Cosmos and chives

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At my home in Missouri, we had some overnight frosts. That was not the case in Carrollton, Texas where I spent the last week of October. The cosmos flowers were still blooming!

There were still buds and insects too!

Before I left to come home, I decided to collect seeds from the chives to plant around the edges of some flower beds in my Missouri home next spring.

The plants had formed, and the capsules had popped open. The rain had knocked the seed heads over and into the still-green leaves and steppingstones.

The plants had formed, and the capsules had popped open. The rain had knocked the seed heads over and into the still-green leaves and steppingstones.

I picked up the heads carefully and used scissors to cut the stem…collected a bin full of them. They were still wet from the rain, so I opted to cut more of the stem part of the head away and spread the seeds/capsules on a paper towel to dry. I brought them home in a recycled envelope. They are now emptied into a box in my office – keeping dry – ready for planted after the last frost next spring!

eBotanical Prints – October 2022

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20 botanical books in October. I continued to enjoy books about gladioli – finding them in September but saving them to browse in October; they are catalogs from a nursery that specialized in the bulbs that was in Indiana. I will probably plant some gladioli bulbs next spring…bring back some memories of my grandparents growing them for cut flowers during my childhood summers.   

There was a botanical atlas and textbook this month. And - I found quite a few publications by German botanists in October; 13 of the 20 books are in German!

The whole list of 2,492 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the October 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 October 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Kunderd gladioli : 1925 / A.E. Kunderd * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1925

Fourteen weeks in botany : being an illustrated flora  * Wood, Alphoso; Steele, Joel Dorman * sample image * 1879

Kunderd gladioli : 1922 * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1922

The Botanical Atlas: A Guide to the Practical Study of Plants, containing Representatives of the Leading Forms of Plant Life, Vol. II * M'Alpine, Daniel * sample image * 1883

Kunderd gladioli for 1923 * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1923

Kunderd gladioli for 1929 * Kunderd, A.E. * sample image * 1929

Lehrbuch der praktischen Pflanzenkunde in Wort und Bild * Hoffmann, Carl  * sample image * 1880

Die Coniferen und die Gnetaceen V2 * Strasburger, Eduard * sample image * 1872

A text-book of botany * Strasburger, Eduard; Schenck, Heinrich; Noll, Fritz; Karsten, George; Lang, William Henry * sample image * 1908

Vegetationsbilder ser 1  * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1904

Vegetationsbilder ser 2 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1905

Vegetationsbilder ser 3 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1906

Vegetationsbilder ser 4 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1906

Vegetationsbilder ser 6 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1909

Vegetationsbilder ser 7 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1910

Vegetationsbilder ser 8 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1911

Vegetationsbilder ser 9 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1912

Vegetationsbilder ser 11 * Karsten, George; Schenck, Heinrich * sample image * 1914

Vegetationsbilder aus Südbrasilien * Wettstein, Richard * sample image * 1904

Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Vegetation der Canarischen Inseln Bd 2 T 1 Lief 2 * Schenck, Heinrich; Schimper, Andreas Franz Wilhelm * sample image * 1907

Springfield Conservation Nature Center

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A few days after the first hard frosts of the year in Springfield MO, we took a short hike on the Springfield Conservation Nature Center trails. The morning was cool and sunny – a near perfect fall day to be outdoors. The forest was full of color. One surprise: there seemed to be more green leaves on the ground than usual; perhaps the trees were caught by the frost before they could change color.

We spotted a young turtle sunning on a log…warming up.

A larger turtle climbed up on the same log. It went back in the water rather than joining the smaller one.

There were ducks preening/snoozing on a log in the water. Their legs and webbed feet looked very bright in the morning sun.

I couldn’t resist some macro images of late flowers…a few insects…even at caterpillar!

Our last ‘find’ of the morning was in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave: a praying mantis making its way across the asphalt!

A morning well spent….

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2022

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Ten little celebrations for October 2022 – selected from the ones I logged throughout the month. About half the little celebrations are from my trip to London, Ontario!

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. Our only sight-seeing stop on our road trip to London, Ontario was at a conservatory. It was just right – interesting for botanical photography and history….close to our route…and the weather was perfect. I celebrated that the stop was a great as I expected it to be!

French cheesecake. I celebrated that it tasted as good as it looked (and the Lactaid tablet enabled me to avoid a tummy ache).

