Birds (Great Egret, Northern Shoveler, Great Blue Heron, Northern Pintail, Red-tailed Hawk)….evergreens…dried (or frost damaged) plants…Texas sky - January was good month using the optical zoom on my camera! The locations were Texas (Carrollton, Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge) and Missouri (Nixa, Springfield). Enjoy the slideshow!
Wallace Nutting started out his adult life as a Congregational minister but retired at 43 because of ill health. His ‘second act’ (he lived to be 79 years old!) included photography and colonial furniture collecting and reproduction; his reproductions and photographs are still widely collected today. Both aspects are represented in books he published and are available on Internet Archive. The ‘Beautiful’ books reflect his travels; he was evidently an avid bicyclist and took up photography to document what he was seeing. Nutting’s pictures capture places as they existed in the 1920s; since he tended to photograph landscapes, some of the places might look very similar today. The only one not in the northeastern US is Ireland!
Connecticut Beautiful (1923)
Ireland Beautiful (1925)
Massachusetts Beautiful (1923)
The Internet Archive also has Nutting’s book documenting Windsor chairs – which he collected and reproduced. I selected a child’s highchair as the sample image…remembering my daughter sitting in a similar chair for lunch the first time she visited Mount Vernon (Washington’s home) and we stopped for lunch at the restaurant there (back in 1990).
New Hampshire Beautiful (1923)
Maine Beautiful (1924)
A Windsor Handbook (1917)
Vermont Beautiful (1922)
He’s a great role model of redirecting your life in a positive direction after encountering a roadblock (like ill-health) on the path you thought would be yours.
My husband and I enjoyed a walk in the Lake Springfield Boathouse last week. The first bird I saw was an Eastern Bluebird! Unfortunately, I was dealing with glare on my camera’s (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) viewfinder/screen, so I didn’t get a very good picture. I guess it was enough thrill to see the birds there.
There were some birds further out in the water…not very photogenic…but it seems that they are all mallards.
The most numerous birds we saw were black vultures – in a sycamore, warming up in the morning sunshine. There were three that seemed to be communicating with each other.
I photographed two birds almost too far out on the water – realized once I got home that they were scaups (male and female).
And then….a red-tailed hawk…perched at the top of a sycamore with lots of seed pods near the dam. The bird’s breast feathers were fluffed against the cold. The area has more traffic, and I was glad the hawk did not seem disturbed by the noise.
Last week, my husband and I picked a sunny morning to walk in the Lake Springfield Boathouse area. It is an easy drive from our house along curvy 2 lane roads. It was cold enough for a jacket but the winds from the previous day were gone – so not uncomfortable. The place was very different that our previous visit back in September (see posts (1) and (2)). Now the lush meadow is full of dried vegetation…providing a very different photographic opportunity. It was so sunny that it was challenging to see the camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) screen or view finder!
In one of the open areas along the paved path, there was a gingko tree….complete with a few leaves from last season and the distinctive buds for next spring.
Back at the boathouse – I took a picture of a youngish sycamore near the water. Tomorrow I’ll post about the birds we saw on our walk.
The week’s book post includes 13 books…travel books written and illustrated by Sven Hedin from the late 1800s to the 1930s…available from Internet Archive. As usual – my interest was primarily in the illustrations which include drawings, watercolors, and photographs. The author was Swedish geographer, topographer, and explorer…and the books are his documentation of his work. His sketches of people and places…as well as a picture of himself outfitted for very cold weather in Tibet…make these books good windows into the places as they were.
Adventures in Tibet (1904)
Bagdad, Babylon, Ninive (1918)
Durch Asiens Wüsten : drei Jahre auf neuen Wegen in Pamir, Lop-nor, Tibet and China (1919)
Through Asia V1 (1898)
Through Asia V2 (1922)
Southern Tibet (1913)
Finally – I was not in Texas when it snowed last week in Nixa, MO; so… I have experienced my first snow at my new home. Unfortunately – I had an appointment and had to drive in it! When I first backed out of my garage, it was still dark, and sleet was falling (it seemed large enough to be small hail!); I almost decided to cancel my appointment. The data that kept me from doing that was the temperature: it was 38 degrees F. I continued to my appointment; the sleet was just rain by the time I was halfway there and then the rain paused just as I finished parking.
