Surprise! Monarch Caterpillars

I’d planned to work in the front flower bed in the early morning – cutting down 1) the milkweed that was being overrun by aphids and something that caused the leaves to curl and 2) the day lily leaves that were beginning to turn yellow. I took a ‘before’ picture.

Before starting – I checked the milkweed plants for Monarch butterfly caterpillars. Aaargh! They were on almost every plant – even the plants that looked terrible and were full of aphids.

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Change of plans. I opted to cut out the worst aphid infestation and move caterpillars to better plants if I couldn’t leave them where they were. It was slow going. After I finished with the milkweed pruning, I started on the day lily leaves and pulling weeds. I found a red maple seedling.

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There were 10 tulip poplar seedlings – and I probably didn’t find all of them since I only worked about a third of the bed. The sheer number of tree seedlings surprised me because I’d already pull quite a few from that flower bed already this year.

There was one black-eyed Susan flower that has been missed by the deer.

I took an ‘after’ picture that wasn’t as dramatic as originally planned and still a lot of work to do…but I’m hopeful about having a small group of Monarch butterflies this year. I’ll continue monitoring the plants and moving the caterpillars to the healthier looking ones. There are plenty of places for the caterpillars to make their chrysalis; I’ll try to do all the clearing out of the day lily leaves before the caterpillars are big enough to leave the milkweed to find their spot to pupate.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Assessing risk. My daughter told me about the model from Georgia Tech at  https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/. It has a zoomable map of the US showing counties and placing the cursor on a county provides the current risk level of attending an event (you can select the size of the event) that at least one person present will be positive for COVID-19. This is a good way to assess the risk for being with groups of people – ignoring the reduction in risk that social distancing, masks, environment can provide. With the increasing number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in so many areas across the country, this is a way to roll up all that data for where you live in a way that may be more actionable …something to look at before deciding on a particular activity away from home.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 25, 2020

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.

Native Americans Crossed the Pacific Long Before Europeans | The Scientist Magazine® - Using DNA to find more definitive answers.

Forest Surprise: A Wolf Story – West of Flagstaff ---- probably a Mexican grey wolf male…trying to find a new territory and exploring a restored forest appealing.

See Archaeological Treasures Unearthed by U.K. Residents During Lockdown | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The uptick in gardening and yard work leads to finding things in or on the ground…and then people having plenty of time to find out more about what the objects are. Something positive happening during the pandemic.

You Can Now Explore All 48,000 Panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Online | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – I was glad to see this online version of the quilt is available – complete with search and zoom. I found the square for a person that I’d worked with in the 1970s and saw him at IBM sponsored conferences in the 1980s. Our early career crowd was scattered all over the country by the time he died in 1993.

Eleven Awesome Owls from Around the World – Good pictures and a short summary characterizing each bird.

Turmeric could have antiviral properties -- ScienceDaily – It’s already one of the supplements I take…as an anti-inflammatory. This study points to it being anti-viral as well.

Stain Solutions | U of I Extension – A good reference although in recent years the laundry detergents and cold water often get stains out.

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy the beautiful birds!

Solar Will Kick Most of Texas's Remaining Coal Fleet Offline – Good news for air quality in Texas. Evidently the growth of utility-scale PV production is rapid changing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market.

Infographic: How Breastfeeding Protects Mothers | The Scientist Magazine® - Research about the mechanism behind the observation that women that breastfeed their children have reduced long term risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Circular voids. I am starting a series of Zentangle tiles that have circular voids in otherwise dense tangles. I got the idea from some Mordecai Ardon paintings (slideshow on Internet Archive here) like Fatal Eclipse shown at the right. My first two tiles are below.

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Compost bin. Between rain showers – I put on the boots I have for river field trips and got all my containers of kitchen scraps and spent flower stalks (mostly day lilies) out to the compost bin. It took 4 trips! There have been more things recently that produced more kitchen scraps than usual: fresh corn on the cob, cantaloupe, cabbage cores, and tough onion/leek tops. I’ve learned to save cucumber skins for use in smoothies so those get eaten these days and veggies like beets and carrots just get a thorough scrubbing rather than being peeled. I put all the new scraps on one side of the bin and then turned the other side over on top of it. I should deteriorate very rapidly.

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Fresh flowers in the house. There are now small bouquets from the CSA cutting garden in my office and on the kitchen table. The one below is the one in my office. I like having flowers in my field of view! It’s a way I show kindness to myself.

Scenic Drive 2

I headed out shortly after 9 AM --- late enough that the morning rush hour was over (even though traffic is still lighter than pre-pandemic). I had set my navigation system for Western Regional Park in Howard County, Maryland since the route would take me on some scenic roads I hadn’t traveled before and the park itself was new to me. The first bit of driving was at highway speeds (on MD-29 and 32) but then MD-32 narrowed to a 2-lane road and I turned off to curvy and narrower 2 lane roads toward the park. I had not anticipated as many bicyclists, but the morning was a pleasant temperature and there wasn’t much traffic. I slowed down to make sure I could go way around them and not meet another car coming from the opposite direction.

