Decorating for Christmas

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Our decorating has lagged this year because of my travel at Thanksgiving and then the flurry of volunteer gigs right after I returned. My husband put the wreath on the door before I got home from Springfield, Missouri but it wasn’t until this last weekend that we put the tree up.

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We are keeping it simple this year – just lights and Zentangle coasters on our white tree. I’m still creating more coasters so there will be others added to the tree as the month progresses. I started with about 40 this past weekend.

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I put the cards from past years on the door scrunchies as I usually do….and more cards will be under the plastic on our breakfast table.

Festive…without a lot of effort.

30 years ago – December 1989

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30 years ago – I did my first airplane travel with my daughter. She was 3 months old and I flew from Maryland to Dallas to introduce her to my family in early December. My husband went off to a conference in San Francisco the same week. We had two suitcases to check --- or maybe I checked three. I know I carried the diaper bag on the plane and the baby was in a denim carrier on the front of me….so that I could use my coat to keep her warm and have both hands relatively free. Note the old style suitcases; one had wheels but they were tiny for the size of the suitcase. At least the security at the airport was not as strict as it is now – no taking off shoes and all outerwear and all liquids in 3 ounce sizes in a quart sized Ziploc.

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I had barely gotten the baby to enjoy formula from a bottle before the big travel day….making it easier to feed her on the plane. I’d taken the bottle with water in it and used powdered formula so that it didn’t spoil. The plane was not full for the trip to Dallas. My sister and her husband met us as at the airport and wondered where the baby was (in the front carrier almost completely hidden)!

3 months is a time of more baby smiles and interactions with others. She had a growth spurt will we were in Dallas and wanted to nurse all the time…and then sleep. My father snapped a picture of us both getting a quick nap between feedings.

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When she was awake, the baby was holding toys and trying to roll over.

Once we were all home again – there was more snow and Christmas cards. It was a very family and friends focused month. I was still on leave from work; a few of my colleagues came by to see the baby. I was still adjusting to motherhood…my husband was feeling a little neglected!

Zooming – November 2019

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November was busy with activities that didn’t include a lot of photography…..but still enough to show off some great zoom photos. Museum photography is easy using the zoom since I can get the shot I want while standing well back from the object to avoid reflections off glass cases. Usually the lighting of objects is concentrated so that my camera’s autofocus works very well. Then there are the pictures from outdoors – birds and autumn scenes. The zoom allows me to frame the picture the way I want – avoiding the need to crop later.

All the images this month were taken with my small point-and-shot Cannon SX730 HS rather than my larger Canon SC60 HS bridge camera. The smaller camera is easier to carry in my purse and faster to turn on and get the pictures of birds at my feeder!

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2019

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Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S….so I’ll start out my list of celebrations for this month with that holiday. It’s a day to reflect on what we appreciate in our life. There is so much to be thankful for. I even remembered to put the Indian corn on our front door the day after Halloween so I could enjoy it all month.

Robinson Nature Center - I am celebrating the new volunteer opportunities…more indoors that my other gigs. This winter won’t be a lull in volunteer activities!

Fennel – I celebrated that there was organic fennel in my grocery’s produce section!

HoLLIE lecture – An interesting lecture….and a reminder to celebrate the richness of learning opportunities close to where I live.

A sunny fall day – The month had some cold temperatures. I realized that seeing the sun on those cold days (even if through a window) is a little celebration.

Zentangle Christmas ornaments – I managed to start early making designs on both sides of paper coasters with a red Ultra-fine Sharpie. They are a celebration to make…to display…to give away.

Witch hazel blooming – Something blooming in November…with streamers…just when the trees are losing their leaves. Worth noticing and a celebration.

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Mowing leaves – It works! The yard looks good and my back doesn’t hurt. A strategy to celebrate.

Howard Country Conservancy preK – 3rd grade field trips – October was the peak of the field trip season but the ones in November had their own challenges – some cold, some wet…some windy. Overall – they were a good time in the outdoors for all – celebrating fall.

