Frank Southgate's Illustrations in The Norfolk Broads

Frank Southgate did 48 colored/29 uncolored illustrations for William Alfred Dutt’s book The Norfolk Broads published in 1906. It’s available on Internet Archive and I enjoyed browsing the illustrations – watery land and birds. I have selected 6 favorites for the slideshow below.

Frank Southgate lived in the area he illustrated most of his life according to Wikipedia. He was best known for his paintings of waterfowl and hunting scenes. He died relatively early (44 years old) while serving in the Army during World War I.  I found another book with his illustrations mentioned in the Wikipedia entry that is also available on Internet Archive - Notes of an east coast naturalist; a series of observations made at odd times during a period of twenty-five years in the neighborhood of Great Yarmouth by Arthur Henry Patterson; I’ve bookmarked it in my browser…the digital equivalent of adding it to a stack of ‘to read’ books!

Mini Road Trip: Brookside Gardens – April 2021 (2)

Continuing the photographic tour of Brookside Gardens from yesterday’s post….

I always make an effort to see the deciduous magnolias blooming at Brookside and they were at the top of my ‘to see’ plan for this mini road trip. The first one I saw was quite a shock. All the flowers had been destroyed by the frosts. The tree won’t be producing any seeds this year. The drying remains of the flowers were glowing in the morning light….interesting looking but ultimately not positive for the tree.

I would occasionally see a tree that I thought might have escaped the frost damage

But a closer look always showed that the flowers were damaged. The might still be intact enough to draw insects and maybe produce seeds.

At least one tree had buds that looked normal – the late bloomer might be the one with the successful seed production this year.

The tulips are the other big display in April. Some of the beds also had fading hyacinths. I like to photograph tulips that appear to be glowing from within….and there were several situations that provided the opportunity for that.

Benches at Brookside always look appealing to me but I rare sit down. Usually I am walking around, taking pictures of anything that looks interesting. Maybe I should try something different next time I visit….pick a spot and sit for a bit.

A project idea – maybe take pictures of tree trunks that includes the name of the tree (many of the trees at Brookside are labeled like this. It would be good to have as a reference.

I always like the stone sphere sculpture. Sometimes there are early butterflies that warm up in the sunshine around it…but I didn’t see any while I was there.

On the way back to the car, I stopped again to photograph the lush horsetail bed at one corner of the visitor center….and that was the last stop of my walk. The parking lot was filling up  and I was glad I had come early enough to avoid the crowd.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – April 2021 (1)

Before one of my volunteer shifts at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I hiked a little. It had changed a little since March. The spring beauties were in bloom along the trail.

A tree had fallen over the trail. It was so rotten that the upper part had broken apart. It was relatively easy to step over.

I took some zoomed pictures of the loose bark and knots with moss growing around them on the part of the trunk that crossed the trail..

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A little further down, a male woodpecker was working a shallow hole. It was so focused that it didn’t notice me walking by.

 The furthest point on the loop hike was the patch of skunk cabbage I’ve been monitoring the past couple of months. The leaves are unfurling now although sometimes the purplish reproductive parts are still visible in the much at the base of the leaves.

In the picture below, there is maturing a maturing seed pod in the lower part of the picture…the next stage of the ‘golf ball’ structure inside the decaying spathe.

The spice bush is blooming in the same area.

Tomorrow I’ll write about the second part of the hike.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 17, 2021

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

Top 25 birds of the week: Forests! – Photographs and birds….always a great start to the gleanings list for the week.

Regulators Ban Fracking Permanently in the Four-State Delaware River Watershed - Yale E360 – The watershed provides drinking water to 13 million people in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York….critical to not have toxic leaks into that supply….and the fracking industry does not have good track record when it comes to water quality.

Scientists stunned to discover plants beneath mile-deep Greenland ice -- ScienceDaily - Long-lost ice core provides direct evidence that giant ice sheet melted off within the last million years and is highly vulnerable to a warming climate.

The legendary fabric that no one knows how to make - BBC Future – Dhaka muslin…with thread counts up to 1,200.

Diphtheria risks becoming major global threat again as it evolves antimicrobial resistance -- ScienceDaily – Resistance to antibiotics and vaccine escape becoming more common/likely….not a good prospect.

Climate Change Lays Waste to Butterflies Across American West | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The total number of observed butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains has fallen by 1.6 percent every year since 1977….that adds up to over 65% decrease!

