April 03, 2020

2020

April 03, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Finishing the Coursera course: In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting from MoMA. The last module was about Yayoi Kusama – the only artist featured in the course that is still alive and the second woman.

Making a Yayoi Kusama inspired Zentangle tile. Kusama’s Accumulation 18a from 1962 is made with paper savers (circular adhesives to reinforce holes punched into paper) and charcoal on paper. My tile is smaller, lightweight cardboard instead of paper…and it was brown instead of white. I used some very old paper savers that were a woven material (I had saved them in the office supply cabinet even though I didn’t think I would ever have a use for them); I wondered if the adhesive would still work…was pleasantly surprised when it did. And I used a graphite pencil instead of charcoal. Once I had done the paper savers and pencil…..I diverged by coloring the holes green….and added a black circle on each paper saver (feeling the nubs of the weave). I took a series of pictures of the progression.

Tracking the changes in the COVID-19 Projections. The model gets a daily tweak as new data is available. I made some notes the night before so it could detect some of the changes between the 4/1 and 4/2 version of the model.

The peak for the US overall moved from 4/16 to 4/15…one less day to prepare.
For Maryland the peak moved from 4/28 to 4/29, the peak death day rose from 51 to 53 deaths, and the peak number of ventilators moved from 638 to 659.

Hearing about my daughter’s transition from in-classroom to virtual teaching (university level). My daughter has been calling when she takes her (almost) daily walk around her neighborhood in Missouri. A positive bit of news: her gen-ed class has transitioned to virtual mode. She thought the first class might have been a fluke because about the same number of people attended as were in her classroom before the pandemic; she thought that maybe the students were curious enough to make the effort to attend; but then they joined again for the second virtual lecture…so now she is realizing she and her students have made a successful transition.

Photographing a minute at our birdfeeder. A lot can happen. The gold finches were there at the beginning of the minute – 3-4 of them. Then the female red-bellied woodpecker showed up and scattered the other birds. She ate some seeds at the feeder then got a peanut and flew away. I noticed a female cardinal below the feeder about that time. A second later, a chickadee arrived…quickly got some seed and flew back o the safety of the trees.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

April 02, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/1/2020 – eBotanical prints

April 02, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

**Weighing in at a new low for the year.** 0.6 pounds lower than my last ‘new low.’ I am celebrated with 2 squares of dark chocolate for breakfast!

Hearing the recycle truck at 6:25 AM. That’s their usual time. It’s reassuring to know that they are still on the job making their rounds…that some things continue at a normal pace. I am thankful to the crews to hoping they stay well.

Catching up on Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safaris:

Making two Ad Rinehardt Black Painting inspired Zentangle® tiles. I didn’t make the whole tile black but I did make a black square. The technique was not the same either since I used Sharpies and layers rather than making the special matte low-oil paint that Rinehardt is known for. I finished the Rinehardt module in the Coursera course: In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting yesterday.

Taking breaks with nature cams. There are a lot of them out there! A post from the Nature Conservancy here (the spoonbills and alligators swamp cam can be very noisy in the morning – a great way to start the day – they are in the EDT zone). A list I collected from the Maryland Master Naturalist emails:

https://explore.org/livecams
https://www.wbu.com/owl-cam/ (Barred Owl)
https://www.charlescountyparks.com/parks/eagle-cam (Bald Eagle - 2 young)
https://chesapeakeconservancy.org/what-we-do/explore/wildlife-webcams/great-blue-heron/ (Great Blue Heron – 4 eggs)
https://chesapeakeconservancy.org/what-we-do/explore/wildlife-webcams/peregrine-falcon/ (Peregrine Falcon – 4 eggs)
https://chesapeakeconservancy.org/what-we-do/explore/wildlife-webcams/osprey/ (Osprey – nest building)

Clearing my calendar for April. I had left some volunteer gigs on my calendar in April – being overly optimistic. I took them off this morning. The organizations are closed. Everyone is preparing for the coronavirus peak in Maryland; as of today, the model is saying it will be around April 28th. Maryland has a stay at home order (since 3/30), all educational facilities are closed (since 3/16), and non-essential services were closed (since 3/23…and the definition of non-essential is not ‘loose’). It looks like the social distancing measures are flattening our curve but there have been some outbreaks that are troubling (nursing home and mental hospital) and sad.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the normal monthly post about botanical prints from eBooks.

