Baby Bird in the Grass

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The first sad event at our new house in Missouri was seeing a baby bird in the grass of our front yard. It seemed to want to stay cuddled down in the grass…kept looking toward the maple tree and calling; there was an answering call so maybe the nest where it had hatched was in that tree. It seemed too far from the tree to have simply fallen out of the nest. Maybe it did a glide from the high location in the tree and couldn’t return. Unfortunately – the baby was probably too young to survive away from the nest. We checked on it for about an hour and it didn’t budge. Eventually it would starve or be eaten be a predator.

There were too many leaves on the maple to see the nest properly but the blue marking on the wing of the young bird might indicate it was a blue jay. Hopefully some siblings did survive.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 9, 2022

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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.

Bonsai trees tell of winters past – An elfin forest of hemlocks on the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park…and they hold the history of 4 centuries of winters in their growth rings.

See the vibrant, long overlooked colors of classical sculptures – Greco-Roman marble sculptures were covered in bright hues (polychromy) originally!

Pioneering recycling turns mixed waste into premium plastics with no climate impact – Wouldn’t it be great if suddenly mixed waste could replace fossil raw materials for ALL plastic production?

Understanding horseshoe crabs at Cape Cod National Seashore – A short video about a research project just starting.

Get a Sneak Preview of the 2022 Bird Photographer of the Year Finalists – Capturing birds in action…rather than portraits.

Invasive species taking over some American forests - Amur honeysuckle (a shrub from Asia) is a big culprit. Callery Pear (the ‘wild’ version of the Bradford pear) is a close second.  I just cut down a Callery Pear that was growing in the front bed of my new house in Missouri…almost obliterating a crepe myrtle! Other foreign species that have become problematic: porcelain berry, tree of heaven, winged euonymus, European buckthorn, Oriental bittersweet, common privet and lesser periwinkle...Norway maple, Amur cork tree and white poplar along with herbaceous species such as lesser celandine, garlic mustard, Japanese knotweed and Japanese stilt grass.

A Surprisingly High Number of Wildfires Are Caused by Electrocuted Birds – Awful….good that there is a way to reduce the carnage…at less cost than the consequences of the fires.

Rural areas near coast will bear the brunt of US sea-level rise – Analysis focused on the Chesapeake Bay…marshes forming where forest and farmland is today.

Once-Common California Bumble Bees Have Gone Missing – The survey did not find the formerly abundant Western bumble bee. The last statewide survey was conducted 40 years go…and a lot has happened in that time: habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change. None of the species were doing well. Big problem – since bumble bees help pollinate $3 billion worth of crops in the US each year (including tomatoes, peppers, and cranberries).

Scientist war of links between soil pollution and heart disease – The author of the study commented: “Until we know more, it seems sensible to wear a face mask to limit exposure to windblown dust, filter water to remove contaminants, and buy food grown in healthy soil."

Settling in, developing new routines – 1st month

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A new house – neighborhood – city – state (Missouri)…a lot has changed for us this past month. We are still unpacking but have done enough to live comfortably…do the rest of the opening of boxes and distribution of ‘stuff’ at a slower pace. I am starting a monthly post to document the new routines we are establishing.

Trash/recycling. I like that we have a bin for the weekly trash collection rather than just putting big plastic bags at the curb like we did in Maryland. The downside is that recycling comes every other week rather than weekly like it did in Maryland…and the first cycle was cancelled because they were short a crew! Another difference: neither trash or recycle curbside collection take yard waste. So – I’ve been to the recycle center 3 times already (twice for boxes there were not reusable and once for yard waste after I cut down a Callery pear that was taking over a crepe myrtle in my front flowerbed); fortunately, the recycle center is not that far away from our neighborhood.

The mini-kitchen in the basement near my office is perfect for making my favorite snack: popcorn! What a luxury to have it close rather than a flight of stairs away.

It is also a luxury to do my back exercises on the twin bed near my office rather than getting down (and then up) from the floor.

