Rockwell Kent illustrations

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Earlier this summer I browsed two books written and illustrated by Rockwell Kent and available on Internet Archive. According to the Wikipedia entry, he spent an extended period in Alaska (1918-19) and Tierra del Fuego (1922-23) so the art in these books emerged from being immersed in a place rather than a quick visit.  He is quoted as saying ‘I want to paint the rhythm of eternity.’

I selected two images from each book but there are many more that are just as appealing in both books….worth the time to take a look. These are not the typical illustrations of adventure and travel; they skew toward a deep inner journey….the place being a backdrop.

Wilderness; a journal of quiet adventure in Alaska (1920)

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 13, 2022

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

What a decade of Curiosity has taught us about Mars – Looking for signs of life.

Zion National Park, Utah – A view of the park from the International Space Station. A piece of trivia from the post: Cyanobacterial blooms are a threat to hikers and wildlife – exacerbated by intense summer heat.

Air pollution, including during wildfires, shows ill effects in children -So many questions popped into my mind as I read this article: Does keeping children indoors with modern air conditioning/heating filtered air help? Further air purification required? The children in the study were 9-11 years old; are some of the markers also indicators of stress they may have developed knowing there were wildfires?

Ultra high-speed photography captures hidden human figures in moving water – Eye candy

Heat pumps prove themselves during a harsh Maine Winter – Modern heat pumps do the job even at -21 degrees in Maine!

Neolithic Watermelons may have been valued for their seeds – Snacks! And now most watermelons we buy in stores doen’t have seeds at all!

Nahuku Lava Tube in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park Closed to study its stability – Also known as Thurston Lava Tube. I walked through it when we were in Hawaii several years ago.

Vitamin K prevents cell death: New function for a long-known molecule – Important for blood clotting….but new research shows it is also a potent antioxidant that ameliorates cellular iron’s role in cell death (ferroptosis). There will probably be a lot of subsequent research following up this finding.

The science of making cheese – Infographic that shows the 4 steps: acidification, coagulation, reducing moisture content, and maturation.

The mysterious inner life of the octopus – Interesting article….or just look at the pictures!

Sunset Moon

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I noticed some color in the evening sky from my office window and went outside to capture the color…which was already deep pink…the bright disk below my horizon, the trees and neighborhood pool building silhouetted.

I looked up further in the sky and noticed the moon already visible…and my camera managed to focus!

What a nice bonus for a sunset!

Settling in, developing new routines – 2nd month

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A lot has happened over the past month. I was at home and settling in except for the one week I spent in Carrollton, TX (an easy road trip).

Roses. I enjoy the roses outside…the bushes were among the first parts of the yard I watered (before we got the sprinkler system fixed). I’ve started bringing in some of the flowers…putting them in a small glass on the windowsill in my office.

Sprinklers and some rain. The sprinkler system is now working, and it helped the yard to begin to recover before the recent rains came. Most of the grass was brown or turning brown before we started watering. There are some parts of the yard that the system doesn’t cover well but the rain has caused the whole yard to green up again.

Scan app at grocery store. One of the local grocery stores has a scan-as-you-shop app like I had in Maryland (Walmart does too but charges a monthly fee for it, so I’ll continue to use the self-checkout in that store). The grocery store is further from the house than the Walmart; my plan is to shop there once a month; I’ve already identified items that the store has that Walmart doesn’t. I did have a small accident in the store: I bumped a can when I was reaching for some seasoned pinto beans on a high shelf; it fell on my big toe; since it was wearing flip flops, it hurt (broke the skin enough to bleed and lots of bruising); the injury has kept me from doing yard work and other activities that I  need to wear close toed shoes; it should be healed enough in the next week or so.

Screens on my office windows. I have tried to take pictures through my office windows and realized that the screens need to be removed – note the grid in the picture of the dragonfly below. When I do it, the windows will need to be cleaned too.

Compost. I bought 2 pieces of cedar edging and made a circle for compost…thinking that I didn’t have enough kitchen scraps to warrant a larger bin. The watermelon rind is loading it up fast! In need to add ‘browns’ to keep it from smelling like garbage…I may have to shred some cardboard. Some of the smaller yard waste can go in too (larger pieces will still have to go to the recycle center).

