Newport Teahouse and Green Animals

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The issues of House & Garden from the second half of 1983 (available on Internet Archive) include pictures from two Newport RI places that I visited back in 2014…and I always like to find places I’ve visited in magazine pages:

Green Animals Topiary Garden (my blog post from October 2014 and the official site). It was one of my favorite places because it was outdoors…and so different from the ostentatious houses.

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Chinese Teahouse at Marble House

(the official site and my blog post with depictions of the Tea House published in the 1916 Architectural Record that includes some of my photos from 2014). I only saw the outside in 2014 so it was interesting to see the picture of inside from 1983 and the ‘Votes for Women’ cup from its association with the suffrage movement.

Another significance for these issues – my husband and I had just made our big move from Texas to the east coast (Virginia) in 1983. We had moved into our house at the end of June and within a couple of weeks, the air conditioner compressor stopped working! As I browsed through the 1214 pages of this volume, I remembered that I would have been way too busy to have noticed them at all in 1983 (unless they happened to be available to thumb through while I was waiting for an appointment). Here are some other images from the volume that I am enjoying so many years later!

A Year in COVID-19 Pandemic

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It’s been a year since the WHO declared the COVID-19 Pandemic. This time last year was chaotic with shortages in grocery stores and trying to figure out how to reduce our risk of getting the virus; in March 2020 even the medical professionals didn’t always have the equipment they needed to protect themselves and the public was not yet being encouraged/mandated to wear masks. Shutdowns were just starting.

A lot has happened since then. For some, the impacts of the pandemic year will continue for a long time. For me – I am more aware than ever of how fortunate my family has been to stay well and to now be getting vaccinated. My parents and nieces were the first to get vaccinated; my parents because they were over 75 and my nieces because they are medical professionals. Then my sisters and me.  My husband and I managed to make an appointment to get vaccinated the first time our county health department notified us that appointments were available to us (notified on a Sunday and appointments were available on Friday…we took the first available). We got the first shot of the Moderna vaccine last Friday and already have our appointments for the 2nd dose; we’ve been recording our side effects (minor) using the vsafe.cdc.gov tool. My daughter and son-in-law got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last Saturday. They experienced a few more side effects – were glad they had the Sunday to rest – but were able to teach their classes at the university on Monday.

In our state (Maryland), the rollout of the vaccine seems a little chaotic, but it appears that a lot of people are anxious to be vaccinated and the supply is slowly increasing. The state has scaled up the capacity for getting shots in arms by increasing the number of sites providing vaccines. I was in the throes of trying to figure out when pharmacies got supplies of vaccine so I could make an appointment when we got the notice from our country health department. The site my husband and I went to was well organized and kept people moving through with plenty of distancing. We filled out a survey and made our second appointment via our phones while we were waiting the 15 minutes after the shot.

In the past month – I have started mini road trips to get used to driving again. It’s a great time of year to begin to get out and about more…choosing outdoor activities and locations where there are not many people around. Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant and Brookside Gardens have been my favorite destinations so far.

I have started wearing KF94 masks that fit me better than any of the cloth ones I have.

As soon as I am fully protected by the vaccine (in mid-April), I will be taking a road trip to Dallas to see my parents. The CDC’s recent guidance has helped me begin planning the trip. I will be wearing my KF94 mask during times I might encounter other people on the road trip down – to protect others…and to reduce the risk to myself from any variants that the vaccine might not handle effectively. I’ll get takeout or drive through food rather than going into a restaurant. And then I’ll stay in Texas for several weeks for a good visit and maybe get some projects done for my parents while I am there. My Dad will be reaching the 90 year milestone this month.

I enjoyed 3 birding festivals in one weekend during the past month: Laredo, Niagara, and Bosque del Apache. It was a very cold weekend…the webinars a welcome distraction. I am continuing some webinars but skewing toward more outdoor time in the coming weeks.

I am also preparing to resume my volunteer activities. The organizations have changed and are offering training for the programs they are doing now and anticipating the ramp up as more and more people are vaccinated and the infections continue to drop in our area.

The % positive from testing in Maryland is the one I am using to decide if I will resume going into the grocery store rather than doing curbside pickup. Right now, it is looking good so I might do my own shopping next week! I enjoy picking out my own items…automatically picking substitutes on the fly rather than interacting via texts with a shopper. And I like using my own reusable bags; we’ve been accumulating a lot of paper bags recently!