Road trip to Springfield MO– Road trips on my own are always a good time to think and enjoy the open road…celebrating with family when I get there.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

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My favorite birds in our backyard this month has been a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers. They are probably the largest bird that comes to our feeder. They contort themselves to move seeds around until they can get the larger sunflower seeds. Both the male and female take turns. The red feathers extend to the top of the head on the male…and are just on the back of the head/neck on the female. These birds both look like they are in prime condition.

I’ve also discovered that our neighbors have a feeder that the birds frequent. The birds are getting a lot of support in this neighborhood!

Sometimes the birds fly away with their seed and sometimes they seem to take it to the roof edge of our covered deck. I am beginning to wonder if they are slipping the seeds under the shingles for storage. Both the male and female seem to be doing it.

Most of the time I haven’t been able to photograph the birds in the trees but now that more of the leaves are gone in the red maple, maybe I’ll see them more frequently.

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Cranberries

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I am enjoying cranberries almost every day this month!

In breakfast smoothies (together with vanilla flax milk, walnuts, and a banana), salads (chopped with nuts, raw sweet potato, celery plus flakes of canned chicken, a dressing of mayo and ginger preserves), stir fry (any time I want a tart fruit flavor with the veggies), baked with an apple, a few pecans and a dab of butter.

Cranberries are easy to freeze so I’ve been stocking up and freezing them…using up almost all the small plastic containers I have. I’ll be enjoying cranberries long after the season is over.

When I want a pretty smoothie – I add some fresh or canned beets to the smoothie along with the cranberries. Very pink/red…a great seasonal start to the day.

Through my Office Window – November 2019

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There has been a lot of bird traffic visible through my office window in November. The Blue Jays are frequent visitors – at the icy bird bath (we’ll put the heated bird bath out soon), in the trees, on the gutter, and in the yard.

Both male and female Northern Cardinals enjoyed the seeds on the deck and from the new feeder.

The Downy Woodpecker pair comes to the feeder and finds seeds between the deck railings and insects(?) in the knots of the deck boards.

The House Finches have returned

As have the Dark-eyed Juncos. It took the juncos a few days to discover the feeder. They were finding enough seeds on the ground underneath it before that.

The Mourning Doves are always around.

The Northern Flickers (yellow shafted) rarely come to the deck but they are around – probably more frequently than I see them. The pictures are not as good because the birds are farther away from my window – usually on a neighbor’s roof or in the red maple. One picture shows the yellow shafts very clearly.

The White-breasted Nuthatch is fun to watch – sorting through the seeds until it gets a sunflower seed. The bird has a unique shape and behavior!

The Tufted Titmice move around a lot but are frequent visitors to the feeder. They always look like their eyes are too big their head.

There are other birds that come to the feeder as well. The chickadees come frequently but are so fast that it’s hard to get a picture of them.

The squirrels stay in the trees most of the time. They come to the deck for water – but are frustrated by our feeder that has turned out to be as ‘squirrel proof’ as advertised.

Temporary House Plants

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I have been trying to keep alive the plants I got at the Greater Washington Area’s volunteer appreciation day back in Septembers (posts about it here and here) so that I could take them to my daughter over the Thanksgiving holiday. 5 out of 6 have survived on some shelves in a south facing window.

Watering has been a challenge since weather got cold enough for the heat to come on; our whole house humidifier does not seem to be working properly. The mints need watering almost every day. I repotted both into bigger pots and my daughter will probably have to do it again…and then plant them outside in the spring. There are two kinds: spearmint and chocolate mint.

The obedient plant is blooming. At first I thought it was just one stalk but then I looked to the shelf above and discovered a taller stalk that is in full bloom on the sunny side of the pot with the chocolate mint making an arc over the blossoms (maybe I need to trim the mint so that the obedient plant gets maximum sun.

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The cardinal flower is just low growing leaves. It needs to be planted outdoors next spring to make its stalk and flower.

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Finally – the blackberry lily looks about the same as when I got it.

The plant that didn’t make it was a turtlehead. It got dried out when the heat started coming on and I didn’t catch if fast enough. It was not as resilient as the mints.

I’ll be glad to hand off the plants to my daughter soon….and then be back to just enjoying the plants (and birds) I can see via the windows of my house!

