June 07, 2020

The New Normal – Relationships

June 07, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

I try to put something new into every day…something that is not just routine…that stretches me in some way. It’s the best way I know to put a positive spin on being at home virtually all the time during the pandemic….and trying to stay resilient to the wave after wave of negative news. I am appalled by the racist behavior exhibited by police (and other parts of our government). All Americans need to take as stand against racism – particularly when it is in institutions that every American should be able to trust.

The New Normal - Relationships

Being at home for months changes relationships to other people.

There are no interactions with people like I had through my volunteer activities – leading hikes for school field trips at Howard County Conservancy, introducing visitors to the Touch Tank animals at Robinson Nature Center, and maintaining containment/assisting people that came to the Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy exhibit. I enjoyed my conversation with fellow volunteers as well. Similar conversations happened when we attended birding festivals too. There is no replacement for those short duration, stimulating interactions. The partial substitute I’ve nurtured is watching a variety of videos of wide ranging topics (astrobiology, birding, zoo, Coursera lectures to name a few, and a virtual Cape May Spring Festival). The reason videos are only a substitute rather than a replacement is the one-way nature of watching a video; there is no interaction or relationship --- even if you are learning something new from watching the video.

Then there are the synchronous but virtual forms of relationships that allow real-time communications; phone calls and Zoom sessions are two examples. These are OK and they probably allow maintenance of long-standing relationships…but they aren’t the same as being in the same place and face to face. They are often more planned, not as frequent, and can be awkward.

The only face to face relationship maintained through the pandemic is with my husband. It’s a good thing we get along well! We have shared some projects, but we also have activities we enjoy on our own and our house is big enough for us to be ‘alone but not too alone.’

So – what is the new normal when it comes to relationships? It’s a work in progress. I am not keen on Zoom meetings. I do enjoy the more frequent phone conversations with family members. My husband, and I are probably doing more shared projects around the house than we did previously. I’ll be thrilled when we get a vaccine for COVID-19 and I can get back to my volunteer gigs. Travelling is something that we can look forward to as well.

Unique activities for yesterday:

SongSleuth app. Every morning that I sit outside, I realize I am hearing birds that I don’t recognize. When I came indoors today, I looked for an app that might help me identify more of the birds in our forest that don’t come to the feeder where we can easily see them. I opted to try SongSleuth. I’ve done a ‘test’ with a Carolina Wren (in the forest…and I knew what it was) to learn how to record something…select the clip…and then see what the app tells me. The app identified the bird! I’ll take my phone out with me tomorrow morning to see how well it works identifying birds whose songs I don’t know. By the time I go out in the field with the app…I need to be well versed in its use!

Gustave Caillebotte slide show. Internet archive has 258 images by this French painter. He was also a patron of the arts, particularly the Impressionists. The slide show has a brief biography under the panel that displays the paintings. I enjoyed the gardens and botanical images the most but his choice of subjects and perspective (buildings and city scenes, people on balconies…rowing….refinished a wood floor) were interesting too.

A Zentangle Prompt

Three patterns for today’s tile: SAFFLOWER, SQUID, and TRIADZ.

Here is a tile I made yesterday based on the prompt: *Make a two tangle tile today with* *ROSCOE* *and* *SAND SWIRL*. SAND SWIRL is one of my favorite patterns. It’s easy and the result varies….emerges as the pattern is completed.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

June 06, 2020

Gleanings

June 06, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Gleanings for this week

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.

Volunteers Spot New Sites in Aerial Images of England - Archaeology Magazine – Volunteers and lidar scans…a productive combination!

Seven highlights from 70 years of the National Science Foundation - The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy - AGU Blogosphere – Deepwater Horizon oil spill, public radio and television, ozone hole, strong curricula for introductory science, deep-sea exploration, student opportunities, and COVID-10 response. It seems like the list it too skewed to recent years.

We don’t need nearly as much protein as we consume - BBC Future – Another recommendation of getting nutrients from food rather that highly processed food or supplements….and moderation too. Skewing the diet toward protein at the expense of other nutrients is not healthy!

The Coolest Kingfishers from Six Continents – I’ve seen the first three! All three in south Texas and the Belted Kingfish elsewhere too. Kingfishers are an easily recognized shape….heavy bill, bigger head relative to body…etc.

How Americans are coping with COVID-19 stress -- ScienceDaily – This report was prior to the additional stressor of George Floyd’s death….the racism of police evident in the videos of the event and the response to protests that seems too militarized. It seems like 2020 will be a pivot point in our nation’s history and how we all respond to the stressors of the year is important in the outcome. I hope that we can show the best of ourselves…our utmost caring for all people and our planet that is our home.

Ice Arch Persists Despite Warm Arctic – It won’t last long…the ice arch which prevents sea ice from drifting south generally breaks up in June or July. Last year it broke up in mid-April.

'New' Footage of Benjamin, the Last Tasmanian Tiger Ever Seen Alive | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A 21-second video from 1935.

Top 25 birds of the week: Seabirds - Wild Bird Revolution – I’ve seen most the North American birds in these photographs….except for the puffins.

Babies know when you imitate them -- and like it -- ScienceDaily – Most parents probably realize this to some extent…but the research teases out more specifics about how babies respond to knowing they are being imitated.

The remarkable power of the prickly pear - BBC Future – Grown as a crop for food in arid areas and then using the waste left after the food is extracted to generate biofuel. Wish we had more processes like this.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Aftermath of thunderstorm. I did another early morning in the outdoors – noting the aftermath of the thunderstorm the night before. Both birdbaths had been filled by the rain. The one in front is surrounded by day lily leaves…I’m not sure how often it is used by birds, but I like the way it looks from our front door.

2020 06 IMG_0077 (7).jpg — The sycamore tree trunk still looked very wet. I had forgotten the Virginia creeper climbing up. There were a few sycamore leaves that were blown into the yard…but the wind must not have been too bad.

The wetness of the leaves kept some of the maple leaves flipped over. It’s always surprising that the underside is so light in color.

Finally, I noticed a dead bee just before I settled into my chair. It must have gotten into the screened part of the deck and not been able to escape.

The rest of my outdoor time I spent making a couple of Zentangle tiles….and listening to the birds.

Mint as a fresh veggie. Mint grows so easily and comes back year after year. My front flower bed has a lot of it…enough to use it for more than a garnish. I cut a handful of stems and strip the leaves – it is the leafy green in a smoothie with chocolate protein powder. Yummy!

A Zentangle Prompt

Make a two tangle tile today with ROSCOE and SAND SWIRL.