Trash/recycling. We made one trip to the recycle center taking boxes since there were too many to fit in the bin for curbside collection every other week.

Telescope. The telescope ‘stuff’ has been moved from the garage to the John Deere room – the easier to get it set up in the backyard. We aren’t planning any camping/star parties near term (too hot). Hopefully, there will be some good night skies from our back yard.

Birdfeeder. We have put up one bird feeder, but it is not in an ideal spot; neither one of us can see it unless we look out one of the basement den’s windows. I have seen some house finches on the perch.

Cats. We are preparing the house for cats. That has meant getting rooms cleared of boxes and bins that need to be unpacked…coils of extension cords…anything that might be hazardous to young cats. The cat paraphernalia was in the basement…now it is on the first floor. The largest cat tree is near the big window in the piano (dining) room.

We have chairs and small tables near other windows that will give the cats good views of the outdoors. There are two doors with glass low enough for cats to look out to the deck from floor level. I put pillowcases on the pillows in the breakfast area window seat and raised the blinds a little to provide a view from that vantage point. My husband has bought supplies (litter, food). The cats we are getting are 3 siblings that have been fostered…are now old enough to be adopted. Stay tuned for more cat news!

Previous ‘settling in’ posts: 1st month

Road Trip Back to Missouri

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I’m becoming more familiar with the route between my parents’ home in Texas and my home in Missouri. This time I remembered that there was only one non-commercial highway rest stop along my route – the welcome center between Oklahoma and Texas. I was early enough that the main part of the building was not open yet but there were external doors directly to rest rooms that were unlocked (unlike the configuration of the welcome center from Missouri to Oklahoma). What a relief! There were no plants blooming in the heat of summer but the beds near the porch of the building were lush with foliage. The external walls of the building could be used for a geology lesson for that area of Oklahoma!

All the other stops were commercial – either toll road service centers or MacDonalds. I noticed that the MacDonalds’ décor incorporated a lot of familiar (Zentangle-like) patterns!

I was traveling on a Sunday so there were no active construction sites and traffic was light. No accidents slowed me down! I made it home in about 45 minutes less time than my nav system predicted when I first started. My Prius Prime got me all the way home on a full charge and 7/8 tank of gas!

Lesson learned: The Will Rogers Service Center along the toll road always seems crowded and not very clean…next time I’ll pass it by and stop at the Missouri Welcome Center that is not very much further!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 6, 2022

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

An effective new treatment for chronic back pain targets the nervous system – A 12-week course of sensorimotor retraining had a positive effect and participants reported improved quality of life one year later (i.e., the relief was lasting). Hopefully the results can be replicated, and the treatment applied to a broader population. There are a lot of people with chronic back pain!

New Study Links Cat Hormones and Gut Microbiomes to Their Social Behavior – Hard to resist a cat story!

Millions of Americans have long COVID. Many of them are no longer working – 4 million full-time equivalent workers out of work because of long COVID (conservative estimate…and that 2.4% of the US working population). There is a push to provide accommodation in the workplace but some of the symptoms are so severe that the person cannot perform the work they did before and maybe too disabled to work at all. No wonder unemployment is low, and some jobs are not finding applicants. Because long COVID is new, it is unclear when, or if, this population will recover enough to re-enter the workforce.

Arche Roach: the great song man, tender and humble, who gave our people voice – An obituary – and history of aboriginal people in Australia over the past century or so.

The promise and danger of Scotland's bog – 80% of the UK’s peatlands are degraded and in deteriorating condition. They store a lot of carbon…motivating restoration efforts. It takes decades to reverse damage done in a short time by a few ditches and a grid of planted saplings.

New molecule may prevent age-related diseases and increase life expectancy and wellness – A group of molecules that enable cells to repair damaged components has been identified….and efficacy was demonstrated in a model organism. The researchers and Hebrew University’s tech transfer company are moving toward pre-clinical studies.

