Mt. Pleasant Nature Photography on a Rainy Day

This is the week I do nature photography with summer campers at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant and Belmont. The photography day at Mt. Pleasant was very rainy. It was the first time the weather kept us from the hiking/photo shoot. I cut some lower hanging branches from the sycamore in my yard and we used them for photography and to study the size variation…and the holes in the leaves. All three groups of campers (grouped by ages 5-12) did something with the leaves.

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There were a few critters that we found on the covered porch of the nature center: a daddy-long-legs that become very interested in the pile of sycamore leaves,

A slug on a log that had come in from the floor of the nearby forest, and a house centipede that seemed to be just escaping the rain. All three critters stayed around for the 3 hours we were working.

I got some other things out from the storeroom: snake skin, antlers, skulls, honey comb, a nautilus shell, pelts from a racoon an fox.

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One of the most popular items was a talon from a red shouldered hawk.

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I had my clip on macro lens for campers that were using cell phone cameras. The tattered butterfly wings were popular objects for that experimentation.

The very last group was the luckiest of all because it stopped raining for a little while and we went out into the Honors garden a few steps from the porch. The campers took pictures of flowers and

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An Achemon Sphinx moth that was wet and twitching on the ground near one of the flower beds – probably after being bitten by a spider.

I had a few minutes between groups and was thrilled when a couple of hummingbirds braved the sprinkles of rain and came to the feeder!

I would rather have hiked with the campers…but we managed a ‘next best’ on a rainy day in Maryland.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center - Part II

Continuing about my day at SERC last Friday…

I got to SERC early enough that I walked around a small pond and took my first pictures of marshmallows.

There were more of them in the marsh near the boardwalk as we made our way out to Hog Island. They were – by far – the biggest flowers of the area.

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A tiny flower that I photographed along the trail from very close up was a mint. I was careful to look for poison ivy and plants with thorns before I positioned myself to take the picture.

And then there were trees…trees with lichen…a canopy of green…a pathway lined with green.

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There are ongoing studies that make exact measurements of tree trunks over time. Metal bands are used; they expand as the tree grows and the amount they have expanded is measured.

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There were trees with holes in their trunks. The rows of holes are probably made by a bird – a yellow-bellied sapsucker. I remembered seeing a similar tree during my last hike at Belmont and being thrilled that the campers already knew the bird that made the holes!

There are young paw paw trees in the forest and I realized that I had seen these at Belmont as well. I know the tree from its bark but not is leaves!

There was a standing dead tree that had the thickest collection of shelf fungus I’ve ever seen.

A sickly dogwood had more colorful bark that I am used to seeing on a dogwood.

As we got back to the cluster of buildings – on the road by the geothermal well area – there were some sycamores – with a few skeletonized leaves…something was eating them…and the last flower of the day:

Some black eyed susans.

After the hike, we had lunch followed by a lecture about orchids. The North American Orchid Conservation Center is based at SERC and there are 9 native orchids that have been found there! We saw one on the earlier hike (the cranefly orchid) – unfortunately I didn’t get a good picture of it. The website for the organization - https://northamericanorchidcenter.org/ - is full of get information about native orchids and there is a colelction of orchid-gami printables if you want to make paper models of orchids!

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center - Part I

I spent last Friday at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) near Edgewater MD. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources had organized the day and announced it to Master Naturalists. It was a day well spent! When we were not hiking, we were in a classroom in the Mathias Lab Building, a LEED platinum facility complete with solar panels and geothermal wells.

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The first lecture of the day was about spiders (and other creepy crawly critters) that sometimes are unappreciated or frightening to some people. I find myself being more interested in looking closely at spiders – although when one crawled across the ceiling of my bathroom there was still a cringe.

The first critter we saw as we gathered for our hike after the lecture was a spider almost hidden by a funnel shaped web. There were others along our route as well but they are notoriously hard to photograph.

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Some of the high points of the hike for me were: Indian pipes (a non-photosynthetic flowering plant),

Wintergreen (a plant that I’ve probably seen before but didn’t know what it was),

The summer version of the jack-in-the-pulpit (the seeds have not turned red – yet),

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A click beetle,

Several kinds of ferns (some with spores), and

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Then out on the boardwalk to Hog Island where the phragmites is surrounding a shrinking area of cattails.

