Books Illustrated by Joseph Pennell

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During November, I browsed through 24 books illustrated by Joseph Pennell published between 1889 and 1918. The project was initiated by his book on Modern Illustration published in 1894 that I found early in the month. As I browsed through it, it seemed like a good reference to use for searching Internet Archive to find books illustrated by artists he cited; it’s so easy to search for names of authors (even though sometimes the illustrators are not listed in the metadata which makes it harder…then it’s back to the reference or the Wikipedia entry for the illustrator and searching by title).  I opted to start my browsing with Joseph Pennell and collected some sample images from each book for this post. My main interest is the illustrations…the snapshots they provide of places as they were during Pennell’s time.

There are 4 more books  in the 24 where Pennell is the author and illustrator: Joseph Pennell's pictures of war work in England (1917), San Francisco, the city of the Golden Gate (1916), Lithography and lithographers (1916), and  Joseph Pennell's pictures of war work in America (1918). The books of World War I industrial scenes could easily be adjuncts to history classes about that time….most of them gritty…many awe inspiring.  

Then there are the Highways and Byways books by various authors but with Pennell as the illustrator (or one of the illustrators):

Highways and byways in Normandy - Dearmer, Percey; Pennell, Joseph (1910)

Highways and byways in East Anglia - Dutt, William Alfred; Pennell, Joseph (1901)

Highways and byways in Devon and Cornwall - Norway, Arthur Hamilton; Pennell, Joseph; Thomson, Hugh (1897)

Highways and byways in Yorkshire - Norway, Arthur Hamilton; Pennell, Joseph; Thomson, Hugh (1899)

This is another example of how to find books to browse on Internet Archive; a simple search for “highways and byways in” yielded other books in the series that I’ve put on my list to browse... another thread to those others illustrators of Pennell’s time.

3 books were authored by  Henry James with Pennell as the illustrator: English Hours (1905), and A Little Tour in France (1901), and Italian Hours (1909).

Pennell illustrated Maurice Henry Hewlett’s The Road to Tuscany (1904) published in 2 volumes (vol 1 and vol 2).

Pennell was an American but spent his career based in London…but he travelled widely. Aside from the San Francisco book which he authored himself, there are 2 books in the 24 about places in the US:  The Creoles of Louisiana - Cable, George Washington; Pennell, Joseph (1914) and The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people - Van Dyke, John Charles; Pennell, Joseph (1909).

3 books are about places in Italy:

Italian Journeys - Howell, William Dean; Pennell, Joseph (1907)

Gleanings from Venetian history - Crawford, Francis Marion; Pennell, Joseph (1905)

The makers of modern Rome - Oliphant, Margaret; Riviere, Henry Parsons; Pennell, Joseph (1895)

2 books about places in Spain:

The Alhambra - Irving, Washington; Pennell, Joseph; Pennell, Elizabeth Robins (1896)

Castilian Days - Hay, John; Pennell, Joseph (1903)

And then the last 3 that I didn’t group with anything else

Old Chelsea, a summer-day's stroll - Martin, Benjamin Ellis; Pennell, Joseph (1889)

On the Broads - Dodd, Anna Bowman; Pennell, Joseph (1896)

Raiderland; all about grey Galloway, its stories, traditions, characters, humours - Crockett, Samuel Rutherford; Pennell, Joseph (1904)

 

Overall – a lot to enjoy browsing through these 24 books on Internet Archive…great activity for a cold winter day.

Thanksgiving at the Birdfeeder

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It turns out the birdfeeder had some busy times on Thanksgiving — according to our birdfeeder cam. The day started about 1:30 AM when two racoons visited they feeder. They gave up very quickly. So far – none of the racoon visitors have gotten any seed.

There were the usual visitors off and on throughout the morning. Then there was a flurry of activity about 12 hours after the racoon visit…starting just after 1:30 PM. A White-breasted Nuthatch came to the feeder…was routed temporarily by a Tufted Titmouse…after the titmouse left, pair nuthatches returned….they came and went several times. Then a female Northern Cardinal was on the feeder with the male cardinal keeping watch below. The nuthatch and cardinal pairs are rarely on the feeder at the same time…the second bird waits on the deck railing or floor. The nuthatches take turns on the feeder; the male cardinal seems to be more in sentinel mode rather than waiting for a turn at the feeder. The nuthatches pick out the sunflower seeds. The female cardinal seems to like everything.

Toward the end of the day, the Red-bellied woodpecker was the last bird to get a snack at the feeder. The bird made a lot of noise….before it flew in and then when it was at the feeder. It does like to have the feeder to itself although sometimes it will share it with a small bird like a Carolina Wren.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 5, 2020

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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.

Climate change presents new challenges for the drinking water supply -- ScienceDaily – Studying the Rappbode Reservoir in Germany and applying models….helping to predict what happens with warmer temperatures and increased drought…and what tweaks in reservoir management can mitigate.

The Lanterna of Genoa, the oldest lighthouse in Europe – The current Lighthouse of Genoa was built in 1543. The article includes some pictures of the technology used in the lighthouse from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Pollution and pandemics: A dangerous mix: Research finds that as one goes, so goes the other -- to a point -- ScienceDaily – Studying the relationship between along term ambient particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less and the spread of COVID-19….using air quality data and COVID-19 case across the country. There is a correlation – more pollution….higher COVID-19 transmission. Also: "We found black carbon acts as a kind of catalyst. When there is soot present, PM2.5 has more of an acute effect on lung health, and therefore on R0." This is an example of how air quality degradation has adverse health consequences.