Fall Foliage

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The drought of late summer and early fall impacted our fall this year. There wasn’t as much color and the it did not last as long. The leaves turned brown very quickly (either on the tree or the ground). I didn’t take as many pictures as usual but there were enough for a slide show to celebrate the season (below). Most pictures were from around home – sycamore and red maple and black walnut and tulip poplar. I noticed that the young black walnut at the edge of our forest kept its leaves longer than the older black walnut trees at Mt Pleasant; our tree must benefit from the protection of the bigger trees around it. The dogwood picture with colorful leaves and seeds is from Brookside Gardens. There are a few pictures from Conowingo and Staunton River too. But most of them are from around our house…the trees visible from my office window every day…that are now in winter bareness.

Enjoy the fall finale slideshow!

30 years ago – November 1989

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30 years ago – I was still a ‘new’ mother…very aware that a pivot point had occurred in my life. I was still learning to use diaper wraps and how to take a baby into a restaurant or on a short road trip. I stopped wearing contact lenses; my sleep deprived eyes were better with glasses.  An adventure: I took the baby in a front carrier to a used book sale; I bought a few books but decided that even with her in the front carrier, being in a tight, crowded place was not comfortable for her or me.

There were some unexpected things too…like getting a pay raise that started the day after I had my daughter…while I was on paid maternity leave. I was sticking to my plan of not going back to work until she was 6 months old and then staying part time for another 6 months before being full time again.

The Berlin wall came down and I remember thinking that the world was making a turn for the better just as by daughter’s life was beginning…that maybe fears of global annihilation during her growing up would be less than in my early life.

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It snowed in Maryland on Thanksgiving in 1989…about 5 inches at our house. We took the baby out in the snow for some pictures after the big meal. At first, she seemed very calm (maybe she was a little sleepy); she was well bundled in a snow suit, so we put her on the snow and made a baby snow angel.

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Then she opened her eyes and decided it was way too bright (and maybe a little cold). That was the end of her first snow experience.

Mowing Leaves

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I did my first mowing of the leaves back in October and will finish it this month. The oak was the first to drop enough leaves to mow…then the sycamore…then the maple. Overall, I mowed about 4 times over a 4-6 week period. This was the first year I attempted the leaf mowing strategy (rather that raking and carrying them back into the forest behind our house)…and I will probably choose mowing again next fall. It enables the leaves to decompose quickly at the base of the trees rather than somewhere else. And I tend to not contort myself in odd ways when I mow rather than rake/carry.

I did a before and after picture of the next to the last mowing. The red maple (to the right in the pictures) had dropped about half its leaves. I did not mow the leaves that fell on bare dirt (the shade is so dense that not much grows directly under the tree. Mowing the leaves uncovered some grass that was still green!

Some lessons learned this season:

The sycamore leaves tend to blow under the deck and need to be raked out into the yard so that they can be easily mowed. The trick is to remember to do that little bit of raking before starting the mower.

Mowing the sycamore leaves chops them up enough that they start decomposing rather than maintaining their size and shape well into the winter.

The leaves and other tree debris (acorns and small sticks) from the street gutter are more easily swept onto the yard to be mowed than vacuumed up and carried back to the compost (I am enthusiastic about avoiding carrying leaves).

Still TBD: Will we need less (or no) fertilizer for the yard since the leaves have been mulched into the grass? Maybe.

November Sunrise

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Now that we are back to Standard Time and most of the leaves are off the trees, the sunrise is more noticeable from the front of our house. Last week, I was coming down the stairs at the right time and noticed the colors…grabbed my camera and stepped out on the front porch to take the picture.

Our oak tree is on the right…as is the silhouette of the corner of the house across the street. The trees have gotten so big that even in winter they will be part of the sunrise.

I like to start the day this way – with beautiful color – the calm of morning in the neighborhood before the school buses come through and most people are still at home.

When I came back in, our cat greeted me…seemingly curious about my morning activity on the porch. He’d probably watched through the window.

Favorite Foods – October 2019

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My favorite foods were all about using the fall CSA bounty.

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I made chicken salad with fennel (the feathery part and the stalk), raw sweet potato, spring onion, and bell pepper chopped up in the Ninja food processor with a little mayo…French fried onions on top. Tasty and nutritious. A meal in a bowl.