There were few people at the park when I got there – lone individuals and a mother with a child in a stroller and 2 children beside her – one looking very tired. I parked and got out to take some pictures of the meadow. As I walked toward the meadow, I heard then spotted a catbird in a tree overhead; it was too fast for me to get its picture.

There was a hillside dominated by milkweed. I wondered if the county had planted it as part of the overall effort in the schools and parks to help Monarch Butterflies. The plants are full of newly forming seed pods. A few weeks ago, the area would have been very fragrant with the flowers. Maybe I’ll return to the park in a few weeks to look for caterpillars.

There were a few other flowers mixed in with the milkweed. I didn’t notice the insect until I got home and looked at my pictures on my computer screen!

And then there was the Queen Anne’s Lace in every stage of seed production along the meadow’s edge.

There was a mockingbird getting a blackberry seconds before I took my picture…aargh!

I looked down a slope to a swampy area…a froth of purple flowers with an occasional bit of yellow!

I completed a loop back to home by putting the Howard County Conservatory’s Mt Pleasant location as a waypoint in my navigation system…to stay on scenic roads as much as possible.

My drive and short walk took about 1.5 hours and was very enjoyable. I enjoy getting out and finding natural places (that are new to me) near where I live – staying mostly in the car but getting out in places where there aren’t many other people around. I already have my 3rd scenic drive mapped out!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Kohlrabi fries. I had kohlrabi in the crisper and opted to cook it like oven fries. The seasoning I put on it (no-salt) browned well. This was the first time that I cooked kohlrabi this way; the fries tasted good with catsup, but they were almost too sweet. It occurred to me that maybe I should cook them as dessert fries with cinnamon, ginger and a little sugar.

CSA grounds. I took some pictures of the cutting garden and the flower beds near the barns on the way back to my car from the barn and the cutting gardens. Everything was looking very lush with just enough in bloom to add color.

My bags with the weekly share were heavy this week because they included a melon and cucumbers and squash and onions and beets.

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Last of the Day Lilies

The last day lily opened a few days ago so I am savoring what is left of them today – the last of the day lilies for this year. I collected the spent flowers as they fell from the stalks and took them out to the glass topped table on my deck to photograph for the grand finale of their season. The orange ones were the most plentiful, the yellows were the largest and the dark red (purple when they dried) were few but spectacular.

I like the textures and shapes of the dried flowers. Many still have deep yellow pollen showing. The flower collection is back inside now…waiting to see if my husband wants to do some macro photography with them. Eventually they will go out to the compost bin.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Big cooking day. I like to fill the oven when I turn it on at all during the summer. This time I had it on for an hour with the salsa meatloaf going in first….then a zucchini squash custard (45 minutes)…then corn on the cob (30 minutes). I sautéed an onion to top the meatloaf. Good eating! It also felt good to clear the crisper of the last of the corn, onions, and zucchini since I have another CSA share to pick up today! I still have beets, leeks, fennel, carrots, and cauliflower….and not much freezer space.

Grapevine wreath. After a round of yard work back in June, I made a small grapevine wreath. Now – a little over a month later – it is thoroughly dry. I like the way it looks, particularly the little tendrils. I’ll add a festive ribbon and use it for indoor holiday decoration….or maybe I’ll use a ‘ribbon’ of orange or apple peel. Then the whole thing could go into the compost pile in the new year.

Through my Office Window – July 2020

The birds are finding most of their food in the natural environment  this summer – not coming to the feeder as often. Still – some are coming often enough for me to take pictures through my office window.

The House Finches and House Sparrows are the most frequent visitors. They often have clashes over the limited roosts on the feeder and chitter their angst.

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The Red-Bellied Woodpeckers come occasionally. I see the female more often than the male.

The White-breasted Nuthatch comes almost every day in a short burst. I can recognize this bird without my glasses because of the way it moves at the feeder (upside down…head arched outward once it chooses a seed).

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There are at least 2 Northern Cardinal pairs that come to the feeder – not at the same time but their territory must overlap a little. The bald female is the one I see most frequently. I keep expecting the feathers to grow back but she’s been bald for a long time; maybe she is an elderly bird…or a bird with a health condition. Often the male (with beautiful feathers and crest) is below keeping lookout for her.

And then there are the quick visitors that are hard to photograph like the Tufted Titmouse (below) or the Carolina Chickadee or the Carolina Wren.

Overall – July has not been an outstanding month for bird feeder activity. And now we are in for a series of days with temperatures above 90 and ‘heat advisories;’ the birds tend to say in the forest more when it is so hot. I am focusing on keeping the bird bath full for the birds and the squirrels.