Harvest festival (outdoor and indoor music at Covent Garden Market). A crisp fall day…an outdoor picnic court decorated with winter squashes…country music ---- then indoor for a salad at a bistro table on a balony above the market shops and music from a strings duo. Celebrating fall with my daughter!

The fall color in the first 2 hours of our drive (the Canadian part). The very first hours of our drive toward home from London, Ontario were the best fall foliage of the trip: maples and sumac were at their peak redness in the morning sunshine. Another celebration of the season!

Being home again. Returning from more than a week away….always brings a celebration of home….appreciating where I live.

A sunny day at home. We had two very cold days – but they were sunny. I celebrated the sun streaming in the windows…realized there were certain times of the morning that the sun shines onto my hands on my computer keyboard if the blinds are raised --- vowed to enjoy that as many mornings as possible this coming winter (and celebrate how great my Missouri house is!)

Finding a large bag of daffodil bulbs. The first place I looked for bulbs only had small bags….so I celebrated when I found one with 40 (and many of them were doubles). I am planting them in flowerbeds and around trees in our Missouri yard.

Haircut (short and neat). Celebrating my first haircut in Missouri…I should have done it earlier.

My new floaters are evidently not anything serious….probably just some normal aging. I had a scary experience --- noticing a flurry of new floaters in one eye and some of them seemem to be very bright. They were already reduced by the time I got to an eye doctor a day later…and he confirmed (after some testing) that they were probably normal and would continue to decline. I celebrated that they were not caused by some serious eye problem.

So many good books. I appreciate the online sources of books – particularly Internet Archive. This October it seems like every time I finish a book – or a series of books – there is another one that is just as interesting. I celebrate the ‘stacks’ in virtual libraries that are so huge they would not ever fit on a night stand or even in my house (much less be affordable to purchase). There is always something on hand to read these days!

Zooming – October 2022

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17 images in the zoom slideshow for October 2022. They are from Carrollton TX, Detroit MI, London ON, and Nixa, MO…maybe more locations than any month since before the COVID-19 pandemic!

October is a transition month with leaves beginning to turn colors and fall…more to come of that into November.  For now – enjoy some late blooming flowers and animals active on warmer days.

Unique Aspects of Days – October 2022

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Unique aspects of October….

Border crossing (US to Canada). This was not the only time I crossed the boarder from the US to Canada…but the first time in more than  decade…so rare enough to be unique for me. It was the first day of their new policy to no longer require documentation of COVID-19 vaccination….probabay made it a little faster than it would have been the day before.

Buying a baby present in Canada. Two aspects of uniqueness of this one: deciding that having a baby in my exended family is unique enough to buy an ad hoc present and enjoying shopping during vacation …wanting to buy something (and not always something for me).

Discovering that the fireplace vent was leaking cold air into my office and the hearth room upstairs. There was cold air from the bottom of our gas fireplace doors (the vent area) during our first cold weather of the season. The magnetic strip I ordered from Amazon has fixed the problem…and I am glad I noticed the problem so quickly.

Dry Cleaners. I hadn’t been to a dry cleaners in years. I probably could have taken the jackets I had been wearing for a couple of years several years ago…but then the pandemic stopped our being out and about. I aired the jackets and continued to wear them occasionally. When I went to a dry cleaners near our new house, I was the only customer…and the racks didn’t look very full either.

Exploding broccoli. I was pleased to find a cup of carrots, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli in one of the places we stopped on our way back from Canada. I had not anticated that the lid would be so hard to get off. As my daughter was pulling us out of the parking lot, I was working on the packaging…finding it a bit of a challenge…when the lid suddenly came off and broccoli flew out into my lap and onto the center console! I ate it anyway…and the other veggies too!

Hail. We had quarter sized hail at our house for a brief time. I’m glad our cars were in the garage. In Maryland we never got hail above pea sized (and it was slushy). This hail bouced and stayed around on the ground longer!

Peppermint honey. I bought some peppermine infused honey in Canada…and it is yummy!

Sitting in a sunny window like a cat. A very nice place on a cold morning while I was in Canada.

Tator tots. I hadn’t had tater tots in a lot time….and they were a big disappointment…so the event will probably be unique.

Went to the doctor’s office but the doctor had called in sick. I was signing in for a doctor’s appointment when the nurse came from the back and informed the front desk that the doctor had called in sick! I ended up making an appointment with another doctor since she was so fully booked it would be more than a month before I could be worked into her schedule!