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I’ll continue this post about my day at SERC tomorrow….

eBotanical Prints – June 2018

June was a light month for botanical print books – only 10 in the entire month. Even so – I was surprised at how many favorite flowers were included in these books. There were the seasonal ones for June in our area: water lilies and lotuses (like at Kenilworth), and day lilies. The blooms are at their peak in July but the buds are huge in June!

And then there were the jack-in-the-pulpit and tulip poplar flowers that are done by June…are April and May flowers here.

Enjoy the June Botanical print slide show. After the show is a list of the books with links to their locations and a sample image from each (which also was seen in the slide show). At the bottom of the  slide show is a list of the most recent blog posts about individual botanical print books; I haven’t done many  recently but intent to start writing again and providing more details about individual books.

A collection of roses from nature * Lawrance, Mary * sample image * 1799

American medical botany V1 * Beigelow, Jacob * sample image * 1817

American medical botany V2 * Beigelow, Jacob * sample image * 1817

American medical botany V3 * Beigelow, Jacob * sample image * 1817

Botanical description and medical, culinary & other uses of the plants in the first volume of my American herbarium * Williams, Stephen West * sample image * 1817

The American Flora - V2 * Strong, Asa B. et al * sample image * 1855

The American Flora - V3 * Strong, Asa B. et al * sample image * 1855

The American Flora - V4 * Strong, Asa B. et al * sample image * 1855

The beauties of flora : with botanic and poetic illustrations, being a selection of flowers drawn from nature arranged emblematically * Gleadall, Eliza Eve * sample image * 1834

Bowles's Florist * Bowles, Carrington * sample image  *  1777

Belmont Hikes with Summer Campers II

The hike last week with summer campers at Howard County Conservancy’s Belmont location was about plants and animals of Maryland through history. I thought of using the barn whose walls are stones from the are to start off with geology but decided that opted to stay with plants and animals.

We talked about trees we see at Belmont today that were here when the Europeans arrived (like oaks and tulip poplars and beech and holly and white pine)…new ones (like gingkoes and English Elms and dawn redwoods that have been planted as landscaping trees). We also talked about trees that are missing like American Chestnuts and Elms; more recently the ashes have been cut down and the few remaining hemlocks are struggling.

We talked about animals like deer and fox and rabbits that we still sometimes see. We looked for signs of the overpopulation of deer – noticed that the deer don’t seem to like holly but that other trees tend to not have any branches within deer reach! We were looking for signs of things as we hiked – and feathers are always a favorite…evidence that birds are around. On one hike we found a dried mushroom with the gills still visible underneath the cap; some of the campers have observed mushrooms in their yard and shared their observations.

We saw a lot of dragonflies in the air over the meadow and talked about how the insects had gotten smaller over time…a hold over from last week’s camp theme: fossils.

It was a good morning hike!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 21, 2018

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.

Some visual feasts: Peep the Stunning Winners of the Audubon Society’s Photo Contest | Smart News | Smithsonian and National Park Service Releases Iconic Paintings of Parks and Stunning Drone Photos of Venice Show Unique View of the City  and Winners of the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year  – Starting out the gleanings list this week with images!

Fossil Fuels Account for Lowest Share of U.S. Energy Consumption in More than a Century - Yale E360 – Hurray for some positive news about trends and the environment…but there is still a tremendous effort needed to shift toward a sustainable future for our planet.

Air pollution contributes significantly to diabetes globally: Even low pollution levels can pose health risk -- ScienceDaily – Clean air is something every living thing needs for a healthy life – even humans.

New Website Unearths Amsterdam’s History Via 700,000 Artifacts Spanning 5,000 Years | Smart News | Smithsonian – If you can’t travel…there are lots of ways to look artifacts via the web. This is one of them and includes bits and pieces of just about everything.

Rivers and Streams Compose Much More of Earth’s Surface Than Thought | The Scientist Magazine® - The results of a study using NASA’s Landsat images.

BBC - Future - How your age affects your appetite – Food is fuel…and a social/cultural experience. How well does your experience of food link with your age?

Net-zero emissions energy systems | Science – A scholarly article about what it will take to achieve net-zero emissions…what existing technologies can do and what still needs a lot of development.