Summer Sunrise

Since we are past the summer solstice - it gets easier every day to be up and about before the sunrise. My usual wake up time is about 5:30 so it wasn’t too hard to get up – dressed – and into the car to drive to a nearby vantage point (once the leaves are on the trees, my front porch is no longer a good place to see the sunrise). I got to the place I’d planned about 5:45 AM - 10 minutes or so before sunrise. It was better than I had anticipated. Under the tall power lines there was a layer of mist at the ground and good color in the sky.

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I took a series of pictures starting in the northeast…around to the southeast. There were a few clouds to reflect the light and provide some purple. I didn’t stay until the sun was up; the colors just before sunrise were what I wanted.

I like starting out the day outdoors…full of beauty and morning sounds. Most mornings I am on the covered deck of my house making a Zentangle tile shortly after 6 (now that it’s summer and the temperature then is the most comfortable of the day) – listening to the birds singing and the occasional other sounds from the forest. It was invigorating to do something different first thing in the morning and has started me thinking of what else I might do to break up my morning pattern occasionally.

Yard Work

Lawn mowing day! My husband had decided that the lower dew point and humidity would mean we could start mowing a little earlier while it was cooler. We were both surprised that the grass was still a little wet at 9:30…and the day was heating up fast. He decided to start anyway, and I started on other yard work – planning to take over mowing to give him a break – or finish up. My plan was to take the kitchen scraps that had accumulated in the garage out to the compost bin then cut the day lily leaves around the oak and some plants that were growing a bit too exuberantly over the sidewalk from our driveway to the front door. Here are the before and after pictures of the base of the oak. I’ve learned in years past that cutting the day lily leaves after they bloom encourages them to grow back fresh – looking good into the early fall. It probably means they don’t produce as many new bulbs, but I don’t need any more bulbs! The Virginia Creeper shows up more in the ‘after’ picture.

In just about every task I complete in the yard – I come up with several more. On the other side of the oak, I discovered a small English ivy climbing up onto the tree. At first I thought it might be nice to let it grow on the trunk of the tree…but as I was getting ready to write this blog post I checked to see what the Maryland Extension said about English Ivy. It’s invasive and it can damage trees by holding moisture against the trunk (fungal disease and decay) and it can be a reservoir for bacterial leaf scorch in oaks. So – I’ll be cutting the English Ivy and checking periodically to make sure it doesn’t come back.

I decided to check on the Virginia Creeper. It’s native but can take over. I’ll leave it on the oak but monitor it just as I am on the sycamore in another location around the yard.

The trimming of the plants growing over the sidewalk was done quickly but I found a lot I need to do in the front flower bed. The mint is blooming so it would be a good time to do another mint harvest.

I’ll be cutting the day lily leaves in the front flower bed too and while I am at it, I’ll cut the milkweed plants that are infested with aphids or have curling leaves.

The milkweeds have been a deterrent to the deer eating the day lily buds developing behind them, but now that the flowers are over for the season the milkweed can go – unless they have a monarch egg or caterpillar. So far, I haven’t seen any, but I’ll check closely before I cut them. On the plus side - there was a ladybug near one of the infested pants that might reduce the aphid population.

I’ll leave the milkweeds that have a flower forming

Or have a colony of milkweed beetle nymphs!

Since my husband opted to mow more this time, I had time to sweep up the tiny acorns (immature) that had fallen on the driveway and put them in the mulch around the oak.

I will divide up these next tasks into 15-20 minute chunks easily done in the morning….finish them this week as follow-on to the lawn mowing.

Found on the Ground

I walked around my yard and looked for interesting things on the ground. I was a little surprised at how many things I found! My rule was to not move anything…just take the photo as it appeared on the ground. Toward the front and north side of the yard, I found oak leaves from last fall that had blown into the garage, a wasp nest that had blown down from someplace, an arc of grass clippings, some plants overflowing into the concrete trough below the gutter’s downspout, an anthill, a sycamore leaf and some mushrooms in our neighbor’s yard (I used the zoom for the last one).

In the back and the south side of the house there were tiny yellow flowers (weeds), sycamore leaves (rust and decaying green), a cabbage white butterfly enjoying the tiny yellow flowers, a tulip poplar leaf, the invasive plants under the trees at the edge of the forest, a mushroom, some clover, a cherry leaf and water droplets on a weed.

It was a short walk on a morning that was heating up; already warm enough to have the cabbage whites active. I was glad there were still water droplets too. Overall – I’m always pleased that there seems to always be something interesting in our yard.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Looked at a reference from last week’s Zoom meetings… savored The MoMA exhibition Safe: Design Takes on Risk from 2004 (19 short audios and then pictures).

Bird Feeder Camera Snippets

Every week – I download the videos accumulated on the bird feeder camera and note any of special interest. Here are some recent finds:

On 7/6: A male finch appeared to be feeding a fledgling. The young bird found balancing on the perch somewhat challenging and kept flapping its wings to say in place. It also couldn’t seem to figure out how to get seed directly.