Our Missouri Yard – October 2022

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We had two mornings with temperatures in the 20s last week after I took some pictures of the yard. The frost didn’t seem to impact the oak or river birch in our neighbor’s yard very much.

The rose petals are all limp now, but the leaves are unchanged. Some of the buds might still open now that we are going to have at least 10 days of temperatures well above freezing.

The pokeweed flowers and berries survived very well but the leaves or limp. The berries that are already ripened will probably be eaten by birds, but the immature fruits are probably not going to develop further.

The oxalis triangularis that is growing on the east side of our house survived the frost unscathed! Maybe it benefited from being close to the brick wall of the house and getting sun first thing in the morning when the temperature was the coldest.

Now that is it warmed up again – I am planting bulbs: daffodils, hyacinths, allium, and crocus. The previous owner put landscaping fabric then rocks in the flower beds, so the task is very difficult. I removed a small cedar that had died and planted bulbs in the space – filling in the bigger hole I made in the black fabric with cedar mulch and rocks. Over time, there might be more and more of that…until there is not as much of the black fabric in the beds.  I am probably going to plant the rest of the crocus in the lawn since they will come up and bloom before the grass would need to be mowed!

Our New Neighborhood – October 2022

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It’s our first fall in Nixa, Missouri. The trees around the ponds in our neighborhood are full of fall color although they may be more muted than some years because of the dry summer we had. Still – there are plenty of reds and yellows that have been added to the greens still left from summer.

I am glad that there are maples around that are as brilliant as the ones we left behind in Maryland. My favorite time is when the tree has a lot of different colors!

At the edges of the ponds, I noticed some honey suckle blooming…and seed pods.

In the water there were two different turtles. Ones was a red-eared slider.

But I’m not sure what the other one was. It was larger than the red-eared slider…had very different markings and shell. Too bad I didn’t get better pictures. It’s good to know that there are at least 2 kinds of turtles in our neighborhood!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 22, 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.

US National Integrated Drought Information System – 68.4% of the US is abnormally dry…46% is in moderate drought…27% in severe drought. Use the location tab of this page to select state or county level maps color coded for their drought status. Where I live, we are in moderate drought.

Autumn in the Adirondacks – Leaf color has not been impacted by the drought in the Adirondacks. The pictures are from the Landsat 9 satellite. I’m enjoying the color from the ground – even with the drought here in Missouri making it not as colorful as it probably was in prior years.

Why cork is making a comeback – The main product mentioned in the article was cork stoppers….but I thought of the calm I felt when I walked into the University of Michigan’s Law Library with a tour group and realized how much the cork floor muffled our footsteps. It was the highpoint of the trip with my daughter when she was considering the school for her undergraduate studies.

Blue fibers found in dental calculus of Maya sacrifice victims – Analysis of more than 100 sacrifice victims found blue fibers in the mouths of 2 of them. Are the fibers from blue gags left in the mouths of victims over and extended time? Similar pigment called Maya blue has been found in other sites where it may have been used to paint the bodies of sacrificial victims. Another archeological mystery…

See the buzzworthy winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition – Eye candy for the week.

Millions of Americans are losing access to maternal care. Here’s what can be done – 36% of the counties nationwide – largely in the Midwest and South – constitute “maternity care deserts,” meaning they have no obstetric hospitals or birth centers and no obstetric providers. That does not bode well for the health of mothers and the next generation.

These stunning satellite images look like abstract art – and they reveal much about our planet – 8 images selected from US Geological Survey satellite images of the Earth’s surface.

Engineers weave advanced fabric that can cool a wearer down and warm them up – Maybe the ‘cool down’ of this technology (if it can be developed) will help us deal with climate change more effectively. There are already beginning to be more heat related deaths and there will be some occupations that will become impossible without technology to cool the body in outdoor environments.

Rainfall is becoming more intense in most of the US – East of the Rockies…there is increasing precipitation intensity. Water resource management is more challenging. Flooding risk is going up too.

USGS Public Lecture Series – A wide range of topics including volcanoes in Alaska, earthquake early warning for all, migratory big game, droughts and groundwater quality, modernizing the national water information system….and many more. I am beginning to work my way down this YouTube playlist.

