Missouri to Maryland

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We made the road trip back from Missouri – having walked through the house we are buying and brief by the house inspector (the final results were still pending, but we did get to talk with the inspector about the house while he was in the house). The route was a reverse of the one we had taken from Maryland (see my post here). The weather was dry both days….much appreciated. The temperatures stayed cool even though the sun was shining most of the time. On the first day, our route started in Springfield, Missouri, crossed southern Illinois and Indiana, and ended in Lexington, Kentucky.

The part in Missouri parallels old Route 66…one of the rest stops highlights that history. Evidence of spring is easy to find at every stop.

I wondered how long the leaning tree near one of the picnic areas - caught by neighboring trees before it could reach the ground - would stay in that precarious position.

I zoomed in on the back of one of the horse sculptures at the Kentucky welcome center: Peacock feathers!

The next morning we left before sunrise and I took a picture the sunrise blush silhouetting trees on a ridge. The route the second day was from Lexington, Kentucky, through West Virginia, and ended at home in central Maryland.

More spring: dandelions already going to seed before the other plants in the bed even have buds, red buds planted along the roadway and rest stop parking lots, azaleas just beginning their bloom, daffodils still blooming in the mountains (done for the season at lower elevations). There was enough breeze to extend the flags in West Virginia…but not at the same time!

And then we reached Maryland. The scenic overlook/welcome center had good views of the lake and daffodils were still blooming there. The Sidling Hill stop had yellow tulips. And then we didn’t need to the stop at South Mountain. We were keen to be home!

Even though the weather was good for driving, my husband and I realized during our first day driving that our two days in Springfield had not been long enough to recover from the trek to Missouri. He was having lots of neck and shoulder aches and I was feeling exhausted. We agreed that short turn around trips with that much driving should be avoided from now on!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 23, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Virologists Identify More Than 5,000 New Viruses in the Ocean – Another indication that we still have a lot to learn about life on our planet.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Habitats! – Beautiful birds! I always enjoy seeing photographs…seeing birds I know and some I don’t!

The Jumping Slugs of the Pacific Northwest – A little different than the slugs I’ve seen. These have a vestigial shell on the top of their ‘hump.’ There was a new-to-me skeletal name in the article: slugs have a hydrostatic skeleton!

Aging clocks aim to predict how long you’ll live – Really? The value of the various aging clocks is still TBD.

Wildflower Fungi – This post was from the Master Naturalist group in Springfield MO. I am paying more attention now that I am moving to the area.

Deforestation drives climate change that harms remaining forest – Deforestation causes changes in a regions air temperature and precipitation…instigating changes in the whole region rather than just the part where the forest was removed.

Scientists Identify 50,000th Spider Species on Earth—but Thousands More Are Waiting to Be Discovered – It’s humbling to realize that there is so much about our world that we don’t know….have not discovered.

Amid Hopes and Fears, a plastic boom in Appalachia is on hold – Another sad trend in Appalachia…still hitching their future to fossil fuels. The jobs look good but the long-term jobs are few and the market for their products is not a positive one. Everyone wants to reduce single use plastics as much as possible.

Study suggests tree-filled spaces are more favorable to child development than paved or grassy surfaces – Playgrounds need more trees!

Germany’s Nature Society Crowns the 2022 Nature Photographer of the Year – The first picture is of a male kestrel. That caught my attention…and then I browsed the rest of the photos.

Springfield Botanical Garden – April 2022

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The tulips were beginning their big bloom at the Springfield Botanical Garden when I visited in mid-April. The sunny day made their colors pop. Much of the rest of the garden may be just waking up but the tulips are in their glory.

The Master Gardeners were out working to get the demonstrations gardens prepped for the season….it was a dry day between two days of rain.

We walked over to the garden’s Botanical Center….more tulips in the planters and a surprise: columbines! It was windy but I managed to get a passable photo.

Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden

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I’d been to the Springfield (Missouri) Botanical Garden before…but not the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden part of it. It was a treat to see it during a free afternoon on our quick trip to Springfield to see our new house.

