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).

Photographic Experiments

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I was in the mood for some photographic experiments….from my office.

The rhododendron flower cluster and some fragile pink irises were in vases in the room….and became the main subjects for my experiments.

I took some ‘normal’ lighting pictures of the rhododendron –

Then some brighter pictures using exposure compensation (+). In the extreme case, the background becomes white and the flowers take on a very different look….often very artsy.

I also tried 2 special effects settings on my camera: like oil paintings and like watercolor paintings.

I started out the pink iris with some ‘normal’ lighting shots rotating the vase. Which one is your favorite? I like the middle (diagonal) one the best.

I did some macro shots; at this magnification the images feel more like an abstract than a flower.

Just as with the rhododendron, I brightened the iris images to different degrees via exposure compensation when the flower was backlit with the sun shining through the window.

The iris looked quite different with the special effect setting (like oil paintings).

I took a picture of a pokeweed growing outside one of my windows used exposure compensation…with the screen showing.

A few setting changes (closer to ‘normal’….and I photographed a leaf a little lower on the plant through the window with water droplets glistening in the sunlight. The autofocus did an excellent job.

I generally learn as I do these experiments in my office…and probably am more likely to successfully use the same techniques at other times! My goal is to maximize the use of my camera’s automation to capture the image I want.

Springfield’s Artsfest

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We almost cancelled our plans to go to Springfield’s Artsfest because thunderstorms were in the forecast….but they happened in the early morning rather than during the prime time for Artsfest. We got there about 11 and appreciated the Missouri State University parking garage…much easier than street parking in the area. We enjoyed the long row of artsy vendors along with food trucks, local government/non-profits information tables, and musicians on small stages just far enough away from each other to not clash. It was warm enough that we got a cup of Pineapple Whip almost immediately!

Last year I bought earrings for me and a stainless-steel iris for my mother (for Mother’s Day). I’m not wearing earrings as frequently these days, so I was determined to not buy any new ones (and opted to not even look because they are just so tempting both from habit and my enjoyment of wearable art). I couldn’t resist buying a stainless-steel spider mum from the same vendor that made the iris.

I stopped to talk to one of the artists whose botanical paintings are so textured that they are almost a sculpture coming out of the canvas. I was surprised at the various materials she used in her work; it depended on how far the texture projected from the canvas!

After a little over an hour – we were ready for lunch and opted to stop by my daughter’s house before we headed to a BBQ place. There is always something to notice in her yard:

A small insect on a miniature rose.

A vine that had died last year after an overzealous yard person sprayed too much weed killer nearby coming back and full of unfurling blooms.

The tree that was also impacted by the same killing event is also recovering although some limbs appear to have died and need to be pruned away. I always like the thick lichen on the trunk.

The spider mum was another way of celebrating my mother’s life; when we got home, I put the pink iris from last year in front of one of my office windows (I brought it home when my parents’ house was sold) and the spider mum under the pine tree where I can see it through another window. Good memories for May 2024 and 2023!

First Road Trip to Texas in May 2024

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I’ll be making 2 road trips to Texas to visit my dad this month; my sisters have more than the usual commitments elsewhere, so I am filling in. The first trip was in early May. It was still dark when I left about 6 AM but the streetlight and the photographic smarts of my iPhone 15 Pro Max did as reasonable job of capturing the Kousa Dogwood in bloom near our driveway just before I left.

Rain was in the forecast…but it only impacted about an hour of the seven the road trip through Oklahoma. It was hard enough to slow traffic dramatically. I noticed that Lake Eufala was colored by silt – the result of run off after so much rain there recently.

Fortunately, the rain was over by the time I got to Texas and stopped at the Texas Welcome Center on US 75 as I entered Texas from Oklahoma. I had enjoyed the wildflowers there on a previous drive down and there seemed to be even more this time.

The bluebonnets were waning. At some point I realized that there were seed pods forming! I read up more about growing bluebonnets when I got home; unfortunately, it is hard to grow them in Missouri (it gets too cold in the winter, so they do not reseed themselves once established like they do in Texas).

I ate a picnic lunch near my car before continuing on to Dallas to visit with my dad. I opted to visit my dad the next morning before heading home; we had a good walk…finished a puzzle and started another before I left. This time as I passed Lake Eufala, I noticed a dock that was under water…another indication that the area had experienced a lot of rain and the lake’s water level had gone up!