London, Ontario: Banting House National Historic Site

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At 2 AM, October 31, 1920, Frederick Banting woke up and wrote down a 25-word hypothesis becoming ‘the man who discovered insulin.’

It happened in the house in London, Ontario after he completed a literature review prior to preparing a lecture on the pancreas and metabolism for the new medical school at Western University. He only lived in the house for 10 months, returning to Toronto where he could access facilities for diabetes research. The transition from idea to clinical practice happened very quickly; he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923.

Banting House is open for tours with a focus on Banting’s life as a doctor and artist…and the impact his medical contribution had (and continues to have) for so many people. The room where he slept…and recorded his idea…is small with original linoleum and restored wallpaper…lumpy bed. The house was a rooming house for a time after Banting lived there but was always well-maintained.

The museum also exhibits artifacts donated by the family of Teddy Ryder, one of Banting’s first patients. He had Type I diabetes and was dying when he got his first insulin injection from Banting when he was 6 years old in 1922. At the time, each batch of insulin was tested for potency since the production was still being done by the researchers in a lab. Teddy lived to be 77 years old! There is an online exhibit about Teddy Ryder on the museum’s web site.

Painting was Banting’s method of escape and relaxation from his professional life and he was influenced by the Group of Seven….often travelled with A.Y. Jackson to paint the Canadian Landscape. One of the rooms of the museum exhibits some of his work. At the time of his death in 1941, Banting was anticipating retirement from medicine to spend more time on painting.

There is a small garden to the side of the house. There was black squirrel that seemed very accustomed to people.

There was an artsy wall I noticed on the walk back to my hotel….another good walk in downtown London, Ontario.

London, Ontario: Thames River and Old Courthouse

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On my first morning in London, Ontario, I waited until it warmed up enough then walked down to the Thames River Kensington Bridge.

There was a hiking/biking trail along the river. I took the branch that went under the bridge and discovered the markers for the floods in 1883 and 1937.

There is a sign (in English and French) from 2000 when the river was designated part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System.

I enjoyed taking pictures of the fall plants along the river (since there were only Canada Geese and Mallards in the water and the lighting was not good for photography of the river itself).

I walked back uphill toward the downtown area noticing that there were young gingkoes planted as street trees.

The Old Court House is up the hill from the river. It was built in 1827 and is covered with vines – used today as an event space. There was not an event happening while I was there (and a lot of construction in the immediate area), so I got a good look of the outside. The vines were turning red with the cooler temperatures.

I walked up to the front of the building and took some macro photos of the way the vines attached to the stone…and discovered that the vines had small berries!

Overall - it was a good walk on a sunny fall day….and a good orientation for my plans to explore the downtown area of London, Ontario!

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory Grounds and Aquarium

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Continuing from yesterday’s post about our visit to Belle Island, Detroit, Michigan….

The conservatory has a koi pond that had some large specimens that seemed particularly dense near the waterfall. I liked the turtle fountain…reminded me of similar ones at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. I wondered what happened to the koi pond during the winter. Detroit must get very cold.

The structure of the conservatory has some high portions and there are some plants that have grown very tall…filling the spaces.

The grounds are grassy areas with some flower beds that were beginning to fade. I took a few macro images

There was a black squirrel that zipped across the very wet grass (we dodged the soggiest areas). There were black squirrels in London, Ontario too – more than the gray/brown ones.

The grounds also included a Japanese lantern and tower.

We went into the Aquarium. It reminded me of the

Washington DC aquarium that was in the Department of Commerce building; it closed in 2013 but I remembered touring it when I was pregnant with my daughter back in 1989…and becoming very queasy from the fish smell.  The aquarium in Washington DC was completed in 1932. The one on Belle Island has been operational since 1904! They used the lull during the pandemic for renovation…it seemed to be in great shape (and no fishy smells). The lighting was such that it was easier to get reasonably good pictures through the glass! I particularly enjoyed the puffer fish, brittle stars, sea horses, and anemones.

Overall – our visit to Belle Island took about 2 hours. We headed back into Detroit to find a restaurant before we continued our journey to London, Ontario.

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory

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The Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory is on Belle Island (in the Detroit River). It is the oldest continually-running conservatory in the US….opening in 1904. The original wood framing was replaced with steel and aluminum in 1949. My daughter and I stopped to see it on our road trip from our homes in Missouri to London Ontario.

The place is filled with interesting plants. It was challenging to get wide views from the relatively narrow walkways other than looking upward.  

