3 Days of Snow

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Today our forecast is mostly cloudy…after three days of cloudy skies and snow. The streets are already clear, and the driveway has some clear patches without us ever shoveling. We enjoyed our snow days but are glad to see a bit more sun!

On the first day we had a lot of webinars from the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife which we were watching on the biggest screen in the house (the television) and had a fire going in the fireplace. We had a power failure a little before 8 AM for a few seconds and the cable/internet was out for about an hour afterward. It’s a good thing the first festival session of the day was recorded so we could watch it later!

I tried some snowflake photography twice during the day. I used my phone with a clip-on lens that included a light and a red glass plate to catch the snowflakes. The temperature was about 30 degrees which is on the warm side for good snowflake photography.

The flakes during the first session about 8AM were clumping although there was one that seems to look like a pyramid with a hexagonal base! Even though I had cooled down the plate and lens for over an hour, there was still some melting.

During the second session shortly after noon, it was easier to see individual snowflakes, but they were heavily encrusted with tiny ice spheres.

I tried to capture some scenes from our back and front yard over the course of the day. Our deck and bird feeder still drew the birds even while it was snowing.

I made snow ice cream in the afternoon – after enough snow had accumulated. We ate the whole big bowl!

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Overnight there was freezing rain so there was an icy crust on everything the second day.

I cracked the ice of the top of the snow on the deck and made snow ice cream again. It was too icy, but we ate most of it anyway.

It snowed more overnight than we though it would so the third day had snow on top of ice. I worried that it might be too heavy for some of the trees because there was some wind as well….but we didn’t hear or see any breakage.  I took pictures of scenes through several windows.

Two of my favorite pictures of the day were taken through the windows on the side of the front door. The vertical ice and snow covered thread in the azalea is an old spider web that’s been there since last fall! The seed pod with a hat of ice and snow is a black-eyed Susan from last summer.

Our plum tree was so full of snow that it obscured the evergreens across the street. The view through the skylights was different too; one had patches of ice partially obscuring the branches of the sycamore in the background.

As always – the view from my office window was the best in the house.

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Ten Little Celebrations – January 2021

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And 2021 is off to a roaring start. Even with the jarring events of Jan. 6 and the pandemic still raging, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate in January 2021.

Bluebirds at our bird feeder –I celebrate when a bluebird group comes to our deck since it doesn’t happen very often. They seem to show up most frequently when there is snow and ice!

Piliated woodpecker in our forest – They don’t come to our deck…but are in our forest. I see them a few times each the winter when the leaves aren’t in the way. Their red heads are like flames. I think I saw a bald eagle a few times too this January. Even the fleeting sight of these birds is a celebration.

Amanda Gordan and the transition to a new President – A young poet and a shift toward hope for our troubled country toward a ‘forming a more perfect union’

Tennessee Crane Festival (virtual) – Lots of good webinars….dreaming about going to the place in January 2022. Celebrating learning about the place this year…and anticipating a visit.

Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival (virtual) – We went in 2019…hope to go to Florida again in January 2022. Celebrating the virtual version this year.

Success making a cheese omelet – I tend to make scrambled eggs but have omelet pans to cook them.  This month I opted to try making an omelet – perfect on the first try…celebrated the accomplishment (and the meal)!

Steak lunch – Our January days have been pretty cold, but my husband grilled on one of the warmer sunny days. A special lunch.

Carrot – coconut – chicken salad – I’ve discovered that if I layer a spoonful of orange marmalade, carrots, canned chicken, and coconut in a bowl….microwave it for a minute…stir…it makes a warm version of a favorite salad to enjoy in winter. Celebrating warm salads!

Howard County Sustainability Legislative Breakfast – Getting an update of what is happening locally re sustainability. I celebrated that good things are being worked at both the county and state level!

Tree trunk macros – It was a short project that I enjoyed a lot. The color and texture of winter tree trunks in our yard were celebration worthy!

Through my Office Window – January 2021

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I seemed to be busy with other things during January…so I was a little surprised that there were enough pictures to make a ‘through my office window’ post this month. This time of year, the heated bird bath is popular with many birds. I managed to get pictures of blue jays, Carolina chickadees, and a mourning dove there.

 Both the male and female northern cardinals are coming to the deck and feeder. The male prefers the seed under the feeder, but the female takes her time there…stays on the feeder perch of minutes rather than seconds.

The gold finches come to the feeder in small flocks. There are often 2 or 3 of them at a time.

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The white breasted nuthatch comes to the feeder but has started checking around the shingles of the covered part of the deck. I wonder if the bird stores seed there or there is something else the bird is looking for there.