On the way home, the drive was easy until the last hour…and then it was rain and fog. I decided my adaptive cruise control was not reliable enough in the sloppy conditions so was driving without it…increasing the stress of that last hour of driving. Fortunately, I managed to get home in good shape and didn’t see any accidents; it seemed like everyone decided to drive a bit slower!

Out and About with Company

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When my sister and brother-in-law were visiting – stopping for a few days at a RV park near us before they continued on their month long travels – we enjoyed the botanical gardens and the zoo, then decided on a less active day starting with brunch at my house (I made a ‘full oven’ of food: egg casserole, chunks of seasoned new potatoes, and pumpkin bread) followed by a walk around the Springfield Art Museum and then the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.

The art museum was opening their Art in Bloom event – with the fashion component being the main part available for viewing. My favorite was the creation that was inspired by the hallway long tilted sky – probably my favorite piece in the museum!

Of course, there were plenty of other things to enjoy in the museum – other fashion and art works. I’ve picked some of my favorite views from the pictures it took.

Then we were off to the nature center…not for a hike (one of my guests was having back problems) but for the center itself. The turtle tank was being renovated so there were two large snapping turtles in a tank that was too small for them long term but offered views from two sides. It was a great photographic opportunity.

And then they headed off to prepare for the next leg of their trip.

Dickerson Park Zoo – April 2024

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My first trip of the season to the Dickerson Park Zoo was back at the end of March (post 1, post 2); my second was near the end of April when my sister and brother-in-law visited. Like the first visit, there were lots of peacocks wandering through the zoo; this time there were peahens too and there were some instances where it looked like the birds were either already incubating eggs…or getting a ‘nest’ ready. There was a male just past the entrance that was actively displaying for a peahen…moving both the upright tail feathers and the supporting structures behind the big tail. The birds were also vocalizing the whole time we were at the zoo.

Daffodils were replaced with irises blooming in clumps along the walkways and the sides of the stream.

I enjoyed the enclosure for flamingos, roseate spoonbills, and scarlet ibis.

There was one flamingo that was sitting and kept its head in the dirt…perhaps not feeling so well. All the other birds seemed to be active (particularly the spoonbills) and enjoying the afternoon.

I zoomed in on some feathers that had been shed in the enclosure. It is interesting that the feathers are white toward the base….very colorful in the part furthest from the body of the bird (when attached).

The trumpeter swans were on the pond as they were last time – perhaps a little perturbed by the tree trimming that was happening nearby.

Both the cheetahs and lions were out – and one of the cheetahs was moving around a lot. It could have been responding to the extra noise.

One bongo was relaxing while the other nibbled at leaves.

I zoomed in on the elephant’s eye – realized that they are amber in color. A keeper came to give hay to the elephant and asked if we had questions. I asked if all elephants have amber eyes and evidently that is the eye color for Asian elephants. The elephant is named Patience and she is a geriatric elephant; she likes to be alone rather than with the other female (they don’t get along).

I took another picture of the little elephant sculpture…probably my favorite sculpture at the zoo. I think the shiny top of its head is where people touch it the most!

It was starting to sprinkle but we wanted to see the giraffes. One of the young ones was intent on getting some grass near the fence.

My brother-in-law became mesmerized watching a little girl held by her mother feed the giraffes romaine lettuce; she was an expert…must do it frequently.

We headed back to the zoo store where my sister bought one of almost every item shaped like a turtle! It was a good finale for our visit to the zoo.

Springfield Botanical Gardens – April 2024

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I made my second visit to the Springfield Botanical Gardens in late April when one of my sisters was visiting; my husband and I had gone to the Kite and Pinata Festival earlier in the month. The tulips had been in full bloom during the first visit. There were a few left in late April, but the irises and columbines were the big show. I noticed some native honeysuckle and clematis blooming as well. I made it a goal to make a walk around the gardens at least once a month until cold weather comes again next fall. There will always be something new to see.

My sister and I walked through the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden after viewing the gardens close to the Botanical Center building. I used my Friends of the Garden membership in lieu of the admission fee. I made a small cairn on one of the posts near the rock garden…this time choosing the same type of stone for all three rocks.

The Japanese lanterns are always some of my favorite photographic subjects in the garden. I like the greenery around many of them. The pines are there all year round, but the grasses and yellow iris are only around during the warm months.

The yellow iris grow around the ponds – along with the bald cypress knees that always make the water’s edge look more interesting.

