HoLLIE – Week 6

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The Week 6 of HoLLIE (Howard County Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment) class focused on The Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Environmental Advocacy. As my norm, I arrived early so I could enjoy the sunny (but cold) morning at Belmont before the before class. I stopped at one of the pullout spaces on the narrow drive to photograph the stumps from the recent tree removals (and there are more to come). The first picture is looking away from the Manor House; the second shows the Manor House in the distance.

I took pictures of the two stumps from the trees already cut down. Someone had carved in one of them. Aargh! It’s sad when a tree is cut down and the carving struck me as disrespectful to the tree and the place.

After I got to settled into my place in the carriage house, I trooped over the butterfly meadow where I saw the bright yellow grass late last week. It was still there, and I liked the snow and blocks in the picture with it.

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The little walks outside were a good start to the day that was sedentary otherwise. Our speakers were from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Land Trust Alliance (re the Chesapeake Bay), and Patuxent River Riverkeeper in the morning. In the afternoon we heard about sustainability and what individuals in our area can do toward the goal of moving toward sustainable lifestyle…and beyond to regenerative. The last segment of the day was a short lecture on effective environmental advocacy that included a practice use of the planning template from the lecture….learning enhanced by attempting to apply the technique.

Next week we’ll be outdoors in the last segment of the day. I’m already watching the forecast for the day; as of now – the forecast is cold and a bit breezy…but no rain.

Previous HoLLIE posts: Week 1, Week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5

Blooming Maple

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The red maple in our backyard is blooming and has been since earlier this month. I photographed it from my window on the 3rd (with a dove looking back toward my window. Maybe it sensed it was being watched.),

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With snow on the 7th (there were doves in the tree again…fluffed to keep warm.  I wondered if the weather was going to damage the flowers, but it didn’t get below freezing for very long.)

And yesterday (when the flowers looked even more numerous than before).

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I went outside yesterday to get a closeup of the flowers.

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The red maple is probably one of my favorite trees in the spring because it blooms before just about everything except the earliest of bulbs…and it’s the only red in the scene!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 10, 2018

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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.

Look at What the Coastal Storms Have Done to the Chesapeake Bay - AGU Blogosphere – We had high winds in our area a week ago and it was worse (even higher winds and more precipitation) north of us. Trees feel, power outages prevalent, and some rail cars fell from a bridge as they crossed the Susquehanna River. The suspended matter in the rivers around the Chesapeake Bay were dramatically high…and it moved fast (lots of difference between March 4 and March 5). Wow!

New Perspectives on Bogotá’s Architecture Thanks to Drone Photography – I liked the first picture the best: the building footprint and the rooftop gardens…the trees below.

Forecasting diseases one image at a time – National Geographic Blog – Los Alamos working on predictive models of disease outbreaks in populations suplementing traditional data sources (with lag times in data availability) with non-traditional sources that are available more quickly to enable more timely response to disease outbreaks.

Are flamingos returning to Florida? -- ScienceDaily – Florida had flamingos in the 1800s but by 1900 they had been eliminated (killed for their plumage). Since 1950 they have been increasing in numbers and this study indicates that they are not just escapees from captive flocks. Most are birds from the Caribbean or Mexico that have repopulated Florida.

Can You Ever Have Too Many Turkeys? – Cool Green Science – Turkeys in Oregon – not native to the area but thriving – and an experience with the citizen science project to count them.

The Pileated Woodpecker in Winter – Cool Green Science – We have some pileated woodpeckers that make their rounds in the forest behind our house. They are indeed easier to see in the winter time than any other time of the year.

Welcome to the Age of Climate Migration - Rolling Stone – People are already moving from areas that are flooding more frequently. This appears to be an early indicator of economic consequences for climate change denial.

The Strange and Magnificent Nudibranchs of the Cape – National Geographic Blog – Marine slugs look so different from life we are used to seeing…they could be from another planet…but they are here on earth. Enjoy the pictures in this blog post.

Low magnesium levels make vitamin D ineffective: Up to 50 percent of US population is magnesium deficient -- ScienceDaily – Yet another reason to eat those leafy greens…or take a magnesium supplement.