Here is a tile I made yesterday based on the prompt: Three patterns to combine in a tile today: FAUX WEAVE, FEATHER FALL, and MEER.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 31, 2020

Through the Window, JMW Turner, and Being Outdoors

May 31, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Pictures through the Window

I always try to gather up the best pictures taken through my office window toward the end of the month. We had more birds at the feeder at the beginning of the month; it was cool and there weren’t as many insects for the omnivorous birds. There are 11 birds in all….and a tree… in the collection for May 2020.

2020 05 IMG_9442 (3).jpg — The **Red-bellied Woodpeckers** are frequent visitors. The male even did some foraging on the ground under our neighbor’s pines.

The female has started getting a seed from the feeder then wedging it in a nearby crack in the deck railing to peck and crack open. There are times I think she knows I am watching.

The Cowbirds are still around. The males come in groups, but the female is the one I see at the feeder most often.

The Downy Woodpecker comes frequently as well although it comes in silent – unlike the red-bellies.

The finches (House and Gold) are around – but less frequently than they were in April. I’m not sure why other than they are busy with their nests and finding other food sources.

And then there were the Indigo Buntings. They were somewhere else by mid-month.

The Cardinal pair is around all through the year.

2020 05 IMG_9442 (26).jpg — The only picture of a **Titmouse** I took this month was a very round bird. Maybe it was just the angle.

The Carolina Wrens are the big singers around our deck.

The Mourning Doves sometimes use the deck railing for a mating platform. I didn’t know what the bird I photographed was doing with its tail, but I suspected it was mating related. It was the only dove around…it eventually stood up and flew off.

2020 05 IMG_9442 (33).jpg — Recently we’ve had an uptick in **House Sparrows** coming to the feeder. They seem to come in small groups of 2-4 birds. Maybe they are gearing up for a second brood of the season.

Finally, is the tulip poplar. The later-than-usual frosts we had this year didn’t seem to reduce the number of flowers. We’ll have plenty of gutter-clogging seeds flying next winter, and spring!

Unique activities for yesterday:

Gorging on JMW Turner (1775-1851) art. 344 paintings are packed in a slideshow available from Internet Archive here. Wow…what a range of works he produced. I selected 4 different works as examples. The slide show is well worth a look.

Being Outdoors. I’ve established a new goal – be outdoors for at least an hour every day. This time of year, that should not be hard since the weather is relatively pleasant. This is more about increasing consistency and logging what I do than dramatically increasing my outdoor time…although I tend let weather deter my getting out. I know I feel better physically and emotionally on days I am outdoors for at least an hour. As it gets hotter, I’ll shift to the morning – before the heat of the day becomes oppressive. It doesn’t have to be working in the yard, taking a walk, or hiking in the forest behind out house. It can be reading a book, doing something on my laptop or just enjoying some quality time with our cat on the enclosed/screened deck! In my first foray after establishing the goal, I selected pictures for this blog post, made two Zentangle tiles for the Zentangle prompt, cleaned the table on the deck, occasionally made eye contact with the cat, and cleaned out/filled the birdbaths…and it added up to more than an hour - easy.

A Zentangle Prompt

Try the SeZ pattern. The pattern starts by using seeds (maybe real ones like sesame or rice or bulgur wheat) or making random dots.

Here is a page I made based on yesterday’s prompt: Experiment with the MAELSTROM pattern. I used the May 2020 page from the Audubon calendar. It provided lots of spaces to experiment with the pattern. I tend to like the random usage of the pattern…and the curved part of the pattern although I did start thinking about radio waves coming down to a radio telescope for the other part of the pattern. Using the calendar page was a good experience and I’m thinking of using the page for June to show the prompt for each day…maybe showing the page as I fill in each week as we move through the month.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 30, 2020

Gleanings, MAELSTROM prompt, and a Phoebe

May 30, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Gleanings from the Past Week

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

The world’s most nutritious foods - BBC Future – The one on the list that surprised me was ‘pork fat.’

New Thoughts on Corn Cultivation at Cahokia - Archaeology Magazine – Evidently maize arrived between AD 900 and 1000…about 1,000 years later than previously thought. I remember visiting Cahokia in 2010 about this time….a road trip from Ithaca NY to Flagstaff AZ with my daughter for her summer of undergraduate research.

Old Wisteria Tree in Japan Is the Most Beautiful in the World – I missed the wisteria blooming at Brookside Gardens this year. This 150 year old tree in this post is huge in comparison.

How the news changes the way we think and behave - BBC Future – I find that I feel better when I don’t check the news as often…once or twice a day is often enough unless there is something happening that impacts what I am doing (like very bad weather coming). I want to stay informed but don’t need stories repeated again and again…one time is generally enough and there are very few that I need to know as they are developing.

Top 25 birds of the week: #May 2020 - Wild Bird Revolution – A little feathery color….

Waves of Fluid Bathe the Sleeping Brain, Perhaps to Clear Waste | The Scientist Magazine® - Still a lot to learn about the brain. I found myself wondering of poor sleep is the cause or effect of some disorders.

An Intimate Look at Italy’s Saffron Harvest - The New York Times – Color and flavor – and labor intensive.

Saber-tooth surprise: Fossils redraw picture of the fearsome big cat – The big cat was a forest/ambush hunter rather than one that hunted in more open environments.

Welcome Back! | The Prairie Ecologist – Noticing the firsts of spring….a bird returned…insects emerging (or sometimes returning), plants beginning to grow….lots to take in.

Medieval Arrows Inflicted Injuries That Mirror Damage Caused by Modern Bullets | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The English longbow. The best ones were made from yew and measured 6 feet long. Drawing the weapon required 150-180 pounds of force. They shot arrows to 1,000 feet. At the Battle of Crecy in 1346, historians estimate that the English archers shot as many as 35,000 arrows per minute….were victorious even though they were outnumber by 2 to 1.

A Zentangle Prompt

Experiment with the MAELSTROM pattern. This is a grid pattern and is an opportunity to play with different orientations of a simple basic design made in each small square. I always like to reuse materials I have around the house and an old calendar is great for these patterns. My calendar has large enough blocks for each day that I divide each into 4 x 4 grids and then cover the whole page (except for the small blocks that have a number in them) – in this case with MAELSTROM variations. I’ll share the results with you tomorrow.

Here is a tile I made yesterday based on the prompt: *Make a tile with* *TRIPOLI* *as the central tangle.*

Unique activities for yesterday:

Phoebe in the morning. I hear a phoebe almost every morning but usually don’t get a photograph. Yesterday I did…while it was proclaiming its name.

Small chipping sparrow. I’ve noticed a chipping sparrow that looks smaller than the others coming to the feeder the past couple of days. I finally got a picture of it with another chipper on the other side of the feeder. Doesn’t the one on the right look smaller? Maybe it is just the way the bird is oriented/holding itself.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 28, 2020

Little Celebrations, Tangler’s Choice, and a Fledgling Woodpecker

May 28, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

10 Little Celebrations in May 2020

Today I am highlight 10 small things I celebrated this month. Half of them involved birds!