In the next week or so, the US will pass the 100M vaccines administered milestone (https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations ) and the trends of infections/deaths are declining. Good news…and there is a lot of work being done to help it continue.

Macro Landscapes

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On my recent walks around the yard, I’ve been noticing the tiny landscapes on the ground….the greens of very early spring. The moss under our deck stays green all winter and now there are tiny plants (clovers and mock strawberry) coming up through it. They’ll stay low growing so we’ll never mow the area.

A patch of moss can also be found near our chaos garden. It appears to be more yellowish (maybe got too dry) with red seta…the  sporophyte that was at the top of the seta is already gone (i.e. the spores long dispersed). The grass is beginning to grow around the moss and it will eventually be in the path of the lawn mower.

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There are some weeds beginning to grow too…..coming up in the grass, tulips poplar seeds, and rolls of sycamore bark. The mowing will keep it short. I tend to leave weeds like this…hoping they have deeper roots than the turf grass…better at holding the soil on the slope.

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The soil a few feet away from the chaos garden must be rich in humus since there seems to be a puff ball or two every year. This one is from last fall. I remember finding it when I was mowing the leaves! It has collapsed but somehow managed to stay relatively intact through the winter. Underground the mycelium is growing and decomposing the humus further with the help of microbes….the makings of healthy soil.

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The daffodils are up in the oak leaves, old day lily leaves, and tulip poplar seeds in our front flower beds. Maybe I’ll cut a few of the flowers this season to bring their springtime indoors.

There are the usual ‘weeds’ in the same beds. I recognize the mock strawberry. There is a chance that some of the others could be black-eyed susans which I  want for the bees and butterflies during the summer.

There are a few crocuses coming up. There are fewer every year. One came up last year out in the yard…the bulb probably moved there by a squirrel.

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I looked closely at the joint between the driveway and our front walkway – lots of tulip poplar seeds there. They had made enough ‘soil’ for a small clover and some mock strawberry to grow. And there was a worm using the crack as a highway between the lawn and the flower bed; it was heading toward the flower bed….a much richer place for the worm!

Finally, I checked the bush at the corner of the garage. I’ve been nurturing a young holly to take over for the old bush. I discovered a plant growing in the stump of the old bush…a sure sign that it is rotting. I’ll be cutting it closer to the ground and let the holly take over completely.

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Overall – these macro landscapes look more springlike than our trees at this point. I’ll wait a few more weeks to photograph the large scale spring landscape.

Found Feather

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I was out in the yard picking up sticks and sweeping the deck on a sunny afternoon….and found a feather in a pile of tulip poplar seeds. There were no other feathers around so maybe this one fell out as part of a molt rather than a predator/prey interaction. The tip was in relatively good shape, so it probably had joined the pile of seeds sometimes after the last rain. I took it inside to photograph.

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The feather had a lot of down near the base.  Using my 65x magnifying lens with a light clipped to my phone – it is easy to see the structure of the fluff!

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The part of the feather near the tip had even more structure although there are already parts of the feather than have split apart…and small debris. If the feather were still attached, the bird would be preening to correct both imperfections. Once a feather falls out, it doesn’t last long in the natural world.

Mini Road Trip: Brookside Gardens – Part 2

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This time of year, I always check the witch hazels…small trees that are blooming along the path away from the visitor center toward the conservatory. They have unusual flowers with ‘streamers’ away from a deep red center. It was a little too cold when I was at Brookside to see any pollinators – but 10 degrees warmer and the early insects would be visiting the blooms.  

The color of the streamers varies from yellow to red. I think my favorites are the combination…the yellow orange. Evidently the flowers are very weather dependent and last longer if there are cold spells!

I tried an experiment with the high key technique…the sun behind the flowers and overexposing. The increased detail of the center of the flower was good but the background was too noisy and the compositions are not great; I got cold….rushed too much. Maybe the blooms will still be around next time I go to Brookside and I’ll try again.

Mini Road Trip: Brookside Gardens – Part 1

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The mini road trip to Brookside Gardens last week was my first time back to the gardens in over a year. It was in the low 50s, sunny and breezy – I typical early March day for our area of Maryland. The outing started out with a group of five robins looking for worms in our front yard as I drove away for the house – a great indicator of early spring. There were not as many people at Brookside as there had been at Centennial Park and almost everyone was masked and maintaining distance; it was a more comfortable situation…and I took so many pictures that there will be a second post about the mini road trip tomorrow.