I photographed the red-bellied woodpecker at the feeder but also in the maple tree. There is one in this series where the bird is getting ready to take off from the maple to make a run at the feeder. We only have a female around right now. I hope a male shows up by the spring.

Deer come through our yard frequently. Their route is always on the south side of our house – either heading to or coming from the forest. Sometimes they seem to be looking right at the camera. I saw two males butting heads at dusk, but the light was too poor to get a picture.

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There is a small flock of house finches in our area. They enjoyed nibbling the red maple buds on a warm afternoon, but they are often at the feeder this time of year as well.

My favorite pictures this month were of a group of crows finding tasty things in the back yard. They were digging down into the leaf mulch and grass; note that one of them has dirt on his beak! Also – one has white feather.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant for Skunk Cabbage

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I am realizing that I haven’t driven very much in the last 6 months. There are at least 2 problems with that: the almost full tank of gas is about 6 months old and I’m getting out of practice when it comes to driving. If my plan is to make some road trips after I get vaccinated and the pandemic begins to fade, I need to keep my car operationally sound and my skills honed. My solution for now is to start making some mini road trips. The first was to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant to see if the skunk cabbage was blooming yet.

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There were cars in the parking area when I got there…but no people around. I put on my masks and gloves and set out toward the Community Garden…turning into the path through the forest

Toward Hodge Podge Lodge. It’s gotten some fresh paint on the trim and curtains on the inside.

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I crossed the bridge to continue toward the largest stand of skunk cabbage in previous years – taking a picture of the small stream below with some ferns on the banks. The water made pleasant trickling sounds. I noticed some areas of lighter sediment through the water– cleared of the darker colored debris.

I always look for shelf fungus. The two prettiest I found had green markings. Is that the fungus or a partner organism?

As I walked along the path, I checked the stream periodically and soon found some cones of sprouting skunk cabbage.

Once I got closer to the marshy area, there were a lot more plants. The reddish cones will eventually have the flowers inside them (they look like golf balls). I didn’t see any that were that far along. Right now, the plants are growing slowly – speeding up with it is warmer, slowing down and sometimes pulling themselves down into the muck when its cold.

I’ll make another mini road trip to see them again next month.

I hiked back toward the parking lot and made a stop at the witch hazel near the drive to the farmhouse. The flowers haven’t opened yet, but the buds are large. I’ll check them again too since the tree typically blooms in late winter…or very early spring.

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Tree Trunk Macros – Part 2

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A few days ago, I posted some macro images of our sycamore and cherry tree trunks. Today the macro images are of our Thundercloud Plum and Red Oak tree trunks.

The plum tree bark has fissures and a reddish tinge – maybe from the same pigment that makes its leaves red purple in summer. There are small growths of lichen. The tree is not as well colonized as the cherry but seems to have some the same type of lichen.

The red oak is a mini-ecosystem complete with the lichen (some with a dendritic type of growth) and moss. I appreciate the moss in the winter because it is the greenest thing in our front yard!

The oak also supports some Virginia Creeper vines…with moss and lichen growing under them. The suction cup like attachment to the tree are covered over by the moss.

Overall, this photographic project in our yard has encouraged me to try it someplace else. Maybe I’ll do some tree trunk photography down by the neighborhood pond or into the forest behind our house. Stay tuned.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 23, 2021

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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.

Ice sheet uncertainties could mean sea level will rise more than predicted -- ScienceDaily – There are warning signs that the current models aren’t accurately predicting ice sheet dynamics.

How mail-order frogs could save Colombia's amphibians - BBC Future – Carefully breeding frogs to keep them from going extinct in the wild.

Meet Amanda Gorman, the U.S.' Youngest Inaugural Poet | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Leading with eloquence and hope for the future….pushing us to strive for a country that is a ‘more perfect union.’

House Agrees Saguaro National Park Should Grow By 1,200 Acres – Hope this happens…when my daughter was in Tucson we enjoyed this park many times.

Diet and lifestyle guidelines can greatly reduce gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms -- ScienceDaily – Exercise seems to be important – perhaps because it helps clear stomach acid that causes heartburn symptoms.

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild birds Photos! - Wild Bird Revolution – Birds – always great to look at in the wild and in photos.

How Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Broke Up a Nazi Spy Ring | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Some history…about how a woman did work she wanted to do…made significant contributions…didn’t get credit or pay that she should have. It happens again and again. We can’t assume that it isn’t still happening just because we have some very visible examples of women with power, recognition, and pay.