Germany’s "Stonehenge" Reveals Evidence of Human Sacrifice | Smart News | Smithsonian – Maybe Neolithic circles were more common that originally thought and they weren’t always made of stone. This one was wood and was torn down about 2050 BCE.

Opinion: Rise of the Robot Radiologists | The Scientist Magazine® - A white color job that might give way to artificial intelligence…soon. If it does – will it help slow the rise of medical costs?

Mummification Workshop Excavated in Egypt - Archaeology Magazine and Mummification Workshop and Trove of Burial Relics Found in Egypt | Smart News | Smithsonian – Two sources for the same story…different perspectives/details.

Kenilworth Gardens – Other Stuff

Of course – lotuses, water lilies, buttonbushes and dragonflies were not the only things to see at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens last weekend. Even in the island of garden in the parking lot there were things to see. The most interesting (to me), were some tiny acorns on a lower branch of an oak

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And a blue jay that seemed very acclimated to people.

I didn’t spend much time on the boardwalk out to the river but was there long enough to capture a sleepy duck.

There were some colorful canna leaves in the morning sun and

A gall on one of the trees with shelf fungus make it look something like a face (with a few too many eyes and eye brows!).

The showy flowers of the rose mallow seemed to be everywhere. I love the flowers with their deep red centers but maybe the tightly wrapped petal in bud form are ever more interesting. Enjoy the mallow slide show below!

Kenilworth Gardens – Buttonbushes and Dragonflies

There are other things to see beside lotuses and waterlilies at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. One of my favorite plants to photograph is the buttonbush in bloom. They were in all stages of bloom development last weekend.

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The plants are very attractive to insects. Bees are frequently visitors

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As are the small skipper butterflies.

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There was one large tiger swallowtail that seems to be methodically getting nectar and staying on once of the balls for a long time…great for picture taking.

We always look for dragonflies when we visit Kenilworth and last weekend was no exception. There did not seem to be as many of them. The first one I managed to photograph sat on some lotus petals in the deep shade…and was a very small dragonfly.

The next one was on top of a canna stalk and was the larger variety. It did not stay very long but I did manage to zoom in for close up.

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On my way back toward the visitor center I was photographing water lilies and noticed that one had a dragonfly on it! The zoom helped again since it was another small one.

Kenilworth Gardens - Lotuses and Water Lilies

We try to make a trek to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens when the lotuses are blooming….and last weekend was a good time. The day was partly sunny, and we managed to get to the park before the parking lot filled up. There was plenty to see. I’ll be posting about it over the next few days; today I’ve collected the best images of lotuses and water lilies.

There were lotuses in all stages of development. Everything about these plants are beautiful: the shape and texture of the leaves, the buds and flowers standing above the leaves gracefully opening and following the sun, the pods beginning to form. My favorites are the flowers that have a lot of white in their petals with ping around the outer edges.

I saw a petal in some water near the path and photographed it as the water turned it.

The petals wilt quickly once they fall from the flower so catching them in the cradle of a leaf always seems special to me.

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There was an unusual white plant at the edge of the ponds just as we came into the gardens. Was it a kind of lily? I don’t know. It looked exotic to me and I took a picture.

The water lilies were still blooming in the ponds. Sometimes they are beginning to ebb by the time the lotuses are blooming but this year they seem to be still blooming profusely.

Two flowers that I noticed in my pictures after I got home that looked like they had punches out of their leaves – a lotus and a water lily. I wondered what insect made the holes!

Brookside Gardens Zinnias

Last Saturday was full of sunshine and the zinnias at Brookside Gardens were great reflections of the morning. I have fond memories of the zinnias my grandmother grew in her garden between rows of vegetables…when the fruit trees that she’d planted when she first moved to there too young to shade them out. I also grew zinnias in pots on my deck….until I got too busy with other things to water them consistently. They are popular flowers with butterflies and, sometimes, hummingbirds.

There were insects buzzing around the flowers while I was photographing them. I enjoyed the flowers on their own. There is something about the curve or their petals, the variety in their centers, and the vibrancy of their colors that always draws my attention. I used my zoom rather than getting close because I wanted the whole flower in focus….with the background very blurred. Enjoy the zinnias of summer!

