Road Trip Home

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The closet in the guest room of my daughter’s house in Springfield MO was the best….but after being away from Maryland for more than 6 weeks (in Texas and Missouri), I was very ready to head for home. It was a rainy morning as I started out at 7 AM. I stopped as I was backing out and rolled down the window to take a picture of the rosebush by the driveway.

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I’d selected a different route than my previous road trips between Missouri and Maryland with the beginning and end segments the same as before: Springfield MO to St. Louis MO via I44 (the same), St. Louis to Charleston, WV via I64, Charleston WV to Morgantown WV via I79, Morgantown WV to Hancock MD via I68 and the I70 for the rest of the way home (the same). I made a stop for the night in Lexington KY which was slightly more than halfway.

My first stop was to buy gas about 1.5 hours into the drive. It was a rest stop as well and I bought a Stuckey’s pecan roll remembering that I always wanted to try one as a child and not remembering if my parents ever bought one for me. It was way too sweet, but I managed to eat half that first morning and the rest on the second morning of the road trip. The rest of the stops that day were at interstate rest stops – which I prefer – except the last one for buying gas so that would have a full tank for the next day. I also picked up a chicken teriyaki bowl from Subway for my dinner at the hotel. The drive was easy – no accidents and the few places the road was under construction did not slow be down much; I made it to the hotel within half an hour of the prediction my car’s nav system had made when I first put in the destination.

The second day was an even better road trip day. I got off an hour earlier…just as it was getting light. The highway was in good condition all the way and very scenic (Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland). The traffic was light (not many trucks) and I enjoyed the curving roads through the Appalachians and Alleghenies. The rest stops were less than an hour apart and I stopped at most of them; I only needed one stop for gas – shortly before I got into Maryland. I was in Maryland by noon and home by 3 PM.

This route will be my first choice from now on; I’ll be retracing it in July when I head back to Missouri and then Texas. I will probably choose a different hotel…one that is easier on/off and not at so close to the center of Lexington. Otherwise, I’ll do everything else about the same: use the interstate rest stops when I don’t need gasoline, eat food I already have the car during the trip as much as possible, wear a mask when there are a lot of people around.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 5, 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.

Infographic: Animals of Different Species Hybridize | The Scientist Magazine® - Hybrids that fill a new environmental niche.

Britain’s Medieval Population Suffered From Cancer - Archaeology Magazine and Cancer rates in medieval Britain were around ten times higher than previously thought, study suggests | University of Cambridge – The same story from two sources. Cancer rates prior to the modern tumor-inducing chemicals from industry and tobacco were higher than previously thought.

Cities Have Distinct Microbial Signatures: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - Samples collected between 2015 and 2017 in transit stations in major cities. More than 4,000 known species…and 14,000 species that had DNA sequences not found in any database!

Top 25 birds of the week: Resident Birds! - Wild Bird Revolution and Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Biodiversity! - Wild Bird Revolution – So many bird pictures! I’m doing a little catching up this week.

The Blooming Mid-Atlantic – Near where I live…places I have been for vacation/birding.

Photography In The National Parks: Seeing The Forest For The Trees – A little lesson in photographing forests and trees and leaves from Rebecca Lawson

Greenland glacial meltwaters rich in mercury -- ScienceDaily – The study looked at nutrients in glacier melt…not expecting to find the high level of mercury. Now there are lots of questions about the potential impact on fishing – Greenland’s primary industry.

The nature reserve with a 500-year plan - BBC Future – Zealandia, an ecosanctuary in Wellington, New Zealand enclosed by a 5.3-mile predatory exclusion fence.

Arizona’s Meteor Crater – Another place I’ve visited… as seen by an instrument on Landsat 8.

Cicadas Fall Prey to a Psychedelic-Producing Fungus That Makes Their Butts Fall Off | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – I think I saw one with a white butt on my first walk around my yard!

eBotanical Prints – May 2021

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20 botanical print books browsed in May and added to the list. I am in the process of browsing the  Flora Brasiliensis volumes (started in April…continued in May…and will be  finished in June). I browse the volumes in Internet Archive but it is easier to find all the volumes in Botanicus…enabling me to find them all very easily.

Something unusual in this group: The V12 pt 3 volume included some pages with scanning anomalies…but I thought they looked very art-like. The sample image for the volume is a normal looking scan (in the mosaic of images for the month); that are three examples of pages with the scanning anomaly below.

The whole list of 2,147 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the May books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the May eBotanical Prints!

