Thanksgiving

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I am thinking of Thanksgiving ahead of time – planning a quite holiday with family with activities planned before and after:

  • The holiday light display is open for Friends of the Garden the Monday before Thanksgiving…so we will enjoy our first walk through of the season unless the weather is wet. I missed seeing them at all in 2023 because I was in Dallas for the later part of the year.

  • I am not a black Friday shopper…but enjoy being outdoors (maybe working off some of the calories from the day before). Our November has been relatively mild…good hiking weather.

There is also plenty in my life to be thankful for right now:

  • My dad is comfortable at his assisted living home; my sisters and I are able to visit him frequently.

  • I have finished my Missouri Master Naturalist training, and the volunteering opportunities seem to be coming along as I expected. There is much to learn and do even during the winter.

  • The Identifying Woody Plants class at Missouri State is about over…and I thoroughly enjoyed the field trips – learned a lot about great outdoor places close to where I live.

  • Our home is snug – ready for winter…the sprinkler system winterized and the heating system checked.

  • Both cars are performing well. Both have been used for road trips recently. My husband and I both appreciate the driver’s aids on modern cars when we make longer drives.

  • The fall has been prolonged by the milder temperatures. The color might have been muted from less rain in the summer, but the length of the display made up for that.

  • Internet Archive is back online. I missed it a lot while it was down and realize how much I savor browsing through its digitized old books; many of them are not available otherwise.

Life is good….

Road Trip to Texas – November 2024

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My monthly 2-day road trip to Texas to visit my dad was sunny and full of fall sights. The temperatures were decidedly cool. On the first day, I noticed more hawks that usual on high branches of roadside trees – particularly in Oklahoma. Some of them were probably red-tails but some were obviously smaller. Going 70 miles an hour, I only get a quick glimpse (avoiding becoming a distracted driver).

I stopped at the Texas welcome center on US 75 after leaving Oklahoma to eat my lunch and enjoyed their native plant garden. The Turk’s cap was still blooming.

The American beautyberry has clumps of purple drupes but some that were on the top part of the clump looked burnt. I wondered if they got the most summer sun…and were damaged by many days of the high temperatures.

There was a small tree that had a lots of red berries. I managed to ID it: possumhaw (Ilex decidua). It is a native deciduous holly. It grows in Missouri and I might plant one in my yard…maybe replacing a non-native.

It was very windy the next day on my drive back to Missouri. I didn’t see hawks perching….but did see some soaring. One was flying low over a field near the highway --- obviously hunting.

The sun was going down by the time I got back to Missouri. The light from the setting sun gave the roadside trees and orange glow. It was a good scenic finale for the road trip.

Dallas and Back – October

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I made my monthly trek to Dallas and back late last week. It was a cold morning as I left Missouri…getting away well before 6 and my nav system routing be around a nighttime road closure before I even made it to the highway! It was almost sunrise by the time I made my first rest stop. The color in the sky changed even in the short time I was in the building getting a protein shake for breakfast.

The color was mostly faded when I stopped the second time although it was still within the hour after sunrise.

The drive was uneventful although it seems like there is more active construction on some parts of my route than a month ago. Perhaps they are trying to reach a milestone before winter weather or maybe previous work had been hampered by very high temperatures in southern Oklahoma and Texas.

I visited with my dad and then headed to the hotel to relax…recover from getting up a little earlier than usual and driving for almost 7 hours.

The next morning, I was up and ready for a breakfast at the hotel at 6:30 then arrived to visit my dad shortly after 8 AM. We took a walk around the block. The weather was coolish (he wore a quilted vest over his long-sleeved shirt) and the sun was bright. Some of the houses had fall/Halloween decorations. The bald cypress trees I had noticed last time I walked with him were beginning to lose their needles. They will be ‘bald’ soon!

I was on the road heading home shortly after 10. The drive between the assisted living residence in Dallas and the border between Texas and Oklahoma is the most stressful part of the route – the speed limit is 70 mph for most of the way and people are trying to go that fast and beyond even when the traffic is too heavy to allow that safely.