Reflecting on your own capabilities boosts resilience -- ScienceDaily – Thinking about memories of successfully overcoming past challenges may help us cope with crisis situations we are facing in the present.

Great Lakes people among first coppersmiths | Science – The Old Copper Culture began earlier and faded earlier that previously thought…starting about 9,500 years ago and ending about 5,000 years ago. A climate shift might have caused the culture to shift from using copper for tools to adornment at the end of the period.

Waste from making purple corn chips yields a natural dye, supplements, kitty litter -- ScienceDaily – I like processes that dramatically reduce the amount of agricultural waste. I wonder if the purple kitty litter would stain carpet if it was tracked out of the litter box though.

Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you - BBC Future – Evidently cats do form emotional bonds with their humans…but they probably don’t pick up on human social relationships….not as domesticated as dogs.

30 years ago – April 1991

After the flurry of guests that we had in March 1991, we were back to being on our own in April….new challenges. My daughter was at a temporary family day care during the day for most of the month; it seemed to be working well but I rejoiced that not only did she remember her original day care provider after several weeks away, but she seemed thrilled to be back in that situation by the end of the month.

My husband was in the process of moving from Johns Hopkins to Applied Physics Lab for his work. It was a big ‘win’ in terms of work and a much shorter commute for him. We made a weekend trip to his Johns Hopkins office to move some items like plants and files. The heavier books were already on the way to the new office. We might have been the only people in the building. My daughter enjoyed pushing her stroller unimpeded in the hallways.

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I was traveling to Atlanta frequently for work and by the end of the month was quickly getting to a stopping point on that project so that I could start the next one which would involve a longer commute. There was an announcement about a ‘work from home’ pilot and I wondered if I would be able to participate to avoid the long commute at least one day a week.

The trips to Atlanta – sometimes done in a long day (intense meetings in the middle) – were the first travel I’d done for work since my daughter was born. It felt odd to be so far away from her. At the same time – I savored the quiet time on the plane - enjoying good books. I was using a card I’d received from my Grandmother as a bookmark. It took some effort to carry enough reading material with me on those trips….it made the briefcase heavy since this was well before electronic books!

It also seemed like there were more letters exchanged that April – mostly with family. Everyone seemed to have a busy month – travel to San Francisco for a class, 2 people moving, another getting pregnant, ducklings escaping their enclosure to make friends with dogs, and birthday celebrations. Reading about the flurry of activity was quite a contrast with our lives this year during the pandemic and, to a lesser extent, without the challenge of careers. There were lots of comments about how pretty the spring trees and flowers were; that hasn’t changed.

Lessons from an Elderly Cat

Our cat is 19 years old. He has been thoroughly pampered during the pandemic since we’re at home rather than traveling…or even venturing out very much. My husband is the ‘primary care person’ – but we both enjoy talking to the cat…observing the cat live well in his aging body. Here’s my list of lessons from our aging cat.

Sleep when you want…and not always in the same place. There are cat naps…and then longer periods of sleep. If he does go to sleep out on the screen deck – he is there for hours. He enjoys a longer sleep in his donut at least once a day – or he did during the winter months; that could change now that it is getting more inviting outside. He has a chair in the basement where he goes when he does not want to be disturbed and some darkness during the day. We humans sometimes put a lot of emphasis on ‘sleeping in our own bed’…but maybe the change of sleeping somewhere else is one of the things that makes travel appealing. For me – I like to vary where I do my mindfulness ‘rest’ which rejuvenates me as much as a ‘cat nap.’

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Seek out sunshine. All cats like to find a spot of sunshine…and our elderly cat is no exception. Being warm probably makes him feel less achy. It works for humans too…but how often do we take advantage of a sunny place….sitting by a window or outdoors.

Drink water more frequently than you eat. We have a water fountain for our cat, and he uses it frequently. As we age, sometimes our thirst indicator is not as accurate, and we get dehydrated. I’m glad our cat seems to not have that problem…or maybe the water fountain is appealing enough to draw him over to it.

Move about even if it sometimes hurts a little. Our cat still goes up and down the stairs although sometimes he looks reluctant. He seems to think about it…..then goes up or down quickly…get it over with. My husband and I are already talking about our next house not having stairs…that we want to age in place but not in our current house.