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V5, Pt2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V6, Pt1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V6, Pt2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V6, Pt3 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V6, Pt4 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V7 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V8, pt 1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V8, pt 2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V9 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V10 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V11, pt 1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V11, pt 2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V12, pt 1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V12, pt 2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V12, pt 3 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V13, pt 1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V13, pt 2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V13, pt 3 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V14, pt 1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V14, pt 2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Road Trip from Dallas to Springfield

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The car was mostly packed the night before; I got up and made mushroom and ham quiche for the family breakfast and left about 9:30 AM – hoping that the morning rush hour north of Dallas was over. The drive was estimated (by Google) to be about 7 hours but the day was misty and there was a chance of thunderstorms.

The rest stops along the way were much as I expected – fewer people wearing masks than when I drove from Maryland to Texas back in April. The rest stops were not crowded and were clean. All were quick and comfortable stops.

The same cannot be said for fast food places, truck stops and the travel plazas (turnpike). They were crowded and not as clean. And virtually no one was wearing a mask. Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri do not have high vaccination rates, so it was disconcerting.

I made the drive in 7.5 hours slowed a little by the wet weather and construction zones that required reduced speed. There were no accidents that slowed down traffic – fortunately. It was a bother to stop and pay tolls the old-fashioned way going through Oklahoma. I researched getting a toll tag and discovered that the Oklahoma system apparently does not integrate with any others. The ideal toll tag for me would be one that worked for Texas and Oklahoma toll roads (as long as it didn’t interfere with the tag I have that works along most of the east coast).

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 29, 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 COVID is changing the study of human behavior – Hopefully we are learning something beneficial in the long run from the pandemic….there are also some very depressing aspects of our society that the pandemic has highlighted (that are negative for at least the near term).

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Migration – I am missing the birds I see most during migration times in Maryland this year since I am in Texas.

Kestrel Cam: A Story from Egg to Falcon – Moving from the 25 pictures…to a detailed picture of a small falcon’s life beginning.

Climate change threatens one-third of global food production – We have lots of reasons to make changes…to stop mistreating our planet and let it recover. This is another one.

Saint Petersburg Keeps the Sea at Bay – A big project started in 1979 and operational in 2011…built to withstand a storm surge from the Baltic Sea of 5 meters.

Thirteenth-Century Angkor was home to more people modern Boston – I was surprised….recent studies have shown other ancient population centers were more populous that previously estimated too.

How cities will fossilize – From BBC Future. Thought provoking…using Shanghai Tower as an example to illustrate what could happen.

Flashy plants draw outsize share of scientists’ attention – ‘Aesthetic bias’ when it comes to choices for research (and probably extends beyond plants).

New Monarch butterfly breeding pattern inspires hope – Signs that the monarch butterflies in the western US might be adapting to changing climate. It’s good to see a little positive news about monarchs.

Egyptian Archaeologists Accidently Discovers 250 Ancient, Rock-Cut Tombs – Still new sites to study even in a country that has been intensively studied for many years. This time the tombs are not ‘royal’ – may provide more insight into how ordinary people lived in ancient Egypt.

Sir Arthur Evans eBooks on Internet Archive

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Arthur Evans was a long-lived British archeologist active in the late 1800s, early 1900s…and well known for his excavations on Crete. He documented his work in books with many illustrations – drawings and photographs; I enjoyed browsing volumes on Internet Archive recently.

The Palace of Minos (Volume 1 in 1921,  Volume 3 in 1930, Volume 4 in 1930) with Joan Evans (his sister). I was disappointed that the archive doesn’t seem to have all the volumes of this book. I liked the way the missing pieces of artifacts were depicted and the photograph of the statue from all perspectives rather than just the front.

Catalogue of Greek Vases in the Ashmolean Museum in 1893 with Percy Gardener. He was the ‘keeper’ of the museum for part of his career. The vases always give me ideas for Zentangle patterns.

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Cretan pictographs and prae-Phoenician script in 1906. They fit a lot on small pieces of stone!

The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos in 1906. Seeing patterns everywhere!

It is awesome to see that Evans managed to publish his finds with so many illustrations during his lifetime. Lots of research has happened since then…but these books are a wonderful baseline - worth browsing and sometimes taking a closer look at the drawings/pictures.

Carrollton TX Yard – Tree Trimming

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Surprise – I opened the blinds one morning and saw a tree branch hanging vertically on the other side of the glass! I went out the front door to get a different perspective of the broken branch….from the front sidewalk and then from the street.