I got home by about 5:30 and my husband informed me that we might be about to see the aurora after it got dark. We went out about 8…and there it was…faint but definitely some color in the Missouri sky!

Road trip to Texas – September 2024

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I made a 2-day road trip to Texas to visit my father. It was the usual 7 hours on the road each direction. It was dark when I left my house. The moon was close to the horizon and looking very large. I should have stopped for a picture when a few clouds drifted over part of it – missed the opportunity. More clouds and fog blinked out the moon before I got to my first rest stop and gave the day an eerie start. I was more than halfway to Texas before the temperature was in the mid70s, but Dallas was in the 90s when I got to my dad’s assisted living home. We finished a puzzle and watered plants around the back patio, but it was too hot to take him for a walk around the block.

I had forgotten that there was a partial lunar eclipse…didn’t venture out of my hotel room. My husband sent a picture the next morning that he took from our front yard.

The next morning I visited my father right after breakfast…a great time for a walk. He is moving more slowly but walks often enough that other walkers in the neighborhood recognize him! There is a lot of home maintenance/improvement going on in the neighborhood. One family had enclosed more of their yard and made rock gardens in the parts that are too shady for much to grow; a small branch had fallen from the tree and was leaning on one of the larger rocks….photo-op.

There was an interesting leaf in the middle of the street…..not the usual fall foliage. It might have been from a Bradford Pear. My dad was so focused on walking that he didn’t seem interested in the leaf, but I took it back to his room as a memento to share with his next visitor.

Getting out of Dallas was a bit challenging. There seemed to be more-than-the-usual stalled cars/trucks (in traffic lanes on US 75 rather than off to the side) and there was some construction. I made a stop to relax a bit close to the border with Oklahoma…and am glad that the rest of the drive back to Missouri was uneventful.

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks

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If I lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks would be one of my favorite places. Our membership at the Springfield Botanical Gardens got us in as reciprocal members.

Even before we went into the gardens, I saw several swallowtails on the plantings at the edge of the parking lot.

There was also a water feature near the entrance with water lilies.

I spotted a grasshopper that stayed still long enough for a portrait.

We heard the garden’s rooster crowing as we walked into the first garden area - a vegetable garden with a corn shaped fountain and red okra. I had never seen any okra that color previously. It is evidently edible like regular okra but also a colorful plant for the garden. The gardener that was working that morning told me it was her backup plant for things that did not fare as well in the high heat over this summer…and it looked great.

There was a children’s garden with one adult sized entrance and several child size ones with tile mosaic arches.

Just outside the children’s garden here was a train of couches for reading.

And then we came to the screened in butterfly house! Lots of opportunities for butterfly photography!

Continuing through the garden…I noticed some structures. My favorite was a pair of porch swings that were mostly in the shade; we sat for a bit, enjoying the swing, appreciating the little break before we made our way back to the entrance of the garden.

Buckyball and Compton Gardens

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We visited the Buckyball at The Momentary on our only evening in Bentonville. There were not many people around; we enjoyed reclining on the wooden seats and taking pictures/videos….until we realized how many mosquitoes there were!

It was a Sunday evening, so the eating places were closed…we walked around the nearby garden area. The lights were still on the sculptures. If I return the area, I’ll plan to be there on an evening when businesses are open!

The next morning we walked in Compton Gardens. A few weeks previously when my daughter was there, she had seen lots of butterflies and goldfinches. We didn’t see any goldfinches but there were a few skippers (one was a tawny edged skipper) and a great spangled fritillary butterfly around.

The gardens had been damaged by a tornado recently and some trails were still closed. Some critical cleanups had been done. I took a picture of a recently cut stump and counted the rings in the image. The tree was more than 70 years old!

