Children’s Books from the 1930s

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My parents were born in the early 1930s; that prompted a little project to browse books written for children during that decade when I found the Library of Congress contributions from the Albert Whitman & Co. in Chicago. 43 books are included as this week’s eBook(s) of the week. They are all available from Internet Archive.

There are so many topics: make believe, holidays, history, other places and people, things to do, and pets. The illustrations reflect the perceptions of the world in the 1930s.  Most authors are women and don’t have easy-to-find biographies.

It’s interesting to think about the children that read these books. I don’t think either of my parents did unless they saw them at school; they were rural/small town children during the Great Depression when the family finances were tight and buying books would not have been the priority. Perhaps some children in towns large enough to have libraries might have seen books there. Carnegie had built about half his libraries by the 1930s but the libraries were short of funds to continue operating during the Depression too. I’m left with the thought that only children of people that were well off (those fortunes were not impacted by the Depression) would have had these books at home.

1930

The adventures of a brownie - Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock; McCracken, James (illustrations)

The nutcracker and the Mouse-king - Hoffmmann, Ernst Theodoor Amadeus; Brock, Emma L. (illustrator)

The unknown Indian - Browne, Gertrude Bell; Vernon, David Thomas (illustrator)

Harry's newspaper;or The young publisher - Cox, Stephen A. D.

Peter Piper's playmates - Hubbard, Eleanore Mineah

 

1931

Fluffy Cat's Tail - Sample, Ann Eliza

Moufflon, the dog of Florence - Ouida; Jenkins, Sara D. (retold by)

Wise Little Donkey -  Segur, Sophie, comtesse de

 

1933

Runzel-Punzel,a story of two little mice - Donaldson, Lois

The Candy Cottage - Furlong, May

The Lost Log Cabin - Furlong, May

The little gardeners - Morgenstern, Elizabeth

Smoky, the lively locomotive - Donaldson, Lois

Farm Folk - Brendel, C.A.

 

1934

Nimbo,the story of an African boy - Pease, Josephine Van Dolzen

Snowy for luck - Goode, Arthur Russell; Wiese, Kurt

Ho-Ming : girl of new China  - Lewis, Elizabeth Foreman

 

1935

Over the castle walls - Mabry, Caroline

Buffin - Barrett, Leone

Bing of the Diamond Tail - Gauss, Marianne

 

1936

The Traveling Gallery - Schiff, Besse; Brock, Emma

Sondo - a Liberian boy - Jospeph, Alfred Ward; Magnie, Bernice (illustrator)

Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the yellow shed - Lindman, Maj

Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the gingerbread - Lindman, Maj

 

1937

Firecracker - Gauss, Marianne

Hans Christian of Elsinore - Kristoffersen, Eva M.

Cheeky - a prairie dog - Lau, Jospehine Sanger; Wiese, Kurt (illustrator)

Silver Chief To the Rescue - O'Brien, Jack; Wiese, Kurt (illustrator)

A doll's family album - King, Edna Knowles

 

1938

Hoofbeats, a picture book of horses - Cannon, James Leonard

Me and Andy, a boy and dog story - Kelly, Raymond Ramsome

Carnival time at Strobeck - Harris, Mary V.

The luck of the house  -  the story of a family and a sword - Bedford-Atkins, Gladys

Dolls - an Anthology - Robinson, Julia A.

Donkey beads  -  a tale of a Person donkey - Ratzesberger, Anna

The runaway papoose - Moon, Grace and Karl

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 3, 2024

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

Dragonflies Reveal Path of Mercury Pollution – Dragonfly larvae collected from 150 national parks and then analyzed for mercury revealed: in arid regions, mercury comes from snow and rain, while in wetter, more forested areas, airborne mercury clings to leaves, which then fall to the ground, where the toxin spreads.

Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to rip apart their prey – A clue to how dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex killed and ate their prey.

COVID-19 devastated teacher morale − and it hasn’t recovered - A National Education Association survey of members found that, as of late 2022, a staggering 55% of educators were thinking of calling it quits because of: eroding sense of safety in the school, intense and unrelenting workload, lackluster leadership and changing expectations, and cuts in jobs and budget. Better pay is a start. I was disappointed that this article did not suggest more than that.

25 Stunning Images of the Cosmos from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory as It Celebrates 25 Years in Space - As NASA continues to grapple with a limited budget this year, Chandra is in danger of ending up on the agency’s chopping block and the program faces cuts in funding.

National Park Fun Facts: Petrified Forest – I’ve been to Petrified Forest National Park several times….still learned something from this post.