It was a good way to spend a couple of hours….enjoy the beautiful gardens and get in some steps for the day!

Zooming – April 2024

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Flowers (Nixa and Springfield MO, Sherman TX),  – birds (Nixa and Springfield MO) – solar eclipse (Poplar Bluff MO)….a lot of zoomed images this month. Enjoy the 2024 slide show!

Images of Lincoln

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Earlier this year, I browsed two books that were full of images of Abraham Lincoln. Photographic technology had progressed enough to leave us a relatively rich group of pictures; we can see him aging over time. There is some overlap in the two books but also unique images. I was surprised at how many of them seemed familiar; these might be some of the most reused images in the world! Both books are available from Internet Archive. (click on images to see a larger version)

Gallery of Famous Lincoln Portraits (1911)

A Big Tech Transition

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My PC has been Intel-based since the 80s…but I transitioned to an Apple MacBook Air 15” last week (after transitioning from an Android-based phone to an iPhone 15 Pro Max earlier in the month). So – April 2024 has been a big tech transition for me. Now that I am through most of the it– I am thinking about my impressions of how it all went.

It was not as traumatic as I thought it would be although I was anticipating that it was going to be harder than a transition to a new Intel-based laptop and it was. But not as hard as I thought it was going to be. That could have been because:

  • My most active files were already in the cloud (OneDrive) and the huge bulk of my photographs were on an external drive.

  • I knew all my passwords. I am sometimes anxious about passwords (remembering them and changing them often enough) but I’ve managed to get better at it over the years.

  • My browser was the latest version.

  • The docking station I had used with my laptop worked with the new machine too (so the two external monitors were available immediately).

It only took me a day to begin doing some of my normal things on the Mac: writing and posting a blog, browsing some books, checking my news feeds, copying photos from my camera’s SD card to the Mac and tagging the best ones, sending/receiving text messages. Other than installing Microsoft Office and my favorite browser, I found myself minimizing the other apps I installed; I wanted to thoroughly explore the capabilities of the apps that came on the Mac; of course, Finder was a big focus for me since I was looking for ways to tag and resize pictures almost immediately along with moving around files.

On the subsequent days, I made tweaks – changing some settings to be more familiar to me (scrolling…the CTRL key to mimic the CMD key for cut and paste). I also installed the driver for my scanner, and it worked without any issues at all (the scanner was connected via the docking station, so it had been attached physically from almost the beginning). Tweaking will continue until I am thoroughly comfortable with the way the software is configured. Since I feel comfortable now, I suspect further tweaking will be minimal.

What I haven’t done yet is clean up the dock – taking off apps that I am not using and making sure the ones that I use frequently are always there. I will gradually try all the apps that are on the doc now and make the decision.

My overall impression of the transition at this point is positive. I am doing my normal activities – often in a slightly different way but acceptable (often improved). And I have cleaned up my environment considerably.

And – everything works faster! I’m very happy I made this tech transition!

Irises and other Yard News – April 2024

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The irises, that were already growing in flower beds when we bought our house, are blooming profusely; the ones I transplanted last fall/winter will take another year to build up the energy to bloom. I was surprised that the most prolific bed this year grew very elongated stems that fell over as soon as they started to bloom; I didn’t remember them being so tall last year. The irised in another bed looks the same, but the stems are very short!

I ended up cutting the long stems to bring indoors and enjoyed photographing them: macro shots with my iPhone 15 Pro Max and

And Canon Powershot SX70 HX high key shots (almost white background) and

Some warm glow shots of a group.

Of course, there other plants active in the yard. Hostas are growing well – both the original clumps and the ones I started this year by dividing some older clumps.

There are lots of dandelions in various stages of development. I tend to let them alone since the bees like the flowers and the roots are deeper than the grass root which helps hold the soil – particularly on slopes.

There are more violets that ever spilling out of flower beds and into the yard. There are some places that I have stopped mowing because the violets are so thick!

The irises I transplanted into the area where the pine tree was cut down last summer are growing vigorously. Maybe one or two will bloom this year although it won’t be great until next year. The lambs ear is growing well and should fill in more around the irises over time. The beautyberry does not have leaves yet but we’re still having some cool days/nights; hopefully it will leaf out in May.

I took some ‘art’ pictures of an iris bud and new rose leaves early in the month.

A lot is growing in the wildflower garden from last year. Some might be weeds…hard to tell until the plants start blooming.