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On 7/8: There was a squirrel that tried to get seed from the feeder. The springs worked to shut off the seed holes, so the acrobatics were for naught.

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On 7/9: The bird feeder camera captured the goldfinches which I also photographed with my camera (included in the 7/10 blog post). It was interesting to see the different angle of the action. The bird feeder camera didn’t start recording until the house finch was already gone.

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Last of the day lilies from the flower bed. The deer got more of the day lily buds than I did. I cut the last stalk that survived because it was tangled in the branches of a nearby bush. The buds should open nicely in the vase on our breakfast table. They will be dark orange…. descendants of the bulbs by mother-in-law bought about 30 years ago.

The two stems I cut a few days ago are blooming in the vase upstairs in my office. There are still several buds developing…should keep my office in fresh flowers for 3-4 more days.

Once the day lilies are gone, the front flowerbed is going to be all green. I thought I’d have black eyed susans but the deer have eat all the buds this year already! I’ll rely on the CSA cutting garden for the rest of the summer.

Neighborhood Pond in the Early Morning – Part 2

Aside for seeing the green heron with a fish…there were other things to see around the pond as I made the circuit. The frogs I was hearing when I first approached were Green Frogs based on their calls (like a strummed rubber band) and then I started seeing them – jumping from the bank – plopping into the water. There were some already in the water…with just their head above water. One was on some debris under the cattails. Those three were still enough for me to photograph.

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The pond has a street on one side, the back fences of yards on two sides, and then a milkweed meadow on the 4th.  It was recycle day for the neighborhood and the truck rumbled around the neighborhood while I was at the pond.

There are lots of plants to see around the pond: peaches hanging over the fence from someone’s back yard, mushrooms in the grass, horse nettle, vetch, clovers, and dandelions.

There were all stages of cattail around the pond. They are usually where I see the male red-winged blackbirds perched; I did manage to photograph one but most of the birds were in the trees or on fences.

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The milkweed meadow was in bloom. The bees and milkweed beetle were enjoying the bounty. A few plants were coming up in the mowed area (growing faster than the grass).

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There were some silent animals around too: a rabbit

And a painted turtle that I almost stepped on. I was just looking more closely at the pond since I usually see one in the water or up on some debris. And then I looked down…and saw it about a foot away from me. This one was well up the slope from the pond. The temperature was in the lower 70s…..and the turtle was probably just thinking about moving. It didn’t budge while I took my photographs.

For all the animals – I used the zoom rather than trying to get close. The morning pond was their home and I left them to enjoy the morning.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Finches at the feeder. We have House Finches at our feeder frequently…and occasionally get Goldfinches. There was a little drama yesterday that involved both. A female Goldfinch arrived first. Then a male House Finch followed by a male Goldfinch. The males appeared to have a territorial interaction and the male House Finch departed.

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Neighborhood Pond in the Early Morning – Part 1

Our days have been hot and humid recently. I started on my walk just after 6 AM when the temperature was in the low 70s and the humidity was about 90%. My destination was the storm water retention pond in our neighborhood. The moon was still visible above the trees. The day lily leaves and Virginia creeper at the base of our oak looked very lush as I picked up sticks that had fallen on the driveway. I’ve learned to cut the day lily leaves after the bloom period so that they grow back fresh and lovely in August and into the fall. That job will be done in the next few weeks.

I saw a black feather on the sidewalk along the way. Maybe from a crow?

When I got to the pond, I heard frogs and red-winged black-birds but didn’t see them immediately. I took pictures of the calm pond…the humidity clouding the air at first – the reflections on one side of the pond looking hazy. Then, a short time later, some reflected color from a different angle that darkened the vegetation to silhouettes.

I heard some splashing and then a bird larger than a red-winged blackbird flew up into a tree. My first thought was maybe a heron. I found it through the zoom on my camera. It was a Green Heron with a fish!

It started moving to swallow the fish and this sequence is from just after the bird stilled after getting the positioned and swallowing.

The green herons have so many different ‘looks’ because of the way they can move their necks. There are times they don’t look all that much like a heron.

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But then they stretch out their neck. Sometimes the way they hold up the feathers on the tops of their heads, they look a little like a roadrunner!

I’ll post about everything else I saw at the pond tomorrow.

July Yard

Our yard is entering its summer exuberance. We’re still getting enough rain to enable rapid growth of grass and bushes. Even the shade loving plants are lush at this time of year. I take a round of pictures every time we mow the lawn. My husband always starts the mowing, so I have time to take pictures and complete a few other chores before it is my turn.

I took the kitchen scraps that had accumulated in the garage container back to the compost bin and took a picture of a fly on a leaf of the nine bark bush before I shaped it with the pruners (and then carried the clippings back to the compost bin).

There were small mushrooms growing in the grass that I noticed on my way back from the compost bin. I was glad I noticed them then since they probably didn’t survive the mowing.

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There were black-eyed Susan buds and clover in the front flowerbed (along with the day lilies). The black-eyed Susans will provide some color once the day lilies are done for the year although I did notice that there are several plants that have already had their buds eaten by deer.

