Gleanings of the Week Ending April 16, 2022

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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.

Purple gallinule with chicks – I remember seeing an adult purple gallinule on a birding field trip in Florida. Aren’t the chicks cute? Little black fluffs.

Reproductive factors and dementia risk – Hurray! My life events skew toward reduced dementia risk…according to this study.

Macro photos reveal the often unseen beauty and diversity of slime molds – Hmmm…maybe I should hone my observational skills to find these on my next hike…attempt some macro photography of them.

As EV Sales Soar, Automakers Back Higher Fuel Standards – So glad that industry is finally onboard…projecting a ‘we can do it’ attitude. I’d rather society take action…build some optimism into our view about the future rather than being depressed by trends that seem dystopian.

Beginner’s Tips for Identifying Backyard Bird Nests – It’s the nesting time of year! Look…id…don’t disturb!

Ozone may be heating the plant more than we realize – We’ve been concerned about ozone in the upper atmosphere for years (hence the Montreal Protocol) but this study also points to ozone in the lower atmosphere (caused by chemical reactions between pollutants like vehicle exhaust fumes and other emissions) as contributing to climate change as well. Until now, we thought of lower atmosphere ozone as a health problem (I get headaches if I am outdoors on a high ozone day, for example). This research says that it also is contributing to climate change by affectioning ocean heat uptake.

American Lung Association Says EVs Save Lives – Good for our health….and also for the planet. I also noted that where I live now is in the American Lung Associations Tops 10 US urban areas at risk from airborne pollution…another reason to move away from this area!

New Technology Employed to Protect Pompeii – A four-legged robot used to gather data on structural and safety issues.

Flamingo that escaped from a zoo in Kansas is spotted once again in Texas 17 years later – The flamingo is a species from Tanzania….and must be a very lonely bird.

Brain charts for the human lifespan – Normative trajectories derived from over 100,000 MRI scans that allow quantification of individual variation. Figure 1 in the post can be enlarged by simply clicking on the image.

The Birds of California (Dawson/Brooks)

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The Birds of California was published in 4 volumes in 1923. The author was William Leon Dawson with illustrations by Allan Brooks. There are some of Dawson’s photographs used as illustrations as well. Follow these links to see the eBooks: V1, V2, V3, V4. I selected a sample image from each book below.

Two aspects to keep in mind with a work of this vintage:

  • A lot has happened to California in the almost 100 years since the volumes were published. The habitat for some of the birds has probably succumbed to development or is degraded by pollution. Undoubtedly some of the birds are endangered…maybe a few are gone entirely.

  • Classification of birds is always changing. Some of these older books have birds as separate species that are now considered  single species. The advent of DNA analysis for classification is the most recent perturbation.

But these don’t detract at all from enjoying the illustrations!

Shades of Spring Green

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The dominate color of spring is green….in a lot of different shades. There are the greens that have suffered through the winter – usually darker like the holly and other evergreen bushes below. And then there is the new growth:

Pale greens like the new leaves of day lilies (nibbled by deer), tree leaves just unfurling (cherry and tulip poplar)

Blue tinged greens of the spring bulbs (daffodils and iris)

Yellowish greens of new nine bark leaves, and

Bright green of new moss growth and grass and violets and weeds.

I couldn’t resist the including the bright yellow of the dandelion blooms with all the green!

Food for the Road

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I’ve honed the food I take with me on road trips during the pandemic…until recently wanting to have everything I would need to eat in the car. Now I am more likely to be comfortable getting takeout for a meal. The motivation is shifting to 1) the types of foods that are often hard to find on the road (fruits and vegetables) and 2) minimizing the time stopped for food during the driving day.

My favorite veggies and fruits for the road are ones I can prep to eat while I am driving: celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, carrot chips or sticks, turnip wedges, bell pepper strips, small cucumbers with the ends cut off. Apples are OK but they need be cleaned, labels removed…and there is a core afterward.

I’ve tried freezing grapes – using them as part of the ‘ice’ when I first start the trip; they aren’t as easy to eat going down the road after they thaw (too squishy and sticky). I

t takes some prep to get the veggies into shape for going down the road. Sometimes I pack them in jars/bins…but they are easier to eat going down the road in Ziplocs; I am accumulating a collection of reusable, resealable bags! Otherwise, the ice chest has water (frozen in the bottom of the bottles). Soft drinks are very easy to buy from vending machines or places I stop to buy gas….no need to take ice chest space for those.