Terra Studios

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We spent a couple of hours at Terra Studios (southeast of Fayetteville, AR and a part of the our road trip that included Crystal Bridges last week). The art displays are outdoors. There were not many people there on the afternoon we visited – surprising since it was a holiday weekend and there is a lot to enjoy here in the woodlands and more open area around the pond. It’s free; donations encouraged. There were a lot of mosaics of tiles and glass – on walls and picnic tables. Some of the ones on picnic tables (i.e. horizonal surfaces) were damaged but the vertical ones were in good shape.

One of the picnic areas had a collection of playhouses!

There were lots of clay figures – in the forest…on the lawn. Some of them were old enough that they had lichen growing on them or were sinking into their environment! I particularly liked the figures riding turtles on a rail in the pond!

There were murals along the path into the forest. The materials must be durable enough to last outdoors for years.

The simple fountain, that incorporated stained class into part of its cover, was in a very shady area – maybe the coolest place during our walk!

We entered the maze – my daughter and I following my husband who opted to ‘take the left-hand turn’ strategy….and it worked!

Back in the gift shop/snack bar – I bought 2 pair of earrings made my artists associated with Terra Studios and my daughter bought a glass Bluebird of Happiness – first created by Leo Ward at Terra Studios in 1982.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (1)

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There is a lot to see at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. My daughter had visited previously and had suggested it as a great start to our ‘end of summer’ road trip. The art is from various time periods often with links to American history: “We the People” with shoe strings, some favorite artists (Audubon, Chihuly, O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter), a dandelion made in metal originally made for a hotel, the red tinted lens looking out to a water feature, a river in silver on an otherwise blank wall…so much to see…these were just a few of my favorites.

One of the most thought-provoking pieces was a picture of the border wall….as a scar on the landscape. This stretch was a natural area not so long ago.

There were quite a few pieces from Yayoi Kusama (Japanese artist). The infinity room is a dark mirrored space where two people enter at a time (controlled at the door where there is almost always a short line) filled with polka dot orbs lit from within. The minder allows each couple 2 minutes in the space.

Outside there are flower sculptures with polka dots done by the same artist.

There is also a water feature that is partially covered with mirrored orbs made by Kusama …mostly in one group but some seemed to have escaped into the nearby reeds.

More tomorrow about the gardens and art outside the buildings.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – August 2024

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I hadn’t visited Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge since last March – since I shifted my visits to my dad to 2-day road trips…seeing him in the afternoon after a 7 hour drive and the next morning before a 7 hour drive. There has been no time to make the side trip to Hagerman. But this month, I went for more days and made time for a Hagerman stop on the way home. I arrived about 45 minutes past sunrise.

There were still lotuses blooming in one of the ponds…a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron (with a dragonfly in the air) were in the same pond.

There was a juvenile (still had some white splotches) Little Blue Heron on one of the larger ponds that I photographed it with a Great Egret and a Snowy Egret for size comparison.

One of my photos of a Great Egret had a cormorant taking off in the background. Not far away there was a cormorant that was obviously a Neotropic Cormorant. The range map for this species shows that they might be breeding at Hagerman…but are not there year-round.

The pumpjacks in this picture were both active.

There was a small pond that had a lot of birds (herons and egrets). I took a regular image then two panoramic versions.

The light was just right for blue water…the magic of the hour after sunrise.

In the pollinator garden near the visitor center (which wouldn’t open until 9…after I continued toward home), I saw a milkweed pod already releasing its seeds with milkweed bugs in various stages of development.

Sunflowers are always photogenic…and one of them had a Green Metallic Sweat Bee!

I am not sure what kind of seed pods these are…but the shapes are full of curves.

There were volunteers working in the garden….and turning on sprinklers. The trumpet vine was almost completely desiccated. It has been very hot and dry this August there.

It was a good stop…a nature fix before the 6 more hours of driving to get home.

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2024

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The heat of summer is still with us…but there are signs of fall too. Lots to celebrate in August.

Road trip adventures that didn’t become problems. In the first hour of my road trip to Dallas I saw a skunk and an overturned semi-truck. The skunk abled away from the road (i.e. did not become roadkill) and the semi was on the oposite side of the highway!