I quickly reverted to macro type photographs.

Some plants interested me so much that I took multiple images of the same plant.

Curly crotons were new to me.

The Venus flytrap and pitcher plants were inside a terrarium type structure that somehow made it even easier to photograph them.

The cactus room was one of my favorites…my theme was to photograph the various configurations of cactus spines.

The conservatory is not the largest I’ve toured…but it probably packs more plants into its space than any other! Tomorrow’s post will be about the grounds around the conservatory (including a koi pond) and the aquarium.

Road trip to London, Ontario (and back)

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When my daughter told me about a conference she was attending in London, Ontario in early October, I volunteered to go too – doing half the driving. Flying directly to the place was expensive and flying to Toronto necessitated some form of transportation from there to the smaller city (rental car, bus, or train). She liked the road trip idea, and I booked a room in the same hotel where she had. We opted to make the 14-hour drive over two days with the 1st day being the long one in each direction. Her employer provided a rental car.

My husband took us to pick up the rental car on the morning we were leaving. My daughter forgot her coat (and the forecast in Canada indicated she would need it) so a stop by her house delayed us a little…but I had an opportunity to enjoy the fall roses near her driveway and

The spectacular pods on her magnolia. Maybe we can harvest some of the pods when they have the red seeds in them to use in December decorations.

The first-day drive was a long slog – over 9 hours – and we passed from Central to Eastern time. We arrived at the hotel at sunset.

We had chosen a restaurant for dinner…but it had closed about 20 minutes before we got there! Fortunately, there was another one nearby that worked out just as well.

The next morning, we were up early. My daughter splurged on a huge cinnamon roll from the hotel’s breakfast. I had my usual dark chocolate then ate the rest of the carrots I had brought for the road (finishing everything that needed to be kept cool). We stopped at the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory and Belle Island Aquarium…on the island in the Detroit River (more about that in subsequent posts). We had lunch on the patio at Ivy Kitchen in Detroit (Jefferson Street) afterwards. My daughter ordered a mimosa and was challenged for the rest of the lunch with wasps taking an interest.

We made it to London, Ontario by about 4PM having crossed into Canada at Sarnia and unpacked in our home-away-from-home for the next week. Since the rooms had kitchens, we bought a few groceries.

A week later, we go up before the sun. I took a picture of the sunrise just before I headed down to the parking garage with my luggage.

Google Maps routed use toward the border crossing between Windsor and Detroit rather than reversing our previous route. The route was like an interstate the whole way! A few things were different: the road number was on a crown rather than a shield, the ‘food’ symbol on signs included a cup/saucer with the familiar knife and fork, the speed limits were in KM and the gas plumps dispensed L of gas!

My daughter was driving so I was able to take pictures of the Detroit skyline while we went over the Ambassador Bridge back into the US. There was more traffic at the Windsor-Detroit crossing and it took longer than the Sarnia crossing a week earlier, but the ETA that Google had calculated for us must have taken it into account since we arrived at our hotel only a few minutes ‘late.’

The route crossed Michigan, Indiana and into Illinois. We were back on Central time.The next day was a shorter day and we got off early…arrived home in Missouri by noon! Both of us were keen to do laundry and otherwise get back to ‘normal.’

More posts over the next week about what I did in London, Ontario!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 8, 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.

Photography Collective Highlights Washington State’s Beautiful Vistas in New Book – My husband and I were talking about a trip to the northwestern US before the pandemic…maybe it’s time to think about it again. It’s one of the few areas of the country we have not visited.

The people resurrecting India’s ancient fruit trees – Saving varieties of trees through grafting…mangos being the dominant example in this article.

Longhorned tick discovered in northern Missouri – I perked up when I saw ‘Missouri’ in the title…since I now live in the state. It turns out that this tick is originally from eastern Russia and Australasia…and was first found in the US in New Jersey in 2017. It has been spreading rapidly with Missouri being the first state in the Midwest. It has a negative impact on cattle.

Cactus holes and cobwebs: the weird nesting habits of birds – Some unusual bird nests.

James Earl Jones Retires from Voicing Darth Vader – End of an era….but not the sound because that will continue on recreated by a proprietary AI.

As carbon dioxide grows more abundant, trees are growing bigger – Increased CO2 accelerates photosynthesis and plants grow faster. The phenomenon is called ‘carbon fertilization.’ That can help reduce climate change if we can keep our forests intact (and increase forests). Drought, insect infestations, and wildfires are a big challenge toward that goal.

