Zentangle® – March 2021

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Even though I am getting outdoors more with the improved weather, there is still plenty of time to create a daily Zentangle tile – or two or three. My favorite tile material is the cardboard dividers from the boxes of cat food; it has a slight texture that I like…and the size/shape appeals as well. It’s thick enough that I can make patterns on both sides of the tile.

A tissue box makes for some odd tiles. I’m using this one as a bookmark in one of the few physical books am reading.

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The traditional square tiles are made on a mix of card stock, recycled cardboard (FedEx envelope, tissue box, and canned drink boxes).

I cut one sheet of blue card stock into 4 tiles…no wastage of the sheet. I’m not sure I like the larger size.

I bought some triangle tiles and use a few of them each month just for variety. They are on the small side

Making Zentangle tiles is something I do every day…it’s a positive habit….something I enjoy for the quiet focused time it creates in the day – a bubble of calm - and the result is enjoyed immediately/savored for longer. The tiles that are started without a clear plan and then emerge are my favorites.

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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 – March 2021

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The overarching celebration of the past few months and March is family staying healthy. I’m listing 10 additional ‘little’ celebrations from my notes about March. The weather got warmer in March and 5 of the celebrations are outdoors!

  • Pine cones – Early in the month, before much was blooming – I celebrated finding pine cones on the ground at Centennial Park to photograph…quickly since there were too many people around to be comfortable for longer.

  • Howard County Conservancy outdoor greeter (volunteering) – I am beginning to volunteer again…outdoors and distanced and masked…but enjoying the interactions with people new to the place and the people I’ve met in prior years. I’m celebrating the small step toward a restart of activities I missed during the pandemic.

  • A day warm enough to walk without a coat – Celebrating springtime.

  • Finding a feather to photograph – Finding a feather is always a serendipity event. This time it was a tiny feather mixed in with tulip poplar seeds I was sweeping off the deck. It was a double celebration: finding the feather and then the photoshoot with a macro lens.

  • Skunk cabbage, shelf fungus, daffodils, crocus, plum blossoms – So many things to photograph. Celebrating the sights of spring.

There were two celebrations related to the vaccine:

  • My husband and I getting vaccinated – We were so relieved to get an appointment…and then to get the first dose of the Moderna vaccine 6 days later. It was something to celebrate….and a beacon of hope. We’ll get the second shot in early May.

  • My daughter and son-in-law getting vaccinated – Also a big relief because both are working at a university that has stayed open (with a mask mandate). They got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a few hours after they were notified of the availability.

And then there are three miscellaneous celebrations:

  • Spice cake muffins – My husband was bored with our usual meals….so I made muffins as a special treat. We celebrated the tasty (and different than usual) treats.

  • Getting everything on the grocery list – It seems like there is always something that is not available in the store when our shopper fills our order….and then we had a time when everything was in stock. It was a celebration just because it hadn’t happened before!

Successful road trip practice – I am practicing driving at highway speeds to be ready – once I am fully vaccinated – to make road trip (and extended visit) to see my parents. I am celebrating the successful practice and the anticipation of seeing family that I haven’t seen for over a year.

Storm Water Pond

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Our neighborhood storm water pond has changed quite a bit over the course of March. Earlier in the month a few red-winged black birds were at the pond but were not making much noise yet. The colors around the pond were mostly brown – the cattails from last season and the grass. There wasn’t much going on.

A few weeks later – the gunk has been flushed from the pond by recent rains and the cattails are still the drab colors of the overwintered plant. The grass has turned green.

Quite a few more birds were around. I noticed some crows just before I got to the pond. There were robins searching for worms in the grass.

Grackles were around the edges of the pond in about equal numbers to the red-winged blackbirds.

The male red-winded blackbirds were assertive – showing their red and yellow shoulder patches as they defined their territory.

I only saw one female, but I’m sure there were more down in the cattails where the birds make their a nest.

So - The bird activity at the pond has increased this month but I haven’t seen any turtles or frogs yet…maybe it’s still a bit too cool for them to be active.