Outside the ice chest – I always have dark chocolate, protein bars and mixed nuts for the road…bags of microwave popcorn for the hotel rooms (the rooms I book always have a small refrigerator and microwave).

My favorite quick meal along the way is a McDonalds Breakfast Burrito. I can eat it while driving and one is a perfect size for my 2nd breakfast!

Sometimes I have a protein in the ice chest – some chicken salad or microwavable frozen chicken/veggie nuggets. If it’s just me, I often decided that I really don’t want to leave the hotel once I am there….it feels good to not be out and about after driving all day!

A road trip with my husband will require more takeout meals but hopefully after we get to our destination for the night. The food he likes to eat going down the road is more limited than mine…skewed toward fruit rather than veggies. I’ll take a larger ice chest to make sure we both have foods that we like to eat while we are going down the road!

25 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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The positivity rates and hospitalizations continued downward but in Maryland they are not down to the lows we go in the summer of 2021 before the Delta variant came along…and then the Omicron spike. Still – most of the mask mandates have been allowed to expire. My daughter reported that at her university there seemed to be a lot of strep and flu infections after the mask mandate was lifted; masks were protective for more than COVID-19! I have continued to wear my mask when I am indoors (at the grocery store and when I waited to get my car serviced, for example). All the doctor’s offices where we’ve had appointments are still requiring masks.

When I made my road trip from Maryland to Texas (via Missouri), I put on my mask at rest stops and when I registered at the hotel…when I went grocery shopping while I was in Texas. I took my air purifier with me too. I was traveling through areas that had higher positivity/hospitalization rates than Maryland and noticed that there were very few people wearing masks. There are some analyses of sewage around the country that have indicated the presence of the omicron sub-variant that is problematic in Europe in the US but, so far, there does not appear to be an uptick in COIVD-19 cases here.

I am masking when I look at houses – both to protect myself and to be considerate of owners of the houses I am viewing. I do as much as I can online before I see the house in person.

The one place I did not wear I mask indoors this past month was at a baby shower while I was in Texas; I’m far enough past the event to know that no one there was infectious!

I still feel vulnerable because of my surgery earlier this year and my recent illness while I was traveling; I am not as confident that my immune system is as robust as it was a year ago; I am continuing my strategy of masking. My husband and I got our second COVID-19 booster soon after the recommendation came out. As we both continue our search for a new house, the vaccine and indoor masking are our risk reduction strategy…at least for now.

Another observation - my husband had an outpatient procedure this past month, and the COVID-19 process was still in effect: they required that I wait in the car for 1.5 hours rather than a waiting room. I was fortunate that I could park in a sunny place since the temperature was in the 30s!

Overall – the pandemic appears to be waning. People are making individual decisions about masking and the amount of masking varies a lot from place to place. This is the new normal?

Packing Strategy

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With the serious house hunting in Springfield, I am beginning to get serious about packing what I can…and my strategy is becoming established.

I am packing dressers, filing cabinets, bedside chests, cat carriers, and a cedar chest with items that fit…and will be protected by the furniture. For example –

  • 8x10 framed pictures can travel on edge in filing cabinets back to back or front to front…either filling the drawer or using the follower block to snug the pictures toward the front of the drawer…and all the extra space filled with bubble wrap to keep them from moving inside the drawer.

  • Plastic hangers are light weight and can be stacked into drawers with small linens packed around them to keep them stacked.

  • The cedar chest was packed with linens and then topped off with a body pillow!

  • I took my earring collection out of a narrow drawer of my dresser…will pack it in a box I will take in the car since I don’t want them scattered everywhere inside the chest. The shallow drawer will hold a towel or two…added at the last minute. The other drawers will be filled completely with clothes at the last minute.

  • Suitcases have also been packed up. We have some large ones that we don’t travel with anymore (they get too heavy). I’ve packed some of them with my daughter’s collection of large stuffed animals/Beanie babies! And there are two that I am reserving for the clothes in my closet. It’s just occurred to me that I need to reserve suitcases for my husband’s clothes as well!

  • What is more logical than to pack cat paraphernalia in the cat carriers? We will get another cat once we are moved/settled in Springfield so are moving it all.

And then there are boxes. I’ve been using boxes that are good sizes that we’ve gotten from our orders over the past year; many are already packed. I bought 25 book boxes that will hold the rest of our books and some kitchen items. I saved boxes from some of our kitchen items; they’ll get moved in their original boxes!

