Gleanings of the Week Ending December 18, 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.

Monkeying Around with Venom – Hadn’t heard about ‘Snake Detection Theory’ before; it is the idea that snakes have exerted a selection pressure on the origin of primates’ visual systems, a trait that sets primates apart from other mammals. This paper is some recent research that supports the theory.  A condensed description of the research paper is found here.

Why climate lawsuits are surging - Lawsuits are becoming tool to force change…in conjunction with activism, policy and science. There have been some successful lawsuits…and more in the pipeline. Sometimes the suit is about better enforcement of environmental laws…and sometimes it is about climate protection for future generations becoming a constitutional issue.

Florida to Feed Starving Manatees, as Pollution Shrinks Food Supplies – Florida farm runoff caused alga blooms that cut the penetration of sunlight into the water so much that it killed the seagrass that manatees eat…and there have already been more than 1,000 that have starved. It is estimated that there are about 8,000 manatees remaining in Florida waters. It is unclear that the seagrass can be restored.

Top 25 birds of the week: December 2021 – Enjoying bird photographs!

How volcanic eruptions helped the ancestral Puebloan culture flourish – Response of people to the stresses of abrupt climate change evidently resulted in larger population centers…universal pottery making and turkey cultivation…more sedentary living…increasing social inequity.

Major Contract Awarded To Rehabilitate Section Of George Washington Memorial Parkway – The parkway is along the Potomac River between Great Falls and Mount Vernon. It was one of the first beautiful and history things we discovered when we moved to the area in 1983…and long overdo for renovation. Parts of it carry a lot of daily commuter traffic in Northern Virginia.

The impact of drugs on gut microbes is greater than we thought – Most people are aware of the impact of antibiotics, but other drugs impact the gut microbes too…and some of those drugs are treating chronic conditions so are taken for years. It appears this study was mostly about methodology to tease out the impact of drugs vs the underlying disease….much more work still to be done before concrete recommendations can be made.

The race to make vaccines for a dangerous respiratory virus – RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). There are currently 4 candidate vaccines and one monoclonal antibody treatment that are in last-stage trials. It appears we are at the cusp of much faster vaccine development times because of what happened to develop the COVID-19 vaccines.

The tomatoes at the forefront of a food revolution – The idea is to use Crispr modification to sustain the productivity of the tomato crop as the climate changes.

Chronic exposure to air pollution may increase risks for ICU admission or death among COVID-19 patients, study finds – Sometimes it is hard to separate the role of the environment on health disparities. This study analyzed 6,500 COVID-19 patients admitted to 7 New York City hospitals.

Holiday Plants

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I have purchased 2 plants this holiday month – not traditional ones. The first one is a tiny aloe with an ceramic pot that is a Zentangle pattern! The pot was the attraction for me…the plant just an added benefit. The plant is in an inner pot so I can repot it soon and start something small in pot. The other plant is lavender with the pot wrapped in red foil for Christmas. When I first bought it, the shape was more like a Christmas tree but the plant is already growing into more traditional lavender form; I’m thinking about ways to use the trimmings before I start cutting – just one time to keep it looking like a small Christmas tree until the end of the month; I like it at the kitchen window…plan to keep it there until it’s warm enough to plant it outside in the spring.

I’m not a big fan of houseplants -I like the view of the outdoors vegetation from the windows of my house better. But - a small plant on the window ledge in my office and a larger one in the kitchen window appeals to me for this winter.

Christmas Lights at Brookside Gardens

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Brookside Gardens ‘Garden of Lights’ is a Christmas tradition that we restarted this year after a year away because of the pandemic; now that we are fully vaccinated and boosted, we are venturing out -- slowly. Tickets are required this year to control the crowd size and there is no model train exhibit in the conservatory. Our time slot was immediately after dark which worked well for us. It was in the mid-30s when we got there; we bundled up and headed into the gardens; I wore my mask even though we were outdoors the whole time since it was in the mid-30s and the mask keeps my nose warm!

The sky was slightly overcast. I noticed the crescent moon several times…never sharp because of the clouds but always there.

