The photographic opportunities bulged with the addition of a trip to St. Louis along with the monthly trip to Texas…. local walk abouts in our yard and neighborhood…the Lake Springfield boathouse too. They all added up to a lot of zoomed images taken with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS). I enjoyed choosing which ones to include in this month’s post!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
An elegant enigma – A shipwreck discovered 30 feet below the surface 15 years ago…what we know (and don’t know) about it after study of the 1,500 objects recovered including textiles in 4 chests. The name of the ship is still unknown but the construction indicates it was a Dutch trader constructed around 1645 and sank around 1660.
At Peru temple site, archaeologists explore 3,000-year-old 'condor's passageway' – A 3,000 year old sealed corridor in a massive temple complex built by the ancient Chavin culture.
Does Nature Need a Trigger Warning? – A thought provoking post. Predators must be part of our conservation actions…and need to be valued as they are rather than simplistically.
Two-Hundred Years of Written Observations of Kīlauea's Summit Activity – On August 1, 1823, an English missionary visited the summit and published his observations (I found the book online -available on Internet Archive…Chapter 6 begins on page 121…image below). Mark Twain visited in 1866 and trekked across the caldera floor to Halema’uma’u, watching “a heaving sea of molten fire of seemingly limitless extent.” There are several links in the article that are worth following. My favorite is the USGS Views of a Century of Activity at Kilauea Caldera – A Visual Essay.
How Texas is racing to thwart the heat - Unfortunately, planning for heat is not as well-developed in the US as planning for other hazards like flooding so many cities are scrambling to take proactive measures to cool their streets down and protect people from the dangerous impacts of overheating. In urban heat islands, temperatures can be up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than less populated areas. Austin, TX has a climate resilience plan that includes strengthening emergency response and future-proofing new facilities and infrastructure. It also developed an urban forest canopy for the city to ensure cool outdoor spaces. The city has now applied for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant to plant more trees after finding the tree canopy coverage was helping Austin to adapt to hotter temperatures. In 2021, San Antonio became the first city in Texas to participate in a pilot project to lower pavement temperatures by applying a coat of paint that reflects the sun's rays. I was disappointed that other large cities in Texas (like Dallas and Houston) were not mentioned in the article. My impression of Dallas is that there is a lot of concrete.
Detecting spoiled foods with LEDs – A potential improvement in non-invasive monitoring of fruit and vegetable freshness.
Joshua trees are dying. This new legislation hopes to tackle that – A compromise law…sets up a conservation fund and requires the state to develop a conservation plan and companies to obtain a permit from the state to cut down or relocate existing trees.
The looming 840,000 ton waste problem that isn't single-use plastics – Carbon and glass fiber composites used in wind turbine blades, hydrogen tanks, airplanes, yachts, construction, and car manufacturing. "This is a huge opportunity," said Dr Wei. "And not only because various modes of recycling are cost-effective and minimally impactful on the environment. In an era of mounting supply chain disruptions, local recycled products can provide a more immediate product when compared to imports and create a burgeoning advanced manufacturing industry."
National Park Visitors Warned to Be "Prepared to Survive" Heat – My husband and I have avoided trips to the western national parks in summer since the 1980s…primarily to avoid crowds but now ‘excessive heat’ is part of our rationale too.
The ocean's color is changing as a consequence of climate change – The color shifts have occurred in 56% of the world’s ocean based on analysis of data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite, which has been monitoring ocean color for 21 years. Tropical oceans have become steadily greener. Changes in color reflect changes in plankton communities, that will impact everything that feeds on plankton. It will also change how much the ocean will take up carbon, because different types of plankton have different abilities to do that.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
The ground is deforming, and buildings aren’t ready – Underground climate change in urban areas where heat islands underground cause enough expansions and contractions to damage building foundations…particularly in older buildings.