It was a cool, sunny spring day…not as Zen as the garden probably is on most days because the mowers were at work. The noise does not ‘show’ in the images, so I find myself enjoying the gardens even more via the photos! I was on a mission to photograph the lanterns/sculptures of the garden.

Next time I go – I will stroll. I’m planning to become a member of the place after we move and visit frequently.

Springfield Yard – April 2022

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The stars of my daughter’s yard in mid-April are the redbud and cherry trees. She has two of each. The cherry trees are about the same size, but the redbuds are very different – a large tree in the back yard and a younger tree in the front yard.

As I was looking at the younger redbud in the front, I noticed that the huge oak in her neighbor’s yard had been cut down. I had noticed it had a crack in it and thought it needed to be seen by an arborist since it was so large that it would have taken out a house (or two) or blocked the street if it came down in an uncontrolled way. Still - it’s sad that the tree had to come down. It had probably been planted when the houses were built in the 1950s. My daughter has an oak of the same vintage in her yard. She’s already planning to have an arborist to look at that tree…and the rest of her trees.

She has an aging dogwood that is blooming right now but there are quite a few dead branches, and part of the trunk has no bark. Can it be saved? It’s small enough that it could die in place in the next few years and then be cut down.

Maryland to Missouri – a road trip as passenger

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I’ve been making road trips between my home in Maryland to Missouri on my own until recently when my husband went with me to see the house we are buying. It was so different to be a passenger rather than driving myself!

The route was familiar and there were no cold weather hazards this time. More daylight made it possible for us to start the drive before 7 in daylight – leaving behind the fading blooms on the cherry and plum tree in the front of our Maryland home.

The first day of the trek was the easiest; it was cloudy with mists and sprinkles…occasional sunshine.

The daffodils were still in full bloom at the South Mountain rest stop; the elevation makes a difference; the flowers have already faded at hour home closer to Washington DC/Baltimore.

I took a few extra minutes at Sidling Hill to photograph the road cut. It is awesome.

There were plenty of rest stops along the way – a quick walk to the facilities through the damp.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

And the bridges at Louisville KY.

We stopped for the night at a hotel in Corydon, IN that has a historical marker in its parking lot!

The next day was harder after we were about halfway through the drive – very heavy rain. The early rest stops still held some beauty – trees on ridges, violets and spring beauties and dandelions.

It was safe to take pictures of the arch at St. Louis because I wasn’t driving!

The pictures taken at the rest stops in Missouri were through the window because of the rain. For some reason the fire hydrant near a picnic table tickled me.

And then we were at our hotel…glad that the heavy rain did not include lots of thunder/lightning and high winds that had been part of the forecast.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 16, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Purple gallinule with chicks – I remember seeing an adult purple gallinule on a birding field trip in Florida. Aren’t the chicks cute? Little black fluffs.

Reproductive factors and dementia risk – Hurray! My life events skew toward reduced dementia risk…according to this study.

Macro photos reveal the often unseen beauty and diversity of slime molds – Hmmm…maybe I should hone my observational skills to find these on my next hike…attempt some macro photography of them.

As EV Sales Soar, Automakers Back Higher Fuel Standards – So glad that industry is finally onboard…projecting a ‘we can do it’ attitude. I’d rather society take action…build some optimism into our view about the future rather than being depressed by trends that seem dystopian.

Beginner’s Tips for Identifying Backyard Bird Nests – It’s the nesting time of year! Look…id…don’t disturb!

Ozone may be heating the plant more than we realize – We’ve been concerned about ozone in the upper atmosphere for years (hence the Montreal Protocol) but this study also points to ozone in the lower atmosphere (caused by chemical reactions between pollutants like vehicle exhaust fumes and other emissions) as contributing to climate change as well. Until now, we thought of lower atmosphere ozone as a health problem (I get headaches if I am outdoors on a high ozone day, for example). This research says that it also is contributing to climate change by affectioning ocean heat uptake.

American Lung Association Says EVs Save Lives – Good for our health….and also for the planet. I also noted that where I live now is in the American Lung Associations Tops 10 US urban areas at risk from airborne pollution…another reason to move away from this area!

New Technology Employed to Protect Pompeii – A four-legged robot used to gather data on structural and safety issues.