On the walk from the parking lot toward the visitor’s center, there was a bird’s nest from last season in one of the young trees. I’ll see the spring action at Brookside this year that I completely missed in 2020!

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It’s still early in the season – but there are some flowers to photograph in the gardens already.

There are plants that stay green through the winter too. I always enjoy the profuse stand of horsetails planted in one of the beds at the visitor center.

The tall sycamore uphill from the conservatory has been cut to a tall stump. It had struggled in recent years with some the higher branches being leafless/dead. The stump has been fitted with a mask and googly eyes!

There was another tree I noticed had been cut down too! I’m glad they left the roots and short stump…wonder what will come up around it in the bed.

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The hydrangea flowers from last season were prevalent….and seem to always draw my attention;  their flowers are so large and they last, in dried form, through the winter. Maybe I’ll plant some native hydrangeas at my house…although the deer that come through our yard would gobble them up if they were not protected with fencing.

Tomorrow I’ll post about the witch hazels blooming at Brookside!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 6, 2021

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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.

America’s First National Wildlife Refuge – Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge….I’m including it in our plans for the next time we go to Florida; it’s about 1.5 hours to the south of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge which is always one of the places we visit in Florida.

Highly functional membrane developed for producing freshwater from seawater: A desalination membrane laminated with nanosheets featuring 2D nanochannels -- ScienceDaily – Still in the research stage. Maybe this is one of the technologies that will enable low-energy desalination - something we will need to avoid water shortages in many areas of the world.

A mild way to upcycle plastics used in bottles into fuel and other high-value products -- ScienceDaily and How Paving with Plastic Could Make a Dent in the Global Waste Problem - Yale E360 – Two articles about uses for the plastic waste that is overwhelming the planet right now. There still needs to be significant testing on plastic for paving: will it withstanding heavy traffic…will it shed microplastic particles, etc.

Pompeii's Museum Reopens With Dazzling Display of Archaeological Treasures | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – I enjoyed the article…and the website for the new museum.

A large number of gray whales are starving and dying in the eastern North Pacific -- ScienceDaily – Ongoing research but one explanation being explored in a decline in prey (i.e. amphipods) availability in their Arctic feeding grounds – maybe caused by warming there due to climate change.

For the Birds: Why Designing for Birds is Good for Everyone - News | Planetizen – Fast Company interviewed Tim Beatley about his book; he was one of the speakers at the Birds on the Niagara conference.

Wombats Poop Cubes, and Scientists Finally Got to the Bottom of It | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Over 40,000 contractions as the feces moves down the intestine to shape a very dry cube. Evidently the cube shape is an indicator of wombat health!

Water Warning: The Looming Threat of the World’s Aging Dams - Yale E360 – Lots of people live downstream from big dams. Yikes! Decommission of dams is not easy…arguably it could be harder than the building of the dam originally.

Thousands of Wild Bee Species Haven't Been Seen Since 1990 | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Most of the data came from Europe and North America….with some from the rest of the world. All of it sums up to a grim picture when it comes to bees.

Yellowstone's Hotspot Has Been Simmering For About 17 Million Years – An example of how continued data collection and study…can shift our understanding of geologic history even in areas like Yellowstone that have been studied for a long time.

Mini Road Trip: Centennial Park

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On a recent sunny afternoon – I headed out on a mini road trip to Centennial Park. Others had the same idea; the first parking lot I went to was full; there were plenty of spots at the second lot I checked. There were more people than I expected; most – but no all – were masked. This mini road trip was the trial of wearing a KF94 mask with a second mask on top for me; I’d put the masks on before I left the house. I walked across the street after my pace was halted by a young woman stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to coax her reluctant dog to walk; I took a picture looking up the trunk of a gingko tree; the long buds with a rounded tip look like they’ll have tiny green leaves emerging soon.

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I went back to the sidewalk intending to take it to the main trail around the lake but that seemed like what everyone was doing and I was not keen to walk at the pace of the crowd to keep the distancing between groups. I was more interesting is finding at least one photographic opportunity which I saw almost immediately…under some pine trees near where I parked: pine cones in the grass and needles!

