October 19, 2019

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 19, 2019

October 19, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

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.

New report deepens understanding of wind-wildlife interactions -- ScienceDaily – This article overviews the report. The 24 page report is available here. The amount of collaboration between the industry, government, conservation, academic and scientific organizations is significant and ongoing.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park Celebrates Forests – Maybe I’ll go to Vermont for this festival next September – if it’s an annual event.

These surreal jarred fish tell an urgent story of extinction – The Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection – nearly 8 million preserved fish…a window into how 20th century development changed the Southeastern US fish….a record of that destruction.

No bones about it, this protein slows down fracture-healing -- ScienceDaily - Abundance of ApoE may explain why older people have trouble healing broken bones. Turning off ApoE completely causes fat to be deposited in arteries (a cardiovascular problem) so treatment options may involve lowering ApoE for short periods of time.

O Canada! We Like Your Food Guide – Food guides from Canada (and some other countries) … some differences from the US. Canada merges ‘dairy’ in with protein foods rather than featuring it as an independent group.

Scientists Are Getting Better at Predicting Hurricane Intensity – A new algorithm has been developed to include the complicated physical mechanisms of tropical cyclone dynamics and the way they interact with upper-ocean and atmospheric circulation. It may reduce the error of tropical cyclone prediction within a 24-hour period by 16%. Every little bit of improvement in prediction means better preparations when an intense storm is approaching.

Artworks of the Dark Zone – From caves in Tennessee and Alabama. Artwork incised in mud and inscriptions. A slideshow.

How Penn State is Cutting Greenhouse Emissions in Half – and Saving Money – Kudos to Penn State. I wonder how many other universities are doing similar things.

Empty Meditative Landscapes Visualize the Tranquil Beauty of Silence – A visual treat

Ed Hawkins “Climate Stripes” May be the Most Important Science Image so Far in This Century – Effective visualization of lots of data…becomes information. The next step is action.

August 28, 2018

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2018

August 28, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

I thought August might be a slow month with the summer camps ending and nothing new starting….but the month developed….not hard at all to pick 10 little celebrations to highlight.

Solitary hike – Usually I hike with other people – most recently with summer campers. Hike my myself at Mt. Pleasant was a change-of-pace and something to celebrate. Getting a artsy picture of two butterflies on Joe Pye Weed with a clear blue sky background was the image to remember of the morning.

Surviving a long hike – Then there was the much longer hike with camper up and down…across a stream and along muddy paths. I celebrated when that hike was done!

**Blue Jay feather** – A special feather is always a celebration for me…and from several perspectives: finding one on the ground, photographing it, remembering my daughter’s feather collection when she was very young, and realizing that know what kind of bird it came from!

Weekend in State College – Deciding to take a weekend trip – spurt of the moment. And dodging the rain to enjoy every minute! Celebrating family.

Butterflies – August seems to be my peak month for butterflies roosting on me in the butterfly exhibit. It’s special every single time.

Hummingbirds – Last weekend my husband and I attempted to photograph hummingbirds at Brookside gardens for two mornings. We were reasonably successful (a post about our experience is coming) but we’ll both improve with more practice. The birds are fast movers. Both of us are celebrating the photographs we got with the birds in focus!

Blooming bananas – Seeing something familiar but in a little different stage of development….I’m celebrating being in the conservatory at the right time.

Rulers for 25 cents – I celebrated that several stores in our area had wooden rulers for 26 cents. That’s inexpensive enough I can have my own supply for field trips with children just learning to measure sizes of what we find on our hikes.

Dragonflies – I haven’t found dragonflies in the wheel formation (mating) but I did find two at our neighborhood storm water management pond that were half way there! I celebrated the photographic opportunity and an still looking for the wheel.

Sweet potato leaves – Yummy sweet potato leaves. Our Community Supported Agriculture must have harvested part of the sweet potato crop in August so we got leaves in one of our shares this month. I hope there are still some left for later since we normally get them in late September. They are probably my favorite salad green….and I get them a couple of weeks a year….so worthy of celebration when they are available.

August 21, 2018

Weekend in State College - Sunday

August 21, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

On Sunday morning we headed to the Arboretum at Penn State.We spent the most time in the Children’s Gate Childrens Garden just like the last time we visited in October 2016 (posts about that visit are here and here). The entrance includes a water feature with a slightly stylized Great Blue Heron sculpture.

There are areas growing food plants and models of fossils…a water feature to wade into, rocks positioned enable close examination, and a man-made cave (the included bat models hanging from the ceiling)… snake sculptures and real chipmunks that seemed to be everywhere. I kept thinking about how wonderful the garden would be for field trips!

2018 08 IMG_3021.jpg — One of my favorite features is a bowl with kaleidoscopes positioned around it. Last time it had colorful gourds and squash. This time it had succulents. I took pictures through the scopes!

In the rest of the garden there were many late summer blooms…and spiders too.

There was a lily pond. They had quite a variety of water lilies.

The one lotus plant they had was spectacular. It must be a hybrid with all the extra very curly petals. I was glad I took a closer look at it.

After lunch we headed home. It was a short but spectacular jaunt into Central Pennsylvania.

August 20, 2018

Weekend in State College - Saturday

August 20, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

We made a last-minute decision to trek to State College PA to visit my daughter weekend before last. I had gotten a new camera the day before, so I experimented with it during the trip. The new camera is a Canon PowerShot SX60 HS and is billed as a ‘bridge’ camera in that it has a lot of features of my previous point-and-shot cameras but some added features too: optics that can accept added filters, some dials that make it easier to do some functions manually, and viewfinder + screen rather than just the screen. The optics zoom to 65x rather than 40x of my older point and shot. Enough the same that I knew I could use it immediately and give myself time to get comfortable with the new features.

We got to State College just before lunch time…decided to go out to Mexican food for lunch then walked around the campus. I started taking some architectural pictures.

When we were in my daughter’s office I took close-up pictures of the plants in the window (I think she must have selected them to remind her of Arizona).

There was a graduation ceremony that had just ended, and we saw students in robes and their parents walking around campus. I took pictures of Old Main from several angles.