Art Bites: Michelangelo’s ‘David’ Was Carved Out of a Flawed Marble Slab – Some history of the famous statue.

8 Tips for Maximizing Your Home Solar Savings in 2024 – I am beginning to read articles like this…we will probably put solar on our house within the next year.

Why Covid-19 is spreading this summer – We’ve got to stop thinking about COVID as something that is like the flu…it isn’t.

Saving Dixie: 24 Hours Caring for a Wallaby Joey – The mother killed along a highway….and the Joey discovered alive…fortunately by someone who was willing to take care of him long enough to get him to an experienced wildlife carer.

Happy 50th birthday to the UPC barcode - While the world has changed a lot since the mid-1970s, the Universal Product Code (UPC) – what most people think of when they hear the word “barcode” – hasn’t. The code first scanned on a package of gum on June 26, 1974, is basically identical to the billions of barcodes scanned in stores all over the world today.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2024

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4th of July. The holiday was full of the poignancy of the First Americans Museum and the Oklahoma City National Memorial (site of the Murrah Building bombing)…and then fireworks observed from our hotel window. It is probably going to be one of the most memorable 4th of July celebrations for me.

 A neighborhood walk before the rain. There is always something to notice on a walk around our neighborhood…I celebrate our robins and dandelion puffs and magnolias in bloom…relatively common things that brighten my day.

A protein drink that already has lactase enzyme in it. I was pleasantly surprised that the protein drink that I can find easily at the truck stops along the way to Dallas includes lactase so that I don’t have to remember to take a Lactaid….and it tastes good. Celebrating!

 Philbrook Museum and Gardens.Celebrating finding a ‘favorite place’ in Tulsa.

 Planting orange daylilies. I ordered 25 daylily roots and planted them around the two maples in my front yard. I am celebrating that maybe I can reproduce the ruff I had around my oak tree in Maryland.

 A robin’s egg. Celebrating finding an eggshell…and realizing – from the color – that it was a robin’s egg.

Springfield Botanical Gardens daylilies and pollinator gardens. Celebrating one of my favorite places in Springfield. There is always something worth seeing there.

Out to lunch with my daughter. My daughter and I are exploring locally owned restaurants for brunch or lunch. All of them have been good experiences….celebrating my daughter and the food.

Friends of the Library. Celebrating my first volunteer gigs in Missouri. I got some additional training this month so I can do more tasks. I enjoy the work and the other volunteers.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Zooming – July 2024

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As I reviewed my group of zoomed images from July, the favorite subjects of the month emerged: hot air balloons, animals (birds, butterflies, a squirrel), museum and monuments, and (of course) plants dominated by flowers. The places included areas close to home, Springfield Botanical Garden, Oklahoma City (First American’s Museum and Oklahoma City National Memorial), Tulsa (Philbook Museum), and Joplin (Wildcat Glades)

The hot air balloons are from a Balloon Glow event. They didn’t leave the ground!

I enjoyed the pottery room and garden structures at the Philbrook, the light of late afternoon as I walked around the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and the wall art in the First Americans Museum).

Animals included a robin, a green heron, a skipper, a swallowtail (not sure what kind), a fox squirrel, and a juvenile male mallard.

And then there were plants. Most were flowers but there were seeds (dandelion puff), a pine cone, and olorful new redbud leaves.

It was a good month for photography and being outdoors. Only the pot and the wall art are indoor images.

Missouri Master Naturalist Orientation

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I went to an orientation session about becoming a Missouri Master Naturalist last week. The meeting was held at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center (the building in the Botanical Gardens). I spent a few minutes photographing some flowers (one with a bumblebee) in the Master Gardeners area before I went into the building.

The session was an overview of the process to become a Missouri Master Naturalist and then an informal time to talk to people that were already Missouri Master Naturalists. It was a learning experience….confirmed my decision to start the training and participate as soon as I can in volunteer opportunities. I’ve already noticed some differences between the way Maryland and Missouri implemented their Master Naturalist program…but the idea at the core is same and there are a lot of commonalities in the types of training and volunteering – which is the motivation for me! I’m excited to get started in September. It is the same type feeling I had toward the end of summer during my school years.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 27, 2024

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

Archaeologists Find a Cache of Ancient Murano Glass Off Bulgarian Coast - Underwater archaeologists in Burgas, Bulgaria have discovered over 100 glass objects dating back to the days of the Ottoman empire in the nation’s Chengene Skele bay. It is speculated that the glass artifacts fell from the cargo of a ship battered by a storm in the shallow, rocky area of the sea. Experts attribute the glass objects to Murano, a Venetian island still renowned today for its fine glassware, likely made in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Want the health benefits of strength training but not keen on the gym? Try ‘exercise snacking’ – Great idea!