Groceries are different too; the closest store is a Walmart which does not have as much selection as Wegmans in Maryland. I may look further afield for groceries eventually even though the close location of the Walmart is a big plus. I get to the store about 6:30 AM just as I did in Maryland; shopping in a store with more stockers than customers is something I’ve grown accustomed too…prefer!

Laundry has been an adventure. There is still a flight of stairs between the laundry room and the bedroom, but our Missouri house has a laundry chute! We’ve added handles to the doors of the chute (not sure why they didn’t have handles before) and bought large baskets to catch all the laundry at the bottom. And what a luxury it is to have so much room to hang up clothes that we don’t want to put in the drier!

Barn swallows. When we moved into the house, we noticed almost immediately that we had bard swallows nesting under the deck….easily viewed from our patio or through the windows around it. The babies hav since fledged and I’ve tried to clean up the bird poop that fell from the nest onto the patio…the price for having an easily observable nest. We didn’t have barn swallows at our Maryland house, so this is a new bird for our yard. We put out two bird baths but they haven’t been used very much….the neighborhood ponds are too close probably. We haven’t put up bird feeders yet.

More new routines next month….

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 25, 2022

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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.

Ukrainian Students Are Taking Haunting Grad Photos in Rubble Created by the War – Life going on during war…graduation pictures that reflect a very different year in Ukraine.

The surprising benefits of fingers that wrinkle in water – A lot more questions and research than I expected!

Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease – Faster and earlier diagnosis…a component that could improve outcomes over the long term.

Photographer Captures Colorful “Moonbows” – In Yosemite National Park.

Walking toward healthier knees – “Those who reported walking for exercise had 40% decreased odds of new frequent knee pain compared to non-walkers” --- that’s a good stat to keep in mind as we get older and want to avoid increased knee problems.

Living with the prospect of assisted dying – A post about a man diagnosed with ALS…difficulty with the bureaucracy of assisted dying laws even with a clear-cut terminal diagnosis.

Alaska Ablaze – 5,000 lightning strikes…dozens of wildfires.

How to turn your garden into a carbon sink – Turning more yards into gardens…with more diverse plantings….a few more trees. Sometimes going a little wild is a good thing!

Pollen and Heat: a looming challenge for global agriculture – heat is a pollen killer for canola, corn, peanuts, and rice. It is becoming more important than ever for crops to bloom before the temperature rises…and it is getting more challenging as multi-day stretches of excess heat are becoming more common early in the growing season.

The life of a solitary bee – There are as many as 4,000 bee species in the US….and most of them are solitary. 98% of the native bee species in the US are solitary.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2022

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What a month! It is probably the busiest, most stressful in my post career decade….with so much that has gone right in the end…lots of little celebrations.

Hearing a phoebe in the morning….seeing a crane fly – The sights and sounds of nature often become little celebrations for me…they just happen and make the day brighter.

New low weight for the year – With all the work getting ready to move and then moving, I expended a lot more energy and lost a few pounds. I celebrated a new low weight for the year in June.

A new house – Settling into a new house/location is stressful…but there is also a lot of to celebrate. Noticing all the aspects of the house that I like…celebrating that it is becoming home.

A picture taking walk around the ponds in the early morning – The water features of my new neighborhood are more extensive than where I lived previously. There were plenty of sights to celebrate in my first walks around the ponds and I anticipate enjoying them all through the year.

Internet/cable at Missouri house (just in time to make hotel reservations for the follow night going back to Maryland) – Our internet/cable access was installed the morning after we closed on our new house; I celebrated that my husband had been proactive for making that arrangement.

Made it back to Missouri even with the blowout before lunch – The drama of a blown-out tire on the trek from Maryland to Missouri was not traumatic as it could have been….and I celebrated when we made it to the new house.

The movers arrived….delivering our stuff – The house was so empty…then was full of boxes. I celebrated that it all arrived intact even though the piles were daunting.