How noise pollution impacts nature – A study out of Vail, Colorado, showed that increased trail use by hikers and mountain bikers disturbed elk so much the cows birthed fewer calves. Another out of Grand Teton National Park showed that backcountry skiers scared bighorn sheep during winter when food was scarce, with potentially lethal consequences.
Hospital understaffing and poor work conditions associated with physician and nurse burnout and intent to leave - The study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that physicians and nurses, even at hospitals known to be good places to work, experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want hospital management to make significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety. The solutions to high hospital clinician burnout and turnover, they say, are organizational improvements that provide safe workloads and better work-life balance NOT resilience training for clinicians to better cope with adverse working conditions.
The simple ways cities can adapt to heatwaves – Heat monitoring and planning is become more important for cities…the climate emergency in cities is a health emergency.
New biodegradable plastics are compostable in your backyard – New plastic made from blue-green cyanobacteria that isstronger and stiffer than previous plastics from the same raw ingredient. They can be recycled…but also degrade rapidly in the environment.
Giant Hand Axes Discovered in England Point to Prehistoric Humans’ ‘Strength and Skill’ – More than 300,000 years old perhaps from an interglacial period. Early Neanderthal people inhabited Britain then…and maybe other archaic human species too.
Germs, genes and soil: tales of pathogens past – DNA sequencers and powerful computational tools…applied to ancient microbes…probing their role in human history. This article describes how the work is done, ethical considerations…using examples of what has been accomplished so far. The field of archaeogenetics is just beginning.
Back from the Dead: New Hope for Resurrecting Extinct Plants – There is a global effort to digitize herbaria specimens which had helped identify holdings of extinct plants…sometimes finding seeds. And then the challenge is how to best attempt to grow old seeds.
Pain risk varies significantly across states – Pain due to arthritis varies geographically in the US – with the moderate to severe pain being 23% in West Virginia vs 7% in Minnesota. There is also a difference between people that did not complete high school…and those who obtained at least a bachelor’s degree – with the delta being greatest in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Alabama. There is a need to focus on the macro-level policies (i.e. generally at the state level) while continuing current individual interventions.
The Acropolis Adopts Crowd Control Measures for the First Time – The post-pandemic travel surge is overwhelming at some places – including the Acropolis!
Earlier this month, my husband and I headed over to the Lake Springfield boathouse for some photography of the meadow.
Before we walked to the meadow, we looked around the boathouse itself. The American lotus is blooming in the shallow water near the boathouse,
The plantings of native flowers in the beds around the structure, and
A non-native, invasive rose is growing at the edge of the forest.
The Purple Martin houses are still full and there appeared to be a young one in the grass…still being fed by the adults but also beginning to fly about as well.
Summer flowers are beginning to bloom profusely in the meadow.
There are lots of insects in the meadow too; they present a little more challenge to photograph. This month I photographed bees, butterflies, and dragonflies. The dragonflies and butterflies were intentional; I waited until they were posed. Milkweed in bloom is impossible to photograph without bees; I am including the picture that had two well positioned bees – selected from many images where they weren’t. I couldn’t resist the bumble bee butt image…a zoomed picture of a flower that a bee just happened to be flying over!
As usual, the meadow is an active place and there is always something to photograph. In August, I’ll be looking for grasshoppers!
After our visit to the Jewel Box, we spent the rest of the day at the St. Louis Zoo. We parked in the south parking lot and noticed the animal sculptures as we made our way to the bridge that leads to the zoo entrance.
The giant tortoises were out and the smallest one was moving about. I noticed one of the larger ones had a hole in its shell; was this tortoise shot at some point in its long life?
The Reptile House was one of our early stops beginning a big loop around the zoo (starting up hill first). The lizard peeking out of a tree in its habitat was one of my favorites.
At one of our first breaks, there were large catalpa trees with the long seed pods still green. It was good to see healthy catalpa trees again; my maternal grandparents had catalpas around their home and business in the 1960s --- seeing the trees triggered fond memories.