A little over an hour later my appointment was done. It was snowing but still above freezing. I had to clean snow off my car. The side mirror heaters worked very quickly! The roads were wet with the temperature at 34 degrees; I still was careful to keep plenty of distance between my car and the next. There was a snowplow on one road….not plowing but probably deploying to be in position if the roads started to be too slushy. I was glad to get home…and that I didn’t need to get out again
I decided to take a few snow pictures before I took off my coat: snow caught in dried vegetation,
The evergreens (holly, rhododendron, pine) flocked with snow, and
The snow dust on yard furniture and stones leading to yard.
I posted about my parents’ 70th anniversary back in December; now I am celebrating my own 50th wedding anniversary with my husband. The anniversary prompts me to think about those 50 years of shared life from different perspectives.
Our external focus shifted through the years:
For the first 10 years, we were completing our education – a PhD for him, a masters for me. I was working full time during those years…not thinking about computer science as a career for the first 5 years but gradually realizing that I liked the work too much to switch fields. From the beginning he seemed to have a clearer idea of what he wanted to do. We were the first in both our families to go beyond an undergraduate degree.
We moved to the east coast for my husband’s work; it was a great career move for me too. We were both focused on our careers for about 5 years.
Then we decided to have a child and took the precautions needed for a successful pregnancy in our mid-30s. We thought we were prepared when our daughter was born but quickly realized that there was a learning curve that was just beginning. Between the two of us we successfully juggled parenting and careers…until she went off to college 20 years later.
There were 5 years of career focus with occasional bursts of activity to help my daughter move out of the dorm into an apartment, get to an internship, or move for graduate school. The internship and graduate school were more than halfway across the US!
10 years ago - I retired and my husband started a ramp down from his career that continued for several years.
We’ve lived in several states over the 50 years: Texas for 10, Virginia for 3, Maryland for 36.5, Missouri for .5 years. The two long haul moves (from Texas to Virginia and from Maryland to Missouri) were quite different. We had a lot more household items to move the second time, the technology of finding a new house/selling our old one had improved dramatically, and we were able to buy our current house rather than get a mortgage.
Our shared interests have evolved over the years.
Photography. My husband was the one that enjoyed photography from the beginning….doing his own black/white and color developing (and printing too). I remember in our first house when one of the developing chemicals was not diluted enough when he poured it down the kitchen sink and it dissolved the disposal flaps! We have a lot of negatives and slides from those pre-digital years. The transition to digital happened about the time our daughter was old enough to start taking pictures. My interest in photography picked up a little when my daughter was born but ramped up dramatically once I retired.
Travel. From the very beginning we’ve both enjoyed day trips and vacations to outdoor destinations: gardens, state parks, and national parks. In the beginning, we economized by car/tent camping and not eating out. By the time we moved to Virginia we could afford flying, staying in hotels, and eating out although the road trip still dominated our vacations. When my daughter was born, we shifted our accommodations to ones that had a small kitchen to accommodate her food requirements/preferences. Some of our travel was associated with either my career or my husband’s…so that part of the travel was paid for as part of our work. After she got older and as we travelled more on our own, we enjoyed short term house rentals. For a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband and I used birding festivals as a focus for our travels.
Astronomy. My husband was interested in astronomy before I knew him. One of our early dates included a lunar eclipse at the local astronomy club’s observatory. In the early years of our marriage, we participated in grazing occultations (stars and the mountains of the moon); my role was to help him get the telescope set up as quickly as possible in the assigned location so he could take the measurements. Later I used the cast iron telescope mount to add weight in the back of my rear-wheel drive car – to give it more traction on snowy days in Virginia. His astronomy activity ebbed although he did replace his telescope; we (daughter included) observed the sunrise in 2000…our celebration of the new millennium. Once he retired, he became active the local astronomy club in Maryland and we both camped on the field for a star party at a dark sky site in Virginia several times; he liked the dark sky (and being able to call it a night whenever he got tired) and I enjoyed being outdoors, hiking during the day.