Timing is everything: Study finds link between bowel movement frequency and overall health – The research showed that if stool sticks around too long in the gut, microbes use up all the available dietary fiber, which they ferment into beneficial short-chain fatty acids. After that, the ecosystem switches to fermentation of proteins, which produces several toxins that can make their way into the bloodstream. They showed that the microbial composition of study participants' gut microbiomes was a telltale sign of bowel movement frequency. Fiber-fermenting gut bacteria, often associated with health, appeared to thrive in a "Goldilocks zone" of bowel movement frequency, where people pooped between 1-2 times per day. However, bacteria associated with protein fermentation, or the upper gastrointestinal tract tended to be enriched in those with constipation or diarrhea, respectively.

Replacing Fuel Tax A Government Quandary - As the proportion of electric cars on the roads rise, what will fill the funding gap left by the loss of gasoline and diesel tax? One possibility is a road user charge (RUC).

Scientists Find an Underground Cave on the Moon That Could Shelter Future Explorers - Radar data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) points to the presence of a cave beneath the moon’s surface. Such caves could serve as shelters for future human explorers, since they could protect astronauts from the moon’s hazardous surface environment. (Note – LRO was launched in 2009. My daughter, as an undergraduate, did some of the initial image calibration work!)

With CO2 Levels Rising, World’s Drylands Are Turning Green - Southeast Australia has been getting hotter and drier. Droughts have lengthened, and temperatures regularly soar above 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). Bush fires abound. But somehow, its woodlands keep growing. One of the more extreme and volatile ecosystems on the planet is defying meteorology and becoming greener. Long-term studies by University of California, Riverside in the Sonoran Desert show that shorter shrubs better adapted to less rainfall and higher temperatures are moving in at the expense of native plants, creating an impression of greening that marks an ecological breakdown.

Why Are Amphibians the Most Endangered Class of Animals? - Amphibians are the most endangered class of animals in the world, with 41% facing extinction. Climate change on its own would not be such an incredible threat if it weren’t for the toll it takes when combined with habitat loss, fragmentation and disease.

New solutions to keep drinking water safe as pesticide use skyrockets worldwide - A 62% rise in global pesticide use in the past 20 years has escalated fears that many of these chemicals could end up in our waterways, causing cancer. Powdered activated carbon (PAC) is currently used to remove organic pesticides from drinking water, but the process is costly, time consuming and not 100% effective. The researchers found that reducing the PAC particles from the existing commercial size of 38 μm (one millionth of a metre) to 6 μm, up to 75% less powder was needed to remove six common pesticides, achieving significant water treatment savings.

Huge! The Massive and Mystical Jordanian Monument to an Enigmatic People - The ancient city of Petra. Known as the “Rose City” for the warm pink blush of the sandstone cliffs it is carved out of, Petra was built by the enigmatic Nabateans. Built over two millennia ago, it was long lost to the shifting sands of Jordan’s desert until it was rediscovered by European travelers in the early 1800s.

Melting Sea Ice Is Making the Northwest Passage More Dangerous - Old, thick chunks of sea ice that tend to cluster near the North Pole are increasingly drifting southward toward Canada and into the path of ships. The younger, thinner ice that once held older ice in place is becoming scarcer as the region warms. For the cargo vessels, fishing boats, and cruise ships crossing the northwest passage, drifting chunks of old, thick sea ice pose a significant threat.

Indian Architecture in 1896

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Syad Muhammad Latif’s book with descriptions and drawings of historical buildings of Agra (including the Taj Mahal) as they were in the 1890s is the ‘book of the week.’  The drawings were the high point for me; I’ve included four samples in this post with many more to be viewed by following the link to the book on Internet Archive. Most of the drawings are the exterior of structures but there are also a few interiors.

Agra historical & descriptive with an account of Akbar and his court and of the modern city of Agra

Wildcat Glades

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My husband and I visited Wildcat Glades one morning last week. He did not feel up to hiking, so we did some photography near the Nature Group buildings. There were several varieties of sunflowers. I did some macro photography with my phone (iPhone 14 Pro max); my favorites are the landscape oriented one and the flower with a petal across its center…a shy sunflower.

I also took some others with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) since I couldn’t get close enough to them with the phone

The Queen Ann’s Lace was in a grassy area…so the bridge camera’s zoom was used for those one too.

There was a small water feature that was almost surrounded by taller vegetation.

There were several birds (Eastern bluebird, House Finches, Eastern Phoebe) that I photographed although the cloudy day was not great for bird photography. We’ll have to visit on a sunny day next time.