2020 05 IMG_9511 (9).jpg — **Rose-breasted Grosbeaks** were a new bird at our deck this year; my husband both celebrated their appearance. They came for the first half of the month both males and females. Now they are probably raising young in a nest a little too far from our feeder…but maybe they’ll bring their fledglings!

Virtual Cape May Spring (Birding) Festival. It was two days of rewarding sessions….celebrating a place we enjoyed last spring (Cape May, New Jersey) in the best way possible in 2020!

Downy woodpecker fledgling. We had a fledgling downy…bumbling to the deck but not the feeder – yet. Celebrating new life in the forest.

2020 05 IMG_9613 (6).jpg — **Indigo Buntings** were another new visitor to our feeder this year. Like the grosbeaks – they were around for the first half of the month. Hopefully, they will return with fledglings…and built their nest far enough away to not have a cowbird nestling.

And there were other things I celebrated…many probably obvious from my previous posts.

**Irises**. I celebrated every single one that came up in our garden. The rhizomes appear to be recovering from a collapse a few years ago. I hope that cutting the stalks will make it easier for them to build up even more for next year – anticipating more flowers to celebrate.

Poem sent from my Mother…30 years ago. I found a poem my Mother sent to me as I started my daughter in day care 30 years ago. I must have celebrated it at the time….and did again when I found it again.

Providing a Zentangle session at Howard County Conservancy. Celebrating sharing something I enjoy.

2020 05IMG_9919 (2).jpg — **Chipmunk on the deck**. Celebrating the rodent that has Oreo cookie stripes on each side!

Flower Designs from the 1800s. Celebrating Marcia Bradford’s book of flower designs for watercolor…that worked very well with Ultra-Fine Point Sharpies with Zentangles filling in the background! I completed 2 in May.

A Zentangle Prompt

Instead of trying a new pattern today – pick ones from the last week to make again – in a new combination or as a monotangle. Take your pick from: GINGO, MEER feathers, ANTIDOTS, ELIROB, BATON, PHICOPS, RIBBON ROSE, and SHARD. Or maybe decide to take a break and just admire a mosaic of your tiles made over the past 6 days. Here are mine (including the RIBBON ROSE and SHARD tiles from yesterday.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Fledgling red-bellied woodpecker. The fledgling was on the roof of the covered deck while the mom was at the feeder! It first came about 8 AM and I watched for it all through the day. It wasn’t quite coordinated enough to utilize the bird feeder directly.

**Chicken baked in spicy spaghetti sauce.** I’m not sure why I hadn’t tried this before…it’s easy to make and delicious. I simply put boneless chicken breasts in a Pyrex baking dish, poured some spicy spaghetti sauce over them, sprinkled on some garlic and coarse ground pepper….cooked for an hour at 350 degrees (included some potatoes in the same oven). The baking dish has a lid, so the leftover chicken is in the refrigerator in that container (easy cleanup after our meal). My husband – a somewhat picky eater – liked the chicken so much he even volunteered to eat the leftovers!

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 27, 2020

eBooks, Rose and Shards Prompt, and Chipmunk

May 27, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

3 Free eBooks for May 2020

It’s time for me to look back at the eBooks I’ve been browsing this month and pick three. I cheated a little since the first one is 11 volumes. These are quite a visual feast and all published around 1920.

Mathews, Gregory Macalister et al. The Birds of Australia. London: Witherby & Co. 1910-1927. I am working my way through all the volumes on Internet Archive: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven. Mathews was an extreme splitter….so focus on the illustrations rather than the classifications. I am including some sample images from the volumes I’ve browsed so far.

43 20 05 (10).jpg — Herben, Beatrice Slayton; Richardson, Frederick. ***Jack O'Health and Peg O'Joy - a fairy tale***. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1921. Available from Internet Archive here. I was interested in the illustrations by Frederick Richardson.

Littlejohns, John. British water-colour painting and painters of to-day. Toronto: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. 1920. Available from Internet Archive here. Lots of variety in this collection. Some are what I expected but the one I picked for the sample image was a standout….something different.

A Zentangle Prompt

RIBBON ROSE for the central tangle(s) and SHARD for the border/frame. Your choice whether to make the center or the frame first…. or create two tiles to try both!

Here are tiles based on the prompt: Make a tile where PHICOPS is the primary tangle. Feel free to fill out the tile with a tangle of your choice.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Summer clothes. The weather has finally gotten warm enough that I got out all my summer clothes and packed all the rest away in large suitcases that work better for out-of-season clothes than for traveling. Sometimes I leave out a few cool/cold weather clothes if we are planning a trip to the Rockies….but that is not happening this year. I also packed the t-shirts I wear for volunteering since that is not happening this summer either. The closet is less crowded. Another positive discovery – I have managed to get rid of clothes I wasn’t wearing in previous seasons; I only identified one item that is going in a giveaway pile!

Chipmunk under the bird feeder. There was a chipmunk cleaning up under the bird. I hadn’t seen one recently although we have had them periodically since we moved to the house over 20 years ago. This one was examining each bit of debris although most were hulls rather than seeds.

Last iris. The last iris bud opened. It will be the last flower in my office until the day lilies start blooming. The day lilies are a little later than usual sending up their bud stalks because of the cooler-than-average weather. On the plus side – there is dense leaf growth which bodes well for the plants having lots of energy to bloom now that the temperatures are consistently warm.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 23, 2020

Venturing Out and Weekly Gleanings

May 23, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

A Zentangle Prompt

Inspiration for a pattern can come from our environment. Sometimes creating a pattern is relatively straightforward. The prompt for today is to create your own pattern based on the picture of tiles to the right. Hint: start with a grid of squares. Use your pattern in a tile. Other patterns in the tile are tangler’s choice (i.e. whatever you want).

Here are some tiles I made based on yesterdays prompt: Make a tile using the gingo pattern.

It is one of my favorite patterns for mono-tangle tiles.

Venturing away from Home

I went to Howard Country Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant to record a Facebook Live Zentangle session. It was the first time I had driven my car in May! It was also my first volunteer gig since early March – and a good experience – but I realized how out of practice I have become with getting out and about. There was a ‘newness’ to my car even though I’ve had it for a few years. Mt Pleasant is a place I know very well but hadn’t been there since January; it felt unfamiliar.

I was glad the flip chart pad and gallery board were wrapped in plastic trash bags because it was raining heavily when I got there. It took two trips to get into the building and I was glad I had worn a windbreaker and waterproof boots.

The mask that I wore during set up did not stay in place as well as I wanted. I need more experience with securing it and being certain that I can breathe well enough through the layers of fabric. It’s a good ‘lesson learned’ before I venture out to try doing my own grocery shopping in June.

