Carrolton TX Yard – Amaryllis

There is an amaryllis that blooms in a tiny patch of soil near the garage of my parents’ house. It blooms in late April/early May. I got to see it this year. It is a plant with more than a decade of history since it was purchased for my grandmother in the year or so before she died in 2010. It bloomed inside the first year then in the same place by the garage every year after that. This year there were three blooms in the first round for blooms….

And then a solitary one after the first 3 had faded. It looks so lonely facing the chain link fence into the back yard. I took it from the back…thinking about a child looking out a window on a rainy day….wishing to be on the other side of the pane.

A plant with an even longer history is on the other side of the garage – a rose bush given to my grandmother when she was 80. She lived to be 98 and enjoyed the roses every year….and my parents continue the tradition. The plant is close to 30 years old at this point!

Missed seeing the Indigo Bunting in my Maryland Yard

My husband saw an indigo bunting on our deck on two days recently. On the first day he got a picture of the back of the bird – enough that Merlin could provide the id.

He was more prepared for the second visit….got a picture of the bird snacking at our feeder.

Last year seeing the indigo buntings and other birds returning in the spring, helped me during the highest COVID-19 death days in Maryland (April-May 2020). This year – not being there to see them – is making me homesick. After staying at home as much as possible from March 2020 to mid-April 2021, it has been quite a change to be away from home for over a month. I’ve savored the change of scenery and seeing my family again but am conscious that I am missing the details of the area in and around my house in Maryland. My husband is helping with occasional pictures…like these of the indigo bunting.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 22, 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 -May 2021 – Starting out the gleanings list with bird photographs!

Why cats love to sit in boxes – even fake ones – All of our cats have liked sitting in boxes….it was fun to see some research showing that even the 2D shape is appealing to them!

An incomparable intellectual who fell through the cracks of history – A woman, of course. In this case it was Robert Boyle’s older sister, Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh.

Strange and surprising facts about Opossums – The only marsupial north of Mexico. Odd look and behavior.

Irish farmer stumbles onto ‘untouched’ ancient tomb – Turning over a rock and finding a stone-lined passageway!

Ancient pottery reveals the first evidence of honey hunting in prehistoric West Africa – Analysis of potsherds from Central Nigeria revealed that around 1/3 of the pots they came from were used for processing or storing beeswax! The pieces of pottery are from the 1st millennium BC.

Big Spring Lodge, Cabins Rehabilitation Lags at Ozark National Scenic Riverways – I hope the project now planned to start in the fall gets completed on time. The place would be a good vacation destination for us since my daughter lives in Missouri.

You are how you cook – Research on the cooking methods in different parts of China and the relationship to the type of grains utilized over time. The areas that boiled/steamed food tended to use millet over wheat or barley since the later two grains take longer to cook by that method.

Fighting dementia with play – A pilot study with a game consisting of a screen and floor panel with four fields that measure steps, weight displacement and balance….users attempt a sequence of movements with their feet requiring physical and mental skills. The pilot was promising. Perhaps these types of games will become one of the strategies to enable people to handle daily life longer.

Meet Benjamin Banneker, the black scientist who document brood x cicadas in the late 1700s – Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum are close to where I live in Maryland. I’ve been there several times (posted about it in March 2015 and December 2018, but hadn’t realized that noting the periodic cicadas was one of his numerous observations.

Carrollton TX Yard – Fiddleheads

The ferns that flourish in the front flower bed of my parents’ house always surprise me. I think of the area being too dry in most places for ferns. They come back every year in the flower bed on the north (slightly west) flower bed where it is shady, and the sprinkler system keeps it wet enough. It is early in the growing season so there are fiddleheads among the fronds….and those are what I wanted to photograph.

I like the tight spiral at the tip…the expansion if the fronds from the base upward and the interesting coils that sometimes emerge as part of the frond unfurling. Fiddleheads are something I search out every spring. I missed my usual places in Maryland….so these are a welcome substitute and very convenient just outside the front door of my parents’ house!

Carrollton TX Yard – Plant Curves

Sometimes when I look at plants….is see the embedded curves rather than the whole plant:

The spiral in the center of a new leaf

The tight role of another leaf…rather like a tortillon I use for smudging when I make traditional Zentangle tiles

The lazy accordion pleats in a narrow leaf (how did that happen?)