One insect was still for long enough for me to go into macro mode again!

Bed bug?

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During the last year of my career (more than 10 years ago), one of my colleagues missed some meetings and I found out from him later about his trauma with bed bugs. Based on the timing of his symptoms developing, he’d picked them up in a hotel near Dulles Airport on one of his frequent business trips to the area…not realized that he had them until his home was contaminated too and he had terrible bed bug bites particularly on his face. He was overwhelmed by what happened; it had a significant impact on his life for about 6 months.

Even so, I didn’t change anything about the way I traveled. Something happened on my last trip to Dallas that is changing my strategy.

I was sitting on the small hotel-room couch in the evening and noticed a small bug crawling across my t-shirt. I crushed it and wiped it onto a paper towel; it left a bloody streak. My first assumption was flea or tick. Then I thought it might be an adult bed bug although at the time I thought it was too big to be a bed bug. I still went to check the seams of the mattress…and discovered that there was a mattress cover than looked very tightly woven. The bedding was the usual white and I didn’t see anything on the bed that looked suspicious. I looked at the crushed bug, but it was too mutilated for identification.

On the way home, I began to realize that I had to assume that it could have been an adult bedbug (and where there are adults…there are likely eggs and nymphs); my husband did some research while I drove home. When I got home:

  • Almost everything stayed in the car.

  • I took a shower/shampoo immediately and the clothes I took off were put into a plastic bag and put back in my car.

  • I stayed mostly in the downstairs apartment area for 2 days/nights (laundering linens in hot water and dryer after the 1st night).

  • After the 1st night, I put the pillows I’d used into my car and parked it in the driveway; the day was hot and sunny. The thermometer in the car indicated that the interior was above 130 degrees for 6 hours.

I still don’t know if I was exposed to bedbugs or not. I haven’t developed any symptoms of bites and it’s been 8 days. Sometimes it takes time for the symptoms to appear.

The experience has me making some changes to how I travel:

  • Pack a small collection vial. If I see a small bug – I will put it in the vial rather than crushing it so I can ID it.

  • Carry my luggage into the hotel rather than rolling it. Put it on a hard surface rather than carpeted for the duration.

  • Put dirty clothes in a sealed plastic bag.

  • Shower thoroughly when I first get home and put dirty clothes in a sealed plastic bag

  • In the summer – leave fabric items (sealed plastic bags, hats, purse, shoes, etc.) in the car and park it outside after the trip; make sure the temperature is above 120 degrees for several hours.

  • In the winter – put fabric items in the freezer (downstairs apartment) for several days

  • Buy and install mattress covers that prevent bed bugs from accessing the mattress.

Some websites I found helpful:

https://www.thespruce.com/handle-bed-bug-infestation-laundry-2146304

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/bedbugs-infestation

Johan Nieuhof’s drawings of Brazil, China, and India in the mid 1600s

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Johannes Nieuhof  travelled for the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East Company…and documented his travels with drawings and annotations. According to the Wikipedia entry, he traveled from 1640 (when he was 22) to his death in 1672 (went missing in Madagascar) only returning home for short visits in 1658 and 1671. He entrusted his notes and papers to his brother Hendrik who produced the books attributed to Johannes. These ‘books of the week’ by Nieuhof are two available from Internet Archive.

Voyages and travels into Brazil and the East-Indies, 1640-1649

At the time these books were published, Nieuhof’s drawings of China were the first to show the country true to nature. He drew realistic images of structures, people, and plants/animals he saw as he travelled.  

Sustaining Elder Care – July 2024

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A full month had passed since my visit to my father in June and I noticed that his situation seemed calmer this month although the staff at the assisted living home were stressed with acclimating 2 new residents and the further decline of another. It took them longer to answer the front doorbell on both of my visits, but on both days my dad’s room was clean, he was dressed in clean clothes, and he had just finished a meal.

Since I arrive in the afternoon, it was too hot for a walk outdoors. One of the staff members stopped by to tell me she had taken him in the morning just after breakfast. We finished a puzzle in the great room (he was very pleased since the easy parts had been done the day before and the remaining pieces were mostly the same color). Afterward we went into the back yard, and he sat in the shade while I watered the plants that my sister managed to transfer from his former home; they need to be watered daily in the hot Dallas summer; my mother’s miniature rose bush is blooming profusely. I put out his clothes for the next day. It seems 2 to 2.5 hours is the ideal duration for visits with him. When I left, he was going to take a nap.