Parts of the moon have stable temperatures fit for humans – Pits and caves that stay roughly 63 degrees Fahrenheit! There are still big challenges for living on the moon: growing food and finding sufficient oxygen, for example

Coming wave of opioid overdoses 'will be worse than it's ever been before' – Fentanyl and carfentanil…combined with methamphetamines and cocaine. The accelerated rates of overdoses are happening everywhere according to a Northwestern Medicine study.

Inside King Tut’s Tomb – New research using the tomb walls to understand the real-world turmoil cause by the death of the young king.

Cocoa shown to reduce blood pressure and arterial stiffness in real-life study – Cocoa flavanols only decrease blood pressure if it is elevated! I enjoy my morning dark chocolate (70+% cocoa) squares…a healthy way to begin the day!

Carrollton Yard – July 2022 (3)

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The final in my Carrollton Yard in July posts….

The ferns are on the north side of the house and generally in the shade. The place is well watered by the sprinkler system. But even with those advantaged, the 100+ days are damaging the fronds. The ones that get the most sun were brown…cooked in the heart. I noticed that almost all of them that were still green (even a little ) were producing spores.

The mulberry trees in my parents house are very old…and several have been cut down completely.  The ones that remain have been dramatically trimmed to reduce the weight of their canopy. There was a pile of recently trimmed branches at the back of the large patio…cut by the crew into fireplace length (plenty for my mother’s enjoyment of almost daily winter fires!). I took pictures of the cut ends…and realized that even the smallest ones took over a decade to grow!

And the mulberries are still putting out leaflets on their trunks and big branches! There were at eye level on the trunk closest to my parents’ garden room. The room is the best in the house – where they work on puzzles and spend a lot of their day. The few of their backyard is spectacular from that room!

I enjoyed the garden decorations among the foliage. Most have been in place for years – some are toys left over from when grandchildren were young (the youngest is now in his 20s).

On the edge of the side patio there is a rock with several kinds of lichen.

I used my phone’s (Samsung Galaxy S10e) digital magnification to get closer views. I like the colors and texture of the lichen and then the bare rock where, perhaps, some long ago lichen weakened the rock and water eventually washed it and the rock particles away.

I will be traveling to Carrollton again later this month…and look for other perspectives/changes in the Carrollton yard.

Carrollton Yard – July 2022 (2)

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Walking around a familiar place….composing images of my favorite plants. In my parents’ yard, the red yuccas are always a big draw. This time of year, they are a mix of bids, flowers, and seed pods of varying maturity. I photographed them on a couple of mornings while I was in Carrollton. My favorite of the images I captured with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) was the one with the black background…a flower hanging like a flower moving like a bell over the buds and very green seed pod.

With my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e), I used its digital magnification to capture macro images of the same plants. The developing seed pods always fascinate me. They were a few pods beginning to split open. By the time I am in Carrollton again (later this month), a few will be split open with visible seeds.

There were other things that were surviving the Texas heat – although more stressed than the red yucca. The kale that is multiple years old is probably too tough to eat!

One plant was so green in macro view that I couldn’t resist the macro shot – for the color and texture of the apex growth. It was benefiting from its proximity to a automatic sprinkler!

Finally – after the sprinklers one morning I enjoyed finding water droplets in the purple heart wandering jew…in the joint between two leaves where new leaves and flowers begin.

I’ve come to appreciate places I can photograph again and again….seeing them in a little different way each time and beginning to capture the specialness of the place that I associate with the longest relationships of my life.

Zentangle® – July 2022

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31 days in July….31 Zentangle tiles! I made 100 during the month so had plenty to choose from. The majority were circular or square since those are the ones I tend to make when I am traveling…and I made a lot of tiles on the2 road trips in July: to Maryland/back to Missouri and visiting my parents in Texas. I have a box that holds tiles and a few pens that is easy to pack; the color palette is limited though. In Texas, I use some aging gel pens left over from my sister’s teaching career; more and more of them are dry or out of ink each time I visit. Enjoy my July 2022 Zentangle mosaic!

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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.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2022

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Like June, July was a high stress month because of our move to Missouri - but with much to celebrate.

Family holiday gathering. The 4th of July was our first ‘holiday’ celebrated in Missouri…having my daughter and son-in-law over for veggies with hummus, steak, corn-on-the-cob, and watermelon.