The caterpillar is looking good. We entered through the mouth and came back from the other end after we’d made the loop around the lights.

The rainbow was static this year….no ‘lightning’ flashes from the cloud. I took pictures of it from several perspectives. The night scene mode on my Canon bridge camera (Powershot SX70 HS) which takes several images then stacks them into one did reasonably well with all the displays.

In some cases, it provided a very intense ‘plant’ image. This bush had blue lights which appear as brilliant ‘flowers’…the green is the bush’s natural leaves!

The dragon with baby was in its usual garden room…no smoke or sound effects as it has had in some previous years.

There was a new orb sculpture in one of the rose garden fountains – perhaps part of the renovation. It will be interesting to see how it looks in the warmer months of the year with water.

Giant dragonflies were high in the trees.

There were also the usual animals: giraffe, dolphins, snail, and lion….among others.

The whole landscape of the gardens was full of lights…all with a garden theme. The spider web was very well done this year.

During our walk, the happy noise of children responding to the lights surrounded us. They were bundled up in snow suits or riding in strollers wrapped in blankets. There was one young child carried facing outward by its mother that made an awesome happy sound and waved his arms…everyone around laughed with him and his parents.

This year might have been the all-time best experience I’ve ever had at Brookside’s Garden of Lights.

Bark and Vine

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This time of year, some vines have lost their leaves and it is possible to see their dried stems overlaid on the texture of the bark. There was one such tree trunk I photographed in Druid Hill Park that appealed to me in much the same way as abstract art. My camera’s autofocus and exposure gave these first two pictures a different ‘feel’; the darker one seems more mysterious and a little sinister – a dark forest.

My favorite image is the most zoomed one – following my usual pattern. Shades of gray and brown…with the swath brittle leaves providing the highlight.

The tree was a tulip poplar…not sure what the vines are. Poison ivy vines would look fuzzy (lots of rootlets holding it onto the tree) and I couldn’t see any suckers that are common for Virginia Creeper. Maybe it is an invasive? It would have provided a little exercise in identification if I had taken a key for vines into the field!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 11, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Shorebirds! – Always lots to see looking at birds!

Everglades' Wading Birds Had Mixed Success In 2020 – Overall wading bird nesting in South Florida has increased…but is still a fraction of the target. In 2020, an early arriving rainy season impacted the availably of food for chicks.

De-cluttering may not help people with dementia – People with moderate dementia perform better surrounded by their ‘usual’ clutter!

U.S. Is World’s Top Generator of Plastic Waste – Not surprising. And the US should take the lead in figuring out what to do about it: how to produce less and recycle more.

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC – Still a lot of mystery about how the mosaic got from its recovery when Lake Nemi was drained by Mussolini and then becoming the top of a coffee table for 45 years. It was seized in 2017 and returned to the Italian government.

Roadrunner: Meet the Real Bird Behind the Cartoon – I can remember seeing one a little north of where my parents live now (north of Dallas) in the 1980s…but they are probably long gone from that area now. I’ve seen them in west Texas more recently; one was at a rest stop between San Antonio and Laredo. They always seem to thrive in relatively harsh environments.

The bustling hidden world of hedgerows – The closest we come in North America to hedgerows are fencerows or windbreaks….and even those have been reduced over the years. Near where I live the advent of glyphosate/Roundup ready crops has eliminated the herbaceous growth along the edges of fields which in the past included milkweed and other plants that were attractive to butterflies and other small animals.

Master Artisans Fixed Mistakes Made by Apprentices at Ancient Egyptian Temple – I enjoyed the 6 minute video in this post…it’s quiet enough to hear the birds in the ruins.

Managing water resources in a low-to-no-snow future – We need to be thinking of adaptations to this manifestation of climate change now rather than waiting since the solutions will be challenging….take time to design and construct.

Old-fashioned rice custard – I have a container of rice from some Chinese takeout…..and plan to make this rice custard. I am anticipating that it will be yummy (and high protein too).