Popcorn is a favorite of mine but this October I worked for it a bit more. I got 4 ears of popcorn from the CSA and learned to rub the kernels off the cobs into a big bowl (so I didn’t have too many escapees). The popcorn had a few silks with it but by the time the corn was popped I didn’t notice them. I use a popcorn bowl (from Amazon) in the microwave then add garlic salt and butter just before I eat it!

I also made butternut squash custard (using the same recipe as for pumpkin custard) since I had 3 large butternut squash from the CSA. I still have cooked squash in my freezer to use for another custard or two.

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2019

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October is a transition month – warm to cool (sometimes cold at night), leaves turning colors and falling. There is a lot to celebrate. Below are my top ten little celebrations in October:

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The river at Middle Patuxent Environmental Area - It is a little hike through the woods to get to the Middle Patuxent River and then a scramble over rocks to set up our field tables and gear on gravel bars near the water. It’s a serene place before the students arrive…and then full of activity. Every field trip is a celebration of the natural world and the sparks of awareness/realization that happens for most of the students.

Arby’s chicken salad – I always celebrate when my husband’s choice of fast food place has their signature chicken salad…wish they had it all the time.

Heron standing on a turtle – Seeing something unexpected often sparks a little celebration that I was in the right place at the right time. A heron stepping on a turtle (and then being surprised when it moved) was one of those times.

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Conowingo cormorants – We go to Conowingo Dam to see Bald Eagles, but sometimes other birds are more active. On an October morning it was the cormorants….successfully fishing. Often the fish looked too big for them to eat!

CSA popcorn – This was the first year that we got ears of popcorn from the CSA….the last two weeks of the season.  The kernels came off the cob with relative ease and I popped them in my usual microwave popcorn bowl (not all at once…a little popcorn goes a long way). The pop…the curling up with a good book while eating popcorn…a celebration on a rainy fall day.

CSA fennel – The CSA is my source for fennel…I like the bulb and the feathery top. It’s a different flavor from other veggies and one I celebrate as a rare veggie since I know it never looks as fresh in my grocery store and I haven’t found it in the organic section at all.

Mowing the whole yard – Usually my husband handles the mowing, but this fall I’ve done more since I decided to mulch leaves in place rather than rake. I started out doing half the yard…but I celebrated a day when I did the whole thing and the yard looked great….until the next round of leaf drop. There will still be at least one more mowing since there are still leaves on our maple.

Pelicans in the Chesapeake Bay – I celebrated to see so many pelicans in the Chesapeake Bay when we went to Smith Island. The birds nest and raise young in the area! Based on the number of juveniles we saw – 2019 was a good year for pelicans.

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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – What a great place in Richmond. I celebrated that we chose to make the stop in Richmond for a couple of hours….and was pleasantly surprised that my husband enjoyed it too.

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A rainy day – finally – We had no rain for about 6 weeks in last summer and early fall…so when it rained, it was cause for celebration.

Birding through my office window – Oct. 2019

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It’s been a busy October with activities away from home on more than half the days, but I’ve spent enough time in my office to see and photograph some birds. I’ve already posted about the red-bellied woodpecker. Here were the other ‘regulars’ around our deck: Carolina Chickadees

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There were other regulars around, but I didn’t get a picture of one this month: blue jays, titmice, chipping sparrows, downy woodpecker…to name a few.

House Finches used to be regulars at our feeder, but I haven’t seen any recently…and then there was a small group that came through. I hope the House Finches are recovering.

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Now that more of the leaves are falling from the trees, the birds that stick around for the winter will be more visible. I wonder when the Dark-eyed Juncos will show up. They usually are around by mid to late November. Anticipation….

Gray Tree Frog – Again

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I posted about a gray tree frog on our gas grill back in August. There was a frog in almost the same place again last week! The grill has a cover on it when we’re not using it, so the location is very sheltered…until my husband pulls off the cover. The frog always looks very sleepy when we first see him. I’m glad my husband is observant, and we haven’t accidentally cooked a frog!

The frog was not as easy to move off the grill this time. I finally got him onto the laminated card and moved him to the other side of the deck. During the process the golden yellow on the inner thigh was visible.