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The small holly that I trimmed a few weeks ago is growing a lot of new leaves right now. They’ll get a darker green as they mature. The prickles on the leaves keep the deer away.

And then there were a lot of small plants thriving in the deep shade under the deck: ferns and mosses primarily.

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There is a Virginia Creeper on the sycamore trunk. It looks good against the peeling bark.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 4, 2020

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.

Utah’s arches continue to whisper their secrets - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – A study to measure arches to hone 3-D models from the Geohazards Research Group at Universe of Utah. The 30 second video of the model showing how Moonshine Arch moves is worth viewing.

Will the world be quieter after the pandemic? - BBC Future – I know I appreciate having a quieter environment; it’s an aspect of the pandemic that has been positive. The quiet is one of the things I like about my Prius Prime when it is in EV mode. Maybe some of the new norm will involve choices to maintain, as much as we can, the quiet.

Exposure to air pollution impairs cellular energy metabolism -- ScienceDaily – A study from Finland – exploring how particulates impact the olfactory mucosa (a neural tissue located at the upper part of the nasal cavity…the first line of defense against inhaled agents). As I read the article, I wondered if this is the tissue impacted my COVID-19 in people that lose their sense of smell when infected….and also, does wearing a mask filter enough particles to give the tissue a break from other air pollutants.

Renovations Reveal Rare Maya Murals Hidden in Guatemalan Home | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – From a colonial home in a mountain village.

Bird feeding helps females more than males -- ScienceDaily – The female cardinals are at my bird feeder much more frequently that the males in both winter and summer. This study doesn’t really point to a reason for that. I’ve always thought that other than the males dominance getting food first….the females might need more food at certain times….when they are laying eggs, for example.

London Foxes Show Early Signs of Self-Domestication | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – “Domestication syndrome” – shorter snout and smaller brain.

Painted Vault Revealed at Villa Near Pompeii - Archaeology Magazine – There are new discoveries because they are excavating a part that has not been studied before.

Marine Biologist Braves Cold Water to Photograph Little Known Sea Creatures – Creatures of the ocean….many so delicate they can’t be studied in a lab. Alexander Semenov is a marine biologist and photographer working like a 19th century naturalist, but with 21st century technologies.

Plot Brewing To Blanket US In Solar Panels + Pollinator-Friendly Plants – A beginning…. building hope via steps in the right direction. This article coincided with the MACCEC conference earlier this week. I ended the week more optimistic that the ball is in motion for many ‘drawdown’ actions.

Fish Eggs Can Survive a Journey Through Both Ends of a Duck – The study in this article was done with common carp and Prussian carp…. but what about other invasive species. If most types of fish eggs can survive the duck’s gut - it is bad news for efforts to stop the spread of invasive fish species.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Thinking about the first women in my family that could have voted. Women have had the right to vote in the US since 1920 – we’re celebrating 100 years this year. My sister and I have been talking about our great-grandmothers (and maybe the great-great grandmothers too). It’s interesting to think about what it was like in 1920 in our family; they were all citizens by then…although one side of the family were immigrants or children of immigrants.

We wondered if their relationship to immigration and obtaining citizenship would have made it more likely that they would have voted. One of them was divorced with her children teenagers or older; she was educated in Europe before she immigrated. Did her oldest son go with her to vote? The other great-grandmother might have voted as well; she had 3 daughters in 1920 with the youngest being 8 years old (there would be one more after 1920) and they lived on a farm…but went into town often enough. My grandparents from that side of the family always voted, so there’s a reasonable chance that their mothers did to.

One of the things I learned during the recent conversations, is that the grandparents on the other side of the family hosted the local polling place in their garage in the 1940s! That’s an indication that voting was important to them and that could have been passed down from their parents.  One of those great-grandmothers ran a boarding house (around 1920) so she was aware of things going on in town and would have had easier access to the polling place. She insisted that her daughter finish high school a few years later which might indicate that she was attune to the changing role of women more broadly.

I like to think that maybe all 4 of my great-grandmothers voted in 1920…their first opportunity to do so.

Zentangle® - June 2020

30 days in June….30 Zentangle tiles. I’m still using mostly recycled light weight cardboard for the tiles; the collection is skewed slightly toward rectangular rather than square tiles. I experimented with lighter color pens more than usual. In the first weeks of June, I was doing a daily Zentangle prompt which had a forcing function to use different patterns. Later in the month I moved back to letting the tiles emerge from patterns in my head already.

So – the rectangular tiles first. My favorite of this group is to the left. I think I like the mix of curves and straight. I noticed that I left a corner blank…should have put my initials there.

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So – the rectangular tiles first. My favorite of this group is to the left. I think I like the mix of curves and straight. I noticed that I left a corner blank…should have put my initials there.

