Amid the High Hills

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Sir Hugh Fraser published Amid the High Hills in 1923…100 years ago. He explains in the preface that the book is a collection of articles – some of which had been published before – and illustrated by friends. All the other books that he published (and that are available on Internet Archive) were career related (he was a British barrister and judge).  The Wikipedia biography cites no sources - is brief and unsatisfying since it doesn’t mention anything about the book except the title; I found myself reading between the lines of the book’s preface to fill in….that Sir Hugh Fraser enjoyed his vacations and friendships beyond the confines of his career that he evidently continued until his death in 1927.  The illustrations that his friends provided (pictures, sketches, photographs) are worth browsing the book; they capture the natural areas as they were in the early 1900s.

Amid the High Hills

Our Nixa, MO Yard – March 2023

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The bulbs are up in our Missouri yard but making slow progress toward blooming because we keep having cold days! There are irises from a previous owner; I added more last fall along with daffodils, crocus, and allium. There is something growing low and around the irises that is very green (I suspect it is a weed/invasive but I am leaving it alone because I like its greenness).

The hyacinths are up and one tried to bloom. Most are still waiting to raise their buds above their leaves.

I am waiting to cut the decorative grass until late May…give insects overwintering there a chance to hatch and provide food for nesting birds.

The robins are back, of course. They don’t come to our feeder (they are not seed-eaters), but they are in our yard finding food – a good indicator that the yard might not be overwhelmed with chemicals. I am keen to let it grow as naturally as possible since I want birds and pollinators to be healthy here.

I have a clearer view of the sky in this house than I did in Maryland; the trees are not as dense or large. There is a river birch and oak in our neighbor’s yard that might provide an opportunity for a picture of the moon resting on branches…but I didn’t catch it this month. My camera’s night scene setting did a relatively good job of getting the moon in focus (Canon PowerShot SX70-HS on a monopod…me standing in my yard a few feet from my home office).

Overall – I like our new location…and plan to spend a lot more time in the yard when the temperatures are a little warmer.

An Egg

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I started with an idea to use an egg for a photo project. Originally the plan was to put the egg in different containers…contrasting the colors and shapes of the egg with its container. I started with the small bowl from my blue tulip depression glass. It was too big!

I looked closer….to get the wobbly crescent of blue color on the egg from the sunshine through the glass. I also noticed the shadow on the left and how the pitted surface of the eggshell was more noticeable near the line between sunlight and shadow…just as the moon craters stand out at the edge of light and dark of a crescent moon. I also got an inkling of the window screen shadow on the egg.

Looking even closer at the egg…the pits and screen shadow.

I repositioned the egg to the windowsill and saw that the shadow of the screen is distorted by the shape of the egg!

Another change in positions and getting closer so that the pits of the shell show again. Where did those little flecks of orange come from?

Overall – a quick project…and quite different than I anticipated….more about the egg, shadow, pits…than the container for the egg!

Our Missouri Neighborhood – March 2023

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The temperature has fluctuated wildly – from the teens to 70s this month. I took walks on two of the sunny days. We’ve had enough rain that the drainage into the ponds had running water on both days, and I stopped on the bridge to take pictures of leaves from last season in the rippling water. Oaks, maples, river birch, and red buds are represented.

There is almost always a pair of mallards about….and lots of robins.

Some branches from a magnolia in a nearby yard are upright in the pond. I wonder how long they will last…..or maybe someone is trying to root them (i.e. start new trees)?

The turtles are more active on warm days. They all appear to be red-eared sliders. Their snouts are usually all that is visible unless they are closer to shore or sunning on some high ground in the pond.

One day I started out in sunshine but there were more clouds than I anticipated. I took some landscape shots….experimenting with backlight and the curving walkway through the trees around our pond.

Some geese were on the walkway (and this time of year I give them space since they might be aggressive) so I went up to the street to complete the loop to my house. I noticed that the stormwater drain is labeled ‘no dumping – drains to river’ with a metal shield; in Maryland the labeling was painted onto the concrete.