The Flight Cage is the oldest part of the zoo; it was built for the 1904 World’s Fair. There were quite a few birds in the large mesh-enclosed area.
One of my favorites was a wood duck. Was the eye injured or is that just the way a wood duck eye looks when it is closed/half open?
Leaving the flight cage – there are mosaics of natural areas.
Cranes were in habitats with other animals. I enjoyed getting different views of the one bird as it was feeding.
In the big apes area, my camera’s zoom managed to get a gorilla in the back of the habitat…looking serious and scratching his brow.
Flamingos and other water birds enjoy lakes with islands at the zoo…visible but able to get further away from noisy crowds. The pelicans are rescued birds (i.e. are birds that have a significant enough injury that they couldn’t survive in the wild).
I enjoyed the ways the zoo uses nature themes in their structures….and that they have solar panels too!
There is a carousel. It looked to be well-maintained but not busy when we were there (hence the pictures).
Of course – there is also ‘wildlife’ in the zoo that just finds the zoo a good place to be!
We enjoyed the people watching as much as the animals at the zoo. Some children obviously were locals familiar with the zoo and enthusiastically making their way to their favorite exhibits…couples with babies in strollers (with visions of the time their child would be old enough to make requests)…families clearly on vacation…older people – sometimes with grandchildren, sometimes as couples or small groups using the zoo as an interesting (and safe) place to walk.
It was a hot day and by about 3 PM we were ready for a cool down. We retreated to our hotel for a few hours before walking to a Lebanese restaurant for an early dinner. It was a day well spent.
The Jewel Box is a 1930s vintage greenhouse in St. Louis’ Forest Park. There was a major renovation in 2002 so the building is in excellent condition. The plants are primarily around the edges of the interior leaving space for weddings and other events. Our visit was on a Monday morning – the only other people we saw were people outside working on the water lily pond and the flowerbeds around it.
From the outside, the Jewel Box has the glass walls stairstep up to a flat roof. The framing of the glass panels has a blue patina. There are trees and grassy areas on the sides of the building…the water lily pond in the front.
Inside there were glass panels that divided the entrance area from the larger open area.
The fiddleheads of tree ferns always get my attention. The interior space was appealing – full of light…lush plants around the edges.
Getting to the Jewel Box required a short walk. There is no parking area close so we parked on Macklind Dr. and followed the sidewalk past a naturalized pond,
A nearby magnolia blooming profusely,
And plantings, including a columbine, in a shady mulched area.
Then we came to the lily pond in front of the Jewel Box. It was an opportunity to photograph them in the morning sun.
We took a different route back to the car after seeing the Jewel Box: past the Colonial Daughter Fountain
Then over to the Korean War Memorial that includes a sundial. We puzzled over the flag on the far left…realized later in the day that it was the St. Louis flag!
The short visit was well worth it – for the architecture, water lilies, learning about a part of Forest Park!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
See the Rancid, Blooming Corpse Flowers Attracting Hundreds in California – Seeing pictures is good enough for me!
Global diet study challenges advice to limit high-fat dairy foods – Some dietary advice is more impactful that others. New studies show that dairy, particularly whole fat, may protect against high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome.
Dust From the Drying Great Salt Lake Is Wreaking Havoc on Utah’s Snow – Dust makes the snow less white…which means it warms more quickly and melts!
Early Medieval Ivory Pocket Ring Analyzed – The ring was found in the grave of a wealthy Anglo-Saxon woman near Sheffield, England…and it was made from the tusk of an African elephant!
Parts of a Munich synagogue demolished by Nazis are found in a river 85 years later – The site of the synagogue is a parking lot and department store now. About 150 tons of stone columns and a tablet bearing the Ten Commandments were found about 7-8 miles from the site in a river. The synagogue had been built in the late 1800s and had more than 1,500 seats. It was destroyed in 1938.