I found one that I photographed with my normal settings…then with special filters: art bold and water painting.

Before I turned back toward my car I took a picture of an empty picnic table. It was too cool for sitting around….people were out moving about and enjoying the sunshine.

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It was too crowded for me to spend more time at the park. I accomplished my goal for the mini road trip: get used to the mask configuration and re-familiarize myself with driving my car! I’ll be doing more of these short outtings over the next 6 weeks or so as one step toward a new normal I’ll  have post-vaccine.

eBotanical Prints – February 2021

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20 new books for the botanical prints list in January – all from Internet Archive. I started through the magazines of the Arnold Arboretum (Arnoldia) toward the end of January and all 20 of the ‘books’ for February are that magazine…and the browsing continues in March.

These volumes are from the past few decades rather than the past few centuries which is often the case with the eBotanical prints monthly posts. There is one image for each of the 20 new books; click an any sample images below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the February eBotanical Prints! The whole list of 2,084 eBooks can be accessed here.

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.3 (2017) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.3 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.4 (2017) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.4 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.4 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.4 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.3 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.3 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.1 (2013) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.1 (2013) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.2 (2013) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.2 (2013) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.3 (2014) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.3 (2014) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.1 (2015) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.1 (2015) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.2 (2015) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.2 (2015) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.1 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.1 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.2 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.2 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.4 (2014) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.4 (2014) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Arnoldia -  v.32 (1972) * Arnoldia -  v.32 (1972) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 1972

Arnoldia -  v.34 (1974) * Arnoldia -  v.34 (1974) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 1974

Arnoldia -  v.62:no.1 (2002) * Arnoldia -  v.62:no.1 (2002) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2002

Arnoldia -  v.62:no.2 (2003) * Arnoldia -  v.62:no.2 (2003) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Arnoldia -  v.62:no.3 (2003) * Arnoldia -  v.62:no.3 (2003) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Arnoldia -  v.63:no.1 (2004) * Arnoldia -  v.63:no.1 (2004) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Arnoldia -  v.63:no.2 (2004) * Arnoldia -  v.63:no.2 (2004) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Arnoldia -  v.63:no.3 (2005) * Arnoldia -  v.63:no.3 (2005) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Last Snow of February 2021

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It snowed for a short time on the 22nd – the last snow of the month. I was disappointed with my first foray out to photograph snowflakes.

They looked like pellets although not always sleet spheres like I had photographed earlier in the month. They were very white…and I could see that some were hexagonal even without magnification.

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When I used my clip-on magnifying lens with my phone – I saw that they were indeed heavily encrusted snowflakes. They were thick enough that the shallow depth of field with the magnification meant that parts were out of focus.

I tried again 30 minutes later and was surprised at how different the flakes looked. They were still encrusted but not as heavily. The temperature was warm enough that there were clumps of icy flakes --- pieces of structure.

My favorite image of the morning was taken during the second session. The lighting caused a little aberration, but I like the glitter of the ice…and the overall shapes.

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At dusk of the same day, the snow was still on the ground as the deer came through; they never stop for very long in our yard. This time they stopped for long enough for portraits. I’m quite sure the animal in the second image saw me in my window!

Overall – it was a winter’s day to enjoy…my routine pursuits with the added spice of snowflake photography and noticing deer staying a few minutes longer than usual in our back yard.

Mini Road Trips: Mt Pleasant – February 2021

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I visited Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant twice in February. The first attempt was a beautiful day – one of the warmest in February. It was a little traumatic because when I attempted to leave my house, my car’s battery was low; I decided not to hike – just make the round-trip drive to let the battery changed again.

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I took a picture of the river birch in the rain garden near the parking lot through the windshield.

The next day was colder but I was intent on hiking…seeing the skunk cabbage again about a month from when I’d hiked to see it back in January. The paths were often muddy and sometimes snow covered. I was glad my hiking boots were waterproof!

The approaches to the bridge over the stream near Hodge Podge Lodge were very muddy but I managed to step on and off onto vegetation. There seemed to be more sand than decaying leaves in the stream bed below the gentle ripples.

The area where the skunk cabbage grows is a low spot where a seep creates a muddy spot then forms the beginning of a stream that feeds into the Davis Branch. There are skunk cabbage plants in the muddy part and then along the tiny trickling stream. It takes a little hunting…watching your step to avoid stepping on plants emerging through last summer’s vegetation.