Finding the missing piece to husband’s desk – I had packed some pieces of my husband’s desk and we didn’t find the box for about 24 hours. Celebration by all when the piece was found!

Unpacking progress (slow but steady) – We are still unpacking but every day I celebrate the progress we are making. At this point, all the critical items are unpacked and put into their long-term location.

A contract on our Maryland house – My husband and I were pleasantly surprised that we sold our house in Maryland in just 4 days and for more than the asking price. At first, we were overwhelmed…and then we celebrated.

Zooming – June 2022

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I didn’t have as many photographs as usual to choose from in June…too busy moving. There were still enough to choose twelve. The locations were wide ranging: our neighborhoods in Maryland and Missouri, the botanical garden in Springfield MO, our houses in Maryland and Missouri. It is occurring to me that my multi-day road trips between Maryland and Missouri/Texas are almost over. The trek between Missouri and Texas is an easy 6.5 hours!

Enjoy the slide show!

Unique Aspects of Days – June 2022

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June was probably the most unique month of 2022; moving from Maryland to Missouri made for a lot of firsts…made more unique by the time that had passed since our last move (more than 25 years ago). It was hard to choose just 10.

Move out day in Maryland. Packing up was hard enough…seeing it all be loaded on the truck in one day (rainy toward the end) was overwhelmingly intense – certainly not a ‘normal’ situation. And I knew I would be getting up early in the next morning to head to Missouri.

A lot of armadillo road kill. In Maryland the most common road killed animals were deer. In Missouri, there were armadillos; perhaps it was the time of year they go walkabout.

Closing on a Missouri house. I hadn’t closed on a house in over 25 years and this is the only time in my life (so far) that there was no mortgage.

First sunrise at Bentwater house. Firsts are unique simply because they are the first!

Blowout of my driver’s side front tire. It was not a totally unique experience but the last one was years ago (2017) and only the third one in my 50 years of driving!

The neighborhood pool for the first time. I wasn’t sure I would use the pool but I discovered that there are times it is not very busy…a very pleasant respite from the heat.

Mend Piece. I’ll do a post about the experience in a few days….it was a unique hands-on experience at the Springfield Art Museum.

Making popcorn in the downstairs kitchen – first time. It felt a little odd to make popcorn in a place other than the main kitchen…but the mini-kitchen near my office in the basement has a microwave. I used my Nordic Ware bowl…melted butter in an old stoneware cup. It’s great to have a hefty snack without having to go up or down stairs!

Our Maryland house went on the market…under contract 4 days later. We hadn’t sold a house in a long time…and the previous experiences had not been quick. This one was lightning fast – just as the realtor had predicted. We were pleased and overwhelmed all at the same time.

New washer and dryer. I don’t remember the last time we had a new washer/dryer….so I am counting it as unique….and still enjoying the big improvement over the older models: quieter, more effiecent use of water/energy, quicker. Also – the laundry chute in our new house is a very nice feature.

Our (new) Yard – June 2022

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A quick walk around our back yard…on my way to a walk before the heat of the day.

There are still a few roses. I’ll water them and hope that the blooms will linger. There are still buds but the heat could be problematic for them.

There are pines and hollies around the deck with steppingstone paths through the beds to the lawn. The lower patio is very private and will be in the winter as well. We see the neighborhood tennis courts and pool over our fence from the 1st floor but the basement level, where my office is located, is a green walled oasis. I love it already.

There are a few plants blooming – they probaby need water too – and there is grass growing into them. I need to find my gardening gloves and clear out the undesirable intrusions into the flower beds.

My sister bought us a glass bird bath that has a solar cell in the base that glows at night. Our first addition to our yard. I can see it from my office window.

There is a swallow nest over the patio – under the deck – and we are avoiding the area in an effort to not upset the parents as they are frantically feeding their hungry young.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 2, 2022

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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.

What if all roads went underground? – Thought provoking…wish there were ways to make it a more practical solution since the aesthetics of a world that has more natural surfaces (rather than roads) is very appealing.