Recovery: Evicting Rabbits – Cool Green Science – Ridding some islands of non-native rabbits so native flora and fauna can recover (penguins, birds, lots of plants)…with the help of a Labrador retriever wearing rubber booties!

Thoughts from Belmont

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I’ve spent more time at Belmont this week because of some extra classes held there. Three thoughts: 1) On the road into the park I thought about the pine trees cut a few years ago because they were damaged by pine bark beetles and now the ash trees being marked with yellow tape for removal because of the emerald ash borer. They are big trees along the drive toward the Manor House…will leave some large holes.

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) Looking down the road from the front of the manor house, I thought about the way it slopes down hill for about a mile – I coast all the way down to Rockburn Branch when I leave. It traverses the boundary between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. Maryland’s highest elevation is in the far west of the state…and it slopes down to the sea through two mountain ranges (Alleghenies and Appalachians) to the Piedmont and then the coastal plain to the sea. Belmont is a place to see one of those transitions. Water in Piedmont streams and rivers babbles along…and moves more slowly once it gets to the coastal plain.

3) There is a butterfly meadow being created near the Carriage House nature center. Right now, it is dirt that has been covered with plastic to kill grass and unwanted plants…ready for planting of milkweed and other plants that provide food for the butterflies and caterpillars. The big sheets of plastic had not blown entirely way in our recent winds but hadn’t stayed spread out as intended either. There were some bright yellow plants in the dirt. On closer inspection they were grass…with the (yellow) xanthophyll pigments lasting longer than the (green) chlorophyll pigments when it tried to grow under the plastic! The grass will be pulled before the meadow plant seeds are sowed. I also noticed a relatively large (and old) shelf function on a dead tree in the brambles behind the butterfly meadow project. There were lots of birds back in that area too…but not easily visible on the cloudy day.

Brookside Conservatories – March 2018

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After my walk around the outdoor parts of Brookside Gardens, the warmth of the conservatories was much appreciated. Both are currently open although one will close to prepare for the Wings of Fancy Butterfly exhibit in early April. There were not many people about so I had the luxury of moving myself to the best location to capture the photos I wanted. There was lots of color from flowers like poppies, begonias, and orchids as well as the foliage of variegated croton (and they were blooming too!). Of course the greens were well as well since outside we are still mostly brown. I like the shapes of papyrus, water droplets on big leaves, and the unfurling ferns. I like conservatories in general but appreciate them the most on visits in the depths of winter.

Brookside Outdoors – March 2018

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I walked (quickly) around Brookside Gardens earlier this week; it was sunny but cold! I saw some tiny daffodils blooming in a bed near the conservatories; the larger varieties are weeks away and the tulips are barely out of the ground. The witch hazels were what I wanted to see…and they did not disappoint. They provide a lot of color in the wooded sections of the gardens with the red centers and yellow streamers of the flowers.

There were early spring bulbs to see too. The snowdrops were probably the most numerous.

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There were crocuses blooming as well.

The dwarf irises were a pleasant surprise.  There were at least two colors. They are only a little larger than snowdrops.

Signs of Spring

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The very first days of March and there are already two signs of spring outside my office window:

A robin looking for worms (not flocks of them yet but single birds…I’ve seen larger groups at both Belmont and Mt Pleasant already this years) and

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The red maple blooming. I’m a little worried about the red maple because we are going to get some cold weather again in the next week or so. How much can these maple flowers withstand? It will be interesting to watch and see. Last year we had very few samaras (seeds of the maple) because some cold water caught the tree at a critical time. I’ll be looking for maple seedlings soon to pull up for display during the tree activity for pre-schoolers; hope there were other maples in the neighborhood that did produce seeds.

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eBotanicalPrints – February 2018

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Two more years have been added to the eBotanicalPrints area of the site – those books that I discovered in 2011 and 2012. Look at the botanical blog to see what’s happened in the past month in slideshow form. There are now almost 1000 eBooks containing botanical prints with links to access the whole book and a sample image. The list is getting long enough that I am looking for other ways that I can display the lists -maybe a tabular format rather than lists. Hopefully I’ll work out a better way during March.

