Our Missouri Yard – July 2024

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The wildest part of my yard is the wildflower garden I planted last summer.

In front of the wildflowers are some pumpkin vines, lambs ear, and fragrant sumac. Behind the wildflowers there is a rose bush that has died back to the roots during both winters we’ve lived in the house but has come back each year to form a low bush…blooming small red roses.

That area is always a good place to do some macro photography with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I’ve noticed that the native plants tend to harbor more insects although most of them are quite small. We’re missing the big butterflies in our yard too.

When I mow the grass, I stop to photograph anything I find of interest…like the shell of a robin’s egg (was it taken by predator or did the young hatched and the parent clear the nest?) and a plant that grows reliably by our mailbox.

There are frequently mushrooms that come up on the area where a tree was cut down (and the stump ground up) before we moved to the house. This month there were at least 2 different kinds.

One of our pine trees is not old enough to produce cones…but the other one is prolific and I wince when I run over a cone with the lawn mower (they probably cause the blade to get dull faster). The cones look good with green needles – or grass – around them!

I still have a few areas of the yard that I have not mowed this year. In one area – violets have escaped from the flower bed and spilled out into the unmowed area. I mowed some of no-mow May area and the clippings are slowing/stopping grass from growing there and the violets are moving there too! I am getting other ideas on how to extend the flowerbeds in a way that results in less need to use the weed-eater…and overall less lawn….that remains compliant with the Home Owners Association of our neighborhood.

Macro Photography – June 2024

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My yard is full of subjects for macro photography this time of year.

The wildflower garden is in its second season and is very lush after the spring rains…both flowers and insects abound.

The area in our front yard that once hosted a large tree (before we moved here) now has mushrooms after almost every rain. It is surprising how quickly they can develop and then degrade to black goo.

One of the daylilies I planted last under the red maple is blooming this year. Hopefully the plant will propagate to surround the trunk. There are enough buds to appreciate this year from a photographic standpoint.

I’ve let the Virginia Creeper that came up in the front flowerbed cascade over the castle rocks. Mowing the lawn contains it once it is in the grass. I like the foliage now and it will look great in the fall when it turns red.

I’ve found several eggs in the grass and always try a photograph. This one was white. The cracks in the shell around the edges and inside appealed to me. The grass offers a sense of scale.

I took pictures of two small branches blown off by an overnight storm – making a macro image of the part that interested me the most.

The plant by the mailbox is full of buds. Another plant of the same type is near the house, but its buds always get eaten and there are holes in the leaves!

The two ‘hens’ that I bought last year at a farmers’ market have more and more chicks. There were only 3 chicks at the beginning of the season. I count more than 30 chicks in this image when I look at it on a bigger monitor!

I enjoy ‘filling the frame’ with magnified images from my yard!

Our Missouri Yard – June 2024

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I always enjoy a walk around our yard – particularly when the plants are changing so rapidly. Our two rose bushes died back almost to the roots – just as they did our first winter here – but they are blooming now. I enjoy the new reddish leaves and the buds/flowers. I keep thinking that one year I will just dig them out…but it won’t be this year.

The wildflower garden is different every time I look.

It is also the place that has the highest diversity of insects; it really proves the point that native plants are good for wildlife! I was taking a picture of one of the plants when I noticed what I thought was some kind of seed or debris….then realized there were bugs!

In the front yard, there are mushrooms again this year – where a tree was cut down and the stump ground up before we moved to the house. I photograph them before I mow! It’s another sign that our yard is doing well with our strategy of mulching grass and leaves into the yard and very little fertilizer (and no pest or weed killers).

I am including a picture of the holes I made the front flower bed….clearing rocks and cutting away landscaping fabric…to plant miniature pumpkin seeds.

I hope they come up soon. I have some in the back coming up. They did very well there last year, and I hope the ones in front will also do well. The vine was so robust with large green leaves that I thought it would look great covering some of the rocked expanse in the front flower bed….and a larger crop of miniature pumpkins would be good too.  

2nd Anniversary in our Missouri Home

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Today is our second anniversary in our Missouri home and I am thinking about what has changed relative to the house in that time. We still have some boxes in the storage areas of the house that we haven’t unpacked – a sure indication that we probably moved some items we didn’t need.

We’ve changed more in the yard than inside the house.

