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!

Neighborhood Pond – November 2020 – part 1

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I walked down to the neighborhood stormwater pond recently. There were still a few leaves that had not been swept away by the wind (or mowing or raking). I walked through drifts of leaves in the street gutter and sidewalks…crunching.

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I was early enough that the light was good for reflections on the pond. There was no breeze, so the water was a good mirror.

There was a red-winged blackbird in the cattails. It moved around a bit….called to others that had moved to nearby trees as I had walked up to the pond. I sat on the bench for a few minutes, but the other birds stayed away from the immediate pond vegetation.

The sun sometimes made a spotlight on the vegetation…bringing out the nuances of fading fall colors.

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The meadow on the far side of the pond has not been mowed and looks like it is being taken over by invasive pear trees. They’ll probably mow it again in the spring.

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All the flowers around the pond have gone to seed.

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As I started back, I noticed a tree with 3 squirrels’ nests! There were other similarly sized trees near it…but somehow the squirrels found this one more attractive.

A dogwood still held its colorful leaves. The native dogwoods usually have leaves that turn early and drop; this one is probably a non-native and I didn’t notice any seeds.

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Most of the oaks in the neighborhood have lost their leaves completely. Maybe they have just reached the age that they don’t hold their leaves longer. Ours was one of the early droppers this year.

I checked the micro-clover that we planted in some bare spots a few months ago. It is still growing very well everywhere we planted it. Hopefully, it will help the soil improve so we won’t have any bare places next spring.

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Tomorrow I will post about the high point of the walk to and from the pond.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Crane Fiesta 2020. The virtual version of Festival of the Cranes from Bosque del Apache is called Crane Fiesta and is happening November 19-21. It is being delivered as cost-free webinars….but registration is required. The link to register is https://friendsofbosquedelapache.org/festival-of-the-cranes/.  My husband and I are looking forward to the three days of virtual birding….the next best thing to being there (and looking forward to going back to New Mexico in November2021)!

Fall Foliage in our Yard

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The fall is in full swing around our yard. The oak and sycamore and tulip poplars are more than halfway through their fall. The red maple is about halfway through. I’m sharing our yard’s fall foliage in photos today….before we do another round of leaf mowing. This is the view from my office window…a pine on the left then a tulip poplar and then the red maple.

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At ground level in the back yard you can see the understory of spice bush (yellow) and the dark tree trunks (the red maple in the foreground); it’s been foggy on most recent mornings. The brush pile catches a few leaves.

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The maple does not seem to have as many pure red leaves this year. There is another maple behind the tulip polar that always turns yellow and I think one of the maple leaves below is from that tree.

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The tulip poplar leaves turn brown very quickly once they are on the ground so it is a challenge to get some with lots of yellow.

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I have taken a lot more sycamore leaf pictures this year. I’m not sure it is it the size variety of the durability of the leaves once they are on the ground. The leaves are large and leathery which make them easier to rake…and really need mowing keep them from killing the grass and clover in our yard.

The tree got a late start and didn’t manage to make very many seed balls because of the cold weather back in May…but there are certainly a lot of leaves to mow from that tree!

The Virginia creeper on some of our trees (oak and sycamore) and the exterior basement wall are changing color too.

The oak leaves that are falling now are brown…with an occasional flash of yellow.

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And then there are invasive ground plants that are changing from green to yellow and red. I would rather not have them….but they are hard to eliminate.

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There are things other than falling leaves that I found when walked around the yard.

A harvestmen spider

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Lady’s thumb (another non-native plant)

Deer trimmed day lily leaves at the base of the oak tree

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The micro clover is doing very well…still very green and spreading

A garden spider with 2 stink bugs in its web

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Spider webs in the azalea bush…maybe funnel spiders?

Overall – a lot of evidence of the season in our yard.

CSA Bounty – September 2020

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Fabulous fall veggies. Our shares have been full of them all month.

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This week we got

  • The last of the tomatoes (green) which I have ripening near the kitchen window,

  • The first butternut squash and sweet potatoes (both on the large side),

  • Maybe the last of the shishito peppers (I picked a few snacking peppers in the cutting garden),

  • And the fall staples of potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, garlic, hot peppers, and kale.

I love the orange veggies (squash and sweet potatoes) and will probably use them for custards or hearty soups…although I like sweet potatoes grated and used in salads and stir fries (as I would carrots). I might have to cook them and then freeze portion sizes since their size is overwhelming to eat in one week!

I cut stevia in the cutting garden and have it drying on the counter. I’ll use it to sweeten pots of hot tea – maybe I’ll have enough to use for the remainder of 2020.

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There were still a few flowers – more on those in another post.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sweeping acorns and oak leaves. The driveway was covered again. I noticed a squirrel sniffing the acorns and maybe taking a few….there are way too many acorns to rely on the squirrels to do the clean up! I swept the driveway and then the gutter in the street which filled the wheelbarrow. The load made a nice addition to my compost pile (lots of browns to overwhelm the few ‘green’ kitchen scraps I have.

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I am discovering joy in everyday activities….that might be considered chores. The clear driveway plus the knowledge that I’ve kept the acorns and twigs from clogging the storm drain are two positives for the day!

