Missouri Botanical Garden – Chihuly

/

I enjoyed the Chihuly glass exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden the second time as much as I did the first time…. photographing the pieces during the day and then in the evening. There were some differences between the two visits.

My husband was enjoying photographing them too, so the pacing of our visit was slower around the glass than it had been with my daughter (who did not bring a camera other than her phone).

It rained for about 30 minutes during the Chihuly Night event! We spent most of it in the visitor center then made a quick round of the pieces we wanted to see when it stopped – with lightning in the distance. It was not a leisurely stroll…rather an exhaustive power walk between the glass installations.

The lightning for the Chihuly night was not as robust. It seemed that the lights were configured at the beginning of the installation and then not maintained for the duration of the exhibition (i.e. some were poorly illuminated during the second visit).

I attempted to capture the structure within the glass more than I did the first time.

The Fiori boat has a lot of interesting shapes that I hadn’t noticed during the first visit!

Last time, I photographed the yellow glass on the rose garden arches…but didn’t realize that they were owned by the garden and not in the exhibit brochure. I remembered to look for the name of the piece in this second visit: Trellisses.

I’m glad we made the effort to go again…in September when the Chihuly Nights were still being offered. The exhibition will end in mid-October. Next time I visit the garden, I want to tour the Tower Grove House!

Missouri Botanical Garden – September 2023

/

I visited the Missouri Botanical Garden for the second time – this time with my husband rather than my daughter. Both of us enjoy garden photography! We timed our visit to see the Chihuly glass exhibition before it ended…more on that in tomorrow’s post. Today I am focused on the garden itself. The month since my previous visit had brought some seasonal changes: Fall leaves were thick near the entrance and scattered elsewhere in the garden.

Fall crocus were blooming.

I like to experiment with light – the center of a flower very bright…the background black.

Sometimes there are plants that catch my attention and I take a single picture to capture what I saw.

Waterlilies are always worth close looks.

The Climatron houses plants that would not survive in Missouri weather. It even includes a walkway behind a waterfall!

There were bees and butterflies that were busy – but still enough for portraits.

The Japanese Garden is one of my favorites: the foliage changing color, very large koi, lanterns…zigzag walkway over the water.

It was a good day in the garden – not as hot as a month earlier!

Clouds at Sunrise

/

My husband and I started a road trip to St. Louis just before dawn on a damp morning. I thought at first that the sunrise was going to be completely obliterated by clouds. My husband said it was a good thing since we were heading east and would have had the sun glaring in our faces.

After the sun was up for about 10 minutes – the color became spectacular and I started taking pictures, enjoying that on this road trip I was a passenger rather than the driver!

The clouds were prolonging the sunrise color --- partially blocking the sun…wrapping the disk in gray.

Later the color skewed toward the yellow….and the clouds made it just as interesting.

By the time the clouds cleared – the sun was up high enough for our visors to be effective. It was a great start to our road trip!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 30, 2023

/

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.

Water-quality risks linked more to social factors than money - Low population density, high housing vacancy, disability, and race -- can have a stronger influence than median household income on whether a community's municipal water supply is more likely to have health-based water-quality violations. Many of the water-quality challenges are downstream of demographics, with many community water systems lacking the financial, managerial, and technical abilities to address the water-quality issues.

Step Inside Artist Dale Chihuly’s Stunning Seattle Studio, Filled with an Epic Antiques Collection and His Otherworldly Glass Forms – Interesting pictures.

Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism - We need to start with presence rather than absence. How did Indigenous communities survive, persist, and come to live at the places where they are today? How do Indigenous people conceptualize and engage with the places of their Ancestors? What stories do they share with their grandchildren?

The US is spending billions to reduce forest fire risks – we mapped the hot spots where treatment offers the biggest payoff for people and climate – Where forest-thinning and controlled burns could have the most impact in the western US….for reducing wild-fire caused carbon loss, protecting human communities, and both.

The gold jewelry made from old phones - "We're trying to encourage the idea that one person's waste is someone else's raw material." An article about what is happening at the UK Royal Mint re circuit boards from electronic waste.