Leila Jeffreys' Elegant Bird Portraits Show Feathery "High Society" and Photographer Tim Flach Captures Emotive Portraits of Fascinating Birds – I prefer birds in the wild…but sometimes portraits show the bird with more detail…certainly with less distraction. These two series were quite different but full photogenic birds.

Two centuries of Monarch butterflies show evolution of wing length -- ScienceDaily – Looking through museum collections and island populations of Monarchs, the researchers discovered how migration selects for longer, larger forewings….non-migrants have smaller wings! And they have determined that the effect is due to genetics rather than the rearing environment.

Photography In The National Parks: Birdy, Birdy In The Sky – Almost half the gleanings this week are about birds. I think this is my favorite. National Parks…great places for photography and birds add some action in the scene!

Top 25 birds of the week: Coastal birds – Some I’ve seen (particularly the ones in this group that were photographed in New Jersey). Others are totally new – like the Great Stone-curlew found in coastal areas of southern Asia…striking head pattern…and eye.

Tens of thousands of 12,000-year-old rock paintings found in Columbia – Found in an area previously inaccessible to researchers due to Columbia’s 50-year civil war. Made with red ocher.

Vitamin D regulates calcium in intestine differently than previously thought – Still new discoveries to be made about how our bodies work…how complex and interconnected the chemistry is….a system of systems.

Newly Discovered Underground Rivers Could Be Potential Solution for Hawai’i’s Drought – The potential for water wells off the coast of islands…supplementing fresh water available on the land to support the population living there.

eBotanical Prints – November 2020

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20 new eBooks added to the botanical prints list in November. They are all available from Internet Archive. The oldest is from 1682 – The Anatomy of Plants by Nehemiah Grew – the ‘father of plant anatomy.’ 6 books were published in the 1700s and the rest in the 1800s. I enjoyed the variety of books I browsed since I had been making my way through Annals of Botany for 2 months (September and October)! When I selected the sample images – I thought about why I made the selections I did from all the wonderful images in these books. Sometimes I choose because I know and enjoy the plant…sometimes it’s the color…sometimes it is a plant totally new to me. Overall – I like the mosaic of images in the post (and that each image can be enlarged with a click). Enjoy the November eBotanical Prints! The whole list of 2021 eBooks can be accessed here.

Medical flora or, Manual of the medical botany of the United States of North America Vol 1 * Rafineque, Constantine Samuel * sample image * 1828

Medical flora or, Manual of the medical botany of the United States of North America Vol 2 * Rafineque, Constantine Samuel * sample image * 1828

Thirty-eight plates, with explanations : intended to illustrate Linnaeus's System of vegetables, and particularly adapted to the Letters on the elements of botany * Martyn, Thimas; Nodder, Frederick Polydore * sample image * 1817

Flora rustica: exhibiting ... figures of such plants as are either useful or injurious in husbandry V1 and V2 * Martyn, Thimas; Nodder, Frederick Polydore * sample image * 1791

Flora rustica: exhibiting ... figures of such plants as are either useful or injurious in husbandry V3 and V4 * Martyn, Thimas; Nodder, Frederick Polydore * sample image * 1791

Traité des arbres forestiers : ou histoire et description des arbre indigènes ou naturalisés… * Jaume Saint-Hilaire, Jean Henri * sample image * 1824

Botanique medicinal * Jaume Saint-Hilaire, Jean Henri * sample image * 1799

The anatomy of plants * Grew, Nehemiah * sample image * 1682

Recueil de plantes coloriees * Rousseau, Jean-Jacques * sample image * 1789

Plants of the coast of Coromandel Vol 1 * Roxburgh, William * sample image * 1795

Plants of the coast of Coromandel Vol 2 * Roxburgh, William * sample image * 1798

Plants of the coast of Coromandel Vol 3 * Roxburgh, William * sample image * 1819

Plantarum Brasiliae icones et descriptiones hactenus ineditae * Pohl, Johann Emnuel * sample image * 1827

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 1 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1815

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 2 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1817

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 3 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1818

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 4 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1818

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 5 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1821

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 6 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1823

Nova genera et species plantarum t. 7 * Bonpland, Aime * sample image * 1825

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 27, 2020

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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.

Iridescence - from archaeological glass to Art Nouveau – A little history of iridescent glass…how the effect is produced.

Photographer Captures Beauty of Starling Murmurations Across Europe – Awesome coordination of birds in flight. The starlings are not numerous enough in the US to create murmurations like this….but we did see flocks of tree swallows wintering in Florida that did.

New study reveals United States a top source of plastic pollution in coastal environments -- ScienceDaily and Plastic pollution is everywhere. Study reveals how it travels -- ScienceDaily – Plastic everywhere. We need to find a way to stop the waste.

Top 25 birds of the week: Plumage! - Wild Bird Revolution – Shots of color (I appreciated them more because it is a very cloudy day as I write this).

Into The Badlands Of El Morro and El Malpais National Monuments – Two places in New Mexico that I’ve visited several times…appreciated the pictures…reminder of how special these places are.