September sunrise. I always do the grocery shopping early and this time I was on my way to the store before sunrise. I stopped at the CSA turn out to take a picture. It was a great way to start the day.

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Mini-clover. The clover is filling in the bare spots in the yard and is still short enough that the mower doesn’t touch it. So far – it had worked better than our attempts to overseed with grass seed. We’ll see what happens over the winter. I hope we’ll still have enough warm days that it will grow a bit more and be firmly established before the first frost.

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6 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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September 12th marked the 6th month since the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic. I started a monthly post taking stock of the impact on day to day life back in July (previous posts: July and August). Here’s the one for the 6th month!

There were three activities that were new during this 6th month – things that were critical enough to not put off:

  • Our clothes dryer broke. Our first reaction was panic…a bit more than we would have during pre-pandemic times. Fortunately, the problem seemed to be something we had experienced before (the heating element) and the manufacturer had a website to make a repair appointment. It was a little frustrating that the repair person came to diagnose the problem but our dryer was old enough that the part had to be ordered…so it took 2 service calls. On the plus side – masks were worn by all….and we didn’t have to buy a new dryer.

  • I got a flu shot at my grocery store pharmacy. It was not crowded but I was very aware that I felt more stressed than in previous years – hyper aware of where people were around me. It feels strange now to be closer than 6 feet to anyone other than my husband. Everyone was wearing masks which made it a little better; I had to go later than my usual shopping time because the pharmacy opens later than the grocery part of the story. When an effective vaccine is available there will be a time of re-socialization – getting acclimated again to having more people around in closer proximity.

  • My husband and I both got our cars serviced – something we had been putting off. My husband’s car was the forcing function because a button came off/broke. We didn’t wait at the dealership for the service to complete. That meant that we chose a closer-to-home dealership for his car. For mine – the dealership where we purchased the car 3 years ago was the closest. Overall – it was an OK experience: all the people in the service area were wearing masks and we could (mostly) maintain distance. We brought our own bottle of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes --- drove way after the service with the windows down to fully exchange the air in the car.

We’ve started talking about when we might venture out to get haircuts since are looking a bit scraggly (last haircuts were in January). The place we normally go is accepting appointments so maybe we’ll go in the next month.

Virtual Bird Festivals are dominating our webinar experiences. In the past month we’ve enjoyed Yampa Valley (Colorado), Bosque del Apache (New Mexico), and Puget Sound (Washington) videos and webinars.   There will be others coming up throughout the fall.

I am prioritizing finding activities that give us joy....to combat the aspects of these pandemic times that are depressing.

  • Who would have predicted 20 years ago that improving communication (i.e. social media and the internet) would result in such a dramatic increase in anarchy (other names could be conspiracy theories, fictional stories/events presented a fact, encouragement of armed resistance) along with the positives? I would really like it to be easier to find validated/confirmed news stories and a lot less opinion (outright lying).

  • Growing up in the 1960s at a time when everyone was following public health guidance re the sugar cube polio vaccines….it surprises me now that there are people opposed to wearing masks. I grew up thinking that it was a social responsibility to behave in a way that cared about others: getting vaccines, stopping at stop signs/red lights, requiring people in the car with me to wear seat belts, wearing shoes in eating establishments, etc.

  • In this 6th month the linkage between climate change and the pandemics became more obvious to me with the fires along the west coast (record breaking hot dry conditions, big electrical storms). In the near term –the evacuations make social distancing a challenge and the smoke impacts lung function in ways that probably will increase the deaths from COVID-19 in some areas. It’s a compounding tragedy. In the longer term – perhaps it increases the overall awareness that more climate actions (moves to reach drawdown and change mitigation) are required for our own health (as well as the health of everything on our planet). The life expectancy for humans may have already peaked.

I still think my husband and I are positioned to weather this pandemic by continuing the vigilance of the last 6 months. We are making carefully planned adjustments but continue to spend most of our time at home until there is a safe and effective vaccine.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Gleanings from the Puget Sound Birding Festival. The first day was the most intense with some pre-recorded videos then 4 hours of webinars. I was glad there were 30-minute breaks between the sessions but was exhausted by the end. Here are some links I gleaned from the sessions:

Just as with the Yampa Valley virtual festival…..I want to go to this festival one too!!!! Maybe next September – and plan some visits to some of the parks in the Northwest on the same trip!

Mini-clover update. There’s only been one day that we could skip watering because it rained. Otherwise – I’ve turned on the water 1st thing in the morning and my husband goes out an hour later to move the hose to the second location. Teamwork.

Cat at the door. Our cat tends to watch us from the window beside the front door when we are working in the front yard. Sometimes we can tell that he is meowing (yelling) at us.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending September 12, 2020

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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: September 2020 - Wild Bird Revolution – Starting out this list with bird pictures!

The wind turbines standing up to the world’s worst storms - BBC Future – Designing turbines that can withstand typhoons in the Philippines and Japan….at the same time climate change is making the storms stronger. We are going to need more of this kind of engineering.

Photography in The National Parks: Capturing Sunrise, Sunset, And the Milky Way At Mount Rainier’s Sunrise Area – Good views of Mount Rainier…and a photography tutorial…with ‘how to’ during the pandemic.

