find out.

There were a few Mallard Ducks. It appears they already have 4 young with them….juvenile size rather than ducklings! They were on the shore rather than in the water the whole time I was there.

Rounding out the birds I noticed but didn’t take time to photograph - pigeons and grackles. There were people venturing out for exercise; some had already made it around the lake and commented about the water gushing from the dam on the other end. Others arrived while I was there. It was a quick outing. I was sad about the swan’s nest…. felt privileged to observe the birds’ response to their tragedy from a distance.

Carrolton TX Yard – Amaryllis

/

There is an amaryllis that blooms in a tiny patch of soil near the garage of my parents’ house. It blooms in late April/early May. I got to see it this year. It is a plant with more than a decade of history since it was purchased for my grandmother in the year or so before she died in 2010. It bloomed inside the first year then in the same place by the garage every year after that. This year there were three blooms in the first round for blooms….

And then a solitary one after the first 3 had faded. It looks so lonely facing the chain link fence into the back yard. I took it from the back…thinking about a child looking out a window on a rainy day….wishing to be on the other side of the pane.

20210510_094938.jpg

A plant with an even longer history is on the other side of the garage – a rose bush given to my grandmother when she was 80. She lived to be 98 and enjoyed the roses every year….and my parents continue the tradition. The plant is close to 30 years old at this point!

Carrollton TX Yard – Tree Trimming

/

Surprise – I opened the blinds one morning and saw a tree branch hanging vertically on the other side of the glass! I went out the front door to get a different perspective of the broken branch….from the front sidewalk and then from the street.

2021 05 IMG_4457 (5).jpg

Fortunately, my parents have a company that has taken care of their trees for years…and the owner could come to assess the situation on the same day. My parents opted to have all their trees trimmed at the same time as the broken branch was removed since the crew could do it the next day and they would leave the larger pieces (cut into shorter lengths) for fireplace wood next winter.

It was a good thing it was lawn waste day for their area since there was a big pile of branches at the curb by mid- morning. A big truck with a claw came and picked up everything (the person at the controls looked like he really enjoyed his job!).

By the end of the day – there was another pile as big as the first (view from the house and then from the street). The whole front yard would have been covered by tree branches if the truck had not picked up the early branch pile.

The 2-person crew worked from 7:30 AM to about 2 PM…a job well done.

After they left, we assessed the piles of wood. Some of them went to the wood rack immediately. Some might be big enough to use as plant stands…adding a layers to a garden area.

Want to count some tree (branch) rings? Use the arrows to move among the three samples. It’s hard to count the ones in the center….but even without those, think about which one might be the oldest branch…which is the youngest?

Missed seeing the Indigo Bunting in my Maryland Yard

/

My husband saw an indigo bunting on our deck on two days recently. On the first day he got a picture of the back of the bird – enough that Merlin could provide the id.

2021-05-07-indigo buntinmg-1-CR3_DxO_DeepPRIME.jpg

He was more prepared for the second visit….got a picture of the bird snacking at our feeder.

2021-05-11-untitled shoot-5961-CR3_DxO_DeepPRIME.jpg

Last year seeing the indigo buntings and other birds returning in the spring, helped me during the highest COVID-19 death days in Maryland (April-May 2020). This year – not being there to see them – is making me homesick. After staying at home as much as possible from March 2020 to mid-April 2021, it has been quite a change to be away from home for over a month. I’ve savored the change of scenery and seeing my family again but am conscious that I am missing the details of the area in and around my house in Maryland. My husband is helping with occasional pictures…like these of the indigo bunting.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 22, 2021

/

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

Top 25 birds of the week -May 2021 – Starting out the gleanings list with bird photographs!

Why cats love to sit in boxes – even fake ones – All of our cats have liked sitting in boxes….it was fun to see some research showing that even the 2D shape is appealing to them!

An incomparable intellectual who fell through the cracks of history – A woman, of course. In this case it was Robert Boyle’s older sister, Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh.

Strange and surprising facts about Opossums – The only marsupial north of Mexico. Odd look and behavior.

Irish farmer stumbles onto ‘untouched’ ancient tomb – Turning over a rock and finding a stone-lined passageway!

Ancient pottery reveals the first evidence of honey hunting in prehistoric West Africa – Analysis of potsherds from Central Nigeria revealed that around 1/3 of the pots they came from were used for processing or storing beeswax! The pieces of pottery are from the 1st millennium BC.

Big Spring Lodge, Cabins Rehabilitation Lags at Ozark National Scenic Riverways – I hope the project now planned to start in the fall gets completed on time. The place would be a good vacation destination for us since my daughter lives in Missouri.