The wrapped petals of a swamp iris poised to open into a flower…overlapping curves within the bud framed by leaves.

Texas Sunrise

I am still up early enough to see the sunrise….in Texas rather than Maryland. My parent’s house has a different sort of view; even though the power lines in their immediate neighborhood are underground, there are some larger power lines not that far away. Another difference this year is the silhouettes that reflect the impact of the very cold week that happened in this area of Texas last winter. The palm in the lower left is brown….maybe it will come out from the base again…or not. The tree on the right has no leaves at all; it is the only tree visible that is still bare. The other trees seem to have survived the cold and are full of leaves - usual spring selves.  

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 15, 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: Camouflage – Birds that blend in….a photography challenge sometimes – finding the bird then zoom in enough to make the bird easy to spot.

You Can Now Explore the Louvre's Entire Collection Online | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Next best thing to being there.

The radical coral rescue plan that paid off – Restoration after Hurricane Iris hit Belize in 2001.

Experimenting with Tucson Night Lights – Streetlights accounted for only 13% of the light visible after midnight….so we need to address other types of lighting to reduce the impact of outdoor lighting. Streetlights have been the easiest to address because they are a single source, and the local government has direct control over them.

1,200-year-old children’s hand prints found in Mexican cave – Made by Mayan children…perhaps made during coming of age ritual…in black handprints at first…then red.

Pileated Visitation – The joy of having a pileated woodpecker around long enough to photograph.

Forget Stonehenge: the first know massive monuments are much older – 6th millennium BC (7,000 years ago) structures on the Arabia Peninsula. Mustatils built as monuments by cattle herders.

Bald Eagle Cams Are Active. Here are the best 4. – It’s the time of year to watch nest cams!

Prairie Ecologist – Photographs of the week – April 23 2021 – Prairie dandelions on different than the dandelions that come up in my yard in Maryland!

Photography in the National Parks: the yin and yang of a composition – A Rebecca Lawson post…beautiful and instructive.

Macro Iris

As we cut the spent flowers from the clumps of iris around the yard (to keep the plants from expending energy growing seed pods) – we brought the flowers and buds inside for a bouquet on the table.

That bouquet created a great opportunity for macro photography of the ‘beards’ and frills of the petals. They are large enough that my 5x magnifier with light was sufficient to get the magnification I wanted. I experimented with different angles and tried to get at least one view of all the colors in the vase.

I read that pollinators hold onto the beard structure to enter and exit the flower in pursuit of nectar!

High Key Iris

When I got to Texas the irises were blooming profusely. Now they are about done for the season. On a rainy afternoon I experimented with some indoor photography of some the last of the flowers…in high key mode (backlit, over exposed).

The flowers are frilly and fragile….lasting a short time once they are open. We cut the spent flowers and let the next bud on the stalk take over the show….until all the buds have opened. The stalks that bloomed outdoors are cut when the flowers are done to keep the plant from expending energy growing a seed pod.

I noticed that some of the flowers smell citrusy.

Morning Clouds

A few days after I got to Texas, there were some unusual clouds in the morning not long after sunrise. They looked like a series of barrel vaults in the sky! They persisted for at least 15 minutes.

Image the winds that were shaping the clouds into the repetitive curves….

30 Years ago – May 1991

May 1991 was a hectic – and traumatic month. One of my sisters experienced a mid-term miscarriage, my husband started a new job (carrying boxes increased his back problem), I was juggling 2 projects for the first half of the month requiring frequent travel to Atlanta, my daughter was exhibiting some ‘terrible twos’ behavior a few months before she was 2 (deciding she didn’t like baths, sometimes refusing to feed herself, taking off at her fastest run across a cemetery, grabbing my glasses from my face), and my computer monitor failed making it impossible to work at home for a few days until we made an emergency purchase of a new one.

On the positive side – my daughter was loving the outdoors. In the early part of the month, she thoroughly explored the back yard – smelling the roses, feeling the branches of the willow sweep over her, and picking some chives flowers to bring inside.

The later part of the month was dry enough that I turned on the sprinkler to water the yard one afternoon….not anticipating how thrilled my daughter would be. She immediately went to play in the spray. It was her first experience with a sprinkler.