In the meantime – enjoy 24 books that I browsed last month. The sample images are below, and the titles are at the bottom of this post. Enjoy the colorful blooms in the prints!

Zooming – February 2018

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I use the zoom on my camera a lot to get the picture I want. What’s not to like about a photograph of the moon that is better than I can see with my eyes!

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These water droplets were on the top of a tall pine…and I took the picture from the comfort of my office!

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I’ve posted a lot of the bird pictures but not this one. I like it because it shows more detail of the flicker’s feathers…..where the down fluffs to keep the bird warm on a cold day. Without the zoom, the feathers have a sleeker look.

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I appreciated using the zoom for the skunk cabbage since there was standing water or mud around them…and it was too cold to risk getting my feet wet if my boots leaked.

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The ice crystals were so delicate I did not want to get close and risk breaking them before I could get the photo I wanted. The zoom also makes it easier to avoid working about casting a shadow.

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Of course – the squirrel would have run away very quickly if I had been closer. As it was, the pose seems like something Beatrix Potter would have used for one of her characters!

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Gleanings of the Week Ending February 24, 2018

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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.

#ColorOurCollections & Europeana Colouring Book | Europeana Blog – I’d rather draw my own Zentangles rather starting with an existing picture. For those who want images already on the page - here is a free downloadable coloring book of historical images.

Top 25: Wild Birds on the Edge – National Geographic Blog – Endangered birds….many factors causing stressing these birds…no quick fix.

Explore Thurston Lava Tube At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park By Flashlight  and The Nature Conservancy Transfers 222 Acres To Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park  - Reminded how much I enjoyed our trip to the big Island (and the national park there) a few years ago.

11 Chocolate Desserts That Are Totally Healthy – Dark chocolate…it’s wonderful that it is also good for you too – in moderation.

Long-term economic impact of cover crops: 29-year study finds cover crops offer benefits with no-till cotton systems -- ScienceDaily – Decreasing soil erosion….always a good thing.

Artists envisioned the future of work, and the results are pure fantasy - MIT Technology Review – What do you think? Some of these are (somewhat) logical extensions of existing technology and jobs.

Why Are You Seeing Robins in Winter? – Cool Green Science – I didn’t see any robins at my birdbath this winter, but we don’t have trees with berries that might be food for them. I did see some robins at Mt. Pleasant yesterday…a small group…and wondered if the warm weather we had earlier in the week (in the 70s) is bringing them in larger numbers to our area.

Saving a Crown Jewel – National Geographic – We spent some time at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge last November when we were at the Rio Grand Valley Birding Festival See my post here). The short video is worth watching. The wall that is being built through the refuge (destroying the refuge) is the proof of concept for the wall that some in our country want to build. It’s very sad.

BBC - Future - An effortless way to improve your memory – After reading this, I wondered if creating a Zentangle tile has the effect of a short rest period for me. I’ve noticed that it is easier for me to learn new material if I include breaks to make tiles!

Creative Ways to Boost Creativity – How many of these just come naturally to you?

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 17, 2018

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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.

Who’s still smoking: Report highlights populations still at risk -- ScienceDaily – I rarely see people smoking these days. The overall smoking rates in the US has dropped from 42% in 1965 to 15% in 2015. The analysis of the types of individuals in that 15% reveals that there are populations vulnerable…and that novel interventions will be needed to further reduce smoking in the US.

Top 25 Wild Birds Against Spectacular Landscapes – National Geographic Blog – I’m thinking about birds even more than usual this weekend – participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Being A Homebody Has A Surprising Environmental Upside | CleanTechnica – I know that I used less gasoline and don’t spend as much on clothes as I used to when I went into the office every day….evidently there are enough people that are working at home or retired that the energy savings is significant. Now to just make the energy we use at home skew further toward the renewable variety!

