Tree Trimming

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One of our ‘get ready for winter’ projects this fall was to get 2 trees trimmed. One of our neighbors made a well-timed comment about their arborist; we got an estimate…and the work was done a few weeks later. They did projects for several of our neighbors on the same day! The tree concerning me the most was a sycamore that shades the west corner of our house – making it much cooler in the summer. The problem was the branches that were brushing the side of the house and the roof (and skylight). I wanted to keep the tree…but not let it damage my house! I took some before and after pictures. The crew did a great job taking off the problematic branches and balancing the tree.

The other tree was our thundercloud plum – purchased about 18 years ago – just before the previous 17-year cicada emergence. It was small enough to cover with netting which protected during that first challenge. It had been damaged in the center by a branch that broke in an ice storm about 10 years ago; the trimming made that hole show more but now all the dead branches are out and the hole will begin to fill in. It will also be much easier to mow around it!

The work only took about an hour since the crew had great equipment (and knew what they were doing). The branches that were cut were shredded into a truck. As I walked around afterward – I photographed fall aspects of our trees. The red maple in our backyard is always the last to turn and drop its leaves; I like that I have longer to enjoy it.

The sycamore has lost a lot of leaves already. Many of them are very large. The Virginia Creeper growing on the trunk is turning red.

The tulip poplars leaves turn yellow but this year they are going from yellow to brown very quickly…often while the leaves are still on the tree. We get the leaves in our yard but the very large trees  are in the forest.

Overall – our fall tree trimming project was an easy success…and now we can focus on not letting the falling leaves build up too much on the grass. My strategy is to mow the leaves into the yard as much as possible rather than expending energy raking!

Longwood Gardens – Macro Photography

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I took more macro pictures at Longwood Gardens than I ever have before. I was using my phone with a clip-on macro lens and a clicker that was hanging around my neck. I seemed so easy to move the phone into position with one hand and click the image with the other. It all started while we were standing in line to enter the gardens. There were plants around even there. The couple in front of me was interested in the images I was getting.

The conservatory was full of plants that often look like abstract art when viewed with a macro lens. My favorite is the leaf with the larger veins almost glowing…white dots making an aura alongside.

In the meadow – there were lots of asters and plants going to seed.

There were a few bugs on the plants too – milkweed bug and some bees.

Several ‘lessons learned’ from the day –

  • Wear a big hat and use the body and had to shade the areas I am photographing. It’s easier to see the screen (to make sure the right part is in focus) and reduces shadows.

  • Review everything in the pockets of the photovest and reduce as much weight as possible. In places with plenty of places to refill my water bottle – a smaller one would be better. I should have left my small point and shoot camera at home (every bit of weight counts!). I was glad I decided not to carry my monopod.

It worked well to

  • Pace ourselves by sitting down occasionally on available benches (sometimes taking pictures while sitting!)

  • Wear a bandana to keep the sun off my neck and the V in front. It worked better than sunscreen! It also offers a bit of padding where the photovest sometimes rubs the back of my neck.   

Longwood Gardens – Fiddleheads

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I always look for fiddleheads on the tree ferns in the Longwood Gardens conservatory. The visit a few weeks ago was no exception. Somehow the tight coils of the fiddleheads are more awe inspiring than the fully developed fronds! Some are fuzzier than others! They often start out as a wad of coils and then unfurl enough to be coils within coils…then single coils along the main rib. If I ever have access to a fern with fiddleheads for a longer time, I would like to capture a time series of images - the unfurling of a fiddlehead.

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2021

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Celebrating fall…

Fall view from my office window. The view from my office window includes a tulip poplar and a red maple…the first has leaves of yellow…the second red although it will be the last to turn completely and let go of its leaves. Celebrating the most colorful views of the year from my office window.

Haircut. We’ve perfected getting haircuts while wearing a mask…still wait a little longer between haircuts than we did pre-pandemic – so it is a celebration to have neatly trimmed hair!

Morning walk in the neighborhood. Cooler mornings and days. Celebrating very pleasant temperatures for the whole day (although a jacket may be required in the morning).