Endangered Whopping Crane Hatches at Smithsonian National Zoo Site – The egg was found on an abandoned wild nest in Wisconsin and given to a pair of whooping cranes in the zoo that had produced 2 infertile eggs. The live egg was put into their nest on 5/18 and the baby crane hatched on 5/26!

BLM, Forest Service, Five Tribes of The Bears Ears Commission Commit to Historic Co-Management Of Bears Ears National Monument – Wishing the best for this endeavor.

Fifth of global food-related emissions due to transport – The takeaway message for us in the US: eat locally! This summer I am visiting the local Farmer’s Market weekly…maybe next year I’ll join a CSA.

Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ melting at fastest rate in 5,500 years – Thwaites Glacier (nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier…Florida-sized) and Pine Island Glacier were studied. The ice shelf holding the Thwaites Glacier could collapse withing 3-5 years.

Finding mini frogs: these aren’t babies, they’re just little – And they hatch as frogs…no tadpole stage. They live in leaf litter…humid and moist but not near water.

New safe-sleep guidelines aim to reduce infant deaths – New guidelines have been coming out from time to time at least since my daughter was born over 30 years ago. When she was a baby, the recommendation was for babies to sleep on their tummy…very different from these current guidelines.

2021 Share the Experience Photo Contest (National Park Foundation) Winners – Special places…full of great experiences.

Los Angeles becomes the latest city to hire ‘chief heat officer’ – Miami and Phoenix as well as cities in other countries (Athens, Greece; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Monterrey, Mexico; Santiago, Chile) have similar positions.

One in 500 men carry extra sex chromosome, putting them at higher risk of several common diseases – A surprising result…most of the men were unaware they carried an extra X or Y chromosome. Those that are XXY had higher chances of reproductive problems. Both XXY and XYY individuals has higher risks of type 2 diabetes, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Morris’ A History of British Birds

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The 8 volumes of A History of British Birds by Francis Orpen Morris are available on Internet Archive. I enjoyed browsing the images this past spring. I’ve selected an image from each book to share in this post.

(vol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Volume 6 included two birds seen frequently in North America: the coot and the Canada goose.

Volume 7 included the Great Auk which was probably extinct – or near extinct – by the time the books were published in 1862. There were some birds – such as the swallow (volume 2) and the cormorant (volume 8)– that had generic entries.

Morris was an Irish clergyman – a ‘parson-naturalist’ of the 1800s; his professional role accommodated his natural history interests. According to the Wikipedia entry about him, he was a pioneer of the movement to protect birds from the plume trade…refused to accept the theory of evolution.

Our New Neighborhood – June 2022

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There are two ponds with a ~0.5 trail around them in our Missouri neighborhood…three bridges (one at both ends and between them). One of the tangential paths from the loop passes by our back gate. I took an early morning walk – taking photos in the great morning light. A squirrel posed for me on one of the bridges.

I was glad the mowed areas are not ‘golf course’ like…lots of clover mixed in with the grasses.

There is a mallard with a broken wing that I’ve seen several times. The first time was the day the movers arrived. It was wondering around our backyard and my husband opened the gate so that it could return to the ponds. It was swimming in the water or on a muddy island in one of ponds the other times I’ve seen it. It probably cannot fly well enough to move to another location.

The edges of the ponds are not mowed….so there are plenty of taller grasses, seedlings, wild onions and other plants that make it interesting.

I stopped just before I made the last turn to my house to photograph one of the larger trees….and its reflection.

We are experiencing lots of high temperatures this week so all my walks will be on mornings when the temperature is still pleasant. I am anticipating that the short walks are going to be ‘favorites’ for my post-move life.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 18, 2022

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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.

Archaeologists Uncover Hundreds of Colorful Sarcophagi at Saqqara—and They’re Not Done Yet – The seeming endless interest in Egypt…sustained by continuing new finds.