Finding puzzles. Keeping the supply of puzzles coming for my dad at his assisted living home is a little more challenging since he requires ones with 500 or fewer pieces…and they can’t be small pieces. I was celebrated a couple for a reasonable price and the used book/puzzles sale from Friends of the Library is coming up in a few days where I should be able to get a good supply for $2 each.

A cooler than expected morning in Dallas. My dad likes to take walks in the neighborhood where he lives so I celebrated the morning when I was there was cool enough for the activity (it didn’t start raining until a couple of hours later when I was starting the drive back to Missouri).

Getting the whole yard mowed. I am celebrating that my stamina has improved enough that I can mow the whole yard on one day (my husband made it a little easier by buying an extra battery so I’m more confident of having enough power for the mower even if the grass is a little wet).

A rainy day. It’s been a drier August than usual. I celebrated when I heard it raining in the early morning hours.

Starting the stepping stone path in the new garden area. The narrow grassy area between a pine tree and our flower beds that I am converting to other plants is progressing well this summer. It is currently a compost area for grass clippings, pine needles, and leaves. The hostas that I planted last spring in the area are doing well. I celebrated the milestone of putting done the first two stepping stones that will lead from the patio to the yard through the area.

No tax day for school supplies/clothes. Both my husband and I intentionally made some purchases on Missouri’s no tax weekend for school supplies/clothes…celebrating the annual starting of a new school year. He got 2 pair of jeans and I got some packs of card stock: black and bright colors.

Registering/starting a class at the university. I am celebrating being back in a university classroom after more than 40 years. It feels good!

Multiple types of fungus on a stump in a neighbor’s yard. The stump is deterioating rapidly now. I’m celebrating that there are interesting fungi doing the work.

The Paris Olympics. Celebrating the efforts and sportsmanship of the athletics…seeing their dedication and joy.

Road Trip to Texas – August 2024 (1)

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I am anticipating taking more than one trip to Dallas to see my dad in August since two of my three sisters are traveling during the month; it’s more challenging for one of us to see him every day when there are less people in the rotation! This road trip was easier that my recent ones – not as many delays from construction or accidents. However….there were still moments of drama….

As I headed out of my neighborhood, I noticed a skunk amble from my neighbor’s corner flowerbed and move off down a side street where there are houses on both sides. It’s probably very familiar with the area but I had not seen it before.

About 45 minutes into the trip, there was on overturned truck on the opposite side of the interstate with trailer partially on the median…partial blocking the inner lane. There were a lot of cars waiting to get by on that side. There didn’t seem to be any obvious cause of the accident other than the sun being in everyone’s eyes driving in that direction.

As soon as I got to Oklahoma, the wind picked up and there were bands of low dark clouds. I kept a careful watch for funnel shapes since they looked so strange and the trees along the interstate where clearly being buffeted by the wind. Not a good time to be beside a truck either. Fortunately, the wind calmed down within an hour and I only got a short sprinkle rather than heavy rain.

After those first couple of hours, the rest of the drive was uneventful by comparison. I stopped at the Texas Welcome Center on US75 for a snack lunch and took pictures of some of their plantings. The beautyberry seeds are beginning to ripen.

I found a feather on the sidewalk…wondered what kind of bird had left it behind.

The street parking at my dad’s assisted living home was shady…but the temperature still felt very hot. When I came out after visiting with him for a few hours, my car said it was 108 outside as I drove to my hotel.

The hotel turns their air conditioning down to the 60s and it felt way too cold. I set the thermostat in my room to 75 and was more comfortable.

The next morning, I headed over to see my dad again and got there as he was finishing his breakfast. It was cool enough for a walk and we worked on a puzzle. I was on my way home by 11. I had planned to stop at the Oklahoma Welcome Center on US75 on the way home but needed to buy gas instead.

The only picture I took on the way home was a grasshopper that was sitting on the sidewalk outside one of my stops along the way.

And so…another road trip to Texas is history.

Celestron Origin (1)

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My husband has been taking one image per clear evening in our back yard with his new Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory.