Pokeweed is coming up everywhere. I am going to cut down plants that get above a certain size. I also plan to rake pine cones that are around one of pines toward the fence so that I won’t mow over them (they are a little tough for the lawn mower to cut!).

Overall – a great month in our yard. The rhododendron is full of buds…but not blooming yet…a lot more beauty coming in May.

Road Trip to Dallas – April 2024

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Last week I made a 2-day road trip down to Dallas to visit with my dad. It’s about 7 hours of driving in each direction. When I left my house in Missouri on the first day it was dark. Just as the horizon was beginning to brighten behind me, I saw a large bird fly over the interstate – higher than my car but not that far in front of me. I wondered if it was a barn owl although I didn’t get a good enoug look other than to realize the bird had a lot of white.

After my first rest stop the sun was up and more birds were moving about. I saw a large one fly across the highway…a little lower than was safe and then just above my car there was another of the same kind. It was a turkey! I was close enough to see the eye glinting.

I saw a great blue heron flying along or over the road twice…and a murmuration of smaller birds that spilt in two over the highway.

The highlight of the drive down was the rest stop on US 75 just after crossing from Oklahoma to Texas. The berm between the highway and the rest stop parking was full of wildflowers!

Closer to the building there were beds of wildflowers…including the Texas state flower: bluebonnets.

I enjoyed trying my new iPhone 15 Pro Max phone to take some macro pictures of some of the flowers.

Heading home the next day, I left the hotel about 6 AM and got to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge about 20 minutes after sunrise. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and sprinkling so there was not a lot of bird activity, and the light was not great for photography.

The surprise of the morning came when I saw something on the road in my left peripheral vision as I moved slowly along Hagerman’s wildlife road…..as I turned to see it better I realized it was a hub cap. I got out of the car to see if it belonged to my car…and it did! It was the first time anything like that has happened to me in 55 years of driving! I put the hub cap in the car opting to not try to put it back on until I got home.

I saw two flocks of cattle egrets as I was driving back toward the highway from Hagerman.

As I drove through Oklahoma, I was driving thorough moving cloud shadows. They were moving in the same direction as I was, and I was moving faster than they were!

The drive was very routine until my route direction shifted from north to east. The wind buffeted the car and the big trucks on the interstate were even more impacted. The last 3 hours were exhausting – requiring both hands on the steering wheel and hyper awareness of the vehicles (particularly trucks) around me.

I made it home in a reasonable time but was very tired.

30+ turtles and a belted kingfisher

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Almost every time I walk around our neighborhood pond there is something I don’t expect. One morning last week, I set out to see the ducklings. I didn’t see them at all. I took pictures of moss growing on the edges of the inflow channel to the large pond (noted some seeds that were accumulating there too). There were some water plants that were beginning to grow. I wondered how much of the pond they would cover this summer.

The first ‘unexpected’ sight was a row of 30+ turtles on a sunny bank. Seeing turtles was not unexpected…it was the large number that surprised me…and, based on the size variation, they are clearly breeding in our neighborhood ponds. .  (Click on the image to see a larger version if you want to count them!)

Some of them might be large enough to pull down a duckling! I think they are almost all red-eared sliders although there was at least one that did not have the red-ear…maybe some other species.

I continued my walk and saw a dove on top of a bird house in a yard. The holes looked big enough that maybe they were nesting there. Another bird that I couldn’t identify was looking for tidbits on the ground…looking frequently skyward. Was there a predator around?

The barn swallows were swooping over the pond. There are a lot of them.But then something flew across the pond that was not a barn swallow. I managed to follow it well enough with my eye to see it alight in a willow…and then used the zoom on my camera: a belted kingfisher (male)….the second ‘unexpected’ of the day.

There is no vertical bank area around our pond where a kingfisher might build a nest…but I found myself wondering if the sinkhole near our neighborhood might be a place that would be acceptable. These birds burrow 3+ feet into vertical banks to build their nests. It would be great to have some resident kingfishers thriving on the small fish in our pond.

Ducklings 2024!

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Last year I saw ducklings on our neighborhood pond on April 14th. This year I photographed this year’s brood 3 days earlier than last year on the 11th (although a sighting was posted on the neighborhood Facebook page on the 9th). There are 14 ducklings this year; no losses so far. The Mom Mallard was wisely keeping them close to shore protecting them from the turtles (turtles can pull a duckling underwater, drown it, and then eat it). Click on the images below to enlarge…see if you count 14 ducklings. When they are close to shore, one or two seem to always want to climb up on the mud and nibble the grass. The last picture has all 14 (I think). Their down make their bodies look out-of-focus, so count the heads!