Country Life (magazine) Christmas

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Back in August and September, I was browsing through volumes of Country Life magazines on Internet Archive and collected Christmas/winter images from the first half of the 1900s. It occurred to me that none of the images fit into what my grandparents or parents would have experienced in those decades; they lived in rural or small town areas in Oklahoma and Texas….not where there were deep drifts of snow every winter…and their houses would have been much smaller and single story dwellings. It’s interesting how the images still evoke the idealized version of Christmas and winter. Enjoy!

Country Life V51 (1926 - 1927)

Trek to and in Druid Hill Park – Part II

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On out way to Druid Hill Park through Baltimore, there were some trees that still had most of their leaves! All the ones around our house in the suburbs to the south of the city and the airport have lost all their leaves.

I wondered if it was the heat island effect of the city or the disruption of wind by building and walls; there are some city microclimates that cause the trees to keep their leaves a bit longer…very noticeable right now. I also noticed tents periodically on medians and places along the road with a little more space (see tent on the right under the trees in the picture below); is this the way the homeless people in Baltimore are surviving this winter?

There is graffiti on buildings…but there are also bits of city art on otherwise mundane buildings. I wondered if the height and lights are have kept the art intact in some places.

On the way home – the GPS routed us through downtown and I took pictures of the Bromo-seltzer Tower as we stopped at lights. It’s used for artists studios now….next to a fire station.

Overall – the birding walk was a tiny step back to ‘normal’ for us although both by husband and I are beginning to realize that we’ll probably never be quite like we were pre-pandemic. It’s not just the pandemic that has changed us; more on that thought is few days when I write my month COVID-19 pandemic post.

Trek to and in Druid Hill Park – Part I

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Last weekend we drove into Baltimore for an Audubon sponsored birding walk at Druid Hill Park. It was our first birding event since before the pandemic – outdoors for 1.5 hours in a park with less than an hour to commute into the city and the back home afterward. It was a cool, cloudy morning – cold enough to wear a mask comfortably which we both did once the group started the walk and it was hard to maintain distance.

The walk started at 8 AM and the clouds occasionally parted enough for good lighting. I saw more birds that I was able to photograph. Canada Geese flew overhead and there were ruddy ducks, buffleheads, grebe, and gulls on the lake in the park. They were too far away for great pictures…but I like the light around the gulls. There were also a lot of smaller birds – cardinals, Carolina wrens, down woodpecker, gold finches, house finches, etc.. The only one I photographed was a norther flicker what perched almost right overhead!

There was still some great fall color. The rose bushes (red leaves) were enjoying the cooler weather.

There were some areas of the forest that still had lots of leaves on the trees…like our backyard was several weeks ago. I also saw a small tulip poplar tree; I hadn’t realized that there leaves get much larger when they are young; this one still had green leaves while the big trees around it were already bare showing off their many seed pods.

More tomorrow about our trek to the park…and then home again…through Baltimore.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk

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I spotted a hawk in our red maple tree…managed to take some pictures. My first ID was ‘Cooper’s Hawk’ but then when I looked at the pictures on a large monitor – I decided the head was too rounded….which skews the ID to ‘Sharp-Shinned.’

We see them occasionally in our yard, probably because we have two bird feeders and a bird bath. Once we took our feeders down for a few weeks to encourage the hawk to move on, but the environment is rich enough in the forest behind our neighborhood (the buffer area for the Middle Patuxent River is a wildlife corridor) that they are not frequent visitors anyway.  

It was a beautiful bird in the morning light…feathers a bit fluffed in the cold….the red eye seeing all. The tree was a great place for the bird to observe the scene and for us to observe the bird! I took my pictures through a pane in the French door near our breakfast area…a lazy bit of birding on a cold morning.

Last Images from Texas

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I was checking my SD cards in all my cameras and discovered some ‘new’ images from my last days in Texas during November.

There were still roses blooming on the oldest rosebush at my parents (about 30 years old)..

The cosmos were attracting butterflies. There might have been monarchs migrating through since some seemed larger than others.

The place still had a look of summer.

Over at Josey Ranch Lake….there was a different story. More winter migrants had arrived.

Scaups

American Wigeon

Pied-bill Grebe

There were also more American Coots that before…and they were not happy to have so many of their kind around…squabbles were happening frequently with one or both birds running across the surface of the water.