NASA successfully crashed a spacecraft into its asteroid target – A baby step toward defending Earth from space rocks.

Cacao consumption no limited to Maya elites – Cacao residues were found on jars, mixing bowls, serving plates, and drinking vessels used all over the El Pilar site.

Neonatal sepsis: the new threat posed by superbugs – Antibiotics were introduced in the 1940s, saving many lives…but they have been over-used – unintentionally breeding resistant microbes that no antibiotic can treat. In India, 20% of neonatal deaths are caused by sepsis.

US Plan to Add 500,000 EV Chargers in All 50 States Gets Final Approval – Hurray! I am enjoying my plug-in hybrid (Prius Prime) right now but want my next car to be an EV….and I still want to be able to take road trips! This project getting underway is a start toward making that easier.

eBotanical Prints – September 2022

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20 botanical print books in September. My favorite books are the third and last ones on the list…because they reminded me of some of my own history. The third book is about the plants of the Four Corners area of the southwest US (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) – a lot of great vacation memories over the past 50 years. The last book on the list is about gladioli and it reminded me of my maternal grandfather’s garden in the 1960s. He had a long row of gladioli and there were always plenty of flower stalks to cut for bouquets; the most common place for the big vase was on top of the tea cart under my grandmother’s portrait; that tea cart is now in my daughter’s house.

The whole list of 2,472 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the September 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 September 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Flora Costaricensis No. 18 * Burger, William (editor) * sample image * 1986

Flora Costaricensis No. 49 * Pupulin, Franco * sample image * 2010

Flora of the four corners region * Heil, Kenneth D. * sample image * 2013

Fossil floras of Cape Colony * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1903

Plant life through the ages * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1933

Links with the past in the plant world * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1911

Lewis David von Schweinitz drawings of fungi Part IV * Schweinitz, Lewis David Von * sample image * 1805

Historia muscorum * Dillenius, Johann Jakob * sample image * 1741

The Miscellaneous Botanical Works, Vol. III- Atlas of Plates * Brown, Robert * sample image * 1868

The Botanical Atlas: A Guide to the Practical Study of Plants, containing Representatives of the Leading Forms of Plant Life, Vol. I  * M'Alpine, D. * sample image * 1883

Eucalyptographia: A Descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts of Australia and the Adjoining Islands * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1879

Iconography of Australian species of Acacia and cognate genera * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1887

The Vegetation of the Chatham Islands * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1864

Description and illustrations of the myoporinous plants of Australia * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1886

Histoire Naturelle des Vegetaux; Phanerogames; Atlas- Renfermant 152 planches gravees sur aoier  * Spach, M. Eduard * sample image * 1846

Atlas du Repertoire des Plantes Utiles et des Plantes Veneneuses du Globe  * Duchesne, E. A.  * sample image * 1840

Botanischer bilder-atlas nach De Candolle's Natürlichem pflanzensystem * Hoffman, Carl * sample image * 1884

The Alpine Flora * Correvon, Henry; Robert Philippe; Clayforth, E.W. * sample image * 1911

Atlas des caractères spécifiques des plantes de la flore parisienne & de la flore rémoise  * Lemoine, Victor * sample image * 1880

Gladioli * Macself, Albert James * sample image * 1925

Settling in, developing new routines – 4th month

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Our 4th month in Missouri was calmer than the first 3. There is still a lot to be done but we stopped pushing ourselves to keep the pace we had earlier. There are boxes to be unpacked but they are in the storage area and not things we use frequently.

The kittens got their first visit to the vet and are engaging in all our indoor activities. More about them in an upcoming post.

Our yard is looking much better than it did earlier in the summer when it was so hot and dry. We have a yard service for this season so all I am doing is pulling weeds in the flower beds. I am cutting roses to bring into my office. I am also making big plans to transition caring for the yard to myself (the new lawn mower will be electric!) and putting in more bushes (American Beautyberry and oak leaf hydrangea are at the top of my list).

The morning routine in my office has changed slightly because it is dark when I first get there – no watching the birds at the feeder while I enjoy my 1st breakfast (dark chocolate). It is also cooler. I’m using the halogen lamps to flood the room with light and provide a little heat.