The materials I had prepared ahead of time worked well…minimizing the amount I had to create while I was talking.

The Facebook Live session lasted about 20 minutes and made a three-part tile using TIPPLE, CRESCENT MOON, and either MEER or POKEROOT. I missed not being able to create a mosaic of the student tiles at the end. Here are tiles I made with the patterns after the session.

I’m not sure how any of my volunteer gigs will be possible anytime soon but I’ll probably do some hiking at Mt. Pleasant…on a sunny day…another small ‘venturing away from home.’

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

Gleanings of the Week

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.

Soak in the Details of the Moon with this High-Definition Photo – A backyard astrophotographer with a lot patience.

Record conservation study of Tutankhamun's tomb solves mystery and raises new questions – Teasing out more history from a much-studied place.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bright Colours - Wild Bird Revolution – It’s a gray rainy day as I write this….I am appreciating the colors!

New Thoughts on Turkey’s Oldest Temple Complex - Archaeology Magazine – Gobekli Tepe…built by hunter gatherers over 11,000 years ago….requiring hundreds of people to construct. I first learned about it in a Coursera course a few years ago.

NASA's ICESat-2 measures Arctic Ocean's sea ice thickness, snow cover -- ScienceDaily – ICESAT-2 was launched in September 2018; I learned about it during visits to NASA Goddard during my HoLLIE class in spring 2018. It’s good to get an update on it now.

The ingredients for a longer life - BBC Future – Study of populations where many live to 100…focusing on eating habits, social connection, a few cups of tea or coffee, sweet potato and bittersweet melons, landscape…and moderation.

Saving energy and lives: How a solar chimney can boost fire safety -- ScienceDaily – If a building has a solar chimney, it will suck smoke out of a building during a fire…giving people more time to escape!

Risks of Clutter, Tips for Decluttering Your Home | Berkeley Wellness – I had intended to spend some of the ‘stay at home as much as possible’ time de-cluttering. But I moved on to other projects. Now I am returning to the idea just as I am beginning to tentatively venture out. The clutter in my house is not enough to make it unsafe…but I do have a lot of stuff that I no longer need.

Tracing the human genetic history: Every tooth tells a different story – Another data point for forensics when DNA is not available. Teeth often survive for longer than other parts of the body.

New evidence of watery plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – I’m missing Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series. This article is about new analysis of data collected by the Galileo mission flyby of Europa in 2000. The ESA Juice mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2022, will study the potential habitability and underground oceans of three of Jupiter’s moons: Ganymede, Calisto, and Europa.

May 20, 2020

30 Years Ago, Tea, and Pokeroot Zentangle

May 20, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

A Zentangle Prompt

Use the POKEROOT pattern to make the boarder around the frame. Aura the POKEROOT berries like CRESCENT MOON.

Here are some tiles I made yesterday based on the prompt: Make a scribbled string with your pen that results in small spaces (no need to do a border first). Fill (with same color as the string or a different color) spaces that touch at points. Optional: experiment with this pattern using multiple colors.

This is my go-to tangle for when I want to just fill in spaces…play with color. Every string is different. Sometimes I make a very dense string and then combine some spaces as I fill in. Sometimes I fill some spaces and make a simple shape (like a spiral) in others.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Enjoying teas I got for Mother’s Day. My daughter got me 3 kinds of teas from Elijah’s Raw Herb Supply. The company participates in the Farmers Market in Springfield where she discovered them but she’s been ordering their teas via their online shop during the pandemic. I have now made a pot of each and I like all three of them…but do have an order of preference: mint-chocolate chip, yerba mate chai, and immuni-tea. All three have stevia leaf so are a little sweet – pleasant, not overwhelming, no aftertaste. I make a pot at a time with a teaspoon of the loose tea in the carafe of my coffee maker (that only is used for making tea). They are all good hot or cold. It will take me a bit to use up these teas but I already have identified another one I want to try: Organic Lemonaid – herbal.

Hearing a phoebe several times…but not seeing bird. Frustrated…

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

30 year ago – May 1990

30 years ago this month, I started back to work after taking 6 months off with my baby. It was a big change for the whole family. I was getting up at 5:30 AM and leaving the house by 6:45. My daughter was getting up at 6:30 – hungry – getting a bottle to enjoy until her Dad came to get her ready to go off to day care. I picked her up by about 4 in the afternoon. It was only 3 days a week to begin with but with the plan that I would go back to full-time in September.

My part-time work was different from the technical work I had done before…a rotation into the marketing side of the business. We did some proactive changes for the household like putting up baby gates and arranging for a cleaning crew. Little did I know that the cleaning crew would be the same for many years…until I retired more than 20 years later. The same family day care lasted until my daughter started Montessori school. The choices in May 1990 were good ones.

The baby took the changes in stride…enjoying the novelty of spending time with other children and new/different toys. She was beginning to vocalize. Cheerios were her favorite finger food.

There was still time for family outings: picking strawberries and walking around the Brighton Dam Azalea Garden (with the baby asleep in the backpack toward the end).

My mother sent me a poem from a 1958 Good Housekeeping magazine that she had clipped just before I had started off to kindergarten – “For a child leaving” by Marjorie Lederer Lee for my first Mother’s Day and as my daughter went off to day care. I couldn’t find a version of the poem online, but it was in a book published in 1973 (What have you done all day? By Marjorie Lee)… so still under copyright.

May 18, 2020

Zentangle Prompt, Goldfinch drama, and Thalidomide History

May 18, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

(I am starting a new section today….a Zentangle prompt. I make at least one Zentangle tile per day and will post what I did with the prompt on the following day. This is my small attempt to make some aspect of my post ‘actionable’ --- enjoy!)

A Zentangle Prompt

Make a string that divides the tile into 3 areas. Fill the middle area with TIPPLE. Fill the other two areas with MEER.

I’ll share my creation based on this prompt in tomorrow’s post.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Drama at the bird feeder. Sometimes I notice a relationship between bird species at the feeder. Around 7 AM, a goldfinch was on the gutter of our deck then flew down toward the feeder and there was at tussle with another bird. It only took seconds, but the net was the chipping sparrow contented itself with whatever seed was on the deck under the feeder while the goldfinch enjoyed breakfast.

Ordering a wedding present. There is a family bridal shower and wedding this summer in Texas. I am coming to terms with the idea that I won’t be able to attend unless the pandemic situation changes very dramatically. So – I ordered gifts for the couple today and they’ll be delivered within a week. At least that aspect can continue in a near-normal way.

67 20 05 (6).jpg — **The Thalidomide Generation – Life Magazine from July 1968**. (Available from Internet Archive here.) Some history with relevance today: new drugs can have positive results…. followed by devastating side effects.