There are some items that we’ll ask the movers to pack – thinks like lamps with glass bases and floor lamps that are 6 feet tall. My husband wants them to pack his office (minus the electronics) and the television.

There are items we’ll take in our cars to Springfield: electronics (computers, monitors, printers, scannter), art glass, and my earrings. The last carload will include everything we need to maintain/clean our current house as it is on the market after we move…right before it is finally passed to its next owner. There will be ample trips to Springfield to get everything moved.

And now back to the priority of finding a house in Springfield that will meet our needs going forward.

30 years ago – April 1992

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April 1992 was probably the most traumatic month of my career…I ended my work on what I had come to think of as ‘the project from hell’ but hadn’t settled into my new assignment. My husband had helped my situation when he bought our first laser printer in response to the long hours I spent working at home after a full day at the office. It also helped to be away at a company sponsored event in LA for a week…respite from the toxic work environment; one of the phrases I picked up from the speakers was from Herb Cohen – “Care…but not too much” – a message I needed to apply!

My daughter was a full of energy and enjoying her new bedroom arrangement – no more crib; she was enjoying a twin bed. Her Easter morning was probably one of her best ever – she enjoyed finding the plastic eggs ‘hidden’ all over our den and the Winnie-the-Pooh characters I had purchased at the Disney store when I was in LA. The day was too damp to do any egg hunting outside.  Toward the end of the month, it was warm enough for a trek to Wheaton Park where she picked a zebra to ride on the Merry-go-round.

Overall – a memorable month. I am so fortunate that my family kept me emotionally grounded enough to weather the upheaval at work.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 9, 2022

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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.

Winners of Wildlife Photography Competition Show the Power of Water – Starting out the gleanings list with some eye candy this week.

Personality traits are associated with well-being and satisfaction in life after work – My husband and I have transitioned to ‘life after work’ and seem to have easily established ‘new fulfilling life patterns.’ In an odd way, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped us focus on the most important aspects of those patterns.

A New Study of the Permian Basin – a US oil-drippling hotspot is kicking out far more methane that we thought – I keep thinking that the technology to reduce emissions in the fossil fuel extraction process has improved from the early days. Maybe it has…maybe the hasn’t. The industry may not be motivates. Is it all about maximizing profits for them and their stockholders…everyone else doesn’t matter?

Toad Wisdom – A story of webs of life from the Prairie Ecologist.

European earthworms reduce insect populations in North American forest – Even small invasive species can have a significant impact.

Mapping Inequality – Redlining in New Deal America – An introduction….then downloads and data for maps for urban areas across the US from the 1930s.

Top 25 birds of the week: birds on flowers – Enjoy some photographs of birds…flowers…springtime!

Scents help researchers identify contents of Egyptian vessels – The smells of ancient Egypt!

Norway at new record high 92% plugin EV share in March – Hopefully the EV share in the US will start climbing more rapidly.

“Flash droughts” coming on faster, global study shows – Extreme weather….not all on the wet side.

eBotanical Prints – March 2022

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20 botanical print books browsed in March and added to the list. The month continued the browsing of Refugium Botanicum volumes that I started in February. The publication dates are all from the mid-1800s (1851-1872)….and lots of color rather than drawings.

The whole list of 2,350 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the March 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the March eBotanical Prints!

Refugium botanicum V3 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1870

Refugium botanicum V4 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1869

Refugium botanicum V5 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1869

L'Horticulteur Francais 1851 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1851

L'Horticulteur Francais 1852 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1852

L'Horticulteur Francais 1854 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1854

L'Horticulteur Francais 1855 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1855

L'Horticulteur Francais 1856 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1856

L'Horticulteur Francais 1858 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1858

L'Horticulteur Francais 1860 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1860

L'Horticulteur Francais 1862 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1862

L'Horticulteur Francais 1865 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1865

L'Horticulteur Francais 1866 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1866

L'Horticulteur Francais 1867 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1867

L'Horticulteur Francais 1868 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1868

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T2 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1872

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T1 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1870

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T3 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1872

Horticulture: végétaux d'ornement * Dupuis, Aristide; Henrincq, Francois * sample image * 1871

Horticulture: Jardin potager et jardin fruitier * Henricq, Francois; Gerard, Frederic * sample image * 1872

Bulbs to Move

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Now that we are through the peak of the early spring bulbs, I am thinking about which ones I will dig up to move with us to Springfield, MO.

