Outside at Brookside – November 2016

On the day I went to photograph mums at Brookside Gardens, I also made my normal loop walk around the gardens. The first segment is the boardwalk between the conservatory parking lot and the Nature Center. The boardwalk was dusted with leaves. The ferns were still green but the thick undergrowth that blocked the view of the Cyprus knees further along had died and they were visible again as they will be until next spring when the skunk cabbage grows again.

I was there early enough that the sunlight cast a warm glow on the stones of the scent garden.

There were robins – looking a little scruffy – looking for food in the leaves.

I took pictures of single leaves on the ground all along the way and they are included in the slide show below. Can you identify the maple, several oaks, tulip poplar, redbud and gingko?

A gingko was dropping its leaves quickly and there were drifts of them along the path.

The Japanese tea house overlooks the pond – this time without geese or turtles around.

There were some surprise bulbs blooming - perhaps a fall crocus.

Many of the leaves had already fallen but there were some swaths of color.

Here’s a path that has an ‘icing’ of leaves (mostly maple) to top of mulch.

Some oaks have leaves that look very red in bright sunlight but brown on the ground. The light was bringing-out-the-red on this tree.

On the path – within sight of the conservatory again – a squirrel made enough noise in the leaves for me to notice and was still while eating an acorn….I took the picture.

The gingko near the conservatory seemed to have more leaves than the one I’d walk by earlier. Some were still tinged green.

In a pot – someone had stacked a small pumpkin on a larger white one…a little cairn like we saw a few weeks ago in State College.

There was some lantana blooming nearby and a skipper was enjoying a meal.

There is always something new to see at Brookside.

Staunton River Star Party – Day 1

Last week, we drove to Staunton River State Park for the fall star party – getting their by midafternoon. We selected a place on the field and set up for the week. It was breezy so setting up the tent was more challenging that we anticipated. The rain fly seemed ready to take off but was very stable by the time we got all the stakes and guy wires into the ground. The tent is made to attach to the back of the car (i.e. an extra flap on one side to ‘seal the opening’) which we used to attach to the roof rack of the car instead making a shady place between the tent and the car. Last year it was hot enough that we needed shade in the afternoon; this year, the only day we needed it was the very first day. Other days we needed the warmth of the sun! My husband got his gear set up and was pleased to discover that there was cell coverage on the field. The air mattresses and sleeping bags left plenty of room for other gear and even a chair inside the tent. I discovered that having a chair inside the tent on the cold sunny mornings was wonderful – 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.

We walked down to the Deep Space Diner to purchase a Black Hole Cup (endless tea and lemonade for me….most people were using it more for the coffee). There was a pumpkin by the door of the Diner that was appropriately carved for the event!

More about the star party tomorrow!

Pumpkins and Gourds

There as a display of carved pumpkins at the Botanical Garden at Penn State when we were there last weekend but I enjoyed the piles of whole pumpkins, squashes, and gourds more – so that is what I photographed. Some were stacked like cairns, others were arranged on shallow stairs, or drifted around pots of fall blooming plants. This is the kind of display I associate with fall as much as piles of raked leaves!

Sometimes their shape and texture makes them a stand out among all the rest.

My favorite display was in the children’s part of the Botanical Garden: a big bowl full of gourds and squashes. See the tubes mounted on the frame? Those are kaleidoscopes. There were steps so that even a small child could take a look!

Here’s the view through one of the kaleidoscopes when the bowl was still. I didn’t attempt a picture when the bowl was moving. What a great active sculpture for a Children’s Garden!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 15, 2016

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.

Pumpkin steel-cut oats – I am collecting pumpkin (and other winter squash) recipes. They are probably my favorite seasonal foods. I am going to use some leftover butternut squash (already cooked) for one of them today!

Salt’s Secret Success in Ancient Chaco Canyon – Evidently the salts in the soil around Chaco Canyon are not chlorides …but sulfate salts which are not toxic to maize. And the sulfate salts are useful for making pigments too which were used to color walls and pottery. The research contends that the water management systems in Chaco Canyon did not cause catastrophic salt pollution and abandonment of the area as had been previously conjectured.