The red maples are some of the earliest trees to bloom. The trees along the path don’t have low branches so my pictures of the flowers rely on my camera’s zoom.

Sometimes I photograph something because I didn’t anticipate it…the oak leaf stuck in the chain link of the tennis court is an example.

Another is the mats of algae on lower spillway between the two ponds. They had washed from the upper pond but are doomed to dry out on the spillway if another rain does not come soon. Still – they were ‘emerald isles’ at a time of year where there is still a lot brown in the natural world.

Dead Robin

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I was noticing that the top of the tennis court slab in my neighborhood was painted/sealed but the sides were not…and then I saw it: a dead bird, the red breast making it obviously a robin. It was outside the chain link enclosure of the tennis courts, on a narrow ledge of concrete. I started thinking about the cause of death, ruling out a predator because the whole bird was still there.

I took some additional pictures. The feet were curled but the zoomed image shows the joints and claws (no wonder birds are often referred to as the modern version of dinosaurs), the feathers were in disarray, and the eye was missing (or maybe just shrunk).

In the end, because of where the bird was – it seemed that perhaps the bird had tried to fly through the chain link fence! Its flight was fast enough that the wings broke and the bird probably died almost immediately from the trauma of the collision.

I left the carcass as I found it.

Daylight Savings Time

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Getting up in the dark is no fun and the time of year I notice it the most is at the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Just when I am enjoying the sunrises when I get to my office on standard time, the change happens and it’s dark again. So – this year I am trying something new: I am going to get up an hour later (and go to bed an hour later); it has the effect of staying on standard time for my sleep schedule!

Why didn’t I think of this before? During my career it would not have worked. I got too much done during the early mornings before everyone else arrived and the traffic would have been horrendous an hour later than my usual. When my daughter was young, my husband took her to daycare, and I picked her up early since my workday (usually) ended earlier; shortening her time away from us was our goal. Later, when she was in high school, her day started as early as mine did.

But – I could have easily done this ‘changing of the morning wakeup alarm’ during the past decade. There are very few instances that I need to be anywhere before 8 or 9.

I guess this means that if the country stays on the same time year-round my preference is for standard time since I like it to be light in the morning! If the country decides on staying on Daylight Savings – I’ll simply keep my sleep time ‘standard.’

I am celebrating sunrises with this little collection of images over the past year.

Pinecone Nurseries

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I have three pines in my back yard. My favorite is the largest; it has thick growth all the way to the ground. It is easy to look at the tips of the branches to see the various stages of cone formation… the pine nurseries. Further back on the branch are cones in various stages of maturity. And there are cones in the pine needles under the tree too.

This is the first time I’ve had a pine tree in my yard! My next interaction with the tree will be collecting dead pine needles that have caught in the lower branches rather than reaching the ground and spreading them as mulch under the forsythia bush where there is some bare dirt (i.e. making a pine needle mulch for the bush).

Frosty Forsythia

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There was frost on our grass one morning in the areas further from the house…transient since the temperature was warming fast as the sun burned off the fog. I noticed that the forsythia in the corner of the yard has a few blooms and enjoyed the close examination of the flowers – somewhat damaged by the frost. The frost had developed along the edges of the petals and was already looking more like water droplets. On the buds, the ice looked like sugar or salt crystals. I’ll cut some branches from the bush to bring inside when blooms more fully.

There were other plants with melting frost…small plants close to the ground and pine needles backlit by the sun still somewhat shrouded by fog.

The rose bush in winter has plenty of shapes and textures…some red color caught my attention. It’s the remains of a leaf and flower but the shape reminded me of a Phoenix rising…flying away.

It was a good morning for a photo shoot in my back yard.

Fox Squirrel

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Last time I was in Carrollton, TX, I paid more attention to the squirrels in my parents’ yard. They are a little larger than the squirrels I see in my Missouri yard and have a brownish orange underside. I realized that they are fox squirrels. I enjoyed photographing one munching on some food we had put out for the birds. The squirrel was down on the ground…up on a perch in the tree where a large limb had been removed…giving me opportunity to see it from almost every angle. I wondered if the squirrel was pregnant because it looked very rounded! Late February is a likely time the young would be born.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 11, 2023

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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.