At the top of my list are the miniature daffodils. They were purchased by my mother-in-law when she moved in with us the year before she died. I’ll move them again since they remind me of her every spring when they bloom….part of her legacy. We moved them from our previous house. The multiply very easily. I am also confident that they would do well in Springfield.

Will I dig up the day lily bulbs that she bought as well? Maybe. Right now, they rarely get a chance to bloom since the deer eat both the leaves and the buds. If our new house in Springfield has a fenced yard…not on a deer trail into the neighborhood…I will probably take a few. They too proliferate well.

I have some iris that come up every spring – not in the numbers we had originally…from my parents. They dug them from their garden in Texas to bring to Maryland shortly after we moved to our current house. In recent years, moles have disturbed their growth. If there is a space in the Springfield house to start an iris bed…I’ll dig up a few rhizomes…or maybe I would be better off getting some from the various family yards in Texas after we move.

I’m already looking forward to establishing a new yard with a little history from our current one!

Cherry Blossoms

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Our cherry tree was blooming when I returned from Texas and retained enough blossoms through the rain and wind of my first days back to be worth photographing on the next sunny day. The temperatures were cool (almost cold) which probably slowed down the blooming.

I was most interested in getting macro pictures of the flowers and buds with the clip-on lens my husband got for me in December. There are a few leaves that are beginning to unfurl but the blossoms dominate.

The trees in our yard are progressing in the usual order. The red maple blooming first; that happened before I went to Texas; the seeds are forming now. Then the plum; there are still some battered blooms but there are more leaves than flowers at this point. Both the plum and cherry look better this year because they were professionally trimmed last fall.

The tulip poplar has green buds but will be a few weeks before the flowers open. The leaves are already more visible on the tulip poplars than any of our other trees.

Watching the trees emerge from winter is a rite of spring…always worth observing/photographing.

Coming Home from Texas

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The morning I left Texas, I was up early to treat my bug bites and the sensitive skin left from my round of hives. The bites were my main concern…lots of calamine lotion on them to stave off itching. I did the last bit of loading into the car; my parents woke up a little early to see me off. It was dark when I set out. There was about an hour when the sun was in my eyes after the sun came up, but the weather was crisp and clear - great for driving.

I stopped at a Pilot for a rest stop in Texas (and to get my morning caffeine). The upper part of the wall was decorated with ‘Texas tourist art’.

The part of my route in Arkansas was easy…just a little construction around the cities but didn’t slow me down.

The last rest stop in Arkansas had a tree with a fresh wound…a big branch must have come off recently. .

I crossed the Mississippi into Tennessee at Memphis heading toward Nashville. The drive was easy enough that I talked with my daughter on the phone (through my car) - noticing areas of recently downed trees along the highway and a kettle of birds (I think they were pelicans…certainly were not vultures…at 70 mph I didn’t take my eyes off the road for better identification).

I turned north at Nashville toward Bowling Green, KY which would be my stop for the first night. Overall – I made it to Bowling Green 20 minutes earlier than my car’s projected ETA first thing in the morning! It was a long day of trouble-free driving.

The next morning, I got up even earlier since I was trying to get myself back to east coast time. It was dark when I set out again even though I was on the eastern side of the central time zone. The driving was easy at first. It was a weekday but I managed to miss rush hours in the few cities along the way.

By late morning I was in West Virginia and enjoying the scenery….shortly after a long highway construction/special closure caused a 30 minute delay but the weather was good and the rest stops along the highway were frequent.

After a rest stop that included buying gas as I got close western Maryland – I got a rude surprise: snow and wind. I didn’t stop at the first rest stop in Maryland. It was white knuckle driving by then and continued for about an hour through Garrett and most of Allegany Counties. I was lucky that I68 did not have much traffic and few trucks. Everyone slowed. And we all made it through to Sidling Hill where it was cold but not snowing at all! My car was covered with salt, grit…and melting ice.

The sensor in my windshield gave an error that cleared after I use the wiper fluid/wipers so the adaptive cruise control functioned through it all. By the time I got home I had calmed down a little from the stress from that hour of hard driving. The exhaustion from the two days of driving (or maybe more the last afternoon) set in the next day. I took a long nap!

Being Sick While Traveling

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There was one time I had a terrible cold while traveling during my career – but I was never sick enough to seek medical attention until my time in Texas last month. It was quite an experience.