I planted a wildflower garden in the back and some hens and chicks in the front.

One of the pine trees in the backyard fell over last summer and I’ve planted some irises and native plants in the area where the stump was ground up after the tree was taken away; colorful stinkhorns are coming up in the mulch too!

We hired a crew to mow the yard the first summer, but I mowed it last summer and this summer too. The depression in the area where the previous owner took out a large tree in the front yard is obvious when I mow….and when mushrooms come up in the grass.

Both my husband and I are glad the yard had a sprinkler system – even though we haven’t needed it so far this season (we got 10 inches of rain in May!). This is our first house with a sprinkler system, so we have a company to check the system in the spring and fall.

We haven’t used the community pool or walked around the ponds as much as we thought we would…but I did enjoy walking patterns on the tennis courts in the snow last winter. The amenities of the neighborhood are greater than anywhere we’ve lived previously.

As far as the inside of the house….

I like my office in the basement (with windows on three sides) as much as I thought I would. The views were nice to begin with, but we’ve added bird feeders, a bird bath, spring bulbs, and some native plants. I also like having the mini-kitchen near my office. I’ve turned off the gas to the gas fireplace and put a magnet blanket over the opening; it leaked heat (from the pilot light) into my office in the summer and let in a cold draft in the winter. I like that my office area has its own heating/cooling.

We’ve only used the basement storm shelter once….but I am glad it is there. Fortunately, the storm did no damage in our neighborhood. Our challenge in using the shelter is getting our three cats (additions since we moved to the house) into crates and down there in time!

Both my husband and I have enjoyed the large shower – just as we anticipated. We still have not used the Jacuzzi tub!

The laundry chute has eliminated the need for hampers…and eliminated the need for carrying dirty laundry. We did put baby latches on the doors to the chute since the kittens were way too interested and dexterous at opening things; we added latches on the lower cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms for the same reason.

We discovered magnets strong enough to hold a wreath for our front door (it is metal) and added a Ring doorbell since the door did not have a peephole already installed.

The 3-car garage is a wonderful upgrade from our previous 2-car versions. We enjoy the room (and have not filled it up!).

Both my husband and I agree that this is the best house we’ve owned. It’s very satisfying to realize that we’ve thought the same thing every time we have moved!

Our Missouri Yard – May 2024

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May is when our yard becomes lush with new growth --- with the warmer temperatures and plentiful rain. The plants love it.

The wildflower garden that I started last year has returned either from reseeding or coming up from last year’s roots. I cleared some more rocks/landscaping cloth around the edges and planted more seeds there but they haven’t emerged yet.

The seeds I planted on the sunny side under the pine tree are coming up! I am going to cut down the pokeweed growing around the perimeter to make sure the area doesn’t become too shady.

The fragrant sumac I planted last year is back with lots of new leaves – like the bush beside it (which I haven’t identified but I like the leaves).

The alliums are blooming in the area outside the flower bed near my office window. I am converting the area from grass/moss to other things. Right now, it is thick with alliums, daffodil leaves, violets, and some weeds/grass. The spikenard I bought last fall has returned but is still relatively small. The stainless-steel iris I bought for my mother (Mother’s day 2023) is now in that area too.

The glass birdbath I carefully packed and moved from Maryland is now out and visible from one of my office windows (where I sit to make Zentangle tiles). I haven’t noticed any birds finding it yet. The stainless-steel spider mum is under a nearby pine…also an area I am converting from grass.

There are some holes in the turf of our yard where plants have come up. Sometimes I let them grow. The most successful area is lambs ear to the side of our house by the gate to our backyard. I hope that it eventually joins with some lambs ear that is growing in the corner made by the fence and the house (it has a small pokeweed growing with it). It has many bloom stalks. I’ll let them make seeds then cut them – hope the plant continues to expand via roots too.

On the other side of the fence is some more lamb ear and showy golden rod that I bought last fall. Hopefully the goldenrod will get enough sun to bloom well in that spot.

The hens and chicks are multiplying in the front rock garden.

And the kousa dogwood is full of blooms.

We have been mulching leaves and grass into the yard…and frequently see small mushrooms. They’re decomposing all that plant debris into nutrients the roots of the plants can absorb! I love to see evidence that the yard is vibrant with life other than just grass; we are succeeding in making it less a monoculture with shallow roots (i.e. turf grass).