Zoomed in, the ducklings show how fuzzy they still are.

Mom Mallard took them on a brief loop out into the pond before going back to the shore. The line of ducklings is somewhat easier to count.

I noticed some other things around the pond: robins,

Plastic swans (an attempt to deter geese from nesting near the pond),

And, of course, turtles. Most were red-eared sliders; there might be one that I photographed that was something else. I didn’t see the large snapping turtle. I’m not sure how large a turtle has to be to pull down a duckling. Fortunately, the Mom Mallard was keeping them at the other end of the large pond.

Before I headed home, I saw the ducklings again in the inflow channel of the large pond; there had been enough rain recently that there was still water in it and the ducklings were loving it! They were moving around finding bits of food and sitting down letting the water move around them. I wondered where the Mom Mallard had made her nest since they seemed to be heading up stream.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 13, 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.

Touching Image of Intergenerational Love Wins Black and White Minimalist Photography Prize – Minimalist…but powerful.

How an English castle became a stork magnet – 30 White Storks from a rescue project in Poland introduced in the rewilded habitat at Knepp Castle in southern England in 2016. At one point, storks even built nests on Knepp Castle itself although they usually build their nests in the crown of huge oak trees. The young storks started migrating in 2019. The colony has grown to about 80 storks…and is the first breeding colony in Britain in 600 years.

Evidence for Domesticated Chickens Dated to 400 B.C. - A study of eggshell fragments unearthed at 12 archaeological sites located along the Silk Road corridor in Central Asia.

Noisy Summer Ahead for U.S. as Dueling Broods of Cicadas Emerge - It is the first time these two broods are going to be emerging in the same year since Thomas Jefferson was in the White House. Mating season will last until July.

California’s Live Oaks in Focus - Some centuries old, the oaks are magnificent giants that can grow up to 100 feet tall and are what remains of a forest that once blanketed the region.

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects - Analyzing the diversity of organic compounds dissolved in freshwater provides a reliable measure of ecosystem health. Microparticles from car tires, pesticides from farmers' fields, and toxins from harmful algal blooms are just some of the organic chemicals that can be detected using the new approach.

Cars & Road Trips Made a Huge Difference in Women’s History – One of the first cars ever built got taken by a woman, without permission, on the world’s first road trip! Bertha Benz wanted her husband’s invention to be seen out in the country so people would buy it, but her husband Karl Benz was being timid about it. So, she took the car out on a road trip with her kids.

Common household chemicals pose new threat to brain health - The new study discovered that some common home chemicals specifically affect the brain's oligodendrocytes, a specialized cell type that generates the protective insulation around nerve cells. Loss of oligodendrocytes underlies multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. They identified chemicals that selectively damaged oligodendrocytes belong to two classes: organophosphate flame retardants and quaternary ammonium compounds.

The Soundtrack of Spring on the Platte River – Sandhill cranes staging last month along the Central Platte River in Nebraska. So many birds….lots of sound.

These Are the Most Polluted National Parks – Many national parks are suffering from air pollution and facing threats stemming from human-caused climate change. 98 percent of parks suffer from visible haze pollution, while 96 percent are grappling with ozone pollution that could be harmful to human health. Four of the nation’s parks with the unhealthiest air are in California: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve and Yosemite National Park. Another California site, Death Valley National Park, also made the top ten list. 57 percent of national parks are facing at least one threat stemming from climate change that could permanently alter its ecosystems, with many parks grappling with multiple issues at the same time. Invasive species were the most prevalent issue.

The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

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W. Stevenson Smith’s The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt was published in 1958 and is available on Internet Archive. It has 192 black and white plates which are well worth browsing. There are familiar images of Egyptian artifacts/ruins, but the ones I enjoyed the most were either new-to-me or a different view of something familiar.

For example, the different perspective of the Ramses II statue and Tutankhamon’s chair and chariot drew my attention (click on the sample images to see a larger version).

Many statues and smaller items like axe heads were shown large enough to make out details. It is also evident that the author included images of artifacts from many museums.

The architecture of ancient Egyptian sites is shown at locations and via reconstructed versions (models and drawings).

