Gleanings of the Week Ending October 3, 2020

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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.

Domesticated chickens have smaller brains -- ScienceDaily – 10 generations from wild junglefowl toward domestication….and they already had smaller brains.

750 Million GM Mosquitoes Will Be Released in the Florida Keys | The Scientist Magazine® - Reducing yellow fever and dengue carrying mosquitos at a time when more mosquitos are becoming resistant to pesticide-based controls. Texas might be the next place this technique will be used – pending state and local approval.

Earthquakes and insects on Alaska road trips - The Field - AGU Blogosphere – I browsed this article and remembered learning about the 1964 earthquake from the Weekly Reader in elementary school. So -this was an update about what the place is like today…with the town moved completely.

Nuvve And Blue Bird Combine To Create Electric School Buses That Are V2G Enabled – I wish all new school buses would be electric…and charged via renewable means…for the planet and, more directly, for healthier air for young lungs.

Top 25 birds of the week: Colours - Wild Bird Revolution – Beautiful birds….I never get tired of looking at images of the diversity in color and form the birds display.

The U.S. drought vulnerability rankings are in: How does your state compare? | NOAA Climate.gov – Looking at states that I know well because I have family members living there Maryland, Texas and Missouri have a high ability to adapt whereas Oklahoma has a very low ability to adapt (because they have an outdated drought plan and limited irrigation combined with extensive agriculture and cattle ranching). Is Oklahoma headed toward another dust bowl?

Five myths about wildfires - BBC Future – The 5 myths debunked in this article are: regularly logging forests prevents forest fires; there is nothing you can do to protect your property; wildfires are an inevitable fact of nature; all wildfires are bad and must be quenched immediately; it is possible to eradicate (control) all wildfires

Thousands of species recorded in a speck of soil -- ScienceDaily – DNA was extracted from permafrost samples representing different points in the Pleistocene - Halocene transition (about 11,000 years ago). Genetic remnants of animals like mammoths, horses, bison, reindeer along with 1000s of plant varieties were found!

The remarkable floating gardens of Bangladesh - BBC Future – Planting on floating rafts….large scale hydroponics that is not greenhouse based.

4 Fun + Informative (+Free) Apps for Upping Your Nature Knowledge – Cool Green Science – These are great Apps to id plants and animals quickly…with cell phone: SEEK, iNaturalist, Merlin, eBird.

Chinese Teahouse in Newport

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I was browsing through the Architectural Record publication for 1916 (via Internet Archive) and discovered the June issue featured the Chinese Teahouse that I’d seen in Newport RI behind Mable House in 2014. In 1916, it was relatively new – having been added to the Marble House grounds by Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. According to Wikipedia – she hosted rallies for women’s suffrage there.

According to the article in the Architectural Record article, the structural members had lacquered surfaces written in Chinese characters. Two examples:

A woman of strong character is said to be a hero among women.

Women with pretty faces and fascinating manners really may overthrow cities.

How appropriate for this 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage! I’m belatedly disappointed that the teahouse was closed when I visited so I didn’t see them.

Here are a few pictures that I took back in 2014. I think I remember that the Treehouse has been recently renovated at that time and we being used as a place where tourists could get refreshments/take a break from tours of the Newport Mansions.

Zentangle® – September 2020

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Just as in prior months of the pandemic…I had a lot of Zentangle® tiles to choose from – getting to the 30 to showcase in this post. There are 16 square tiles in various colors of card stock and lightweight cardboard.  Note that all the tiles this month are made with dark ink (usually black) and I will make a second pass on the tiles to color them later; I have discovered that I enjoy coloring tiles as the wind down to bedtime.

The rectangular tiles are all made on lightweight cardboard from between layers of cans in cat food boxes. The short side is 3.5 inches and the longer side is the width of the cat food box.

I can’t resist the gingo pattern and have started making ones with more ‘leaves’…trying to always keep to an odd number!

I’ll do a post later this month with tiles that I’ve colored…trying to pick the top 10 is going to be more challenging than the selection for this post!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2020

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Another month in 2020…celebrating that we’ve stayed healthy (keeping up the mask wearing – distancing – hand washing regime)….and finding plenty of little celebrations during September.

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Finding Monarch caterpillars. After not seeing Monarch butterflies or caterpillars much during the summer…there were caterpillars in September. I never did find the chrysalises…but the caterpillars were so big that I hope they made it to butterflies and are now making their way south.

Watching Enola Holmes. My husband and I enjoyed the Enola Holmes movie on Netflix…celebrating having high quality movies available for low-risk viewing (at home).

Grilling again. After months of being out of propane, we finally got a full tank (via Propane Taxi) and celebrated with hamburgers and corn on the cob.