Iron Age Child’s Shoe Found in Austria – Found in a salt mine in north-west Austria…a 2,000 year old shoe that once belonged to a child that lived or worked underground.

New Satellite Tracking Air Pollution Releases Its First Images – The TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) instrument makes hourly measurements of pollutants over North America. NASA will share observations with agencies that provide weather forecasts in hopes of reducing exposure to pollutants such as ozone.

Fine Particulates Are Slowly Killing Us All - People who live in Delhi, the most polluted big city on the planet, are living 11.9 fewer years because of air pollution. People in Bangladesh, the world’s most polluted country, stand to lose 6.8 years of life compared to 3.6 months in the United States. Acknowledging the benefits to society from burning fossil fuels in the past is no reason to continue embracing them in the future. We have created a system that kills people. We have access to clean energy technologies that do not make negative health outcomes one of their embedded features.

New cause of Alzheimer's, vascular dementia - A form of cell death known as ferroptosis -- caused by a buildup of iron in cells -- destroys microglia cells, a type of cell involved in the brain's immune response, in cases of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia.

 Windows to the Past at Great Smoky Mountains National Park – History told through structures left behind (and maintained). Forever Places. A former resident said, ““…it was more like livin’ in the Garden of Eden than anything else I can think of.”

Teotihuacan in 1906

/

Leopoldo Batres, a pioneer of the archaeology of Mexico, published a picture book of the Teotihuacan site as it was in 1906…during early excavations. His reconstruction of the Pyramid of the Sun was evidently flawed but the book is still worth browsing to understand why the place was never ‘lost’ once it was created; the structures are large and dominate the scene even before excavation.

Teotihuacan : memoria que presenta Leopoldo Batres ... año de 1906

Looking at the book reminded me of a trip to Mexico City with my parents in 1966; one of the places we visited was Teotihuacan and I remember it vividly; it was interesting to think about all the changes that had happened at the site in the 60 years between when this book was published and when I visited. This book prompted me to search/read more about recent work at the site; a lot has been discovered there between 1966 and now!

Zooming – September 2023

/

The beauty of the early morning in Texas - Hagerman and Josey Ranch and my parents’ yard….the wildness of Shaw Nature Reserve (near St. Louis MO) in the early afternoon…the joys of nature in my neighborhood (Nixa MO). These are the locations where my selections of zoomed images for September were made. The month was very much between summer and fall – starting hot and getting a bit cooler as the month progressed, still very green but the occasional beginning of fall color. Enjoy the September slideshow!

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2023

/

Welcoming cooler temperatures…the beginning of fall. Lots to celebrate!

Shaw Nature Reserve. A first visit…a short hike. Celebrating the place and an early fall day with my daughter.

Pawpaw. Celebrating a new fruit…and its native to North America. I planted the seeds; maybe they’ll come up next spring/summer and I’ll have pawpaws from my yard in 5-7 years.

Wood Duck in an Egret picture. I was taking a picture of an egret catching a fish but celebrated the wood duck in the background when I looked at the image on a big monitor!

Pineapple Whip. Celebrating a birthday with a unique-to-Springfield MO treat!

New addition for my travel computer. Celebrating a new mouse, mini-keyboard, and portable monitor to travel with my laptop. It will make packing easier and using my laptop more comfortable for my week in Texas every month.

Yellow/orange Watermelon. Cutting the watermelon, we got from our CSA revealed something different than the usual red! I celebrated a great watermelon and the memory of the yellow watermelon that my paternal grandparents grew (along with red ones) during my childhood.

Green Heron at the Neighborhood Pond. Surprise! The bird was hiding in plain sight, but I didn’t see it until it flew…and celebrated that I was able to photograph it in the place where it landed. Green herons are one of my favorite birds to watch because they can change their shape (extending or contracting their neck) so quickly.

Beautyberry. Buying a beautyberry for my yard had been on my list for a bit….I celebrated that I found one at the Shaw Nature Reserve’s Wildflower Festival.