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 6, 2024

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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.

What do terracotta warriors tell us about life in ancient China? – Discovered 50 years ago…they are a snapshot of the soldiers of Qin – the feudal state that unified China, for the first time in 221BC under the country's first emperor Qin Shi Huang – from the soles of their shoes to their candy-colored clothes to the bronze weapons buried with them to their distinct facial features. 2,000 terracotta warriors have been excavated but more are uncovered every year.

This Map Shows Where Planting Trees Would Make Climate Change Worse - Trees draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to keep warming in check. But their dark, green leaves also absorb heat from sunlight. Snow and sand, by virtue of their light color, reflect more sunlight back into space. As such, trees planted in snowy areas or in the desert will absorb more sunlight than their surroundings, which may negate the climate benefits of soaking up carbon dioxide.

These 3,000-Year-Old Treasures Were Forged from Meteoritic Iron - In the 1960s, researchers discovered a trove of Bronze Age treasure in Villena, Spain. New research has revealed that some of them made between 1400 and 1200 B.C.E. were forged from iron from a meteor that struck Earth a million years ago. Who manufactured them and where this material was obtained are still questions that remain to be answered.

Vernal Pools Make Your Garden Sing - It’s not just frogs that are making homes in these little pools of water. Less vocal species like salamanders, dragonflies, fairy shrimp, and even dozens of native plants are there too. Even more species than that can be found simply visiting the pool for a drink or snack, including great blue herons, wood ducks, and box turtles.

Return of Trees to Eastern U.S. Kept Region Cool as Planet Warmed - Over the 20th century, the U.S. warmed by 1.2 degrees F (0.7 degrees C), but across much the East, temperatures dropped by 0.5 degrees F (0.3 degrees C). A new study posits that the restoration of lost forest countered warming, keeping the region cool. Still, the return of trees can only partially account for the drop in temperature. Other possible explanations include the growth of irrigation, a source of water vapor, and the uptick in particulate pollution, which reflects sunlight, thereby cooling the air.

Sweetened drinks linked to atrial fibrillation risk - 20% higher risk of irregular heart rhythm, known as atrial fibrillation, among people who said they drank two liters or more per week (about 67 ounces) of artificially sweetened drinks. The risk was 10% higher among people who said they drank similar amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Measles outbreaks and what parents need to know - Measles can lead to complications such as ear infections, diarrhea, pneumonia, and encephalitis (brain swelling). One to three of every 1,000 children infected with measles dies. More than 97 percent of the people who have had their two shots of the vaccine never get measles.

A new world of 2D material is opening up - 2D materials have shown great potential for an enormous number of applications. You can imagine capturing carbon dioxide or purifying water, for example. Now it's about scaling up the synthesis and doing it in a sustainable way.

In Cleveland, mushrooms digest entire houses: How fungi can be used to clean up pollution - Fungi can eat the noxious waste from abandoned homes. Heavy metals and other toxins are extracted and captured in the mushrooms that grow, while the substrate leftovers, including the mycelium, are compacted and heated to create clean bricks for new construction. The resulting "mycoblocks" have a consistency akin to hardwood and, depending on the specifics of the manufacturing process, have been shown to be significantly stronger than concrete.

Arctic nightlife: Seabird colony bursts with sound at night - Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the Arctic.

Zooming – September 2023

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The beauty of the early morning in Texas - Hagerman and Josey Ranch and my parents’ yard….the wildness of Shaw Nature Reserve (near St. Louis MO) in the early afternoon…the joys of nature in my neighborhood (Nixa MO). These are the locations where my selections of zoomed images for September were made. The month was very much between summer and fall – starting hot and getting a bit cooler as the month progressed, still very green but the occasional beginning of fall color. Enjoy the September slideshow!

Shaw Nature Reserve (1)

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My daughter and I made our first visit to the Shaw Nature Reserve last week. I had ordered some native plants to be picked up during the Fall Wildflower Market. We arrived shortly after noon, before the market started, which gave us ample time for a short hike in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden and along the Bush Creek Trail. After checking in at the visitor center (using my Friends of the Springfield (MO) Botanical Gardens for entrance) and getting a token to open the gate to the reserve’s Pinetum Loop Road, we drove all the way around the loop. We stopped to walk out to the Crecent Knoll Overlook. Thistles were one plant that was blooming.