Enjoying browsing the images that are grouped after the text of the book! Research and excavation continue in Egypt so keep in mind the vintage of this book.

Solar Eclipse – Part 1

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We traveled from our home near Springfield MO to Poplar Bluff MO for the solar eclipse on April 8th. There was a flurry of activity on the day before the event to finalize our destination; the weather forecast was the key driver for us to choose Poplar Bluff (along with Whitely Park being a good location that was not included as part of the event planning by the city).

We left our house at 5:30 AM to pick up our daughter and son-in-law before heading east; it wasn’t long before sunrise. I took some pictures of it through the windshield of the car (my husband did all the driving).

We did not encounter any heavy traffic during our morning drive…got to the park 2 hours before the first contact…plenty of time for set up and looking around the park. We set up on an asphalt parking lot that never completely filled up so we spilled over onto the two spaces on either side of where we were parked next to a fenced soccer field.

I walked around to look at a few low growing plants…

And trees that were just beginning to leaf out. I realized that the trees did no have enough foliage to make projected crescent patterns onto the ground as happened when we were in Loup City, Nebraska for the August 2017 solar eclipse.

On the ground – I noted roots of a sycamore, seed pods of sweet gums (from last year and green ones from this year) and a clump of green (probably a weed) surrounded by brown thatch.

There were birds about:

Two purple martin houses that were beginning to be populated. One had a pair of house sparrows too; I wondered how long it would take for the purple martins to evict them.

A starling in the grass – keeping an eye on the sky.

And a group of robins in a tree without leaves but lots of twigs that made it hard to get a good image.

I took most of my eclipse pictures with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HX) on a tripod with a solar filter taped to the camera body to cover the lens until totality). I had eclipse glasses that I wore to look at the sun with my eyes and put over the camera on my iPhone to take one picture. I’ll post my eclipse pictures on Sunday along with some my husband took…stay tuned for that.

Kite and Pinata Festival at Springfield Botanical Gardens

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Last weekend the Springfield Botanical Gardens hosted a festival along with sister cities in Mexico and Japan – a Kite and Pinata Festival. It was well attended. There were people directing traffic into the garden when we got there, and we were pleased that we found a good parking place. There were already kites in the air! It was a sunny breezy day, perfect weather for the event.

There were food trucks and vendors. My daughter and I shared an anpan (a Japanese sweet roll filled with red bean paste)…tasty. I bought some Japanese earrings as well.

I noticed a new sculpture near the visitor center and took a picture of the butterfly part of it.

We walked around enough to notice the tulips were still blooming and couldn’t resist photographing them. I like the ones that are multi-colored. The ones with more than the usual petals seemed to be popular this year. I liked the yellow tulips with splashes of red/orange the best.

There was a dogwood in bloom. The wind made it challenging to photograph the blooms. I used the zoom; the light was so bright that the shutter speed was short enough to freeze the moving flowers!

There was a small stage where Mexican and Japanese themed performances were featured. The teenage girls performed well with mariachi band even in the wind…their colorful skirts attached to their wrists to keep them more controlled than the cowgirl dancers that kept loosing their hats.

Back at the visitor center, I checked their collection of hens and chicks. The colonies have survived the winter, and their colors are probably more vivid because of the cold.

We walked back to our car via the white garden and hosta garden.

I noticed the dragonfly mosaic is missing some pieces. I hope it will be repaired.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. We opted to go to a restaurant for lunch because the wind, great for kites, was a bit gusty for eating outside.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2024

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Picking 10 little celebrations is only challenging because there are so many of them to choose from! I help myself by only noting one each day, but I realize when I look at the list at the end of the month that there are even more, in retrospect, worthy of celebration. Here are the top 10 for March 2024.

My mother’s life. The phrase ‘celebration of life’ is more like a savoring because there is an overlay of grief that is part of every gathering after a death. I stayed focused on making sure that someone was with my dad for the duration and providing narration of the images in the slideshow for him…varying what I said a bit each time it repeated and realizing that she had a very full 92 years!

Getting the check deposited after the sale of my parents’ house. What a relief to not be carrying around a big check!

Home again. I made multiple short trips to Dallas for various reasons and was always very glad to be home again. Even though the time away is only a couple of days, the stress of driving, my task while in Dallas, and staying in a hotel takes a toll. I don’t really relax until I am at home. Hopefully, when I am only going down to see my dad, it will not be as stressful.