A lot has happened in 50 years and we’re both realizing how fortunate we are that the big decision we made all those years ago was a good one for both of us!
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.
Study investigates source of Amazon’s “Dark Earth” – Created intentionally? It is less acidic than surrounding soils…probably from the addition of ash.
New York City Greenery Absorbing All Traffic Emissions on Many Summer Days – There is a lot more greenery that previously thought…looking beyond parks to modest backyards, shrubbery growing in vacant lots, and trees dotting city sidewalks. That’s good for the summer when everything is green and growing….but it also implies that winter air quality is problematic.
‘Stomp’ Performers Hang Up their Garbage Lids – After 3 decades off-Broadway. Watch the video!
Riddle solved: why is Roman concrete so durable? – It wasn’t just volcanic ash that made Roman concrete better…lime clasts play a self-healing role!
Why is every parking lot covered with solar panels? – Evidently Michigan State has done it…hopefully other universities and big box stores do similar projects.
How the war in Ukraine is killing marine mammals – The dolphins that were washing up on the shore of the Black Sea prior to the war were few and usually had markings suggesting entanglement in fishing gear. The theory about the increased number appearing now, without marks, is that the dolphins are experiencing acoustic trauma from the increased use of sonar by Russian submarines.
Climate impact labels on sample food menu had strong effect on food selection – A study done by Johns Hopkins. The result indicate that this kind of labelling could promote more sustainable choices….and have positive health benefits as well!
Aerial Photos Capture the Abstract Beauty of Salt Ponds – From a new book….with images and background about these man-made landscapes.
Great Salt Lake will disappear in 5 years without a massive ‘emergency rescue’ – My husband and I visited the lake back in 2008. The pictures in the article are so different that I needed the captions to recognize the place. The lake was already shrinking in 2008 but the shrinking has increased with long term drought and increased population diverting more water that would otherwise flow into the lake. Aside from the ecological collapse if the lake goes dry, the dust from the dry lakebed is kicked up by winds and can damage lungs/exacerbate other respiratory illness. This does not bode well for public health in Salt Lake City.
Painted skulls from Peru’s Chincha Valley analyzed – The red paint on the skulls was not all the same on all the skulls: some have iron-based ochres and others have mercury-based cinnabar….the red paint on one of the skulls was a combination of the two!
Paul Edmonds visited Burma and wrote a book published in 1925 Peacocks and Pagodas that is available from Internet Archive. I enjoyed the illustrations.
The author is not as judgmental as many European writers of travel books in the 1920s; he acknowledges the cultural difference: “The Burman know that happiness is better than wealth” --- whereas “The Englishman believes that wealth is better than happiness, or at least synonymous with it.” He frees himself to simply observe by getting that difference acknowledged from the beginning…also recognizing that the colonial system will try to force Burmese culture to move toward the European/English, perhaps destroying the focus on happiness over wealth entirely.
And here we are 100 years later….so many people still conflicted about the relationship between wealth and happiness.
My daughter hosted lunch last week at her house. While we were waiting for it to be delivered, I bundled up and walked around her yard; I hadn’t been there since she and I handled the fall leaves back in November. The day was cold, breezy, and sunny.
I enjoyed the textures and colors of the plants left from last summer: leaves of low growing plants in a protected bed with green veins, dry flowers, plants collapsed and curled by frost.
There were seed pods from redbud (a cluster still on the tree!), maple, cones, and magnolia (alas, all the red seeds were gone from all the magnolia pods).
I found myself looking for green – noticing moss and weeds on the brick/stone walkways,
Boxwood, other evergreens along the shady path on the east side of the house, and a fresh magnolia leaf wedged in a pile of leaves from last fall.
I was very pleased that the large piles of leaf mulch my daughter and I made around some of the trees stayed in place. She’ll have less to mow around the trees next summer!