The vegetation was thick with a variety of plants. We stayed on the trails to avoid picking up ticks and sticky seeds! I used my optical zoom to photograph some spheres on the back of a leaf. Galls?

After completing the loop, we parked near the northern trailhead for the Brush Creek Trail. A tree had been cut into sections near the trail (probably after it had fallen on the trail. The saw marks make it difficult to count the rings.

Some of the areas are limestone glades where the plants don’t grow as densely. I noted a very weathered piece of limestone.

The only insect I photographed intentionally was a grasshopper that was not much over an inch long. I was pleased that I managed to focus on it! Will it mature enough to lay eggs before winter?

There was a sculpture among some of the fall wildflowers!

There was an area that had a lot of new-growth ferns. I enjoy photographing fiddleheads. It always seems miraculous that they start out so tightly packed…and unfurl into large fronds!

The persimmons were not ripe yet…but I was thrilled to recognize the bark and fruit (with the sign to confirm the id).

There were several kinds of fungus we saw on the hike as well. Lichen (yes there is algae there too, but I am lumping it with the fungus,

Shelf fungus,

And 2 kinds of mushrooms. The first reminded me of vanilla wafers.

There were 2 groups of the second kind. They were very close to the trail and it looked like someone had kicked the parts of the clump closest to the trail (why do people do that?). These reminded me of small crepes!

Stay tuned for more from our hike at Shaw Nature Reserve in tomorrow’s post.

Our Missouri Yard – August 2023

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The Crape Myrtles that died to the ground last winter are all out and blooming in our yard. We have 4 (plus 1 or 2 others that have come up from seeds away from the parent plant). They attract insects….and hummingbirds!

There is a stand of Virginia Creeper than I periodically pull off the brick walls…but let continue to drape across the rock of the front flowerbed between the Crape Myrtles.

The Japanese Maple in the corner near our front door is happier than it was last summer; we are a little above normal for rainfall this year whereas last summer we were painfully dry.

There are mushrooms that come up frequently in our front yard where a large tree was cut down several years before we bought the house. Based on the number of mushrooms…there must still be quite a lot of decomposition happening.

There are seed pods on our Kousa Dogwood; unlike last year when the tree struggled to maintain its leaves.

Some plants seem to be robust no matter what. I am encouraging Lamb’s Ear wherever it comes up. One place that has done well was a hole in the turf where a small lamb’s ear appeared last spring; I have been mowing around it and it appears very robust at this point. I dug up a plant that was not in acceptable place and replanted it to fill a corner between the fence and the house. It is growing…slowly.

In the back yard my small ‘meadow’ where I planted wildflower seeds last spring is doing well and the flowers are producing seeds for next year. The leafy green plant in the foreground is pokeweed; I like the way it provides a frame to the meadow.

We generally leave the wasp/hornets’ nests alone unless they are in a place where we might get stung. I found this one on our steppingstones between our patio and yard; it is probably an old nest that fell from wherever it was attached during recent storms.

There was a mushroom that was growing in some mulch that I thought was a flower at first because the cap had split to look like petals. I took a picture from above and below.

There is always something to see in our yard!

Macro in the Garden

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My garden plot has done reasonably well for its 1st season. I am letting all the wildflowers bloom and make seeds. The bulbs will hopefully be more robust next year too. The plot has been a joy to see at every stage – a reward for my efforts to plant and keep watered.

The added benefit is the variety of plants for macro photography (using Samsung Galaxy S10e phone). My goal is to make the rounds at least once a month since the plants change throughout the season. The highlights this month are the poppies making seeds and the sunflower just beginning the process. The red leaves are a rosebush next to the patch of wildflowers and bulbs.

Next to the wildflower garden, I have a vine of miniature pumpkins. There are three that are getting  bigger every day.

I noticed that the petals of the showy flowers have spikes at the tip that shortens as the petals unfurl. When I first started looking at the flower, I noticed some small insects were there. I wondered if they were pollinators; then a black carpenter bee came, and I switched to video mode. Clearly the carpenter bee was the pollinator!

In the front yard – there were three types of mushrooms growing where the large tree was cut down well before we saw our house; I know it was there because of the depression and general bumpiness caused by the decaying roots. The most numerous mushrooms this time were white blobs pushing up out of the grass.

In closer looks – they remind me of toasted marshmallows!