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Unique activities for yesterday:

Day 1 of Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Education Conference. A virtual conference that I found out about as a Maryland Master Naturalist. It’s two afternoons. I’m still organizing my notes from the first one…will post about it tomorrow.

Sunset. The clouds reflected the color of the sunset over the forest behind our house. It was a great ending of the day.

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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.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2020

We are still at home almost all the time, so the celebrations are mostly based there. There are two that celebrate the changes that we made in June that are away from the house….creating a sustainable new normal for the coming months.

Double rainbow. Seeing a rainbow is such a great way to celebrate summer! We’ve been having last afternoon thunderstorms and one of them was moving fast enough that the sun came out while it was still raining in the east….and it created a double rainbow! The arch was interrupted by our oak tree – but the colors were vibrant for enough time that I got a good series of pictures. I was so engrossed in taking pictures from our front porch that I didn’t notice our 18-year-old indoor cat escaping until he meowed; I was able to catch him before he escaped into the bushes.

Day lilies. I enjoy having flowers in my office. It’s a way of bringing a bit of the outdoors into a place I can celebrate at closer range.

Ice maker fixed. My husband and I installed the part he ordered to keep our ice maker from allowing water to overflow into the rest of the freezer…..and it worked. We are both celebrating that we were able to do it ourselves rather than requiring a maintenance person.

Deck drapery. The deck drapery turned out to be a great project for us and we are celebrating the extra time we are already spending on our deck.

Black squirrel. The black squirrel has only come to our deck once. I celebrated seeing it when visited because it was different than our usual squirrels….and it didn’t try to raid the bird feeder.

Fledgling red-winged blackbird. If I hadn’t seen the parents nearby – I don’t think I would have seen it or be able to identify it. It’s a celebration of new life at the neighborhood storm water retention pond.

Plastic containers. The cabinet where we keep plastic containers in the kitchen had gotten so disorganized that it seemed to be overflowing…with us not adding anything new. I took about 30 minutes to reorganize it – putting the things we use most in the easiest to reach places…and putting some things in the recycle, trash, or give away. Moving from disorganized to organized is always something I celebrate.

Pleasant early mornings on the deck. Even on hot days, the early morning is wonderful on the deck. It’s a great way to start the day – often feeling like we are in the middle of a bird celebration.

Grocery shopping. Beginning to do my grocery shopping again is worthy of celebration. I take precautions (wear a mask, lots of hand sanitizer, go in the early morning, use self-scan and checkout, shop for 2 weeks rather than 1) but getting out just that little bit has made the new normal a lot easier to sustain.

CSA season. I always celebrate the beginning of our Community Supported Agriculture veggies. Picking up the share requires a mask and hand sanitizer…just like the grocery store. It’s an adjunct to the grocery shopping that makes the summer foods easily and abundantly available.  

Unique activities for yesterday:

Rearranging deck furniture. The first afternoon I sat out on the deck to test the effectiveness of the deck drapery, I discovered that the table and chairs were not well positioned. They were in the patch of sunshine coming through the triangle of undraped screen near the ceiling.

It was too hot to rearrange furniture that afternoon, so I did it during the cooler morning temperatures. I am also going to buy another prong to tie back the drape near the bird feeder (in the far left of the above picture) so that we can see the bird feeder when the drape is tied back.

Gleanings for Week Ending June 27, 2020

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.

What if all viruses disappeared? - BBC Future – We are more aware of pathogenic viruses….but there are a lot more that are not pathogenic to humans….and are often beneficial (directly and indirectly).

Scythian Warrior's Genome Analyzed - Archaeology Magazine – Surprise! Discovered in 1988 and assumed to be a young warrior based on the weapons in the grave. DNA revealed it was a girl and was younger than 14 years old.

90 Percent of U.S. Could Be Powered by Renewables by 2035 - Yale E360 – Technically feasible…but do we have the determination as a country to do what we need to do for future generations?

Repetitive negative thinking linked to dementia risk -- ScienceDaily – But can training/therapy to reduce negative thinking reduce the risk? Whether it does or doesn’t – it seems that people who perceive the positives in their lives are more satisfied/happy….so teaching strategies to enhance that kind of thinking is probably worth it.

How Iceland is undoing carbon emissions for good - BBC Future – Examples of how Iceland is pushing the technical envelope for carbon capture even in heavy industry.

What Makes Some People More Resilient Than Others - The New York Times – Tools most common in resilient people: realistic optimism, a moral compass, religious or spiritual beliefs, cognitive and emotional flexibility, social connectedness.

Memory consolidation during REM sleep: Researchers identify neurons responsible for memory consolidation during REM sleep -- ScienceDaily – I remember the babies I’ve known well having frequent REM sleep….they are doing a lot of memory consolidation!

Top 25 birds of the week: Camouflage – They are easy to spot in these zoomed pictures….in the field, their camouflage is highly effective.

Urine test reveals quality of your diet -- and whether it's the best fit for your body – Interesting work. Maybe in the future we’ll get feedback from the toilet about the ‘health’ of our diet as easily as we get feedback about heart rate and sleep quality from wearable devises now.