An easy drive home…and being home again. The drive to Maryland and back was long…but once back in Missouri we celebrated only having one house again…and clearly it was ‘home.’

Dragonfly posing for pictures in our back yard. We seem to have more dragonflies around our yard in Missouri and I celebrate every time I manage to photograph one. The closer location to a pond might be why we are seeing them more frequently.

Being indoors during the hot part of the day. Every day that gets above 100 degrees is one I celebrate being indoors! We’ve had quite a few hot days this July – more in Texas than Missouri.

Getting boxes cleared from the garage. Once the pile gets annoying we make a trip to the recycle center – celebrating that it is convenient and that the garage is clear…until the boxes pile up again.

Springfield Botanical Garden. This is probably my favorite place for a walk in Springfield. It is a place I want to see again and again…through the seasons…finding a little celebration every time.

Little fixes completed. There were some little fixes identified when our Missouri house was inspected. I celebrated when they were completeed – particularly the one in the basement bathroom (since my office is also in the basement).

Josey Ranch green heron and ducklings. I only walked around the place once because it was so hot while I was in Texas…but celebrated the birds that I saw there (blog post coming soon).

Getting car inspected/registered…and MO driver’s liscense. It has been a very long time since I moved to a new state and I anticipated a lot of red tape. I was relieved when we managed to get the cars registered, our driver’s liscense….and register to vote…celebrated when they were all done…and glad that the process was not as difficult as I thought it might be.

Establishing the compost circle. I celebrated finding edging that was high enough to make a circle  to hold the small amount of compostable material I have from my kitchen….just in time to start it off with watermelon rind!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 30, 2022

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

Furs from Danish Viking Burials Analyzed – Proteins extracted from animal furs found in 6 burials. The accessories/furnishings were domesticated animals. The items of clothing were wild beaver, squirrels, and weasels. The beaver furs were not native to the area so were probably luxury furs obtained by trade.

More Energy on Less Land: The Drive to Shrink Solar’s Footprint – Good ideas…if we must use agriculturally productive land for solar panels. I’d like to see cities with high density solar panels that generate electricity close to where it is needed (i.e., short distance between generation and use). Hopefully that is happening in parallel with the solar development described in this article.

Moths are unsung heroes of pollination – The study was done with red clover…but probably applies to a broader range of plants. Moths are active during the night so have not been as easily observed as pollinators that are active during the day. The work was done with time lapse cameras.

Electric School Buses! – A blog post about the US Department of Energy’s ‘Flipping the Switch on Electric School Buses’ series. There are lots of communities that have been exploring making the transition and I am hopeful that it will be an escalating trend. I always cringed at the fumes that were so obvious when the buses arrived/departed from schools as I was growing up and when my daughter was in school. It would be good for the planet and good for children’s lungs to eliminate the school bus as a source of air pollution!

The habits that help prevent allergies – Studies that are improving our understanding of why allergies are increasing in the children….and strategies for addressing the problem. Evidently the time between 4 and 11 months is very important.

Harm from blue light exposure increases with age, research in flies suggests – Not good news. Maybe the default setting on our ‘screens’ (phones, computers, television) need to reduce blue light rather than it being a setting that everyone must intentionally set. And why don’t LED manufactures offer bulbs that are not so blue shifted?

Giant Snails take over Florida’s Gulf Coast - It is not the first time…probably won’t be the last. These snails are native to Africa and this the third time Florida has battled an invasion.

Water resources to become less predictable with climate change – The study focused primarily on areas that rely on snow for all or part of their water supply. Some of those areas are already relatively dry…and the populations are large enough that the unpredictability of water resources will be very problematic.

The best way to brush your teeth – This is going to take some practice to break old habits. I learned to brush my teeth a long time ago and probably am too sloppy even doing it the way I was taught!

New thought on Cahokia’s ancient wetlands – A large flat rectangular area that was previously thought to have been used as open, communal space might have been under water most of the year!

Japan’s 1891 Earthquake

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The Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891 is available on Internet Archive; it was published shortly after the event and includes photographs by K. Ogawa. I picked 6 of them for this blog post. They must have been some of the first pictures of a major earthquake and I wonder how many people saw them around the world. Photography extends the understanding of this type of disaster beyond the people experiencing the destruction more effectively to the general population than written descriptions or drawings.