More puzzles. I ordered 7 more puzzles for my parents today – which brings the total to 11. We’ll learn from this experience…how fast they come, the quality of the puzzles, how fast they are completed…before ordering more.

Tulip poplar full of blooms. The tulip poplars in the forest behind our house are full of flowers that contrast more with the leaves than when they first started blooming Soon the petals will fly away and the seed pods will continue maturing…with seeds to shed next winter and spring.

_Sarah 2020 05 a.jpg — **New cat in the family.** My daughter in Missouri is enjoying an addition to her household – a cat that seems happy to have found a new home!

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 17, 2020

Zentangle Gallery Board, Friendly Downy Woodpecker, Abu Simbel, Iris, and Puzzles

May 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Visit from a Downy Woodpecker. Just before 8 AM I was sitting beside the window in my office and suddenly a downy woodpecker flew to the screen and made noises like it was trying to tell me something. It flew back to the maple. About an hour later it happened again! This is a bird that comes frequently to our feeder. I’m wondering if she is a little frazzled with nestlings right now.

**Making a Zentangle gallery board.** I’m prepping for a program I will be delivering soon…wanted something that I could easily use to show many tiles and patterns quickly. The session is short, so I need to make every minute count!

Pictures of when Abu Simbel was moved - Life Magazine December 1966. I remember being fascinated with Ancient Egyptian history beginning in 1965…so I imagine I was interested in this article from 1966 although I don’t remember it. The pictures are dramatic even by today’s standards.

Replenishing the puzzle supply for my parents. My almost-90 year old parents are about to run out of puzzles. They enjoyed them pre-pandemic but have gone through their supply faster for the past couple of months and can’t get out to shop for puzzles right now. Most of the puzzles they had were 2nd (or 3rd or…) hand so I got a little sticker shock looking at new ones and then discovered that lots of people are buying more puzzles than usual. I ordered 4 from Walmart am at looking at more now (trying to figure out an effective way of finding out which ones they’ve already done). In January I had planned to travel a week of every month to be with my parents, but the pandemic put a stop to that after one trip…so I’m ordering puzzles to fill parts of their days.

**More iris stalks in my office.** I am composting the old iris stalks in the garden and cut two more to bring indoors. There is still one left outside. These two stalks seem to have larger flowers. They were growing in a different location and may be happier there than in the front flower bed irises. I have discovered that I enjoy having flowers from my flower beds/garden in my office.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

May 16, 2020

Weekly Gleanings, Racoon Visits and Rearranging Office

May 16, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

(I’m still social distancing/staying at home as much as possible….but am changing the title of the blog posts to reflect the accumulation of topics in the posts. I’m tired of only the date changing in the title since March 15th, 2020)

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Racoon in early morning of 5/12…and then on 5/15! I was downloading the birdfeeder cam videos and noticed right away that there was an odd one just before 2 AM on 5/12….it was a racoon! It was a female probably hungry because she has babies still in the den – too young to eat on their own. It didn’t appear that she got anything from our feeder.

We had another racoon visit on the 15th just after 2 AM. I couldn’t tell if it was a female or not. It could have been another racoon or the same one giving it another try. The animal used a different strategy to get the seed coming at the feeder from above rather than below….but the strategy didn’t work. It looks longingly at the feeder from the bench on the deck before it leaves.

Rearranging my office. It’s a work in progress. The room has been my office since we moved into the house in November 1994 – and it’s the best room in the house for an office because it looks out to trees. I bought the three-piece computer office tables from IKEA as we moved in and had them connected in an L until about 9 years ago when I wanted better access to the windows. I detached the longer table from the corner piece at that point. Then I detached the shorter table about a year ago so I could use the whole surface area of the corner piece…and now I’ve moved the small table by the window but pulled out a bit. When I am sitting at the small table, I have a clear view of the bird feeder. We’ll see how it works. I might not like it in the afternoon when the sun shines in and I need to close the curtains to keep the room from heating up.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the gleanings from my news feeds during this past week….

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.

Check Out the Beautiful Flowers in Bloom at the Keukenhof – I missed going to Brookside Gardens this spring. I’m glad there are beautiful photographs like these and that we have the forest behind our house.

Researchers Reexamine Ritual Sacrifices in Ancient Mesoamerica - Archaeology Magazine – Evidently there is skeletal evidence that there were 3 distinct methods used for heart extractions.

Researchers Uncover New Evidence That Warrior Women Inspired Legend of Mulan | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Not specifically Mulan but there is physical evidence that female warriors road across the steppes of what is now Mongolia around the 4th or 5th century AD which is about the time the first historical mention of Mulan appears.

Dolphins, Surfers and Waves Sparkle in Bright Blue Bioluminescent Glow Off California Coast | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Dinoflagellates. Watch the two videos.

Top 25 birds of the week: Birds of Prey - Wild Bird Revolution – This group includes a Snail Kite – which we saw in Florida a little over a year ago. (I posted about it too!)

Nearly half of US breathing unhealthy air; record-breaking air pollution in nine cities -- ScienceDaily – I was surprised at some of the cities listed on the top 10 most polluted cities (short term particle pollution)…and the comparison of that list with the year-round list was interesting.

Cool Facts About Common Backyard Wildlife – The list includes racoons. Evidently racoons are usually very clever about accessing urban/suburban food sources. So far – the design of our bird feeder is working…frustrating the racoon.

Infographic: Building Bacteria to Fight Cancer | The Scientist Magazine® - Work being done in mice at this point…goal is to target tumors specifically and minimize side effects of treatment.

Paleontologists reveal 'the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth' -- ScienceDaily – 100 million years ago the Sahara had flying reptiles and crocodile-like hunters!

Great Lakes Without Winter Ice – A picture taken from the International Space Station in February.

May 12, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/11/2020

May 12, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Sending in my absentee ballot for the Maryland primary. The primary was moved to June 2nd and is being done by mail for most voters.

Life Magazine in 1962. My youngest sister was born in 1962. Internet Archive has one issue for that year. It had ads for Carnation Instant Milk, Pepsi, Chef Boy-ar-dee, and Kodak film. There was a story about Paris fashion that was not as interesting as I thought it might be. The article with the most pages and caught my interest was called Sights that Never Lose Their Magic and included pictures of Paris, London, Venice, Hong Kong/Avila, Gizeh, Istanbul, Fuji, Angkor, and Taj Mahal. The last one is probably my favorite – moonlit instead of blazing sun. (click on an image to see a larger version).

**Taking out kitchen scraps to the compost pile**. I’d been collecting the snippets in the kitchen and took it out to the compost pile since the container was full – after adding a spent iris flower this morning. I should take it out more frequently since there was mold growing in the bottom. I took some pictures of tiny flowers growing in our yard and some shade loving plants under our deck on the walk back to the front of the house.