The second type was darker and still had rolled edges. They had previously been the most numerous kind I’d seen in the area…but not this time. I wondered if there is a fungi succession when it came to tree stumps/roots.

The third type was a single specimen….more delicate looking than the others. I see it elsewhere in the yard.

 The macro world….easier to observe with my phone in hand!

Mushrooms and a Robin’s Egg

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Some surprises that show up in my yard are worth photographing! The mushrooms that show up where a large tree was removed (probably several years before we bought the house) have appeared several times in the year we have owned the house. They come up in clumps that display different stages of development…then disintegrate to black goo. I saw these one morning when I was mowing….stopped to take pictures before I continued.

The same day I saw part of a Robin’s egg in the mulch under one our maples. Was there a robin’s nest in the tree…a parent cleaning up after a chick hatched? That is the hopeful story I told myself…although I also realized a predator could have found the nest in the tree or elsewhere and dropped the shell after a good meal.

The next day, I mowed the other half of the yard and discovered a stinkhorn had come up in the mulch where our pine had recently been cut and the stump ground up. I guess the fungi are hard at work in the cleanup!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 22, 2023

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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.

Home Electrification Incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act – Now to decide what to do first….

How mobile phones have changed our brains – Some research about the impact phones have on our focus.

Drug overdose fatalities among U.S. older adults has quadrupled over 20 years, research finds – Overdose is a problem across the lifespan. Most deaths are unintentional.

Macro Photography Captures the Delicate Dance of Mantises in Malaysia – Wonders of the insect world. We have mantises in North America…but not as colorful as these Malaysian species.

A Plateau in the Heart of Texas – The Edwards Plateau…one of the geologic features of Texas that makes for scenic drives.

The Shaman’s Secrets – A 9,000-year-old burial of 2 people (one adult, one very young child) with 100s of ritual objects. The grave was first excavated in the 1930s…and assumptions were made…the adult was a man, blond hair, blue eyes. But modern analysis tells a different and more complete story.

Winter Rains Bring Mushroom Boom in California – Extra rain….and there are a lot more mushrooms!

Protecting Nēnē, The Threatened State Bird of Hawai'i – We didn’t see in nēnē when we went to Volcanoes National Park in 2015….it was good to see pictures of them.

Want to Improve Your Outdoor Recreation? Try Birding. – Yes! It has certainly been true for my husband and me. There are so many good resources about birding (festivals, birding trails, apps)!

A must-see sunset spectacle at Monument Valley – Wow! We visited in 2013 at midday. Next time I’ll plan to go in late March or mid-September…and stay until sunset.

Older adults with dementia but without close family: Who are they? And who cares for them? – Thought provoking.

Carrollton Yard – March 2023 (1)

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The next few months, until the heat of summer becomes oppressive, should be the prettiest months of year in Carrollton, TX yards… including my parents’ yard. There were so many things to see when I was there in late March, that I am writing about them in two posts (today and tomorrow).

Seeds from a neighbor’s tree were all shades of green to brown….blowing over the back yard (will any of them sprout?).

The usual early spring flowers were up. My mother cut some of them to bring indoors; the garden still held plenty more.

The fiddleheads in the front flowerbed were healthy looking. They survived the prolonged period of 100 degree + days last summer better than the blue rug juniper ground cover (more than half of it died). Being in the shade most of the time must have helped although some of last year’s fronds looked burnt in August.

I was surprised to see several clumps of mushrooms around the base of one of the old mulberry trees. The tree itself was leafing out…so it’s unclear why that grassy area was so hospitable for mushrooms. I took the opportunity to do some macro photography….of course.

I enjoyed two servings of edamame pods and composted the empty pods afterward in one of the flowerbeds. It is surprising how much happened to them in 2-3 days! I’ll check them again in late April!

Shaggy Mane or Scaly Ink Cap

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When we got back from voting the Missouri primary last week, I noticed something different about our front yard. Instead of closed the garage door, I went out with my phone in hand to get a closer look. There were two groups of mushrooms that seemed to be somewhat clustered around one of our sprinkler heads. I took some pictures for the iNaturalist app and the two suggestions were Shaggy Mane or Scaly Ink Cap. They are evidently common in yards!

I did some macro views with my Samsung Galaxy 10 phone (with 4 and 8x magnification). There were parts that were very black…some that look like part of a pinecone…like roasted marshmallow…like neatly organized fibers.