Cosmetic chemical concerns – Not an exhaustive list/explanation, but worth browsing…there are others that seem to be concerning too (such as sulfates) that manufacturers are saying their products are eliminating.
Astro-tourism – chasing eclipses, meteor showers and elusive dark skies from Earth – We did a trek to Nebraska for the 2017 eclipse…have enjoyed Staunton River State Park Chaos Star Parties. My husband has been to Greenbank and Cherry Springs State Park for similar amateur astronomer events. It would be great if there were more such events but there are fewer people interested (and able to afford the equipment) than birders. Hopefully some of the dark sky sites will enlarge their offerings beyond outreach events for individuals that would like places to set up their own equipment. On the plus side – there are solar eclipses come up!
Native Bees Yield Hardier Flowers Than Honey Bees, Research Finds – When pollinated by native bees, plants produce more diverse offspring….and diversity is increasingly important as our climate changes.
Frogs as pollinators – A previously undocumented interaction…and an example that there are still aspects of the natural world to be discovered.
Older adults who remain more active have a better quality of life, study finds – Not really a new idea…but a study that tried to quantify the impact.
In Beaver World was published by Enos A. Mills in 1913 and it is available on Internet Archive. I enjoyed the pictures and drawings….his observations about beavers he observed extensively near his home in Colorado. I’ve included several sample images from the book below.
Enos Mills was, according to the Wikipedia article about him, the main figure behind the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915. He gave speeches, published books on nature and hired/trained nature guides. He encouraged people of all ages to get outside and into nature. His methods of nature interpretation are still taught to students in the field of interpretation. He died relatively young (52 years) in 1922….his legacy a national park and his books.
There are aspects of the Missouri Botanical Garden that are not plants….but are part of the garden experience.
There are benches at handy intervals; it always seemed easy to find one in the shade! Maybe I will make a project of photographing more of the benches during some future visit.
The ceiling in the Sachs Museum is worth the few steps inside…check out whatever is being exhibited there too.
There is a statue of Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden near his mausoleum. He set out to create a major and lasting institution more than 150 years ago. He died in 1889 and the garden has continued to thrive in all the directions he initiated…has expanded in ways he could not have imagined. My first experience with the garden was via their Botanicus site where the Missouri Botanical Garden has been digitizing botanical books and making them available since 1995; I found the site in 2009 and have been browsing their books (mostly via the Internet Archive interface). Visiting the garden is something I have wanted to do for a long time.
The Japanese Rock Garden areas around the water feature have smooth curves created with a rake…and there are Japanese lanterns too. A Great Blue Heron flew to a large rock in the center of the water feature and began to preen; the Canada goose in the background is doing the same.
In the Chinese Garden there are mosaics made with small stones as well as the traditional lions at the entrance.
I liked the bench around a tree. It reminded me of the one at Longwood Gardens when my daughter was young; we used it as a resting place where she could easily get up to run into the mists when the big fountains came on (it was a warm day); and then it was gone as part of the fountain renovation. I savored that memory sitting on this bench half the country away from Longwood (near Philadelphia).
There are small sculptures of wildlife too: wood ducks in the forest, butterflies in the butterfly garden….
Geese and racoons as part of fountains.
A purple martin house looked almost full.
One of the green areas had a ‘Mowbot’ to keep it trimmed.
At the end – I took pictures of the floor in the visitor center…familiar leaf shapes: horse chestnut, tulip poplar, sweet gum.
Looking back, it was a good ‘first visit’ – but I already want to go again!
So much to see at the Missouri Botanical Garden…
The Climatron is full of lush tropical plantings. Intimate landscapes of ferns and bromeliads…
Flowers (including orchids) and seeds tucked into the greenery….
Cycads….
Flowers and stems different than we see in temperature parts of the world.
Out in the summer sunshine…cone flowers and sunflowers thrive.
Daylilies are blooming profusely.
There was a very odd plant in Linnean House. I took several views of it…and should have taken a picture of the tag too!