Back in November, I stopped at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge on my way down to Carrollton, TX. It is just outside Sherman, TX…a little over an hour away from my destination. The refuge was active in the early afternoon…with some migrants still around (link to November post).
In December, I opted to do a quick drive through on my way home so it was in the morning about an hour after sunrise; it was not a great time for seeing large numbers of birds. It was too late to see birds that had roosted in the ponds…and it was too cold and windy to linger very long with the windows open (I was using my car as a mobile blind).
I enjoyed seeing a flock of male red-winged blackbirds in stubble near the road….rise up as a group then coming back down like a wave crashing on beach to feed again…repeat. Their red and yellow markings were flashing every time they started up out of the dried vegetation and when they landed again.
A heron stood in the shallows with its feathers ruffled by the wind. The day was still new enough for the water to be morning blue.
I also saw a Harrier Hawk – hunting…circling over the stubble and water’s edge. I didn’t get a picture, unfortunately, but I spent a few minutes watching the awesome grace of the bird dealing with the wind and looking for breakfast.
The clouds began to cover the sun periodically and I took some refuge landscape shots – complete with oil pump jacks (it is Texas).
The pintails, mallards, and shovelers were around….enjoying the bounty of the refuge.
Gulls were mostly staying put in the shallows.
My plan is to stop at the refuge as I continue to make monthly treks to Carrollton…see the changes at the refuge as the winter progresses….and then the spring migration and flowers.
There were two sunsets I captured before Christmas when I was in Carrollton TX. The first is from my parents’ house….framed by neighborhood trees. The second is from a hotel parking lot on another evening; on a hill, and a lot more clouds to reflect the light…a very different sunset with very intense color.
After Christmas, I was up early enough to photograph the sunrise from my parents’ house on two mornings. I got almost the same view. Clouds made a big difference.
My favorite sunrise picture was on the same day as the second picture above – but includes tree silhouettes. I like the colorful backlight.
Sunrise is my favorite time of day…full of hope for the new day…celebrating the joy of being a morning person.
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.
Macro Photos Highlight the Diverse Beauty of Butterfly Pupae – The pupae are Asian species….so no Monarch chrysalis (which is my favorite).
Good hydration linked to healthy aging – The findings don’t prove a causal effect…but hydration is linked to serum sodium…and chronic high serum sodium (i.e. when a person is dehydrated frequently) increases risk of developing chronic diseases like heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation and peripheral artery disease, etc.
The Infrastructure Sector Is Bleeding Workers – The workforce is aging…more are nearing retirement…and younger people are not coming into the jobs fast enough.
This new year – decarbonize your life – The beginning of a series about a family of 4…taking steps to dramatically reduce emissions and sequester carbon.
Gradient Arrangements of Food Highlights Biodiversity Not Often Seen in Supermarkets – Wow – what a range of colors and shapes in common fruits and veggies like: tomatoes, corn, potatoes, pears, peppers, squash, cucumber, kale, and beans.
Heat and cold as health hazards – Controlled experiments on how the body reacts to hot and cold…and the health consequences.
Water Worries: Threatened and Endangered Cultural Sites – Climate change has caused increasing severe rainstorms in the Southwest impacting the adobe walls in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Arizona and Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico. Storms, flooding and sea level rise are impacting other parks including Statue of Liberty National Monument, Colonial National Historical Park and the Jamestown Settlement, and Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The tidal basin in Washington DC is crumbling as flooding increases as the Potomac River rises.
Researchers identify bird species depicted in ancient, finely detailed Egyptian painting – Click on the images to get a larger view of the birds. Key to the second image: a–f rock pigeons (Columba livia); g red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio); h white wagtail (Motacilla alba); i pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis); j–l unidentified.
How microplastics are infiltrating the food you eat – Right now microplastics are viewed as a contaminant but research is revealing they may have harmful impacts….and should be studied and regulated as a pollutant. Will systems that use sludge as fertilizer need to change dramatically? It appears likely.
2022 Year in Review: Top Stories from Around the National Park System – Flooding at Yellowstone, Mauna Loa eruption, drought at Glen Canyon, maintenance challenges, invasive species …crowds…a lot of big stories.