Checking the iris stalks that weathered the 2 nights of cold temperatures. They survived. Their location is somewhat protected, and the buds seem to be maturing normally.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for some goldfinch observations….

2020 05 IMG_9442 (4).jpg — House finches are frequent visitors to our feeder…goldfinches not as often. But they have been showing up a little more frequently and the house finches seem to accept them as non-competitors at the feeder.

The males have their summer plumage at this point, so they are easy to spot.

May 10, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/9/2020 – eBotanical Prints

May 10, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

2020 05 IMG_9511 (4).jpg — **The first hour of the day.** Somehow there was a lot to observe when I first went into my office yesterday. There was ice in the birdbath. It is cantilevered off our deck railing about 1 story off the ground and tends to freeze before things at ground level. The ‘freeze watch’ forecast had been right.

2020 05 IMG_9511 (2).jpg — Then I noticed that one of the buds on the iris stalks I brought in yesterday was open. I have a very flowery office at this point.

2020 05 IMG_9511 (3).jpg — I was cleaning my glasses when a bird flew to the roof of the covered deck and dropped something blue that rolled down into the gutter. I put my glasses on and could see that the bird was a robin before it flew away. Then I used the zoom on the camera to see what was in the gutter: a partial robin eggshell! The bird was doing some nest maintenance. I hope the baby bird was kept warm by the other parent.

The flowers of the tulip poplar look unharmed by the cold weather.

Browsing Life Magazine from 1958. Internet archive only has 2 issues from 1958 (March and December) – the year another of my sisters was born. There were a lot of articles on the entertainment industry. I collected some of the ads (click on the image to see a larger version). Some of the brands are still around: Disney, Campbells, Coke, Pepsi, General Electric, American Airlines, Northern, Jell-O. There were also a lot of ads for cigarettes and various kinds of alcohol.

**Tangle background for the poppy.** I used light colors to fill in the blank areas of the tiles around the poppy image that I had ‘colored’ the day before.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the monthly post about the digital botanical print books I browsed through in April 2020….

There are 15 new books this month. The first 3 are by Anna Atkins and are cyanotype photographs (process invented by Sir John Herschel) of algae/seaweed. Then there were 11 volumes of Flora fluminensis – Brazilian plants publish in the 1820a. The last book is much more recent (2006) and about Hollies; the illustrations are photographs in this one.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet by clicking on the hyperlinked title. The whole list of 1,879 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 16 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions V1 * Atkins, Anna * sample image * 1853

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions V2 * Atkins, Anna * sample image * 1853

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions V3 * Atkins, Anna * sample image * 1853

Flora fluminensis - V 1 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 2 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 3 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 4 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 5 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 6 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 7 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 8 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 9 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 10 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora fluminensis - V 11 * Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Hollies foor Gardeners * Bailles, Christopher; Andrews, Susyn * sample image * 2006

May 09, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/8/2020 - Gleanings

May 09, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Coloring a flower picture. I found a wonderful book on Internet Archive – Flower Designs by Marcia Bradford. It is printed one flower per page with light lines. They were originally intended for watercolors. I selected the one that looks like a California Poppy first (saving the morning glory for another day); there are 18 flower pages to pick from!

I saved the page from the book as a jpeg then printed it on manila cardstock. I used a paper cutter to make ‘tiles’ (so that it would be a mosaic rather than one 8.5x11 inch page). I like the colored result. Tomorrow I’ll fill in some of the blank area with ‘tangles’!

Bringing in more iris stems. We had a freeze watch for overnight, so I cut two more iris stems yesterday. The others are not far enough along to bloom, so I left them outside and hoped they would survive the frost. I took the vase outside so that I could put the new stems into water right away with the stem I’d cut previously.

Unfortunately, I bumped the flower on the way back into the house so now the flower is in its own small water glass.

While I was out, I also cut more mint to use in my smoothie with the chocolate protein powder. It tasted so good last time that I’ve added the combination to my smoothie rotation. Hopefully, the temperature will not get down low enough overnight to kill the mint.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now – the Gleanings for this week

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.

One little Chipmunk on a Mission! – Pic for Today – Chipmunks are such fun to watch. We have had then periodically around our house but not all the time. They seem to like our front flower beds and porch when they are around. Squirrels are the constant in our neighborhood.

New PMEL Science at Work Video: How tiny particles affect air quality and climate | NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) – The video as just under 4 minutes…. explaining how we learn about aerosol particles (important because the particles can impact health).

Image of the Day: Ancient Dental Enamel | The Scientist Magazine® - Quite a lot can be derived from protein sequence analysis these days.

Top 25 birds of the week: Endemic Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Some birds native only to a certain place.

City of Houston Surprises: 100% Renewable Electricity — $65 Million in Savings in 7 Years | CleanTechnica – The city is planning to power all municipal operations with renewable energy! Also included in the program – the provider will help city employees purchase discounted renewable energy.

Organic food growers see surge in demand during pandemic - UPI.com – Glad the organic farmers are thriving. So far- I’ve been able to get organic produce in my grocery deliveries. My local Community Supported Agriculture farm will begin in June.

Understanding deer damage is crucial when planting new forests -- ScienceDaily – UK research on an issue we deal with in the US too.

Frozen, fresh or canned food: What’s more nutritious? - BBC Future – A little update. The article confirmed what I already knew…it’s good to know I don’t need to reset my thinking.

Analysis of Pompeii's Garbage Suggests the Ancient Romans Recycled, too | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Evidently garbage was piled at city walls and sorted for reuse. They lived much closer to their garbage.

Wildflower Watching as a Source of Solace and Diversion – This is the time of year to find wildflowers. I am always surprised at how amazing even the tiny ones look when I can get close enough to photograph them.

May 08, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/7/2020

May 08, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Grocery delivery. We have settled into a weekly rhythm for the grocery delivery but it’s still true that each one is a little different and a learning experience. This week the part of the app that allows approval of substitutions didn’t work so I had to do approvals via texts. The shopper started a little earlier than I expected but I noticed right away. Only one item was out of stock although there were substitutions for some things. I was surprised that all the meat items on the list were available because of the stories about potential meat shortages. The whole process including delivery took about an hour (an indicator that the shopper was experienced).

**Iris in a vase.** I noticed when I was distributing the groceries from the front porch (non-perishables to the trunk of my car for a few days and the refrigerator items into the house) that an iris was blooming. I brought it inside and put it in a vase. It was very wet from the rain during the night, so I left it on the kitchen island for a few hours. Now it is upstairs in my office.

Browsing Life Magazines from 1956 – the year one of my sisters was born. There were picture stories about Grace Kelly, the convention/election for Eisenhower’s second term, Princess Margaret visiting Africa, and the University of Mexico. The ads were interesting too – electric skillets, Carnation evaporated milk and Lady Borden ice cream!