I was tweaking the dose of a medication per my doctor’s instruction and, at first, I thought my high heart rate and feeling hot was caused by that change…but it continued to get worse over the next 24 hours. I finally noticed a pink area of skin on my abdomen and went to an Urgent Care…where I was diagnosed with cellulitis by the doctor (after the first place I called would not accept Medicare…aargh!). At first the antibiotic seemed to work very well. My heart rate declined back to normal with a few hours of the first dose. The pink area was reduced in size and fading after the second.

Trouble started about the time I took the 4th dose. I haven’t taken much medication so didn’t know any antibiotic I was allergic too…it happened that the one prescribed caused me to itch…I scratched…welts formed ---- HIVES! It was scary since it was described as an indication of an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. I managed to take some Benadryl and reach a doctor to switch me to another antibiotic.

I thought everything was going well – finally. Then I somehow attached something that bit me multiple times (maybe it was multiples of the same insect?)…so I had the remnants of hives (that were no longer itching as much) and bug bites that were new and itching. I covered all of it with calamine lotion to keep from scratching.

Fortunately - I was recovering by the time I started the two-day drive between Texas and Maryland. That trek is the topic of tomorrow’s post.

Zentangle® – March 2022

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March was a busy month with an overlay of trauma (laptop problems, getting sick while I was traveling) but making Zentangle tiles helped me weather the increased stress. The daily routine of creating at least one tile is one of my most reliable methods of coping with whatever is happening otherwise.

I am still using up old pens so there are fewer colors in this set…although while I was in Texas, I had the box of old gel pins to add to the variety. I used more round and square coasters this month – realizing that some of them were yellowing after being unwrapped – perhaps absorbing some moisture from the air and beginning to deteriorate. There were a lot fewer rectangular tiles this month. Overall – I like the patterns and colors in this collection.

I’m always a little surprised when I choose the tiles for the month….enjoy again what I created during the month.

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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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 2, 2022

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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.

Where Have All the (Big) Cypress Trees Gone ... And Are They Coming Back? – The cypress stands survived logging but they may never again be as dominant as they were before. The largest trees now are about 3.5 feet diameter; the largest stumps from logging are about 5 feet diameter.

8 bird migrations, from past to present – The annual movement of birds is a part of spring….part of the yearly progression.

Cherry Blossom Time In Washington, D.C. – I was glad to get home in time to see the cherry tree in our yard bloom; it’s a little behind the trees in DC (we are a little north and not on the water).

Nature Conservancy to build solar farms at abandoned coal mines in Virginia – And thus an energy producing community, continues…leaning into the future!

The sound of Merlin: like Shazam, but for birds – An app that IDs birds by their songs…a learning experience to take on a walk.

Higher risk of temperature-related death if global warming exceeds 2°C – We’ll have to be more aware of heatwaves. Perhaps we would modify our behavior during those times…and medical interventions might help. There is a heat threshold above which our bodies are not adapted very well…that will cause increasing problems.

Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape – Another perspective of Tolkien…through his art rather than writing.

No breathing easy for city dwellers: particulates – Southeast Asia has seen the largest annual average increases in concentration and mortality rates between 2000 and 2019 from this type of air pollution.

How climate change is leading to bigger hailstones – The records for the largest hailstones have been broken in the last 3 years in Texas, Colorado and Alabama….reaching sizes of up to 6.2 inches in diameter. Large hail causes a lot of damage…if the incidence of large hail increases the damage/costs will trend higher too; the post includes a picture of a car damaged by large hail…daunting to anyone that doesn’t have their car parked in a garage.

Missouri Man Indicted For Fire That Destroyed Ozark National Scenic Riverways Visitor Station – I am paying more attention to news about natural areas in Missouri…now that I am preparing to move to the state. It’s sad when this type of destruction occurs – hard to fathom why someone would burn a visitor station.

A. A. Milne Books (and not Winnie-the-Pooh)

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I browsed 3 books written by A. A. Milne from the early 1920s available on Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive last month. They were all before the Winnie-the-Pooh books although two of them contain material that later became part of the books that made Milne famous.  

A Gallery of Children illustrated by H. Willebeek Le Mair (1925) is my favorite of the group because of the illustrator. I posted about 4 other books she illustrated by in August 2021; she’s one of my favorite illustrators of the early 1900s.