800-year-old hoard unearthed in northern Germany – The picture of the earrings made me wonder how they were worn…and what stones once were held in the empty enclosures.

Firewood theft: The forests where trees are going missing – Evidently it is happening around the world…maybe caused by increasing heating costs and/or other fuels not available after a disaster or during a war.

Bald Eagles aren’t fledging as many chicks due to avian influenza – Oh no! I had gotten used to seeing bald eagles frequently near where I lived in Maryland. I had assumed that I didn’t see as many in Missouri because I didn’t know where to look – but it could have been that there are fewer birds to see anywhere.

New thought on Chaco Canyon Construction – A demonstration of how the timbers for building the complex structures at Chaco Canyon could have been carried the 60 miles from where the trees grew.

Sustainable process to produce vanillin from lignin makes further progress – Making the popular flavoring agent from lignin (a waste product from the wood pulping industry) rather a chemical process using petroleum.

Quilts from the Second World War tell the stories of the Canadian women who sewed them – A little Canadian history…the spirit of giving during a stressful time…sending artful warmth. Quilts have always appealed to me because they are functional art. My great-grandmother (in the US) made wedding quilts with/for her 5 daughters in the 1930s and 1940s…and now one of my sisters is talking about quilting being something she plans to do when she retires.

More Than Half Of New US Electricity Generating Capacity In 2023 Will Be Solar – Good! Evidently California and Texas are the states adding the most solar capacity.

Archaeologists Find Elite Residences at Mexico’s Chichén Itzá – Prior to this discovery, experts didn’t know any residential structures! What they found was a complex…two houses and a palace.

Air pollution speeds bone loss from osteoporosis – A study of a diverse cohort of over 160,000 postmenopausal women. The study found that nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to bone damage and that the lumbar spine is one of the most susceptible sites to this damage. This is another reason to improve air quality!

Photography In the National Parks: Capturing Atmospheric Phenomena – Being in the right place…noticing atmospheric phenomenon…and capturing the image. It reminded me of a trip we made back in 2007 to Cumberland State Park in Kentucky where we saw a moonbow; maybe we should go again!

Cheshire Cat Moon

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Last month when I was in Carrollton, my daughter texted that the moon, Venus, and Jupiter were visible in the west. I went out…it was a clear night…and the horizon was clear enough to see all three. I opted to take a picture of the moon since my camera could focus on it well enough to see some craters. It also reminded me of the Alice in Wonderland Cheshire Cat – where the cat’s body has disappeared and all that is left is its iconic grin.

Carrollton Yard – February 2023

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The temperatures were getting warm enough in Carrollton TX for some of the hardy spring flowers to make an appearance.

The naked lady lilies are just leaves now…building up for their bloom during the summer. The daffodils and hyacinths are blooming.

I noticed the fallen rooster and rusting toy surrounded by brown debris from last season and the greening new growth of spring. The rooster’s fall, twisted feather and the rust on the base/foot is new this season. I didn’t attempt to right it.

The small landscapes appealed to me as well – the small rock that looks like a big cliff next to the green vegetation, the single pink flower at the base of a big mulberry tree, a red leaf surrounded by crinkled brown leaves and delicate new green growth, and a dandelion already in bloom (also at the base of a mulberry tree).

My favorite image from the February walk around the yard was a backlit dandelion seed puff.  Yes – the background is messy…but I always attempt to capture the situation as it was in nature, not something contrived.

Josey Ranch - February 2023

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It was a breezy and cloudy day when I went to Josey Ranch in Carrollton last month. There were fewer Northern Shovelers and American Widgeon around and they seemed to be resting or grooming rather than feeding.

The American Coots were still around in about the same numbers as in January.

There was one Bufflehead…feeding. It was in the middle of the small lake and only spending seconds on the surface of the water.