Home Valuation Needs to Consider the Risk of Climate Change - News | Planetizen – The piece is focused on sea-level rise but there are other climate change factors that might also need to be considered: increasing drought (i.e. some places that won’t have enough water to support the population living there) and – perhaps related – extreme heat/fire risk. Our government should not be willing to buy increasingly risky mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Cassowary Quest: A Tale of Danger and Defecation – Learn a bit about the cassowary – great picture and video too.

American Academy of Sleep Medicine calls for elimination of daylight-saving time -- ScienceDaily – I hope the drive to not switch times begins to gain momentum. It’s annoying – and not healthy for us either.

Dragonflies the Star of Photography Book About Their Lifecycle – We didn’t get to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens this year to photograph dragonflies (along with the lotuses). These pictures are awesome….and encourage me to think about spending more time near ponds next summer.

The rare plants that ‘bleed’ nickel - BBC Future – Phyto-mining may be an alternative to using heavy machinery, destroying an ecosystem, and producing toxic waste. Hopefully, the work being done now will quickly become the dominate way to mine nickel.

A Field Guide to Finding Cool Moths – Mothing is (not yet) as popular as birding. The techniques discussed in this article are a good start. I’m going to try leaving the porchlight on tonight – checking around it before I go to bed and then again when I first get up (when it’s still dark outside). I’ve seen and photographed several of the moths mentioned in the article:

Hummingbird moth (Maryland in 2016)

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Ailanthus webworm moth (Maryland in 2018)

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Luna moth (Missouri in 2019)

Polyphemus moth (Maryland in 2019)

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Understanding how birds respond to extreme weather can inform conservation efforts -- ScienceDaily – An example of how scientists use the data submitted by a large number of people into eBird to answer questions re the impact of climate change and the resilience of birds (or lack of resilience).  

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Prius Prime maintenance. The miles put on the car since the last service were minimal, but it was time for the maintenance. Everyone at the dealership was wearing masks but there didn’t seem to be any hand sanitizer stations (I was glad I had brought my own). I brought disinfectant wipes for the inside car surfaces when I picked up the car and then drove away with the windows open to clear out the air in the car….continued to wear my mask for most of the drive home.  

I’ve about used up the tank of gas I bought 9 months ago so I’ll fill it up and start plugging it in again to do all my errands with it as an EV. I hope there is a vaccine available by the end of the year --- and I’ll be out and about a lot more.

Mini-clover update. We’ve had gentle rain for the past few days and temperatures in the low 70s into the 80s. The clover is a cloud of tiny of green leaves on the surface of the bare spots in our yard. This is evidently good clover growing weather!

Monarch Caterpillar update. I only found one caterpillar this morning and it hasn’t moved much since I saw it yesterday. It’s large…hope it is about ready to make a chrysalis.

Paintings of Flowers Indoors – September 2020

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Today the artists I’m featuring are from slideshows on Internet Archive that I looked at back in July and late August. It’s a treat to savor them again – and share them in a blog post. I picked out the flower pictures but there are many paintings with different subjects by all these artists. (Clink on the images below to see a larger version). The slide shows are well worth a look.

Rupert Bunny (1864 - 1947)

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

4 Caterpillars update. I found 4 Monarch caterpillars first thing in the morning. The one that was in the wheelbarrow then on a milkweed in another flowerbed may have moved to be closer to the other 3 since I didn’t see it for about 24 hours and now there are 4 on a group of milkweed near the front porch. The 2 of the 4 are now quite large. Hopefully, all of them will make their chrysalises in easy-to-see places so I can avoid disturbing them when I work in the flowerbed.

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Mini clover. We planted the mini clover 4 days ago and it’s already sprouted! (The clover is the small plants coming up between the other grass/weeds.) We’ve been watering the two areas every morning to give the seeds the best possible start.  Now there is rain in the forecast for the next few days so maybe we are about over the need to provide the extra water.

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Maple Seedling

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A maple seedling has been added to the row of Kombucha bottles on the windowsill in my office. I did this several years ago with a smaller seedling and it lasted for a long time – the leaves eventually turning red (long after the leaves fell from the red maple tree in our yard). This one will have a place with the cut flowers for the next few months.

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I pulled the seedling while I was working in the front flower bed. It must have missed my attention previously. My husband filled the bottle with water for me to put it in since my boots were muddy.

It was one of four red maple seedlings I found.

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There were 5 tulip poplars!

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I filled the wheelbarrow with bush trimmings and milkweed (without caterpillars) – once again using that as the metric for my morning round of yard work.

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When I took the wheelbarrow back to the brush pile to empty, I noticed that the small puffball I had seen over a week ago was done with its development – had puffed its spores away.

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Miniclover. My husband mowed at the lowest setting (i.e. scalped) the areas of our yard that tend to have problems keeping their turf…we raked over the areas…and planted miniclover. In the past we’ve tried over-seeding with grass seed and it hasn’t worked very well so we decided to try something different. Now we are watering every morning (if it didn’t rain overnight) for the next week or so….and we’ll see what happens.