The next morning, I got bitten by something (ants?) as I waited for a staff member to let me into the house (fortunately the welts disappeared quickly once I used my After Bite stick). The staff were evidently overwhelmed with helping another resident (or two); they left the door a little ajar so I could immediately take Dad for a walk. The temperature was still pleasant, and I was surprised at the pace Dad set; it is clear that he is walking regularly and had built up his stamina. We made it around the block in good time – but enough that whatever was keeping the staff busy had resolved by the time we got back. I encouraged my dad to drink some water and we started a new puzzle. It turned out to be harder than we anticipated, and we only got about 2/3 of the border done before we decided to take a break to water plants in the backyard. And he was worn out from those activities…ready for a nap before lunch!

My dad is visited by me or my sisters almost every day. We all put out clothes for him to wear the next day and (right now) water plants. If the weather permits, we take him for a walk. We work on a puzzle with him. There has been at least one instance where he has requested that a puzzle be framed for his wall – and participated in the process to get it ready for the frame. He seems to be settling into a comfortable pattern.

The newest challenge has been him getting cold and putting on a jacket when he is in his room. Evidently the thermostat for his part of the house is in the kitchen and when there is a lot of cooking happening there it gets hot enough to cause the air conditioner to come on. His room gets about 5 degrees cooler than the kitchen! The staff is aware of the issue and is monitor. We are also reminding him that it is warmer in the community room where the puzzle table and large recliners are located…but he seems to prefer the jacket and his room at least some of the time!

Previous Elder Care posts

Springfield Botanical Garden Gardens

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Last week my husband and I visited the Springfield (Missouri) Botanical Gardens when the temperature was warm…not yet hot. Our first stop was the pollinator garden – hoping to photograph some butterflies. There were many plants blooming around the butterfly house (we were there a bit before it opened) but we only saw some skippers around a clump of cone flowers; I had been hoping to see some Monarchs or tiger swallowtails or zebra swallowtails, etc. so I was a little disappointed. But I enjoyed trying to capture the shape of skipper’s eye.

I reverted to taking pictures of plants…the new growth of a young tree, some native honeysuckle, the different greens of a redbud, some hibiscus. I’m not sure what the pink flower is; it was planted near the Botanical Center.

The daylilies were still beautiful but past their peak. There were two gardeners taking off spent blooms while we were there.

I took two perspectives of the Monarch sculpture/playground. I hadn’t noticed before that the mouth of the caterpillar is chomping on the leaf! The area is well maintained…no peeling paint.

We were only in the gardens for about an hour, but the day was getting hotter. We were both glad we had water bottles in the car!

Then and Now – Cars and Driving

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The first car I remember well was in the 1960s – a small red Ford my father bought for my mother. It did not have air conditioning…or seat belts (it was before they became standard equipment in the later 1960s). The windows were opened/closed manually with a handle. There were no car seats for children either although my mother generally put my sisters and I in the back seat. I was the oldest so sometimes road in the front seat. It did have power steering and brakes…probably because my mother was not very good driving with a manual transmission. The car was the second for our household and was parked at the curb since my father’s car was parked in the one-car garage.

My father’s car did have air conditioning and was larger. He started buying new cars (Oldsmobile or Buick were his preferred make) almost every year in by 1963; my mother got to drive his older car and they traded in her car. Those cars had windows that opened and closed with a button. I remember the first car my father owned that had seatbelts because he had a serious accident in it; a truck sideswiped the car on the driver’s side and he always claimed that he would not have survived if he’d been wearing a seatbelt since he was pushed to the passenger side during the accident. It took several years before he started wearing seat belts consistently and even more years before he took his keys/locked his car when he parked it. I also remember my father’s first car that has radial tires in the late 1960s; the road noise was noticeably different.

Most of our road trips were to visit family members. My mother drove my sisters and I to visit her parents (aunt, uncles, cousins) at least once every summer. The trek was between Wichita Falls TX and Beggs OK and was a lot of 2 lane roads…often very curvy. We took food and drink with us…stopped at gasoline stations for the bathrooms (which were usually in bad shape). My mother was not a great driver…but she knew her limitations and never had an accident. She shared that when she first learned to drive, she tended to look at the front of the car when she was driving; my dad noticed shortly after they married and coached her to look further out – to become a more defensive driver.

I learned to drive in the two cars my parents were driving at the time (a large Oldsmobile and Buick) later in the 1960s. My driver’s ed class emphasized wearing seat belts and I convinced my whole family we needed to ‘buckle up’ consistently.  Both of my parents encouraged me to drive whenever I was in the car with them as soon as I got my learner’s permit; I got my driver’s license on my 16th birthday and became the designated driver for my younger sisters and my parents when I was available. I didn’t have my own car until after the 1960s.