Zooming – March 2021

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The sunny March days have been so pleasant – great times to be outdoors and photographing what I see. I’ve been venturing out from home a bit more too – Brookside Gardens, Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, and Centennial Park. There are still zoomed images taken through my office window (birds and the moon framed by tree branches); the sunrise and daffodils are from my house as well. Overall - this is just the beginning of the season for spring flowers. Can you find:

  • Skunk cabbage (Mt Pleasant)

  • Mourning Dove (my house)

  • Shelf fungus (2 of them - Mt Pleasant and my house)

  • Witch Hazel (Brookside)

  • Gingko tree trunk and branches (Centennial)

  • Blue jays (my house)

  • Dried hydrangea flowers (Brookside)

Enjoy the slideshow for March 2021!

Getting outdoors on these spring days is a mood boosting activity as well as good exercise. I’ve gotten comfortable enough wearing a mask that I just keep it on if I’ve in a place where I might encounter someone else on the trail. I enjoy it in the moment and then again when I view the images on my bigger screen monitor…and formulate the blog post. The activity is a bright core with tendrils of benefit that are longer lasting.

Road Trip Practice

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I drove 2 hours out-and-back along the route I would take to drive from my home in Maryland to Texas; the pandemic year dramatically reduced my driving as highway speeds…and I need practice before I set out on a longer drive!

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I started out around 6:50 AM…with the sunrise still a few minutes away and the clumps of daffodils set to welcome the morning light in front of our house.

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My idea was to drive to the first rest stop along the route – which is on I-66 going west from the Washington DC beltway. I was able to stay on cruise control for almost the whole hour even though the route has significant Saturday traffic. Construction stretches all along that route of I-66; it would be awful during a rush hour. I missed the exit for the westbound rest stop but needed to turn around anyway. I stopped at the east bound version after the exit and entering again going east – because I was watching very carefully for the exit.

There were cars and trucks at the stop, but I didn’t see anyone out and about. I put on my mask. There was a sign on the door to the restroom saying that a mask was required and a sign on the water fountain saying it had been turned off because of the pandemic. Part of the picnic area was roped off but the sign was unreadable; perhaps the new-looking stumps of two large trees and the muddy sidewalk might have been the reason for the closure rather than the pandemic.  I wondered if anyone stayed around long enough to sit on the Virginia benches.   

As I headed back toward home – I thought about what I’d learned from the road trip practice:

  • The I-70 to I-81 route might be better than I-95 to the Washington Beltway to I-66 to I-81 because of the miles of construction on I-66.

  • Plan to carry all the water needed for the hours on the road in the car rather than relying on opportunities to refill reusable bottles.

  • Rest stops are likely to be as well maintained as they were pre-pandemic, but I’ll still be using a lot of hand sanitizer rather than spending time washing hands and using the blower hand dryer.

  • There is more traffic than I anticipated at 7 AM on Saturday mornings on interstates – at least around Washington DC.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 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.

Alexander Calder – Modern from the Start – An exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). There are pictures and a videos of the exhibit on the site. I watched the webinar on the 25th  when it was live and am in the process of looking at the rest of the site now.

Doug Tallamy’s List of Best Plant Genera for Supporting Moths and Butterflies | pollinator-pathway – Arbor Day is coming up in most areas (it varies by state depending on the best tree planting time. If you are thinking about planting a tree (or trees), think native and ones that support moths and butterflies!

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Colours! - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Communication! - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy a double dose of bird photographs this week.

New skin patch brings us closer to wearable, all-in-one health monitor -- ScienceDaily – Still in the research phase…but a step forward. I like the idea of a blood pressure measurement that can be linked with other data throughout the day.

Is the Western way of raising kids weird? - BBC Future – We tend to think that the cultural norms we grow up in are the ‘best’ – but that may not always be true.

On U.S. East Coast, Has Offshore Wind’s Moment Finally Arrived? - Yale E360 – Reliable source of wind and proximity to populous markets….maybe the false starts are finally in the past for this renewal source of energy.

10 virtual tours of spectacular buildings around the world | Top 10s | The Guardian – More places to visit virtually!

Slideshow: Watch Insects in Motion | The Scientist Magazine® - Some technologies researchers are applying to better understand how insects have become such successful fliers.

How the Loss of Soil Is Sacrificing America’s Natural Heritage - Yale E360 – At best 24% of Corn Belt topsoil is gone…at worst 46%....and topsoil is still being lost. The study found that the main source of erosion is not water runoff but tillage…and right now only 15% of acreage in the heart of the Corn Belt is ‘no-till.’

Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at Age 70 | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Wisdom, an Laysan albatross, returns to Midway Atoll again. Her chick for this year hatched on February 1. She has outlived the person that originally banded her!

House & Garden Gleanings

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I have finally browsed all the House & Garden magazines I found on Internet Archive…from 1901 to 1993! I started back in November 2020….and browsed one or two of the volumes on most days. This post is the grand finale from the volumes I browsed through in 2021 – featuring a few items that caught my attention from the 1940s onward that I haven’t already featured in a blog post (previous posts: Newport Teahouse and Green Animals on 3/12,  The White House in 1940 on 1/21, House & Garden Magazines on 12/16/2020).

In the volume from the second half of 1941 – a page of old-fashioned Christmas tree decorations. I was surprised that the paper chains that I made in the 1960s had been around since at least the 1940s!

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The cover of the volume from the first half of 1942 featured “Planning a Defense Garden” – a reminder of the impact of World War II.

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In the volume from the second half of 1962 – pictures of the White House. I would have been in the second grade.

There were two things I’m highlighting from the volume from the first half of 1970.

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The first is an advertisement for a ceramic stove top. It was the first time I’d seen one in the magazine. It took a long time for the technology to mature!

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The second is a story from the Ladew Topiary Garden. We went several times when my daughter was young in the early 1990s since it is not far from Baltimore.

In the second half of 1971 volume – there is an ad for a Sears lamps that my parents bought (the chain and table versions) and gave to us a few years later. We donated them sometime in the mid-1980s.

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There was an article about the White House (again) in early 1973. This was about the time I got married.

Longwood Gardens was in the Christmas issue in 1977. This was years before I visited the gardens.

In the volume from the middle of 1985, there was an article about Mount Vernon. We had moved to the Washington DC area in 1983 and Mount Vernon was one of our favorite places to take family members that came to visit.

In the fall of 1986, the magazine had an article about Dumbarton Oaks. My husband and I were attending some Smithsonian Associates programs around that time and Dumbarton Oaks was one of the places we toured. I remember it was the first place I saw a black squirrel.

In early 1987, the magazine had some pictures from Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. We had friends that lived in the area that we visited about that time, but I never toured the house until 20 years later when I was there for work and had an afternoon on my own.

There were repeats of locations too – Mount Vernon again in 1989

And Ladew Topiary again in 1992 (which might have been close to the time we took my daughter as a toddler).

There was an article about Monticello in 1993.

Overall – I enjoyed browsing all the magazines….a little history…reminders of places I’d been…ideas for what I might do in my own home (or not).

Frustrated Racoons

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A pair of racoons came to our bird feeder on the 14th….were there for just over 3 minutes from 2:15 – 2:18 AM. The only reason we know is that the camera we have on the feeder captured the visit. This time there were two of them and it looks like they both made the attempt. Check out the action in the two slide sequences below using the arrows to move through the series.

The action started at 2:15:32 AM with a racoon already climbing up the deck support. It used one paw to reach for the feeder but put too much weight on the feeder….the springs expanded and the black metal ‘leaves’ covered the seed access holes. It retreated down the deck support…turned on the railing and descended (headfirst) to the deck floor where there was another racoon. The second one looked longingly up at the feeder before exiting the scene with the first. It was over by 2:16:12 AM.

But wait – at 2:17:50 AM the camera recorded another sequence. It started with a racoon on the railing below the feeder. The animal started up the deck support then stopped and returned to the railing before it got to the feeder level. It stood on its hind legs and tried to reach for the feeder…couldn’t reach it. It then climbed (headfirst) from the railing down to the deck floor by 2:18:58 AM.  Again – there was another racoon down there. It’s impossible to know for sure if it was the second racoon making an attempt at the feeder…or the same one that had tried the first time. I’m choosing to think it was the second one --- that they both took a turn.

They both left the scene frustrated – this time. They’ll be back.

Daffodils in the Brush Pile

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Looking out my office window - I noticed a clump of daffodils was blooming in the brush pile at the back of our yard and went downstairs (inside and then from the deck) to get some pictures. Our neighbors have always had daffodils around the base of one of their trees and I had planted some bulbs slightly in front of the tree line in our yard several years ago to establish a similar stand in our yard. The plants come up and bloom well before the leaves are on the trees. My subsequent project to gradually extend the ‘forest’ into our yard by putting small brush piles over the areas where the grass does not well (too much shade) covered the place where I planted the bulbs…but they are hardy enough to come up and bloom anyway! And they provide a marker for how much I have extended the forest leaf mulch area into our yard….probably at least 6 feet. It’s much better than having thin grass/soil showing in that area.