A Great Egret was hunting in the shallows and

A Great Blue Heron had waded into deeper water for a bath.

Overall….the images were a way to savor the good experience of my weeks in Texas last month.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 4, 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.

How driverless cars will change our world – A little realism in the projections….rather than hype. Hopefully by the time I am old enough to no longer want to drive myself, driverless car options will be convenient and safe.

Ubiquitous food additive alters human microbiota and intestinal environment – The research was about carboxy methyl cellulose specifically. As I read the article, I wondered if this additive -that isn’t really about the nutritional value of the food at all – is one of the ways ultraprocessed foods are bad for us in unintended ways.

120 Volt Heat Pump Water Heaters Hit the Market and Make Gas Replacements Even Easier – This is good news. I’ll be watching as these come on the market…see how they are reviewed. I am assuming a line will quickly form with people wanting to replace their gas hot water heaters!

When Wildfire comes to Nature Conservancy Preserves – The preserves are managed with prescribed burns and forest thinning…and can provide examples of effective ways of managing wild areas against destruction by wildfire.

Children’s Teeth Reveal Breastfeeding Practices in Ancient Peru – A detailed study of the remains of 48 children from 2,500 years ago revealed that they were breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life and were weaned when they were about 2.6 years old. I wonder how many other ancient cultures have been studied this way.

Transparent Solar Windows: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – If solar windows could be produced at reasonable cost….a lot of people would be motivated to replace their windows/power their house. There is a pleasing aesthetic to this type of solar power too.

Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots is a Smart Green Move – A great idea…hopefully it becomes the norm. The first one I noticed was at the Patuxent Research Refuge.

Top 25 birds of the week: Nectar Feeding Birds – Always worth looking at some bird pictures!

The Colon Cancer Conundrum – Research is trying to determine why rates of colorectal cancer are climbing in younger adults….staying level for other age groups.

Our National Monuments, a Photographic Testimonial to Wild America – Some more places I want to visit (via an extended road trip perhaps).

eBotanical Prints – November 2021

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20 botanical print books browsed in November and added to the list. There were several topics that show up several times in the list this month: grasses and grasslands, language of flowers, rock gardens,  ferns, and plants in particular geographical areas if the US. The age range of the publications is from 1808 to 2007…just under 200 years.

The whole list of 2,269 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the November books is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the November eBotanical Prints!

Rich Grasslands for Missouri Landowners * Missouri Department of Conservation * sample image * 2007

The Floral forget me not; A gift for all seasons * H.F.Anners (publisher) * sample image * 1854

The Language of flowers : an alphabet of floral emblems * T. Nelson and Sons (publisher) * sample image * 1858

The Language and poetry of flowers : with beautiful illustrations * Geo. A. Leavitt (publisher) * sample image * 1867

Collectio plantarum tam exoticarum, quam indigenarum, cum delineatione, descriptione culturaque earum V3 * Wendland, Johann Christoph * sample image * 1808

The Gentians of Canada, Alaska, & Greenland * Gillett, John M. * sample image * 1963

Plant studies for artists, designers, and art students * Haite, George Charles * sample image * 1886

Alpines and bog plants * Farrer, Reginald John * sample image * 1908

My Rock Garden * Farrer, Reginald John * sample image * 1907

The English Rock Garden * Farrer, Reginald John * sample image * 1919

Hortus gramineus Woburnensis or, an account of the results of experiments on the produce, and nutritive qualities of different grasses, and other plants, used as the food of the more valuable domestic animals - 1816 * Sinclair, George * sample image * 1816

Hortus gramineus Woburnensis or, an account of the results of experiments on the produce, and nutritive qualities of different grasses, and other plants, used as the food of the more valuable domestic animals - 1826 * Sinclair, George * sample image * 1826

Flora of West Virginia * Millspaugh, Charles Frederick * sample image * 1892

An illustrated guide to the flowering plants of the middle Atlantic and New England states * Stevens, George Thomas * sample image * 1910

Toadstools at Home * Hastings, Somerville * sample image * 1906

The vines of northeastern America : fully illustrated from original sketches * Newhall, Charles Stedman * sample image * 1897

The shrubs of northeastern America * Newhall, Charles Stedman * sample image * 1897

Our Native Ferns V1 * Lowe, Edward Joseph * sample image * 1865

Our Native Ferns V2 * Lowe, Edward Joseph * sample image * 1865

A Natural History of British Grasses * Lowe, Edward Joseph * sample image * 1858

A few more notes from November…

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As November is ending - there are a few more items I want to post about….