Flamingo that escaped from a zoo in Kansas is spotted once again in Texas 17 years later – The flamingo is a species from Tanzania….and must be a very lonely bird.

Brain charts for the human lifespan – Normative trajectories derived from over 100,000 MRI scans that allow quantification of individual variation. Figure 1 in the post can be enlarged by simply clicking on the image.

Shades of Spring Green

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The dominate color of spring is green….in a lot of different shades. There are the greens that have suffered through the winter – usually darker like the holly and other evergreen bushes below. And then there is the new growth:

Pale greens like the new leaves of day lilies (nibbled by deer), tree leaves just unfurling (cherry and tulip poplar)

Blue tinged greens of the spring bulbs (daffodils and iris)

Yellowish greens of new nine bark leaves, and

Bright green of new moss growth and grass and violets and weeds.

I couldn’t resist the including the bright yellow of the dandelion blooms with all the green!

Food for the Road

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I’ve honed the food I take with me on road trips during the pandemic…until recently wanting to have everything I would need to eat in the car. Now I am more likely to be comfortable getting takeout for a meal. The motivation is shifting to 1) the types of foods that are often hard to find on the road (fruits and vegetables) and 2) minimizing the time stopped for food during the driving day.

My favorite veggies and fruits for the road are ones I can prep to eat while I am driving: celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, carrot chips or sticks, turnip wedges, bell pepper strips, small cucumbers with the ends cut off. Apples are OK but they need be cleaned, labels removed…and there is a core afterward.

I’ve tried freezing grapes – using them as part of the ‘ice’ when I first start the trip; they aren’t as easy to eat going down the road after they thaw (too squishy and sticky). I

t takes some prep to get the veggies into shape for going down the road. Sometimes I pack them in jars/bins…but they are easier to eat going down the road in Ziplocs; I am accumulating a collection of reusable, resealable bags! Otherwise, the ice chest has water (frozen in the bottom of the bottles). Soft drinks are very easy to buy from vending machines or places I stop to buy gas….no need to take ice chest space for those.

Outside the ice chest – I always have dark chocolate, protein bars and mixed nuts for the road…bags of microwave popcorn for the hotel rooms (the rooms I book always have a small refrigerator and microwave).

My favorite quick meal along the way is a McDonalds Breakfast Burrito. I can eat it while driving and one is a perfect size for my 2nd breakfast!

Sometimes I have a protein in the ice chest – some chicken salad or microwavable frozen chicken/veggie nuggets. If it’s just me, I often decided that I really don’t want to leave the hotel once I am there….it feels good to not be out and about after driving all day!

A road trip with my husband will require more takeout meals but hopefully after we get to our destination for the night. The food he likes to eat going down the road is more limited than mine…skewed toward fruit rather than veggies. I’ll take a larger ice chest to make sure we both have foods that we like to eat while we are going down the road!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 9, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Winners of Wildlife Photography Competition Show the Power of Water – Starting out the gleanings list with some eye candy this week.

Personality traits are associated with well-being and satisfaction in life after work – My husband and I have transitioned to ‘life after work’ and seem to have easily established ‘new fulfilling life patterns.’ In an odd way, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped us focus on the most important aspects of those patterns.

A New Study of the Permian Basin – a US oil-drippling hotspot is kicking out far more methane that we thought – I keep thinking that the technology to reduce emissions in the fossil fuel extraction process has improved from the early days. Maybe it has…maybe the hasn’t. The industry may not be motivates. Is it all about maximizing profits for them and their stockholders…everyone else doesn’t matter?

Toad Wisdom – A story of webs of life from the Prairie Ecologist.

European earthworms reduce insect populations in North American forest – Even small invasive species can have a significant impact.

Mapping Inequality – Redlining in New Deal America – An introduction….then downloads and data for maps for urban areas across the US from the 1930s.

Top 25 birds of the week: birds on flowers – Enjoy some photographs of birds…flowers…springtime!

Scents help researchers identify contents of Egyptian vessels – The smells of ancient Egypt!

Norway at new record high 92% plugin EV share in March – Hopefully the EV share in the US will start climbing more rapidly.