Now – the car I drive is smaller – a plug-in hybrid (2017 Prius Prime). The air conditioning and heating has a thermostat rather than the 1960s switch controls. Perhaps the equivalent of the big Buicks and Oldsmobiles of the 1960s are the SUVs that are very popular now. The cruise control is adaptive. Many of the controls are digital rather than switches. The navigation system is a big improvement over a collection of paper maps or a road atlas kept in the car at all times. There are handy places to put drinks that were absent in the 1960s cars. My car has a hatch opening in the back rather than the enclosed trunk of the big 1960s cars; SUVs also have an opening in the back that connects to the interior of the car. The seatbelts (one unit lap and cross body) are more comfortable than the clunky lap belts and then clucky two-piece lap/shoulder belts of the 1960s. The bucket seats in front have more adjustments than the bench seats of the 1960s and the material covers are more durable. Cars frequently last for 100,000 miles or more now; that was very unusual in the 1960s.

Cars have improved a lot since the 1960s – in both function and durability - and driving is easier because of those improvements and the highway system that has matured (although it often needs maintenance). My frequent road trips would certainly be more challenging/less enjoyable in a 1960s car and on 1960s style roads!

Previous Then and Now posts

Philbrook Museum of Art

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On our way home from Oklahoma City we stopped in Tulsa to see the Philbrook Museum of Art. We started in the gardens before the day got too hot to enjoy them. There were plenty of plants and water features…sculptures and activity areas (like creating poems with word stones).

The garden on one end of the house was probably my favorite because there were swings in the metal arches. My daughter and I sat in one and coordinated our pushing off (no brakes)! There was a zinnia that had been broken and dumped nearby (picture taken when we stopped the swing…just before leaving it).

Inside I enjoyed the Native American themed rooms – particularly the mosaics and pottery. The pottery was a mix of historical and modern pots. I have been sensitized by my visit to the First Americans Museum to think more critically about how some of the historical collections were created.

There were views of the gardens from the museum…a different perspective than walking through the gardens.

I thought about the building as a residence and decided it was too big to be comfortable as a home! The house was built in the 1920s for Waite Phillips and his wife; it was donated to the city of Tulsa in1938 and opened as the museum in 1939. I noted the fireplaces and some of the columns/ceilings that were obviously original to the house. They work well as a museum.

One of my favorite items was titled ‘Texas Seed Pod’ made of porcelain by Janet A. Frankovic in 1990.

We learned that the museum/gardens are decorated for Christmas…and my daughter and I already making tentative plans to visit again in December!

Museum of Osteology…then Ducks

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The Museum of Osteology is another museum my daughter and I visited on July 4th. It is a short drive from the First American’s Museum in Oklahoma City. It is a small museum with lots of skeletons; I was glad we were there when it wasn’t crowded. I found myself doing comparisons – which animals have the more neck vertebrae (hint: it isn’t the giraffe) and which animals walk on their toes. There was a whale skeleton mounted from the ceiling that brought back memories of the one in the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. There was a case of cat skulls whose health problems manifested in their bones and sclerotic rings of owls that prevent their eyes from moving within the socket. I didn’t see any bird skeletons with spurs although I don’t thing the collect included a peacock skeleton.  I also noticed that the skull of a gila monster has bumps that seemed to match the bumps of its skin!

After the Osteology Museum we headed to Norman to check in to our hotel then to Brandt Park where my daughter had seen a lot of ducks during a previous visit. There were more ducks that she remembered and almost all of them seemed to rush toward us when we got there! There were a lot of juvenile ducks and maybe they thought we were bringing food?

There was a white domesticated duck – and one that might have been a daughter of that duck.

There was one female with a juvenile that looked a lot smaller than the other young ducks and the female seemed very attentive: maybe the last of a late brood?

We headed back toward Oklahoma City to visit the memorial there when it began to sprinkle in Norman. The clouds were very thick. With my daughter driving, I was free to photograph the sun just barely showing from the edge of the cloud layer.

First Americans Museum

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My daughter and I visited the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City at midday on July 4th. It was a hot day, but I walked around the circular courtyard outside the entrance. I took pictures of the front and back of each of the columns on the outer rim of the courtyard – fire and water are the ones I picked to show below. I realized it was too hot to do much else outside. I’ll come back sometime when it is cooler to find out more about the mound.

The restaurant was not open (although we did pick up some recipe cards at the door); we had lunch at the café….at tasty turkey with cranberries and greens wrap and cheesecake. There is a building with a sun symbol on the side…lots of construction in the area…it will be changing a lot in the next few years as projects are completed.