Watching virtual birding festivals. It’s such a treat to see and learn about birds vicariously (next best to being there). In September we enjoyed Yampa Valley (Colorado), Puget Sound (Washington), and Bosque del Apache (New Mexico). We are making plans for post-pandemic but celebrating that we didn’t completely miss September birds outside of our immediate area.

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Collecting a maple seedling. I collected a maple seedling for my office window – celebrating the new life (although it came up in a place where there wasn’t room for a tree) and savoring its presence in my office through the fall.

Emptying crispers. I am finally not completely overwhelmed by the CSA share…which is good since the freezer is very full. It’s great to be cooking and celebrating the bounty of things like butternut squash and hot peppers.

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Eating potato soup. Just as the CSA started providing potatoes…it got cool and potato soup was the perfect meal. I celebrated the great timing.

Getting car maintenance. Both cars got their delayed regular maintenance…in a relatively low risk way. We’re celebrating that it’s done….hoping the vaccine for COVID-19 will be available before maintenance is due again.

Appreciating Project Drawdown. The recent webinar was uplifting….the solutions available to address climate change are cause for optimism and celebration…and then action.

September sunrise. Celebrating a beautiful start to the day…timing is key to see it!

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Fitbit moved from wrist to ankle. My Fitbit was bothering me on my wrist, so I moved it to my ankle. It doesn’t measure my heart rate as reliably but seems to count the steps about the same. A side benefit - I am enjoying the freedom of being ‘watchless’ again (I also turned off the silent alarm). I seem to be the type person that does too much based on what time it is. When I started my post-career, I stopped wearing a watch for a time and now remember how good it is to be on my internal clock when I don’t have to sync to someone else’s schedule.

Racoon again. Our birdfeeder cam got video of a racoon in the early morning hours of 9/19 (between 2:43 and 2:54 AM). It does reasonably well in low light. The racoon clearly is attracted to the feeder…tries several approaches to get seed…and leaves frustrated. The feeder wins again!

Wildlife in our Yard

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Lots to see on one wet morning….

A  gang of Blue Jays intimidated the squirrel from under the feeder… then called to their friends.

Some of them appear to be more in command  than others.

But they still are deferential to the Red-bellied Woodpecker at the feeder.

Eventually there were 6 Blue Jays enjoying the seed at our deck (with a female Cardinal at the feeder itself and the squirrel they had run off out in the yard).

After the Cardinal left, one of the jays contorted to get a few seeds from the feeder.

Then the Red-bellied Woodpecker returned, and all the Blue Jays flew away.

Looking out the front windows – there were 4 deer on our driveway and in the yard among the oak leaves feeding on acorns. There were two adults and two young that looked like they were getting their winter coats (the young ones appeared to like my neighbor’s Crepe Myrtle as well as the acorns).

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Watching Drawdown 2020 video. I’d heard about Project Drawdown in the Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Education Conference back in July; the project is all about how existing technology can address climate change….if we just apply it now. The video (recorded 9/21) is a little over 2 hours…and very well done. I watched it spread out over the day rather than in one sitting. The sound bite take-away for me: “Act like your home is on fire….because it is.” Earth is ours to save from ruin…and save ourselves as well. There are lots of ways we can do it!

Digiscoping. I practiced using our spotting scope with my phone to get magnified images (practicing before we are away from home). It involves a specialized case and connectors specific to the phone and the spotting scope models (available from Phone Skope). My husband ordered the gear for both of our phones (we don’t have the same type phone) and we can share the piece that is unique to our spotting scope. The assembly of the three pieces is easy enough and then the phone with the Phone Scope gear is put on the spotting scope. The friction fit is secure….so the spotting scope can be moved just as if it was being used without the phone attached.

I quickly discovered that I would need to take the cover off the spotting scope because I need easier access to the focusing knob!

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My first practice session was zoomed images of the forest behind our house….with the leaves beginning to turn. I used the optics of the scope as much as I could then zoomed the phone just enough to take away the vignetting….and celebrated the sunny day (after several wet and gray days).

Zooming – September 2020

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Less that 1000 photos this month…but still enough zoomed images for this post: 16 images. 4 of the images were inside (the stained glass butterfly and the super zoomed flowers). There are 4 butterflies (Common Buckeye, Red Admiral, Palamedes Swallowtail, and Spread-winged Skipper) and a Monarch caterpillar. All 3 birds are somewhat unusual: the Northern Cardinal is a juvenile still begging to be fed by its parents but learning quickly to find seed on our deck, the Blue Jay is contorting itself to get seed from the feeder (the roosts are too close together for him), and the Caroline Wren is tailless. Other animals in our yard or deck are also included: a chipmunk with very fat cheeks and a deer. And lastly are our trees: the sycamore leaves beginning to change against a blue sky after the smoke from the west coast that past over Maryland at 30,000 feet cleared out and an oak leaf that might be an indication that our oak tree has the infection common in our state (and not something we can treat…may eventually kill the tree).