I went inside to get my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) to use its optical zoom for another round of images. There seemed to be many stages of mushroom development in the group and I realized that they must have come up overnight since our yard was mowed the previous day!

By the next morning – after a lot of rain overnight – the mushrooms were blackened. Hopefully they matured enough to create spores and we’ll have more in our yard!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 30, 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.

Environmentally friendly ways to cool homes – This will be an increasingly ‘hot’ topic for individuals and various levels of business and government. Many electrical utilities are already seeing increased energy consumption during the summer.

What’s Up with White Squirrels and Black Squirrels? – I haven’t seen any white squirrels but we have the occasional black one in our neighborhood (in Maryland).

Medical errors keep killing patients – but there are laws, incentives and mindset changes that could reduce the death toll – Medical mistakes are s leading cause of death, behind heard disease and cancer. This should not be the case. Surely incentives can be used to force changes to the unacceptable status quo.

Deaths linked to ‘hormone disruptor’ chemical costs billions of lost US productivity – A study that included more than 5,000 adults ages 55-64 done by NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The people with the highest concentrations of phthalates in their urine were more likely to die of heart disease than those with lesser exposure. I am no longer storing food in plastic containers unless they phthalate free…the bigger problem is cosmetics/hygiene products. It’s hard to know which ones have it.

Why are you seeing lots of vultures now? – Our area has resident turkey and black vultures…we see a few all year long. In the fall we might see an uptick because of vultures from further north migrating through.

Mushroom consumption may lower risk of depression – Yet another reason to enjoy mushrooms in your diet!

US Moving Towards 30% Electricity from Wind & Solar – By 2026! That is not that far away. I know I’ll probably have solar panels on the roof of my house well before that (and probably some energy storage as well).

Possible Mammoth Butchery Site Found in Arctic Circle – On an island off the northern coast of East Siberia. At the time the animal was killed (26,000 years ago), sea levels were lower, and the island was connected to the mainland.

Nature-based activities can improve mood and reduce anxiety – A metastudy that looked at 50 studies and 14,321 NBI records done by the University of York. Interestingly – they didn’t find that the activities improved physical health!

It’s Time to Ban Gas-Powered Landscaping Equipment – We already have some electric landscaping equipment: blower, trimmer, weed eater. The mower will be next. I am looking forward to it since I notice the exhaust smell and get a scratchy throat every time I mow.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 17, 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 'Zoom Boom' Can't Save the Midwest – People are leaving dense, high-cost urban metro areas…but very few of them are going to the heartland.  Maybe some of the areas will benefit from migration because of climate change. Or maybe the Midwest should simply focus on investments to help their economies and create places people want to live….do the groundwork to encourage people to move to the region.

Poison Mushrooms: How to Tell – From the Natural History Society of Maryland…good pictures.

The Avenues of America – An overview picture of Washington DC taken from the International Space Station.

The Invasion Of The National Park System – Quagga mussels, Burmese pythons, feral swine, household pets gone wild, tamarisk trees….and those are just the ones pictured!

Incredible Footage of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Volcano – And there are people in many of the pictures to provide scale!

Major advance in fabrication of low-cost solar cells also locks up greenhouse gases – There are so many articles about technologies that sound promising toward creating faster pathways away from fossil fuels….hope a lot of them move forward.

Elephant Trunks Can Suck Water at 330 Miles Per Hour – Wow

Pyramid made of dirt is world’s oldest known war memorial – Located in Syria…and at least 30 people – male and presumed to be warriors – buried in horizontal steps.

COVID-19 pandemic has been linked with six unhealthy eating behaviors -- ScienceDaily – Eating disorders are one of the deadliest psychiatric health concerns and 6 of them have a correlation to the pandemic: mindless eating and snacking, increased food consumption, generalized decrease in appetite or dietary intake, eating to cope, pandemic related reductions in dietary intake, and re-emergence or marked increase in eating disorders.

How flooded coal mines could heat homes – Evidently the water in the mines could be tapped as a source of geothermal heating/cooling!

Cicada!

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I found a cicada on a sycamore leaf in our yard and carried it to the steps of our deck before continuing to trim the low branches of the tree. By the time I came back to photograph the insect it was walking around the steps…no longer on its ‘sit upon’ leaf. Fortunately, is stayed around long enough for a few pictures.