The Winnowing of the Wilson’s Snipe – A bird that could fit in the camouflage group…but this bird is special – it makes sound with specialized tail feathers!

Unique activities for yesterday:

Three kinds of day lilies. I have three different kinds of day lilies blooming right now. I love having the flowers in my office and something new opening every day!

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Ice maker repair. My husband ordered a replacement part for our ice maker once we started having water overflowing the unit and accumulating in the freezer. He’d done some research online and it seemed likely that the new part would fix the problem. It came and after a few days of the box sitting around to decontaminate, we pulled out the refrigerator to install it (using the opportunity to clean the floor too). This is the type of thing we would have called for repair service pre-pandemic. There are areas where we’ve become a lot more resourceful in recent months and I wonder if we’ll continue that trend post-pandemic.

3 Free eBooks – June 2020

So many materials available online…

The three I am featuring this month are a bit different. The first two are slideshows available on Internet Archive. It was hard to choose just two; check here for 300 or so of them. Each of the slide shows is accompanied by a brief biography of the artist.

Hussein Amin Bicar (1913 - 2002) – Egyptian. I enjoyed both the modern and the ancient depictions. I chose one of the modern images for the sample.

Josef Sudek (1896 - 1974) – Czech photographer. As I looked at the pictures – I thought about what made them most appealing to me and decided that there were multiple reasons:

• The way the photographer captured unusual light and arrangement of places.

• The historical aspect (I assumed that many of the damaged buildings were the aftermath of World War II).

• The pictures of office clutter. I’ve known people that had similar piles of accumulated ‘stuff’!

Another reason I liked this artist: Half of my ancestors were Czech; the families immigrated to the US in the later 1800s. The life span of Sudek was like my Czech heritage grandfather’s (1896-1974 and 1901-1976). My grandfather was younger by just enough that he did not fight in World War I; Sudek did and was severely injured (an arm was amputated). What a difference in the way they experienced World War II! My grandfather was farming in eastern Oklahoma; Sudek lived through the Nazi’s in Prague and then Soviet domination of the country. Sudek lived most of his life in a European city: Prague; my grandfather lived on a farm, a small city, then the suburbs of a large city in Oklahoma and Texas. In 1960, my grandfather was injured in an accident (a leg was amputated). As I read the short biography of Sudek, I felt that in the last decade of their life, they would have enjoyed knowing each other.

I selected the sample picture because it was an unusual collection for a still life. The peacock feathers reminded me of the peacocks my non-Czech grandparents kept. The shells are something collected in travels by people that ordinarily live far from the sea (i.e. Prague or Oklahoma).

The other eBook I chose this month was autobiographical…with names changed which I guess turns it into a novel. It was known as autobiographical when it was published so is usually discussed from that perspective.

Scott, Evelyn. Escapade. New York: Thomas Seltzer. 1923. Available at Internet Archive here. The parts that resonated the most with me were the author’s description of her pregnancy and the immediate aftermath. Her writing about her emotions and physical situation are so vivid. Her experience is often more intense because of the upheaval in her life early in the novel (eloping, moving from the US to London to Brazil) and then subsequent poverty and isolation. A brief biography of Evelyn Scott can be found here.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Bright heart of the forest. When I first went into my office at 6:10 AM, the sunshine was bright on a tulip poplar tree trunk that normally does not stand out in the shade of the forest. The glow lasted for a few minutes before fading as the sun continued its rise. It was a good start to the day to see the tree appear as if lighted from within.

Zucchini muffins. I used up some summer squash by making muffins at mid-morning. It’s an easy process using the food processor to do the shredding. I chose a recipe for Zucchini Spice Cake from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook…brought back memories of the restaurant in Ithaca when my daughter was working on her undergraduate degree at Cornell.

Finishing the deck drapery project. My husband and I put up additional hooks to hold all the deck drapery panels and I made tie backs for them. We were both hot and tired when we finished because the day was so hot and humid. It was not better by dinner, so we waited to have an outdoor dinner for another day.

Yard Work

The grass was dry enough to mow by about 10…and the temperature was in the mid-70s, an occasional breeze. My husband started out with the mowing while I picked up twigs/small branches that had blown out of our oak and sycamore…to take back to the brush pile. I took the small amount of kitchen scraps we’d accumulated to go back to the compost pile; it included some spent flowers I’d purchased…and some that I’d brought in from our own garden.

I decided to cut down some of the milkweed in our front flower bed. It is not beautiful…and I since I’ve discovered the meadow of milkweed near the neighborhood stormwater pond, I don’t need to have a huge amount. Last year I didn’t have a single Monarch caterpillar. After I’d cut some of the big stalks down, I discovered that there were a lot of day lily buds behind them. I hope that cutting the milkweed doesn’t make the buds more vulnerable to deer. I’ll cut the day lilies as soon as the bugs are large enough to open.