My 90-year-old mother still enjoys making breakfast herself and my dad. I photographed one of her more elaborate breakfasts when I was visiting: microwaved sausage patty, sauteed peppers, mushrooms and onions + cheesy eggs from a skillet, and a freezer biscuit heated in a toaster oven. I’m glad that modern conveniences (microwave ovens, precooked sausage patties, frozen biscuits) make it easier for her to prepare meals.

A brown-headed cowbird visited out deck on a cold morning….alone, looking very round scrunched down in the cold. It stayed around for a bit. I wondered if it had become separated from a flock or was just enjoying the sunshine and relative safety of our deck.

The sun backlighting oak leaves gives their color more definition. This was a morning that the grass was frosty; by the time I took the picture the frost was beginning to melt but it still added a sparkle around the leaves.

My husband was out at a county park/astronomy site for the lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of the 19th. It was cold but he was prepared for that and stayed until the clouds obscured the moon about 5 AM. He took lots of photos!

Finally – I enjoy finding ways to reuse single use plastic. I’m not sure whether this was a bowl or a dome from a food purchase….but it makes an excellent stand for my laptop when I am using an external keyboard! It allows for plenty of air circulation around the laptop, raises it off the surface of the desk (in case I spill something), and the light shining through it is appealing too!

Zooming – November 2021

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Three locations for my zoomed image collection this month: Maryland (home), Texas (Carrollton), Missouri (Springfield). Enjoy the slideshow of the whole group then look below for thumbnails by location!

Maryland

Texas

Missouri

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2021

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Celebrating a month of Thanksgiving…

A 90th birthday.  Both my parents turned 90 this year. I couldn’t be there for the 1st one (wasn’t vaccinated yet) but celebrated the 2nd on my last trip to Texas in 2021.

Coconut wind chimes. There are wind chimes outside the bedroom I use in Texas….and there were several days where the wind was brisk enough for their sound to be my evening lullaby….a celebration of the day.

Josey Ranch birds. The winter birds in Carrolton, TX are probably more exciting than the summer ones. I celebrated that I was there for their arrive this fall.

Fall foliage…and mowing leaves. The burst of color that is the last hurrah of summer foliage is always worth celebrating. This fall I saw more along the road as I travelled between Maryland and Texas than I did at my house….so I celebrated the effectiveness of mowing the still colorful leaves after I got home.

Narrow bridges over the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. A little driving adventure…a route not taken before. I celebrated an uneventful and scenic hour on two lane roads going from Missouri to Kentucky…particularly the bridges over the big rivers.

Cuddle socks. I love the thick socks I wear in the winter indoors; I celebrate the way they feel and my sister that bought them for me every time I put them on.

Hike with volunteer group. Celebrating being outdoors with people that enjoy it as much as I do…lots of shared field trip experiences before the pandemic and slowly starting up again.

New low weight for the year. Taking off weight requires a lot of focus so I celebrate every ‘new low.’ In November it happened just before Thanksgiving (which, of course, was a couple of weight-gain days!)

Daughter’s visit for Thanksgiving. Finally, we celebrated the holiday with a visit from my daughter. It was the first time she and my husband had seen each other since before the pandemic.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 4, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Predatory Birds – Starting out the gleanings list this week with birds…and photography.

The ingenious living bridges of India – Maybe other kinds of structures could be grown instead of built. The bridges look like Ewok structures from Star Wars movies!

Watch Over 150 Bison Weave Through Traffic in Yellowstone as Winter Migration Begins – I remember bison on the roadway during the early summer we went to South Dakota more than 20 years ago. It is an awesome experience to see them – using the car as a blind.