A few days after Christmas – a cold morning in Carrollton TX.
I ventured out a little after sunrise – when the clouds were still tinged with orange.
The oxalis edging the pavers that had all been green when I arrived a few days before Christmas had transformed to a layer of frozen, deteriorating leaves protecting a green layer underneath.
Even the kale was different after the very cold temperatures – oddly looking more like a light-colored flower with green leaves below.
As few minutes in the cold…the sky had brightened…I took one last picture and went indoors.
When I visited Josey Ranch Lake on a cold winter afternoon, there was a father with 2 children feeding the birds. I took a bird group picture that included most of the species on the water; it’s not a great picture with the shade/sun challenge but is probably good enough for some id. Can you find American Wigeons, American Coot, Mallards, Northern Shoveler, and Lesser Scaups?
Here are some better views of American Wigeons. It was challenging to see the green sheen on the male’s head.
There seem to be more male Mallards than females.
The Northern Shovelers were very active. They even climbed up on the bank to scarf up breadcrumbs after the children left.
Lesser Scaups have beautiful markings and rich color even in winter. They are smaller than the mallards.
A Great Egret was stoic in the regrowing reeds and cattails on the other side of the lake.
Gulls (immature ring-billed?) dive bombed for bread while it was being tossed…then gathered toward the middle of the lake…sometimes making a lot of noise.
The swans had participated in the bread eating frenzy, then regained their composure when it was over and calmly left the scene together. A male and female scaup looked on.
Overall – not a bad visit to the lake, but it was cold; I didn’t dawdle…took my pictures and headed back to the warmth of the car.
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.
Best of 2022 - A Fun Map Puzzle – There are parts of the world where political boundaries have changed a lot since my elementary school geography class. The MapPuzzle game is a fun way refresh (or relearn) countries/states/provinces.
The year in chemistry: 2022’s biggest chemistry stories – I like these summary articles…and think about which one of the stories will be the most impactful in 2023.
Top 7 Building Decarbonization Wins In 2022 – Finally….now to maintain the momentum of these ‘wins’ and more into 2023!
Ten Remarkable New Plants Discovered in 2022 – And one of them is the largest waterlily on Earth…from Bolivia.
Shrinking Pollinator Populations Could Be Killing 427,000 People Per Year – The world is losing 3-5% of its fruit, vegetable, and nut production because of shrinking pollinator populations and lower pollinator diversity. That translates into less healthy food available…and associated health conditions like diabetes and heart disease. In Honduras, Nepal and Nigeria, the pollination deficits are responsible for a reduction of 3-19% in crop yields. This highlights the importance of making changes to support pollinator populations such as limiting pesticide use, maintaining existing natural habitats, and restoring others, and planting more flowers and diverse plants.
Overlooked Gems of The National Park System – In the cold of winter…time to plan some trips to parks for the year…including a few of the overlooked gems highlighted in this article.
Snow Day in Delmarva – Reminder of the area where we enjoyed a lot of day trips while we were living in Maryland….
Stunning Satellite Images of Our Changing Planet in 2022 – The before and after pictures have different elapsed times…be sure to read the captions.
22 Photos Honoring the Triumphs and Challenges That Face Wild Cats – A collection of pictures from Panthera, the world’s leading wildcat conservation organization.
Home Depot Does a Big Energy Deal, But It Does More Behind the Scenes – The Home Depot commitment is to produce or procure 100% renewable electricity equivalent to the needs of all its facilities by 2030 and they are taking actions to make it happen. Hope more big box stores will be taking similar actions.
In the early 1900s, Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard published a series of books written by immigrants about their early years in the country where they were born. The books were illustrated with photographs and a few drawings. The series is a reminder of how diverse the American population had become by the 1900s and provide a snapshot of growing up in the 1800s by people reflecting on their early years in a country they might never has seen again once they left. Enjoy the 18 books in the series available on Internet Archive!