There was one cormorant – looking around more than feeding. I am beginning to wonder if there are many fish in the lake.

The Lesser Scaups were around and coming to the shore thinking the people were going to feed them – although that didn’t happen while I was there. In the 14 second video, most birds are male Lesser Scaups. There is one female and a coot (or two).

By the time I go in March, many of the wintering birds will probably be gone…but maybe there will be Mallard ducklings…or maybe a cygnet.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – February 2023

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I drove around the wildlife loop at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge in late February on my way down to Carrollton TX. The snow geese were still there. It seemed like there were more than the usual numbers of the darker morphs.

I managed to catch one goose flying across the frame. Notice the way the wing tips/feathers move.

The pintails were there as well although there didn’t seem to be as many as on previous visits.

Canada Geese and at least one Great Blue Heron always seem to be around.

I took a picture of an active grasshopper pump – practicing with some foreground blur.

The Greater Yellowlegs seems to always be in the same bit of water when I am there!

As I stopped at the visitor center, I noticed a sumac near where I parked and opted to take some macro images of the seed pods. They look a little like grapes…until the fuzziness becomes visible in the higher magnification.

I am anticipating a lot of changes by the time I make the March road trip to Carrollton….

Road Trip to/from Carrollton – February 2023

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My trip to Carrollton the last week of February started at dawn…getting earlier as we move toward spring and before Daylight Savings Time. I took a picture from the window of my car as I left. I like the early start. I head west and then south so the morning sun is not in my eyes at all!

The drive down was easy, and I indulged in my usual tangential thinking as I drove. As I passed through Muskogee, OK, I remembered that my parents had lived there briefly in the mid-1950s when I was a toddler. I wondered where they had lived. I asked my mother when I got to Carrollton; she remembered it was a well-built small house in an upscale neighborhood.

I stopped at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge on the way down; more about that next week.

The drive back from Texas to Missouri started out foggy and then turned drizzly. A little over an hour into the drive, I stopped at the Pilot in Denison (just south of the Texas/Oklahoma border on my route); it was the most interesting stop of the drive toward home complete with Texas flag table tops for the food concessions and swirls of leaves cut out of the trash receptacle covers.

The sign over the entrance to the restroom area was the high point of the stop!

Zooming – February 2023

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There were some sunny days in February – good for outdoor photography even if they were very cold! The ravages of winter on vegetation from last summer/fall is reaching an extreme. We’re all ready for the spring! Enjoy the February 2023 zoomed images!

Plant of the Month – Crepe Myrtle

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I had originally thought holly would be the February plant of the month but then I was drawn to the seed pods of the crepe myrtle. I’ve already included images of them in my earlier post about our yard.  Those were taken at a time it was cloudy.

More recently I photographed them again in very bright light although when I look at them in the images it almost seems like they are glowing from within! Right then – Crepe Myrtle became the plant of the month.

I like the way the pods split into wedges that are the seeds…that the interior is a lighter color than the exterior husk. That lighter color reflects the light better and creates the ‘glow from within’ look.

Hurray for some February color in the wild!

Table Rock Lake

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On a sunny day last week, we headed south to Table Rock State Park – situated on the shore of Table Rock Lake. The drive down had many roadcut cliffs….curving highway…scenic. We parked near the boat launch and walked along the paved lakeside trail. There were frequent ad hoc trails going all the way down to the lake…using ‘stairsteps’ in rock down to water level. We saw at least one person fishing. There was rain in the previous days so the eroded rock held small pools of water.

The first side trail we took down to the water included a surprise. There was a whole watermelon at the water’s edge! How did it get there? Did someone put it in the water to cool down then forget it was there? We wondered how long it had been at the edge of the lake since we are well past the season for them to be in grocery stores. It was the only ‘trash’ we saw during our walk!

I was fascinated by the intensity of the color on wet rocks compared to the rocks that had dried out on the shore.

The water itself changed the way the rocks look too. These two pictures are of the same area but the water acts as a distorting lens!

I turned aroud and took some zoomed images of drying debris, a chuck of rock, and the layers in one of the ‘stairs’ – then made my way back up to the paved trail.