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Fortunately, my parents have a company that has taken care of their trees for years…and the owner could come to assess the situation on the same day. My parents opted to have all their trees trimmed at the same time as the broken branch was removed since the crew could do it the next day and they would leave the larger pieces (cut into shorter lengths) for fireplace wood next winter.

It was a good thing it was lawn waste day for their area since there was a big pile of branches at the curb by mid- morning. A big truck with a claw came and picked up everything (the person at the controls looked like he really enjoyed his job!).

By the end of the day – there was another pile as big as the first (view from the house and then from the street). The whole front yard would have been covered by tree branches if the truck had not picked up the early branch pile.

The 2-person crew worked from 7:30 AM to about 2 PM…a job well done.

After they left, we assessed the piles of wood. Some of them went to the wood rack immediately. Some might be big enough to use as plant stands…adding a layers to a garden area.

Want to count some tree (branch) rings? Use the arrows to move among the three samples. It’s hard to count the ones in the center….but even without those, think about which one might be the oldest branch…which is the youngest?

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 22, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week -May 2021 – Starting out the gleanings list with bird photographs!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hempson Ditchfield on Internet Archive

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Peter Hempson Ditchfield was a prolific author and historian…and a Church of England priest. I browsed 17 of his books recently…all available on Internet Archive. There is a lot of variety. The illustrations are detailed….it required some discipline to choose just one from each book.

Sometimes illustrations are drawings of famous sites – like Stonehenge in Old village life; or, Glimpses of village life through all ages (1920).

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Some volumes are illustrated with photographs like in Oxfordshire (1912)….some skew toward the archaeology of a location like in Memorials of old London - V1 (1908) that included a detailed drawing of Roman sandals.

The second volume of Memorials of old London (1908) started out with a color illustration.

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Memorials of Old Kent (1907) was co-authored with George Clinch. The illustration I chose reflect the details in the architectural documentation. Vanishing England (1910) was the book I was browsing the day Prince Philip’s death was announced; it seemed a similar title could be used in 2021. The name of the illustrator shows on my sample illustration for the book; many of the illustrations in Ditchfield’s books are uncredited.

Ditchfield was second author on the two volumes to Memorials of old Lancashire (volume 1 and volume 2) in 1909 with Henry Dishwick.

The Cottages and the village life of rural England (1912) is the only book of the 17 that has an illustrator (A.R. Quinton) on the title page…and all the illustrations are in color.

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Bygone Berkshire (1896) and Byways in Berkshire and the Cotswolds (1921) were about published about the same locale 25 years apart!

Two volumes of The Counties of England, their story and antiquities (volume 1 and volume 2) were published in 1912, The Charm of the English Village was co-authored with Sydney Robert Jones in 1908, and English Villages was published in 1901. I chose a sample image that documented ornamental molding for the next to the last book in this group…a good reference (and ideas for Zentangle patterns).

The last Ditchfield book I browsed was The Manor Houses of England which was published in 1910 – the time between World War I when the world changed so much both from the war and from the 1918 flu epidemic. I liked the muted tints of the first illustration in the book.

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Ins and Outs of Walkers

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My mother has been using a walker off and on for several years…all the time for the past year or so. Over that time – she has used 3 different walkers and learned some lessons.

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The walker that is best for her now is this one.

Tennis balls. One of the most common mods made to walkers is adding tennis balls to the feet. On the one she has now they prolong the life of the rear push locks.

Fold down seat. The first walker she used was like the current one but didn’t have a seat. It worked about the same for walking. The seat adds a place for her to sit anywhere she needs too (the kitchen is a place she uses the seat a lot…or as a perch to cut a flower outdoors) and can be used as a platform to take things along with her – a basket of clothes to/from the laundry, the newspapers out to the recycle, etc.

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2 wheels are better than 4. She used a 4-wheel walker for a time. It rolls very easily and worked well when she only needed the walker occasionally and she was going on longer walks. I remember a 4th of July when the family made a short hike down to the neighborhood vantage point to see fireworks; she enjoyed them from her walker seat! She used it in the house until the past few months. It rolls too easily for her to manage now.

Move 2 wheels to the inside of the walker frame to minimize width – increase maneuverability. The walker she is using now came with the wheels on the outside of the walker as had the first one she used. We moved them to the inside so that going through narrow places (doorways, hallways) was a bit easier. It’s surprising the difference that little bit of reduced width can make!