He has been changing the exposures every night from 20 minutes to over 90 minutes…taking pictures of galaxies and nebulae: Whirlpool Galaxy, Bode’s Nebula, Fireworks Galaxy, and Bubble Nebulae. The images below are created without post processing outside the telescope!  

The skies at our house are not particularly dark; there is one streetlight that is particularly problematic…and a neighbor’s house with twinkle lights around their deck. Our house blocks the streetlight in front of our house – which is good. Still – the initial days with the new telescope have been positive ones. There is a huge advantage to doing things in the back yard in a couple of hours each night rather than driving someplace, staying up all night (dosing in the tent during longer exposures) making the most of the night, and then either sleeping in a tent in the early morning hours or driving home.

He is planning to go to the Okie-Tex Star Party at the end of September. Then he’ll go into the mode of staying up all night…getting the most out of the dark skies for photography and interacting with other amateur astronomers. I’ll stay home to care for our 3 cats.

Then and Now – Cars and Driving

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The first car I remember well was in the 1960s – a small red Ford my father bought for my mother. It did not have air conditioning…or seat belts (it was before they became standard equipment in the later 1960s). The windows were opened/closed manually with a handle. There were no car seats for children either although my mother generally put my sisters and I in the back seat. I was the oldest so sometimes road in the front seat. It did have power steering and brakes…probably because my mother was not very good driving with a manual transmission. The car was the second for our household and was parked at the curb since my father’s car was parked in the one-car garage.

My father’s car did have air conditioning and was larger. He started buying new cars (Oldsmobile or Buick were his preferred make) almost every year in by 1963; my mother got to drive his older car and they traded in her car. Those cars had windows that opened and closed with a button. I remember the first car my father owned that had seatbelts because he had a serious accident in it; a truck sideswiped the car on the driver’s side and he always claimed that he would not have survived if he’d been wearing a seatbelt since he was pushed to the passenger side during the accident. It took several years before he started wearing seat belts consistently and even more years before he took his keys/locked his car when he parked it. I also remember my father’s first car that has radial tires in the late 1960s; the road noise was noticeably different.

Most of our road trips were to visit family members. My mother drove my sisters and I to visit her parents (aunt, uncles, cousins) at least once every summer. The trek was between Wichita Falls TX and Beggs OK and was a lot of 2 lane roads…often very curvy. We took food and drink with us…stopped at gasoline stations for the bathrooms (which were usually in bad shape). My mother was not a great driver…but she knew her limitations and never had an accident. She shared that when she first learned to drive, she tended to look at the front of the car when she was driving; my dad noticed shortly after they married and coached her to look further out – to become a more defensive driver.

I learned to drive in the two cars my parents were driving at the time (a large Oldsmobile and Buick) later in the 1960s. My driver’s ed class emphasized wearing seat belts and I convinced my whole family we needed to ‘buckle up’ consistently.  Both of my parents encouraged me to drive whenever I was in the car with them as soon as I got my learner’s permit; I got my driver’s license on my 16th birthday and became the designated driver for my younger sisters and my parents when I was available. I didn’t have my own car until after the 1960s.

Now – the car I drive is smaller – a plug-in hybrid (2017 Prius Prime). The air conditioning and heating has a thermostat rather than the 1960s switch controls. Perhaps the equivalent of the big Buicks and Oldsmobiles of the 1960s are the SUVs that are very popular now. The cruise control is adaptive. Many of the controls are digital rather than switches. The navigation system is a big improvement over a collection of paper maps or a road atlas kept in the car at all times. There are handy places to put drinks that were absent in the 1960s cars. My car has a hatch opening in the back rather than the enclosed trunk of the big 1960s cars; SUVs also have an opening in the back that connects to the interior of the car. The seatbelts (one unit lap and cross body) are more comfortable than the clunky lap belts and then clucky two-piece lap/shoulder belts of the 1960s. The bucket seats in front have more adjustments than the bench seats of the 1960s and the material covers are more durable. Cars frequently last for 100,000 miles or more now; that was very unusual in the 1960s.