We started looking at the sights along the trail. There were limestone boulders along the edge and I started noticing inclusions in some of them. Some areas were forested…with enough underbrush to support communities of lichen and moss….and, my favorite, turkey tails (shelf fungus).

We didn’t see a lot of birds – and I didn’t get any pictures. It was not the best time of day for bird watching. I saw a nuthatch, crows, and turkey vultures…without even going into ‘birding’ mode.

There were not a lot of people in the park this time of year even though the day was warm enough for a picnic (there was one family with one children that was enjoying a snack). It is easy to imagine the place being full of people when the temperature is warmer…and everyone would enjoy the activities on or in the water!

Now to plan some other day trips….take advantage of any pleasant day to do a little more exploring of places within an hour of where we live!

Ice and Algae

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It was below freezing for almost 24 hours before I ventured out last week an hour or so after sunrise. The temperature was in the 20s and I anticipated capturing ice on our neighborhood pond. I bundled up in my heaviest coat and gloves…already had the lens cover off my camera since it is hard to remove with gloves on.  I noticed the robins were around and probably beginning to scout nesting locations.

There was a small group of Canada Geese; most stayed on the bank but two ventured into the pond through mats of algae. I began to worry that maybe the sun shining on the pond surface had already melted the ice even though the air temperature was still below freezing!

As I looked more closely I noticed that there was ice between the mats of algae! Some of the ice had a look of cut glass. There were leaves just under the surface in some places – distorted by the ice – but some are, quite clearly, oak leaves. The color of the algae is a nice contrast with the ice!

My favorite picture of the morning was a patch of ice surrounded by algae. The green mats creates a fuzzy (slimy?) frame around the ice structures.

I continued aroud the pond and noticed that a twig of red maple flowers had fallen onto the path. The tree blooms so early that the hard freezes sometimes are problematic. The red maple that this twig came from seemed to still have quite a few flowers that had tolerated the cold so the tree should still be producing seeds this year.

Overall – I’m glad I went out when I did. This could be one of the last times to capture ice on the pond since spring is one the way.

A Photography Course

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My husband purchased Matt Kloskowski’s Inside the Composition course and we are working our way through the 21 modules.

I’ve done 6 modules so far. Each of them had a short lecture then an assignment…encouraging students to apply the concepts in their own landscape photography. Review and critique of my own photos has been enlightening.

The course has already helped me recognize some shortcomings in my photography –

I tend to like my macro compositions more than landscapes and one of the reasons is that I almost always have too much sky in my landscapes. Sometimes cropping can improve it…although I will try to do better when I am in the field from now on. A good example is this sunset I took back in December…the colors were outstanding…but there is way too much sky. I cropped part of the sky but maybe I should have cut some of the dark foreground too. The result is an odd shaped image but the composition is improved.

Some of my photography is almost like note taking…documentation rather than art: taking a picture to later use for identification of a bird or insect…or taking pictures of signage to read later (or act as a caption to other photos. But the rest of my pictures should be more than documentation. I need to improve my composition on those pictures even if I think about then as documentation of the place. My macro pictures generally composed better than my landscapes!

I tend to like birds moving left to right through my image – even though this breaks the ‘right third’ rule. I always make the assumption and a bird will be moving; we read left to right and our eyes tend to be trained for that direction. Inanimate objects tend to be better place on the right third but software easily flips the image if I forget (see sun yard ornament below).

I should learn to consistently turn my phone when I am taking landscapes. The sunrise picture with half the image a dark band is a good example. Again – cropping can help but it would be better if I’d learn get the composition right when I take the picture!

One of the only landscape pictures I’ve taken recently that I like, turns out to demonstrate some composition concepts. It’s a sunrise pictures but the large diagonals of the silhouetted tree branches in the foreground lead the eye into the colorful sky rather than just having large expanse of colored sky. The second layer of tree silhouettes adds more complexity and the recognition that it is a winter sunrise.

I’m looking forward to the modules still to come….