Finishing Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series:

2020 05 IMG_9404 (4).jpg — **Appreciating the wall of green.** The trees have filled out in our forest and the view from my office window is achieving the look of summer….filled with the gently moving wall of green leaves. My office is 2 stories from ground level, so see the middle of the trees over the roof of our covered deck. The red maple is in the foreground with very tall tulip poplars behind.

Photographing the nictitating membrane of a male red-bellied woodpecker. The bird was enjoying breakfast at our feeder and one of my pictures happened to catch the blink!

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now - a Nuthatch Pause….

Last week a white-breasted nuthatch sat on the railing of our deck…very still. Its eyes were alert and it sometimes moved its head slightly. Usually the nuthatches come to the feeder and quickly get their seed and fly off. They seem hyper. This bird was just opposite. Then it suddenly turned its body by 90 degrees…and went back to normal behavior with quick, purposeful movements…flying off to the woods.

I remembered that I’d seen a downy woodpecker in the almost the same location a few days before and wondered if there is something different about the scene from between those two knots in the wood that causes birds to be wary/stay still.

May 07, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/6/2020 - Routine

May 07, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Photographing an iris bud. I decided to do some macro photography of the iris bud that had dried up before it put it in the compost. The materials for the project: clip-on macro lens, jeweler’s loupe, a sharp knife and cutting board, and then the iPad to use as a light table. The sections were cut as thinly as possible (not microtome thin, unfortunately).

The loupe provides 22x magnification, so I started with that. These are cross sections of the desiccated bud.

The cross section of the stem was not desiccated, but obviously not functioning well enough to get water up to the bud.

The sleeve around the bud was almost completely dry although there was still a little reddish color that I photographed a few days ago.

I took one picture with the clip-on lens to show the whole bud cross section in one frame.

Making biscuits. Sometimes I get hungry for breads…but not enough to buy a loaf. Making biscuits from scratch fills the craving. This batch was made with a little more milk and spread into a shallow pan to bake. The sheet was about 1/2 inch, so it was somewhat like bread. I slathered a rectangle with peanut butter in the first round…then had ginger preserves for the second serving (yesterday). I still have enough for at least one more serving!

Browsing McCall’s Magazines from the 1920s. Internet Archive has several McCall’s Magazines from the 1920s available. I’ve been browsing through them the past few days …. realizing that one of my grandmothers would have been 20 in 1927…wondering if she saw these magazines. All of them have a segment about clothes …. with patterns available. It was a time of drop waists (or no waist) … shorter hemlines … shoes that were color matched to dresses for formal occasions.

Watching the compiled hatching moments from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. A 3 minutes video of birds emerging from their eggs: Barred Owl, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now about the beauty for routine….

I’ve been emphasizing some of the things that are different about each day…things that keep the days at home from settling into a sameness. But the routine is important too.

I get up about the same time every day…go to sleep about the same time every day too. My internal clock is quite strong. These days the birds are already beginning to make their morning song when I am waking up. I enjoy listening to them for a few minutes before I get up.
Breakfast is almost always a smoothie…enough that I consider it the routine. But the ingredients of the smoothie change from day to day…and some days I decide to something completely different. I had left over biscuits and ginger preserves yesterday because my husband was snoozing when I wanted to have breakfast (and I didn’t want to make noise with the Ninja to make the smoothie).
Creating at least one Zentangle tile is something that I do sometime during the day. Sometimes I do more than one but not in one sitting.
One way or another, I get 12,000 steps (counted by my Fitbit) during the day. I try to spread the activity out during the day and get at least 30 minutes of ‘active minutes’ as calculated by the Fitbit.
I browse (occasionally read) 4 eBooks a day. Sometimes I count magazines as books if they are lengthy…or I group several of them together to count as a book. For example, 4-6 of the Life magazines are counted as a book.
The blog post is also part of my routine…it was before the pandemic and has continued to be part of my daily rhythm.
And then there are the notes I keep for myself on whatever I am doing. I find that a learn better when I take notes while I listen…when I read…even just after I talk to people.
Noting at least 4 specific things I am thankful for and ways that I was kind to others and to myself at the end of the day.
20-30 minutes of yoga and Breathing app round out the daily routine.

Now that I am looking at my list, I am realizing that it hasn’t changed very much from what it was before the pandemic. Maybe I am doing a bit more reading and might not be as rushed to complete the whole routine every day.

May 06, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/5/2020 – Dead Pine

May 06, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Sending off a check to a relative graduating from high school. Some events continue to happen no matter what. The details of how they are celebrated might change. This one was far enough away a card/check was what I would have done even without the pandemic.

23 20 05 (3).jpg — **Seeing an ad for GE’s Wonder Kitchen in** **the June 1955 issue of Life Magazine** – A 9.5 foot combo: washer/dryer, sink, dishwasher, stove with a stainless steel counter. Add a refrigerator and have a complete kitchen! It was a product for the new suburbs. Note that the developer Bill Levitt was reviewing the product…known as the father of modern American suburbia – also for his refusal to allow racial minorities to buy houses in his development (see Wikipedia article here). So – this one page reminds us of the relationship of two big themes of the 1950s.

Watching the Juilliard Students grid music video (Ravel’s Bolero). It’s 9.5 minutes of music and performances…students and faculty and alum…from wherever they are ‘at home.’

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now about the cutting down of a dead pine tree….

One of our neighbors had a pine tree that died over the course of last summer and fall. They got a crew out to cut it down a little over a week ago. I watched the action from my office window…through the branches of the sycamore. It was the big excitement of the day. The process involved cutting off the lower branches as far up as the ladder reached, one of the crew climbing up the trunk using the stubs of branches for footholds and cutting off branches as he worked upward then cutting off the top, taking a break (maybe to get a bigger chain saw), and then cutting the tree close to the ground.

I took pictures of the stump a few days later. It’s always sad when a tree is cut down….even when its already dead. In the forest dead snags are great habitat for woodpeckers! But this tree had high potential of causing damage to a house if it fell on its own. It was a good idea to get it taken down in a controlled way.

May 04, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/3/2020 - Dogwoods

May 04, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Browsing Life magazine (on Internet Archive) from around the time I was born (mid-1950s). There were articles about Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and exploration of the artic. I was surprised at the number of ads for cigarettes and alcohol. The two images I picked to show as samples were both ads: IBM Electric Typewriters (not yet the Selectric models that had the golf ball-like type element which the company made up until shortly after I joined the company in the 1980s) and a passenger train through the Southwest.

Photographing tiny leaves on our red oak with the digiscope (smartphone attached to spotting scope). The branches of the tree are too high to get close enough to do macro photography (I’m not confident enough to use a ladder that high). We put the spotting scope on the front porch, and it was able to focus on the top branches of the tree. We waited until the sun was in the west to provide good light on the leaves…make it possible to ‘freeze’ the motion caused by the breeze.