Folded size. Since the walker goes with her everywhere – the folded size and the ease of getting it folded/unfolded is important. The seat on the walker she is using now folds up and the sides fold inward. It fits easily into all the family vehicles.

Overall – the walker she is using now is honed to her needs….and she is making the most of every aspect of it!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 15, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Camouflage – Birds that blend in….a photography challenge sometimes – finding the bird then zoom in enough to make the bird easy to spot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 Months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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I celebrated my vaccine becoming fully effective (2 weeks following my second shot of the Moderna vaccine) during the 14th month of the pandemic. It was a significant milestone. The big change was feeling safe enough to set off on a road trip to see my parents; I hadn’t seen them since the January before the pandemic was declared.

There are non-critical appointments that are being scheduled now – dentist, eye doctor, haircuts. My parents may be mostly caught up on those types of appointments before I go back to Maryland; I’ll start catching up for myself by June.

What a difference from May 2020 when the news was dire – hospitals overflowing in some areas of the country and many deaths were in senior living/nursing homes. We know a lot more about the virus now and there are effective vaccines. It surprises me that we may not reach herd immunity for COVID-19 because there are too many people that are reluctant to get the vaccine. I remember in the 1960s with the roll out of the polio vaccine…everyone going to the local school for the sugar cube. It made polio an extremely rare occurrence very quickly. It is frustrating and sad that there is a segment of US society in 2021 that is seems to be focused on their right to not get vaccinated rather than their health and the health of others.

Trying to end on a more positive note….

I have gone back to carrying a purse rather than carrying minimal essentials (car key, credit card, id) in a wrist band. The purse has room for my mask although I still tend to put my mask on in the car before I walk across the parking lot into the store. I like to not be in a rush to put the mask on or do it while I am walking.

It’s hard to know how crowded a park will be so I generally carry the mask with me….and put it on if there are too many people sharing the trails. I am conscious of probably wearing the mask more than the new CDC guidance. As it gets hotter, I’ll pay close attention to the guidance and be keen to take the mask off whenever I can!

Gleanings of the Week Ending Saturday May 8, 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.

Top 25 Birds of the Week: Seedeaters! – Starting out the gleanings list with bird photographs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

eBotanical Prints – April 2021

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20 botanical print books browsed in April and added to the list. There was a variety at the beginning then a series (Flora Brasiliensis) which I will continue browsing in May. I browse the volumes of Flora Braziliensis in Internet Archive but it is easier to find all the volumes in Botanicus.

There was quite an age range for the books in April too – 1786 to 1976…with the early 1900s dominating.

The whole list of 2,218 eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the April books is at the end of this post.

Click an any sample images below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the April eBotanical Prints!

The practical flower garden * Ely, Helena Rutherfurd * sample image * 1911

Hortus Nitidissimis * Trew, Christoph Jacob * sample image * 1786

How to know the wildflowers * Dana, Mrs. William Starr; Satterlee, Marion; Shaw, Elsie Louise * sample image * 1915

Genera filicum * Fee, Antoine Laurent Apollinaire * sample image * 1850

Iconographie des espèces nouvelles décrites ou énumérées dans le genera filicum et révision des publications antérieures relatives à la famille des fougères * Fee, Antoine Laurent Apollinaire * sample image * 1854

A Catskill flora and economic botany * Brooks, Karl L.  * sample image * 1979

Field guide to the aquatic plants of Lake George, New York * Ogden, Eugene Cecil * sample image * 1976

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V1, Pt1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V1, Pt2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V2, Pt1-2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V2, Pt3 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V3, Pt1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V3, Pt2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V3, Pt3 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V3, Pt4 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V3, Pt5 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V3, Pt6 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V4, Pt1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V4, Pt2 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum :quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas V5, Pt1 * Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Eichler, August Wilhelm; Urban, Ignatz * sample image * 1906

Filling time at the Hospital – Zentangle® Tiles

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One of the ways I filled the hours of inactivity at the hospital was making Zentangle tiles. Their creation was easily interrupted and then continued…..fitting around conversations with nurses and doctors and varying interactions with my mother as she improved. There was a feeling of accomplishment and optimism when a tile was finished.

Being creative in times of stress has always been a good coping mechanism for me. Making a Zentangle tile is a form of respite…a little art that makes it easier for my mind to be creative in other ways too…coming up with solutions to whatever happens in the next hours at the hospital.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 30, 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Browsing Natural History Magazines – March 2021

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

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

And I enjoyed the bird pictures by Basil Ede.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 24, 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.