Occasionally revert to your younger self. The cat enjoys playing with wand toys – puffs and snakes. He would play with little prompting when he was younger. Now he sometimes just follows the toys with his eyes. We still try to entice him. Sometimes he surprises us and ‘catches’ the snake. Another time he followed we around as I dragged the snake behind me! When I think of the ‘lesson’ translated to humans I think about the effect younger children have on older people; it’s so easy to slip into the play mode when interacting with the child; it’s as beneficial to the older person as it is to the child!

Get the news from different perspectives. Our cat has windows that he uses to check out what is happening in the world. One of his favorite places is the windows on either side of the front door. From there he can see the birds and chipmunks on the porch or front yard, the school buses, the people walking their dogs. On the covered deck, he watched the birds building nests through a crack in the decking, birds at the feeder, the trees of the forest. I’m not sure how often he checks the area under the deck from the French door in the basement. It’s deep shade there…some ferns, maybe deer coming through at dawn or dusk. Sometimes I wonder if he knows when the racoons try to raid the bird feeder at night.

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Give and get attention. The cat is vocal about what he wants – and doesn’t. He has become a picky eater…and he wants company (often in the middle of the night)…and does not like to be alone in the house even if he is napping. At the same time, he likes to interact – with different meows and trills (if only we could understand his language better) and often initiates conversation and cuddles and treats and play. Cat and people need interaction!

Keep doing things you’ve always enjoyed. Our cat has always enjoyed being outdoors on the screened deck. Sometimes he naps but he often just appears to be relaxed/attentive. Do cats meditate? They often appear to be awake and alert…but inwardly focused.

Be curious. It’s easy to tell if the cat is just taking a quick look outside….or if there is something drawing his attention. Maybe sometimes it is just a deep territorial response…but it looks a lot like curiosity. With people – there is a browsing mode…and then an increased focus once that survey spots something of higher interest. It’s a good quality to practice….and think again about taking on a child-like approach to the way we perceive the world.

Savor the stretch. Cats have the best stretches! Stretching feels good to humans too!

Vary your gait. Our cat generally moves slower than he did when he was younger….but he has bursts of speed or faster walking frequently. Sometimes it surprises him. As we get older, we may want to increase our consciousness of how we move and hold ourselves (particularly our back and shoulders).

Eat smaller meals. Our cat has always been a grazer rather than gobbling up a lot of food at one time. Now he seems to be eating smaller amounts than before…but more frequently. He doesn’t eat things that don’t taste good to him either. There is more wasted cat food. As we get older – maybe our own food choices need to change…increasing our attention on the nutritional value of what we eat along with savoring foods we like.

Relax. Cats are masters of relaxation…and we humans need to give ourselves opportunities to relax and enjoy our lives every day.

There’s a lot to learn about aging gracefully from our cat!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 10, 2021

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

Top 25 birds of the week: Green Colours! – So many beautiful birds…

150-Year-Old Boxwoods Lost To Blight At Carl Sandburg Home – My daughter and I visited the Carl Sandburg Historical Site in 2003 when we were on our way from Maryland to meet family members coming from Texas for a Georgia vacation. It was the first time I had driven a car with a nav system! We enjoyed walking the grounds and touring the house more than we expected. It’s sad that the boxwood there will be cut down.

What early-budding trees tell us about genetics, climate change -- ScienceDaily – Our plum and cherry trees are the ‘fruitless’ kind but they were in full bloom when our temperatures dipped into the mid-20s. I wonder how many orchards are going to have less fruit this year.

Hope and Peril for North America’s “Snow Parrot” – A parrot that lives in pine forests. Their range once extended into the US from northern Mexico, but they’ve been gone since the 1930s.It’s only in the past few years that their migration and winter grounds in the Mexican state of Durango have been discovered. There are efforts to safeguard the free-living birds and continue captive breeding programs in zoos (like the San Diego Zoo) with the plan to begin reintroducing birds into the wild in the future.

The Kodak Brownie: The Camera That Made Photography Accessible – My mother was taking pictures of her siblings in the 1940s….with a Brownie. There is one of her twin sisters (maybe 4 or 5 years old) peeking over the windowsill of the bathroom window (they were standing in the bathtub!); I always wondered if she had help on the inside positioning them while she got outside to get the picture. It must have been a warm day since the window was open!

Dangerous landfill pollutants ranked in order of toxicity -- ScienceDaily – The technique can help landfill managers mitigate risk for a particular site rather than taking generic actions that might not address the biggest problems.