Are sleep trackers accurate? Here's what researchers currently know – It’s not always good to track sleep….particularly if it causes anxiety. I am in the group that generally has good sleep, so the tracker data doesn’t cause me anxiety, but it probably doesn’t improve anything either!  I might get a much simpler tracker next time that doesn’t provide sleep metrics.

The Wintertime Wonder of Unusual Ice | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The short video of hair ice forming is interesting.

How Africa's largest city is staying afloat - BBC Future – Lagos, Nigeria. Part of the city is known as the ‘Venice of Africa.’ And there is a ‘Great Wall of Lagos’ to reinforce the coast.  The claim is that Africa’s largest city is leveraging its ingenuity to stay afloat….but whether it succeeds in the coming decades will be the real test.

Tree Trunk Macros – Part 1

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A sunny day in the thirties…I decided to take a quick walk around the yard with my new camera for some landscape pictures and my phone with a 2x magnifying lens with a built in LED light (and clicker) for macro shots. The best images of the morning (before I got too cold) were the macro shots of tree trunks. My gear is simple. I wear both the clicker and the phone with the magnifier around my neck. I can easily hold the phone close to the tree trunk with one hand (often bracing my hand on the tree) and use the clicker to take pictures with the other.

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The sycamore bark is full of texture…fissures old and new. Some parts of the trunk are very smooth, but I am more interested in the cracks and crevices.

I noticed some Virginia Creeper stems on the painted surface of the exterior wall of our basement. They retain some reddish color even in winter. The way they attach to the brick looks like a suction cup!

The cherry tree has lichen and moss growing on it…and a different texture than the sycamore even though there are some occasional curls of bark.

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A larger branch had fallen from the tree and I took a picture of the end of the branch.

I’ll post the macro images of other tree trunks in our yard next week. I’ve also added ‘pick up sticks/branches’ to my list of chores!

New Camera Experiments – Creative Filters

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I got a new camera for Christmas – a Canon PowerShot SX70 HS. It’s a slight upgrade from a previous camera but I am taking time to browse through the manual to try a few things. The Creative Filters Mode is the topic of today’s post. The mode provides a series of image effects that are can be easily selected. My experiment was to try the different ‘filters’ with the view from my office window.

Filter 1: black and white, rough and gritty

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Filter 2: soft focus, gentle ambience

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Filter 3: distorting fish-eye lens

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Filter 4: art bold, like oil painting

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Filter 5: watercolor painting

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Filter 6: miniature effect, blurring of image outside a selected area

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Filter 7: toy camera with vignetting and different color balance

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I took a second series with the bouquet of flowers…using the art bold

And then the watercolor painting filters.

These are fun to play with but I’m not sure how often I will use you them in the field. At least I am more aware they are a feature of the camera after experimenting with them. I might try them in a garden or forest…but make some notes for myself so I remember what I used; they skew reality….and I am usually trying to capture what I am seeing rather than going for a special effect image.

2 Mornings in January

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It is easy to catch the sunrise this time of year from our house: the leaves are off the trees so we have a better view of the horizon and sunrise happens well after 7 AM. I’ve discovered that the view is better from the second floor of our house rather than the first – even though that means the pictures are taken through a window. I’m sharing 2 recent sunrises in this post:

The first is from the 15th. The east was getting brighter, transitioning from red to orangish hues (left image)…but the pink haze of reflected light in the west (right image) was my favorite of the morning since it only happens occasionally…it was a great way to start the morning in my office.

On the 17th, the east had more cloud texture than on the 15th and it was a little redder…earlier in the sunrise sequence.

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Ten minutes later, the view from my office (looking toward the west) caught the special morning light ‘coming down from the trees’ as it came over the roof of our house. Most of the trees looking full of orange light are tulip poplars. The dark trees in the foreground (in shadow) are pines, black walnut, and red maple. The forest is lovely all the time…but the early morning is probably my favorite during the winter…do drab browns in sight!

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Gleanings of the Week Ending January 16, 2021

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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.

Wingspan and Other Tabletop Games for Naturalists – A new indoor activity for during the winter?

Square Structure Detected Under Monte Albán’s Main Plaza - Archaeology Magazine – The plaza was in use for 1,000 years….and evidently the structure detected with ground penetrating radar, electrical resistance and gradiometery is 60x60 feet…and about 3 feet thick. More study of the data might reveal if the building had stairs, tunnels, and columns.