Cars have improved a lot since the 1960s – in both function and durability - and driving is easier because of those improvements and the highway system that has matured (although it often needs maintenance). My frequent road trips would certainly be more challenging/less enjoyable in a 1960s car and on 1960s style roads!

Previous Then and Now posts

Philbrook Museum of Art

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On our way home from Oklahoma City we stopped in Tulsa to see the Philbrook Museum of Art. We started in the gardens before the day got too hot to enjoy them. There were plenty of plants and water features…sculptures and activity areas (like creating poems with word stones).

The garden on one end of the house was probably my favorite because there were swings in the metal arches. My daughter and I sat in one and coordinated our pushing off (no brakes)! There was a zinnia that had been broken and dumped nearby (picture taken when we stopped the swing…just before leaving it).

Inside I enjoyed the Native American themed rooms – particularly the mosaics and pottery. The pottery was a mix of historical and modern pots. I have been sensitized by my visit to the First Americans Museum to think more critically about how some of the historical collections were created.

There were views of the gardens from the museum…a different perspective than walking through the gardens.

I thought about the building as a residence and decided it was too big to be comfortable as a home! The house was built in the 1920s for Waite Phillips and his wife; it was donated to the city of Tulsa in1938 and opened as the museum in 1939. I noted the fireplaces and some of the columns/ceilings that were obviously original to the house. They work well as a museum.

One of my favorite items was titled ‘Texas Seed Pod’ made of porcelain by Janet A. Frankovic in 1990.

We learned that the museum/gardens are decorated for Christmas…and my daughter and I already making tentative plans to visit again in December!

Museum of Osteology…then Ducks

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The Museum of Osteology is another museum my daughter and I visited on July 4th. It is a short drive from the First American’s Museum in Oklahoma City. It is a small museum with lots of skeletons; I was glad we were there when it wasn’t crowded. I found myself doing comparisons – which animals have the more neck vertebrae (hint: it isn’t the giraffe) and which animals walk on their toes. There was a whale skeleton mounted from the ceiling that brought back memories of the one in the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. There was a case of cat skulls whose health problems manifested in their bones and sclerotic rings of owls that prevent their eyes from moving within the socket. I didn’t see any bird skeletons with spurs although I don’t thing the collect included a peacock skeleton.  I also noticed that the skull of a gila monster has bumps that seemed to match the bumps of its skin!

After the Osteology Museum we headed to Norman to check in to our hotel then to Brandt Park where my daughter had seen a lot of ducks during a previous visit. There were more ducks that she remembered and almost all of them seemed to rush toward us when we got there! There were a lot of juvenile ducks and maybe they thought we were bringing food?

There was a white domesticated duck – and one that might have been a daughter of that duck.

There was one female with a juvenile that looked a lot smaller than the other young ducks and the female seemed very attentive: maybe the last of a late brood?

We headed back toward Oklahoma City to visit the memorial there when it began to sprinkle in Norman. The clouds were very thick. With my daughter driving, I was free to photograph the sun just barely showing from the edge of the cloud layer.

First Americans Museum

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My daughter and I visited the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City at midday on July 4th. It was a hot day, but I walked around the circular courtyard outside the entrance. I took pictures of the front and back of each of the columns on the outer rim of the courtyard – fire and water are the ones I picked to show below. I realized it was too hot to do much else outside. I’ll come back sometime when it is cooler to find out more about the mound.

The restaurant was not open (although we did pick up some recipe cards at the door); we had lunch at the café….at tasty turkey with cranberries and greens wrap and cheesecake. There is a building with a sun symbol on the side…lots of construction in the area…it will be changing a lot in the next few years as projects are completed.

Beginning our stroll through the exhibits…I enjoyed different media and the messages of tragedies…and survival…of the cultural heritage that emerges in modern form.

The film of creation stories for the tribes that were in the pre-Colonial area that is now Oklahoma was particularly well done. I took some quick pictures with my phone.