For the First Time in 75 Years, a New Invasive Species of Mosquito Was Found in Florida | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine  - The mosquito that can carry yellow fever and other diseases was found in Florida last year. That does not bode well for keeping tropical diseases at bay in the US as the climate continues to warm.

Scythian people weren't just nomadic warriors, but sometimes settled down: Varied diets and limited mobility challenge stereotypes of ancient steppe populations -- ScienceDaily – Not all Scythians were nomadic. The majority of them might have remained local…farming millet and raising livestock!

Lessons from Darwin's "Mischievous" Birds | The Scientist Magazine® - The striated caracara of the Falkland Islands…we’re familiar with the crested caracara from the south Texas.

Newly Restored Pompeiian Frescoes Capture Hunting Scenes in Vivid Detail | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Part of an ongoing conservation initiative funded largely by the European Union launched in 2012.

Browsing a few Sabine Baring-Gould Books

Sabine Baring-Gould was an Anglican priest and eclectic scholar that lived from 1834-1924…and a prolific author throughout his long life. This week I am featuring 12 of his books available from Internet Archive that I browsed in March. Evidently - he often did his own illustrations for most of the books. Pick one or several to browse through…a trip through time to a place through the eyes of Baring-Gould.

Germany (1886) with collaboration of Arthur Gilman

A Book of the Riviera (1900)

A Book of Cevennes (1907)

The deserts of southern France: an introduction to the limestone and chalk plateaux of ancient Aquitaine V1 and V2 (1894) illustrated by S. Hutton and F.D. Bedford

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A Book of Brittany (1901)

A Book of Dartmoor (1900)  

A Book of North Wales (1903)

A Book of the Rhine from Cleve to Mainz (1906) with color illustrations by Trevor Hadden

A Book of the west; being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall (1899)

An Old English Home and Its Dependencies (1898) illustrated by F. Bligh Bond

Iceland: Its Scenes and Sagas (1863)

Around the House Bouquets

Even though we have trees and flowers blooming outdoors now, I’m still purchasing a bouquet of cut flowers in every grocery order. I divide them into smaller vases and put them in the rooms where we spend the most time – the kitchen/breakfast area, our offices. They are cheerful and great subjects for photography.

Sometimes I take the whole vase of flowers…

But I enjoy the zoomed shots even more, often going into high key type photography with backlighting.

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Other times I try a very dark background. It makes quite a difference!

There are times that I like the color and curls of older flowers.

The pink-green-white is my favorite color combination.

I remember buying some tulip bulbs that were those colors 25 years ago…planting them around the dogwood tree at the house before last; I wonder how many years after we moved away they continued to bloom.

13 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

It’s been over a year now. I am doing the post for this month a few days early in celebration of getting my second Moderna vaccine shot and having only mild side-effects (sore arm, a few aches) that were gone in less than 48 hours. Our county did 2,190 second doses of vaccines on the day my husband and I got our shots…in the US 54.7% of the people over 65 years old had gotten a second dose.

In the past month:

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• Volunteering is on my radar again. It’s not the same or as much as pre-pandemic yet…just a start.

• Taking mini road trips at highway speeds has become a prelude to anticipated longer road trips. The first ones were a little discombobulating….I need the practice. The little trips sometimes are primarily for the drive; it feels good to be out and about in the springtime too.

• Continuing curbside pickup for groceries rather than shopping in the store was a reluctant decision but based on Maryland’s increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and % positive tests. The state has ramped up to about 70K vaccinations per day; but, so far, there are not enough people vaccinated to start bringing the numbers down. Similar trends are being seen across the country – reversing the decline from the previous month.

• Transitioning away from webinars is happening gradually. I enjoyed two from MoMA and one from Brookside Gardens…but am  drawn by the better weather to get out and about – leaving less time for webinars.

In the next month – I am anticipating a longer road trip …seeing family I haven’t seen since pre-pandemic ….enjoying the warming trend of spring!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 3, 2021

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.

New wearable device turns the body into a battery -- ScienceDaily – I’m always forgetting to charge my Fitbit until the low battery warning message comes up. It would be great to never need to charge it!

Soot from Asia travels express on a highway to the high Arctic : Research Highlights – Soot in the Arctic traced back to its source.

Working outdoors linked to lower risk of breast cancer among older women -- ScienceDaily - Outdoor workers are able to make more vitamin D which may be protective, say researchers. This is an observation…but might indicate a thread for future research.