Beginning our stroll through the exhibits…I enjoyed different media and the messages of tragedies…and survival…of the cultural heritage that emerges in modern form.

The film of creation stories for the tribes that were in the pre-Colonial area that is now Oklahoma was particularly well done. I took some quick pictures with my phone.

There are images on the walls that are memorable. The first one has a lot of detail (click on the image below to see a larger version) including a silhouette of a space shuttle! The second one is a repetitive motif that is used on items like key chains and mugs and glasses in the shop. I bought a mug because I liked the motif so much!

There is much to learn in this museum that is sobering and sad…but also uplifting. It is worth visiting more than once.

Fireworks on July 4th

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My daughter and I were traveling on July 4th. Our original plan had been to enjoy the fireworks in a park in Norman, Oklahoma but it started raining around 6 PM and it didn’t look like the rain would clear until much later; the program was going to be delayed, at least.  

The radar indicated that it wasn’t raining in Oklahoma City so after dinner we headed into the city to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial at the site of 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. The museum was closed…we went to see the grounds: the 168 empty chairs representing the people that perished (small chairs for the children), the reflecting pool, the gates of time (the peace before the blast at 9:01 and 9:03 the first second of recovery), the Survivor Tree (an American Elm), and tiles made by children…sent to Oklahoma City after the bombing. The sun was getting closer to the horizon and it began sprinkling as we were getting ready to leave. It was a poignant place…flags had been placed by each chair in celebration of the 4th of July.

As we drove back to Norman, there was harder rain, lots of lightning. We began to wonder if the lightning would cause the city to cancel the events that were planned in the park. It was very dramatic – cloud to ground and cloud to cloud. We were glad to get back to the hotel.

We enjoyed the lightning show from our hotel window. The rain tapered off, but the lightning continued…with almost no thunder. We started to see some fireworks – not professional shows but clearly people that had planned their own fireworks event. Looking at the map – we expected to see the fireworks in the park at some point but the time it was schedule came and went. Lightning was still lighting up the sky. We decided that the show must have been canceled. About 5 minutes later we heard a barrage of fireworks sounds…we looked out the window again and it was obviously the fireworks in the park – high, loud, a steady stream of bursts for at least 15 minutes! I took pictures through hotel window. Toward the end, it was obvious that there were a lot of smoke in the air from the fireworks…they began to look like science fiction images of explosions inside a nebula.

I’m seeing more stories about how environmentally unfriendly fireworks can be…impacting air quality and then the remnants of the explosions (some toxic) drifting down over a wide area. And many pets are panicked by the sounds of fireworks. Evidently some places are moving toward drone light shows rather than fireworks. Maybe I’ll find one of those shows next year. I appreciate the effort Norman, Oklahoma put in for their event this year…even though I ended up observing it from my hotel window!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 6, 2024

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

Extended maternal care central factor to human other animal, longevity – In species where offspring survival depends on the longer-term presence of the mother, the species tends to evolve longer lives and a slower life pace, which is characterized by how long an animal lives and how often it reproduces.

The 'gene deserts' unravelling the mysteries of disease - Less than 2% percent of the human genome is dedicated to coding for genes which produce proteins, while much of the remaining 98% has no obvious meaning or purpose. But scientists are slowly managing to accrue information about the ‘gene deserts’ apparent purpose and why they exist.

These Stunning Butterflies Flew 2,600 Miles Across the Atlantic Ocean Without Stopping – Painted Lady butterflies spotted in French Guiana where they are not usually found. Sequencing the butterflies’ genome revealed that they were related to African and European painted ladies – not North American. And looking at weather data revealed that wind conditions in the weeks prior to the sighting were favorable for the butterflies moving from Africa to South America.

Simple test for flu could improve diagnosis and surveillance - Fewer than one percent of people who get the flu every year get tested, in part because most tests require trained personnel and expensive equipment. The current version of new test is a low-cost paper strip that distinguishes between influenza A and B and subtypes H1N1 and H3N2. It works at room temperature…takes about 90 minutes. They are working to reduce the time to 15 minutes.

To Save the Red Knots, Look to Blue Carbon – Red Knots migrate over 9,000 miles to the Arctic to breed. Along the way they stop for meals of mussels and clams in coastal areas. This post highlights 6 projects from around the world that are restoring those area…for the red knots and the health of the planet.

Photography In the National Parks: Two Cave Parks Above and Below – Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. Full of ideas for photographing inside caves and above them! My first thought was to see if there is a trail that goes over the top of Sequiota Cave and Spring near Springfield MO (we did a boat tour of the cave last spring).

Surprising phosphate finding in NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample – Remembering when we went to the launch of the mission in September 2016.