Brookside Gardens Macro Flowers

Yesterday I enjoyed some macro photography at Brookside Gardens. There were several flowers blooming around the parking lot next to the conservatory. I took a photo of the plant and then a macro of the flower. I am always surprised at how different the impression of the plant is from a macro perspective. Here are my favorite pairs of pictures.

Sumac

Sunflower

Cone flower

Yellow composite

Joe-Pye Weed

I was surprised there were not more insects (butterflies) around the flowers. The Joe-Pye Weed is not quite blooming yet. Maybe next time in am in the gardens they will be. Last year – there were clusters of tiger swallowtails on the plant.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 14, 2018

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.

Top 25 Birds of Protected Areas  and Top 25 Birds of Asia – Several collections of ’25 birds’ were in my news feeds as I was catching up after returning from Texas.

BBC - Future - Thai cave: How life in darkness could affect trapped boys and BBC - Future - Cave rescue: The dangerous diseases lurking underground – I wondered why the sensationalism of the mainstream media coverage did not include more of these aspects of the story.

Feeling young could mean your brain is aging more slowly: The first study to link subjective age to biological age shows that elderly people who feel younger have less signs of brain aging -- ScienceDaily – Feeling young is a big plus!

Minimizing Your Exposure to Pesticides in Produce: Help from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Dirty Dozen List | Berkeley Wellness – The ranking comes out every year…I use it to prioritize which veggies/fruits I buy ‘organic.’ Of course – during the summer I am eating veggies from the local Community Support Agriculture which is all organic.

Scientists capture breaking of glacier in Greenland: Event points to forces behind global sea-level rise -- ScienceDaily – There is a link to the video at the bottom of the post….well worth watching. Awesome ice.

The Ultimate Guide to Yellowstone Wildlife Viewing – Cool Green Science – I reminder of a place I want to visit again.

Beaded Necklaces: Complex Restringing | In the Artifact Lab – It took 25 meters of string to do the work!

Take a VR Tour of an Egyptian Queen’s Elaborate Tomb | Smart News | Smithsonian -  Another attempt to create ways to experience a place without actually being there…and potentially damaging it.

Poison Ivy: Busting 6 Myths to Avoid the Itch – Cool Green Science – It’s that time of year. In Maryland there is a lot of poison ivy but I’ve managed to avoid it in recent years….or maybe it is the gardening gloves with gauntlets that cover most of my arm and tucking my pants into my socks (for ticks…but also means there is no skin exposed to poison ivy either.

Gene therapy shown to cure type 2 diabetes and obesity in mice, researchers report -- ScienceDaily – Early days…but wouldn’t it be wonderful if something like this would work form humans?

Belmont Hikes with Summer Campers I

I have started weekly hikes with summer campers at Howard County Conservancy’s Belmont location. The theme for this week was ‘Fossils and Feathers’ – to I focused on birds during the hike. The cardinal flowers near the entrance to the Carriage House (the camp headquarters) have evidently attracted some hummingbirds but there were too many people about while I was there to see them.

I was early enough that I walked around to see how the butterfly meadow looks during its first season. It’s mostly grass!

I photographed some of the flowers that are there among the grass. I hope the butterflies find them!

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There were two groups of campers; the first group to hike were the younger children. We hiked down to the pond. There are birdhouses along the way down the grassy path through the newly mowed field. The tree swallows were very active…and then we saw purple martins in their house and flying off toward the pond. Turkey vultures made slow circles in the sky. There were red-winged black birds around the pond and we talked about other birds that like to be around water; Great Blue Herons and Wood Ducks both came up in the talk. We also saw dragon flies at the pond and talked about how they lay their eggs in the water. We hiked back along the tree lined drive to the manor house and stopped at the sycamore; we noticed the pieces of bark on the ground and agreed that next time they go to the stream they might try the curls of bark as ‘boats.’

I had a break between the two groups. I found a chair in the shade and took pictures of birds at the feeders and nearby trees.

There were red-winged blackbirds, goldfinches, a red-bellied woodpecker, and a mockingbird. I was hearing the mockingbird long before I managed to see it.

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The second hike was a bit longer. We walked along the edge of the forest then went a short way in…listening for birds in several places along the way. We heard birds…but didn’t see any except doves and vultures. There was a lot of other things to see: a deer, a tiger swallowtail, chicory, wineberry, sweet gum balls, lichen, a cicada’s shed.