I found myself interested in objects where the light was not overly bright or overhead.
And there were some places/plants that became immediately special: a large puffball under a bald cypress that was growing before the garden was started, button bush (one of my favorite native plants), and a woodland area with a gurgling stream (artificial but made to look natural, I enjoyed a short rest on a bench).
I appreciated the Stumpery garden….learning a bit about the history too.
And a few more plants I enjoyed photographing….before we went into the restaurant for lunch (and air conditioning) before we headed home.
My daughter and I made big plans to see the Chihuly pieces in the Missouri Botanical Garden in late June. We made reservations a week in advance to see the gardens (and glass) at night on our first evening in St. Louis…and then planned a daytime walkabout on our last morning. We got to the gardens a little after 6 PM to have dinner in the garden restaurant (Sassafras) and the enjoyed the gardens until about 9:30 PM…from dust to dark. For our morning visit we arrived shortly after the gardens opened. I took pictures frequently…managed to photograph all the Chihuly works listed in the brochure plus 3 more. It was well worth the effort to see the glass several times…in varying light. Enjoy the images….and plan a visit to the gardens if you can! (Note: To see larger images click on any of the images in this post)
Vivid Lime Icicle Tower
Chromatic Neon
River and Cobalt Fiori
Black and Green Striped Herons with Green Grass (one of my favorites)
Red Bulbous Reeds
Ikebana
Macchia Forest
Ethereal Spring Persians (one of my favorites)
Vermilion and Canary Yellow Tower
Turquois Marlins and Floats
White Tower
Float boat and Niijima Floats
Red Reeds
Fiddlehead Ferns (one of my favorites)
Neodymium Reeds on Logs
Individual works (in the Sacs Museum South Gallery)
Summer Sun
Fiori boat and Fiori de Primavera
Cattails and Copper Birch Reeds
Burnished Amber, Citron, and Teal Chandeliers
Sun Gate (although I’m not sure what the official title is)
Cobalt Chandelier
Sunset Herons (one of my favorites)
I am already contemplating going again. The special Chihuly Nights go until late August…the exhibit itself continues until October 15.
We walked around Laumeier Sculpture Park on our way to the hotel in St. Louis, MO. The park is convenient from I-44 which is the interstate we take from Springfield to St. Louis. The goal of the place (engaging the community through art and nature) is appealing and it was a good time of year to be outdoors. The first sculpture we saw was the cat near the parking lot….full of color and texture…welcoming form. The cat was a good start to our visit!
It was a warm (maybe hot) afternoon, so we carried a bottle of water and did a circuit that went uphill first, then down and shady on the way back as recommended when we picked up our map. We didn’t see every sculpture…but enough to enjoy the place.
I like sculptures in gardens. A few of the sculptures (the ones in the children’s area) are intended to be climbed on. My favorite was probably the large, connected balls (titled “Ball? Ball! Wall? Wall!) that made their way through a forested area. My imagination made it into a strand of beads for a giant.
Toward the end, there were urns of succulents that caught my attention. They were much more attuned to the hot weather than we were; I was glad to have the blast of the air conditioner going as we headed to the hotel less than 30 minutes away.
More about our touring in St. Louis, MO in upcoming days.
I missed an annual event near my home in Missouri while I was Carrollton TX in June – a balloon glow (where tethered hot air balloons are inflated at dusk at a local park as part of a summer festival). My husband and daughter decided to attend at the last minute after afternoon thunderstorms ended…and sent pictures! It was great to be able to enjoy the event vicariously (and maybe also good not to be slogging through a muddy field). But – I am determined pay attention to the scheduling of the event and be there rather than in Texas in 2024!
My daughter had a conference in Albuquerque, NM in June…took advantage of a tour to the Very Large Array (astronomical radio observatory) offered. She sent two pictures.