World's first dinosaur preserved sitting on nest of eggs with fossilized babies – An fossilized Oviraptorosaur, a bird-like theropod, found on a nest filled with its 24 eggs.

Stealth Chemicals: A Call to Action on a Threat to Human Fertility - Yale E360 and Air pollution: The silent killer called PM 2.5 -- ScienceDaily – Products of human ingenuity that are negatively impacting our health.

94% of older adults prescribed drugs that raise risk of falling: From 1999-2017, more than 7.8 billion fall-risk-increasing drugs were prescribed to older adults in the US, and deaths from falls doubled -- ScienceDaily – In my 50s, my doctor prescribed a blood pressure medication that made me dizzy. When I complained about it (citing the danger of becoming dizzy and falling down stairs being a greater risk than the benefit of lowering my blood pressure to the level she was attempting), she decided I didn’t need the medication since I was taking half the lowest dose tablet. I hope that the medical professionals prescribing the fall-risk-increasing drugs are more careful about how they are using them now for older people particularly…but for younger people too. Sometimes it seems like the trend is to always ‘treat with drugs’ to address a specific problem rather than integrating for the overall health of the individual.

Was This Helmet Worn by an Ancient Greek Soldier During the Persian Wars? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Found by a dredging vessel off the coast of Haifa, Israel.

50 Birds: Adventures in Backyard Birding – Birding can be done anywhere. Many people have discovered the joy of bird watching from home during this pandemic year.

Joshua Trees: An Uncertain Future For A Mojave Desert Icon – A big fire and climate change….are the Joshua Trees doomed?

Health declining in Gen X and Gen Y, US study shows -- ScienceDaily – The long-term trends are not positive; the US was already seeing decreases in life expectancy and increases in disability/morbidity pre-pandemic. The study pointed to the increase in unhealthy behaviors over the past decades that medical treatment cannot overcome. Based on the response to public health measures attempted in the US for the pandemic, it’s difficult to be optimistic that any kind of intervention could be broadly effective.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 27, 2021

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.

Alexander Calder – Modern from the Start – An exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). There are pictures and a videos of the exhibit on the site. I watched the webinar on the 25th  when it was live and am in the process of looking at the rest of the site now.

Doug Tallamy’s List of Best Plant Genera for Supporting Moths and Butterflies | pollinator-pathway – Arbor Day is coming up in most areas (it varies by state depending on the best tree planting time. If you are thinking about planting a tree (or trees), think native and ones that support moths and butterflies!

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Colours! - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Communication! - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy a double dose of bird photographs this week.

New skin patch brings us closer to wearable, all-in-one health monitor -- ScienceDaily – Still in the research phase…but a step forward. I like the idea of a blood pressure measurement that can be linked with other data throughout the day.

Is the Western way of raising kids weird? - BBC Future – We tend to think that the cultural norms we grow up in are the ‘best’ – but that may not always be true.

On U.S. East Coast, Has Offshore Wind’s Moment Finally Arrived? - Yale E360 – Reliable source of wind and proximity to populous markets….maybe the false starts are finally in the past for this renewal source of energy.

10 virtual tours of spectacular buildings around the world | Top 10s | The Guardian – More places to visit virtually!

Slideshow: Watch Insects in Motion | The Scientist Magazine® - Some technologies researchers are applying to better understand how insects have become such successful fliers.

How the Loss of Soil Is Sacrificing America’s Natural Heritage - Yale E360 – At best 24% of Corn Belt topsoil is gone…at worst 46%....and topsoil is still being lost. The study found that the main source of erosion is not water runoff but tillage…and right now only 15% of acreage in the heart of the Corn Belt is ‘no-till.’

Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at Age 70 | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Wisdom, an Laysan albatross, returns to Midway Atoll again. Her chick for this year hatched on February 1. She has outlived the person that originally banded her!

House & Garden Gleanings

I have finally browsed all the House & Garden magazines I found on Internet Archive…from 1901 to 1993! I started back in November 2020….and browsed one or two of the volumes on most days. This post is the grand finale from the volumes I browsed through in 2021 – featuring a few items that caught my attention from the 1940s onward that I haven’t already featured in a blog post (previous posts: Newport Teahouse and Green Animals on 3/12,  The White House in 1940 on 1/21, House & Garden Magazines on 12/16/2020).