Which particulate air pollution poses the greatest health risk? -- ScienceDaily – Evidently the oxidative potential of particulate matter is key….wood combustion and metal emissions from brake and tire wear have higher oxidative potential, for example.

How to cut carbon out of your heating - BBC Future – A comparison of different types of heating…and other elements of carbon production related to heating where we live.

Wind & Solar Are Cheaper Than Everything, Lazard Reports – Great trend….now the market forces should push harder toward cleaner electrical generation.

The strange and surprising ways wild animals prepare for winter – The story starts out with bears but quickly moves on to animals not as well known for their winter preparations: moles, honey ants, chickadees, and snakes.

These Four-Foot Lizards Will Eat Anything—and They're Invading the Southeastern U.S. | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The tegus, native to South America, and brought to the US as pets. They have roamed wild in southern Florida for a decade…and now are spotted around the southeastern US. It loves to eat eggs and thus is a threat to native species like quail, turkeys, alligators, and tortoises. The race is on to try to stop the invasion of this reptile.

Crane Fiesta

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We thoroughly enjoyed the virtual Crane Fiesta run by the Friends of Bosque del Apache. Checkout their website (bottom of the home page for a collection of short videos). The Facebook page of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge has the morning fly out and even fly in recordings from during the festival.

I went back to look at my pictures from November 2016 and November 2018 when we enjoyed the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque. One of my favorite pictures is one I took the very first day in 2016; it shows that when the angle is just right – it is possible to see through the nares of the crane beak. It was a learning experience for me!

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Here’s a slideshow with a few other 2016 pictures from around the refuge.

In 2018, I did some rapid bursts of pictures to capture sequences of crane take off. I picked individual pictures from several of those to include in the slideshow below. It was colder than in 2016 but we were better prepared – snow pants, hand and foot warmers, balaclavas…layers. On one of the mornings, we watched the cranes stepping very carefully on ice.

I already looking forward to the next time we can be at Bosque del Apache during the festival week…. maybe in 2021.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 21, 2020

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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.

Photography In The National Parks: The Redwood Forests Are Made For Vertical Shots – Botany (redwoods), photography (including two short videos), natural places…a great way to start the day or boost my mood any time.

Tarantulas: Color, Cancer and Cramps – I remember a tarantula on the sliding glass door of our house in Wichita Falls, TX when I was in my early teens…at eye level. Fortunately, it was on the outside and I was inside. It was about the side of the palm of my hand. This article talks about research on tarantulas; they are probably more interesting than scary!

The cheap pen that changed writing forever - BBC Future – A little history for the week. The ballpoint pen was unveiled on October 29, 1945 in the US. However – the first patent for a ballpoint pen was back in 1888. Laszlo Biro developed a practical ball point pen by perfecting the ink (different than ink used in fountain pens) and got a patent in 1938 in Britain but World War II came along, and he fled to Argentina. His pen was released in Argentina in 1943, but the pen was little-known outside of South America. Find out more from the article.

Biophilic Cities For An Urban Century – During the pandemic, I have appreciated where I live for its proximity to nature; I live at the edge of a forest and the 30 year old development has larger trees in the yards too. Turning our cities from gray to green would be different but there are reasons to make the choice to do it. The authors consider urban economics, environmental health, and ecology…and propose that going forward that we should actively design for biophilic cities. If cities were more like the first picture in this article (and all those cars below were electric) – they would be much more pleasant places to live!

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild Birds! – Can’t resist….I always enjoy the collection of bird photos every week…so include it in the gleanings list.

Slideshow: How Ecologists Study the World’s Apex Predators – Projects from around the world studying the impact of predators…using a variety of techniques.

New solar panel design could lead to wider use of renewable energy: Designing solar panels in checkerboard lines increases their ability to absorb light by 125%, a new study says -- ScienceDaily and Solar Panels + Agriculture: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – Two articles about solar panels….we’ve seen more of them in the past few years…there are a lot of indicators that it’s only the beginning of the upward trend gaining momentum.

The Craters on Earth – They mapped 200 sites – high resolution topographic maps and satellite images…geological descriptions and photographs…details of each impact event. I followed the links and found that publication is available for pre-order here; the page provides the table of contents and additional sample images.

How Cowbirds raise their young, without raising their young – We had a group of cowbirds at our feeder one day this week. They seemed to be moving through rather than staying. There were some last spring as well, but I didn’t notice any cowbird chicks coming to the feeder like I have in previous years.

Plastic-eating enzyme 'cocktail' heralds new hope for plastic waste -- ScienceDaily – It appears that we are getting closer to a cost effective was to endlessly recycle plastic – which would dramatically reduce the need to produce plastic from fossil fuels. It’s also a good example of the benefit of collaborative research – international…multiple specialties…sophisticated (and rare) equipment.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Bosque del Apache Sandhill Cranes. We are enjoying the Bosque del Apache Crane Fiesta. It started out with a live video of the morning fly-out of the cranes. The recording is now available on the Facebook page of the refuge….remember to turn on your speakers to listen to the birds and enjoy the sunrise (it starts out before sunrise and runs for more than an hour)!