In both groups we found a few feathers to talk about. I enjoyed the hikes…and I think the campers did too.

Front Flowerbeds

The most urgent yard work when I returned from Texas was the front flowerbeds. The bushes needed trimming, the milkweed was rampant, and the day lilies were full of buds that the deer were sure to eat! On one side of the door, the sidewalk was half covered with leaves from day lilies and other vegetation.

On the other, the milkweed were hiding the small nine bark that survived and filled in the hole of the one that died. The mint was so think that it covered the sidewalk to the front porch.

We went to work. I wanted to save some of the milkweed to become a Monarch caterpillar nursery but opted that it did not need to be on both sides. My husband and I worked for about an hour in the steamy morning heat with had trimmers and pruners. After 8 we got out the electric hedge trimmers and weed eater – hoping that everyone would be up and about by that time on a summer weekday.

After two mornings, we had made noticeable progress and were both pleased with the results. I put the glass bird bath in the stand of milkweed in front of the door. The taller plants will shade the water a little and provide some cover for the birds bathing or getting a drink!

We worked a third morning and pruned a bush to the side of the house to about half its size. Now to just keep it tidy….

Fishmobile – Take 2

My first experience with the Fishmobile was back in April at an elementary school in Carroll County (posted about it here). I got an email just after I returned from Texas asking if I could help with the Fishmobile’s visit to a nature center near where I life for a weekend event. I still had committed to anything else so I accepted. The day started out well when I checked the milkweed in my front flower bed and found a good-sized Monarch caterpillar!

The day was not too hot and my ‘shift’ was from 10-12 when the temperature was in the mid-70s. Most of the animals that were there for the school were in the tanks again: horseshoe crabs, Larry the diamond backed terrapin, a blue crab, and a box turtle.

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The American eel was silvery and was more active this time. The only thing I missed from last time were sea horses but there were some preserved ones to talk about with the families that came through. In the two hours I was there, almost 200 people came through. Some of the children came through the exhibit several times (after they built up their courage to experience the two touch tanks).

During one lull I stepped off the Fishmobile bus and photographed some bees on the plants just outside. The bees were very active and focused on the flowers…not flying amongst the people coming to the Fishmobile.

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After my shift was over, I walked over to the compost demo and filled out the form to get a free compost bin. After the tour yesterday and further education today, I am going to do my own compost. My plan it to put the bin back near the forest and start it off with some shredded paper and veggie/fruit scraps from the kitchen. This time of year taking the watermelon rinds to the compost bin will be a lot easier than lugging them to the curb in a trash bag that might leak! Stay tuned for posts about my compost adventure.

Caterpillars and Day Lilies

Since I’ve been home, I’ve started doing some remedial yard work…more on the changes to the flowerbed later. I’m focused on caterpillars and day lilies that were a biproduct of the work. The biggest excitement was a very small monarch caterpillar on the milkweed! I can’t cut it down now. Every morning I look at the plants and I haven’t found the caterpillar again but there are a lot of other insects on the plants. Milkweed is popular with the insect crowd.

Yesterday there was a different kind of caterpillar on the milkweed. I’m not sure what it is. Maybe some kind of Tiger Moth caterpillar? It isn’t a milkweed tussock moth caterpillar since those are orange and block and white and bristles are shorter and there are more of them.

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The day lilies that I thought would be so gorgeous in the front flower bed always make beautiful foliage and then last year the deer ate the buds before many of them could open .  Evidently the buds are deer candy. I’m giving up on day lilies after this year. So - while I was working in the flower bed, I cut all the flower stalks I found and put them in a big vase. The next morning, I took the vase outside and took pictures in the morning light.

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I appreciate the opening buds and the spent flowers of the orange lilies. Placing the vase on the deck railing and using the out-of-focus forest as the background worked out well.

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I photographed the one pink and white lily from different angles. It was the only non-orange flower in the vase.

At least this way I get to enjoy the flowers one last time rather than getting mad at the deer.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2018

The ten little celebrations for June started out like other months:

• Celebrating the last of the spring field trips and the end of schools. I enjoy hiking with school groups….but am always ready to have a summer break!
• The Frederick MD garden day was full of garden treasures. I celebrated formal gardens…a children’s’ garden…and most of all a woodland garden.