Magnesium makes chromosomes: A new chemical tool, MARIO, shows how free Mg2+ ions regulate chromosome shape -- ScienceDaily – Some work by Japanese researchers. They note at the end of this blurb that this new understanding about magnesium may be a piece to the puzzle of how cancer happens…and maybe treatment.

LASER SCANS REVEAL MAYA “MEGALOPOLIS” BELOW GUATEMALAN JUNGLE | National Geographic - National Geographic – more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features….under the jungles of northern Guatemala. The civilization peaked some 1,200 years ago and was comparable to ancient Greece or China. There were probably 10-15 million people in the area too – far more than previously estimated. The LiDAR also revealed pits from looters.

Woodpeckers show signs of possible brain damage, but that might not be a bad thing -- ScienceDaily – Analysis of woodpecker brains from collections of the Field Museum and Harvard Museum of Natural History. The picture with the article is of a downy woodpecker…one kind of woodpecker we see in our area.

Mushrooms Are Good for You, But Are They Medicine? – The question is still open…but they taste good so why not enjoy them even if they aren’t medicine!

Another Kind of Migration: A Visit to Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve – National Geographic Blog – I just found out recently that they’ve planted milkweed at all the schools in our county…and will be monitoring to make sure it thrives…a little action to help the Monarch butterflies as they come through our part of Maryland on their way to Canada.

Surreal Images of Frozen Niagara Falls at Night by Adam Klekotka – Winter eye candy.

Black Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever of Fatal Coal Miners’ Disease: NPR – So sad. It’s happening to younger miners than it used to; ‘improvements’ in mining equipment? This is probably another reason we should move to renewable energy as quickly as we can.

Skunk Cabbage – Take 2

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Yesterday I was at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm and hiked down to take another look at the skunk cabbage. It had progressed a little since I saw it three weeks ago (post with pictures here) but it wasn’t a far along as it was on February 11th last year (post here). There were spathes (hood structure, wine with vertical lighter speckles) but I didn’t see any with visible spadix (looks like a golf ball inside the spathe).

When I first got to the location where I always see the skunk cabbage, I had a hard time spotting it at first. They like to grow near the water and this time a year, they can be some of the more colorful things around although one ‘color’ I spotted turned out to be a wet rock and oak leaf with the sun shining through – glowing. Then I started seeing them everywhere!

Sunk cabbage is one of the earliest ‘wild flowers’ and in some cases will pull itself deeper in the muck if the weather becomes really cold. With the amount of muck around some of them – I think our weather recently might have been slowing down their development – they had to deal with cold rather than bloom!

Earlier this week, it rained a lot and there were plenty of deer tracks on part of trail where it had been very muddy. Unfortunately, there were some deep ruts made by a vehicle that closed one of the trails…very sad that someone was so thoughtless, and it is not the first time it has happened. Hope the person is caught and prevented from doing it again.

Becoming a Volunteer

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It’s been 6 years since I retired and started volunteering more regularly. I got off to a slow start during the first year – taking 18 months to settle on what I wanted to do as a volunteer and the organization. Being outdoors in nature and working with a variety of age groups turned out to be ‘calling;’ it helped that the Howard Country Conservancy provided focused training to give me the know how to do it – first with elementary school field trips and then to preschool through high school. The interactions with hiking groups is something I don’t think I will ever want to give up!

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Over the years, I’ve ramped up the amount of time volunteering and increased my knowledge over the last 4 years to be more effective as a volunteer by

  • becoming a Maryland Master Naturalist,
  • taking a 2-day course on benthic macroinvertebrates,
  • attending an annual Maryland water monitoring conference, and
  • (currently) enjoying HoLLIE (Howard County Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment).
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Last summer I added volunteering at Brookside Gardens (Wings of Fancy butterflies and model trains) in addition to the volunteering for Howard Country Conservancy programs. That filled in the volunteering lull in summer and December in prior years.

At this point, the only season of the year that I don’t have a lot of volunteer activity is the depths of winter! Right now – that seems like a good thing since the lull is allowing time to savor the HoLLIE days.

Winter Flowers

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My husband bought roses for our January wedding anniversary…and the baby’s breath and greenery that lasted longer than then the roses prompted me to buy a general bouquet of flowers last week at the grocery store. I’ll probably buy another two or three before some of the spring emergence begins with the trees and bulbs in our yard.