We’ve been to the area twice in November for the Festival of the Cranes and we always enjoy photographing the cranes (and snow geese) each morning. I simulated it by taking screen snaps as I watched the live video. Enjoy my little slideshow…but watch the video from the refuge’s Facebook to get the full effect!

Lincoln Memorial

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Internet Archive has the June 1923 volume of The Architectural Record – which has pictures of the Lincoln Memorial when it was relatively new, since it opened on May 30th, 1922. Note the small size of vegetation and open area around the monument. The area has changed in almost 100 years! Enjoy the pictures! (Note: In the first group of pictures, click on individual photos to see larger versions…the last one is the wall with the Gettysburg address.)

Jumping to 2020 - The Trust for the National Mall site has a live view of the monument from the top of the Washington Monument…looking down to the World War II Memorial and the reflecting pool toward the Lincoln Memorial and the Potomac / Tidal Basic. The area is a mix of vegetation, water, and monuments…with traffic of Washington DC on all sides. The area is an oasis from dense buildings but still embedded in the city. In the springtime, the cherry trees bloom in the area.

My husband and I are looking forward to being able to see the monuments again – post-pandemic. These pictures from 1923 are so detailed….I want to spend time photographing the monument again….and the other monuments that are nearby – Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Vietnam Vets, Korean Vets, and the Washington monument.

Neighborhood Pond – November 2020 – part 1

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I walked down to the neighborhood stormwater pond recently. There were still a few leaves that had not been swept away by the wind (or mowing or raking). I walked through drifts of leaves in the street gutter and sidewalks…crunching.

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I was early enough that the light was good for reflections on the pond. There was no breeze, so the water was a good mirror.

There was a red-winged blackbird in the cattails. It moved around a bit….called to others that had moved to nearby trees as I had walked up to the pond. I sat on the bench for a few minutes, but the other birds stayed away from the immediate pond vegetation.

The sun sometimes made a spotlight on the vegetation…bringing out the nuances of fading fall colors.

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The meadow on the far side of the pond has not been mowed and looks like it is being taken over by invasive pear trees. They’ll probably mow it again in the spring.

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All the flowers around the pond have gone to seed.

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As I started back, I noticed a tree with 3 squirrels’ nests! There were other similarly sized trees near it…but somehow the squirrels found this one more attractive.

A dogwood still held its colorful leaves. The native dogwoods usually have leaves that turn early and drop; this one is probably a non-native and I didn’t notice any seeds.

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Most of the oaks in the neighborhood have lost their leaves completely. Maybe they have just reached the age that they don’t hold their leaves longer. Ours was one of the early droppers this year.

I checked the micro-clover that we planted in some bare spots a few months ago. It is still growing very well everywhere we planted it. Hopefully, it will help the soil improve so we won’t have any bare places next spring.

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Tomorrow I will post about the high point of the walk to and from the pond.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Crane Fiesta 2020. The virtual version of Festival of the Cranes from Bosque del Apache is called Crane Fiesta and is happening November 19-21. It is being delivered as cost-free webinars….but registration is required. The link to register is https://friendsofbosquedelapache.org/festival-of-the-cranes/.  My husband and I are looking forward to the three days of virtual birding….the next best thing to being there (and looking forward to going back to New Mexico in November2021)!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 14, 2020

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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.

Mapping out rest stops for migrating birds: New metric can help determine when birds fly over a site or stop to refuel or rest -- ScienceDaily – Stopover-to-passage ratio during migration research involves analysis of weather radar data collected since the 1990s…teasing out bird movement from precipitation! Results so far have included some surprises (and there are probably more to come as more of the historical data is processed and the processing becomes more and more sophisticated).

This Crocodile Dad Gives Over 100 of His Kids a Lift – A large species (gharial) with a narrow snout…in India.

Top 25 birds of the week: November 2020 – Birds from around the world….so much beauty in the natural world to see…and try to protect.

Top Solar States Per Capita 2012 vs. 2020 — CleanTechnica Report and US Energy Dept. Aims For Affordable Solar Power – Two posts about solar power. The first article shows the growth since 2012. In states where there wasn’t much growth, I wondered if the utilities in the state or the state government posed barriers to solar power. It seems like the whole country  should be in the mode of getting out of the way or encouraging renewal energy. The second article was about community solar programs from DOE with a mission to ‘bring affordable solar power to every household in the US by 2025’ – a worthy goal but is there enough money in the pipe to do it? This is not a technical problem as much as ‘are we ready to just do it.’

Lullabies in any language relax babies -- ScienceDaily and Baby Bottles Can Shed Millions of Microplastic Particles: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - I’ve been thinking recently about how much things have changed since my daughter was a baby over 30 years ago. I had a lullaby tape (in English) that I played for her in the evenings (although when she got old enough to choose – she wanted soundtracks from Disney movies as often as the lullabies). Now – we’d have digital music playing (rathe than cassette tapes) and maybe there would be lullabies in different languages too. The second article is about some worrisome research and I hope that pediatricians are keeping up and advising parents on best approaches.

When Domestic Birds Go Wild – Chickens, turkeys, ducks, swans, guinea fowl, peacocks, ornamental pheasants, doves and pigeons, emus, and parrots.

Picturing Earth: Astronaut Photography In Focus – A video – just under 70 minutes….with good imagery and discussion.

The return of Europe’s largest beasts - BBC Future – Bison, wolves, and elk…will the agricultural sector of Europe learn to cope with the big herbivores…and a predator?