Some other firsts that month for her: riding the train at Wheaton Park and an escalator. One of her books had an escalator and she was excited to see and ride a real one.

I was writing letters to family on my computer but sending them snail mail. The books I was reading (airplane rides were prime reading time for me) were mostly used books. I noticed a young child waiting for the bus and worried that my daughter would be doing that in a few years.

Even with all the things that happened over the course of the month – by the end things were looking good for June: husband was settled into new job, one of my projects was done so there was only one ongoing, and we expected visits from 2 of my sisters in June (separate weeks so not an overwhelming prospect!).

Gleanings of the Week Ending Saturday May 8, 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: Seedeaters! – Starting out the gleanings list with bird photographs.

Mapping tree inequality: Why many people don’t benefit from tree cover – Trees are an effective way to reduce the heat island effect within cities (i.e. where there are fewer trees it is hotter). Lower income communities tend to have fewer trees…and thus are hotter. As there are more hot days, the impact is becoming greater. There is also a beauty to trees…each one is an island of nature in a sea of concrete and asphalt. Increasing trees in cities and towns is an investment in physical and mental health!

Roman temple at Egyptian Emerald Mine – In the eastern Egyptian desert. The researchers found 19 coins, incense burners, bronze and steatite figurines, bones, terracotta body parts, and amulets.

Return of Brood X Cicadas – This brood emerges in the area where I live in Maryland. I am not there to see it, but I hope my husband can photograph some emerging cicadas. There should be lots of opportunities!

Invasive Jumping Worms Have Spread to 15 States – This species is in the middle of the country. I haven’t seen any yet in Texas, but they are in the state and my daughter might have them in Missouri. Hopefully, there will be a method to control them soon or the landscape of that area of the country could change…they are a small organism with a big impact.

A Retreat to Catoctin – This park is close  (about an hour) from where I live in Maryland. I’ve been there many times….maybe not often enough.

Hopes and Weeping Trees: What’s up with the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker? – Neat rows of holes in tree trunks? There is a sapsucker around. Sometimes hummingbirds will come to get the sap dribbling out of the holes. I am always pleased to discover a tree that has been visited by a sapsucker; I noticed when I was at Mt. Pleasant this spring that the tree that was convenient to a hiking route for school field trips (pre-pandemic) has been cut down so I will hunt for another one to share with hikers.

Trove of 2,000-Year-Old Bronze Mirrors Found in Ancient Chinese Cemetery – 80 mirrors….ranging from 3-9 inches in diameter. There are other artifacts recovered from the same cemetery….maybe more stories to come as the excavations and analysis of finds continues.

Charting ice from above – The Icebird flights….flying low over ice and open water. What if feels like to be part of the crew.

National Parks Traveler Checklist: Padre Island National Sea Shore – My husband and I have been to parts of the Padre Island National Sea Shore for snippets of time. Our plan to visit in 2017 to see more of the park was cancelled after Hurricane Harvey…maybe we should add it to our post-pandemic travel plans!

Hospital Experience

Most of my experiences at hospitals is associated with my parents getting older and needing support during hospitalization. A week ago, another one was history. My sister and I organized 24-hour shifts to support a 4 day stay in the hospital (we each had 2 shifts) and now are supporting follow up appointments and at-home PT. It’s a time requiring focus - overcoming a lot of emotion, anxiety, sleeping on somewhat uncomfortable converted couches, and boredom during long waits. My favorite activities to keep the boredom at bay are making Zentangle tiles, reading, and making notes about what is happening/what I was thinking about. I’ll post the tiles I made at the hospital in another post.

Vaccination makes quite a difference in our anxiety about COVID-19; the hospital allowed limited visitors. Mask wearing (except when eating) was required. My KF-94 mask was comfortable for the long hours of wear, but my ears were increasingly tender by the second 24 hours. I was relieved that there was no need for another long duration round of mask wearing. The only time I took my mask off for more than a few minutes in the hospital was once to eat a sandwich in an outdoor picnic area (lots of grackle calls…very windy).

I also took pictures from the hospital room and nearby lobby. There were two rooms last week. The first was in the ICU and on the 7th floor of the hospital. The roof below the window was somewhat decorative and the front of the hospital with the two columns of water was also visible.