Once Upon a Time illustrated by Charles Robinson (1922) was written in 1915…before the birth of Christopher Robin at a time when ‘life was not very amusing.’ It was published at the end of 1917. Milne commented that ‘I am still finding it difficult to explain just what sort of book it is.’

When we were very young (1924) is dedicated to Christopher Robin Milne (or Billy Moon as he prefers to call himself). He was born in 1920. The Internet Archive book does not include illustrator’s name; the A. A. Milne entry in Wikipedia lists E.H. Shepard (Punch cartoonist).

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2022

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March was a busy month with a variety of little celebrations – both at home and traveling.

Brookside Gardens. Brookside is one of my favorite places for photography….in any season. There were plenty of plants to photograph/celebrate in March 2022.

Snow that didn’t stick. The temperature can vary so much in March. I celebrated a snow that was pretty…but didn’t stick to the streets or walkways.

Successful transition to alternative laptop. My laptop died suddenly and completely…had to be sent to Dell for diagnosis and repair (under warranty). I celebrated that my husband helped me 1) make sure I had everything off the drive (i.e. we took it out of the laptop and accessed it from another computer…I got everything I’d been working on since the backup which was about a week old…and we made another backup) and 2) provided an alterative laptop for me to use until Dell could make the repair and return it. Writing this – I realize how much I appreciate my husband of almost 50 years still dropping everything to help me through a problem.

Big pictures fit in my car. I celebrated that the last of our big pictures fit in my car…got transported to Missouri…won’t have to go on the moving truck.

House hunting in Springfield. I learned a lot on my first round of house hunting in Springfield MO…celebrated that the process of moving has begun.

Getting to Carrollton…healthy parents. Both of my 90+ year old parents were healthy during my visit…something to celebrate after not seeing them since November.

Travel scale fixed. I was chagrined to discovered that my travel scale was not working….a little panicked that I would gain weight during my two weeks away from home. I celebrated when replacing the battery solved the problem!

New low weight of the year. And then shortly after my scale was working again – I achieved a new low weight for 2022…I always celebrate those days (usually with a little extra dark chocolate).

Antibiotics. I’ll write about my adventure of getting sick while I was away from home in a few days…will just say now that I celebrated when antibiotics worked very quickly.

Home again. I am home again as I write this…and celebrating as usual after a road trip. I’ll write more about how I got home and the backlog of activities in the upcoming week.

Zooming – March 2022

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When I use my bridge camera, pictures are composed using the zoom on the camera. I chose 9 to feature in this post; they’ve already appeared in other posts with others from the same location, but I like to pull my favorites together as a way of summarizing the locations I enjoyed in March: home, Brookside Gardens, a yard in Carrollton TX and Josey Ranch Lake (Carrollton)…seasonal representatives of the usual types of subjects: plants, insects, birds.

Unique Aspects of Days – March 2022

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There are a range of unique aspects that I recorded in March:

It was the first time there were amorous cattle in a field that I drove by on my way from Springfield to Carrollton. I guess it is another sign of spring!

Seeing the spherical sculpture glow from within from reflected light at Brookside Gardens was something I had not anticipated….will now always look for again.

Seeing a bird on an empty suet feeder…then clearly seeing the under bright yellow feathers of a flicker as it flew away.

Starting to get our house ready to sell…touching up interior paint.

Being able to photograph the arch in St Louis from the bridge over the Mississippi when I was driving – it is one of the few times that I appreciated a construction delay that snarled traffic.

Total failure of my laptop. This is one that I hope never occurs again! It was under warranty so is being fixed by Dell.

Very cold drive through WV with snow all over…except on the roads.

Carrollton Yard in Early Spring – Macro

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I posted about the larger view of the Carrollton yard last week; today the post is from the macro perspective. I started indoors where my mother had some vases of spring blooms (daffodils and hyacinths) that looked cheery.

A few days later, I walked around the yard…the hyacinths and daffodils were mostly spent so I photographed other flowers: oxalis, Japanese quince, dandelion. The dandelion is my favorite.

The new rose leaves were not wet…but the new leaves must have some waxy material that protects them from cold temperatures this time of year.

A larger rock under one of the old mulberries had several kinds of lichen growing on it. The encrustations overlap and I found myself wondering if, in the overlap, are they melding or overlapping. Lichen are an organism that operate on an entirely different timescale than me do; some might continue to slowly grow and dissolve their rock for thousands of years.