As Waters Warm, Ocean Heatwaves Are Growing More Severe - Yale E360 – It’s easier for us to notice the heatwaves on land…but the ocean is taking the bulk of the increased heat on the planet and research on marine heatwaves is just beginning. The precise definition of the phenomenon was only proposed in 2016.  

See the World in Detail Thanks to the Close Up Photographer of the Year – Ending the gleanings list this week with some eye candy….enjoy the visual treat.

9th Anniversary for my Blog

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I started my blog on November 11th, 2011.

The very first post was about making Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins. Maybe I’ll make the recipe again this year. Brookside Gardens and Longwood Gardens had wonderful displays for fall gourds and squashes that year. I was doing some photography then, but a good portion of the blog posts weren’t illustrated. Now the majority of posts have a illustrations and sometimes the topic is the illustrations themselves.

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Travel has continued to be a blog topic all along…which has made this year different from all the preceding ones; it’s been a year dominated by being ‘at home.’ The most frequent destinations in previous years were where my family lives – the Dallas, TX area for my sisters and parents….and then a sequence of places for my daughter: Tucson, AZ for grad school, Pittsburgh and State College, PA for post doc, and Springfield, MO for faculty position. During some of the years I travelled with my sister…to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Rhode Island. My husband and I discovered Birding Festivals as a travel focus beginning in 2016 with Bosque Del Apache’s Festival of the Cranes. As soon as the pandemic wanes (probably with the wide availability of a vaccine), we’ll be traveling again and the blog will pick up that thread again.

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Books have also been a blog topic all along. The trend has been toward eBooks which are now about all I read. The botanical eBooks list has grown to over 2,000 volumes at this point and is still growing! I’ve become more interested in images of all kinds – photographs, paintings, etching, sketches – and I appreciate viewing them online rather than in a museum or physical book; I like to take my time, sometimes enlarge a particular portion of the image, view them on just about any device and almost anywhere!

I have made pattern-like doodles for as long as I can remember, and they have been part of the blog posts for most of the 9 years. Now they follow the Zentangle tile process – most of the time. I’ve diverged in several ways and that will change over time. At present I am making tiles in black ink with the idea of coloring them….adding white highlights as the last step. I am not using a pencil at all (for strings or for shading).

Gleanings have also been in the blog for most of the 9 years. My feeds have changed slightly but are still skewed toward science related topics. One trend I noticed is that the solutions to address climate change have matured over the past 9 years. There are a lot of effective technologies available to choose from (see Project Drawdown) – which add some hope to an otherwise dystopian future for the Earth and humanity.

My outdoor volunteering ramped up over the 9 years and I enjoyed writing about it…then that aspect of life came crashing down with the pandemic. I am hopeful about it starting again sometime in 2021. Giving back to the community, interacting with schools on field trips and people visiting Brookside’s butterfly exhibit is a joy I’ve missed in 2020.

I’ve been in my same home office for the entire 9 years and the view through the window is always fabulous – out to the bird feeder/bath on our deck and back into the forest. The view is inspiring and pictures I take through the window often make it into blog posts. Probably my favorite sequence is of bluebirds bathing from back in February 2018. I collected a sequence of ‘through the window’ pictures from 2012 through 2019 for the slideshow below. The feeder was added in 2015 which was a big attraction for November birds. I also noticed that the zoom on my cameras improved over the time period!

The very first post about little celebrations was back in August 2012 and then I started the listing of 10 each month in September 2012. Noting the joys of life is one of the ways I keep myself optimistic…which I’ve needed more than usual in 2020. Stream through the ‘celebration’ posts via this link.

The blog continues on….documenting my post-career journey. These pandemic and political upheaval months of 2020 have probably been the most unusual – and anxious - of my life; I am looking forward to the new year and documenting the events that unfold – finding celebrations.

Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge

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E. A. Wallis Budge worked for the British Museum from 1883 to 1924 and published many books about Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities…many of which are now available online via Internet Archive. I’ve enjoyed browsing through them over the past month or so and have selected some of my favorites to feature with sample images below. I’m always a little surprised at how much was already discovered by the late 1800s/early 1900s….and that there are still new finds in the region every year (when the frequent wars/political upheaval don’t get in the way). Of course – our understanding of these artifacts has increased over time; it’s wise to keep in mind when the books were written/published.  Each book title is a link to the book on Internet Archive. Enjoy

Books on Egypt and Chaldaea

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Gleanings of the Week Ending November 7, 2020

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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.

Taking the measure of sea level rise - ocean altimetry, land motion, ice height, gravimetry – NASA missions that measure some aspect of sea level rise…there is a lot to work to measure and analyze – to better understand that is happening.

Health Care Facilities Maintain Indoor Air Quality Through Smoke and Wildfires | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit – Some of the HEPA filters purchased for the pandemic were available and were used to keep hospitals operational in areas where the outside air was smokey. Are we going to need this type of filters in our homes as well – for air quality more than the pandemic?

Top 25 birds of the week: Seabirds – Beautiful birds…from all around the world.