All the pictures were taken at our house or the CSA.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Green tomatoes. I got 2 green tomatoes in the CSA share last week; they have been near the kitchen window since then. One began to turn red almost immediately and the other has stayed green. I’ll make green salsa with the one that is still green (or something else that cooks the green tomato so that it is edible) and let the other one finish turned red to eat like a regular tomato.

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The Grandcat

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We haven’t officially met my daughter’s cat yet; he became our ‘grandcat’ during the pandemic (no way for us to make the trek from Maryland to Missouri during this time). Here are some annotated pictures that my daughter has shared with us over the past month – every one of them a little positive tweak to the day. Enjoy the cat pictures!

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My morning coffee companion

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I am probably supposed to be doing something

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Someone pounced on a tote bag

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Someone is going to have to explain to his students why their papers got crinkled

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Working at his desk

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At his standing desk

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This dude flying in the sky. Or laying on a yoga mat

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Opened my eyes to this dude this morning

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He was waiting on the end table on my side of the bed. But he had been curled up against me most of the night. Right now he had made a nest on me in the futon.

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Dun dun, dun dun

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Cat thermometer says its cold

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Lounging on me right now

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Cat on his throne

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TV cat

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He wants me awake so he can snooze on me

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Blackberry Looper Moth. I finally remembered the little moth I captured in my office a few days ago….and used iNaturalist to identify it: a Blackberry Looper Moth. It’s small but a pretty shade of green with whitish markings. It probably came into my office on one of the flowers from the CSA cutting garden. My picture is magnified enough to see the antennae clearly; they are not ‘feathery’ so it is a female.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending September 26, 2020

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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.

Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps – Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions – The report (summarized by NPR in Cost of Racism: US Economy Lost $16 Trillion Because of Discrimination, Bank Says) details the analysis  done by Citi that calculates the economic impact of racism….and thus puts a value on proposed government and individual actions to close racial gaps.

Top 25 Birds of the Week: Birds in Flight and Bird Interactions – Double the bird photos this week!

Infographic: Dialing Down the Glitz | The Scientist Magazine® - The mechanism that makes dramatic sexual dimorphism in some finches.

How vitamin C could help over 50s retain muscle mass -- ScienceDaily – Another reason to eat Vitamin C rich foods (and take a supplement when that is not possible).

A guide to natural sweeteners – in C&EN – Compound Interest – A good summary of the chemistry behind natural sweeteners. I am enjoying the stevia leaves I am getting from the CSA’s cutting garden right now – building up my supply a little every week of dried leaves and stems to enjoy even after the cutting garden ends for the year.

Schooling is critical for cognitive health throughout life -- ScienceDaily – Boosting cognitive skills early in life not only expands career opportunities and provides progressively higher salaries…it also pushes back the point at which age-related dementia begins to impact a person’s ability to care for themselves. Education is a good long-term investment for everyone.

Study Tracks Geographical Gene Flow and Ancestry in the US | The Scientist Magazine® - Beginning to get deeper genetic studies that might translate to better understanding of risk of disease across sub-populations within the US.

Scientists use fruit peel to turn old batteries into new -- ScienceDaily – Recycling metals from lithium-ion batteries with food waste…an example of the types of processes we need to develop for a circular economy (zero waste).

Hike in Walnut Canyon – A short video of a special place. I first visited in 1971 in the winter. It was memorable. Maybe I’ll go again after the pandemic is over; it’s high enough elevation I’ll make sure I am acclimated before I hike the trail to see the cliff dwellings up close.

The Undoing of US Climate Policy: The Emissions Impact of Trump-Era Rollbacks – Many young people see climate change as a high priority for the government to address….so do I. This research shows that the actions of the last few years have moved the US in the wrong direction. I usually prefer to focus on solutions and what individuals can do….but the government has a roll to play and, right now, it is moving opposite of the way needed.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Letter sweater. I found my 50-year-old letter sweater (academic…not sports) from high school when I cleaned out the coat closet. It still fits! It’s a little chilly today and I am wearing it. I took the letter off years ago but the flap in the pocket has my name embroidered on it. One of the buttons aged differently than the others – looks reddish rather than black. I’ll wear it as a basic black cardigan (with the odd button) in the fall and winter. I made a small pile of some other things in the closet to give away. My pile is big enough now that I am scheduling a pickup from my front porch!

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CSA Bounty – September 2020

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Fabulous fall veggies. Our shares have been full of them all month.