Sequiota Cave Boat tour. What a great tour. I liked the non-commercial nature the tour…seeing the tiny bats roosting.

Springfield Botanical Gardens. Full of spring blooming trees.

Dickerson Park Zoo. My daughter gave us a membership for Christmas, so we’ll be enjoying the zoo often over the next year. I liked the roaming peacocks (and other things too). The post about this visit is coming day after tomorrow.

Feeling better. I got sick with something that caused sinus and throat problems. I tested for COVID for 3 days…and was negative for that. And then I recovered rapidly and I celebrated. Also celebrated that my husband did get whatever it was.

Creating more hosta locations. I divided some of my hosta plants as they first began to come up and was pleased that the new plants adjusted very quickly to their new space. I am looking forward to their lush growth this summer…and will divide more plants next spring!

Burning sticks. I enjoyed the fire in my chiminea after cleaning up the small branches and pine cones around my yard….celebrating with some pictures of the fire!

Butterfly and pollinator seeds planted. I celebrated getting the beds prepared and the seeds planted…right at the mid-March suggested planting deadline.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 30, 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.

Floating Solar Array Is Designed to Take the Rough Stuff - Rich opportunities for solar co-location with offshore wind. By combining floating solar with offshore wind farms and thereby leveraging the same energy infrastructure and export cables, the resulting energy production capacity per used area could be drastically improved. Prototype has been developed…should be in the water by June 2024.

Lessons In Rewilding the Scottish Highlands – Working with nature…increasing biodiversity…reducing monoculture.

Five Shocking Animal Hybrids That Truly Exist in Nature, From Narlugas to Grolar Bears to Coywolves – I’ve heard about a few of these…the pictures were interesting.

Pregnancy advances your ‘biological’ age — but giving birth turns it back - Brewing a baby leads to changes in the distribution of certain chemical markers on a pregnant person’s DNA — changes similar to those that are a hallmark of getting older. But new research shows that, several months after a person gives birth, the chemical patterns revert to an earlier state.

Did You Know Sandhill Cranes Dye Their Feathers? – The birds rub iron rich mud onto their feathers…staining them. And some trivia about sandhill cranes at the Platte River (Nebraska) in the early spring:

  • The birds find a lot of waste corn in farm fields, as well as small invertebrates in marshes near the river. A crane can add 20 percent to its weight during two or three weeks in the area.

  • At night, the cranes move to the Platte River for safe roosting in the shallow water.

  • Sandhill cranes are the most numerous of the world’s crane species.

  • In the Central Flyway, more than 500,000 cranes – more than 80 percent of their population.

The heat index -- how hot it really feels -- is rising faster than temperature - Researchers looked at Texas's summer 2023 heat wave and found that the 3 degree F rise in global temperatures has increased the state's heat index as much as 11 degrees F on the hottest days! Arizona's most populous county, covering most of Phoenix, reported that heat-associated deaths last year were 50% higher than in 2022, rising from 425 in 2022 to 645 in 2023. Two-thirds of Maricopa County's heat-related deaths in 2023 were of people 50 years or older, and 71% occurred on days when the National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning. With climate change, the relative humidity remains about constant as the temperature increases, which reduces the effectiveness of sweating to cool the body.

158 Cherry Blossom Trees Will Be Cut Down in D.C. in Effort to Withstand Sea-Level Rise – Part of the project to reconstruct a seawall around the Tidal Basin.

Landscape Architecture Strategies Reduce Impacts of Dangerous Extreme Heat – And these apply to what we do in our yard too!

  • Increase tree percentage in parks and green spaces

  • Provide shade on sites

  • Use plant materials and water instead of hardscape

  • Switch to green ground cover, including grasses and shrubs

Plastics Contain Thousands More Chemicals Than Thought, and Most Are Unregulated – Scary! The report also highlights 15 chemical priority groups of concern. These include phthalates, which are used to make plastics more durable and have been found to affect the reproductive systems of animals, as well as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which break down very slowly over time and have been linked to health issues including reproductive and developmental problems and increased cancer risk.

Only seven nations meet WHO air pollution standards – The US is not one of the seven: Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and Burkina Faso were the top five most polluted countries in 2023 with PM2.5 levels nine to 15 times higher than the WHO's standard. Columbus, Ohio, was the most polluted major city in the United States, while Las Vegas was the cleanest and Beloit, Wisconsin polluted U.S. city overall.