Rising temperatures spark boom in Arctic lightning : Research Highlights – Lightning striking more than 10x as often as it did 10 years ago….the impact of climate change on the weather in the high north (particularly in Arctic Siberia).

This Bird Mimics an Entire Flock to Woo Females | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The male superb lyrebird of Australia…imitates a mobbing flock (alarm calls warning of a predator in the area) to keep the female from leaving!

Top 25 birds of the week: April 2021! – Bird photographs….I enjoy them but also want to get outdoors and see birds!

Eating processed meat could increase dementia risk, researchers say -- ScienceDaily – A study with a large cohort (500,000 people) in the UK.

Photographer Travels Asia Capturing Beautiful Repeating Patterns – I liked the photographs for the repeating patterns but also how they capture the people and places. The photos capture the cultural landscape.

Stalking The Carnivorous Plants Of Big Thicket National Preserve – I can remember first reading about carnivorous plants in elementary school. I still find them fascinating.

How birds defend against brood parasites – I’ve already seen a pair of cowbirds at my feeder this spring; fortunately, they must have been migrating because I haven’t seen them again.

The Butterfly of Spring: Meet the Mourning Cloak – I haven’t seen one this spring…although I have in other years. All the ones I’ve seen in early spring are more battered that the one in the first picture!

Vitamin A for Nerve Cells – Another reason to eat those orange fruits and veggies. My favorites are carrots and butternut squash!

Washington’s Famed Tidal Basin and Cherry Trees Face Rising Waters – Planning initiated for how the area and its cherry trees could survive the rising waters in the coming decades. Some trees have already been lost.

Frank Southgate's Illustrations in The Norfolk Broads

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Frank Southgate did 48 colored/29 uncolored illustrations for William Alfred Dutt’s book The Norfolk Broads published in 1906. It’s available on Internet Archive and I enjoyed browsing the illustrations – watery land and birds. I have selected 6 favorites for the slideshow below.

Frank Southgate lived in the area he illustrated most of his life according to Wikipedia. He was best known for his paintings of waterfowl and hunting scenes. He died relatively early (44 years old) while serving in the Army during World War I.  I found another book with his illustrations mentioned in the Wikipedia entry that is also available on Internet Archive - Notes of an east coast naturalist; a series of observations made at odd times during a period of twenty-five years in the neighborhood of Great Yarmouth by Arthur Henry Patterson; I’ve bookmarked it in my browser…the digital equivalent of adding it to a stack of ‘to read’ books!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 17, 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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Forests! – Photographs and birds….always a great start to the gleanings list for the week.

Regulators Ban Fracking Permanently in the Four-State Delaware River Watershed - Yale E360 – The watershed provides drinking water to 13 million people in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York….critical to not have toxic leaks into that supply….and the fracking industry does not have good track record when it comes to water quality.

Scientists stunned to discover plants beneath mile-deep Greenland ice -- ScienceDaily - Long-lost ice core provides direct evidence that giant ice sheet melted off within the last million years and is highly vulnerable to a warming climate.

The legendary fabric that no one knows how to make - BBC Future – Dhaka muslin…with thread counts up to 1,200.

Diphtheria risks becoming major global threat again as it evolves antimicrobial resistance -- ScienceDaily – Resistance to antibiotics and vaccine escape becoming more common/likely….not a good prospect.

Climate Change Lays Waste to Butterflies Across American West | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The total number of observed butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains has fallen by 1.6 percent every year since 1977….that adds up to over 65% decrease!

Reflecting on your own capabilities boosts resilience -- ScienceDaily – Thinking about memories of successfully overcoming past challenges may help us cope with crisis situations we are facing in the present.

Great Lakes people among first coppersmiths | Science – The Old Copper Culture began earlier and faded earlier that previously thought…starting about 9,500 years ago and ending about 5,000 years ago. A climate shift might have caused the culture to shift from using copper for tools to adornment at the end of the period.

Waste from making purple corn chips yields a natural dye, supplements, kitty litter -- ScienceDaily – I like processes that dramatically reduce the amount of agricultural waste. I wonder if the purple kitty litter would stain carpet if it was tracked out of the litter box though.

Why cats won’t punish a stranger who harms you - BBC Future – Evidently cats do form emotional bonds with their humans…but they probably don’t pick up on human social relationships….not as domesticated as dogs.