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This week we got

  • The last of the tomatoes (green) which I have ripening near the kitchen window,

  • The first butternut squash and sweet potatoes (both on the large side),

  • Maybe the last of the shishito peppers (I picked a few snacking peppers in the cutting garden),

  • And the fall staples of potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, garlic, hot peppers, and kale.

I love the orange veggies (squash and sweet potatoes) and will probably use them for custards or hearty soups…although I like sweet potatoes grated and used in salads and stir fries (as I would carrots). I might have to cook them and then freeze portion sizes since their size is overwhelming to eat in one week!

I cut stevia in the cutting garden and have it drying on the counter. I’ll use it to sweeten pots of hot tea – maybe I’ll have enough to use for the remainder of 2020.

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There were still a few flowers – more on those in another post.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sweeping acorns and oak leaves. The driveway was covered again. I noticed a squirrel sniffing the acorns and maybe taking a few….there are way too many acorns to rely on the squirrels to do the clean up! I swept the driveway and then the gutter in the street which filled the wheelbarrow. The load made a nice addition to my compost pile (lots of browns to overwhelm the few ‘green’ kitchen scraps I have.

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I am discovering joy in everyday activities….that might be considered chores. The clear driveway plus the knowledge that I’ve kept the acorns and twigs from clogging the storm drain are two positives for the day!

September sunrise. I always do the grocery shopping early and this time I was on my way to the store before sunrise. I stopped at the CSA turn out to take a picture. It was a great way to start the day.

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Mini-clover. The clover is filling in the bare spots in the yard and is still short enough that the mower doesn’t touch it. So far – it had worked better than our attempts to overseed with grass seed. We’ll see what happens over the winter. I hope we’ll still have enough warm days that it will grow a bit more and be firmly established before the first frost.

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Gobolinks

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I found a book published in 1896 – made available on Project Gutenberg – that is prompting a project: Gobolinks by Ruth McEnery Stuart and Albert Bigelow Paine.

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The book has a short introduction describing how to create the images (folding a paper…putting blots of ink on one side then closing the paper to create the ‘shadow’ side) and then some poetry about what the images ‘look like’ – goblins or insects or birds on a wire (lots of opportunity for imagination).

I decided to try some of my own gobolinks…using some food coloring that has been in the cabinet so long it had dried out completely. I rehydrated it and made a first attempt with some printer paper. Dropping the color from the food coloring bottles made huge, dark blobs!

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After a few days, I decided to try again with some lightweight cardboard/card stock tiles that I could later overlay with a Zentangle pattern. I folded them in different ways.

My plan was to make a drop of food coloring and then moved the color around with a toothpick before closing the fold. I quickly realized that the lightweight cardboard absorbed the food coloring very quickly (glad I had a newspaper layer underneath). The others turned out reasonably well although the color is very dark. I’ll use the white gel pen when I overlay the patterns.

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And I’ll dilute the color next time I make some Gobolink tiles!

Capturing Moments

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There are always things to notice…and we are often carrying around something (phone or small camera) that can capture the moment. Here are some recent nature captures:

At the car dealership while I waited for my car after its service…I photographed the flowers in urns with my phone; the water droplets on the big leaves were left from the rain earlier in the morning.

My attention was captured most by the flowers that had dropped and always to land upside down with there stems pointed skyward. They must have been knocked off by the rain.

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Next - I was walking down the driveway when I spied something round in the driveway. I went back to the house for my small camera. Once I looked more closely, I realized it was an crushed acorn that had stayed together rather than scattering into pieces. It still had the cap (on the bottom)!

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The blue jays come to our deck frequently, but I hadn’t ever seen them on the feeder. There is a reason….the roost are too close together for the birds (see how the bird is ducking and can’t perch on the roost normally) and their weight is enough to partially close the openings where the seed is available. This bird did get a few seeds but flew away and didn’t return!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cocoon. One of my oldest pieces of clothing is a ‘cocoon’ I made back 1985. I use it during the change in season when it’s too cool to go without a wrap but then warms up and I want something that lets in more air…then off and folded up neatly. It is made of gray cotton fleece. Its current dimensions are 19.5” x 62” – probably stretched out over the years. The construction is two French seams (narrow dimension) with an arm hole left on the fold end. It’s a semi-structured blanket!

And then a folded under hem of around the edges. I used red thread to break the monotony of the gray fleece.

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It folds neatly making it easy to carry and pack. It’s something I wear frequently enough to keep even though it is about 35 years old since I remember making it in the fall!

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First day of autumn. It was 40 degrees this morning…very autumn like. The oak and sycamore are dropping leaves, but the tulip poplars and maples are still very green. We have a lot of acorns on the driveway that I need to sweep up and take back to the forest.