In the volume from the second half of 1941 – a page of old-fashioned Christmas tree decorations. I was surprised that the paper chains that I made in the 1960s had been around since at least the 1940s!

The cover of the volume from the first half of 1942 featured “Planning a Defense Garden” – a reminder of the impact of World War II.

In the volume from the second half of 1962 – pictures of the White House. I would have been in the second grade.

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There were two things I’m highlighting from the volume from the first half of 1970.

The first is an advertisement for a ceramic stove top. It was the first time I’d seen one in the magazine. It took a long time for the technology to mature!

The second is a story from the Ladew Topiary Garden. We went several times when my daughter was young in the early 1990s since it is not far from Baltimore.

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In the second half of 1971 volume – there is an ad for a Sears lamps that my parents bought (the chain and table versions) and gave to us a few years later. We donated them sometime in the mid-1980s.

There was an article about the White House (again) in early 1973. This was about the time I got married.

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Longwood Gardens was in the Christmas issue in 1977. This was years before I visited the gardens.

In the volume from the middle of 1985, there was an article about Mount Vernon. We had moved to the Washington DC area in 1983 and Mount Vernon was one of our favorite places to take family members that came to visit.

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In the fall of 1986, the magazine had an article about Dumbarton Oaks. My husband and I were attending some Smithsonian Associates programs around that time and Dumbarton Oaks was one of the places we toured. I remember it was the first place I saw a black squirrel.

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In early 1987, the magazine had some pictures from Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. We had friends that lived in the area that we visited about that time, but I never toured the house until 20 years later when I was there for work and had an afternoon on my own.

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There were repeats of locations too – Mount Vernon again in 1989

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And Ladew Topiary again in 1992 (which might have been close to the time we took my daughter as a toddler).

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There was an article about Monticello in 1993.

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Overall – I enjoyed browsing all the magazines….a little history…reminders of places I’d been…ideas for what I might do in my own home (or not).

Daffodils in the Brush Pile

Looking out my office window - I noticed a clump of daffodils was blooming in the brush pile at the back of our yard and went downstairs (inside and then from the deck) to get some pictures. Our neighbors have always had daffodils around the base of one of their trees and I had planted some bulbs slightly in front of the tree line in our yard several years ago to establish a similar stand in our yard. The plants come up and bloom well before the leaves are on the trees. My subsequent project to gradually extend the ‘forest’ into our yard by putting small brush piles over the areas where the grass does not well (too much shade) covered the place where I planted the bulbs…but they are hardy enough to come up and bloom anyway! And they provide a marker for how much I have extended the forest leaf mulch area into our yard….probably at least 6 feet. It’s much better than having thin grass/soil showing in that area.

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I also noticed that one of the larger branches in the brush pile had some shelf fungus growing --- decomposition and nature recycling itself in action!

As I walked back up the incline toward the deck stairs, I notice a leaf from last year with some neatly drilled holes. I wondered if the holes were already made before the leaf fell.

Overall – a very satisfying short photo shoot in our yard!

Volunteering Again!

The nature center isn’t open at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant but there are more people visiting with the spring weather. So – the plan until the nature center can open again is to have an outdoor greeter on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday…and I volunteered last Sunday. It was a very enjoyable 2 hours. I had a table and chair set up near the parking lot across from the kiosk.

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I was surprised at the number of people that were there for the first time…needed some orientation to the place. Right before my shift was over, a girl scout troop arrived and wanted to do a non-meadow hike; I highlighted the trail map for them - through the forest to the skunk cabbage wetland. And there were people that have come for years (and volunteered). The children of one family did cartwheels on the slope near the parking lot before heading out for their hike. A child with his grandfather already knew their way to the picnic area for their lunch. Two women arrived with their own camp chairs and walked to a picnic table near the community gardens…talking for an hour or so in the sunshine. I asked people as they headed back to their cars if they saw something interesting and got a range of answers. A small child pointed out some rocks. Some birders had seen a merlin capturing a meal. One child had searched for ‘stages’ that would work for musical performances – standing on the top of the large silver maple stump was his favorite.

The parking lot had 25-35 cars for the whole time I was there – so a very worthwhile time for a greeter to be around.

There was about 10 minutes that were ‘slow’ and I walked toward the picnic tables to take some pictures – pine cones in a tree top…and macro of pine bark.

