Our House – Touch up of Interior Painting

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The work to get our house ready to sell has begun. Last week, the painters arrived to touch up the interior painting. Prior to their arrival my husband and I had prepped the rooms they would be working in: cleared off surfaces, removed table/floor lamps, and removed smaller furniture. A recent donation and trip to the landfill had removed the old desk chairs…made for fewer pieces of small furniture to move out of the way.

In the calm before the painters were due, I noticed there was frost on the deck. I was surprised since the temperature was right at 32 degrees. I went out with my phone and macro lens. The ice crystals were melting…but were still interesting. I wondered what started the crystallization swirl seen at two magnifications in the last 2 pictures below.

The painters did as much as they could the first day….left equipment in one room and part of the plastic draping up. The job was complete after a second day of work!

One task down….more to come. The next one may be the touch up of the exterior paint; it will depend on warmer temperatures for a few days which could happen this week…or not.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 18, 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.

Young female black bears in Asheville, North Carolina, are big, have cubs early – More research needed…it’s still not known what is causing them to be so much bigger and mature early…or if the population is increasing or not. It is clear that there are quite a few bears and lots of opportunity for interactions between people and bears – many not healthy for the bears.

The alarming risks of mixing common drugs – It is a problem that is acute in most elderly patients with good medical care. Their various doctors have gradually built up the medications…and the regime to take them all appropriately becomes daunting. Hopefully it will become best practice to constantly review and minimize drugs that are prescribed.

Work Of First African American Painter With International Reputation Explored – Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

Hummingbirds can smell their way out of danger – I was thinking a lot about hummingbirds this past week after my success photographing one at Brookside Gardens.

Praying Mantis – I see these more frequently in the fall…but not every fall. There are so many mantis egg cases, there should be plenty to see; I need to improve my observation skills.

How much energy do we need to achieve a decent life for all? – The most important take away from this study: “energy for eradicating poverty does not pose a threat for mitigating climate change.” That is good news

The lost generation of ancient trees – The ancients are dying….and there are not enough trees old enough to replace them. There are various ways being tried to veteranize younger trees so they can play the role of ancient trees in ecosystems.

Fall Armyworms are Attacking Lawns and Crops on an ‘Unprecedented’ Scale – Hmmm…maybe this is a prompt to reduce or eliminate the grassy portion of the yard.

Mammoth Cave National Park: The World's Longest Cave Is Longer Than Before - 8 more miles mapped bringing the total to 420 miles!

Hand pollination of crops is of major importance – I was surprised that hand pollination is already used for important crops like apple, palm oil and cocoa.

Alfred East’s The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colour

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I happened upon a book on Internet Archive I had browsed back in 2012 – The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colour by Alfred East…and enjoyed the illustrations again.

I particularly enjoyed the ‘Studies of Effect’ series. Since I’ve done a lot more thinking about light as I’ve improved my photographic skills, I probably appreciated them more now than I did 8 years ago.

These days – there are other steps I typically take when I spot something of interest in Internet Archive – either the topic of the book or the author…or maybe just a single picture. I frequently look for the biography of the author in Wikipedia (and maybe follow some of the external links or references). Since East was a British artist, I did a search on The British Museum site and found 32 items! It’s awesome to be able to follow whatever questions I develop looking at old books; perhaps I appreciate the ease more since I remember heavy reference books and card catalogs…and being frustrated when the library didn’t have what I was looking for.  It’s very easy now to find an overwhelming amount of information.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Bald Eagle. As we were driving to put flowers on my mother-in-law’s grave (she died in 1990) on Thanksgiving morning, we drove by a historical manor house set well off the road with outbuildings. I noticed a white blotch near the top of one of the trees near the house. It was almost too far away to figure out what it was but when it moved, I realized it was a bald eagle. It turned further and took off as the light turned green and we moved in the other direction. What a great contribution from the natural world to add to our Thanksgiving!

Paintings of Cut Flowers – October 2020

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I’m looking back at a series of Internet Archive slideshows that I viewed back in June…picking out the cut flower paintings. Click on the artist’s name to see more of the artist’s work which includes other subjects as well as the cut flowers. Enjoy the artwork!

Gustave Caillebotte (1848 - 1894)

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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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Gleanings of the Week Ending November 23, 2019

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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 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Seed Eaters – National Geographic Society Newsroom – Quite a variety. Some are small and somewhat drab…but with the camera’s magnification – it’s easy to see that many are more interesting..

The best and worst countries to be a woman – Inclusion, security and justice. Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan are the worst….Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Denmark are the best. The US scored 19 of 167 countries.

We asked women around the world these 6 provocative questions – Thought provoking and a good read for the answers from women.

Computer science classes break down cultural barriers, study shows -- ScienceDaily – This was certainly true for computer science classes and gender barriers in the US during the 70s and early 80s….and then it wasn’t. Hopefully the same does not happen in the future to this project and projects like them.

Renaissance Nun's 'Last Supper' Painting Makes Public Debut After 450 Years in Hiding | Smart News | Smithsonian – A little art history -- Plautilla Nelli. The article includes pictures before and after restoration of the painting.

California's crashing kelp forest: How disease, warming waters, and ravenous sea urchins combined to kill the kelp and close the red abalone fishery -- ScienceDaily – An ecological horror story that happened between 2013 and 2017.

Infographic: Red Tides Still Hold Tantalizing Mysteries | The Scientist Magazine® - There have been more stories about red tides in Florida again recently, so this article caught my attention. It appears that there is still a lot to learn about the organism.

Horrifying True Stories of Insect Zombies – Cool Green Science – Insect parasitized by fungus, worms, other insects….the amazing complexity of natural interactions.

Replacing coal with gas or renewables saves billions of gallons of water -- ScienceDaily – This is a big deal – particularly in areas that are water challenged (like much of the western US).

The fragrance factory: Roure-Bertrand Fils and the perfume industry in Grasse | Europeana Blog – Perfume history…from the early 1900s.