Painterly Flower Photographs

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A photography project in my home office: sitting on the other side of the office from the flowers and using the zoom on the camera to get magnified images of the flowers….varying light and magnification. Sometimes I rest the camera on my knee to hold it steady – fold out the view screen to compose the image. Sit back and enjoy the slide show; it will last a little over a minute before it loops back to the beginning.

The advantage of using the zoom is that the depth of field is enough to get the whole flower in focus; getting close…using a macro lens approach…would make it harder to get the focus I wanted. The higher the magnification the more ‘painterly’ they become; the focus softens. I like that the background often is flat or washes out….even the window screen is a pale gray grid. Capturing curves and textures of the petals is the priority.

There are three kinds of flowers: black-eyed susans, zinnias, cone flowers. They all came from the CSA over the past three weeks. Some of the petals are already beginning to dry and curl; the part under the petals of the zinnias starts out as shades green…then turns to shades of brown as the flowers age..

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sewing Machine. I have put my 47-year-old sewing machine in the pile I am collecting to donate. It still has all the things it came with – even the instruction book. I used it a lot for about 15 years. For the first 10 of those years I made almost all my clothes. I even took some tailoring classes in 1983 – thinking I would make my suits for work. Then my career ramped up and required more time; I started buying my suits and making my blouses. By the time by daughter was born I was sewing infrequently. I’m not sure why it took me so long to let it go; it was an easy ‘declutter’ decision.

Blue Skies. The hazy skies are gone…but the temperature is still on the cool side. The forecast shows a warming trend…back up to the 80s.

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Art of Bridges – September 2020

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Bridges in art is the theme for this post. I’ve collected the images over the past month as I browsed through art slideshows on Internet Archive. The post on the same theme in August can be found here. These images give me the idea of doing more photographing of bridges once I start traveling again; it’s a relatively easy thing to do on a road trip when my husband is driving….and the windshield is relatively clean. Of course, there are other – sometimes more dramatic – view of bridges from the side rather than the bridge surface. Maybe we’ll make a point to find vantage points of complex bridges…a short stop for a few pictures!

There are 12 artist featured this month – from showing different countries, time periods, and styles. The bridges are made of stone, concrete, steel and wood – and they are not always crossing water! The artist name/link is to the slideshow where more of their work can be seen. Enjoy these images…and look at the other paintings from these artists in the Internet Archive entry on their work.

Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - )

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cool morning….breakfast adjustment. I like smoothies but when the outdoor temperature is in the 50s, I want something warm. The past few mornings I’ve started out with hot tea with coconut almost milk and a few pieces of dark chocolate. At mid-morning (when I was having a smoothie with the consistency of soft-serve ice cream because of all the frozen ingredients), I have something that is decidedly more lunch-like. I’m changing the name of the light meal from 2nd breakfast to 1st lunch! A bowl of potato soup  with lots of good veggies from the CSA tastes so good on a cold morning!

Birds on our Deck

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The bird feeder camera has not been as interesting recently, but I noticed two sequences where there were 2 or more species of birds there at one time. The first one is a Downy Woodpecker joined first by a female Northern Cardinal, and then a White-breasted Nuthatch.

The next sequence has a female finch (maybe) on the side of the feeder away from the camera and a Tufted Titmouse. The titmouse moves around a bit and is then joined by a Carolina Chickadee. The titmouse flies away and a White-breasted Nuthatch comes. The finch stays on the same perch for the duration.

The pictures I take with my camera through my office window are sharper. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker (female) is coming to the feeder periodically. There must be plenty of food in the forest since she does not come frequently.

The House Finches sometime come in groups. They are probably the most frequent species at the feeder.

The Carolina Chickadees are high energy visitors to the deck…and not just to the feeder.

The Chipping Sparrows sometimes  come a lot and other times appear to be gone somewhere else temporarily.

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A male Downy Woodpecker comes periodically.

Mourning Doves survey the yard from the deck railing. They also like the bird bath…and clean up any seed that falls from the feeder.

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The strangest photograph this month was of a Carolina Wren….that appears to be missing a tail! I didn’t notice the oddity until I looked at my images on a bigger monitor. The bird behaved normally so maybe it will survive (and grow new tail feathers).

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Mourning Ruth Bader Ginsburg….an increase in concern for the future of our country. So many things are adding together to make 2020 a traumatic (and tragic) year. Maybe times like this are the ultimate test of our character as individuals and as a society.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 19, 2020

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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.

Asphalt adds to air pollution, especially on hot, sunny days -- ScienceDaily – Evidently, it’s not just fresh asphalt that pollutes air. In cities, pollution from asphalt is significant enough that it needs to be considered in efforts to reduce pollution. Because it is usually dark in color it also contributes to the heat island effect in cities.