You are how you cook – Research on the cooking methods in different parts of China and the relationship to the type of grains utilized over time. The areas that boiled/steamed food tended to use millet over wheat or barley since the later two grains take longer to cook by that method.

Fighting dementia with play – A pilot study with a game consisting of a screen and floor panel with four fields that measure steps, weight displacement and balance….users attempt a sequence of movements with their feet requiring physical and mental skills. The pilot was promising. Perhaps these types of games will become one of the strategies to enable people to handle daily life longer.

Meet Benjamin Banneker, the black scientist who document brood x cicadas in the late 1700s – Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum are close to where I live in Maryland. I’ve been there several times (posted about it in March 2015 and December 2018, but hadn’t realized that noting the periodic cicadas was one of his numerous observations.

Hempson Ditchfield on Internet Archive

/

Peter Hempson Ditchfield was a prolific author and historian…and a Church of England priest. I browsed 17 of his books recently…all available on Internet Archive. There is a lot of variety. The illustrations are detailed….it required some discipline to choose just one from each book.

Sometimes illustrations are drawings of famous sites – like Stonehenge in Old village life; or, Glimpses of village life through all ages (1920).

32 21 04 (2).jpg

Some volumes are illustrated with photographs like in Oxfordshire (1912)….some skew toward the archaeology of a location like in Memorials of old London - V1 (1908) that included a detailed drawing of Roman sandals.

The second volume of Memorials of old London (1908) started out with a color illustration.

41 21 04 (1).jpg

Memorials of Old Kent (1907) was co-authored with George Clinch. The illustration I chose reflect the details in the architectural documentation. Vanishing England (1910) was the book I was browsing the day Prince Philip’s death was announced; it seemed a similar title could be used in 2021. The name of the illustrator shows on my sample illustration for the book; many of the illustrations in Ditchfield’s books are uncredited.

Ditchfield was second author on the two volumes to Memorials of old Lancashire (volume 1 and volume 2) in 1909 with Henry Dishwick.

The Cottages and the village life of rural England (1912) is the only book of the 17 that has an illustrator (A.R. Quinton) on the title page…and all the illustrations are in color.

51 21 04 (3).jpg

Bygone Berkshire (1896) and Byways in Berkshire and the Cotswolds (1921) were about published about the same locale 25 years apart!

Two volumes of The Counties of England, their story and antiquities (volume 1 and volume 2) were published in 1912, The Charm of the English Village was co-authored with Sydney Robert Jones in 1908, and English Villages was published in 1901. I chose a sample image that documented ornamental molding for the next to the last book in this group…a good reference (and ideas for Zentangle patterns).

The last Ditchfield book I browsed was The Manor Houses of England which was published in 1910 – the time between World War I when the world changed so much both from the war and from the 1918 flu epidemic. I liked the muted tints of the first illustration in the book.

03 21 05 (1).jpg

Carrollton TX Yard – Fiddleheads

/

The ferns that flourish in the front flower bed of my parents’ house always surprise me. I think of the area being too dry in most places for ferns. They come back every year in the flower bed on the north (slightly west) flower bed where it is shady, and the sprinkler system keeps it wet enough. It is early in the growing season so there are fiddleheads among the fronds….and those are what I wanted to photograph.

I like the tight spiral at the tip…the expansion if the fronds from the base upward and the interesting coils that sometimes emerge as part of the frond unfurling. Fiddleheads are something I search out every spring. I missed my usual places in Maryland….so these are a welcome substitute and very convenient just outside the front door of my parents’ house!

Sandwiched

/

I am sandwiched between elderly parents and an early career daughter. Many of the articles about being in this situation seem to focus on the stress of being pulled between the two generations. My perception of it – so far – is how lucky I am…not the stress it might cause from time to time. Yes – I can’t be everywhere at once – but I am not the only one involved. I am married and have three sisters…all in the situation with me!

The distance between Maryland (me) and Texas (my parents) requires a two day drive…it’s slightly shorter but still 2 days to Missouri (my daughter’s). Flying is easier between my home and my parents since both are major cities; the flights to my daughters all require at least one stop.  Overall – it is a challenge to get to them fast. Virtual is helpful but not the same as being there in person.

I was fortunate that neither generation of my sandwich had an emergency during the pandemic. Traveling the distance quickly (driving or flying) is already a challenge…it would have been incredibly traumatic to not be able to travel at all; I’m glad we are all vaccinated now so the travel restriction is lifting.

The pandemic year has probably increased the need to travel to my parents more frequently. Maybe I will feel the pull more acutely…or not. I going to stay with the idea of savoring the time with both generations!