Chocolate: From Witchcraft to Miracle Worker in Early Modern Europe – A little history of chocolate as it was introduced to Spain.

More than ceremonial, ancient Chaco Canyon was home, new study says – I’ve only visited Chaco Canyon once…want to go again.

Richly Adorned Egyptian Tomb Could Rewrite the History of Mummification – Maybe….there is still testing to be done before the mummy in the tomb is confirmed to be old enough to be the man the tomb was built to hold.

Surprising Tales of Toxic Animals – I enjoyed the historical perspective in the information about several of the animals.

A diet of essential amino acids could keep dementia at bay – I wonder how long it will be before the patent for the supplement is awarded…..and it is released as a supplement. Hopefully there will be testing him humans beforehand.

This New Installation Pulled 20,000 Pounds of Plastic From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – We need to stop producing messes….and clean up the ones we’ve already created. This is one attempt to start a massive cleanup of plastics that are in our oceans.

Bone-loss discovery points to new treatment for osteoporosis – I am glad there is ongoing research on this issue since the existing treatments don’t seem to work that well….often have side effects. Hopefully there will be more effective treatments by the time I might need them.

National Park Service Publications on Internet Archive

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Last September - I browsed 18 publications from the National Park Service that have been scanned and are freely available on Internet Archive. They are all decades old….reflect history of the places. The oldest one is from 1917 (The National Parks Portfolio) which is clearly a snapshot from the early years of National Parks. I was particularly interested in the “Astronomy and astrophysics national historic landmark theme study” published in 1989 – the year my daughter was born and she has grown up to be an astrophysicist! The only park I visited before the publication was Yosemite; the publication is from 1990 and I visited in 1984. I’ve provided a sample image for each volume. Enjoy some armchair traveling with some browsing via Internet Archive…find some correlations in the publications and your own life.

Wind Cave, 1979

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 1980

Astronomy and astrophysics national historic landmark theme study, 1989

Thanksgiving

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So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:

My family staying healthy through the pandemic

My daughter coming for Thanksgiving – the first time she has seen her Dad since before the pandemic

So much good food for the day – some traditional and some new this year (strawberry rhubarb pie and orange corn meal muffins)

Weather good enough for a walk after the big meal

A decoration for the front door that can be composted after the 2021 holidays

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mowing Leaves

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There were several days with no rain…conditions were finally right to mow the leaves. There were a lot more leaves than our usual because no mowing occurred in the two weeks I was gone to Texas and the trees in the back of the house seemed to drop all their leaves over a couple of days instead of weeks. I did a before and after picture of the back yard.

The maple and sycamore leaves were thick back there with some oak leaves that had blown over the house or from a neighbors’ trees. Some of the sycamore leaves were bigger than dinner plates and were thick enough to make a different sound when the lawn mower chopped them up. I had raked a pile of them off the deck (there is one corner that they seem to collect in) and others from under the deck since I didn’t want to mow the ferns that are growing there.

Mowing over the areas of thickest leaves must have thrown up a lot of dust because I found my eyes itching and coughed several times. I need goggles and a mask! Maybe I’ll remember for the leaf mowing next fall.

Volunteer Celebration Hike

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The Howard Country Conservancy chose a great day for a hike in Howard County’s Western Regional Park for their volunteers. While we were gathering in the parking lot, a bald eagle soared overhead….starting the celebration!

It was an easy hike on paved trails for about 1.5 miles. The day was sunny and crisp…perfect for being outdoors. Most of the leaves had fallen but there were still a few trees full of fall color….and even the bare branches looked ‘new’ with their leaves recently blown away.

My attention for most of the hike was more focused on conversations with fellow volunteers than on the scenery of the hike. It was good to socialize…begin to emerge from the limited social interactions that happened during the pandemic.

One sighting in the woods: a large wasp nest high in a tree. It would not have been visible when the leaves were on the trees.  Now that it is no longer maintained by the wasps, it will begin to deteriorate. It seemed precariously attached to the tree branch; I wondered how long it would stay in the tree.

Overall an excellent morning and we all munched on cookies that looked like pumpkin pie slices before heading home!