Leaf microbiomes are a neighborhood affair in northern forests -- ScienceDaily – The microbes associated with trees have been an active research area in recent years. This study looked at Sugar Maples and discovered that their microbiome was similar to the trees around them…whether it was other sugar maples or conifers….other species entirely.

A warm pool in the Indo-Pacific Ocean has almost doubled in size, changing global rainfall patterns | NOAA Climate.gov – The impacts on large-scale atmospheric circulation and rainfall are expected to intensify in the future.

Top 25 birds of the week: January 2021 – This collection includes a photo of a red-breasted nuthatch…a bird we’ve seen at our feeder this year!

Photographer Nathan Myhrvold Captures Snowflakes in High Resolution – I enjoy trying to photograph snowflakes…but I do it close to home where the challenge is higher temperatures. That tends to cause them to clump rather than be easily separated into single flakes. It’s still a fun activity for snow days.

New mammogram measures of breast cancer risk could revolutionize screening -- ScienceDaily – Improving the way mammograms are analyzed…giving results at the time of screening instead of later then moving toward personalized screening thereafter rather than ‘one size fits all.’ I wonder how long it will take for this to trickle through the industry.

Flapper style | Europeana – Our family has a picture of one of my grandmothers in a flapper dress. She probably made it herself – as the article indicated…they were easy to make and patterns were available. The dresses have a timelessness to them even though they are associated with the 1920s. They look great as party dresses even 100 years later!

'Sparkling' clean water from nanodiamond-embedded membrane filters -- ScienceDaily – The problem the researchers are addressing is filtering of the hot water from oil recovery and other industrial processes. We’ll need more technologies like this to clean up water we can’t afford to leave polluted forever….but we should concurrently move toward technologies that don’t leave toxins in water. Technologies should be designed with the goal in mind of 0 waste.

Researchers Catch Oldest Tropical Reef Fish Known to Science | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – An 81-year-old midnight snapper! They also caught a 79-year-old red snapper in the same area. Climate change is already warmed the reef enough that the life-span of the fishes there is expected to be shorter in the future. The record for oldest known vertebrate in the world is also a sea creature – a 400 year old Greenland shark.

Flower Macros – January 2021

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This past week has been a swirl of stressful news…events in DC, pandemic stats and the UK variant, realizing that too many people have complete trust in and idolize a person (our President) that is not trustworthy. I did several rounds of macro photography of flowers to try to regain my equilibrium…maybe the activity helped for a little. I used my phone with a 5x magnifying glass (built-in LED) attached with a rubber band; I had my clicker on the lanyard to control the shutter so I could focus on getting the phone into the position I wanted with the other hand.

The first-round subject was some alstroemeria petals that has fallen from the bouquet I bought more then 3 weeks ago. I embedded them in a thin sheet of ice. I popped the ice off the lid I had used as a container and put them on a red glass plate. I quickly discovered that pouring a little water on the ice made it easier to get the images I wanted….petals, ice with bubbles and cracks, red glass plate underneath – sometimes all three and sometimes just ice and glass.

The second-round subjects were the flowers I bought in the early morning of January 6th (the events of the day are probably going to be seared in my memory a much as the day Kennedy was assassinated and 9/11). There are alstroemeria in the bouquet that were buds on the day of purchase and are now fully open. There are also other flowers….they call it a ‘field mix’ and I like the variety! Enjoy the slide show.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 9, 2021

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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.

Coronavirus FAQ: How Do I Protect Myself From The U.K. Variant? - I added this one at the last minute…it’s scary…a good prompt to evaluate the precautions you are taking to not get COVID-19 with this more contagious variant circulating in the US. We are so close to having vaccinations broadly available!

When Only a Hippopotamus Will Do – Learn a bit about hippos. Did you know that there is a ‘wild’ population of hippos in Columbia’s Magdalena River, escaped from Pablo Escobar’s menagerie after his death?

Plastics pose threat to human health, report shows -- ScienceDaily – Awful….and there is relatively little being done to control this source of toxins in our environment.

Top 25 birds of the week: Terrestrial Birds! - Wild Bird Revolution – Most of the birds are relatively drab – lots of browns and off-white feathers….but interesting patterns. - the better to blend in with their environment. But there are a few surprises that are quite different from the rest.

From Ancient Rome to Contemporary Singapore: The Evolution of Conservatories – THE DIRT – I like conservatories….this article includes some history that I hadn’t thought about before…a bit more from the perspective of how conservatories fit into the cultures that created them.