There are images on the walls that are memorable. The first one has a lot of detail (click on the image below to see a larger version) including a silhouette of a space shuttle! The second one is a repetitive motif that is used on items like key chains and mugs and glasses in the shop. I bought a mug because I liked the motif so much!

There is much to learn in this museum that is sobering and sad…but also uplifting. It is worth visiting more than once.

Fireworks on July 4th

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My daughter and I were traveling on July 4th. Our original plan had been to enjoy the fireworks in a park in Norman, Oklahoma but it started raining around 6 PM and it didn’t look like the rain would clear until much later; the program was going to be delayed, at least.  

The radar indicated that it wasn’t raining in Oklahoma City so after dinner we headed into the city to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial at the site of 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. The museum was closed…we went to see the grounds: the 168 empty chairs representing the people that perished (small chairs for the children), the reflecting pool, the gates of time (the peace before the blast at 9:01 and 9:03 the first second of recovery), the Survivor Tree (an American Elm), and tiles made by children…sent to Oklahoma City after the bombing. The sun was getting closer to the horizon and it began sprinkling as we were getting ready to leave. It was a poignant place…flags had been placed by each chair in celebration of the 4th of July.

As we drove back to Norman, there was harder rain, lots of lightning. We began to wonder if the lightning would cause the city to cancel the events that were planned in the park. It was very dramatic – cloud to ground and cloud to cloud. We were glad to get back to the hotel.

We enjoyed the lightning show from our hotel window. The rain tapered off, but the lightning continued…with almost no thunder. We started to see some fireworks – not professional shows but clearly people that had planned their own fireworks event. Looking at the map – we expected to see the fireworks in the park at some point but the time it was schedule came and went. Lightning was still lighting up the sky. We decided that the show must have been canceled. About 5 minutes later we heard a barrage of fireworks sounds…we looked out the window again and it was obviously the fireworks in the park – high, loud, a steady stream of bursts for at least 15 minutes! I took pictures through hotel window. Toward the end, it was obvious that there were a lot of smoke in the air from the fireworks…they began to look like science fiction images of explosions inside a nebula.

I’m seeing more stories about how environmentally unfriendly fireworks can be…impacting air quality and then the remnants of the explosions (some toxic) drifting down over a wide area. And many pets are panicked by the sounds of fireworks. Evidently some places are moving toward drone light shows rather than fireworks. Maybe I’ll find one of those shows next year. I appreciate the effort Norman, Oklahoma put in for their event this year…even though I ended up observing it from my hotel window!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 22, 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.

Life in a heat dome: The American West is figuring out how to keep cool – Summer in US cities…strategies to mitigate the hotter temperatures caused by climate change.

Statins for heart disease prevention could be recommended for far fewer Americans if new risk equation is adopted – Not a lot of details in this article although I have suspected for some time that statins were being over-prescribed.

10 States Where the Gas Tax Is Highest – This post prompted me to compare gas taxes in the states I drive through to on my frequent road trips to Dallas (Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas)…and the decision to always buy the tank of gas required in each direction in Oklahoma!

Creating a throw-away culture: How companies ingrained plastics in modern life – Aargh! Despite growing public pressure, companies increased their use of new plastic by 11% between 2018 and 2022!

What happens when you take too much caffeine - When we consume caffeine, it's quickly absorbed into our bloodstream, where it out-competes adenosine by preventing it from connecting to these receptors and doing its job to make us feel tired. This is why consuming caffeine can make us feel more awake and alert. Caffeine can also boost levels of other neurotransmitters like dopamine and adrenaline, which can make you feel more stimulated. Research has associated caffeine consumption with up to a 60% reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's. One explanation for this is that caffeine improves blood flow to the brain. While caffeine enters the gut quite quickly, its effects can take hours to wear off. Scientists recommend having your last 'dose' of caffeine eight hours and 48 minutes before you go to bed.