I also noticed that one of the larger branches in the brush pile had some shelf fungus growing --- decomposition and nature recycling itself in action!

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As I walked back up the incline toward the deck stairs, I notice a leaf from last year with some neatly drilled holes. I wondered if the holes were already made before the leaf fell.

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Overall – a very satisfying short photo shoot in our yard!

Volunteering Again!

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The nature center isn’t open at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant but there are more people visiting with the spring weather. So – the plan until the nature center can open again is to have an outdoor greeter on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday…and I volunteered last Sunday. It was a very enjoyable 2 hours. I had a table and chair set up near the parking lot across from the kiosk.

I was surprised at the number of people that were there for the first time…needed some orientation to the place. Right before my shift was over, a girl scout troop arrived and wanted to do a non-meadow hike; I highlighted the trail map for them - through the forest to the skunk cabbage wetland. And there were people that have come for years (and volunteered). The children of one family did cartwheels on the slope near the parking lot before heading out for their hike. A child with his grandfather already knew their way to the picnic area for their lunch. Two women arrived with their own camp chairs and walked to a picnic table near the community gardens…talking for an hour or so in the sunshine. I asked people as they headed back to their cars if they saw something interesting and got a range of answers. A small child pointed out some rocks. Some birders had seen a merlin capturing a meal. One child had searched for ‘stages’ that would work for musical performances – standing on the top of the large silver maple stump was his favorite.

The parking lot had 25-35 cars for the whole time I was there – so a very worthwhile time for a greeter to be around.

There was about 10 minutes that were ‘slow’ and I walked toward the picnic tables to take some pictures – pine cones in a tree top…and macro of pine bark.

Then my daughter called for a quick chat…and after a few minutes the activity picked up again. There wasn’t a lot of time sitting around. I have 4 more of the outdoor greeter gigs lined up; they are all weather dependent (if it’s raining…we cancel!).

It’s good to be getting back into volunteering in the outdoors at Mt Pleasant!

30 years ago – March 1991

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The event of March 1991 that I remember without looking back at my notes of the month was my dad turning 60 years old. My notes helped fill in the details. He and my mother flew from Texas to Maryland to spend a week with us; 6 red balloons, a pair of Rockport dress shoes and a pecan praline ice cream cake were some ‘special’ things for the celebration. My 18-month-old daughter thoroughly enjoyed the week with them and the addition of the turtle sandbox to her ‘things to do outside.’ She enjoyed it just after it was purchased while it was still indoors – getting face to face with it (also note – one bare foot…the other with the shoe still on in the picture).

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My husband and I benefited from the emotional support from that week. Both of us were going through work and health anxieties that improved over the next few months but peaked in March.

My daughter was facing challenges from us encouraging her to walk more on her own (even up and down stairs) and the beginning of ‘potty training.’ She wanted to be outside as much as possible. She still liked to pick up leaves to carry around while she explored.

She was not talking well but increasingly more opinionated about what she wanted (and didn’t). She enjoyed carrying around her toys and dancing. The family day care provider commented that she enjoyed dancing so much that once she started…all the other children danced with her.

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Near the end of the month – while my parents were visiting, my family day care provider let me know that her mother who had been with her for the past 6 months had died and that the day care would be closed for the next few weeks. I quickly found other day care for the interim; the visit of my parents helped the temporary transition to the other day care. I’ll always be glad that my daughter had the attention of the older woman for those few months…extra attention and cuddles are so important for young children (and often an joy of older adult to provide). When I arrived to get my daughter in the afternoons, it always seemed like she was either being held by or standing close to the older woman; when they made eye contact it was obvious: they had a special bond.

And now – moving ahead 30 years – my dad will be celebrating his 90th birthday! Hopefully, the pandemic situation will improve with more vaccinations and I’ll be able to see him soon.