Middle Patuxent River with students. Celebrating the restart to volunteering that I did pre-pandemic. The river is so beautiful when I am standing in the shallows in my big boots!

A new low weight for the year and a beautiful sunrise. Taking off the pounds is hard….but I am doing it! I celebrate every new low weight for the year. Recently I was in the right place to see the sunrise on the same day. I bought and enjoyed a slice of pumpkin roll to celebrate both!

Getting out cool weather clothes. It’s not a whole new wardrobe – but one I haven’t worn in months. I always celebrate my favorite clothes as I hang them up (and also the ones I am packing away). I didn’t have anything that I decided to put in the donate pile!

Patuxent Research Refuge. Celebrating the closest wildlife refuge to where we live. There is always something to see there and I always chide myself for not visiting more frequently.

Smell of butternut squash in the oven. It’s that time of year where the smell pumpkin pie spices fill my kitchen…celebrating the special foods and family events that will continue through the end of the year.

Popcorn with butter. Most of the time I eat popcorn with just garlic salt….it’s a special celebration to have it with butter (and much higher calorie)!

Longwood Gardens. A beautiful place…and a celebration every time we go. Some parts I enjoy again and again…and sometimes there are sights that are totally new.

Art and Archaeology – An Illustrated Magazine

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There are 11 volumes of the Art and Archaeology magazine from 1914-1923 available on Internet Archive; it was published in Baltimore. Most of the illustrations are black and white photographs but there are occasional color ones. I enjoyed finding pictures that looked familiar…and realizing how long some of the places and artifacts have been featured in magazines: the Aztec and Maya from Central America; buildings in Greece and Italy and Spain and France from Europe; Egypt, Babylon, and Petra from the Middle East; the desert Southwest and Lincoln of the US….and these are just what is represented in the 2 sample images I picked from each volume. Some of the places are probably a bit more worn from tourists and damaged by air pollution 100 years later…some have been restored. Maybe I will do a side by side look at some historical pictures of a place I visit (when I start doing that kind of traveling again).

I hope that more of volumes of this magazine become available as the copyright expires; it was published into the 1930s. For now – enjoy the sample images below by clicking through the 22 images…or go to the volumes directly by following the 11 links.

V1 (1914-1915), V2 (1915), V3 (1916-1), V4 (1916-2), V5 (1917), V7 (1918), V9-10 (1920), V11-12 (1921), V13-14 (1922), V15 (1923 - 1), V16 (1923 -2)

Zooming – October 2021

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I selected 19 images to represent this month.  Here are some stats:

  • The normal locations for photography: home(2) and neighborhood (1)…and then day trips to Patuxent Research Refuge (5) and Longwood Gardens (11).

  • 6 indoors (including the conservatory at Longwood Gardens and a high key image of a day lily from my office)…the rest outdoors

  • 17 plants (2 fiddleheads and 6 waterlilies), a bird and squirrels

Enjoy the slideshow for the October zoomed images!

I’m saving most of the fall foliage pictures for next month!

Longwood Gardens – WaterLilies

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The water lily court at Longwood Gardens was open and beautiful. I am always fascinated by the large Victoria waterlily (the ones at Longwood are ones that they created in 1960 – a cross between Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana). The pads unfurl from the center and the outer edge stays vertical – showing the red underside of the pad. The flowers look like crepe paper as they unfurl rather than the spikey flowers of the other waterlilies. The buds have bristles. Look through my Victoria images by using the forward and backward arrows at the sides.

Of course – the other waterlilies are almost as exciting to photograph and they have brilliant colors. My husband had provided a polarizing filter for my camera which helps to surround the flowers with black background – sometimes. There were not many bees (late in the season for waterlilies) but I did notice one bee butt when I got home and selected images to use in this post. And there is one hibiscus in the slide show; I couldn’t resist the flaring of the petals…the color and shadows.

I always enjoy the waterlily court so I’m glad we got to see it during the first time back to Longwood since before the pandemic (I almost said post-pandemic but we’re not quite there yet!). It’s a great place for photography and has lots of benches to just enjoy the pools of waterlilies…and other water-loving plants lining the walls of the court and in pots standing in the water.