And started a whole sequence of thoughts about traveling to New Mexico again. The last few times (pre-COVID) were for Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in the fall/early winter; they included a lot of birding field trips around Socorro, NM plus tours of the VLA. Prior to that we made vacations that featured Sandia Peak, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, El Malpais National Conservation Area, and Bandelier National Monument. As early as the 1970s, we took road trips from Texas to New Mexico….to Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, Albuquerque.
Now we live close enough to enjoy a road trip to the state. I’m contemplating a loop that would start with an almost straight drive from Missouri across Oklahoma to Albuquerque…and come back through Dallas. Between the long drives…a lot of shorter drives to see areas we’ve been to before and maybe some that we haven’t too! We’ll wait for the temperatures to cool down…and maybe for the birding festival event…to make the trip.
June is the ‘getting hot’ month in Carrollton, Texas…leading into more frequent 100-degree-plus days in the following months. It is already obvious which yards in the neighborhood are getting watered. My parents have a sprinkler system that my sister keeps tuned to maximize the watering where it is needed most. In the backyard the Queen Anne’s Lace, cosmos, hibiscus, and day lilies are lush – flowers and lots of green. In the front yard there are dusty miller plants in bloom, the last of the daisies, and the red yuccas with blooms and lots of green seed pods. The red oak planted there is finally getting a lot of light and growing well since the ancient mulberry has been cut down.
There is still grass to mow and weed eating/edging – a continuing chore – even though the years of gardening have reduced the area maintained in that way. Pulling ‘trash trees’ that emerge in the flowerbeds requires more finesse by the person doing the work (distinguishing what needs to be pulled from the plants that should be in the flower beds) and is always on the ‘to do’ list for the yard!
***
Wishing everyone an enjoyable 4th of July…Independence Day in the US…a day for fireworks, parades, and watermelon!
My original plan was to walk around the Pocket Prairie and take macro pictures with my phone. It was a good thing my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) since the morning was very breezy…too much for getting close shots with the phone. The optical zoom on the bridge camera was the only option.
The trash cans near the picnic table are Carrollton themed! Are they new this season? I don’t remember them from before.
The prairie area is full of May flowers setting seed and then the full summer flowers in bloom. I particularly enjoy the sunflowers (buds and flowers).
Across the pond from the Pocket Prairie – a Great Egret was looking for breakfast.
Maybe the morning I go in July will be less breezy and the macro plan will work….and there might be more insects too!
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 technology helped archaeologists dig deeper – Tools that tell us a lot more than excavation can: chemical and genetic analysis, lidar. This article uses new archaeological data from several cities (New York, Cahokia, Rome, Pompei, Angkor Wat)…pointing out that new analyses reveal that they were often full of immigrants that built the city and there were places those people lived nearby that often were not noticed by excavators! Archaeology is now able to tell us more about how ordinary people lived – not just the elite.
The white roofs cooling women's homes in Indian slums – Maybe white roofs will become a trend in lots of places…reduce the heat island effect that cities must struggle to overcome as the planet gets warmer.
Vienna is the most livable city in the world – It has stability, robust health care and education systems and strong infrastructure, among other factors. There are no cities in the US in the top 10; Honolulu, Hawaii is 25th on the list and the top city located in the US. There are 3 in the top 10 located in Canada: Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto.
That's no pizza: A wall painting found in Pompeii doesn't depict Italy's iconic dish – Tomatoes and mozzarella were not available 2,000 years ago when the fresco was created! Tomatoes came from the Americas a few centuries ago and mozzarella was invented in Naples in the 1700s.
This Ancient Maya City Was Hidden in the Jungle for More Than 1,000 Years – Found during a survey with light detection and ranging (lidar) scans in the Balamku ecological reserve on the Yucatan Peninsula. The site is on high ground surrounded by extensive wetlands. The ruins have been named Ocotun (‘stone column’ in Yucatec Mayan) in honor of the many columns found at the site.