Swift Parrots and the Heartbreak of Rare Species – Endangered Australian parrots…with only an estimated 500 birds left in the wild. “We conservationists bear witness to so much loss: of species, ecosystems, and the places we know and love. Often, it feels like we’re watching extinction in real time, powerless to stop it. But there is value in staring these losses in the face. Value in bearing witness to a rare parrot with an uncertain future, knowing full well I might mourn its extinction in a few years time. If the worst happens, at least I will have cherished it while it was here.”

A Big Picture of the US Housing Market - High interest rates, supply constraints and growth in home insurance premiums (particularly in states like California and Florida) are all driving housing costs. There is some news that’s more positive. Nearly 450,000 new apartments were finished in 2023, the highest rate in about three decades. However, average rents remain above pre-pandemic levels in most markets.

Sheep & Solar: A “Beautiful Symbiotic Relationship” - When solar farms use sheep instead of mowers for vegetation management, they minimize burning fossil fuels, and costs associated with labor are also reduced. Investment costs for a solar farm might include water tanks, troughs, a small water pump to fill the troughs, predator-proof fencing, and dividing into sections for rotational grazing. The sheep eat the tall grass, weeds, and clover, and their chomping inhibits the vegetation from blocking the panels. Their steady consumption of forage on the land prevents grassy plants from growing high enough to block sunlight from reaching the panels, maintaining the productivity of the array. Sheep are the most appropriate ruminant species when it comes to vegetation management on solar farms because they are too small to damage the panels when rubbing against them, and they are not predisposed to chewing on wires or jumping on the panels.

Balloon Glow – June 2024

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Last June, my husband and daughter attended the annual Balloon Glow in Ozark, MO’s Finley Park while I was in Dallas; they sent me pictures  and I wrote about the vicarious experience….also realized that I wanted to attend the event this year. This year it was sunny rather than thunder storming before the event. It was hot a muggy. That did not deter the crowds at all. We parked in overflow parking and got to the the field where the balloons were going to be inflated shortly before dusk. Our timing was near perfect. The teams were just starting to fill the ballons with hot air. The first one to come upright was an old-fashioned one with gold swags on the side. Others quickly followed.

We took a break to buy lemonade and snow cones. We walked around the roped off perimeter surrounding the balloons to see different vantage points. As it got darker, the periodic burn of the heaters lit up the ballons and made percussion type noises. It was a dramatic and beautiful summer event.

I was drinking the ice melt from my large lemonade but still felt dehydrated when I got home. I took a picture of the moon that was almost in the treetops ….and then focused on rehydrating before bedtime!

Zooming – June 2024

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Lots of opportunities to capture images of some of my favorite subjects in June 2024: big cats, birds, butterflies, and (of course) flowers. Some were close to home (Dickerson Park Zoo, Lake Springfield Boathouse) while others were from our two days in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Big cats. The animals are obviously in some kind of enclosure. The cheetah at the Dickerson Park Zoo was photographed from a high deck over the enclosure…maxing out the zoom capability of my camera; it was the only one that did not have a fence between me and the cat! The other three images had the fence challenge; it is most visible in the lion image. It’s always a little unnerving to realize that a tiger, even looking very relaxed, is following me with his eyes!

Birds. I always see birds the best after I get home and look at my images on a big monitor. The optics of the camera allow me to get very close views without being close to the bird! The peacock (head and feet) images were taken at Dickerson Park Zoo and the bluebird and purple martin were near the Lake Springfield Boathouse.

Butterflies. The three butterflies on rocks were taken in the parking area of the Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas Railway. The insects were fluttering around looking for moisture. The butterfly on a flower was in the meadow near the Lake Springfield Boathouse. Butterflies are as challenging to photograph as birds, but it does help to keep a distance. If the insects are on a flower or looking for moisture, they might sit for long enough to capture an image; sometimes a little bit cooler temperatures help too.

Other wildlife. The lizard shedding its skin must have been terrified of the people walking on the boardwalk; it would have felt the vibration. We stood back once we realized it was there…and I got my picture. The same was true of the cicada although it flew to the post (I saw it in the air and followed with my camera already zooming) and then flew again within about 30 seconds.

Flowers. And then there are flowers.  I love to take pictures of flowers filling the frame. I like that using the zoom blurs the background – often to various shades of green. Depending on the light, the background can also go black (the leaf on a vine). My strategy it to capture the ‘as is’ in a way that appeals to me. The blade of grass almost like a pointer to one of the stamens in the day lily image was a bit of serendipity!

As we near the end of the month – I am savoring these zoomed images!