Longwood Gardens – October 2021

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We took a day trip to Longwood Gardens in mid-October. The website was encouraging ticket purchase before coming and cautioning that it is no longer possible to leave/return as we had usually done for lunch; the gardens also open an hour later than pre-pandemic. We arrived a few minutes before our ticket time and the garden opening at 10. There were others that had the same strategy…a line formed. I took a few macro pictures of the plants near our place in line while we waited. It was a little disconcerting that only about half the people put on masks inside the visitor center and there were several busloads of children that arrived - enlarging the crowd in the building. We exited to the gardens as quickly as we could and headed to the conservatory.

We chose to wear a mask in the conservatory too – as did about half the people in the building. There is construction closing the west end but still plenty of mums, tropical plants, children’s garden, and cactus to see in the part that is open. Even the hallway of bathrooms in the conservatory was very lush with green walls. Enjoy the slide show of zoomed pictures from the conservatory!

I’ll post about the water lilies and fiddleheads and macro photographs later. There were a few pictures I took as we walked about through the forest and meadow and then enjoying the display of fall squash and gourds…but I spent most of my time experimenting with macro photography with my phone.

We spent about 3.5 hours in the gardens…then were tired and hungry enough to call it a day. We stopped at a fast-food drive thru…then parked and ate…before continuing home.

Photographing a Day Lily

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I noticed a stalk of day lily buds in the front flower bed recently – one of the few day lilies that bloom both in the spring and fall; it was something to bring inside rather than leave for a deer to eat! There were two types of photography I wanted to do with the flowers: macro and high key. Fortunately, several of the buds were mature enough to complete their development in my office.

The high key images were done with the first flower early in the morning with my Canon Powershot SX70 HS – handheld but stabilized on my knee as I sat in an office chair rolled to the far side of the room so that the zoom would focus. I had the vase with the opening flower positioned in front of the lamp.

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I tried three different positions for the flower. Which do you like best? I think the last one is my favorite.

Later in the day, the flower had opened completely, and I put the vase in my office window that gets afternoon sun.

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Another bud matured and opened a few days later…my opportunity for doing some macro shots. I used my phone with a clip on macro lens…discovered that my clicker’s battery was dead so I used voice commands to take the hand held pictures (voice commands do not work as well has the clicker since the timing is not as exact). The vase was on the window ledge on the cloudy day.

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I started out taking macro images of flower parts.

Then I noticed some white ‘foam’ and then something that moved. There were tiny insects on the flower and remaining buds! The one with defined antennae had very delicate looking wings. In the last image, it looks like one of them has just shed its skin (and is standing on it). The one with the wings might be an adult and all the rest are larval stages of that insect.

30 years ago – October 1991

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Looking back at the pictures from October 1991 – it was a pleasant month. Work was still challenging but not as overwhelming as it had been in the previous months. One of my sisters came to visit with the priority to enjoy activities with my two-year-old daughter. We went on a steam train trip near Gettysburg, visited a toy store in Ellicott City, and bought apples at a local orchard (my daughter ate an apple on the spot to the delight of the owner).  I remember the outing to Mount Vernon vividly. We had lunch in the restaurant with my daughter in a highchair (antique style) pushed up to the table; she was thrilled with the arrangement and enjoyed the meal tremendously…charmed the wait staff. Then we opted to not go through the house…enjoying the grounds thoroughly. She hugged a big tree that George Washington had planted!

My sister was moving into a new house and had packed everything before her visit…and then moved almost immediately when she returned to Texas. It was a busy month for her. Another sister was pregnant with her second child and had some difficulties early in the month which were quickly resolved to the relief of the whole family. My parents were still working and trying to help everyone through the flurry of the month.

The leaves started to fall later in the month and my daughter became more enthusiastic than ever about being outdoors. Leaves and acorns are easily picked up and enjoyed. Her favorite movie was ‘Little Mermaid.’ She finally made the connection between saying numbers and counting things; that was the big ‘light bulb’ moment of her development in October 1991.

