Gleanings of the Week Ending August 27, 2022

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.

We asked children how they experienced poverty. Here are 6 changed needed now – This was a study done in Australia. I wonder how applicable these findings are around the world.

The identical twins who discovered their secret sibling – An adoption agency that separated twins for adoption in the 1960s…and the researchers that were part of that process. Fast forward to 2022.

Heat wave reveals 17th-century English gardens – Longleat Gardens….a whisper of the past…from before the transition to natural parkland in the 18th century.

Is this the end of DC’s most-beloved hidden landmark? – I’ve never seen (or known about) the Capitol stones in Rock Creek Park but I’ve noticed the old columns dating from the same period that are in the National Arboretum. They are certainly a landmark!

Painted Bunting: The Fun of Local Bird Quests – I remember seeing some painted buntings at a Florida National Wildlife refuge and an indigo bunting under my bird feeder in Maryland. They are special birds!

Colorful solar panels could make the technology more attractive – Color is a lower priority than efficiency for me, but it could be very important in some applications.

A Beginner’s Guide to Butterfly Watching – I wish there were more butterflies to watch! It seems like every year there are fewer of them around.

Taming Tomorrow’s Wildfires – There is a wildfire burning somewhere in the US all the time recently. It’s important that we make changes to reduce their devastation.

New drug candidate fights off more than 300 drug-resistant bacteria – Antibiotics have been around for my whole life…but there is always the discomfort that more bacteria are becoming resistant…and there could come a time that the pre-antibiotic killers will beginning killing people again. I’m glad there are new drugs in development to take up the fight.

Olmec contortionist Reliefs Uncovered in Mexico – Artifacts from a civilization known for colossal head sculptures….hints of their culture.

US National Arboretum in Early Spring

Last weekend we went to the US National Arboretum to see cherry blossoms. We entered the New York Avenue Gate and parked in the big lot just inside….with cherry trees in sight. We walked over to the trees. I got side tracked by some golden moss with spore capsules…had to take pictures from overhead and then from ground level. It was growing under the cherry trees.

The days before we went had been windy and I found some blooms on the ground – little jewels in the dried leaves and moss.

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I zoomed to get some close-up pictures of flowers on the trees – all shades of pink to white.

As I took some pictures of the high branches of one tree, I noticed a lot of bees. I was photographing hand held so had to be content with just knowing the dots in the pictures were insects!

We got back in the car and continued further into the arboretum. There were a lot of cars parking along the side of the road and we could see trees that were blooming ahead. We thought maybe it was more cherry trees. But no – it was deciduous magnolias! They were probably at their peak and gorgeous. People where photographing young children under the trees and held up next to the flowers. There were several different kinds of deciduous magnolias in bloom. My favorites were the deepest pink ones that I saw at the very beginning.

I zoomed in on two buds. Note that the outer covering is very fuzzy. Then there is a covering that looks like brown paper….and then the petals.

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Evergreen (southern) magnolias are in the grove as well. They will be beautiful this summer. Right now, the empty pods from last summer are dried (on the tree or the ground under it) – and a study of complexity. I didn’t see a single red seed that had survived the winter in a pod!