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• My daughter managed a weekend to drive down for a weekend visit. She is closer now that she lives in Pennsylvania rather than Arizona, but we are all so busy that we don’t see each other any more frequently.

Then something unique happened: my mother fell and broke her femur…and I went off to Texas for almost 3 weeks. The rest of the little celebrations were all stem from that event:

• The surgery to fix the break happened within 24 hours and was success.
• I managed to get to Texas before she left the hospital – barely.
• She walked about 100 feet with a walker before she left the hospital….and only spent 2 days at a rehab place before going home.
• I manage a short walk around Josey Ranch lake while one of my sister was with my parents and saw 4 types of herons in about 30 minutes…two were ‘firsts’ for me: a yellow crowned heron and juvenile green herons. It was my only photography away from my parents’ house and was short…but very satisfying.

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• Last but not least – the physical therapy milestones just before my left: my mother walked down a paved alley and across a grassy lawn with her walker….and we’d already gotten a cane to be ready for her next milestone! The she – and the whole family – celebrates every milestone!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 30, 2018

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.

The Mysterious Demise of Africa’s Oldest Trees - Yale E360 – Baobab trees that are over 1000 years old are dying quickly…and there is not yet a definitive explanation.

History and Seaports in Charleston : Image of the Day – I visited Charlestown a few years ago on vacation…this picture from the International Space Station brought back memories and provided a different perspective of the place.

Top 25 Birds of Europe – National Geographic Blog – Last week it was Africa…this week it’s Europe.

New study examines impacts of fracking on water supplies worldwide - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – Maps make it easy to look at complex data in a visual way. My take away from these maps of water supply and shale basin areas is that Texas has a lot of shale in areas that are already under water stress….fresh water is already being consumed unsustainably.

BBC - Future - Why non-smokers are getting lung cancer – I’ve wondered about non-smokers and lung cancer. The numbers are not huge…but they are often diagnosed late and are, therefore, more deadly.

Seventeenth-Century Danish Latrines Analyzed - Archaeology Magazine – Diet and parasites from more than 300 years ago.

Move Over, Monarchs: Another Butterfly Makes a Longer One-Way Migration - Yale E360 – Painted Lady Butterflies from southern Europe migrate across the Mediterranean through the Sahara to tropical Africa!

Discover Landscape Architecture Activity Books – THE DIRT – There are activity books for younger students and then teens/adults. I am reading the adult version and then will try to apply some of the activities when I travel…encourage new appreciation of the as-built landscape architecture of the places I visit.

2018 Lotus And Water Lily Festival At Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens – My husband and I don’t go to the festival but we do go the Kenilworth several times in July…expect lotus and water lily (and dragon fly) posts soon!

Lives before and after Stonehenge: An osteobiographical study of four prehistoric burials recently excavated from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site – Lifestyle rather than ethnicity seems to determine burial practices in this instance.

Texas Vegetation

Dallas in June – hot and mostly dry. There is some native vegetation that thrives in the heat. Everything benefits from a little water. The red yucca has become more and more popular in recent decades. It looks delicate but is prolific enough to sometimes be used in public landscaping.

Crape myrtles need extra water but do well in the heat. I photographed a crape myrtle with white blooms in the early morning on the day the sprinklers watered the garden.

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The desert willows are even more resilient to the heat and dryness since they are native to the desert southwest and have only recently become common in landscaping in Dallas.

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The blue run juniper my parents planted year ago to fill in around the other plants in their front yard (replacing grass) is mature and full of blue ‘berries.’

June is the peak of summer vegetation color in Texas!

Hot in Texas

Coming from Maryland to Texas has been a shock in terms of temperature. It is hot. Most of the time I’ve been indoors – staying with my mom at the hospital and rehab and now home. Every time I venture outside, I move as fast as I can to get to the next air-conditioned place. And this is only June. It will be even hotter in Texas as the summer progresses. At this point the plants are still flourishing if they are watered regularly. I took a few pictures of the plants at the rehab facility when I walked around the place when my mother’s room overflowed with other visitors.

I wondered how well the fern would last as the summer progressed. In Maryland they seem to do best in shady moist places. This plant was in partial shade…and it would take a lot to keep it moist on a 100-degree day.