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Then my daughter called for a quick chat…and after a few minutes the activity picked up again. There wasn’t a lot of time sitting around. I have 4 more of the outdoor greeter gigs lined up; they are all weather dependent (if it’s raining…we cancel!).

It’s good to be getting back into volunteering in the outdoors at Mt Pleasant!

30 years ago – March 1991

The event of March 1991 that I remember without looking back at my notes of the month was my dad turning 60 years old. My notes helped fill in the details. He and my mother flew from Texas to Maryland to spend a week with us; 6 red balloons, a pair of Rockport dress shoes and a pecan praline ice cream cake were some ‘special’ things for the celebration. My 18-month-old daughter thoroughly enjoyed the week with them and the addition of the turtle sandbox to her ‘things to do outside.’ She enjoyed it just after it was purchased while it was still indoors – getting face to face with it (also note – one bare foot…the other with the shoe still on in the picture).

My husband and I benefited from the emotional support from that week. Both of us were going through work and health anxieties that improved over the next few months but peaked in March.

My daughter was facing challenges from us encouraging her to walk more on her own (even up and down stairs) and the beginning of ‘potty training.’ She wanted to be outside as much as possible. She still liked to pick up leaves to carry around while she explored.

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She was not talking well but increasingly more opinionated about what she wanted (and didn’t). She enjoyed carrying around her toys and dancing. The family day care provider commented that she enjoyed dancing so much that once she started…all the other children danced with her.

Near the end of the month – while my parents were visiting, my family day care provider let me know that her mother who had been with her for the past 6 months had died and that the day care would be closed for the next few weeks. I quickly found other day care for the interim; the visit of my parents helped the temporary transition to the other day care. I’ll always be glad that my daughter had the attention of the older woman for those few months…extra attention and cuddles are so important for young children (and often an joy of older adult to provide). When I arrived to get my daughter in the afternoons, it always seemed like she was either being held by or standing close to the older woman; when they made eye contact it was obvious: they had a special bond.

And now – moving ahead 30 years – my dad will be celebrating his 90th birthday! Hopefully, the pandemic situation will improve with more vaccinations and I’ll be able to see him soon.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 20, 2021

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 greatest security threat of the post-truth age - BBC Future – The chilling observation that we might be in a period when “Although information is easily available, people cannot tell whether anything they see, read or hear is reliable or not.”

Top 25 birds of the week: Waterbirds! – From around the world…and the first one is a bird I’ve seen/photographed too in Texas, New Mexico, Delaware and Florida: the American White Pelican!

Diets high in fructose could cause immune system damage, study suggests -- ScienceDaily – Another reason to avoid processed foods….

Easy Nature Adventures to Enjoy Near You – Enjoying the place where you are…outdoors! This time of year, there is a lot of things to see close to where I live and I can choose the places/times to avoid any crowds (still a good thing in this pandemic time until the vaccination rates get much higher and infections begin to plummet).

Stealth Chemicals: A call to action on a threat to human fertility – Evidence has been accumulating…and there are a lot more observable problems at this point. I was glad that near the end of the article, there were recommendations for people trying to have children and/or for young children. And we need to move forward on top-down approaches if manufacturers don’t take near term action.

Helping Birds Adapt to Climate Change in the Nevada Desert – Replacing lost riparian areas after removal of invasive tamarisk.

Earth Matters - What in the World Are Moon Trees? – Trees grown from seeds that were taken into lunar orbit 50 years ago!

Climate Change, Deforestation Hurting Monarch Butterfly Migration : NPR – So many problems for the migrating populations of these butterflies. Soon we might only see this butterfly in areas where they don’t need to migrate to survive the winter.

Remnants of Iron Age Settlement, Roman Villa Found in England | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 15 cone shaped roundhouses dating from 400 BC and 100 BC and then a Roman villa from the 3rd to early 4th century AD. It must have be a good place to call home over a long time period!

Ice Age Carolinas – Carolina Bays….indicators that permafrost extended for several hundred kilometers south of the ice sheet during the last ice age.

Hugh Thomson – Illustrator

I noticed Hugh Thomson’s work when I was browsing the Stephen Lucious Gwynn books about Ireland and did a broad search for other books he illustrated. He was an Irish illustrator best know for pen-and-ink illustrations. I browsed 5 books with his illustrations back in February published between 1895 and 1913; I’ve selected at sample image from each one.