There are 16 new books added to the list in March. There is quite a variety this month --- mostly from the 1800s although one book from the late 1700s and another from the early 1900s, some color others drawings, exotic places (Ceylon, India, Madagascar, and Australia), some traditional botanical prints and some textbooks of botanical traits.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet by clicking on the hyperlinked title. The whole list of 1,864 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 16 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates I-XXV * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates XXVI-L * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates LI-LXXV * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

A hand-book to the flora of Ceylon Plates LXXVI-C * Trimen, Henry * sample image * 1893

The British flora, or, Genera and species of British plants V1 * Thornton, Robert John * sample image * 1812

The British flora, or, Genera and species of British plants V3 * Thornton, Robert John * sample image * 1812

Indian medicinal plants : plates * Kirtikara, Kanhoba Ranachodadasa; Basu, Saman Das * sample image * 1918

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V3 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1903

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V4 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1890

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V1 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1902

Histoire naturelle des plantes (Madagascar) Atlas V2 * Baillon, H; Drake del Castillo, E. * sample image * 1904

Giftpflanzen-Buch, oder, Allgemeine und besondere Naturgeschichte sämmtlicher inländischen sowie der wichtigsten ausländischen phanerogamischen und cryptogamischen Giftgewächse - Atlas * Berge, Friedrich * sample image * 1845

Traité de botanique générale V1 * Herincq, Francois * sample image * 1860

Traité de botanique générale V2 * Herincq, Francois * sample image * 1860

A specimen of the Botany of New Holland Vol 1 * Smith, James Edward * sample image * 1793

A course in botany and pharmacognosy * Kraemer, Henry * sample image * 1902

April 01, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/31/2020 – Zentangle®

April 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Having the gutters on our house cleared. Our gutters were full of tulip poplar seeds – blown there all through the winter from the large trees in the forest behind our house. Fortunately, the company that clears them for us every spring is an ‘essential business’ and did the job yesterday. There normal mode of operation works for social distancing; everything is set up over the phone and they come at the appointed time (weather permitting) and do the job without any interaction with us. Now if we get some downpours of rain – which has happened more often in recent years – our gutters won’t overflow!

Confusing the red-bellied woodpecker. Prior to the gutters being cleared, I took our bird feeder into our covered deck so it wouldn’t be in the way for the workers. I noticed that the female red-bellied woodpecker came and looked thoroughly for it before flying away. The bird found it again later in the day after I filled it and put it back in the usual place.

Succeeding in getting a grocery delivery scheduled. I was dismayed when I couldn’t find any openings for grocery delivery. I’d been so pleased with what happened last Friday that I had planned to continue getting a delivery every week or so. But then there was an opening for delivery on Saturday evening. I’ll be tweaking the list until then…hoping that the stock in the store will begin to recover. At this point it seems like people should be stabilized with the groceries on hand…not still be stocking up.

Unfurling sycamore bud. The sycamore that I brought inside about 10 days ago is changing rapidly now. Day before yesterday I noticed that the buds were turning green. Yesterday morning, the largest one had begun to unfurl. By the evening a tiny leaf had sprung clear of the bud.

Catching up on Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series:

Links to previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the normal monthly post featuring 31 Zentangle® tiles for the month of March. One theme for many of the tiles this month – borderless, stringless, and shadowless (i.e. no pencil required). For some reason, I am keen to only have the tile and a pen.

I did a few rectangular tiles this month. They are made with the lightweight cardboard between small cans of cat food so 5 inches side…cut every 3.5 inches.

Then there are a variety of square tiles cut from various types of boxes and folders. I am making tiles from recycled materials most of the time.