**A picture of a cat visitor in Missouri**. There is a cat that comes to visit at my daughter’s house periodically (started about the same time the pandemic did). It meows loudly at the door to be let in, visits, then goes home. I was talking to her when it appeared on Saturday evening about dusk. She sent us a picture of the cat that appears to be very much ‘at home’ in their house. It probably belongs to a neighbor although she isn’t sure which one.

Experimenting with Procreate App features. When I make Zentangle tiles on the iPad with the Apple Pencil, I use the Procreate App in its simplest form…changing colors occasionally or changing the intensity of the lines. I experimented with the ‘liquify’ feature on some old tiles. The original is on the left and the right is the one I augmented with a few swipes.

And then I did another with a partial ‘recolor’…quite a change from the original! It was fun to experiment although I think I enjoy the creation of Zentangle tiles in digital form that relies on my own drawing rather that the razzle-dazzle features.

2020 05 IMG_9435.jpg — **Receiving a new computer for my husband.** Fed Ex delivered it on a Sunday! We were not expecting it until Monday and my husband was still doing backups of his old machine when it arrived.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the neighborhood dogwoods…

I photographed white and pink dogwoods in our neighborhood during last week’s walk. They were all in front yards and I was able to photograph them standing in the street. The white ones seemed to be a little bruised…might have been out longer than the pink ones. But both were still beautiful. I like the dogwood flowers because they are a springtime feature of our area, the way the trees move in the breeze with their delicate leafy branches in the summer and then the red of the leaves/seed clusters in the fall. I probably like the white ones that are native to North America the best.

May 03, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/2/2020 – 60 years ago

May 03, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Catching up on a Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series:

Making Zentangle tiles while listening to astrobiology videos. I made tiles that start with curvy strings that create spaces to fill with color…the coloring using the ‘pattern’ of connecting spaces via corners. I made two tiles while I listened to the 6 videos.

**Celebrating a new low weight for the year with dark chocolate.** Being at a new low weight for the year is s great metric to start the day. I enjoyed the dark chocolate right away - for ‘breakfast.’

Beginning of sycamore seed balls. The light was good in the afternoon to observe the newly forming sycamore balls through the skylight in the master bathroom. I turned the screen on my camera so that I could point the camera straight up and brought in a chair to sit on (help me hold the camera steady). I was surprised at how red the tiny balls looked.

A wary downy. I was looking through pictures I had taken recently and found some of a downy woodpecker on our deck railing. It sat there relatively still for longer than I expected. As I reviewed the pictures, I realized that maybe it was being still to escape a predator from above.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

Thinking about 60 years ago this spring…..

I was in kindergarten…walking home with a bean seedling I’d sprouted in a paper cup. It was a warmish spring day in Texas, and I was excited to show the small plant to my mother. She met me when I was about halfway home but didn’t seem interested in my plant which surprised me. She told me that my grandfather had been hurt and was in the hospital.

Those moments became my most vivid memory of my kindergarten year. The details around the moments are missing. Did I usually walk home by myself? Where were my little sisters when my mother came to walk with me? Had the accident just happened, and she was still assimilating the news herself? What happened to the bean plant?

I was at the age where memories start to become more plentiful. By the time my grandfather came home of the hospital – a leg amputated and much thinner - I remember the first time we saw him at his home (my sisters and I were not allowed at the hospital) and thinking how different he looked. He lived another 16 years – helping me and my sisters all along the way…showing us life well lived. Today I am feeling how fortunate we were that he survived 1960.

May 02, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/1/2020 - Gleanings

May 02, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Downloading Woody Plants of the Northern Forest by Jerry Jenkins. The Northern Forest Atlas organization has 3 digital atlas guides: woody plants, mosses and sedges. They are available as free downloads (PDFs). The images are wonderful…the downside is that the guides are HUGE because of the high quality images. The woody plant guide is 630 MB. Put the download in a place you will remember to retain it as a reference (and avoid downloading it again).

Browsing the books illustrated by Frederick Richardson on Internet Archive. He illustrated books in the early 1900s. The samples below are from Edith Ogden Harrison’s The Enchanted House and Other Fairy Stories.

Walking laps. It’s been very wet here, so I’ve been indoors more. I’ve plotted various circuit paths through my house to get some exercise! I do laps for 5 or so minutes every hour…or that is the general goal.

**Receiving a new office chair**. My constant bouncing on the Swopper stool at my computer had recently started to bother my back rather than sustaining my back muscles….so I opted to move to a more traditional office chair. We had one that was over 30 years old that I thought might work but the height adjustment no longer functioned. My husband found a new chair from Staples…ordered it…and it came to our front porch within a day or so. It’s now assembled and will be the chair at my computer. The Swopper will still get used daily….but not as heavily as it has for the past 10 years!

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

And now for the weekly gleaning list….

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.

Deep Sea Squid Communicate with Glowing Skin: NPR – The video is a little over a minute…deep sea footage of Humboldt Squid taken by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Institute off the California coast.

To Cut Carbon Emissions, a Movement Grows to ‘Electrify Everything’ - Yale E360 – All-electric new construction…preparing the way for dramatic reduction of fossil fuel consumption.

Top 25 birds of the week: April 2020 - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Blue Feathers - Wild Bird Revolution – A double dose of bird photographs this week!

Enjoy the Red-Winged Blackbird Show – I saw red-winging blackbirds on one of my walks in the neighborhood – at the storm water retention pond. There was a bit of drama I’ll share in a post next week.

The Hidden History in My Backyard – A history of a Florida backyard/neighborhood. I am content with the idea that my back yard was a forest….and that there is still a swath of forest down to the river.

Skulls from the Yucatan Peninsula a Clue to Early American Settlers | The Scientist Magazine® - Analysis of Quintana Roo skulls from people that lived 13,000-8,000 years ago…found in underwater caves that were above sea level at that time.

Pictures of Redwood National and State Park – Huge trees – always awesome.

Southwest Drought Rivals Those of Centuries Ago, Thanks to Climate Change - The New York Times – The last sentence is the bottom line: ‘We don’t have the whole story on Southwestern hydroclimate nailed down.’ The article talks about the analysis we have now….it probably means that the population growth in the Southwest happened at a time that was unusually wet, and that it won’t be supportable into the future.

Insect wings hold antimicrobial clues for improved medical implants -- ScienceDaily – Beginning to understand how nanopillar structures in cicada and dragonfly weeks kill bacteria on contact.

What chemical analyzes of human bones tell us about kitchen utensils in the Middle Ages - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News – Copper in bones….shows continuous exposure for cooper from AD 800 to AD 1800…consumed in daily diet prepared in copper cookware!