From Palmyra to the Pacific: Realigning a Rainforest – Cool Green Science – An atoll 1000 miles southeast of Hawaii…marred by human intervention…now owned by The Nature Conservancy…inspiring the creation of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in 2008. Restoration is ongoing to maximize Palmyra’s resilience to climate change: eradicating black rats, realigning native rainforest (not restoring because what was there originally is unknown), and reintroducing native bird species.

Red maples doing better in the city -- ScienceDaily – Hurray for red maples. The study was done in Philadelphia which is a couple of hours from where I live….and I have a health red maple in my back yard!

Deformed Beaks: What We Know About An Alarming Bird Disease  - Avian Keratin Disorder (AKD) which might be caused by a poecivirus. The birds in the article are from Alaska but some are species we have hear in Maryland too. Hopefully, this is not a disease that will become widespread.

Top US States for Percentage of Electricity from Solar – Even states that aren’t normally viewed as ‘high sun’ are near the top of the list! This chart will probably change a lot over the next few years as more and more utility companies and individuals transition to renewables. Government can help but it is quickly becoming the more cost-effective path forward…market forces will drive the transition.

Scientists Discover New Human Salivary Glands | The Scientist Magazine® - Tubarial glands…what a surprise that they haven’t been discovered previously!

Floating gardens: More than just a pretty place -- ScienceDaily – It is a small experiment…but there was measurable nitrate reduction by the garden….maybe it is something that could be scaled to reduce accumulation of nitrate (from agricultural and yard runoff) that causes algal blooms.

Largest Arctic Expedition Ever Comes to a Close | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The Polarstern, a German research vessel, is back in port after spending a year drifting with the ice floe across the Arctic. It will take 2 years to fully process all the data collected but the initial assessment of the Arctic environment is summarized as grim: ice gone in places it should be meters thick.

eBotanical Prints – October 2020

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20 new items added to the collection in October and, like September, they are all volumes of Annals of Botany. The Biodiversity Heritage Library has the volumes fully available from 1888 (when the publication started) until 1923; the access page has a pull down to select the volume of interest. I finished the series in October and am thrilled to be looking at some very different individual works already in November. By the end of the series, it seemed like I needed to just slog through to the last one. The images in the Annals were for research and I found myself looking at them more as starting points for Zentangle pattern development than as botanical prints.

The whole list of 2002 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 20 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

Annals of Botany V20 (1906) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1906

Annals of Botany V21 (1907) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1907

Annals of Botany V22 (1908) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1908

Annals of Botany V23 (1909) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1909

Annals of Botany V24 (1910) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1910

Annals of Botany V25 pt1 (1911) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1911

Annals of Botany V25 pt2 (1911) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1911

Annals of Botany V26 pt1 (1912) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1912

Annals of Botany V26 pt2 (1912) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1912

Annals of Botany V27 (1913) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1913

Annals of Botany V28 (1914) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1914

Annals of Botany V29 (1915) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1915

Annals of Botany V30 (1916) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1916

Annals of Botany V31 (1917) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1916

Annals of Botany V32 (1918) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1918

Annals of Botany V33 (1919) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1919

Annals of Botany V34 (1920) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1920

Annals of Botany V35 (1921) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1921

Annals of Botany V36 (1922) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1922

Annals of Botany V37 (1923) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1923

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 31, 2020

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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.

What’s That Cloud? Your Guide to Cloudspotting – A little tutorial. Maybe a prompt to do some cloud photography too.

This white paint keeps surfaces cooler than surroundings, even under direct sunlight -- ScienceDaily – I remember being at White Sands National Park on a hot day and walking on the sand barefoot (i.e. the sand was not hot!). Hopefully the architectural norms will begin to shift toward white roofs and then durable paints/shingles will be readily available to make it affordable. The heat islands of cities would be reduced…which could be helpful now and an increasing benefit as climate change continues.

Google Maps Gets More Electric-Car Friendly – Android Auto (not the phone app) adding features.

Top 25 birds of the week: Land-birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy bird images!

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touches asteroid -- ScienceDaily – We went down to Florida for the launch back in 2016 so I try to at least scan articles with updates. The sample is now safely stored away and will be heading back to Earth…arriving in 2023.

Why older people are harder to vaccinate - BBC Future – What vaccines can do…what they might not do. For example – did you know that the flu vaccine reduces disease but does not do much to reduce transmission because a vaccinated person can still shed virus particles?

Black Witch Moths: A Night-Time Trick or Treat – Because it’s Halloween….it will be a very quiet one this year with the regular form of trick-or-treating called off in our area.

The rats evicted from paradise - BBC Future – A positive result for humans correcting a problem we caused….only able to succeed because of the resilience of nature (and because we corrected before it was too late for recovery).

Flowers Are Changing Color in Response to Climate Change | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Adjusting UV pigmentation to protect themselves (rising temperatures/thinning ozone)…maybe confusing pollinators.

Nature Nerd Trivia: Wild Canids – Dog relatives from around the world.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Firsts for the season at our deck. We saw our first Dark-eye Junco for the season. A small flock has spent the winter in our area – frequently visiting our feeder – for many years. We think they go to the Appalachians/Alleghenies for the rest of the year rather than the far north.

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I finally managed to get a picture of a Red-breasted Nuthatch enjoying the seed spilled under our feeder. There were other times recently that I thought I saw one but was never fast enough with my camera.