8 of the 31 were made on the iPad. I always prefer a black background when I create a tile on the iPad.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

March 22, 2020

Botanical Cross Sections as Zentangle® Prompts

March 22, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I was browsing through a book about botanical traits (Traité de botanique générale by Francois Herincq published in 1860 and available from Internet Archive here) and liked the “prefoliation” cross sections as patterns (4, 6 and 7 particularly) to include on a Zentangle tile. They are easy deconstructions: start with a small circle and then work outward with similar shapes (as 6 and 7) across/turn 90 degrees to repeat…or (as in 4) around/turn 180 degrees to repeat.

I still am experimenting with the idea of these types of patterns inspired from the botanical world. There are many more plates in the book that would make good Zentangle prompts!

March 20, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/19/2020

March 20, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday…a cloudy day that started out very wet:

Trying another grocery store – first thing in the morning again. We found meat! It wasn’t our usual organic…but we bought it anyway. We also found some spray Lysol but not disinfecting counter cleaner…we are using our backup plan which will involve gloves, open windows and fans on (fortunately we are going to have some warm days). We got the medicines we would need if we got sick and my husband’s favorite protein shakes. Still no toilet paper or cat food. We ordered the cat food online when we got home.

Reducing toilet paper consumption dramatically. We have water in spray bottles beside our toilets now. We haven’t eliminated toilet paper entirely…but we are building up our skills with the water. It should enable us to manage with the toilet paper we have in the house for a few weeks even though we have not been able to find any in stores recently. Maybe this strategy will last beyond this crisis….it would make sewage treatment easier and reduce the number of trees felled to make toilet paper.

Noticing that I am sleeping as well as ever (according to my Fitbit…and not feeling tired). It’s an indicator that I am still handling the stress of the pandemic and changing habits very well. Another indicator from my Fitbit: my resting heart rate has stayed below 65 (normal for me) the whole time.
Cooking sweet potato hash browns. We cook and eat at home most of the time. But I have more time now, so I am beginning to experiment. I got the idea for hash browns from my husband requesting the frozen variety of hash browns when I went to the grocery store…but I changed the potato from russet/white to sweet for my dinner! I scrubbed the sweet potato and cut off the ends…chunked it so it would fit in the food processor with the shredder attachment…cooked them in a little olive oil seasoned with onion flakes and no-salt seasoning. It made a good meal with scrambled eggs…pretty orange and yellow colors on the plate.
Filling the bird feeder. We let the bird feeder hang empty for the past week to discourage a hawk that has become too interested in our backyard. Now we get to observe how long it takes for the little birds to find the seed again. Are the juncos still around?
Unpacking the bin prepped for a Zentangle® class. My plan for 3/19 from back in January was to lead a Zentangle session for my fellow volunteers after a training session for spring field trips. That has all be cancelled – of course. I am unpacking the bin I had already prepped: color zipper pouches with square paper coaster tiles, Pigma Pen 05, and pencils. I am going to use the bin to put all the photos I found in decades-old boxes in our basement…put the smaller bin of pouches on a shelf in my office. I couldn’t resist opening one pouch and tangling!

Browsing through emails and feeds with suggestions from others re navigating through the upheaval coronavirus is causing. An email from Coursera (lots for free online courses) had several interesting links that I want to pass along:
- If you or someone you know is learning online for the first time: You can share these 8 tips from our Teaching & Learning team.
- If you’re looking for ways to keep learning with your kids: Talk with parents around the world and share your favorite resources.
- If you’re looking for advice about moving in-person learning online: You can reference these best practices from our Teaching & Learning team.
- If, like Coursera, you and your team are shifting to remote work: You can join others in our community to discuss strategies and share advice.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16, 3/17, 3/18

March 18, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/17/2020

March 18, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Picking earrings to wear that I haven’t worn in a long time. Yesterday I wore some from Orlando FL and today they are from Watkins Glen NY. Earrings are my favorite item to purchase when I travel…small keepsakes that I can wear! Both are over 10 years old, but I still remember where I got them.
Maintaining the compost pile and walking around the yard. I’m trying to get out of the house at least once a day….enjoy that it is springtime here!