8 cool wild cats you probably don’t know – So many wild cat variations!

Fjords emit as much methane as all the deep oceans globally – When storms churn up water in fjords….oxygenating the fjord floor…methane emissions spike. If the water mixed more frequently the methane emissions would drop because anoxic environments at the bottom of fjords would disappear.

Tree rings are evidence of megadrought – and our doom – Tree ring data indicates that the 22-year period from 2000 through 2021 was the driest and hottest in the last 1,2000 years for the North American Southwest. There was another 22-year drought from 1571-1592 that was nearly as dry but not as hot as the current drought. And the water distribution allocations were made based on a 22-year period between 1900 and 1921 that we now know was an anomalously wet period for area! Not good signs for the future.

A 3400-year-old city emerges from the Tigris River – Drought lowered the Mosul reservoir. There was a quick survey…discovery ceramic vessels with 100 cuneiform tablets…and the conservation measures to project the site as the water rose again. The site is now completely submerged.

Fifty years later, Kim Phuc Phan Thi is more than ‘Napalm Girl’ – One of the most iconic photos of the Vietnam war…still makes be as emotional now as the first time I saw it. She says – To confront violence head-on…’the first step is to look at it.’

Two articles about the flooding in Yellowstone: Repairing and reopening Yellowstone National Park won’t be easy and Extreme flooding devastates Yellowstone, forcing the closure of all park entrances – Very sad….also scary.

Wildlife bedtime: weird nesting habits of North American wildlife – Black bears, black-footed ferrets, jumping spiders, bald-faced hornets, and red-sided garter snakes.

How Vivian Maier, the Enigmatic Nanny Who Took 150,000 Photographs, Found Her Place in History – Street photographer…that only became known after a storage locker of her photographs/negatives was auctioned off when she couldn’t make the payments on it.

Zapping orange peel oil into new, pleasant aroma compounds – I’ve always liked the smell and taste of orange peel (I buy organic oranges and use the whole orange!) but evidently the compound that is in orange peel, limonene, can be the starting platform for other scents as well.

House Walk-through before Closing

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I stayed overnight with my daughter the night before we closed on our new home. It was calming to be in a familiar place, enjoy her yard between rain showers (roses, decorative water faucet, and magnolia with early blooms) and then have her drive me (rather than taking my very full car) to the walk-through of the house prior to closing.  

The form with space for notes about each room that I used when we had first looked at the house back in April worked well for this walkthrough. I wrote down anything I noticed: a ding in a wall that the movers probably made when they moved the previous owner (fortunately the paint was left in the basement so won’t be a hard repair), the blooms that I had just missed (a Japanese dogwood and a rhododendron), the two bathrooms that needed shower rods (the master has a glass enclosed shower), and loose weather stripping on the door to the garage. I also noticed that what I thought was just a microwave was a convection oven as well! Everything important about the house was as I expected.

I had purchased some furniture from the previous owner, and it was all in the house…plus a chimenea (a pleasant surprise sitting to one side of the patio.

It was too wet from the morning rains to walk around the yard, but I did go out on the patio. There were swallows nesting in the eves…with hungry young. Another pleasant surprise.

Overall – I felt good about the house…ready to go for quick lunch…and then close.

MD to MO with a very full car

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My car was loaded to the ceiling behind the driver’s seat after the movers left; I was relying on side mirrors and backup camera for the drive between Maryland and Missouri. The next morning, I loaded the passenger seat and floorboard (not to the ceiling), took a few pictures of the front of our Maryland house, and was away before 6:30 AM for the 1st day drive…projected to be 10 hours.

I made the usual rest stops in Maryland. The weather was excellent for driving…a comfortable temperature and dry. Once again – I appreciated adaptive cruise control…after I got acclimated driving at highway speeds again; it took me about an hour to feel comfortable going 70+ mph.