Our thermostats in this house are not as sophisticated as the one we had in Maryland. We’ve stayed on ‘Cool’ so far; it’s chilly in the morning but comes on once or twice in the late afternoon and evening. The wall heater in the main bathroom is wonderful – something we haven’t had in any of our previous houses…another aspect to appreciate about this house.

Travel. I did my monthly trip to Carrollton TX…and we made several local outings. We haven’t started the day trips as quickly as I thought we would but October is a prime month for being outdoors and enjoying the fall. I am anticipating my first travel not associated with the move or family in the coming month.

I got out our Halloween decorations (one of our neighbors has a very elaborate Halloween yard) and discovered that they don’t work very well for the front porch in this house; the front door is a muted red…does not go well with orange…and there is not nail in the door. I may just put the decorations inside. On the plus side – the front door will work very well for our Thanksgiving Indian corn and our Christmas wreath…once we add a nail.

I’ve decided to wait for volunteer activities or in-person classes. I would miss too much since I already am committed to be away from home a week of every month. When I am at home…I need to finish the unpacking and continue the hone everything about this place into the home we want.

Carrollton Yard (2) – September 2022

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A quick whirl around the front and side garden in Carrollton TX…

Then to focus on plants I looked at more closely:

Red yucca. This time of year the seed pods are always interested. As the seed pods dry, they tend to look burnt and black…the seeds inside are black as well.

After the sprinklers finished one morning, I took macro pictures of the Tradescantia pallida (purple heart or Wandering Jew) flowers.   The flowers act as small cups holding the water droplets.

Overall - most of the plants survived the severe weather earlier in the summer; it will be interesting to see how the fall progresses.  

Carrollton Yard (1) – September 2022

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The elderly mulberry with a thermometer is close to the garden room. The days I was in Carrollton TX in September started in the 80s and got up to the 90s every day! We did everything we needed to do outdoors before it got above 90! The sprinklers are keeping up although some plants have not recovered from the many days of 100+ temperatures with almost no rain in the first months of summer.

The chives are blooming with seeds beginning to form. By next month, the seeds should be visible. Crepe myrtle and hibiscus and cosmos weathered the heat…got enough water to make it to September and still bloom.

The surprise of September (for me) were orange spider lilies. Evidently, they have been there for years, but I just wasn’t visiting at the time they were blooming. They look great in the garden and can be cut for dramatic and long-lasting bouquets.

I captured a tiny landscape found in the garden: wandering jew, a yellow mulberry leaf…framed by a hose.

Lizards like the garden. I saw one in a sunny patch of grass…then on the trunk of the sweet gum. His coloring helps him blend into the tree bark better than the grass!

More tomorrow on other plants of the September Garden….

Road trip to Carrollton TX – October 2022

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Every month I go to Carrollton TX for a week…and become more familiar with the road trip down from my home in Nixa MO and back again. These are the highlights of the August trek.

The sun was not quite up when I left Nixa. There were some clouds that made it colorful. My route is north for a few minutes then turning west (and slightly south) to Tulsa OK so I didn’t have sun in my eyes.

The drive was easy – very little weekend traffic and no active work zones. The Texas Welcome center after I crossed the Red River has a great native plant garden. This time the plants were surrounded with grass (shortage of staff, plants not quite as vigorous?) but the American Beautyberry was robust…so much so that the grass didn’t seem to be invading that area as much. I have added this plant to my list to consider for around my house in Nixa.

I stopped for gas north of McKinney TX and had a pleasant conversation with a man hauling a substantial load of hay…a little serendipity socializing along the way. It doesn’t happen every trip (usually I just nod or greet the people I walk by…just a few words) but conversations are often something unique about the trip…particularly if the person is not someone I would normally meet.

A week later, I again was starting out before sunrise. I took a sunrise picture framed by a mulberry tree. It was the only morning of the week to have clouds to catch the color.

My route heads east for the 1st 10 minutes and my timing was perfect. The color changed from red/pink to orange….and a few minutes after my route turned north, the sun popped above the horizon. The week had been full of 90-degree afternoons but the day I drove home, the temperate stayed in the low 80s for the whole day!

The OK Welcome Center after I crossed the red river was just opening when I arrived. There was a cicada on the sidewalk that sat for portraits. Perhaps it was a little too cool for the insect to be singing/looking for a mate in the trees.

It was good to be home by mid-afternoon….another relatively easy road trip.