Watching the second installment of the Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safari (about Rico the Porcupine). They have established a website where all the videos will be available after they air live. I am watching the recorded version, so I don’t have to pay attention to the time to be online at 3 PM EDT!
Calling family far away, I had planned to be in Texas this past week…but I was already ‘staying at home as much as possible’ a few days before I was going to get on the airplane. Talking on the telephone is the next best thing for keeping in touch until it is not as risky to be out and about in larger groups of people.
Making a Zentangle® butterfly. I was straightening up my office and found a few extra butterfly tiles left from last summer’s experience with summer campers. I couldn’t resist using the tile…thinking that this would be a good activity for anyone needing a quiet calm time. If you want to learn a new pattern, checkout out https://tanglepatterns.com/ . Later in the afternoon. it was warm enough that I saw a real butterfly - a cabbage white.

Watching the 4th video in the ‘Life in the Universe Pandemic Series’ from Charles Cockell - Why didn’t dinosaurs build a space program? His pet gecko, Europa, is part of the lecture too!

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16

March 16, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/15/2020

March 16, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I normally do a daily blog post…but during this time, I might do an extra post from time to time. Since I am ‘staying at home as much as possible’ to reduce our COVID-19 exposure (and potentially slow the spread of the virus), I have more time at home.

Normally this time of year I travel, get training for upcoming volunteer activities, and take day trips---as spring is unfurling. This year was no exception, but it all came to a screeching halt last week. So – what am I doing with this extra time at home? Fortunately, I have a house that I enjoy and there is a lot to do. If you are at home and getting a little low on ‘things to do’ maybe these extra posts will give you some ideas.

There are the usual things that I always try to work into my day (but don’t always succeed when I have a lot of other things going on):

Zentangle (more than one)
Breathing App (this is an smartphone app that provides tones for breathing – in and out – in a rhythm that people meditating achieve….I find it very relaxing for 15 minutes…better than a substantial nap and makes me even more focused on whatever I do afterward)
Yoga (I’ve already built up my routine in the past week!)
Browse through 3-4 books on Internet Archive and other online sources. (I like variety. Today I am still working my way through 1) The Vermont Life magazines – I am up to Autumn 2011; 2) Starting The English Home magazines; 3) Working backwards through the Quarterly Journal of the Audubon Society of Missouri – I am back to 2013 now…getting to know to birds found in the state where my daughter is living; and 4) Keeping in reserve the Internet Archive collection by or about Alphonse Mucha.)
12,000 steps (this one is a little harder being at home all the time although I am taking walks around the neighborhood or working in the yard on days that the weather is good)
Pictures of birds at the feeder or birdbath – right now the feeder is empty because we are discouraging a hawk from frequenting our back yard and it’s been raining so the birds don’t need the birdbath as often

But what I am doing more than the usual today…what are some ‘different’ things that I did today to keep boredom at bay?

Cleaned the foyer and kitchen floors. I don’t do this often enough.
Dusted the top of all the door frames. It might have been over a year since I did it. They were dusty!
Photographed the plum tree (once the rain was over). There were blossoms at different stages of development and the day was cloudy enough to avoid the harsh shadows of sunny days.
Read a chapter in a physical book (I usually read online these days but have a stack of books I’ve been meaning to read for several years)
Started soaking some pinto beans (the bag has been in the pantry for over a year, their ‘best if used by’ date was December 2020...I’m going to cook them to use in chili…we have plenty of time to do slow food!)
Watched Are Viruses Alive? Video by an astrobiology professor from University of Edinburgh (recorded at home for his “Life in the Universe Pandemic Series”). I enjoyed his Coursera course several years ago.

What I am trying not to do?

Eat more than usual
Spend too much time looking at COVID-19 news and analysis

March 01, 2020

Zentangle® - February 2020

March 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

29 days in February 2020….so that’s the number of Zentangles I select from the pile I created during the month. The black background tiles are from the iPad (in the Procreate app); I opted to not carry pens and paper tiles when I traveled during the first part of the month so all the tiles from February 1st through 9th were on the iPad. I did a series using letters as strings. A few of them made it into the picks for the month.