When I was a boy in Armenia (1926) -- When I was a girl in Switzerland (1921)
When I was a girl in Wales (1936) -- When I was a girl in Iceland (1919)
When I was a girl in Bavaria (1932) -- When I was a girl in Sweden (1926)
When I was a girl in Mexico (1919) -- When I was a girl in Holland (1917)
When I was a girl in Hungary (1930) -- When I was a girl in Australia (1932)
When I was a girl in France (1925) -- When I was a boy in Persia (1920)
When I was a boy in Belgium (1915) -- When I was a boy in Russia (1916)
When I was a boy in Korea (1928) -- When I was a boy in Ireland (1936)
When I was a boy in Turkey (1924) -- When I was a boy in Denmark (1923)
2022 has been a year with more memorable events than most years.
My health. For most of the year, from the surgery at the beginning of the year until early fall, my health seemed to be sputtering; it was the longest period of my life to be uncertain that my health was good to excellent. Fortunately, it seems that I have recovered and am back to feeling as healthy as in recent years. Every other time I was concerned about my health was much shorter in duration: the month before and after pregnancy in 1989 and the month after a surgery in 2006.
Pets and family. 3 kittens…oh my! They are getting a little older now but still quite capable of causing havoc. The last time we had a kitten around was in 1985. The first baby in over 20 years has arrived in my extended family…and he adds a whole new dynamic to family gatherings. The milestone 70th anniversary of my parents adds to the list of memorable events in this category.
Home and Travel. Moving from Maryland to Missouri was a big undertaking and we’ll probably look back years from now, seeing it as a pivot point in our lives just as the move from Texas to the east coast In 1983 turned out to be. On a smaller scale, the week in London, Ontario was memorable for time spent in another country (the longest since my trip to Mexico City in 1966 when I was in elementary school) and the amount of time I was on my own in a new place.
Changes in the world. Queen Elizabeth II’s death is on my list this year because she was queen for my whole life…a constant in the world that I consciously knew would not last but that I will miss. The other change is one that reversed something that was constant for my entire adult life and increased my confidence that I would receive the care I needed when my husband and I decided to have a child (which we did successfully and without complications); when Roe v Wade was overturned, I became anxious that younger women will not have access to the same level of care that I did.
I am hoping that 2023 will be a little less memorable!
Ten little…and big…celebrations for December 2022. The big ones include:
A 70th wedding anniversary. That’s a lot of years for a relationship to thrive….and for both to still be healthy enough to enjoy life and the celebration!
Winter holiday. They happen every year, but it doesn’t reduce the joy of the virtually back-to-back family celebrations that flow into January: a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas, New Years and then another big anniversary. I’m celebrating now and savoring the anticipation of more still to come!
And then there are the little celebrations that are more like the other months of the year:
Finding puzzles. When I first started looking for puzzles, I didn’t find any that I likes and then I found 2 at a thrift store and another 4 at a pharmacy….and celebrated the finds!
Gardens Aglow at Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Celebrating a walk-through holiday light display in Springfield MO. If we hadn’t found it, I would be missing the Brookside Gardens lights in Maryland.
Getting the wreath on the door. The kittens prolonged the time it took to get our house decorated this year (some trial and error with how they would respond). The wreath was one of the last things we did…and I celebrated that the decorating was done!
Getting to stay home on a rainy day. Celebrating that I can usually rearrange plans to avoid getting out on a cold, rainy day!
Hot tea with orange peel. Celebrating a little hint of citrus….and probably the vitamin C as well.
Macro photography at Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Celebrating the beauty of native plants through all the seasons…..particularly close-up.
New glasses. This is my first time to get transition lenses. I am celebrating not needing to juggle my sunglasses on and off on road trips!
The plastic vase works. I was a little skeptical that the flat plastic vases would expand and hold a large bouquet....celebrated when the one I tried worked great! Now I feel more confident giving them as gifts!
I picked some favorite photos from the year for a slide show. They are all outdoors. Thematically there are birds and insects more often than lizards or turtles. Some are documentation type pictures and others are artsy. They were taken in four states: Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Texas. For some reason – the fluffed up Eastern Bluebird is my favorite. Enjoy the show!
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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