The Peopling of South America | The Scientist Magazine® - Sites along both coasts of the continent…analyzed with modern technologies…teasing out more information about the waves of migration.

The fate of antiques and heirlooms in a disposable age - BBC Future – As we come more conscious of the impact of our lifestyle on the environment….maybe durability of our possessions becomes more important again.

Researchers identify five types of cat owner -- ScienceDaily – In this study…the types are defined in terms of their attitudes toward their pets’ roaming and hunting: conscientious caretakers, concerned protectors, tolerant guardians, laissez-faire guardians, and freedom defenders. My husband and I are in the 1st category although there is a component of the second in our attitude as well. We keep our elderly cat indoors or on the screen enclosed deck.

Think Pigeons Are Boring? Not These Birds – From around the world.

How we sleep today may forecast when Alzheimer's disease begins -- ScienceDaily – The study indicates that the amount of deep sleep (i.e. non-REM slow-wave sleep) is predictive of how restorative sleep is for the brain (as measured by the build up (or not) of beta-amyloid plaques). They haven’t yet done the next step: improving sleep quality and observing the impact on beta-amyloid plaques.

Botanical gardens - where nature meets science and society – A short history of botanical gardens of Europe.

Some of America's favorite produce crops may need to get a move on by 2045 -- ScienceDaily – A third of veggies and two thirds of fruits/nuts consumed in the US are grown in California. In 20 years, climate change will make much of the area hotter and drier. The study looked at 5 crops (lettuce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and cantaloupe) that make up 64% of California’s cash value of veggies/melons. In the future, cool season crops (like broccoli and lettuce) will be grown not just in fall and spring…but in the winter too. It will be too warm to continue growing tomatoes during the summer as that they are grown now and it could be challenging to find a 4 month period where the temperature is in a good range for tomatoes. The main message of the study is that planning needs to be done now to maintain food production in the US.

Eat, Prey, Love: Fast Facts on the Remarkable Praying Mantis – Mantises are fascinating insects. I listened to a video  recently about hummingbirds from one of the birding festivals that talked about mantises sometimes eating hummingbirds!

Playfulness can be trained - here's why you should do it -- ScienceDaily – Applying interventions of positive psychology to playfulness. It appeals to me that the study is coming out now when we have so many people in awkward situations trying to stay healthy. Increasing playfulness was found to improve mood!

Children of our Town (in 1902)

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The illustrations in Children of our Town were done by Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire….showing children as they were in towns and cities in 1902. The verses were written by Carolyn Wells and link the book to New York (i.e. a city) where it was published. Still – it’s interesting to browse the pictures and think about how reflective these images are of children of that era.

There are several indications that these were children of people that were well off:

  • they are always wearing shoes even in warm weather,

  • they are often at places that would have cost money (a merry-go-round, a zoo, an excursion boat),

  • they have equipment like skates and toys,

  • sometimes the adult with them appears to be a nanny or maid.

1902 is an interesting year in my perception of the time since my grandfathers were born in 1901 and 1903. Their situation would have been very different since they were not living in a city or town; they were part of a rural population that had enough to eat because they grew food but were generally challenged for things they couldn’t produce themselves. One of my grandfathers talked about going barefoot all the time as a child and also an instance where he fashioned shoes for himself out of shoe boxes when it was very cold. They also were more involved in the work of the farm as soon as they were old enough to gather eggs or pull weeds or scare birds away from the garden.  Whatever toys they had were ones they (or their parents) made from materials available to them (bark boats for the creek, clay from the creek bank, etc.). I wondered if they had marbles like the city children.

(Note - There is a version of Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses illustrated by the same artists available from Project Gutenberg published in 1928. It’s interesting to see how the work of these artists evolved over time.)

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Mowing leaves. I made a first mulching of leaves on our yard. The oak and sycamore are beginning to drop their leaves and those leaves are big enough to form mats if they are not mowed to bits at the right time. From now on the mowing will be more about leaves than grass!

Winding down in the cutting garden. There are fewer flowers in the CSA’s cutting garden. I cut fewer this week.

At some point I’ll be making very different kinds of bouquets – may some amaranths and seed pods. The stevia and fennel had the tops cut off  (appeared like it was done just a few hours before I got there) so I gathered the clippings that were on top of the remaining plants and have the stevia clipped and drying on a tray. The fennel seed heads are still in a bag. I haven’t quite figured out how to handle them.  

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The cooler temps mean that we have lettuces again. We got two single-salad size lettuces this week and they look almost like flowers (and are edible)!

Under the Bird Feeder

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I poured out the seed left in the bird feeder before I refilled it – and we had more visitors than usual come to the area to get the food. I was surprised that a squirrel did not come. I took some pictures through the French door of our breakfast area of a mourning dove, a chipmunk and a juvenile cardinal that were the first to come and cleaned up most of the bounty.