Toward the end of the month, I was experimenting with mono-patterned tiles without a frame or string.

And then there were the rest….

February 02, 2020

Zentangle® - January 2020

February 02, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

31 Zentangle tiles for January…and only 2 were made on the iPad using the Procreate app. I was in the mood to make tiles on paper with pens, I guess. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I used different colors of tiles and tried some experiments before my Zentangle session with the Howard County Conservancy volunteers…hence the gingo and beautyberry patterns showing up more frequently. I didn’t use a singe round tile in January --- leaning toward something different after all the round ones I made in December for the Christmas tree. Next month it will probably be more balanced between paper and digital tiles since I will be doing some traveling and the iPad is often already in my hands (since it also provides my reading material).

January 29, 2020

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2020

January 29, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

2020 has started out with more activity than I anticipated….more volunteering, more classes, more events…and some travel at the end of the month.

2020 01 IMG_7039.jpg — **Bluebird passing through:** We don’t see bluebirds around that much….so it’s a special day when we do see one.

47th wedding anniversary: It doesn’t seem like such a long time…compared to my parents celebrating 67 years. I’m going to think of something special for our 50th coming up in 3 years!

**Children enjoying the Touch Tank**: There are moments in every hour that I spend volunteering at Robinson Nature Center’s saltwater touch tank that are little celebrations for me and for the children. Whether it is awe from something an animal does…or how they feel…or just understanding something new.

Conowingo Eagles: Even on a morning I don’t get any particularly good pictures – I enjoy every trip we make to the Conowingo…and that the eagle population is back from the brink!

Hot tea with cream: Or maybe with just milk. It’s my favorite winter beverage.

**Middle Patuxent Water Monitoring**: I always enjoy getting in the river and then doing the gleaning of the macroinvertebrates to identify. Since it was winter, I was braced to get very cold…but we had a wonderful sunny (not too cold) day!

Honing skills for volunteer gig: None of the classes were very long but were informative and applicable to me becoming a better volunteer. The topics ranged from autism, Howard Country Green Infrastructure Network, sensitivity training (impact of microaggression), outdoor wear fashion and function, and the spotted lantern fly. Wow – quiet a range of topics and all the presentations were excellent.

2020 01 IMG_7080.jpg — **Snow in the afternoon**: So beautiful. I celebrate every snow these days because I don’t have to drive in it!

Zentangle® with Howard County Conservancy volunteers: I love guiding group Zentangle sessions. This particular group seemed to enjoy the session…and had some ideas about ‘next steps’ in a practice. And like the campers last summer…got a little Zen as well.

Cooper’s Hawk on a Snowy morning: Often a ‘little celebration’ is a surprise that just happens. Seeing the Cooper’s Hawk fly into our sycamore was that kind of celebration – although I am glad the hawk is not around my backyard more frequently (since I enjoy the other birds).

January 24, 2020

Zentangle® with Howard County Conservancy Volunteers

January 24, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Every January the Howard County Conservancy host Winter Wellness sessions for their volunteers (returning and new). They usually consist of a hike followed by a lecture. Last week I was part of the ‘lecture’ segment….a Zentangle® session…very similar to the ones I did for summer campers!

I chose some nature oriented patterns for the first tile – gingo and beautyberry. The room got very quiet once we started working. We were using card stock tiles.

The second tile was done on paper coasters….and the patterns were more architectural looking. I didn’t catch everyone to make the mosaic at the end…but there are enough to show how great the group did in just a short intro type Zentangle session.

January 17, 2020

Maryland State House Ceiling as Zentangle® Prompt

January 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I am always noticing potentials for Zentangle patterns. An easy one was in the skylight at the Maryland State House (when we visited back in December). I made a tile without much thought about deconstruction. The stained glass ‘flower’ is was my primary interest.

2020 01 img246.jpg — I used a string to guide the pointed arc shape around each flower…then just make the curves. I filled in the spaces between the ‘petals’ to add some drama…and then it was just the tried and true Zentangle auras to fill in the rest of the space.