The Wikipedia article for this earthquake says that this is the still the largest known inland earthquake to have occurred in the Japanese archipelago.

One of the authors of the text, John Milne, had been in Japan since 1876 and had focused on seismology in Japan following an earthquake in February 1880 and initiated what would become the earthquake reporting system of the Japan Meteorological Agency. The 1891 earthquake was well measured because of the proactive work in the decades before it occurred and added to the data in the reporting system allowing for better understanding of aftershocks.

Unique Aspects of Days - July 2022

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Settling into our new home in Missouri is still prompting unique aspects of our days!

1st doctor’s appointment in Missouri. Getting medical records transferred from a specialist in Maryland to a new specialist in Missouri was a first for me…and I was pleasantly surprised that it happened so easily and that the new doctor continued the monitoring/treatment as I expected.

Callery Pear to the recycle center. It was a unique experience to discover a pear tree growing in a crepe myrtle in a front flower bed of my new house. I cut it down…discovered it had thorns…and was very pleased to get it cut up enough to fit in the back of my car and then to the recycle center yard waste bins without injuring myself. It was an experience I hope is unique!

Unpacking the art glass. I packed it but my husband unpacked it. There was a joy in packing and unpacking the beautiful pieces….savoring them individually and then again as a whole in the display cabinet. We left 2 pieces that are on light stands out on a desk beside the piano to act as ‘night lights’ in that part of the house. It has been over 25 years since we enjoyed the glass the way we did in July.

Making a compost ring with cedar edging. I bought two sections of edging made with 3-6 inch vertical lengths of cedar branches and formed a circle to hold my kitchen scraps and soft yard waste under one of our pine trees. There is not enough material to require a bigger compost bin so this is a relatively unique solution. I’m not sure whether I will move the ring once the compost is deteriorating enough to continue as a pile without the ring or ready to spread out. There is space to move the ring and start another collection nearby.

Finding the camera battery charger. It seemed like there were about 5 times this month where we came close to panic because we couldn’t find something we needed in our new home. The one that had me most worried was not knowing where the charger was for my camera battery; luckly I found it after an hour or so of hunting through boxes. Now that we have unpacked most of the boxes, it is less likely to occur…making this particular kind of anxiety unique to July 2022.

Forgot my toiletries. I travel frequently enough that I rarely forget anything I need…but I did for our trip back to Maryland for the closing on our house there! The compartment bag for toiletries was left hanging on the bathroom door in Missouri. I quickly bought essentials…glad this event was unique in my travels.

Hot and dry Josey Ranch lake. The lake at Josey Ranch near where my parents live was lower than I’ve seen with deep cracks where there is usually water or mud. The cattails area is dry and other plants are taking over. I hope this is unique and not what it will be like every summer from now on in Carrollton TX.

Hummingbird moth. I was surprised…glad I had my camera with me…when I spotted a hummingbird moth at the Springfield Botanical Garden. They are fun insects to watch and I always feel priviledge to see even one a year.

Hummingbird outside my office window…on the crepe myrtle. I looked out my window one morning and saw a hummingbird checking out the crepe myrtle outside my office window. It was the first I’d seen in our Missouri yard.

Missouri watermelon at the Carrollton (TX) Walmart. I noticed that the watermelon I bought for my parents in the Carrollton Walmart had been grown in Missouri…and discovered when I got home to Missouri – the watermelons in the Walmart were from Missouri too!

Carrollton Yard – July 2022 (1)

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It takes regular watering to keep my parents’ Carrollton yard from drying when the coolest it gets is the low 80s…the high being over 100 degrees…heat advisories almost every day. Many flowers have bloomed and then dried very quickly.

The crepe myrtles are blooming almost normally.

The cosmos are not as lush as they were last summer – fewer blooms and they seem in a hurry to make seeds.

The same is true for some other flowers.

There are two tiger lily plants with multiple flowers on each stalk blooming in the center of a large bed. My sister wades into the foliage to cut some to bring inside….making a short bouquet for the table.