The Story of Rosina and other Verses (1895)

Tales of Maria Edgeworth (1908)

The Merry Wives of Windsor (1910)

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A Kentucky Cardinal (1913)

Quality Street, a comedy in four acts (1913)

Two historical reflections:

• Do you prefer the pen-and-ink or the color illustrations? Today we are so bombarded with colorful illustrations/photographs that we tend to expect color…..but the pen-and- ink show a different kind of detail.

• Based on the Wikipedia entry, Thomson died in 1920 at 59 years old. His career as an illustrator declined with World War I and he was forced to find other work during the last years of his life. I wonder how many people will find the COVID-19 pandemic as disruptive to their livelihood/life plan as previous generations found the World Wars.

As I was writing this blog post, I noticed that the Wikipedia entry for Thomson has a list of selected works that includes links to Internet Archive. Some of the books do not list Thomson in their metadata (i.e. the illustrator was not listed along with the text’s author) so I didn’t find them in my broad search. Hurray! I have some additional Thomson illustrated books to browse!

Reflections on the Mt Pleasant Farmhouse

Last time I walked around Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I started thinking about the changes around the front of the farmhouse since I first saw it back in fall of 2013. The large tulip poplar in front of the house had already been cut down; over the years I noticed the increased weathering of the stump and its roots have decomposed too. It’s a favorite place to find snake skins and sometimes small snakes…spiders…ants!

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The stump to the left was cut closer to the ground in the past few years after the tree started dropping branches and there was concern about potential damage to the farmhouse. I remember a hike with kindergarteners when the tree was still there – me standing about 6 feet away from the trunk of the tree…facing the children and their chaperones a little further from the tree…talking about what might live in the tree….they were talking about the birds and the squirrels…I turned around to gesture to the tree….and there at about eye level was a large black rat snake. What I great teaching moment! I pointed the snake out to the group. The chaperones took a few steps back; the children stayed put at rapt attention. We talked about why the snake might want to be in the tree as it slowly moved from its spot of sunshine on the trunk slithering underneath the loose bark until it was out of sight. Later, after the tree was cut down, some groups tried to count tree rings…others used the spot for a group picture.

The walk up to the front door was added in the year before the pandemic. The front porch is often used as a stop for the younger elementary school hikes and most groups were taking various routes over the grass to get there prior to the construction of the walk. The porch is particularly welcome on rainy days. On one such day before the walk was built, my group made it to the porch as the last stop before lunch; as we turned to go…it started raining even harder; we waited for a few minutes, but it didn’t let up and everyone was hungry. We eventually left the haven of the porch and splashed through puddles toward the nature center building – the revised picnic lunch location.

On the far right…across the gravel drive there is another stump. It was a silver maple that was planted in the later 1800s (based on the tree ring count). It was cut down a before the walk was built There was a ‘twin’ silver maple on the other side of the circular drive what was cut down at the same time (hidden by the cedars on the left in the pictures). The stump on the right was sanded and some steps cut into the side so that the kindergarteners could climb up to see (and count) the tree rings.

My history with the house is a few short years. The house has a longer history with the façade mostly from after the Civil War and there is a log cabin of even earlier vintage enclosed by the additions and modifications made to the house over the years. It’s interesting to think about the highs and lows of the family that lived there…the ways they used the spaces…made changes to fit their needs…the technology incorporated over the years (plumbing and electricity, for example). My few years are a short window into the house’s history!

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – March 2021 (1)

I may do more than one mini road trip to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant this month since the plants change so quickly this time of year. I also want to photograph the wood frogs in the small pond in the Honors Garden when they start their mating songs; the pond was still silent and empty this time. Everything was still skewed toward ‘winter’ although there were more signs of spring than when I went at the end of February.

The skunk cabbage bloom is fading…the golf-ball-like flowers are turning brownish…maybe seeds are forming.

Last time I saw the skunk cabbage there was still snow on the ground along the trail. Some spathes that had black areas at the top during that visit now appeared smaller in size…and one spathe was almost totally black; maybe it had been too damaged to continue flowering.

Overall, there seemed to be more visible clumps of skunk cabbage than the last time I visited the site. Next time I go, I expect there will be green leaves unfurling.

The witch hazel along the drive to the farmhouse is another plant I check this time of year. It’s an Asian variety that blooms in late winter.

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The tree keeps some leaves from last season…that provide a more subtle color than the blooms.

Other ‘sights’ from Mt Pleasant in tomorrow’s post….