Is fast fashion making us sick? – Fashion can be rife with toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde and chromium…and the US has done little to protect consumers from these toxins in clothes. Researchers are correlating declining fertility rate and the rise in autoimmune diagnoses in the US with chemicals found in our clothes.
Winners of the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards Celebrate the Beauty of Birds – Eye candy images of the natural world.
Surgeons must tackle three global health challenges to save lives – Assuming that a new device or approach is always better - not a good assumption but a common one that surgeon make!
The perilous life of the solitary pangolin – Learn about this African animal…their situation in the wild…and how things have changed over the past decade.
Winners of the 2023 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition embrace our world’s biodiversity – Images telling stories.
Sethos I is the name sometimes used for the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I. He ruled from 1290-1279 BC and was the father of Ramesses II. There are 4 volumes about work done in 1925-1926 at Abydos when the painted reliefs were copied by Amice M. Calverley with the assistance of Myrtle F. Broome and edited Alan H. Gardiner. The publication was financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. with as many colored plates as possible. They were originally published beginning in the 1930s and made available on Internet Archive in 2022 by The Electronic Publications Initiative of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Perusing these depictions of the reliefs on a big screen monitor is a treat…certainly better than a crowded museum!
Sethos 1. The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Volume I: The Chapels of Osiris, Isis and Horus, 1933
Sethos 3. The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Volume III: The Osiris Complex, 1938
Sethos 4. The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Volume IV: The Second Hypostyle Hall, 1958
So many photographic opportunities in June…close to home and in Texas. There were more biting insects around so staying on paths was all-the-more important; almost every image I took used the zoom on my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS). Enjoy the slide show!
The pictures include:
A sunny day visit to the Springfield (Missouri) Botanical Gardens,
An afternoon and then (a week later) morning visit to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (near Sherman, TX), and
A morning at Josey Ranch Pocket Prairie (in Carrollton, TX).
Every day brings multiple little celebrations…I choose one to log for the day and then select 10 each month to savor in this post.
One year anniversary for our Missoure home. June 2022 is when we moved to Missouri. We’ve settled into the house and I’ve confirmed that my favorite room in the house is my office…just as it was in the Maryland house. The house itself and being closer to family have confirmed again and again that we made a good decision to move when did! So we are celebrating the anniversary.
Dishwasher and sprinkler system working. Of course, every house needs maintenance…in June both our dishwasher and sprinkler system had problems (dishwasher leaked water and the sprinkler system developed a broken head/pipe after the grinding of the pine stump). Fortunately, both were easily fixed (rather than an expensive replacement) and we celebrated that they are functioning again.
Internet/TV/phones working. Shortly after I got to my parents’ home in Carrollton, their internet and TV and phones failed. We had a painful 4 days….celebrated when the tech finally came and replaced their outside box (it was at least 18 years old!).
Scissor-tail at Josey Ranch. Celebrated when I saw a scissor-tailed flycatcher while I was out of my car with camera in hand!
Ducklings at Josey Ranch. Celebrated seeing newly hatched ducklings with a mom trying to protect them from turtles!
Seeing beautyberry flowering. I had previously only noticed beautyberry plants after they had their purple berries. This June I celebrated knowing where the plants grew so I could see the flowers.
Trimming all the dead parts out of crape myrtle and rose buses. It was a daunting task because it seemed like there was so much to trim. It got a little better when I discovered that my gauntlet gloves worked (not thorn pricks from the roses) and that the dead twigs/branches would burn easily. I celebrated when the task was completed…felt like I had accomplished a lot in getting my yard looking better for the summer.
Buying a fragrant sumac (native plant sale). I celebrated my first native plant addition to my landscaping…there will be more through the years.
Homemade marinade with balsamic vinegar. Celebrating trying a new recipe and realizing that I will never need to buy bottle mariade again!
Road trip to St. Louis. Celebrating another road trip with my daughter! Blog posts coming up re our adventure.
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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