I did a simple step out of the way I deconstructed the pattern after I made the tile!

Zentangle prompts are everywhere! I’ve been looking at books about ancient pottery recently….lots to patterns to glean from them. I try to limit myself to one of the ‘Zentangle prompt’ posts each month, but I am very tempted to do another this month.

January 07, 2020

My 2019 in Review - Travel

January 07, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

The Space Coast of Florida….Providence, Rhode Island…Carrollton, Texas…Cape May, New Jersey…Springfield, Missouri… Smith Island, Maryland…Scottsburg, Virginia --- these were the places we traveled in 2019.

The Space Coast of Florida was for a birding festival held in January. I had quite a few blog posts about it. That road trip got the year off to a fast start for birding.

In late March/early April, I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island on the train to take the CZT class (Certified Zentangle Training). I posted about the experience of the trip and the training here.

The only plane trip of the year was in April – to Carrollton for a niece’s wedding. And it was perfect timing for the pocket prairie (posted about here).

In May, the Cape May Birding Festival…another road trip and lots of birding…blog posts.

There were multiple trips to Springfield, Missouri during the summer to help get my daughter and son-in-law moved from Pennsylvania to Missouri. It’s a 2-day road trip in each direction…often with very full carloads of fragile stuff. And then I was back for Thanksgiving too! I did a little exploring – the botanical garden, the art museum, and the conservation nature center. The posts are here.

The first attempt at a boat trip to Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay was cancelled due to wind in April. The re-scheduled time was in October…and we enjoyed the trip. I posted about what we saw. The pelicans were the high point for me.

Later in October, we were camping at Staunton River State Park near Scottsburg, Virginia for a star party. We’ve been going every year that the weather permits for the past several years. It’s always cold at night but we survive - enjoy ambience of a field of telescopes, tents, campers and cars. This year we took a short hike on one of the mornings.

Looking back – our travel was full of variety (places, activities, and seasons)…a good mix. I’m already primed for more adventures away from home in 2020!

January 01, 2020

Zentangle® - December 2019

January 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I made a lot of tiles in December. Some were the round paper coaster tiles that I was making for the tree which are thick enough to make patterns on both sides (so they count as two tiles when I scan them).

The Paradox pattern was one of my favorites this month. Notice how the meta-pattern changes depending on making Paradox clockwise or counterclockwise…and in relation to the positioning of the neighboring instances of Paradox.

Chairs is a new pattern published in December that I enjoyed too.

There are quiet a few instances of the gingo pattern this month as well. It was new in August….and I like it a lot.

December 11, 2019

Decorating for Christmas

December 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Our decorating has lagged this year because of my travel at Thanksgiving and then the flurry of volunteer gigs right after I returned. My husband put the wreath on the door before I got home from Springfield, Missouri but it wasn’t until this last weekend that we put the tree up.

We are keeping it simple this year – just lights and Zentangle coasters on our white tree. I’m still creating more coasters so there will be others added to the tree as the month progresses. I started with about 40 this past weekend.

I put the cards from past years on the door scrunchies as I usually do….and more cards will be under the plastic on our breakfast table.

Festive…without a lot of effort.

December 01, 2019

Zentangle® - November 2019

December 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The 30 tiles I picked for November were all ‘project’ tiles. 28 of them are 3-inch paper coasters with patterns made with red Sharpie Ultra-Fine pens. The round coasters are thick enough that both sides can be tangled. My plan is to punch a hole in the coasters and use them as ornaments on my Christmas tree or hanging between the newel posts of my stair and loft railings. I’ll be making more in December and will post about how I am displaying them.

The other projects were 4-inch tiles made with window plastic…patterns made with Sharpie Fine point. These tiles will go in the corner partitions of a glass paneled door at my daughter’s house.

Overall – this continues my tilt over the past few months toward Zentangle tiles with a purpose beyond the Zen of their creation.