The highway through West Virginia is a pleasure – lots of great scenery and curves to make it interesting. I discovered that the extra weight of the car (fully loaded) made it more stable on the curves! On a sad note – along with deer roadkill, there seemed to be quite a few foxes; saddest of all…there were two very small fox carcasses not far apart. I noticed catalpas blooming along the highway…remembered the trees from my childhood; considered planting one in my new yard.

Kentucky is also scenic – and this time there was no traffic problems getting through Louisville into Indiana (bridge renovation closes a lane…but the traffic was light enough that everything flowed smoothly).

The hotel for the first night was in Indiana and I took a picture of at sunset from my hotel window. I parked my car where I could see it and kept checking to make sure it was OK; other people parked around me --- made the obviously stuffed car less obvious. The area is still in the eastern time (very close to the western edge of the zone) so it didn’t get dark until after 9; I closed the blackout curtains and went to bed early after the long drive.

I bought the most expensive gas of the trip in Illinois. I’ll remember when I make the next trip to fill the tank in Missouri or Indiana!

And then I was in Missouri – making very good time even though the traffic was heavier on I-44 than anywhere else along the route. The first rest stop is due to close for renovation soon so it will be a long stretch without a rest stop….we’ll have to make a stop at a fast food place instead. There was a marked difference in the type of roadkill once I got into Missouri – no deer or fox…there were a few racoons and (surprise) lots of armadillos! Evidently the animals were first seen in the state about 40 years ago and their numbers have been increasing in the southern part of the Missouri ever since; they are not seen in the northern part of the state (yet)! I learned that they often destroy yards very quickly (they root around searching for invertebrates in the soil) and are very active in the Springfield area!

On both days, I made such good time that I made up for the rest stops…arrived within minutes of what my car’s navigation system calculated first thing in the morning as I was starting the drive!

I stayed with my daughter overnight. Stay tuned for a post about the next day: walk through…closing…unloading the very full car…a first night in a new home.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 11, 2022

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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.

Dramatic Short Film Explores the Secret World of Microscopic Plankton – Video and photographs…the beauty of the very small.

“Legacy Pollution” to be cleaned up in seven national parks – I am pleased that it is being cleaned up…chagrined that taxpayers are paying for it rather than the oil companies.

Dandelion chemistry: diuretics and the tires of the future – Redeeming qualities of what we normally consider weeds that are menace! I’ve come to appreciate them more over the years because they are edible (my grocery story has the leaves in their organic section occasionally) and their roots are deep enough to hold soil better than turf on a slope.

Infant formula: the superfood you never think about – One of my grandmothers discovered she was unable to breastfeed her babies….and that was well before commercial formula was available. Whatever recipe she used to create ‘formula’ worked. I suspect that one of the ingredients was evaporated milk. Her 9 children thrived…some into their 90s. What happened in the US recently with infant formula reminds us how dependent we are on modern technology that has become increasingly complex…and sometimes without enough redundancy/alternatives when failures occur.

Ancient tree in Chile could be the world’s oldest – A cypress that could be more than 5,000 years old.

Hot-blooded T. rex and cold-blooded Stegosaurus: Chemical clues reveal dinosaur metabolisms – Honing the analysis of how quickly they could turn oxygen to energy.  

Ancient ochre mine uncovered in Wyoming – Around 13,000 years ago, Paleoindians mined hematite at the site…and used it to produce red ochre.

Photos of the week – May 27, 2002 – Spring prairie flowers/seeds from the Prairie Ecologist.

What can and can’t be recycled – Thinking about recycling….now that I am moving to Missouri, I need to figure out the rules for curbside recycling. I already know there are some differences from Maryland.

Type 2 diabetes accelerates brain aging and cognitive decline – A scary result since there are so many people with type 2 diabetes….and currently doctors don’t have brain based biomarkers for type 2 diabetes or treatment strategies that target neurocognitive declines.

Crane Fly

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A quick celebration of nature – a crane fly was resting on the garage door frame as I came back from an early morning trip to Home Depot for the last boxes I need. I took some quick pictures with my phone…pleased with the quality of the 8x magnification.