Operation Ponderosa: Saving a Forest, Pandemic Edition – Several reasons this article caught my attention: it’s about 1) the Davis Mountains in Texas…a location I’ve driven through on road trips between Dallas and Tucson, 2) fieldwork and also done by a woman during this pandemic year, 3) the Ponderosa pine’s importance as ‘sky islands’ in this arid part of the country, 4) the impact of fire, and 5) how genetic testing informs forest restoration efforts.

Trees are out of equilibrium with climate -- ScienceDaily – I might have gotten a bit stuck on trees for this gleanings collection. This study found that factors other than climate often limit where trees grow...that few trees grow everywhere the climate would appear to support their growth.

Ancestral Puebloans Survived Droughts by Collecting Water from Icy Lava Tubes | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – New Mexico’s El Malpais….a place I’ve visited several times.

Migration and disease in the Iron Age - Current Archaeology – A skeleton of a man with tuberculosis that died between 400 BC and 230 BC in Britain but was born elsewhere based on analysis of his molars that developed in early childhood. Did he contract the disease early in his life or after he arrived in Britain?

Canyon De Chelly, Walnut Canyon Park Pages Added to Traveler – I’ve been to both these places so was glad they were added list of Essential Park Guides on this site. The guides are collections of articles about each park…and good references when planning a visit or to see some pictures of the park!

Bowerbirds: Meet the bird world’s kleptomaniac love architects – Elaborate structures of sticks and often colorful found objects…to attract a mate.

eBotanical Prints – December 2020

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20 new books for the botanical prints list in December….all from the Internet Archive. 12 of them are an annual publication from the Georgia Botanical Society published between 1986 and 2005; there are 7 more that I looked at in January and will include in next month’s eBotanical Prints post.

Just as in previous months, there is quite a range in the publication dates: 1687 to 2005. And different types of images: drawings, colored prints, and photographs. There is one image for each of the 20 new books; click an any sample image below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the December eBotanical Prints! The whole list of 2,041 eBooks can be accessed here.

Opera omnia, seu, Thesaurus locupletissimus botanico-medico-anatomicus * Malpighii, Marcelli * sample image * 1687

Gramineae Chilenses * Desvaux, Emile * sample image * 1853

Flora Peruviana, et Chilensis plates I-CLII * Ruiz, Hippolyto; Pavon, Josepho * sample image * 1798

Flora Peruviana, et Chilensis plates CLIII-CCCXXV * Ruiz, Hippolyto; Pavon, Josepho * sample image * 1798

Plantes equinoxiales recueillies au Mexique vol 1 * Humboldt, Alexander von; Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1808

Plantes equinoxiales recueillies au Mexique vol 2 * Humboldt, Alexander von; Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1808

Stirpes novae * L'Heritier de Brutelle, Charles Louis * sample image * 1784

A description of the genus Cinchona * Lambert, Alymer Bourke * sample image * 1797

Tipularia - 2005 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 2005

Tipularia - 1986 - 1987 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1987

Tipularia - 2004 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 2004

Tipularia - 2003 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 2003

Tipularia - 2002 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 2002

Tipularia - 2001 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 2001

Tipularia - 2000 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 2000

Tipularia - 1999 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1999

Tipularia - 1998 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1998

Tipularia - 1997 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1997

Tipularia - 1995 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1995

Tipularia - 1994 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1994

Lots of Groceries

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It was 3 weeks and a day since I had shopped last and the list was long…my first adventure with that 3 weeks between shopping trips. We could have gotten by for a few more days but I was out of Almond Milk (the backup plan is to take a calcium supplement and use protein powder to make my smoothies) and green veggies (I still had beets and yellow squash puree…just nothing green). We’ve developed some resilience from earlier in the pandemic when it comes to food in the house.

I left the house at 6:15 AM as the recycle truck was chugging through the neighborhood. Traffic was light and it was dark…no sunrise glow on the horizon.

I found almost everything on my list; there were 3 items that I couldn’t find but they can be ordered for curbside pickup from Target. Two desserts were on the list from the bakery (a slice of red velvet cake and 2 servings of pumpkin roll) but they didn’t have either one; maybe that is not such a bad thing for our January diet.

When I walked out of the grocery story, I had 8 reusable bags (some overflowing) plus three boxes of Atkins shakes. It was a very full cart with 2 of the bags hung off to the sides and the boxes underneath.

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The back of the car held it all except for the bag with the cut flowers which I always put on the front floorboard.  

I was back home with everything put away by shortly after 8.

One of the downsides for the 3-week interval is that the cut flowers don’t quite last long. Even so the falling alstroemeria petals on the table have an appeal.