Vaccinations. My husband and I celebrated that we could easily schedule getting both the updated flu and COVID-19 vaccinations…increasing our confidence of staying well as we travel more this fall.

5 Native Plants. I celebrated when I got the 5 new native plants in the ground…and they seem to be doing well in my yard.

New Tech for Travel

/

My monthly trips to Texas add up and I finally realized that I should improve my jerry-rigged laptop accessories that always seem not quite right….and fragile too because they are cumbersome to pack. My husband helped me make some improvements.

He suggested that I buy a second Bluetooth mouse that I could keep in my travel bag rather than always needing to grab the mouse from my desk at home. I bought the same Microsoft Mobile Mouse (different color) that I use at home; it is flatter than most mice making it easier to pack.

I had been traveling with my desktop keyboard (I don’t like to use the laptop keyboard but that makes the screen too low to be comfortable for long) but the keyboard is too long to fit in a laptop bag. So – my husband purchased a keyboard that didn’t have a number keypad (Logitech MX Keys Mini) which easily fit in a traditional laptop bag. It is very easy to make the adjustment between the keyboards since the keys I use are the same size as on the longer keyboard!

The most different upgrade was a travel sized external monitor – a 13.4-inch Intehill 4K Portable Monitor. My laptop is a Dell XPS 13; at home I have two large monitors and don’t used the PC screen; but when I travel, I run apps in full screen mode on that 13-inch screen…so having a second screen means that I can work more typically…with more than one app in view! It won’t be exactly the same…but a considerably improvement. I tested out the connection and power…the monitor works with one cable between itself and the laptop. Easy! The cover for the monitor makes a stand but it didn’t seem stable enough so I will probably add a bookstand that folds flat to my bag.

Everything fits neatly into a bag I’ve had since laptops were considerably thicker. The laptop, external monitor, and keyboard fit in the padded interior; the cables, charger, and mouse fit an outer pocket; the folded book stand fit in an outer zippered area that was originally for paper!

 I am looking forward to trying my new tech during my next week in Texas!

Fall Activities

/

September is the beginning of fall activities. I am doing some fall cleaning inside the house and doing the last plantings in the yard (hoping the plants will be well established before the first frost). The Indian Corn is on the front door.

There are more events scheduled in our area now that the temperatures are a bit cooler. We trekked to Shaw Nature Reserve near St. Louis for their plant sale, bought puzzles at the Friends of the Greene County Library book sale, and walked through Cider Days in Springfield (enjoyed a Pineapple Whip as we walked…being part of a Saturday morning crowd) then enjoyed a BBQ lunch as a new place. My daughter went to an evening Brew at the Zoo; my husband and I enjoyed it vicariously – learning that the lions and other big cats were very active as it got dark…the lions ‘caroling.’ Toward the end of the month, my husband and I made a quick trip to St. Louis – another visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden (and their Chihuly glass) and the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House….blog posts coming soon re that adventure.

And we are anticipating more travel in the next few months (other than the monthly week in Texas) – a fall foliage trip to a state park in Oklahoma…a birding festival in New Mexico. Overall, fall is a great time of year to be out and about – between the heat of summer and the cold of winter; it is often the ‘just right’ season of the year!

More Used Puzzles

/

The county just north of where I live is more populous and their Friends of the Library sale was a lot larger – held in a building of the county fairgrounds. They filled the large building with tables loaded mostly with books but there were some CDs and a few puzzles/board games. I bought the best of the 500-piece puzzles to take to my parents – 17 boxes that contained 28 puzzles…for the bargain total of $52! I was grateful that my husband went with me to help get them into bags…through checkout…and into the car. I’ll be taking them to Carrollton in a few days….adding them to the stack I created last month (probably a little reduced with my parents finishing some of them). They enjoy having lots of puzzles to choose from!

In the 1990s, I went to used books sales…and staggered out with so many books I could hardly lift my bags. But now I am not tempted. I read eBooks…and for things like planning travel, I do searches to get the most current information rather than buy dated books. It felt a little strange to go to a large used book sale and buy nothing at all. My husband was not tempted either.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 16, 2023

/

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.