A Win for the Whooping Crane’s Texas Home – I have been thinking about making a winter trip to the wildlife refuges along the Gulf Coast of Texas – seeing whooping cranes being high on the priorities for the trip – so I notice articles like this!

Thirty Years of Progress – My undergraduate degree in biology was about 35 years ago so this series of articles is a good update for me.

The London Landmark with 20,000 Skeletons in its Vault – The Museum of London – and a project to examine 1,500 skeletons from the collection and compare them with skeletons outside of London. It will be a slice through history using a lot of the same technologies used in modern medicine.

Hummingbird Whisperer Captures Close-Up Photos of Birds Visiting her Backyard – Hurray for backyard photographer Tracy Johnson – patience and persistence!

Culling of White-Tailed Deer Coming to National Parks in Western Maryland – We don’t have any natural predators for deer….so culling has become necessary. In our neighborhood, all certainly just won’t last through the spring and early summer because the deer eat them, low branches of trees are nibbled (or eaten) – even the evergreens which must be very tough eating. There are way too many deer and in a suburban area like ours culling is not an option.

Antarctic Invertebrates – Many times we only think of the larger, more visible plants and animals of an area….but biodiversity goes way beyond that view. This article makes the case about why we should care about invertebrates in the Antarctic…not just the penguins.

A Bird’s Eye View of Simmering Kilauea Volcano at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – Last year at this time, we were planning a trip to Hawai’i in December and we enjoyed Volcanoes National Park when we went. Now I always take a look at any article about the place. This one includes a video of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater now – even more active than when we were there.

A Sherlock-Worthy Look at an Ancient Horse Mummy – From the steppes of Mongolia and dating from the 6^th to 8^th century CE.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 08, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

What would happen if the world suddenly went vegetarian? – Of course, it’s not likely that the world will suddenly become vegetarian but this article talks about the ‘what if’ and encourages thinking about taking steps to reduce portion side of meats we eat and/or substitute a plant protein for meat in some of our meals.

Hubble spots possible water plumes erupting on Jupiter’s moon Europa – Another discovery --- and something to look at with the James Webb Space Telescope (to launch in 2018). If confirmed, Europa will be the 2^nd moon in the solar system known to have water vapor plumes (Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has jets of water vapor and dust that were discovered by NASA’s Cassini orbiter in 2005).

Our IQs have never been higher – but it hasn’t made us smart – It turns out that IQ is malleable over a lifetime. People that are physically and intellectually active…and are overall healthy…have higher IQs, in general, than people who are not. It does not mean that we are wiser…just that IQ is higher.

Acidity in atmosphere minimized to preindustrial levels – Result from studies of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The human-made acid pollution peaked in the 1960s and 70s and we are not back to the levels in the 1930s.

Tips for creating an introvert-friendly workplace – An article from CIO magazine. Read it as a case study on some things that need to be considered: communication, comfort zones, company culture, and the workplace structure.

New evidence shifts the timeline back for human arrival in the Americas – An archeological site in Argentina…humans were there 13,068-14,064 years ago….that’s earlier than Clovis people in North America (around 13,000 years ago).

The astronomical cost of going to Mars – and staying there – Sustaining people on Mars quickly exceeds getting them there. There is a lot of talk of getting to Mars (i.e. the transportation) and not as much about what would happen once people got there.

How the Electricity Grid Works – An Infographic. In the US there are three grids: The Eastern Grid, the Western Grid, and the Texas Grid – with the Eastern being the largest.

Washing Clothes Releases Thousands of Microplastic Particles into the Environment – Three types of textiles were examined: cotton/polyester, polyester, and acrylic. They all release a lot of very small plastic particles (acrylic releasing the most…cotton/polyester the least). Reduction of emissions will take changes in textile design and/or improved filtration of effluent for these very small particles.

Pumpkin Pie Mousse – I like pumpkin custard – one of the favorite fall desserts around my house – but this is something I am going to try. No cooking!