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There seemed to be about the same number of plants as in January. Some appeared to be damaged at the top by the recent very cold days. The plants create some heat chemical and pull themselves deeper in the muck to survive cold days…but the top part of the spathe would probably always be above the muck.

I did manage to zoom in on one plant that had a visible bloom! They look like a golf ball inside the spathe!

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I’ll make at least one more hike to see the skunk cabbage….try to photograph some of the first leaves unfurling.

Zentangle® – February 2021

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I created a lot of tiles in February – not counting the Valentines themed tiles I already posted. I am continuing my theme of utilizing tile material completely (modifying tile sizes that I cut to leave no small pieces of card stock/cardboard unused. I also started making two-sided tiles when the cardboard is ‘blank’ on both sides; these will lend themselves to hanging mobile type displays eventually. All the tiles were physical ones this month and I will probably continue that way until I use up the Ultra-Thin Sharpie set that I’ve had for a few years now; some of them have run out of ink already.

Most of the tiles were made without a plan in mind….I like to start with a pattern and then build a tile from the middle out – or start with a frame…with or without a string. Often I am surprised at various stages along the way – when I finish the drawing in black ink….when I finish ‘coloring’….when the highlighting as been added as a last pass. Sometimes the parts that remain as black lined patterns are a frame or simply the background. The white lines always draw my eye.

--

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.

Zooming - February 2021

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As I selected the images to include in this monthly post, I found more variety than usual. The experimental high key images are quite different than my usual photography – a type of photography I will continue to use in otherwise poor lighting conditions. There was also a lot of snow….in landscapes and as background to the usual birds. I took more pictures of deer in February too. One subject carried over from last month – the skunk cabbage is still blooming at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant and it’s the only picture taken away from home! Enjoy the slideshow.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 27, 2021

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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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Interactions! - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Raptors!  and Top 25 birds of the week: Feathers!  – A treat this week – 75 bird photographs – enjoy!

The unseen 'slow violence' that affects millions - BBC Future – The harms that happen so slowly that we don’t notice in the moment. It happens over months and years and decades (maybe even centuries). We notice as we use our ‘big data’ to see hot spots of ill-health, where the environmental degradation is at it’s worst, and populations that can’t seem to escape their dire situation. And the issue very quickly becomes – how does our culture respond to the awareness of that ‘slow violence.’

Carbon: Getting to net zero -- and even net negative -- is surprisingly feasible, and affordable -- ScienceDaily – A detailed model of the entire US energy and industrial system….showing how to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050…with particular emphasis on what needs to happen in the next 10 years.

The country rejecting throwaway culture - BBC Future – France has introduced an index of ‘repairability’ rating for appliances…hoping to increase the electronics repair rate to 60% within 5 years. I’m glad I opted to repair my clothes drier rather than replace it….although the repair (replacing of the failed heating element) produced some trash it was a lot less than the whole appliance! Things like phones and laptops and monitors are harder.

Carolina Wrens Will Nest in Just About Anything and Why Carolina Wrens Have Moved into Your Neighborhood – We had a Carolina Wren make a nest in a gas grill we hadn’t used in along time. It surprised me when I opened the lid and the bird – startled and then panicked – flew out onto the deck railing. There is usually a pair nesting somewhere around our yard; we see them when they come to the feeder and hear them even more frequently. The forest behind our house and the brush pile at the edge of the forest are good places for them.

Federal Funding Obtained to Replace Zion National Park's Shuttle Fleet – And they’ll be electric! What a great way to keep the air smelling like nature rather than combustion fumes!

Rare Yellow Penguin Photographed for the First Time | Smart News Science | Smithsonian Magazine – What an unusual looking bird! It’s a king penguin on South Georgia Island with leucism, a condition where melanin is only partially lost and some parts of the body retain color. In this case…the ability to produce the usual black pigment is missing.

New River Gorge is America's Newest National Park - News | Planetizen – This park is within ‘road trip’ distance from where we live….maybe a destination post-pandemic.

How we turned a golf course into a haven for rare newts, frogs and toads – Hopefully US golf courses are doing things like this too. I usually think of them as using a lot of chemicals and would not want to live near a golf course….but if they consciously made places for amphibians….it would mean that other creatures could survive in the space too. There is an Audubon International Certification program for golf courses but they don’t publish a list of course that are certified.