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We borrowed a special costume for my daughter’s Halloween – a flowerpot for the body and headpiece with big yellow petals for around her face. It was very cute but not something she liked very much.  At that point in her life, she was not eating candy so there was little joy for her that Halloween!

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Great memories from 30 years ago…

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 16, 2021

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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.

How to Easily Catch Spotted Lanternflies Using a Water Bottle – These insects have invaded Maryland, but I haven’t seen them yet. Maybe this is a reason to put an empty plastic water bottle in the car – just in case.

Exposure to deadly urban heat worldwide has tripled in recent decades, says study – On of the topics in the schoolyard field trip for 6th graders was heat islands – it’s a good example of the impact of climate change around the world.

Smoky Clouds That Form Over Wildfires Produce Less Rain – Drought…forests burning…and then less rain. Aargh!

8 Fall Nature Experiences to Enjoy – There are so many things to enjoy in the outdoors during the fall – as the heat of summer fades away.

Exploring The Parks: 10 Historic Sites To Visit This Fall – More ideas for fall activities. I’ve been to all the sites they list that are on the east coast…but not necessarily in the fall.

NASA and USGS Launch Landsat 9 – The first Landsat was launched in July 1972 – the year my husband and I graduated from high school.

A new solid-state battery surprises the researchers who created it – Solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode – faster charge rates at room to low temperatures. There is a lot of battery research going on now …coming up with batteries that will help achieve the grid storage and transportation needs of the future.

Young People Are Anxious About Climate Change And Say Governments Are Failing Them – It’s not just young people that have this anxiety. Everyone I know has climate change anxiety….and say governments are failing us all.

Wind energy can deliver vital slash to global warming – It’s a component of the technology we need….it can’t solve everything alone but we have it ready to deploy now – and should just do it as quickly as we can. And it’s cheaper than using fossil fuels!

Yale Climate Change Maps 2020 – Results from a spring 2020 poll about climate change.

In the Middle Patuxent River – 2

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Before the students came to our water quality stations at the Middle Patuxent near King’s Contrivance, I did a little macro photography with my phone, clip on lens, and Bluetooth clicker. There was big rock at the edge of the river (very damp) that was covered with green. Moss or liverwort (not sure which).

Nearby there was a wing from an insect. I did a little research after I got home  and decided that it might be from a Dot-lined White Moth. They are a small moth with a wingspan of 25-62 mm. The wing was laying on the sandy rock surface.

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There were also a few plants growing along the bank. It was easy to take these pictures without bending over at all!

A few minutes…and I liked what I captured!

In the Middle Patuxent River – 1

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Another morning in a local river last week – the Middle Patuxent near King’s Contrivance. There are pathways from the neighborhood streets nearby to connect to the Kings Contrivance Loop that are lined with the big trees of the easement along the river.

A part of the Loop trail parallels the river for a short distance and there is a root supported path down to the river in one spot. The river was more silt than cobbles…more big trees had fallen in from the bank since the last time I was there (pre-pandemic). Still – being in the river is a wonderful outdoor experience every time. There are gentle sounds of the water moving…trees ruffled by little breezes. It was a cloudy day but enough light filtered through the canopy to make patterns on the surface of the water.

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I took some pictures of leaves that had fallen recently and were plastered to the sandy beach near the water. Soon there will be a lot more.

And then the students arrived and it was a flurry of activity while we collected and identified macroinvertebrates…decided that, based on our sample, the water quality was poor but not dead. There were macroinvertebrates in good numbers…but skewed toward species that are tolerant to pollution. Some of the students were surprised at how easy it was to step in water just over the height of their boots! They good naturedly made their way to shore, took boots off one at a time to pour out the water.

And then the time was up - the students headed back to their buses and the river was quiet again. I climbed back up the bank on root ‘steps’….glad that the abundant green on both sides of steep bank was NOT poison ivy!

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Neighborhood Walk

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It’s early fall in our neighborhood. There are a few leaves that are turning and falling. I found a pretty one at the base of our oak at the very beginning of my walk. The tree is struggling with the infection that is impacting (eventually killing) many oaks in our area and has already dropped about half its leaves. It will linger for a few more years. The one across the street has lost almost all its leaves already and I wonder if it will not survive the winter.