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Adding color to the breakfast area table is something to savor in the winter when the dominate color outside is brown…and the days here are mostly cloudy. Color lightens my mood – whether it comes from flowers on the table or birds seen through the window!

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We have so much growing around the outside of our house that I’ve never grown houseplants. They would fill the gap in color I am feeling right now….but I’d also have to care for them for the rest of the year. I’m sticking with the purchased cut flowers for January through mid-March!

Icy Day

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Earlier this week we had about 24 hours of icy coated trees (and streets were impacted enough that schools closed for the whole day). I was glad I had no reason I had to be out and about; I could enjoy the ice through the windows of the house – or open doors to get a clearer picture. I noticed how different the types of trees looked with the ice. The pines droop over very quickly from the added weight of ice coating their needles. The tulip poplars develop little icicles on their more horizontal branches, but the seed pods didn’t seem to accumulate any ice.

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When I first looked at the maple, I thought it hadn’t accumulated ice as much as the other trees. When I zoomed in with my camera I saw that it did have ice accumulation and the buds were already dark red. I don’t think the buds will be damaged by the ice since they are still closed.

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The sycamore had a thin coating of ice and longer icicles. I was surprised that the lone seed ball from last summer does not appear to have ice on it!

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I worried the most about the plum tree in our front yard. It has a lot of small branches that are almost horizontal and tends to be coated with ice rather than icicles forming. It glistened in the morning sun (that didn’t cause very much melting because it was so cold).  Fortunately, there was very little breeze so I don’t see any breakage.

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eBotanicalPrints – January 2018

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The eBotanicalPrints area of the site increased a lot in January. The books I found in 2013-2017 were added to the lists in January and since then I’ve added the books from 2012 and January 2018 to the list…so that they number of botanical ebooks (with links to the book and sample image) number over 800 at this point. Check out the Botanical Blog to see posts on highlighting books and updates to the area as they happen. There are also annual shows in the botanical blog. The lists are accessed either from the pulldown from eBotanicalPrints (from the top of this page) or via these links: by title, by author.

There were 24 botanical ebooks for January 2018! I am showing the gallery of sample images below and the 24 titles below!

A Fern Book for Everybody * Cooke, Mordecai Cubitt * sample image

A popular history of the British ferns and the allied plants, comprising the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails * Moore, Thomas * sample image

British Trees V1 * Cole, Rex Vicat; Kempe, Dorothy * sample image

British Trees V2 * Cole, Rex Vicat; Kempe, Dorothy * sample image

Edible and poisonous mushrooms: what to eat and what to avoid * Cooke, Mordecai Cubitt * sample image

Ehon noyamagusa V1. * Tachibana, Yasukuni * sample image

Ehon noyamagusa V2. * Tachibana, Yasukuni * sample image

Ehon noyamagusa V3. * Tachibana, Yasukuni * sample image

Ehon noyamagusa V4. * Tachibana, Yasukuni * sample image

Ehon noyamagusa V5. * Tachibana, Yasukuni * sample image

Flowers of field, hill, and swamp * Creevey, Caroline Alathea Stickney * sample image

Nouvelle flore coloriée de poche des Alpes et des Pyrénées - Volume 2 * Flahault, Charles * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 3 - 1804
 * Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 4 - 1805
 * Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 5 - 1807
 * Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 6 - 1809
 * Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 7 - 1812
 * Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 8 - 1814
 * Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

Svensk Botanik volume 9 - 1825
* Palmstruch, Johan Wilhelm; Carl Wilhelm Venus; Conrad Quensel; Olof Swartz; Billberg, Gustav Johan; Wahlenberg, Göran * sample image

The Gardeners' Magazine of Botany, Horticulture, Floriculture, and Natural Science V1 1850 * Moore, Thomas; Ayers, William P. * sample image

The Gardeners' Magazine of Botany, Horticulture, Floriculture, and Natural Science V3 1851 * Moore, Thomas; Ayers, William P. * sample image