“Flash droughts” coming on faster, global study shows – Extreme weather….not all on the wet side.

eBotanical Prints – March 2022

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20 botanical print books browsed in March and added to the list. The month continued the browsing of Refugium Botanicum volumes that I started in February. The publication dates are all from the mid-1800s (1851-1872)….and lots of color rather than drawings.

The whole list of 2,350 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the March 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

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

Refugium botanicum V3 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1870

Refugium botanicum V4 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1869

Refugium botanicum V5 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1869

L'Horticulteur Francais 1851 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1851

L'Horticulteur Francais 1852 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1852

L'Horticulteur Francais 1854 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1854

L'Horticulteur Francais 1855 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1855

L'Horticulteur Francais 1856 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1856

L'Horticulteur Francais 1858 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1858

L'Horticulteur Francais 1860 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1860

L'Horticulteur Francais 1862 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1862

L'Horticulteur Francais 1865 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1865

L'Horticulteur Francais 1866 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1866

L'Horticulteur Francais 1867 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1867

L'Horticulteur Francais 1868 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1868

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T2 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1872

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T1 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1870

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T3 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1872

Horticulture: végétaux d'ornement * Dupuis, Aristide; Henrincq, Francois * sample image * 1871

Horticulture: Jardin potager et jardin fruitier * Henricq, Francois; Gerard, Frederic * sample image * 1872

Cherry Blossoms

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Our cherry tree was blooming when I returned from Texas and retained enough blossoms through the rain and wind of my first days back to be worth photographing on the next sunny day. The temperatures were cool (almost cold) which probably slowed down the blooming.

I was most interested in getting macro pictures of the flowers and buds with the clip-on lens my husband got for me in December. There are a few leaves that are beginning to unfurl but the blossoms dominate.

The trees in our yard are progressing in the usual order. The red maple blooming first; that happened before I went to Texas; the seeds are forming now. Then the plum; there are still some battered blooms but there are more leaves than flowers at this point. Both the plum and cherry look better this year because they were professionally trimmed last fall.

The tulip poplar has green buds but will be a few weeks before the flowers open. The leaves are already more visible on the tulip poplars than any of our other trees.

Watching the trees emerge from winter is a rite of spring…always worth observing/photographing.

Coming Home from Texas

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The morning I left Texas, I was up early to treat my bug bites and the sensitive skin left from my round of hives. The bites were my main concern…lots of calamine lotion on them to stave off itching. I did the last bit of loading into the car; my parents woke up a little early to see me off. It was dark when I set out. There was about an hour when the sun was in my eyes after the sun came up, but the weather was crisp and clear - great for driving.

I stopped at a Pilot for a rest stop in Texas (and to get my morning caffeine). The upper part of the wall was decorated with ‘Texas tourist art’.

The part of my route in Arkansas was easy…just a little construction around the cities but didn’t slow me down.

The last rest stop in Arkansas had a tree with a fresh wound…a big branch must have come off recently. .

I crossed the Mississippi into Tennessee at Memphis heading toward Nashville. The drive was easy enough that I talked with my daughter on the phone (through my car) - noticing areas of recently downed trees along the highway and a kettle of birds (I think they were pelicans…certainly were not vultures…at 70 mph I didn’t take my eyes off the road for better identification).

I turned north at Nashville toward Bowling Green, KY which would be my stop for the first night. Overall – I made it to Bowling Green 20 minutes earlier than my car’s projected ETA first thing in the morning! It was a long day of trouble-free driving.

The next morning, I got up even earlier since I was trying to get myself back to east coast time. It was dark when I set out again even though I was on the eastern side of the central time zone. The driving was easy at first. It was a weekday but I managed to miss rush hours in the few cities along the way.

By late morning I was in West Virginia and enjoying the scenery….shortly after a long highway construction/special closure caused a 30 minute delay but the weather was good and the rest stops along the highway were frequent.