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Hawai’i Island Festival of Birds Swag pack arrived. It took more than 10 days for the small envelope to get from Hawai’i to Maryland. I don’t know for sure how long it took because there was no postmark. I will use the field notebook (upper left, a nice fit for one of my photo vest pockets) and the magnet (lower right) is already on our refrigerator to remind us of the virtual festival…and we’ll sign up to go to the festival when it is held ‘in person’!

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Marguerite Henry

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I was browsing through children’s books available on Internet Archive and encountered a familiar name: Marguerite Henry. My family discover her Misty of Chincoteague book back in the 1990s when my daughter was at the perfect age to enjoy the story; during one of our visits to Chincoteague, we purchased a set that included the book and some of the sequels. One that I had not seen before was A Pictorial Life Story of Misty. It can be borrowed for an hour from Internet Archive…and since it is mostly pictures…that’s plenty of time to browse through it.

The author wrote a lot of other books and quite of few of them are available on Internet Archive – mostly for an hour checkout and, if there is another copy available, it will show as available for a 14 day checkout after it has been initially checked out for an hour.

One of my favorites of these ‘other’ books was Brighty of the Grand Canyon.

I also enjoyed Auno and Tauno – a Story of Finland – which was one that was available without checking out. The illustrator was Gladys Rourke Blackwood who, according to Wikipedia, illustrated some other Henry books.

The stories are dated at this point…but I enjoy the historical perspective – directly from the book and thinking about children enjoying the books when they were written and for 20+ years after. Misty of Chincoteague was published in 1947 – and my daughter and I were enjoying it in the 1990s and I assume the book is still stocked in books stores around Chincoteague! It has remained ‘current’ because the Pony Penning depicted in the book still happens annually.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

A wet day. There was a lot of rain from Zeta in Maryland on Thursday. There were flood warnings from 11:30 AM to 5:30 PM; we didn’t get out and our neighborhood had no flooding, so it didn’t impact us directly. And the wind was not bad either. We still have a few leaves on our trees.

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2020

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When I wrote the blog post about October 1990, I realized what a happy month it had been and now looking back at October 2020 and the things I recorded as little celebrations…the same is true. Maybe October is always my favorite month of the fall….lots of things that make me happy in this transition time of the year.

The celebrations that are could happen in any October:

The grand finale of the CSA season. The abundance of the last weeks of veggies from the farm….I have a freezer full to enjoy well into November…plenty of winter squash puree to make Thanksgiving dessert and breads and soups (maybe not all for the same meal). It happens every year….the celebration of the bounty.

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Conwingo outing. We didn’t know about the bald eagles congregating at Conowingo dam 30 years ago, but now that we do…there is almost always a trek to the place every October. Even if it isn’t a great day for lots of eagles (which it wasn’t this year)…we celebrate the field trip. This year it was appreciated even more because field trips have been such a rarity for us this year.



Fall leaves. Yes – cleaning up the leaves and acorns is a fall chore…but it also is a joy: the colors, the textures, the breeze made visible by leaves wafting from the treetops. The trees in our yard and in the forest behind our house fill our views; I’m realizing that I am celebrating the extra time I’ve had this year to observe them. Home has become more special during this pandemic year.

Wild turkey in our back yard. I missed it – but my husband saw it. He said there may have been more than one, but he only saw one clearly. We’d heard that there were wild turkeys in the forest but had never seen any until a few day ago. I am celebrating that they really exist…and hoping they return so I can see them too.

Flowers still available in the cutting garden. I thought the cutting garden might fade before the CSA ended…but it didn’t. I love having cut flowers in my office and on the island in the kitchen. Seeing them is an automatic mood brightener. Now I am beginning to realize that the strawflowers will last long into the winter – dried and arranged on a blue glass plate they remind me of water lily flowers.

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Letting go of more stuff. Cleaning out stuff that has collected in over 25 years we’ve lived in our house is tough. But I managed a big pile that I donated (picked up from our front porch) and am working on another. It feels good to clean out the house…particularly if it is something others could use.

And then there are the celebrations that are unique to 2020:

Cape May Fall Festival (virtual). I celebrated the whole festival of videos but particularly the roving reporters at the morning flight of songbirds. It would be wonderful be there some future year to see it in the field.

Hawai’i Festival of Birds (virtual). When I first discovered that the festival was going virtual, I thought it was a great opportunity because I probably would not make the trek to the Big Island again….but now I’m wavering…leaning toward making the trek for the festival and to see how things have changed since we were there in 2015. Maybe next year…or the year after. It’s an opportunity to celebrate an environment very different than the one where we live.

Telephone conversations with family. I normally take telephone conversations for granted…they happen often enough. During this pandemic year when I am not traveling to visit with my family, phone conversations have increased in importance….worthy of celebration.

Voting. In years past, we voted but it wasn’t something that made it to my little celebrations list and we usually did it on election day. This year we requested a mail-in ballot and returned it to a drop box….and checked the online site to track that it was received and accepted/counted. Voting is a celebration this year because of the challenges the country is facing on many levels….and a heightened awareness on our part of how much it matters.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Old monitor heading off to a new home. I’ve had my old monitor mostly idle for the past year – since I got a new one – and finally found a way to give it a new home. There was an article in the Baltimore Sun about a teacher in our area trying to find monitors for teachers that need a second monitor as they forge ahead teaching virtually. I sent an email letting them know I had one to donate and someone came to pick it up! I’m thrilled to let it go!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 23, 2020

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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.