Mourning doves are on our deck regularly. One came almost immediately after I went back inside from refilling the feeder. They are too big for the feeder itself but always part of the cleanup crew underneath. I got a blink sequence of the bird!

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Zooming even more, look at the feather structure on the back of the Mourning Dove! The different shades of off-white….and then very black spots.

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The Eastern Chipmunk has tunnels all around our house (or maybe there is a whole family). Only one came to the deck. They are fun to watch with their oreo striped sides…the way they stuff the seeds into their cheek pouches to maximize what they can take back to their nest…the occasional pause to eat something (I assume those are particularly tasty sees) under the sheltering parts of the deck structure. I hadn’t previously noticed the way the inside part of the ear is somewhat folded….the zoomed images provide a lot of opportunity to observe details. Use the arrows at the side of the image to move through the slideshow at your own pace.

I took a picture of the juvenile Northern Cardinal with an adult male a few days before the extra seed. The juvenile is almost adult size, but its beak is still black rather than orange. It is a clumsy flyer and the female was bringing seed down to the feeder for the young bird (and it was begging with fluttering wings and vocalizations under the watchful eyes of the male).

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It managed to get to the deck where the seed was located a few days later and found seeds on its own. The dark beak is beginning to change color. The zoomed pictures show that the feathers are still more down-like on the breast and the way the bird holds itself is different. It isn’t standing up on its feet like adult birds do…and maybe that is why it can’t handle the roosts on the feeder yet.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Another sunny day with haze in the sky. This morning (Wednesday, 9/16) the haze from the western fires is not as dense over Maryland. The sky is slightly blue (not yet the normal blue-sky color) and we can distinguish some puffy clouds under the smoke layer during some parts of the morning. The light has a different quality with the haze overhead. Air quality at ground level is not impacted.

Gas grill. Our propane tank on the gas grill ran out a few months ago and we’ve be talking about how we could safely do the exchange for a new tank…and then an email from our neighborhood group included a blurb about Propane Taxi becoming available in our area. So – we have a low risk way to get a replacement tank (arrangements via website, paid for in advance…contactless). The service is associated with Home Depot and becoming available in metropolitan areas. We’ll put our empty tank on our porch and a full one will be left in its place. And we’ll be grilling again soon!

30 years ago – September 1990

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30 years ago – in September 1990 – my daughter passed her 1-year mark and a few weeks later started to walk rather than cruise. The transition from taking few steps/walking while holding onto something to walking all the time happened on a single day and we took lots of pictures. She even started carrying things in her hands on that day (her favorite being a blanket). She also figured out a way to get on our bed without help – by using the foot board as a step up and then a leg up and over. She might have been motivated by the books that were in the headboard since the first thing she did once she was on the bed was to pull them all out to look at. The cat patiently supervised.

She was speaking in single words…mostly people or food. A day or so after she started walking, she kept repeating ‘book’ as we came into the house from her day care….and she insisted on going up to her bedroom….where she immediately went to the stack of books we had by our rocking chair and pulled out the book she wanted….sat down to look at it. She must have been thinking about it as we drove home.

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I had been gradually increasing my work hours during the month and had my full-time assignment that would start October 1. I was making plans for some family travel over Thanksgiving…but concerned that my new assignment had the potential to be in crunch mode at the same time. I was trying to not get too anxious but had not quite acclimated to the mom and career duality. The ‘Sally Forth’ comic strip was becoming my role model of the type relationship my daughter and I would have as she got older….maybe.  

My husband was being supportive…helping more with our daughter and setting up an office for me. This was the time that we went from 1 home computer to 2. I had the best room in the house for my office (a view of our front yard trees from the window).

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Haze at 30,000 feet. We are having hazy skies in Maryland from smoke created by the fires in California! Evidently the jet stream is carrying the smoke across the northern part of the US. By the time it gets here, it is a thin layer and high enough to not cause air quality issues. We can tell it’s a sunny day because there are shadows on our yard…but the sky is not blue.

Black-eyed Susans

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The Black-Eyed Susan is the Maryland State Flower. There are a few plants that always grow in the front flower bed – coming up year after year since we had a butterfly garden there more than 10 years ago. The other plants were not as enduring. The day lily bulbs are so dense that the leaves shade out just about everything else.

The Black-eyed Susan leaves come out early and are big enough to hold their place among the day lilies. Sometimes the buds form low enough that they are protected from the deer by the day lily leaves around them.

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Other times the buds are on the end of spindly stems and the deer sometimes eat a few of them. The buds must not taste as good as other vegetation because the majority survive.

I’m always please to see the flowers more easily after I cut back the day lily leaves in later summer. The Black-eyed Susans become the big color in the garden then.