The octavo nature-printed British ferns : being figures and descriptions of the species and varieties of ferns found in the United Kingdom * Moore, Thomas * sample image

The orchid album, comprising coloured figures and descriptions of new, rare, and beautiful orchidaceous plants * Warner, Robert, ed; Williams, Benjamin Samuel, ed; Moore, Thomas; Fitch, John Nugent, illus * sample image

Wild flowers of America Volume 1 No. 1 * G.H. Buek & Co. * sample image

HoLLIE – week 1

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The first HoLLIE (Howard County Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment) class was last week. The first class was at Belmont Manor and Historic Park (in the Carriage House) – a place I am very familiar with and have been for a lecture and hike earlier in the week. I was excited about the course beforehand and it lived up to my expectations…a very full day – interesting – thought provoking. The day was cold and cloudy; there was no longing to get outdoors and hike!

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I found myself comparing the class to the ones I’d experienced in the corporate world.

I found myself comparing the class to the ones I’d experienced in the corporate world.

  • The class was from 8:45 AM – 4 PM…about the same length as any day long course. There were fewer breaks than many classes I’ve attended (we were invited to get up whenever we needed to). By the end of the day I felt that maybe I should have gotten up more times to just move around. I am not used to sitting for long periods of time like I was during my career.
  • I took notes…which I have always done in classes. In some cases, the notes help me keep my attention focused. In this class, I easily stayed focused and the notes really were more to just help me remember the material.
  • At the end of the day, there was a discussion about class norms. That happened in classes during the later part of my career, but usually nearer the beginning of the first day.
  • The classes are 1 day a week for 8 weeks. The classes I took in the corporate world were back to back days because many people (speakers/teachers and students) were not local. I appreciate that this class is spread out over 8 weeks and already realize that I’ll get more out of it this way. The more thought provoking a class is – whether it is a lot of information, challenging concepts (either technical, logic, or political), or the interaction with people from very different backgrounds – the more time after class it takes to assimilate what was learned. I am transcribing my notes to enhance what I learn…integrate it into what I want to do immediately and in the longer term.
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This class is the most substantial class since the Master Naturalist training I took back in February and March of 2015. Unlike the Master Naturalist course which focused almost exclusively on science topics, this course overlays non-positional leadership development on science topics. The topics for the first day included:

 

  • What legacy leadership means (intro to non-positional leadership)
  • The HoLLIE Volunteer Experience (hearing from previous students)
  • Environmental Initiatives of Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks

Stay tuned for the next 7 weeks!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 3, 2018

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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.

When 136 Bird Species Show Up at a Feeder, Which One Wins? | All About Birds – Interesting article. I’ve been thinking about the birds at my birdbath rather than my feeder (since my feeder only works for small birds that like the seeds). The blue jays are dominate bird at the bath…when they are around the others wait for their drink!

The lost art of looking at plants – Molecular tools and DNA sequencing overwhelming the detailed analyses of plants’ physical traits…but not there is a rebalancing; both are required to dive deeper into the many questions we still have about plant.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #124 – National Geographic – The first one in this series is a barn swallow…one of my favorite birds to watch. And there are three different kinds of kingfishers later in the post.

How Technology Is Creating a Generation of Adult Babies - The Ringer – Another way technology is either giving us what we want or convincing us that it is what we need.

The Dangers of Keeping Women Out of Tech | WIRED – An interview with Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College. She has increased the number of women in the school’s computer science program from 10% to 40%.

Every study we could find on what automation will do to jobs, in one chart - MIT Technology Review – It seems like almost everyone thinks automation will reduce the number of jobs….but the studies are remarkably different. It would be useful if there was enough consensus for people to make decisions about education and careers – but there just isn’t.

Fingerprints of Ongoing Human Evolution Found | The Scientist Magazine® - A study using large data sets with genomic information looked a gene variants less common in older people than younger people….and there are probably more coming soon because the data is ripe for analysis. So far they’ve discovered gene variants in Alzheimer’s and smoking related genes appear to be under selection pressure…i.e. that there are fewer old people with the variants than young (i.e. they tend to die earlier).