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We moved out of the ICU in the middle of the night – up to the 10th floor and to the other end of the hospital. Note the different orientation of the two columns of water.

We had just settled into the new room…drifted off to sleep…when I heard a big noise and realized it was a helicopter. I sat up and saw it landing…noted that it was 2:10 AM…went back to sleep…the patient slept through everything. In the daylight – it was easy to see that the room looked down on the helipad for the hospital!

The height of the windows provided a good view of the Dallas skyline. I wondered how long it would take for the neat rows of trees planted at the front of the hospital to get big enough to be more forest like.

On my rare forays down to the 1st floor lobby for food – I realized that my favorite art along the long hall was a work that depicts wildflowers of Texas. Many of them have such distinctive shapes that they are identifiable in silhouette.

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Overall – the pandemic protocols did make this hospital stay a bit different (masks, limited visitors, less ‘stuff’ coming home) than our previous experience. The fundamental goal happened - the patient got better and came home. That is success.

A few minutes observing – Kale

When I took my car in for service before I left on my road trip to Texas – I noticed the kale that overwintered in the planters while I was waiting for my car to be driven out of the garage…took a few minutes to photograph the foliage and the flowers.

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When I took my car in for service before I left on my road trip to Texas – I noticed the kale that overwintered in the planters while I was waiting for my car to be driven out of the garage…took a few minutes to photograph the foliage and the flowers.

I am realizing that finding little pockets of beauty around me – wherever I happen to be – is something I’ve trained myself to do. In this case I was surrounded by concrete, asphalt, car dealership…but the planters were what I noticed while I waited. The pandemic has probably heightened my need and skill in finding/savoring beauty – often documenting it with some phone photography. It’s one of the coping skills I do almost automatically these days.

Counting Tree Rings

Determining the age of a tree by counting the growth rings is often easier in theory than in practice. I photographed a stump from a recently cut tree. The rings are clearly visible – no saw marks or decay to complicate the view. But – the stump is not perfectly round and the rings in the most recent years are tightly spaced (i.e. the tree was struggling as it got older…maybe from disease).

I took zoomed views from various perspectives. How old do you think the tree was?

It’s often easier to use count the rings in tree cookies (cross sections of tree branches less land 5 inches diameter that are round….often less than a decade of growth). This example illustrates the increased challenge counting of rings for the whole tree!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 30, 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.

This Map Shows You the Odds of Finding a New Species in Your Neighborhood | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – In most of the North America, the odds are small…but there are some hot spots.

How our microplastic waste becomes 'hubs' for pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- ScienceDaily – Another way that microplastics cause problems. The material is changing the composition and activity within wastewater treatment sludge.

How your sense of smell predicts your overall health - BBC Future – What about people with chronic stuffy noses from allergies or responses to poor air quality? Wouldn’t nose stuffiness reduce the sense of smell somewhat?

Twin Birth Rates Have Soared Globally in the Last Three Decades | Smart News Science | Smithsonian Magazine – Having children later in life and medically assisted reproduction are thought to be the cause.

Top 25 birds of the week: April 2021! - Wild Bird Revolution – Beautiful birds…I always enjoy the 25 pictures each week.

Discarded Covid-19 Masks and Plastic Gloves Are Killing Wildlife | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Ugh! I’m always upset if I see PPE litter; disposable of them properly so they don’t escape into the environment. I will be following the suggestions of ‘snipping the straps on disposable masks’ before I put mine in the trash. I haven’t been using gloves…just soap/water and hand sanitizer.

Thurston Lava Tube Open Again at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park  - I walked this trail! Glad it is reopened for people to enjoy.

Small farms outdo big ones on biodiversity — and crop yields: Research Highlights – Hurray for small farms.

Beaver? Otter? Muskrat? A Field Guide to Freshwater Mammals – Look at the pictures – how many can you identify?

Climate change cut global farming productivity 21% since 1960s -- ScienceDaily – The changing climate has made subtle changes that add up to the impact on farming productivity. Evidently the impact is greatest in areas that were already hotter.  