Our Yard – March 2020

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It was a great March day – cold in the morning, warming to the mid-50s by the afternoon, and almost no wind. My plan was to walk around the yard - see what was coming up and clean out the compost bin…restart with the small amount of veggie kitchen scraps I had accumulated over the past few weeks. I did the compost job first: using a pitchfork to move the contents from the old turtle sandbox (my compost bin), dumping the bucket I keep on my deck for kitchen scraps into the near empty bin, putting a layer of leaves from last fall onto the top. I’ll be adding a layer and/or stirring it up every week now that it’s warmer.

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I took stock of our early spring bulbs. The regular sized daffodils I planted about 5 years ago are just beginning to bloom but the miniature ones that started with a few bulbs my mother-in-law bought for us over 30 years ago are blooming profusely. I’ve discovered that they last a long time as cut flowers as well.

The crocuses are fading at this point. There seem to be fewer each year although I have started noticing them in different places than where the bulbs were originally planted. Maybe the squirrels move them around (and sometimes eat them).

The day lilies are coming up. The deer have already nibbled the ones that are around the base of the oak tree near the mailbox.

The mini clover we planted last fall appears to have survived the winter although it hasn’t started growing a lot yet. I hope it will expand its growth and bloom/make seeds. Near one of the patches we filled in with clover, there is a small plant with blue flowers already blooming. The Maryland Extension has a page on ‘spring weeds’ which helped me identify it as

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Speedwell

It’s a weed but not invasive. In a recent webinar for Brookside Gardens volunteers about sustainable gardening, I learned about spring weeds that can often be left alone. They cover what would otherwise be bare ground, offer food for pollinators in early spring and will be overtaken by other plants as the season progresses. In this case, it’s likely that the mini clover will grow over the area during the summer and there won’t be as much speedwell next spring. Even if there is some – I’d rather have a yard that provides food for pollinators…particularly early in the season!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 20, 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.

The greatest security threat of the post-truth age - BBC Future – The chilling observation that we might be in a period when “Although information is easily available, people cannot tell whether anything they see, read or hear is reliable or not.”

Top 25 birds of the week: Waterbirds! – From around the world…and the first one is a bird I’ve seen/photographed too in Texas, New Mexico, Delaware and Florida: the American White Pelican!

Diets high in fructose could cause immune system damage, study suggests -- ScienceDaily – Another reason to avoid processed foods….

Easy Nature Adventures to Enjoy Near You – Enjoying the place where you are…outdoors! This time of year, there is a lot of things to see close to where I live and I can choose the places/times to avoid any crowds (still a good thing in this pandemic time until the vaccination rates get much higher and infections begin to plummet).

Stealth Chemicals: A call to action on a threat to human fertility – Evidence has been accumulating…and there are a lot more observable problems at this point. I was glad that near the end of the article, there were recommendations for people trying to have children and/or for young children. And we need to move forward on top-down approaches if manufacturers don’t take near term action.

Helping Birds Adapt to Climate Change in the Nevada Desert – Replacing lost riparian areas after removal of invasive tamarisk.

Earth Matters - What in the World Are Moon Trees? – Trees grown from seeds that were taken into lunar orbit 50 years ago!

Climate Change, Deforestation Hurting Monarch Butterfly Migration : NPR – So many problems for the migrating populations of these butterflies. Soon we might only see this butterfly in areas where they don’t need to migrate to survive the winter.

Remnants of Iron Age Settlement, Roman Villa Found in England | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 15 cone shaped roundhouses dating from 400 BC and 100 BC and then a Roman villa from the 3rd to early 4th century AD. It must have be a good place to call home over a long time period!

Ice Age Carolinas – Carolina Bays….indicators that permafrost extended for several hundred kilometers south of the ice sheet during the last ice age.

Hugh Thomson – Illustrator

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I noticed Hugh Thomson’s work when I was browsing the Stephen Lucious Gwynn books about Ireland and did a broad search for other books he illustrated. He was an Irish illustrator best know for pen-and-ink illustrations. I browsed 5 books with his illustrations back in February published between 1895 and 1913; I’ve selected at sample image from each one.

The Story of Rosina and other Verses (1895)

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Two historical reflections:

  • Do you prefer the pen-and-ink or the color illustrations? Today we are so bombarded with colorful illustrations/photographs that we tend to expect color…..but the pen-and- ink show a different kind of detail.