After a rest stop that included buying gas as I got close western Maryland – I got a rude surprise: snow and wind. I didn’t stop at the first rest stop in Maryland. It was white knuckle driving by then and continued for about an hour through Garrett and most of Allegany Counties. I was lucky that I68 did not have much traffic and few trucks. Everyone slowed. And we all made it through to Sidling Hill where it was cold but not snowing at all! My car was covered with salt, grit…and melting ice.

The sensor in my windshield gave an error that cleared after I use the wiper fluid/wipers so the adaptive cruise control functioned through it all. By the time I got home I had calmed down a little from the stress from that hour of hard driving. The exhaustion from the two days of driving (or maybe more the last afternoon) set in the next day. I took a long nap!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 2, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Where Have All the (Big) Cypress Trees Gone ... And Are They Coming Back? – The cypress stands survived logging but they may never again be as dominant as they were before. The largest trees now are about 3.5 feet diameter; the largest stumps from logging are about 5 feet diameter.

8 bird migrations, from past to present – The annual movement of birds is a part of spring….part of the yearly progression.

Cherry Blossom Time In Washington, D.C. – I was glad to get home in time to see the cherry tree in our yard bloom; it’s a little behind the trees in DC (we are a little north and not on the water).

Nature Conservancy to build solar farms at abandoned coal mines in Virginia – And thus an energy producing community, continues…leaning into the future!

The sound of Merlin: like Shazam, but for birds – An app that IDs birds by their songs…a learning experience to take on a walk.

Higher risk of temperature-related death if global warming exceeds 2°C – We’ll have to be more aware of heatwaves. Perhaps we would modify our behavior during those times…and medical interventions might help. There is a heat threshold above which our bodies are not adapted very well…that will cause increasing problems.

Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape – Another perspective of Tolkien…through his art rather than writing.

No breathing easy for city dwellers: particulates – Southeast Asia has seen the largest annual average increases in concentration and mortality rates between 2000 and 2019 from this type of air pollution.

How climate change is leading to bigger hailstones – The records for the largest hailstones have been broken in the last 3 years in Texas, Colorado and Alabama….reaching sizes of up to 6.2 inches in diameter. Large hail causes a lot of damage…if the incidence of large hail increases the damage/costs will trend higher too; the post includes a picture of a car damaged by large hail…daunting to anyone that doesn’t have their car parked in a garage.

Missouri Man Indicted For Fire That Destroyed Ozark National Scenic Riverways Visitor Station – I am paying more attention to news about natural areas in Missouri…now that I am preparing to move to the state. It’s sad when this type of destruction occurs – hard to fathom why someone would burn a visitor station.

Zooming – March 2022

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When I use my bridge camera, pictures are composed using the zoom on the camera. I chose 9 to feature in this post; they’ve already appeared in other posts with others from the same location, but I like to pull my favorites together as a way of summarizing the locations I enjoyed in March: home, Brookside Gardens, a yard in Carrollton TX and Josey Ranch Lake (Carrollton)…seasonal representatives of the usual types of subjects: plants, insects, birds.

Carrollton Yard in Early Spring – Macro

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I posted about the larger view of the Carrollton yard last week; today the post is from the macro perspective. I started indoors where my mother had some vases of spring blooms (daffodils and hyacinths) that looked cheery.

A few days later, I walked around the yard…the hyacinths and daffodils were mostly spent so I photographed other flowers: oxalis, Japanese quince, dandelion. The dandelion is my favorite.

The new rose leaves were not wet…but the new leaves must have some waxy material that protects them from cold temperatures this time of year.

A larger rock under one of the old mulberries had several kinds of lichen growing on it. The encrustations overlap and I found myself wondering if, in the overlap, are they melding or overlapping. Lichen are an organism that operate on an entirely different timescale than me do; some might continue to slowly grow and dissolve their rock for thousands of years.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 26, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

How triple-pane windows stop energy (and money) from flying out the window – How long will it be before all window replacements and windows in new houses will be triple paned? I guess is depends a lot on affordability….and then availability. I like that they reduce noise too.

Yellowstone At 150: Challenges Go More Than Crowd-Deep – A post about Yellowstone’s past, present…projections for the future. My husband and I have only visited the park once…hopefully we’ll be able to see it again.