I did a search on my blog to find the post from earlier this year and discovered that we’d found a gray tree frog on our grill back in May 2018 as well. Could it be the same one? They live 7-9 years…so it’s possible.

Online Reference: Field Guide to Maryland’s Frogs and Toads

Last of CSA Veggies

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Last week was the end of the regular season with are Community Supported Agriculture (Gorman Farms CSA). The share was robust as usual. I was surprised by the late season tomatoes. They had both purple and green cabbage; I chose the purple, of course. The choice table was overwhelming, but I decided on the fennel after staring at it for a minute…with big a big feathery top that made the reusable bag look too small. I’ll use that top part first (chopped up and combined with grated sweet potato to make a colorful chicken salad.

I haven’t quite kept up with the veggies this summer. The freezer is reasonably full and a bit more will go into it from the freeze from this last week. Nothing goes to waste! I’ll enjoy the tomatoes, mixed greens, and onions in at least one salad; maybe I’ll eat them fast enough to avoid putting them in the freezer to use in smoothies or soups. With the shift in seasons – I lean toward the soups. I’ll probably not buy any veggies in the produce section of the grocery store for at least 6 weeks!

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I’ll miss the weekly newsletters and ‘about your harvest’ boards. Every season with the CSA is a learning experience.

This was the first year for popcorn. There were lots of my favorites too - veggies I’ve learned to love with the CSA (fennel, sweet potato leaves, all kinds of peppers, uncured sweet potatoes, all kinds of squashes, all kinds of tomatoes…the only thing I’ve not learned to love is eggplant). This year was a drought year and last year it was too wet. Our farmer pulled though with lots of good veggies in both years but the variety this year was greater than last. CSAs are a great way to ‘eat local.’

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

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Back in July, we had adult and juvenile red-bellied woodpeckers on our deck. This month we’ve seen both male and female adult birds near our feeder. They appear to pick out the sunflower seeds from the mix. What a treat to see them at close range! These are larger than most of the other birds that come to our feeder and they seem to enjoy the vantage point from the roof or our covered deck before flying back the forest.

I think their nest is in the red maple that is at the edge of the forest. Maybe I’ll be able to see the cavity once the leaves are off the tree; right now, that tree has more leaves that just about any others around here (it held up better in the recent drought). The birds look very robust going into the change of seasons…better than they looked in the summer when they had their young fledging!

Cicada from my Office Window

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Back in August, I noticed a cicada on the screen of my office window. I was there for quite some time, so I went outside and zoomed to get a picture of it. Several days later, it was still there, and I decided it was probably time to collect it. I opened my office window and took off the screen…gently pulled the cicada from the screen.

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It sat on the table in my office – protected in a small box – until a few days ago when I finally got around to taking a closer look and some photographs. It’s not a periodic cicada…but otherwise I didn’t determine the exact kind it is. It’s probably a male because the end of the abdomen is not pointed enough to be a female.

I took some pictures with the macro lens clipped to the cell phone. It’s hard to get the whole insect in focus with the shallow depth-of-field. In the two pictures below the eye and head is focused in one….and the wing joint is crisp in the second.

The cicadas are already silent for this year. The eggs are laid, and the larvae will begin their long development. We’ll have more adults emerge next spring. And in 2021 we might get the emergence of a large periodic cicada brood; that will be a noisy summer.

Birds through my Office Window

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The leaves are starting to swirl…but there are still enough on the trees to block the view of birds there. I’ve been lucky enough to catch some coming to our deck for seed or water. There was a Blue Jay with a scruffy head; most that I see are better looking. Sometimes the birds come alone…sometimes with buddies. They seem to like investigating the contents of the gutters.

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The Carolina Chickadee was in a rush….I barely got one picture!

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My favorite this month was the White-breasted Nuthatch. The birds seemed to be coming to the feeder very frequently. Did they have a late season nestlings they were feeding? They have such distinctive postures….always seem to move with precision.

The Chipping Sparrows also enjoy the feeder. One small one sat at the feeder looking around and I wondered if it was newly fledged.

The juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker is still around too. I’ve seen adults but they tend to be faster moving. The juvenile sits for portraits.

Overall – September was a good month for birds through the office window!