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As I walked toward the storm water pond, I noticed another oak that was mostly green…except for one branch of yellow leaves.

The pond was too peaceful and quite – no frogs or red-winged blackbirds making morning songs, no turtles coming out to warm up in the sunshine. There was no algae or floating water plants and I wondered if the treatment used to control that ‘problem’ killed the other life in the pond. They are not mowed as far down the slope as they did at one time, but it seems like it would be better to let the vegetation grow a little further up the slope.

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There were plants going to seed…some with candelabra type branches supporting their fluffy seeds.

There were two types of goldenrod. Do you see the out-of-focus bee at the right side of the second picture? I didn’t notice it until I got home and looked at my images on a big screen….glad I captured the image since it shows the value of these late blooming plants to pollinators.

The willow has a tall branch that is dead – lower ones that are still green with slender branches gracefully sweeping the bank and hanging over the water. There are shelf fungus growing up and down the dead trunk.

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There are a few plants still blooming. One was down in the grass and the picture I took looks like it has an arching fuzzy boa spilling from the flower! In reality the fuzzy boa is an out-of-focus grass seed stalk.

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One of the houses has several Rose of Sharon buses planted on the pond side of their fence. I liked the extra wrinkles of the purple one (not completely unfurled).

The milkweed stand at the back of the pond was a disappointment. It was still there was overgrown with invasive pear seedlings that have grown rapidly over the summer. Maybe they will mow the area later in the fall to try to control that invasion for next season although the pear will come up from roots as well as the milkweed.

Overall – a worthwhile walk on a coolish weekend morning before many other people were out in the neighborhood.

Patuxent Research Refuge – Squirrels

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The little surprise during our walk in the woods at the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge was the interaction of a pair of squirrels in a beech tree….probably about 10 feet above the ground and not too upset by my being within my camera’s zoom range. I was glad I had it set on continuous shooting although I could have also taken a video (somehow I don’t remember my camera will do that!). The squirrels seemed small and I wondered if they were litter mates…perhaps not that long out of the nest. They would probably be the last litter for the season since we are already have nights in the 40s and 50s.They stayed near the knot in the tree…and then, when one disappeared suddenly, I realized that there was a cavity there…large enough for both!

They could peek out one at a time.

I wondered if a woodpecker had enlarged the cavity…whether the squirrels will nest there during the winter rather than building a sloppy leave and twigs nest higher in the tree…if there was a woodpecker that would come to roust them from their hole. It’s fun to think about particular places in the forest…and a hole in a tree is certainly a place to build a story around.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 9, 2021

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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.

Earth is dimming due to climate change – Decades of measurements of earthshine indicate that the Earth is becoming less reflective with warmer oceans (and fewer bright clouds).

Kilauea Resumes Eruptions At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park – Exciting times on the big island…

In UK, Interest in EVs Spikes Amid Fuel Shortages – There have been stories about Ford and GM strategy recently too….lots of indicators that many people will be buying EVs sooner rather than later if enough are produced.

NASA lander records the largest ‘Marsquakes’ ever detected – The lander has been on the surface since 2018!

Dental care: The best, worst and unproven tools to care for your teeth – Hmm….I wonder how much this research will change what dentists advise?

Baby Poo Has Ten Times More Microplastics Than Adult Feces – A scary result…and no ideas on how to reduce exposure (and we don’t know exactly what harms it might cause)….just more research needed. Very frustrating.

Coastal Northeastern US is a global warming hotspot; 2 degrees Celsius of summer warming has already occurred – From Maine to Delaware…the area is warming faster because of climate change linked alterations in the ocean and atmospheric conditions of the North Atlantic.

2021 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest Winners Highlight Global Wildlife and Nature – Beautiful…and thought provoking. My favorite was the artsy one at the end…a high key image.

Paradigm shift in treatment of type 2 diabetes to focus on weight loss – There are probably other chronic ‘diseases’ that have become more prevalent over the past few decades that could be improved with weight loss….but it is hard to lose weight…and keep it off. It requires permanent lifestyle changes.