When I was taking pictures of the flowers recently – I managed to get close enough to get a relatively good picture of a bottle fly. The temperature was in the low 60s and the fly was not as active as it would be later in the day.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Working Cat. My daughter sends us texts with pictures of her cat. He became part of the family during the pandemic, so the pictures provide our first impressions of him. He has favorite lookouts where he can monitor the rabbits in the yard. Her annotation for pictures below were “working at his desk” and “at his standing desk today.”

6 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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September 12th marked the 6th month since the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic. I started a monthly post taking stock of the impact on day to day life back in July (previous posts: July and August). Here’s the one for the 6th month!

There were three activities that were new during this 6th month – things that were critical enough to not put off:

  • Our clothes dryer broke. Our first reaction was panic…a bit more than we would have during pre-pandemic times. Fortunately, the problem seemed to be something we had experienced before (the heating element) and the manufacturer had a website to make a repair appointment. It was a little frustrating that the repair person came to diagnose the problem but our dryer was old enough that the part had to be ordered…so it took 2 service calls. On the plus side – masks were worn by all….and we didn’t have to buy a new dryer.

  • I got a flu shot at my grocery store pharmacy. It was not crowded but I was very aware that I felt more stressed than in previous years – hyper aware of where people were around me. It feels strange now to be closer than 6 feet to anyone other than my husband. Everyone was wearing masks which made it a little better; I had to go later than my usual shopping time because the pharmacy opens later than the grocery part of the story. When an effective vaccine is available there will be a time of re-socialization – getting acclimated again to having more people around in closer proximity.

  • My husband and I both got our cars serviced – something we had been putting off. My husband’s car was the forcing function because a button came off/broke. We didn’t wait at the dealership for the service to complete. That meant that we chose a closer-to-home dealership for his car. For mine – the dealership where we purchased the car 3 years ago was the closest. Overall – it was an OK experience: all the people in the service area were wearing masks and we could (mostly) maintain distance. We brought our own bottle of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes --- drove way after the service with the windows down to fully exchange the air in the car.

We’ve started talking about when we might venture out to get haircuts since are looking a bit scraggly (last haircuts were in January). The place we normally go is accepting appointments so maybe we’ll go in the next month.

Virtual Bird Festivals are dominating our webinar experiences. In the past month we’ve enjoyed Yampa Valley (Colorado), Bosque del Apache (New Mexico), and Puget Sound (Washington) videos and webinars.   There will be others coming up throughout the fall.

I am prioritizing finding activities that give us joy....to combat the aspects of these pandemic times that are depressing.

  • Who would have predicted 20 years ago that improving communication (i.e. social media and the internet) would result in such a dramatic increase in anarchy (other names could be conspiracy theories, fictional stories/events presented a fact, encouragement of armed resistance) along with the positives? I would really like it to be easier to find validated/confirmed news stories and a lot less opinion (outright lying).

  • Growing up in the 1960s at a time when everyone was following public health guidance re the sugar cube polio vaccines….it surprises me now that there are people opposed to wearing masks. I grew up thinking that it was a social responsibility to behave in a way that cared about others: getting vaccines, stopping at stop signs/red lights, requiring people in the car with me to wear seat belts, wearing shoes in eating establishments, etc.

  • In this 6th month the linkage between climate change and the pandemics became more obvious to me with the fires along the west coast (record breaking hot dry conditions, big electrical storms). In the near term –the evacuations make social distancing a challenge and the smoke impacts lung function in ways that probably will increase the deaths from COVID-19 in some areas. It’s a compounding tragedy. In the longer term – perhaps it increases the overall awareness that more climate actions (moves to reach drawdown and change mitigation) are required for our own health (as well as the health of everything on our planet). The life expectancy for humans may have already peaked.

I still think my husband and I are positioned to weather this pandemic by continuing the vigilance of the last 6 months. We are making carefully planned adjustments but continue to spend most of our time at home until there is a safe and effective vaccine.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Gleanings from the Puget Sound Birding Festival. The first day was the most intense with some pre-recorded videos then 4 hours of webinars. I was glad there were 30-minute breaks between the sessions but was exhausted by the end. Here are some links I gleaned from the sessions:

Just as with the Yampa Valley virtual festival…..I want to go to this festival one too!!!! Maybe next September – and plan some visits to some of the parks in the Northwest on the same trip!

Mini-clover update. There’s only been one day that we could skip watering because it rained. Otherwise – I’ve turned on the water 1st thing in the morning and my husband goes out an hour later to move the hose to the second location. Teamwork.

Cat at the door. Our cat tends to watch us from the window beside the front door when we are working in the front yard. Sometimes we can tell that he is meowing (yelling) at us.

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