Gold crown of Hecatomnus returned to Turkey: Culture minister – Sometimes stolen artifacts are found and returned….Kudos to the authorities in both Scotland and Turkey for this result.

Parts of U.S. Saw an Increase in Zika-Linked Birth Defects in 2016 | The Scientist Magazine – Data from 2017 is not available yet. The researchers found 3 of every 1,000 babies born in Puerto Rico, southern Florida, and a portion of south Texas  had a birth defect that could have been linked to Zika infection of their mothers.

Entomologist discovers millipede that comes in more color combinations than any other -- ScienceDaily – Pretty and covered in cyanide that will kill any bird that eats it.

A lecture and walk around at Belmont

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Earlier this week, I attended a lecture about the history of the Patapsco River Valley at Belmont Manor and Historic Park and then took a walk around the grounds. It was a sunny day – but cold and breezy. I put on all my layers. There are some changes since the last time I was there. Much of the meadow and field areas have been mowed and some new trees have been planted. The shorter grass somehow made it seem even more wintery – to seedpods or long grasses to add texture to the landscape.

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The bald cypress down by the pond stands out because of its location and because it seems to be a slightly different color that the trees behind it. I’m glad the area around it is soggy enough that they didn’t mow around its base – scarring its knees. We didn’t make the trek down there to check. Hopefully I’ll hike down sometime before the bluebirds and swallows start moving into the boxes…and protecting their territory.

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Up at the front of the manor house, many of the trees look like they’ve been pruned – either intentionally or by winter weather.

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Along the road into Belmont, the ashes are being cut down. Some were already gone, others just had tape around them. It’s evidently a project this winter. They are being killed by the invasive emerald ash borer.

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We hiked around the fence behind the manor house to a hemlock that had been invested with wooly adelgid (another invasive insect). The tree looks better; there were some new cones and growth from last summer; I’m glad the park is trying to save it. Underneath the tree – there was a scattering of feathers. Some relatively large bird met its end here.

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We hiked on around to the Belmont cemetery. I noticed some holes within the hollow up high in a very large tulip poplar…a home for a woodpecker or maybe just a pantry that contained a lot of insects. The hemlocks at the cemetery looked healthier too. Some of the dead branches had been removed and they had new growth and cones.

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2018

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This month was mostly cold…mostly spent at home…but I easily found lot of little celebrations!

I celebrated the model trains at Brookside…on the very last day of the exhibit – January 1. I enjoyed volunteering to help the exhibit run smoothly…and experiencing the trains through the eyes of the children.

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I made a lot of progress on the collection of botanical prints eBooks area of my website. I am adding to the list of links as I work back through the annual lists of books I read/browsed…picking out the ones that contained botanical prints. So far, the books I found from 2013-2017 are listed – each with a link to the free eBook and a sample image. I celebrated the beauty of the botanical prints the whole time I worked on the collection…and may have the ones from 2012 ready later today.

We had some very cold days early in January and I celebrated my well-stocked pantry, freezer and refrigerator – as I stayed warm at home!

The were three Winter Wellness sessions this January hosted by Howard County Conservancy for their volunteers. Each included a lecture and hike…worth celebrating.

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Conowingo was not as scenic for birds as it has been at times in the past…but the ice on the rocks and railings was worth seeing. I enjoyed being out and about….maybe that was more what I was celebrating.

I had a cold earlier in the month – so of course I celebrated as soon as a started feeling better.

In November I got my box of Foldscopes and was so busy I didn’t put one together until recently. I was pleased to finally do it…celebrated my origami-type success with the pieces and my initial results.

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My area of Maryland has been very dry. We’ve only had dustings of snow…but we had a day recently that is rained gently for most of the day. We needed the moisture….and I celebrated that it came in an easy-to-handle form.

I had a dental appointment as was pleased that I had no cavities! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a new one and I celebrate after each appointment.

I started out on my weekly grocery shopping drive and notice the sunrise over our CSA buildings. I pulled off the road to take a picture. It was a good way to celebrate the day’s beginning.

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