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In the last bouquet I bought there was one rose included with the other flowers. It only lasted for 2 weeks…and it had glitter on it which makes it non-compostable (those little pieces of plastic become microplastics in the environment almost immediately)! I checked the bouquet I bought during this round at the grocery store – no glitter or paint. I’ll be able to put the spent flowers in the compost bin rather than the trash before I shop again 3 weeks from now.

Ice Bubbles

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Sometimes there is a surprise opportunity for a photo shoot. Last week I was out putting seed in our bird feeder – and noticed that there was ice melting on the green lid of a bucket. Sycamore leaves and tulip poplar seeds had been on the lid before the snow fell… and were trapped in the snow melt that had refrozen overnight. The bubbles and pattern of water/ice were perfect for some quick photography.

I like finding things like this rather than trying to create them although there might be some value to creating some opportunities. Maybe as the cut flowers fade – I’ll experiment with immersing them in water and putting them in the freezer (now that it’s cleared out enough to have the space for this type of experiment) - creating ice bubbles and patterns to photograph.

Hopes for 2021

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I followed my tradition of putting away holiday decorations on New Year’s Eve…taking a few pictures as I made my way around the house taking things apart…gathering it all to take downstairs to the storage bins and boxes…packing is all away. I put the maple seedling and dried sunflowers I’d kept in my office window out in the front flower bed….a cleaning out to begin the new year.

I started thinking about what I hope will happen for us in 2021. Here’s my wish list for the country –

  • A transition of national leadership….and immediate focus of that new team on the response to the pandemic and initiation of actions based on data and wisdom rather than political whim…thus calming the mental stress that was increased by the leadership-created-chaos of 2020.

  • Organized rollout of vaccines across the country – setting reasonable expectations of the process and the results of the program.

  • Pace of economic recovery increasing as the pandemic subsides.

  • Approaching pre-pandemic types of activities by fall 2021.

For myself and my family – I hope that

  • We all stay vigilant protecting ourselves for getting COVID-19…and we get the vaccine before mid-year.

  • We can visit in-person (also by mid-year).

  • I get to return to my volunteer gigs!

  • By the fall, there will be in-person birding festivals to enjoy

It could be better….the vaccination rollout happens faster than it appears to be at this point!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2021!

Most Memorable of 2020

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Looking back on 2020 – there is so much that was different than prior years. There has not been a year of my life with so many significant types of upheaval: COVID-19 pandemic, environmental disasters (fires, hurricanes), racial strife, and strident politics. Today I am writing about the way this year was different for me as an individual with those upheavals as the broader situation.

Early year travel…then no travel. In prior years, I enjoyed travel throughout the year – being away from home a week or less at a time and daytrips. My original plan for 2020 was to spend a week of each month in Texas with my family. The early part of the year started out on that plan – a visit with family and a birding festival in Laredo, TX in late January and early February. We talked with an HHS person in the San Antonio airport; she was headed to the base where some of the first cruise ship passengers were arriving for their quarantine period. Once we got home, we hoped the virus was going to be limited to the few groups from cruise ships that were talked about in the news….and we started paying more attention. It quickly became apparent that telephone calls and Zoom meetings would have to take the place of the trips to Texas. We did some 2-3 hour outings for some outdoor time in the fall; we wore masks even outdoors and distanced from others; now that the infection rate is higher in our area and it’s often too cold to be outdoors for very long, we are not attempting more than walks around our neighborhood.

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The Pandemic. By March, we had an inkling that COVID-19 was not going way and that there was more around in the community that anticipated. The grocery stories started having shortages of toilet paper and disinfecting products and hand sanitizer. Fortunately, we had an adequate supply of those to last until the stores had them again (although maybe not the brands we bought previously – what happened to Formula 409?). I went to an ‘over 65’ shopping hour at a local grocery in March and it was crowded enough that it scarred me into switching to grocery delivery for 2 months. I tried to keep 2-3 weeks of food in the house at all times. We bought over the counter medications that might help symptoms if we got sick. By the summer I was comfortable going to the grocery store again – masked and going at 6:30 AM every other week and, now, extending to every three weeks. We do curbside pickup at some local stores and restaurants. My husband has virtual and in-person appointments with his doctors, but we both delayed routine optometrist and dental checkups that started to be due; those appointments and my annual physical can wait until after we are vaccinated.