Another intrusion of nature into my laser focus on getting ready to move - the birdsong in the morning is at its peak this time of year and happens just as I am ready to get up. There is a phoebe that is almost always contributing to the symphony and sometimes I hear it in the evening as well.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 4, 2022

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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.

Under Water and Under Pressure – 100 national parks are coastal…and are already taking action to mitigate sea level rise.

Where do ‘Hawaiian box jellies’ come from? – Evidently the box jellies appear close to shore like clockwork 8-10 days after full moon. This research reveal that the jellies are spawning during that time…and where they are when they not close to shore. This is important for providing better information to ocean swimmers and beach goers…trying to avoid stings. Another benefit…learning to keep the food web balanced to control box jelly numbers in Hawaii and other tropical localities.

Stirring up a mid-Atlantic bloom – Lots of nutrients flowing into the water from the coastal watersheds during spring rainstorms.

Vancouver requires gas stations & parking lots without EV chargers to pay $10,000 per year – Interesting idea…hope it increases the number of chargers and the trend to EVs!

Photography In The National Parks: More Favorite Places For Photography - We’re not going to be traveling to any of the western parks near term….so I enjoyed them through these photographs: Crater Lake, Redwood, Yosemite, Great Basin, and Lewis and Clark (Washington state portion).

Maya tooth treatments may have prevented infection – In the Mayan world - holes were drilled to attach stones to teeth; an analysis of the sealant used for 8 teeth from across the Maya empire (AD 200-900) revealed that most sealants included ingredients from pine trees that have been shown to fight the bacteria that cause tooth decay.

Top 25 birds of the week: Forest Birds – I always like bird pictures….

Scientists recreate Cleopatra’s favorite perfume – Recreating Mendesian perfume…the result so far has been a strong, spicy, faintly musty scent that tended to linger longer than modern fragrances…with ingredients like desert date oil, myrrh, cinnamon, and pine resin.

Grand Canyon of Texas – I remember (tent) camping in Palo Duro Canyon in the 1970s on the way to Colorado…being very hot and worried that our tent was too close to a red ant bed! At the time, I didn’t realize that it is the second largest canyon in the US (behind Arizona’s Grand Canyon).

Why humans get less sleep than other primates – A different type of sleep research…teasing out the differences in sleep of humans and other primates….and between non-industrial human populations and industrial human populations. It turns out that in the human populations…the hours of sleep are about the same but the perception of getting enough sleep is higher in the non-industrial populations than the industrial ones!

Our Maryland Neighborhood

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I took an early morning walk in our neighborhood – down to the water retention pond…savoring the familiar sights and sounds. The first was our oak near our mailbox. It was a much smaller tree when we moved to the house over 25 years ago. I planted day lilies around its base about 10 years ago; they never get a chance to bloom because the deer eat the buds like candy but the leaves make a lush collar for the tree that keeps the mowers from damaging the trunk.

I took pictures of some of my favorite trees against the morning sky/shadow – maple, ginkgo and oak. The maples are thriving while the oaks are declining. The builder planted one of each near the street originally.

The ginkgo is near the street in one of the yards along the way to the pond. It leans a little toward the street.

At the pond, cattails were thick with old and new growth, the red winged blackbirds and green frogs (rubber band sound) were noisy, and I appreciated once again that the slopes are no longer mowed.

I managed to photograph a female red winged blackbird and a rather scruffy looking fledgling that she was feeding. The fledgling stayed down in the cattails more than the adult.

I took a picture of the oak overhead as I sat on the bench near the pond. It is a lot like ours…more dead branches than it should have.

The arborist that worked on our sycamore and plum talked about the oaks dying…that making sure they are watered is about all you can do to help prolong their life; it looks like all the oaks in our neighborhood are experienced a slow death. The Virginia Creeper that is growing on our tree makes it looks greener than it would be on its own!

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2022

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May was a month of preparation to move…but there were plenty of little celebrations along the way.