  • Based on the Wikipedia entry, Thomson died in 1920 at 59 years old. His career as an illustrator declined with World War I and he was forced to find other work during the last years of his life. I wonder how many people will find the COVID-19 pandemic as disruptive to their livelihood/life plan as previous generations found the World Wars.

As I was writing this blog post, I noticed that the Wikipedia entry for Thomson has a list of selected works that includes links to Internet Archive. Some of the books do not list Thomson in their metadata (i.e. the illustrator was not listed along with the text’s author) so I didn’t find them in my broad search. Hurray! I have some additional Thomson illustrated books to browse!

Reflections on the Mt Pleasant Farmhouse

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Last time I walked around Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I started thinking about the changes around the front of the farmhouse since I first saw it back in fall of 2013. The large tulip poplar in front of the house had already been cut down; over the years I noticed the increased weathering of the stump and its roots have decomposed too. It’s a favorite place to find snake skins and sometimes small snakes…spiders…ants!

The stump to the left was cut closer to the ground in the past few years after the tree started dropping branches and there was concern about potential damage to the farmhouse. I remember a hike with kindergarteners when the tree was still there – me standing about 6 feet away from the trunk of the tree…facing the children and their chaperones a little further from the tree…talking about what might live in the tree….they were talking about the birds and the squirrels…I turned around to gesture to the tree….and there at about eye level was a large black rat snake. What I great teaching moment! I pointed the snake out to the group. The chaperones took a few steps back; the children stayed put at rapt attention. We talked about why the snake might want to be in the tree as it slowly moved from its spot of sunshine on the trunk slithering underneath the loose bark until it was out of sight. Later, after the tree was cut down, some groups tried to count tree rings…others used the spot for a group picture.

The walk up to the front door was added in the year before the pandemic. The front porch is often used as a stop for the younger elementary school hikes and most groups were taking various routes over the grass to get there prior to the construction of the walk. The porch is particularly welcome on rainy days. On one such day before the walk was built, my group made it to the porch as the last stop before lunch; as we turned to go…it started raining even harder; we waited for a few minutes, but it didn’t let up and everyone was hungry. We eventually left the haven of the porch and splashed through puddles toward the nature center building – the revised picnic lunch location.

On the far right…across the gravel drive there is another stump. It was a silver maple that was planted in the later 1800s (based on the tree ring count). It was cut down a before the walk was built There was a ‘twin’ silver maple on the other side of the circular drive what was cut down at the same time (hidden by the cedars on the left in the pictures). The stump on the right was sanded and some steps cut into the side so that the kindergarteners could climb up to see (and count) the tree rings.

My history with the house is a few short years. The house has a longer history with the façade mostly from after the Civil War and there is a log cabin of even earlier vintage enclosed by the additions and modifications made to the house over the years. It’s interesting to think about the highs and lows of the family that lived there…the ways they used the spaces…made changes to fit their needs…the technology incorporated over the years (plumbing and electricity, for example). My few years are a short window into the house’s history!

Green Zentangle® Tiles for March 2021

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St. Patrick’s Day was my prompt for cutting some green cardstock tiles for a March Zentangle project; I cut the tiles to have no waste of the cardstock pages so they are 4.25 x 5.5 inches. I’d got the cardstock from my sister – left over from her teaching days when she retired. The color was dark enough that it required use of gel pens which I generally use only for highlighting - a change of pace (and challenge). The pink gel pen on the green paper was not very appealing to me. Later in the month I started using the black Ultra Fine Sharpie again.

The two favorite tiles from the project were the last ones I created! On one I made flower patterns with the white gel pen then added black auras and green poke leaves with Ultra Fine Sharpies. The other one was a grouping of 5 pattern clumps with connections made with circles, auras, and fills.  

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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.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – March 2021 (2)

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Continuing the sights of my mini road trip to Mt Pleasant….

I noticed 3 trees…for different reasons:

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The light on the curling bark of a river birch.

A hole that looked recent in a high branch of a large tree. I wondered if it might be a woodpecker preparing a nesting cavity although I didn’t hear or see the bird.

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The trunk of a red bud…with my regular camera

And then with my phone and a clip-on macro lens.

There were also some interesting vines around small trees and hanging from low branches…natures ropes and knots.

I always enjoy looking for shelf fungus as I walk on forest paths.