Kitchen chemistry hacks explained – How many of these did you know before this article? I knew about lemon juice slowing browning of fruit…I’m going to try the ‘brown onions more quickly’ and ‘chop onions more comfortably.’

Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Distributed Wind Power – Interesting update….and map of annual average wind speed at 30 m. There is so much potential in the center of the country. It would be interesting to see the map extended offshore…but maybe that kind of wind power is only used for wholesale generation rather than distributed wind power.

Dust: how the pursuit of power and profit has turned the world to powder – A review of the book about ‘tiny particles doing terrible things’ created by detonation of nuclear weapons, burning coal, and drying of lakes via irrigation. These tiny particles influence our environment, our health, and our relationship with the world around us. They move around the planet through the air…no one is ‘safe’ from them.

More small airports are being cut off from the air travel network. This is why - A shortage of pilots is partially to blame for major airlines' departure from smaller airports. But changing airline economics means the challenge facing regional airports could become insurmountable. Williamsport PA is the example used in the article.

Health evidence against gas and oil is piling up, as governments turn a blind eye – An Australian perspective…but seems to be applicable to many developed countries, including the US. The methane leaks, water contamination, air pollution…why do we continue to push for gas and oil development rather that pivoting to cleaner (and renewable) sources?

Wyoming and Utah Borderlands – A picture from the International Space Station. I remembered a trip to Utah in 2008 where we drove in the area with a Roadside Geology of Utah book explaining the surface geologic features!

New research explains 'Atlantification' of the Arctic Ocean – Changes coming in the Arctic as a 15-year cycle is ending….and the next phase could result in a faster pace of sea-ice loss.

Stone Case Holding Precious Items Found at Templo Mayor – 15 stone figures found at the temple complex of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. The figures may have already been 1,000 years old when the Aztecs conquered the Mezcala people that carved them. Also in the case: two rattlesnake-shaped earrings, more than 180 green stone beads, snails, shells, and marine corals.

Workers like it when their employers talk about diversity and inclusion - Research has shown that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives improve creativity, innovation, productivity and organizational performance. One of the reasons DEI initiatives have a positive impact is because workers appreciate them. It’s about making sure everyone feels valued and included.

What Does It Take to Photograph a Bat Cave? – Photographer Stephen Alvarez….lots of specialized photographs.

Blanche McManus travel illustrations

/

Blanche McManus illustrated travel books written by her husband in the early 1900s. The books often featured automobiles…the new form of ‘road trip’ at the time. She evidently painted and sketched as they traveled. Enjoy the 6 books available on Internet Archive for the art, the places, and the history!

Castles and chateaux of old Navarre and Basque Provinces, including also Foix, Roussillon and Béarn   (1907)

The Spell of Algeria and Tunisia  (1924)

Community Supported Agriculture (2)

/

Acclimating myself to being a CSA member (Milsap Farms) again is still a work in progress!

The third week, I was out of town; my husband took the whole distribution to my daughter: watermelon, kale, green beans, cucumber, bell peppers, zucchini, and mixed greens.

My son-in-law cut up the watermelon in wedges and we got half of it when I got back. My daughter also decided that she didn’t have an immediate use for zucchini, so I enjoyed that unexpected bounty too. What a difference it makes to have my daughter close enough to handle the share when I am gone! This probably cinches our continued participation next year; the only question still outstanding is whether we go with a full share or the smaller one that we are getting for the remainder of this season.

The fourth week we split down the middle except for the sweet potato leaves which I have for myself. Each of us got 2 carrots, a garlic head, 2 bell peppers, half the scallions, and half the bag of basil.

I am anticipating some excellent salads and then freezing any basil or sweet potato leaves I can’t use soon enough. Once frozen they can be used in smoothies or soups/stir fry. I didn’t have an extra freezer in my Maryland house; now that I do in Missouri, I have lots of options!

Shaw Nature Reserve (2)

/

Continuing the images from our hike at Shaw Nature Reserve…

At the Brush Creek Trail’s crossing of its namesake creek – the creek was dry. I took pictures from both directions from the bridge. In one direction the banks have vegetation all the way down to the edge of where the water would flow. In the other direction there is undercutting of the bank and some areas where vegetation has lost its hold. I wonder how long the tree growing above the undercut will survive.