I went outside multiple times first thing in the morning to take pictures with my phone and my bridge camera. The flowers always draw the eye first but the other plants in the yard are often more interesting on closer observation.  Stay tuned for subsequent posts…different perspectives on the same yard.

Road trip: Missouri to Texas

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It is a 6.5-hour drive from my house in Missouri to my Parents’ in Texas. Only the first few hours are interstate so there are not the typical highway rest stops along the way. I left early enough that the Oklahoma welcome center on I44 was not open yet (doesn’t open until 8:30 AM) so my first rest stop was the Will Rodgers rest stop along the turnpike; I also bought gas there (thrilled that it was below $4/gallon). It is not my favorite place since the rest rooms always seem crowded and not very clean.

The second stop was a McDonalds for a breakfast burrito – my favorite road trip breakfast – which I ate rather clumsily going down the road (cheese dribbled on my lap!).

The third stop was another toll road plaza. None of the three rest stops were visually appealing. Fortunately, the Texas Welcome Center on US 75 just across the Red River has some interesting plantings. I did some macro photography.

I noticed that Oklahoma was greener than Missouri. They must have gotten more rain recently than we have in Southwestern Missouri. The day got hotter and hotter as I drove…passing 100 degrees at 11:42 PM.

A lesson learned from this trip: the back of my car with the slopped hatchback is not cooled very much by the air conditioner; I’ll place my luggage in the back seat rather than the far back when I am driving on a hot day.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 23, 2022

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

Watch a Deep-Sea Squid Carry Hundreds of Pearl-Like Eggs – A video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It’s a trap: managing cowbirds to save songbirds – The strategy of trapping cowbirds (a brood parasite) to help endangered songbirds along the Santa Clara River in Southern California has evolved to reduce harming other species and cost less.

Electric vehicle buyers want rebates, not tax credits – Of course….immediate rebates rather than waiting for months to get a tax credit are much more appealing.

Urban waterways: discovering the hidden beauty of a Jersey River – River restoration across the country…with the Cooper River story in more detail.

Universal influenza B vaccine induces broad, sustained protection – A new kind of vaccine….using nanoparticles. Perhaps this new technology will lead to an effective universal flu vaccine.

The sustainable cities made of mud – A little construction/architectural history….that could be applied more often.

10 Weird Australian Marsupials You’ve Never Heard Of – So many unusual animals…Australia has more than just kangaroos and koalas!

Cancer probably killed world’s first known pregnant Egyptian mummy – 2,000 years ago a young woman died…and was mummified. The Warsaw Mummy Project has determined that she was pregnant – the fetus was ‘pickled’ in the highly acidic and low oxygen environment of the mummified womb – and the woman probably died of nasopharyngeal cancer.

More Electricity from Wind and Solar than Nuclear for 1st time in USA – Hurray! Wind and solar accounted for over 25% of the nation’s electricity in the first 4 months of 2022!

Loss of male sex chromosome leads to earlier death for men – What? Y chromosome loss happens in 40% (estimated) of 70-year-old men. The loss occurs primarily in cells with rapid turnover, such as blood cells. And it might lead to heart muscle scaring…and then heart failure.

Intentions 2022

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At the end of last year, I posted about what I thought would be different about 2022 for me – things that I wanted to make happen. Now that the year is half over, I am assessing my progress on the four areas I wrote about last December.

Releasing myself from some of my daily metrics. This has been the hardest change…and I still find myself pushing for the 12,000 steps…4 books…2,000 words each day. But there are days where other priorities have prevailed such as tasks on the critical path for our move from Maryland to Missouri. So far, I’ve ‘made up’ for the low days on books and words…am averaging the goal for 2022. I’ve not made very much of a change!

Reverting to a cleaner/neater house. In the Maryland house, the piles of boxes that accumulated over the three months before we moved made it harder to clean although we did clean the areas we could get to and cleaned items that were being packed. The house ended up sparkling after the carpeting was replaced; 35+ year old carpeting in a house that always had at least one cat is a cleaning challenge! In our new house, we are vacuuming frequently to clear the dog hair (previous owner)…successfully based on the vacuum canister not filling up as quickly as it did originally. We are still unpacking but there are lots of spaces to put things away and we are striving to keep more surfaces clear. The laundry chute is a plus – no hamper or other laundry receptacle in the bedroom. This intention is still a work in progress but both my husband and I are making the effort; we are motivated to have the house comfortable….keep it cleaner and neater than our Maryland house.