A Leisurely Trip to Kansas – Another post that includes pictures of a rough green snake. I’ve been on the lookout for them since my son-in-law sent a photo he took with his phone!

Patuxent Research Refuge – Misc.

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Of course, there are other things besides waterlilies, milkweeds and goldenrod to see this time of year at the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge. I did some experimental photography with some grass seed heads and asters…liked the results.

The cattails are exploding with fluff. If it doesn’t float away fast enough it becomes matted around the stalk.

Many plants are going to seed in the meadow.

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In the forest there are hits of color…just a few leaves at this point. Green still dominates.

There was an old jumble of trunks…some upright and others leaning over…with shelf fungus in profusion.

There is a bird blind around a collection of feeders but I wasn’t quiet enough to walk up to it without all the birds taking flight. I managed to notice finches on the feeders and mourning doves below.

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Sometimes something appears that I don’t expect – like this fire hydrant in the meadow. It isn’t that far from the visitor center but far enough that I would have thought one closer would be more useful and it was surrounded by wild vegetation – a little surprise. It was rusted enough that I wondered if it was still functional.

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Overall – every time I got to the refuge, I notice something that I haven’t seen before!

Patuxent Research Refuge – Milkweed and Goldenrod

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The milkweeds are going to seed and the goldenrods are blooming at the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge last week – typical fall meadow views. The milkweed seed pods have burst open and are spilling their seeds to the wind. The seeds have the possibility of starting new stands of the plant next year. The stands that are healthy now will come up from the roots already well-established next spring (i.e. no seed sprouting required).

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My favorite picture of the morning was the very first one I took – with the dew still sparkling on the fluff and the seeds still neatly emerging from the opening pod.

Often the goldenrod and milkweed are mixed in meadow areas but there are some almost pure stands of the goldenrod. It is the hero in the fall for migrating Monarchs and other nectar feeding insects. Sometimes the plant gets blamed for allergies, but it is insect pollinated, rather than wind. People with fall allergies are more likely to be feeling the impact of ragweed pollen!

Patuxent Research Refuge – Waterlilies

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Last week, my husband and I spent a morning at the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge. It’s about 30 minutes from where we live. The weather was a sunny and cool – typical early fall and a great time to be out and about.…and there were waterlilies blooming!

The first ones I noticed were in an area where the water level had recently dropped, based on the number of lilypads that were out of the water rather than floating. There was also a lot more vegetation in the water in that area other that water lilies.

Toward the end of our walk, we were between two ponds and the light was right for reflections. I liked the light pink of this first flower…even though a lilypad bisected the reflection.

The next flower I photographed I remembered to apply the rule of thirds after I took the first image….and have to admit – I like the second one better!

The visitor center was open but we didn’t go in. We’ll be back to see fall foliage in a few weeks!

Near the Little Patuxent River

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On a recent morning – I headed out to the stream that flows under Broken Land Parkway from Lake Elkhorn just before it joins the Little Patuxent River for a volunteer gig – guiding a stream survey done by high school students. Near the bridge that crosses the stream on the Patuxent Branch Trail, there was muddy trail (poison ivy on each side…glad I had on long pants and high boots) to allow access down to stream. We set up our gear around three tables. There was not much dry area to set them up but the water was shallow. A partner and I guided 10 students to collect and ID macroinvertebrates from one of the tables while other volunteers did the same at two others. We had about 45 minutes….and then we got another group of 10 to do it again.

I took some pictures before and after the students arrived. The steam has a lot of vegetation on the banks but the stream has been eroded  - with some trees toppling over from being undercut by rapidly moving water. It is in an area where there is a lot of impervious surface. When it rains – the water rushes down to the stream where it carries away anything in the eroded channel; there is no connection to a flood plain that to slow down the water. It doesn’t take long for it to run off further downstream because we are in the Pediment rather than the Coastal Plain (i.e. there is always an incline for the water to follow).

The water quality was ‘very poor’ based on the types of macroinvertebrates that we found…however – we found quite a few of the types we found. The stream is not dead. Life holds on tight in this suburban stream.