Cultural, environmental, and political drama. The pandemic would have made this a challenging year but with the cultural, environmental, and political drama happening as well – the news was overwhelmingly bad…traumatically bad. The trauma of seeing the murder of George Floyd by a policeman brought to the consciousness of the country that racial equality before the law is not something the US has achieved…and the varied response to the event showed us more about how deep the challenge runs in our culture…and highlighted other manifestations of inequality in our country. Because of our ‘stay at home’ strategy during the pandemic, we didn’t witness any unrest – but the news prompted some donations and solidified our votes in November. There were environmental disasters – fires in the west, hurricanes on the Gulf Coast; neither impacted us directly in Maryland, but it was very easy to be traumatized imaging how awful it must be for people trying to take precautions to not get COVID-19 but having to evacuate and then returning to find their home gone or damaged. The political drama – much of it seemingly intentionally done to sustain a level of chaos – continued through the end of the year; I became more angry as time went on that the leadership of the country – in a year of extreme national stress – seemed to be acting to increase the trauma.

Virtual birding festivals and conferences. I saved some positive things to write about for the last of this post….we all need something positive to sustain ourselves. My husband and I both enjoyed virtual birding festivals and conferences in 2020. They added variety to our weeks; we appreciated the work of the teams that made the transition to virtual because they took us away from our immediate environment (not quite as good as travel but the best we were going to do during the pandemic). We hope to be back to some in-person events in the second half of 2021. The ones we did virtually in 2020 were:

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  • May – Cape May Spring Festival (New Jersey)

  • June – Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Education Conference

  • July – Get into your sanctuary (NOAA)

  • July and August – Sara Via Climate and Sustainability Webinars

  • September – Yampa Valley Crane Festival (Colorado)

  • September – Puget Sound Bird Fest (Washington)

  • October – Cape May Fall Festival (New Jersey)

  • October – Hawaii Island Festival of Birds

  • November – Crane Fiesta (New Mexico)

  • November – Patuxent River Conference Reflections

  • December – Maryland Water Monitoring Conference

  • December - AGU

At home. I spent more time at home this year than every before in my life (that I can remember…maybe I spent more time at home from birth to 4 years old). It’s been different but not hard. The house is well situated with forest to the back and a 30-year-old neighborhood street to the front with lots of trees as old as the houses; the views from the windows are all good – and there is wild life (birds (including an occasional wild turkey!), squirrels, deer, chipmunks, and racoons (seen only on the bird feeder cam in the wee hours of the morning)). Individuals and couples take walks…the neighborhood does not feel vacant or isolated. Inside - my husband and I have plenty of room to enjoy our individual projects/activities then be together for meals and shared activities…settling into a comfortable way of living in the house together and probably becoming more synchronized emotionally than we have since early in our marriage – simply because we are around each other more.

Conscious efforts to sustain healthy mental and physical health. As we’ve gotten older, we have become more intentional about our lifestyle – making sure we get enough exercise…eat healthy…assess our feeling and act to keep them positive. During this year – we have increased our focus. I had time to process the bounty of the CSA season (June-October) and am just now beginning to see that we have space in the freezer again. We eat well but keep our portion sizes reasonable; we haven’t gained weight…maybe we’ve lost a few pounds. We both try to get some outdoor time as frequently as we can – walks, yard work, reading on the deck, photography (stars/planets, sun, plants, animals, and snowflakes) etc. It was easier before it got cold. More of our exercise has shifted indoors at this point. We do things to brighten our mood – flowers, purchases to use for projects (mounted insects, clickers and magnifiers for cell phone photography), special pens, special food – things to make each day a little different.

Overall – at the end of 2020, I am feeling optimistic about 2021 and pleased that my husband and I have responded with resilience to the changes in our lives during the past year. We had ups and downs but on the whole managed to sustain ourselves and to enjoy parts of every day (for me it was easier when the television was off, and I wasn’t reading my news feeds).

Zooming – December 2020

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I took fewer pictures in December…and shifted toward macro rather than zoomed. It was an indoor month because of the cold and the activities associated with holidays. Still – there were pictures of birds and snow – sunrise and sunset…the wintery scene. I’m going to bundle up to take more walks even in the January cold!

10 Objects that Defined 2020

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BBC Future had a blog post last week that listed 37 objects the defined the year. It prompted me to create my own list…what objects will I remember most from 2020. I didn’t limit myself to objects that would be good for a time capsule…some of mine are perishable…but everything on the list is a physical object that will remind me of this pandemic year from now on.

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The face mask – I’d never worn a face mask before this year…and it took some getting used to. The masks were hardest to wear when it was hot…but now that the weather is colder they are not as bothersome. It could also be that I am more adept at wearing them now. There are some that are ‘in the mail’ from my daughter – ordered a few weeks before Christmas to see me through to a time we don’t have to wear masks (hopefully in 2021 when a large number of people have been vaccinated and new cases plummet).