Beware the joro spider. Scientists say the giant, but harmless, arachnid is spreading – A native of Japan…it has been in the southeastern US for the past decade. It may be poised to continue up the eastern seaboard. Fortunately, they are not lethal to humans and the eat mosquitos/stink bugs.

Top 25 birds of the week: Seedeaters! – We see some of these at our birdfeeders!  

Cognitive Bias Codex, 2016 – A graphic I had not seen before….very thought provoking.

Revealing an Ice Age Route of Indigenous Peoples – Vancouver Island…analyzing lake sediments. One of them, Topknot Lake, was evidently never covered by glaciers so the sediment was very deep.

Hidden dangers lurking in your kitchen - A little history…and one that is relevant to my house hunting: I don’t want to buy a house with gas stove…if I do, it will be replaced with an electric ASAP.

Common house plants can improve air quality indoors – Modern homes are more airtight than ever…and indoor air quality can become a problem. Good to know that plants can help – and they are generally aesthetically pleasing too.

Spring is starting sooner and growing warmer – (A color coded map) Almost the whole US is experiencing earlier Spring. A small area of North and South Dakota is the exception.

Here are the world’s 25 most endangered cultural heritage sites – The post is a summary from Smithsonian Magazine. More details are available from the World Monuments Fund. There are sites in Ukraine that are in danger from the war there – will probably be on the next list (Smithsonian post and article with pictures of the 7 Ukranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Carrollton Yard in Early Spring

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I walked around my parent’s yard in Carrollton and took some pictures of winter giving way to spring. The greenery is still sparse enough that the debris from last season is visible. There are a few tiny flowers (note the pentagon in the center).

Some English Ivy is climbing the old mulberry. In recent years, several mulberries in their yard have been cut down (before they fell). They were probably planted shortly after the house was built.

The hyacinths are about done for the year. There were not as many daffodils this year. The Japanese Quince is an early bloomer with wonderful color.

In the front yard there are grape hyacinths around the base of another mulberry.

The high point of my walk-around was noticing an insect under a dandelion! It walked out of the shade…posed for a portrait.

This time of year…the yard views are more nuanced than they will be later which there will be a riot of perennials/annuals and warmth loving flowering bushes. I look forward to seeing them - anticipating being in Carrollton more this year as I move to Springfield MO. The the trek to see my parents from my new home will be much easier than from Maryland.

Springfield Yard Macro – 1

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Last week, I walked around my daughter’s yard with my macro lens. I focused on the trees as first; none if them are leafing out yet…my theme shifted from buds to bark. There was a good collection of lichen and moss on the older maple by her garden room. I like the different textures of the lichen and how green the moss looks even when the temperatures are still relatively cold.

Perhaps the most spectacular ‘bark’ was on the river birch. There are layers of bark that can look like sandstone….or overviews of the desert southwest (complete with some green in one image). But these are all macro images of a river birch tree trunk.

A cherry lenticel. In our area of Maryland some cherry trees were already beginning to bloom…but not this one in Springfield.

A healed wound where a branch was cut – or broke – a long time ago in the life of a large oak probably planted in the 1950s when the house was built. The neighborhood is full of 70-year-old oaks. Some are not in good shape. This one had a large branch removed well before my daughter bought the house. The branches the tree normally sheds are relatively small…normal for a healthy oak.

Tomorrow---the rest of the macro pictures from my walk around the yard….

Bani Hasan Part IV from the Egypt Exploration Fund

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Bani Hasan Part IV was published in 1893 by the Egypt Exploration Fund. It is a small volume (82 pages) available on Internet Archive as are some of the other volumes in the series…but this one was my favorite. It includes ancient Egyptian depictions of birds and animals as well as activities of daily life. I’ve selected 4 sample images from the volume.

I learned from the Wikipedia entry that:

  • Beni Hasan is an ancient Egyptian cemetery that spans the 21st and 17th centuries BCE…primarily the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt. The tombs are famous for the quality of their paintings.

  • Howard Carter (famous for discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb) spent a season there in 1891 as a teenager – producing watercolors of the tomb paintings. (He is listed on the title page of this book along with others.)

  • The paintings are now in poor condition.