Painless paper patch test for glucose levels uses microneedles -- ScienceDaily – A technology (microneedles) looking for a problem to solve (prediabetic testing). So far - it’s just a lab exercise but they were readying for human trials. They didn’t explain why it was focused on pre-diabetic testing and not for diabetics.

Top 25 birds of the week: Non-migratory – Beautiful birds…always a visual treat.

These are some of America’s most beautiful urban parks – The one in Greenville, SC looked very non-urban!

Food mechanics recipe to serve up healthy food that lasts -- ScienceDaily – Basic research in plant-tissue response to heat and drought…preserving food through drying.

Doing Something About Global Warming Is Cheaper Than Doing Nothing – I selected a series of gleaning for this week that are focused on various aspects of climate change – with a mix of perspectives. This is the first one. For the pure capitalists…this one makes the argument for action in their terms. This first article came out back in September…so it is a little dated…but still makes some good points.

The daring plan to save the Arctic ice with glass - BBC Future – Do we want to consider Geoengineering?

40% of O'ahu, Hawai'i beaches could be lost by mid-century -- ScienceDaily – Sea level rise…and our response to it.

6 Graphics Explain The Climate Feedback Loop Fueling US Fires – Some good graphics about the fires on the west coast of the US. In recent days, fires in Colorado have been added to the news. At a time when forests sequestration of carbon is important for the health of the planet….the fires are reversing that benefit.

Natural Debate: Do Forests Grow Better With Our Help or Without? - Yale E360 – Hurray for natural regeneration – unless the land is too degraded for that to be possible…then our help is needed.

The Best Places for Solar Power If You Want to Clean The US Grid – Where investing in solar power would do the most toward reducing grid emissions…by state.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

A busy morning. The only extra activity I’d planned yesterday morning was to get my car washed since the dirt road into the CSA is history for the year. The car is cleaner (at least on the outside) than it has been for months! The weather was so great when I got back that I swept the leaves from the driveway, street gutter, and deck onto the yard so that the mower would mulch them when my husband mowed later in the day. When I got back inside – I noticed my husband had called from the vet parking lot saying his battery was too low to start his car (and the vet had resolved the cat’s bleeding claw issue)….so I was off to help that car situation. We managed to get home just in time to cook lunch. The level of activity was greater than any recent morning (months and months of mornings!) …and I felt a little discombobulated! I’ve begun to enjoy the pace of pandemic life!

Browsing Old Architectural Record Volumes

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Browsing through The Architectural Record volumes from the late 1800s and early 1900s available on Internet Archive, there are some articles that capture my attention – for example, two articles about Frank Lloyd Wright. The first one is in the volume for 1908 which features the Dana House (along with other houses and a building). The architecture still looks ‘modern.’ For some info about the Dana House today: Frank Lloyd Wright Trust and Dana Thomas House Foundation.

The second article was in the January-July 1913 volume – about Wright’s studio-home in Wisconsin. Enjoy the slideshow of the exterior of the place. For info about the place today see the Taliesin page on the Wright in Wisconsin page.

Another series of pictures I noticed were exterior pictures of the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina (starting at page 154) in the 1895-1896 volume as introductory picture series to the article “The works of the late Richard M. Hunt” – the architect of the house. The landscape was ‘new’ around the house when the pictures were taken. For information about Biltmore today, see Biltmore Estate website and the Wikipedia page.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Going for groceries in the foggy dark. It’s that time of year – at 6:15 AM it is dark. Add the fog and the short drive would have been disorienting if the route were unfamiliar. I was worried about not seeing a deer at the edge or in the road before it was too late – fortunately, I made it to the grocery store without incident. I have skewed my grocery shopping time an hour earlier during the pandemic…so I am going to be ‘in the dark’ starting out for groceries for months. It was lighter on the way home, but the fog was still around.

Ballot ‘accepted.’ I checked the website for the status of the ballot I put in the drop box on Oct. 5th and it shows that it is ‘accepted’ – which means that it’s been counted! It’s great to get confirmation that I voted successfully.

Haircut. My last haircut was in January, so it was long overdue. There were a few people allowed into the shop (no waiting area and appointments only), the doors were open (outdoor temperature was pleasant), and everyone wore masks. I chose not to get a shampoo, so my hair was just sprayed to wet it…and then it was cut. My husband got his haircut at the same time. We were done in about 20 minutes. My husband gave a tip that doubled the cost of our haircuts…reasoning that the workers are still trying to bounce back from the shop being closed for 3 months.

Images of Bridges – October 2020

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I gleaned paintings/photographs of bridges from the slideshow collections I enjoyed from Internet Archive back in June….as a themed perspective into 8 artists. Clicking on the artists name will access the slideshow on Internet Archive (i.e. more than just bridges!).

The artists were capturing moments of the world in which they lived. Bridges are part of the architecture they observed. The materials were varied – stone, steel, concrete, wood – depending on the time, place, and function of the bridge. I noticed that the bridges were either empty or painted with people (except for one that includes cattle and a man riding a horse). In one a person is walking in the rocky creek under the bridge.

Enjoy the color and beauty of these bridges!

Gustave Caillebotte (1848 - 1894)

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