Hand sanitizer – We never leave the house without a bottle of hand sanitizer. At first, we thought we’d be using huge amounts of it but the places we go often have dispensers…and we aren’t out and about away from home that frequently.

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Bar soap – At home – we use soap and water on our hands rather than hand sanitizer. We switched from liquid soap dispensers to bar soap in our house with it was hard to get the dispensers early in the pandemic. My husband has gone back to the soap dispensers, but I like the artisan bar soaps and will continue to enjoy them even after the pandemic. Added benefits: the ones I am using don’t seem to be as hard on my skin….and I buy bar soap in paper or cardboard packaging so no plastic!

Pecan topped custard (pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash) – I discovered pecans put on the top of custard stay on the top (like pecan pie)…and will always associate that dish with the pandemic for years to come.

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Haystacks – I made haystack cookies (Chow mein noodles coated with melted chocolate/butterscotch) for the first time; it all started when I realized I was missing the holiday cookies from events usually held in December – but cancelled for this year. Making this treat helped improve my mood for the different sort of holiday we had this year. I’ll probably add it to my repertoire of sweets for the holidays going forward.

Bird feeder cam – We got the bird feeder camera in early 2020, before we understood that a pandemic would dominate the year. It was something we enjoyed all year long…a continuing project to learn more about the birds that visit out back yard feeder.

Cut flowers (from the CSA and then from Wegmans) – In previous years I would cut flowers occasionally at the CSA…for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’d buy flowers. This year I got flowers every week during the CSA season and now I buy flowers every time I go to the grocery store. It’s something easy to do that brightens my mood every time I see them….and my husband likes them too.

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Magnifying glasses with lights – There have been so many photographic mini-projects during the pandemic…things we could do without leaving our neighborhood. Most of the time we already had the equipment we needed…but the magnifying glasses with built-in lights were new…and I found myself using them for a lot of different things…some of them not involving photography.

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Layered Zentangle tiles – I moved from making Zentangle patterns (sometimes with shading) to using that as just a starting point…adding coloring and highlighting – sometimes in stages rather than completing the tile all at once. I had more time to spend making tiles…and I enjoyed taking the tiles in a different direction than previous years.

Home – It’s a physical and emotional place…but an assemblage of objects as well. Over this year, my perception of it has deepened because I have been surrounded by it for more hours. There are some objects that I’ve found easier to put in the donation pile…others that I have used more frequently….a few that are rediscovered objects to treasure. My appreciation of my house and home has increased dramatically.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Soup for a winter day. Pureed sweet potato, a few pieces of beet (both have great color), garlic, onion powder, Italian seasonings, left over brisket, beef broth with pumpkin seeds and Chinese noodles on top. Yummy and pretty too.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 26, 2020

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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.

35 Beautiful Winter Scenes to Get You in the Holiday Spirit – We had our first snow a little over a week ago…our Christmas was windy and rainy….I enjoyed these snowy pictures from around the world to get me back into the ‘winter wonderland’ mood.

Time capsule for 2020: the 37 objects that defined the year – This prompted me to think about what objects represent the year for me…maybe just a top 10 though rather than 37!

Top 10 Discoveries of the decade – From Archeology magazine

NOAA Research’s top 5 stories from 2020 – NOAA models track smoke movement – and locust swarms; scientists explore the impact of the COVID-19 response on the environment; carbon dioxide continues to rise; Dungeness crab larvae are already showing effects of ocean acidification; and a new roadmap for tracking ocean and Great Lake acidification

Top 11 Clean Energy Developments in 2020 – Some good news….nice to find these in a year that was dominated by bad – sad – horrific news (pandemic, fires, hurricanes, cultural/political strife).

Glucosamine may reduce overall death rates as effectively as regular exercise, study suggests -- ScienceDaily – It’s a correlation finding…not cause/effect. But the correlation was found by assessing data from over 16 thousand people over 40 years of age.

In boost for renewables, grid-scale battery storage is on the rise – Another good news story.

Photography in the National Parks: Winter Wonderlands – More wintery pictures of beautiful places.

Stonehenge's Continental Cousin - Archaeology Magazine – Archaeology in a German potato field! Evidence of concentric rings of oak posts, graves, pits filled with sacrifices, a village of long houses near the circle, alignment with sunrise on days halfway the solstices and equinoxes….no fortification.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Camouflage – Ending this gleaning list with birds. There lots of birds that blend into their environment!