My favorite images are ones that capture the structure of the top and underside…the two pictures below are the same group…but different composition. I can’t decide which is my favorite. I didn’t realize that the tree rings were visible until I looked at the images on the bigger screen at home! The grouping was on the cut end of a tree trunk that had been cleared from the trail after it fell.

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As I headed back toward my car – I stopped to photograph the jasmine…the early bloomer near the picnic area and

Some seed pods (not sure what they are) from last season. The seeds have been dispersed but the pods catch the light…become flower-like again.

Overall – it was a very good walk around Mt Pleasant although I didn’t get down and around the meadow…. that is left for next time.   

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – March 2021 (1)

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I may do more than one mini road trip to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant this month since the plants change so quickly this time of year. I also want to photograph the wood frogs in the small pond in the Honors Garden when they start their mating songs; the pond was still silent and empty this time. Everything was still skewed toward ‘winter’ although there were more signs of spring than when I went at the end of February.

The skunk cabbage bloom is fading…the golf-ball-like flowers are turning brownish…maybe seeds are forming.

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Last time I saw the skunk cabbage there was still snow on the ground along the trail. Some spathes that had black areas at the top during that visit now appeared smaller in size…and one spathe was almost totally black; maybe it had been too damaged to continue flowering.

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Overall, there seemed to be more visible clumps of skunk cabbage than the last time I visited the site. Next time I go, I expect there will be green leaves unfurling.

The witch hazel along the drive to the farmhouse is another plant I check this time of year. It’s an Asian variety that blooms in late winter.

The tree keeps some leaves from last season…that provide a more subtle color than the blooms.

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Other ‘sights’ from Mt Pleasant in tomorrow’s post….

Racoon at our Feeder

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Our squirrel-proof bird feeder has been mostly effective against squirrels and racoons. Recently we had our first bird feeder camera recording of a racoon that managed to get seed…for a max of 13 seconds! All the other the racoon visits the animal has gone away totally frustrated.  This time the racoon managed to support most of its weight on the frame of the deck rather than the feeder for those crucial seconds. As soon as the animal grabbed the feeder with both paws….the spring stretched enough to close the access to seed.

Clips of the whole sequence are below. Use the arrows to move back and forth and see the black metal leaf close down over the access hole for the seed as the racoon puts both paws onto the feeder.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 13, 2021

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Spring is starting here in Maryland…we have a clump of crocus up and blooming in our front flower bed!

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: March 2021 – Starting off the gleanings for this with bird photographs. I found myself looking at eye color as I enjoyed this group of 25.

Satellite imagery shows northern California kelp forests have collapsed – I had read a story about this previously….but this article include visuals: satellite image and underwater images of what it look like before…and the urchin barrens that are there today.

Kauri trees mark magnetic flip 42,000 years ago | Science – Analysis of a tree preserved in a bog. It lived during the Laschamp Excursion (the last time the poles flipped) The climate instability lasted about 500 years.

Giving Wildlife Room to Roam in the Face of Climate Change – The importance on microhabitats in wildlife conservation particularly as climate changes.

Small Particulates From Burning Fossil Fuels Kills 8.7 Million People Each Year – And this is a form of pollution no one escapes….unless you choose to live in an enclosed and continuously filtered environment (like on an planet that does not support life as we know it). Right now, there are areas outside cities that have lower levels of the small particles in their air but eventually the continued increase in particles and circulation within the atmosphere will spread the ever increasing particles over the entire planet.

Even for Solitary Squirrels, It’s Better to Know the Neighbors – Red squirrels that have the same neighbors year after year…live longer! The study was done in a remote area of Canada over 22 years.

Thanks to Etsy, You Can Now Purchase a Gee's Bend Quilt Online for the First Time | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Folk art…museums…and a modern outlet to improve the artists’ ability to sell their work.

There’s a Koala in the Backyard – A description of what it’s like to have a koala in a tree near homes – serenading.

Geologists Share Their Concerns With Drilling For Oil In Big Cypress – Hopefully the project will not move forward….a national preserve should prioritize the natural environment, not the degradation or destruction of it.  

Eight ways chemical pollutant harm the body – From Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health: oxidative stress and inflammation, genomic alterations and mutations, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine disruption, altered intercellular communication, altered microbiome communities, and impaired nervous system function.