November 28, 2019

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2019

November 28, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Today is **Thanksgiving** here in the U.S….so I’ll start out my list of celebrations for this month with that holiday. It’s a day to reflect on what we appreciate in our life. There is so much to be thankful for. I even remembered to put the Indian corn on our front door the day after Halloween so I could enjoy it all month.

Robinson Nature Center - I am celebrating the new volunteer opportunities…more indoors that my other gigs. This winter won’t be a lull in volunteer activities!

Fennel – I celebrated that there was organic fennel in my grocery’s produce section!

HoLLIE lecture – An interesting lecture….and a reminder to celebrate the richness of learning opportunities close to where I live.

A sunny fall day – The month had some cold temperatures. I realized that seeing the sun on those cold days (even if through a window) is a little celebration.

Zentangle Christmas ornaments – I managed to start early making designs on both sides of paper coasters with a red Ultra-fine Sharpie. They are a celebration to make…to display…to give away.

Witch hazel blooming – Something blooming in November…with streamers…just when the trees are losing their leaves. Worth noticing and a celebration.

Mowing leaves – It works! The yard looks good and my back doesn’t hurt. A strategy to celebrate.

Howard Country Conservancy preK – 3rd grade field trips – October was the peak of the field trip season but the ones in November had their own challenges – some cold, some wet…some windy. Overall – they were a good time in the outdoors for all – celebrating fall.

Road trip to Springfield MO– Road trips on my own are always a good time to think and enjoy the open road…celebrating with family when I get there.

November 13, 2019

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Part 2

November 13, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the highlights from our visit to the Virginial Museum of Fine Arts….

The Ancient gallery is dedicated to Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan art. I was glad the museum permits (non-flash) photography because there were lots of Zentangle prompts in the pots. Thinking about how old some of them are…how amazing it is that they survived…that they still appeal to us now. Some of them appeared to be more functional objects than art but may those pieces tell us more about the lives of long-ago peoples that things intended only for display or another special purpose.

2019 10 hf IMG_5866.jpg — I’d never seen an Egyptian bust that was intentionally made from a rock with a vein of another color across the face. It is quite striking and was the ‘style’ for a short period of Egyptian history.

2019 10 hf IMG_5895.jpg — In the East Asian gallery, there was black screen with botanical images. It did not look as impressive until I zoomed with the camera and made out the detail of the images.

Other items from the East Asian gallery provided a diversity of styles and materials. The small bowl is made from agate.

Back for a last look as some pieces from the Ancient gallery….gold piece from a crown, more pottery, jewelry and two small friezes.

For a short walk around, we saw a lot of interesting (and beautiful) things!

November 11, 2019

Chuy’s Tiles as a Zentangle® Prompt

November 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

We stopped at a Chuy’s restaurant on our way home from Staunton River State Park and I photographed a few of the tiles because they were excellent Zentangle prompts.

I combined several ideas into one and made a reticula that I tangled in 3 orientations on Bijou tiles (2” squares). What fun! The same pattern with different orientations.

The idea reminded me of a symmetry course I took on Coursera back in summer and fall of 2014. It’s no longer available from Coursera and my notes are more about crystals and the semantics to talk about symmetry than the videos of symmetry in plants and tiles that were side lectures for the course. Still – I remember enjoying the course more because of those side lectures.

November 01, 2019

Zentangle® - October 2019

November 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Lots of ideas tried in October...31 tiles.

I did some experimented with not filling in all the spaces on a tile. What do think? Which one of the two do you the best from below? It’s easy to save an intermediate version on the iPad and then continue to fill in the blank areas.

On my iPad, I continued to experiment with colors and simple patterns.

Probably my favorite tile of the month was done on black paper with gel pens….no shading. I like the irregular black spaces too.

b zen 19 10 (17).jpg — I discovered that my hole punch works on the paper coasters I am using as tiles…and they are thick enough to make a pattern on both sides. I’m buying some red pens and will make ornaments for my Christmas tree or to thread onto ribbon to make a garland for the stair railing.

The square paper tiles vary in size from 3 inch to 4.5 inch…impossible to tell after I scan them since they are all square. There are still a lot of gingo leaves this month; It may be my favorite pattern from now on!