12 boxes packed in one day. In April I had a few days that I got to 20 boxes…but that included some that all I had to do was tape (i.e. they were already packed). Doing a good job packing a box takes some thought…and gets harder after there are fewer items left to go in boxes. I celebrated that I managed a 12-box day!

Another load to the landfill/recycle center. Every time we take a load, I celebrate that we have a little less to move!

Getting the pile out for curbside pickup. It was a significant effort – requiring the wheelbarrow to get the heavier items up the hill. But we did it – more easily than I anticipated!

Getting the pile out for curbside pickup. It was a significant effort – requiring the wheelbarrow to get the heavier items up the hill. But we did it – more easily than I anticipated!

Finding boxes to pack larger items. I am packing larger items now…that are generally light weight too. I like the Home Depot’s ‘large’ boxes and celebrate how many odd items they hold gracefully.

Drawing down refrigerator items. I’ve been trying to eat things from the freezer/refrig so that I don’t have to move them. So far so good. The refrigerator is not entirely empty, but we’ll have less to move in an ice chest when we move. Celebrating that my strategy is working!

Reservations made for the trip to close on the house in Missouri. I’m celebrating that the further along we get…the more we do toward moving…the more ‘real’ it becomes. There will be a big celebration once we close but the steps leading to that milestone are worth celebrating too!

Birth of my niece’s child…the first of the next generation of our family. Celebrating the birth of child…mixed with relief that all is well with the mother and child.

A phoebe in the backyard in the morning (on almost every morning). The bird has become a normal early morning sound for me…not loud enough to be an alarm clock…but reminds me to celebrate the new day.

A timely appointment to get a crown on a broken molar. I was worried that my mouth would become painful before I could get an appointment with my dentist…but it happened quickly…and 2 hours later I went home with a temporary crown! I’m also celebrating that it is (so far) my best experience ever getting a crown.

A fox in the backyard…passing through. I happened to look out my office window to see a fox stop by the base of our feeder in the back yard….and then continue its way into the forest. It was transitioning from winter to summer coat. Celebrating that there is wildlife in our forest…and sometimes we get to see it in our backyard.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 28, 2022

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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.

Major infrared breakthrough could lead to solar power at night – A very small amount of energy was produced in the test…more research required for practical application.

Restoration Reveals Engravings in Egypt’s Temple of Esna – Follow the link at the top of the post to see a few more pictures of the restored engravings.

What we are still learning about how trees grow – A new study finds that tree growth is limited by cell growth rather than photosynthesis which has been assumed to be the limiting factor previously. The models that predict how much carbon forests can absorb need to be updated.

Spring Flowers are Blooming Earlier in Greater Yellowstone – The recovery of detailed records made in the 1970s by Frank Craighead of when flowers bloomed is helping document changes…help restoration planners determine the best seed mixes for native plants…try to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Cutting air pollution emissions would save 50,000 US lives, $600 billion each year – Yet another reason to take actions to dramatically reduce air pollution.

Traces of an ancient watery world in Capital Reef – Satellite views of Capitol Reef National Park…and the story in the rocks.

Prehistoric feces reveal parasites from feasting at Stonehenge – A piece of trivia: beef and pork were spit-roasted or boiled in clay pots but the evidence of particular parasites in coprolites reveals that liver and lungs from an infected animal were consumed raw or undercooked.

Vangelis, famed film composer and synth pioneer, dead at 79 – I remember going to see Chariots of Fire when it first came out in the early ‘80s….and the unforgettable music. This obituary post includes a link to a YouTube video with the music.

How cranberries could improve memory and ward off dementia – I like cranberries…but eating a cup (equivalent) per day is a lot. In the study they used cranberry powder.

More heat, more drought: New analyses offer grim outlook for the US west – The latest seasonal outlook projects the drought to continue across virtually the entire American west through the summer. New research suggests that Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming will increasingly look like the Southwest as temperatures continue to rise.