There are lots of other buds over by the bird bath and they are very exposed. The deer are not intimidated about coming up that close to our front porch! They’ve been like that for the past 4-5 days…so hopefully the deer won’t find them for another week or so. At least one stalk may be mature enough to get cut in a day or so.

Under the deck there are two kinds of ferns that are doing well this year. I was surprised that there is a small holly there too. Holly is an understory tree but I’m not sure it will do well in the deep shade under our deck. I’m leaving it alone for now.

I had plenty of time to look things over because my husband didn’t turn the mower over to me until he got thirsty. I got 3 or 4 rounds in the backyard before he was back. I’m glad he is feeling better but miss the workout of mowing more of the yard.

Unique activities for yesterday:

The 2nd CSA share. So many good things for a summer salad. I used a small amount a few hours after I got home: red leaf lettuce, summer squash, turnip, radish, arugula – a little chicken for protein. The crispers are still very full. I’m in the mode of having a huge salad every day while we have the huge amount of greens!

Since we have 2 pounds of summer squash – I’m letting my husband choose between custard and muffins. That will be a morning project since I don’t want to use the oven on a hot afternoon. Our air conditioning is good…but why make it work harder. I like cooking first thing in the morning anyway.

Deck Drapery Project

Our screened deck is on the west side of our house, so the afternoon sun has always been a challenge. We had two sets of rolled shades that lasted about 10 years each before they began to fall apart (we’ve been in the house about 25 years). This time we opted for indoor/outdoor drapery. The drapes we purchased are light green and have metal grommets for hanging. Our initial experiment was to see if the hooks already above the windows would hold them (and, if so, we would simply add a few more hooks to make sure the last gromet on each side would have a hook).

We hung two of the panels up just before a blustery thunderstorm came through. The drapes got wet, but they stayed on the hooks!

So – our next step is to add the additional hooks and create some tiebacks to use when we don’t need the shade (there are already some hooks that were used to tie the pulls for the old rolled shades that can anchor the tie backs). Even on sunny days we’ll enjoy our deck in the afternoons (when it’s not too hot).

Unique activities for yesterday:

Sycamore leaves. There were thunderstorms and winds…..and then sycamore leaves on our deck. And down in the yard.

I arranged a size sequence of leaves to show how much the size varies. The leaves continue to grow larger as long as they are on the tree so as the season progresses there are more very large leaves. This year the tree is scraggly with the damage from the late frost in May. It still has lots of new leaves developing and – I hope – will look better as the season progresses.

There were leaves on the stairs from the deck down to ground as well. Note the dark mass under the leaf on the right side of top step. It’s racoon poop!

I looked at the bird cam videos and the racoon visited early Sunday morning (6/21)…and left a ‘present.’ (Two views of what the bird cam captured are below). I think the racoon must come through the yard relatively often since I found 2 poop piles when we mowed the grass on the 13th.

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Another color of day lily. The darker orange day lilies are beginning to bloom. Once the buds are developed enough to continue opening, I cut them…denying the deer a flowery treat.

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Slideshow of Collected Images

I enjoy browsing vintage books online (usually on Internet Archive) and gleaning images that I like from the old books. I created a slide show of some from this month – one from each source. The botanical prints are a continuing interest and I’m always pleasantly surprised when I find books of prints that I haven’t seen before. There are quite a few books about birds too. I mix in art and history books. Sometimes I realize that because the books are old…every image is a bit of history. When there is an image of a child, I realize that the individual is probably already buried; many are from a time that childhood was a dangerous time of life and some might not have survived to adulthood; others could have lived a very long time but would be improbably old by now. The image is just an instant of the past – unreal in the sense that is frozen. The depictions of places people lived and the things they were doing is also historical. There are 36 images in this show.

I have discovered that I like to take a break and just watch the images play from the folder I collect them in for myself (as many as I like from each volume). I use the Windows File Explorer – Picture Tools – Slide Show. Once it starts you can change the speed and shuffle/loop with a right mouse click.  It’s relaxing to look at interesting….often beautiful…images.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Chairs and wagon on the deck. I enjoy my breakfast on the deck and listen to birdsong. There are a couple of items on the deck that we don’t use very much….they have been there for a long time without getting much use. The white chairs were purchased in 1984 – the year after we moved to the east coast….and have been moved with use from Virginia to our first house in Maryland and now to this one. My best memory of them is from shortly after we bought them, and my grandmother visited; we ate our lunch around a table on the patio sitting in the chairs – dogwood petals falling from the tree overhead.

The wagon is more recent…probably purchased in 1992. There was a trauma involving the wagon just as my daughter was learning to talk clearly. My mother was pulling her in the wagon down the slope of the driveway and my daughter fell out. She lay sprawled on the concrete and looked up and said, “Was that an accident or on purpose?” We moved it to our current house when my daughter was 5 years old…but I’m not sure we’ll move it again.