Why do 1 in 10 Americans get eczema? Is it too much salt? - Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic disease that causes dry, itchy skin. It's one of the most common skin conditions, affecting more than 31 million people in the U.S., and one in 10 people will develop it at some point. It has become increasingly common in recent years, especially in industrialized countries, implicating environmental and lifestyle factors like diet.

A fierce battle is being fought in the soil beneath our feet – and the implications for global warming are huge - In some parts of the world, increased CO₂ means tiny bugs in the soil “hold onto” their phosphorus, making less available for trees.

Rock Art Found in This Saudi Arabian Cave Offers ‘Rare Glimpse’ Into Ancient Human Life – Sheep, ibex, and goats on the walls of a lava tube.

Depressive symptoms may hasten memory decline in older people – 16 years of data from 8,268 adults with an average age of 64. This study shows that the relationship between depression and poor memory cuts both ways, with depressive symptoms preceding memory decline and memory decline linked to subsequent depressive symptoms. So – interventions to reduce depressive symptoms might slow memory decline.

D-Day shipwrecks were a WW2 time capsule – now they are home to rich ocean-floor life – 80-year-old wrecks that line the coasts of Britain and France…reclaimed by sea life.

Road Trip to Dallas

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After my stop at Wildcat Glades/Shoal Creek Nature Center, my drive to Dallas followed the usual pattern. I saw at least one Great Blue Heron in flight as well as groups of vultures soaring. There was the occasional hawk. This time of year, there could be scissortail fly catchers too. Frequently there are small birds chasing as larger bird (maybe a nest robber?). My stops through Oklahoma were at Big Cabin, Muskogee, and Atoka. I bought gas in Oklahoma since I’ve realized the gas tax is lower in Oklahoma that it is in Texas and Missouri.

As usual, I stopped at the Welcome Center on  US 75 as it enters Texas from Oklahoma. This time there was a gardener hard at work in the wildflower areas…weeds and grass had already been cleared. Cone flowers were among the first flowers I saw.

There were plenty of blooms. I always look for the beautyberry flowers; they are small…requiring a good look among the leaves.

Most of the bluebonnets have gone to seed and the pods are empty. The dried pods almost look like flowers! I found one stand of bluebonnets that were much later blooming; it was nice to have the contrast.

I ate a picnic lunch at the welcome center before I drove the final hour of the trip to my dad’s assisted living home.

The next morning I left the hotel about 8 for a second visit with my dad; I noticed a feather on the ground as I walked to my car. It must have been shed recently since it was in good shape. Noticing snippets of the natural world brighten my mood; perhaps it is because they remind me that life is resilient and beautiful at the same time.

After visiting with my dad while he ate breakfast and we worked on a puzzle, my sister and I loaded up 7 pots of plants I was ferrying to my daughter, and I started the drive home about 11ish. It was somehow a light traffic day – an easy drive although it still took me almost 7 hours.

Wildcat Glades and Shoal Creek

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An hour into my last road trip to Dallas, I made a planned stop at Wildcat Glades and the Shoal Creek Conservation Education Center. It was shortly after 7 AM and a Monday so the center was not open but my purpose was to just explore the area little….see if it would be worth returning for hiking and photography. I walked around the native wildflower plantings in the Wildcat Glades Friends Group area and then drove around to the Wildcat boat ramp. I was there for about 20 minutes; it was obvious that it would be a great place to visit on summer mornings!

One of the buildings in the friends group area has a mural of wildflowers!

But this time of year, there are real flowers in bloom!

There was a luna moth sculpture in one of the beds.

There was a good-sized stand of milkweed with a monarch butterfly sculpture too. The morning was still cool enough that there wasn’t much insect activity.

There were bluebirds in one of the boxes. A bit of drama: there was a bird chasing a squirrel along a fence top; the squirrel paused…and the small bird rammed into its rump!

When I drove around to the boat launch, there were rabbits at the edge of the road (and on the road). They didn’t seem to be paying any attention at all to my car, so I took a few pictures and moved very slowly.

My husband is amenable to making a field trip to do some hiking and birding in the area so stay tuned for a blog post about a longer visit.