Native hibiscuses were still blooming. I realized that I like to photograph the buds and unfurling flowers rather than the open flowers!

There were orange and yellow flowered jewel-weed a little different from the ones I saw in Maryland that were usually solid orange.

There were some signs of fall already – sumac with some red leaves, red poison ivy?, and a tree in the forest that stood out with its red foliage.

Enjoy the best of the rest!

When we returned to the car, I realized that it had acquired a coating of fine white dust on our drive around the (white gravel) loop…and it contrasted with the redder dust from Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge! I put my camera away and we headed over to the Fall Wildflower Market.

Shaw Nature Reserve (1)

/

My daughter and I made our first visit to the Shaw Nature Reserve last week. I had ordered some native plants to be picked up during the Fall Wildflower Market. We arrived shortly after noon, before the market started, which gave us ample time for a short hike in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden and along the Bush Creek Trail. After checking in at the visitor center (using my Friends of the Springfield (MO) Botanical Gardens for entrance) and getting a token to open the gate to the reserve’s Pinetum Loop Road, we drove all the way around the loop. We stopped to walk out to the Crecent Knoll Overlook. Thistles were one plant that was blooming.

The vegetation was thick with a variety of plants. We stayed on the trails to avoid picking up ticks and sticky seeds! I used my optical zoom to photograph some spheres on the back of a leaf. Galls?

After completing the loop, we parked near the northern trailhead for the Brush Creek Trail. A tree had been cut into sections near the trail (probably after it had fallen on the trail. The saw marks make it difficult to count the rings.

Some of the areas are limestone glades where the plants don’t grow as densely. I noted a very weathered piece of limestone.

The only insect I photographed intentionally was a grasshopper that was not much over an inch long. I was pleased that I managed to focus on it! Will it mature enough to lay eggs before winter?

There was a sculpture among some of the fall wildflowers!

There was an area that had a lot of new-growth ferns. I enjoy photographing fiddleheads. It always seems miraculous that they start out so tightly packed…and unfurl into large fronds!

The persimmons were not ripe yet…but I was thrilled to recognize the bark and fruit (with the sign to confirm the id).

There were several kinds of fungus we saw on the hike as well. Lichen (yes there is algae there too, but I am lumping it with the fungus,

Shelf fungus,

And 2 kinds of mushrooms. The first reminded me of vanilla wafers.

There were 2 groups of the second kind. They were very close to the trail and it looked like someone had kicked the parts of the clump closest to the trail (why do people do that?). These reminded me of small crepes!

Stay tuned for more from our hike at Shaw Nature Reserve in tomorrow’s post.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – August 2023 (2)

/

Continuing the early morning at Hagerman….

Sometimes the birds move about in a kind of ballet on the roost pond before they fly away to spend their day elsewhere. In this instance – the dance includes two great blue herons in the middle and three great egrets a little to the right. Other birds on the pond are either oblivious or looking on.

I took pictures of a heron catching a fish and realized, when I looked at the pictures on my large monitor at home, that there were wood ducks in the background!

There aren’t as many plants in bloom right now…I fixated on one type I saw as I headed back to the visitor center area.

A pair of Dickcissels flew into the top of some vegetation near the road. I enjoyed taking portraits of them.

I took some portraits of a great blue heron and great egret backlit in the morning sun that hav a very different look than the roost pond. The water has a metallic look…the birds almost silhouettes. They were the finale to this Hagerman visit.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – August 2023

/

I left my parents’ house about 6 AM to get to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge just after sunrise. It was a wonderful time to be at the refuge…with the sunrise colors in the sky and reflected in the water.

The first group of birds I saw were some cattle egrets in a shallow water field. Maybe it had been their roost site. The birds were moving around, and some were flying away.

A little further along on the opposite side of the wildlife drive, I came to a larger pond where many birds must have roosted. The majority were great egrets (white with yellow beaks) but there were a few great blue herons (darker plumage) and a few snowy egrets (white with dark beaks, smaller than great egrets).