The Arctic Ocean might have been filled with freshwater during ice ages – Based on a geochemical study of sediments.

Japan in old Books

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The ‘subject’ metadata in Internet Archive can be used to find clusters of books on the same topic. Earlier this year I used a simple search to look at books about Japan using the subject “Japan – Description and Travel” and then sorting by the date published since I was mostly interested in books old enough for the copyright to be expired. I browsed the search results for books that included illustrations and am featuring my favorite ‘finds’ from this search in this weeks’ book post.

Every-day Japan by Arthur Lloyd (1909)

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Since my success with books about Japan – I’ve used the same type search for China, Algeria, Peru, Sweden, and Ireland….and am now browsing books from the Greece version of the search! I enjoy exploring books in the Internet Archive using the digital equivalent of walking through the stacks of a library…selecting a book and leafing through its pages (using thumbnail views)…pausing when something looks interesting. The big difference is the huge number of books available via Internet Archive and that I can do it anywhere/anytime there is a good internet connection! What a boon it is….particularly during this pandemic year.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2021

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The biggest celebrations of February 2021 were about my family surviving very cold weather in Missouri and Texas relatively unscathed…..and everyone staying well for another month. Of course – there were a myriad of little celebrations. I easily list one every day – and sometimes choosing what to record is a challenge!

There were more notations than usual about food in February. Some were experiments that were yummy…others were opportunistic:

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Snow ice cream. We had enough snow this month to make snow ice cream. I always wait for the snow to get at least 3-4 inches deep…then collect the top inch for the snow ice cream. I collect a bowl full then add half and half, chipped peppermint candy/sugar, and vanilla. It’s one of the few times I use my old electric mixer! The challenge is to make only as much as my husband and I can consume right away…we usually each manage a large bowl full. …celebrating a snow day favorite

Broccoli  with orange marmalade glaze. When it’s cold outside, I rarely want salad….this experiment was an easy way to have a ‘hot’ equivalent. I cut up broccoli just as I would for salad, tossed it over a spoonful of orange marmalade in a bowl and microwaved it for a minute or so. A quick stir to coat the broccoli with the melted marmalade, and it was ready to eat! …celebrating ‘hot’ versions of salads

Microwave apple with oatmeal and pecans. I bought a large bag of apples that my husband did not like as well as I thought he would, so I was looking for ways to use them. Breakfast in a bowl seemed to be a good option. I put about ½ cup almond milk in a microwavable bowl then 1/3 cup oatmeal, some brown sugar and cinnamon, a cut up apple, some chopped pecans. Microwave for a minute….stir…microwave for another 30 seconds to a minute…and enjoy. I’ve had it for breakfast several times but realize it would taste good to me any time of day! ….celebrating a new ‘comfort food’

Hot chocolate smoothie. I like smoothies and started experimenting with heating them up. My favorite is made with almond milk, chocolate protein powder, cocoa, banana, and kale. I make it the usual way in the Ninja then put it in a Pyrex measuring cup to heat in the microwave. I stir is several times while I heat…it thickens a bit. ….celebrating a decadent (healthy) treat

There were photography entries on my list too….some attempts that produced images to celebrate.

Snowflakes. There were several snow day during the month so I got several opportunities. I learned to pay attention to the temperature; in general – lower is better! …celebrating the challenge of macro photography outdoors in the snow

High key. This is an example of learning something new….being inspired…and lucky enough to create some interesting images almost immediately! …celebrating learning something new – well enough to be ‘dangerous’

And then there was the variety in the rest of the list:

Multiple virtual birding festivals in one day: Niagara, Laredo, and Bosque del Apache. It was almost overwhelming. We ended up saving some of the webinars until the next day. I was not ‘in the field’ but something that would have been physically impossible: New York/Canada – Texas – New Mexico all in one day! …celebrating the wonders of virtual travel

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Quiet snowy Sunday. Sometimes it’s good to have a day to just enjoy the scenery from our windows! …celebrating home

A warmer day in Maryland that Texas or Missouri. Texts were flying across states…the family checking in…worried about water pipes breaking or loosing electricity. My family was lucky enough to come through with relatively few problems! …celebrating family sharing during times of near/potential crisis.