Comparing the pictures to various species of cicada’s in Maryland, I think it is probably a swamp/morning cicada. I’ve seen this type before in our area…and its supposedly widespread in the eastern US.

Hearing cicadas somehow reminds me of my childhood trips in the summer to my grandparents’ house where we spend a lot of time outdoors – under the shade of the big trees (elms mostly….that were dying or dead by the time I was in my late teens). I don’t remember seeing cicadas then but remember the sound. The sounds are still more evident so seeing one (and being able to photograph it) makes the day a special one.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Yard work…it never seems to be completely done. I’ve come to appreciate the wheelbarrow as a metric and a step (and back) saver. Tree trimming fills it up fast. I was focused on cutting branches that were growing low enough to be in our way we mow the grass. This was my first 2-wheelbarrows full yard work hours!

I took a few pictures in between loads. There seemed to be a lot of small mushrooms in the grass that were all in about the same stage of development.

I couldn’t resist photographing the sycamore leaves…the ones with holes and the ones that were still tiny enough to be unmarked. The tree is already beginning to show some signs of fall; it is late to leaf out in the spring and early to begin changing color…before ‘fall’ starts for other trees.

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There are chives growing in the chaos garden! I’ll have to remember to cut some next time I want to add flavor to a salad.

Found on the Ground

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I walked around my yard and looked for interesting things on the ground. I was a little surprised at how many things I found! My rule was to not move anything…just take the photo as it appeared on the ground. Toward the front and north side of the yard, I found oak leaves from last fall that had blown into the garage, a wasp nest that had blown down from someplace, an arc of grass clippings, some plants overflowing into the concrete trough below the gutter’s downspout, an anthill, a sycamore leaf and some mushrooms in our neighbor’s yard (I used the zoom for the last one).

In the back and the south side of the house there were tiny yellow flowers (weeds), sycamore leaves (rust and decaying green), a cabbage white butterfly enjoying the tiny yellow flowers, a tulip poplar leaf, the invasive plants under the trees at the edge of the forest, a mushroom, some clover, a cherry leaf and water droplets on a weed.

It was a short walk on a morning that was heating up; already warm enough to have the cabbage whites active. I was glad there were still water droplets too. Overall – I’m always pleased that there seems to always be something interesting in our yard.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Looked at a reference from last week’s Zoom meetings… savored The MoMA exhibition Safe: Design Takes on Risk from 2004 (19 short audios and then pictures).

Neighborhood Pond in the Early Morning – Part 2

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Aside for seeing the green heron with a fish…there were other things to see around the pond as I made the circuit. The frogs I was hearing when I first approached were Green Frogs based on their calls (like a strummed rubber band) and then I started seeing them – jumping from the bank – plopping into the water. There were some already in the water…with just their head above water. One was on some debris under the cattails. Those three were still enough for me to photograph.

The pond has a street on one side, the back fences of yards on two sides, and then a milkweed meadow on the 4th.  It was recycle day for the neighborhood and the truck rumbled around the neighborhood while I was at the pond.

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There are lots of plants to see around the pond: peaches hanging over the fence from someone’s back yard, mushrooms in the grass, horse nettle, vetch, clovers, and dandelions.

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There were all stages of cattail around the pond. They are usually where I see the male red-winged blackbirds perched; I did manage to photograph one but most of the birds were in the trees or on fences.

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The milkweed meadow was in bloom. The bees and milkweed beetle were enjoying the bounty. A few plants were coming up in the mowed area (growing faster than the grass).

There were some silent animals around too: a rabbit

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And a painted turtle that I almost stepped on. I was just looking more closely at the pond since I usually see one in the water or up on some debris. And then I looked down…and saw it about a foot away from me. This one was well up the slope from the pond. The temperature was in the lower 70s…..and the turtle was probably just thinking about moving. It didn’t budge while I took my photographs.

For all the animals – I used the zoom rather than trying to get close. The morning pond was their home and I left them to enjoy the morning.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Finches at the feeder. We have House Finches at our feeder frequently…and occasionally get Goldfinches. There was a little drama yesterday that involved both. A female Goldfinch arrived first. Then a male House Finch followed by a male Goldfinch. The males appeared to have a territorial interaction and the male House Finch departed.