The birds were noisy (songs to each other and the morning) and some were making short flights…a few leaving completely.

Others were finding fish for breakfast!

Most of the great blue herons I saw were juveniles.

More from Hagerman in tomorrow’s post….

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 9, 2023

/

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.

Extreme Weather is the “New Norm” - There is high confidence that human induced climate change from greenhouse emissions, is the main driver.

A Visit to North America's Only Authenticated Viking Site - L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (in Newfoundland), the only authenticated Viking site in North America. Credit for this discovery in the 1960s goes to Norwegian explorer/writer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine.

Earth’s hottest month: these charts show what happened in July and what comes next – The intense heat this summer has killed Saguaro cactus!

Ötzi the Iceman’s Genome Sequenced – 90% of his ancestry came from Anatolian farmers. Genome analysis revealed he had high skin pigmentation, dark eyes, and male pattern baldness!

Common wristbands 'hotbed' for harmful bacteria including E. coli, staphylococcus – I am glad the band on my Garmin is metal since it likely harbors a lot less bacteria than a plastic, rubber, cloth, or leather band. However, I still need to get in the habit of cleaning it more often.

Fully Intact Giant Panda Skeleton Discovered in Chinese Emperor’s 2,000-Year-Old Tomb – There was also an Asian taper in the tomb.  The article suggests that perhaps the animals were included in the tomb as a part of a replica royal garden.

Medications for chronic diseases affect the body's ability to regulate body temperature, keep cool - Medications used to treat common chronic conditions, like blood thinners, blood pressure drugs, Parkinson's disease/Alzheimer's medications, and some chemotherapy drugs, can make it harder for the human body to handle hot weather by reducing its ability to sweat or increase blood flow to the skin. Hopefully doctors will become more aware of this issue – particularly for their elderly patients that are already at increased risk because of their age for heat related issues.

Trapped: Australia’s extraordinary alpine insects are being marooned on mountaintops as the world warms – The grasshopper with the turquoise exoskeleton snagged my attention. This movement up mountains and then becoming marooned must be happening around the world.

Chromium replaces rare and expensive noble metals – Osmium and ruthenium replaced with, much more abundant, chromium? More research is needed, but it might be possible.

Photos of the Week – August 13, 2023 from the Prairie Ecologist – Another example of enjoying some photography even when it is hot and humid!

Northern Pacific Railroad eBooks from 1880s

/

The eBooks of the week are from a railroad company in the 1880s…illustrating some of its routes. They provide a view of some special places of the time – when the west was still somewhat ‘wild’ but developing rapidly with the extension of railroads and more people coming. Enjoying browsing these books on Internet Archive!

The Wonderland route to the Pacific coast (1885)

 I think about where my ancestors were at the time these books were published. One side of the family was still in Bohemia (Europe) – not emigrating to the US until a decade later. The other side was already in the US and mostly in Missouri.

Carrollton Yard – August 2023

/

Weeks of 100+ degree temperatures in Carrollton, TX were hard on the yard/garden. Frequent watering helped. Still - the hydrangea that is usually very lush green and blooming is drying out – hopefully it will come back from the roots next year.

There is still a lot of green in the garden areas of the yard. Crape Myrtles seem to thrive in the high heat if they get enough water.

The naked lady lilies are almost done for the season. My favorite picture of the morning was one of the last flowers – full of water droplets from the sprinklers.

There is a lot of seed production too. The red yuccas look as they always do but other plants seem to have more than the usual seeds…maybe a good strategy to survive to grow another year.

There was a large spider in the flower bed near the front door – a female Argiope aurantia (yellow garden spider). The first time I saw it, all was quiet on the web.

The next day, the spider was feeding on something! There were a few droplets of water from the sprinklers too. The web seemed to be very sturdy – and built in a good place.

Overall, attention to watering (sprinkler system and supplement in key areas) has sustained the yard. Many in the neighborhood look thoroughly dry…and dying. If this is what the summers will be like in the area from now on – then landscaping will need to change significantly.