Look for the unique. It’s a habit now…I record something unique at the end of each day and have been surprised how easy it is to identify an event or sight or food…that was a 1st or one/only. The habit has caused a slight change in my attitude. I am more likely to look from a unique perspective or try something new than I was a year ago!

Moving to live closer to my daughter. Done! We are still working through the aftermath…address changes, new licenses/registrations, completely unpacking. Of all the changes I anticipated at the beginning of the year…this is the big one. It probably happened faster than I thought it would. We’ve owned our house in Missouri for about 1.5 months now – enough time to realize we make a great choice. I’m already set to make a fall road trip with my daughter, accompanying her on a road trip to Canada for her to attend a conference – something I would have not been able to do if we still lived in Maryland.

I am doing so well on my intentions made at the beginning of the year that I am adding to the list for the remaining months:

Spend some time each month with my parents (Carrollton).

Design/implement landscaping tweaks to our yard in the fall.

Start volunteering (again).

Wasp Nests

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Shortly after we moved to our Missouri house, we noticed a wasp nest in a corner of the garage door frame. It was out of the way and the wasps did not appear to be particularly aggressive. The nest has become something I observe every time I back my car out of the garage…and I have started a project to photograph it for the rest of the season.

When we were having some repair work on the house, the workers discovered a second nest – in a more hazardous place….under the handrail on the stairs between the deck and the patio. They must have inadvertently brushed the nest with their hand as they went down the stairs…the wasps were quick to respond. My husband was going to destroy the nest but several days have gone by and we’ve discovered we can live with the nest where is; we don’t usually take those stairs since we go out on the patio from the basement level of the house and onto the deck from the main floor.

Medical Transition

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The process to transition medical care after a long-distance move is a little complicated. I’ve made the address switch (and sometimes policy) for my insurance, identified new doctors, requested medical history be sent, and had a first appointment with one of the doctors…now hoping I haven’t forgotten anything.

First appointments are always a little challenging with paperwork and meeting a new doctor. I am trying to establish doctors that are all in the same system so that I’ll only have one portal (unlike the situation in Maryland where every doctor seemed to have their own!).

I realized that even finding my way to the building and the office was part of the ‘first appointment’ challenge. I tried to notice things about the building that were a little different: the young trees in the parking lot islands (not sure why they were wrapped as they were) and the glass atrium light fixture/loft railings. Maybe I’ll remember the place when I am due to return in 3 months!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 16, 2022

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

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: A windo into the past – A prompt for an early fall road trip? It is about 4 hours from where we live now.

Psoriasis: Study lays foundation for new treatment strategy – Hope more targeted treatment can be developed….avoiding the drugs used currently that suppress the immune system overall.

Winners of the 2022 Audubon Photography Awards Celebrate the Beauty of Our Feathered Friends – Images of birds in action.

The silent danger of gum disease – More reasons to sustain regular dental checkups….and for dentists to be vigilant.

The Milkweed Gang – Milkweed attracts quite a few insects…even if it is an island surrounded by invasive plants!

New species of giant waterlily is the largest in the world – It has been growing in Kew Gardens in 177 years and in a herbarium in Bolivia for 34 years….always assumed to be the well-known species of giant waterlily named after Queen Victoria. The leaves can grow up to 10 feet wide…and support at least 176 pounds!

Toads surprise scientists by climbing trees in UK woodlands – Even when we think we know a species well…there are still surprises!

This New Species of Carnivorous Pitcher Plant Traps Its Prey Underground – In the rainforest of Borneo at elevations of 3,600 – 4,265 feet.

Ozone Hole — New, Large, Constant Ozone Hole — Appears Over Tropics – 7x larger than then Antarctic ozone hole!

Unlocking the secrets of the ancient coastal Maya – More than a decade of interdisciplinary work increasing the understanding of how these people lived and responded to rising sea levels and changing political/economic systems. And still more to be learned.