Curbside groceries. I have noticed how different it is from last spring. The shoppers are faster (probably more experienced) and the supply in the store is better. It will be wonderful to shop for my own groceries again but for now I am….celebrating the curbside pickup grocery service.

New Swopper Chair

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My Swopper chair, that was more than a decade old, broke back in December; the base separated from the pedestal and seat. It could function as a stool that could tilt but had lost connection to the mechanism that enabled the bouncing motion. The new limitation impacted my goal to keep my activity level up all during the day (i.e. minimize completely sedentary time). I tried to shift to a new activity pattern; moving was more clumped than before because it included getting up from my computer to move every hour then having some times that were completely sedentary except some side to side moving on the broken Swopper. I found that I sometimes felt achy even after 30 or 40 minutes of not moving! The Swopper chair had allowed me to move more frequently without breaking my activity at the computer without me even being conscious I was moving…and I opted to buy a new Swopper.

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Now my office is back to the old ‘normal’ with the new chair and my aches are dramatically reduced.

The chair comes in 3 pieces in a big box: the base, the pedestal with spring, and the seat. Once they are put together…they don’t come apart. Its are expensive but will last a long time. I figure I bounced more than a million times on the old one before it broke, and I hope this new one is a durable.

Staying active every day is a lifestyle choice….one that helps me sustain the ability to do things I want to do for as long as possible.

Ice Shelf

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The skylight in the roof of our cover deck slopes enough that the snow and ice it accumulates acts like a mini-glacier as it melts. Over the past few days, our part of Maryland stayed cold with melting occurring with the sunshine even as the temperature stayed below freezing. And then everything re-froze overnight. The snow was icy and dense rather than fluffy because the majority fell as sleet….and as it began to slide down the slippery slope of the skylight, an ice sheet formed.

Did the icicles that formed at its edge provide any support?

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It lasted for more than 24 hours with the re-freezing overnight although there was a noticeable erosion of the ice closest to the skylight housing during the first exposure to sunshine.

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I watched it all morning the second day as the sun came up and the skylight began to get full sun as the morning progressed. About noon – the shelf cracked (I heard it rather than saw it)…slid down the rest of the roof and gutter and crashed to the deck below….shattering on impact.

It was awesome to watch this small model of glacier and ice shelf behavior --- think about how the process would translate to a larger scale and longer duration in the Antarctic.

High Key Photography Experiments

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I watched a webinar about high-key style photography done my Lisa Langell for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival earlier this month….and have been experimenting with the technique since then. The goal is to simplify subjects…and overexpose enough to get a totally white background. I haven’t gotten to the stage of attempting any post-processing; all the images in this post were accomplished in camera! It doesn’t have to be a ‘good light’ day to do this type of photography!

Of course – we had some snow days which are a natural for high key photographic experiments.

The cut flowers were good subjects as well. Most of these were taken in my office with light behind them from a lamp or the window in the afternoon.

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Peacock feathers are also good subjects. I experimented with different exposures and noted the color changes in the images below.

Now the challenge is to recognize opportunities for high key photography – transition a not-so-good day for photography into something quite different!

Sleet and Snowflake Macros

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I try to do some photography with my phone and clip-on macro lens with every snow event. On the 13th, the snow event was mostly sleet, but I enjoyed looking at and photographing the tiny spheres of ice. I caught them on a red glass plate...and also scooped a few onto the plate from the surface of the deck. Sleet is more durable to rough treatment that snowflakes! The icy spheres have swirls in them…smaller ones are stuck to larger ones…sometimes there is a visible fracture. My lens is a 65x magnification, so these are very small.

On the 19th, the tail end of our cold weather was snow rather than freezing rain. The temperature was about 30 degrees – a bit colder than my previous snowflake photography forays…and it turned out to be an interesting session. The flakes looked somewhat flattened….not as delicate as they might be if the temperature was lower. But – I didn’t have the challenge of inseparable aggregates that was the norm for my sessions when the temperature was just a few degrees warmer. I used a black acrylic tile to catch the flakes and then to photography them. It sat outside on the covered deck for several hours to cool down. I was pleased with the results…chagrined that I had forgotten to turn on the light associated with the clip-on lens; the pictures would have been even better with the extra light….an improvement I’ll make next time!