Browsing Natural History Magazines – March 2021

I browsed the 1966 to 1984 volumes of The American Museum of Natural History’s magazine available on Internet Archive in March 2021. There will be more browsed in April. I collected a few images from each volume ... all the volumes are well worth looking through.

In 1966, the infographic (I’m sure they didn’t call it that in 1966) about spider webs was well done

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And I enjoyed the bird pictures by Basil Ede.

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Then there were images if flowers and mushrooms and Persian artifacts…carnivorous plants, flamingoes… that I picked from the 1967 to 1972 volumes (this was the time period I was in grade 7-12).

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In 1973 there were seed pods (lotus, magnolia, London Plane)), a small racoon, fall leaves, and a turkey…marking the seasons.

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In 1974 to 1977 my image picks are hermit crabs, volvox, Mesa Verde (which my husband I visited during this time), and a frog. My husband got his undergraduate degree and I was working full time/going to college part time.

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In 1978 there were some beautiful images of seeds in flight.

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1979 included many articles that were interesting to me: skunk cabbage, Pompeii, and the 17-year cicadas.

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In 1980 there was an article about how snakes shed their skin.

The 1981 volume is missing from the Internet Archive collection. In 1982 there were a lot of articles that interested me – about Jack-in-the-Pulpits and lichens…jewel weed and nautiluses….

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And then endemic Hawaiian plants and birds. 1982 was the year my husband and I finished our formal schooling…he had a PhD in Physics and I had a MS in Math.

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1983 included a great picture of an Egret in Florida…1984 some parasitized caterpillars. 1983 was a pivot year for us because we move away from Texas and to Virginia/Maryland pursuing our careers.

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Overall – I enjoy browsing through the annual volumes of this magazine….thinking about what I was doing at the time they were originally published.

Zooming – April 2021

The wonders of spring….the zoomed images for April 2021!

Ten Little Celebrations – April 2021

My whole family has stayed well and the majority are now fully vaccinated….the big celebration for the month (and maybe the whole year).

2nd COVID-19 shot. It felt great to be a part of the potential ‘beginning of the end’ of the pandemic. Celebrating that I managed to not get the virus over the past year…and am now fully vaccinated.

Howard Country Conservancy Volunteering. It is a different type of volunteering than I did before but a little step back to doing outdoor volunteering that I enjoy. Celebrating being at Mt Pleasant in the spring.

Brookside Gardens tulips and wood thrush. Celebrating that I am able to see the springtime gardens this year.

South Mountain mini roadtrip. Celebrating that I was able to regain my confidence to dive on 70 mph speed limit highways.

Sunrise at Wegmans. Celebrating doing my own in person grocery shopping….at sunrise.

My daughter bidding on a beautiful house in Springfield. Celebrating my daughter and son-in-law finding a house they both like a lot (they are in the process of buying it now).

Carolina wren singing in the early morning. Every spring the birds are very vocal in our neighborhood. I celebrate hearing – and recognizing – their song.

Getting to Dickson TN. It was a long day of driving – over 13 hours. It was a relief – and celebration – when I finally got to the hotel room! And then getting on the road again a sunrise the next morning.

Seeing my parents again after more than a year. Celebrating family….coming out of the long distance separation the pandemic caused.

Josey Ranch and the Pocket Prairie. Celebration birds and wildflowers near my parents home.

Pocket Prairie at Josey Ranch

My morning walk at Josey Ranch (Carrollton, Texas) started at the Pocket Prairie which is easily accessed from the library parking lot. This is a great time of year for wildflowers. The grasses are high this year and make the wildflowers harder to see; on the plus side – the grasses probably protected the flowers from the colder temperatures over the past week. The insects still find the flowers when the temperatures get warm enough for insects to be active. I was disappointed that the only bluebonnets I saw were ones that has been cut by the weed eater during trail maintenance. There were probably more down in the grass that I missed. There were bluebonnets growing along the interstate from Tyler to Dallas, so they are probably not done with their season yet. I’ll go to the Pocket Prairie again next week.

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I left my car parked near the Pocket Prairie when I walked over to the lake (to photograph birds). Along the way, I noticed the grackles all leaving the trees with noise of a train and positioned myself to get a picture of it (and some fishermen). Evidently the trains are not as frequently as they were in years past; I was in accidentally in the right place at the right time!