Back in May 2021, I posted about 3 volumes of Sir Arthur Evans Palace of Minos series. Recentlym I found 2 more volumes and am posting this follow up to share some sample images and the links to the volumes.
Enjoy!
Unique aspects of October….
Border crossing (US to Canada). This was not the only time I crossed the boarder from the US to Canada…but the first time in more than decade…so rare enough to be unique for me. It was the first day of their new policy to no longer require documentation of COVID-19 vaccination….probabay made it a little faster than it would have been the day before.
Buying a baby present in Canada. Two aspects of uniqueness of this one: deciding that having a baby in my exended family is unique enough to buy an ad hoc present and enjoying shopping during vacation …wanting to buy something (and not always something for me).
Discovering that the fireplace vent was leaking cold air into my office and the hearth room upstairs. There was cold air from the bottom of our gas fireplace doors (the vent area) during our first cold weather of the season. The magnetic strip I ordered from Amazon has fixed the problem…and I am glad I noticed the problem so quickly.
Dry Cleaners. I hadn’t been to a dry cleaners in years. I probably could have taken the jackets I had been wearing for a couple of years several years ago…but then the pandemic stopped our being out and about. I aired the jackets and continued to wear them occasionally. When I went to a dry cleaners near our new house, I was the only customer…and the racks didn’t look very full either.
Exploding broccoli. I was pleased to find a cup of carrots, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli in one of the places we stopped on our way back from Canada. I had not anticated that the lid would be so hard to get off. As my daughter was pulling us out of the parking lot, I was working on the packaging…finding it a bit of a challenge…when the lid suddenly came off and broccoli flew out into my lap and onto the center console! I ate it anyway…and the other veggies too!
Hail. We had quarter sized hail at our house for a brief time. I’m glad our cars were in the garage. In Maryland we never got hail above pea sized (and it was slushy). This hail bouced and stayed around on the ground longer!
Peppermint honey. I bought some peppermine infused honey in Canada…and it is yummy!
Sitting in a sunny window like a cat. A very nice place on a cold morning while I was in Canada.
Tator tots. I hadn’t had tater tots in a lot time….and they were a big disappointment…so the event will probably be unique.
Went to the doctor’s office but the doctor had called in sick. I was signing in for a doctor’s appointment when the nurse came from the back and informed the front desk that the doctor had called in sick! I ended up making an appointment with another doctor since she was so fully booked it would be more than a month before I could be worked into her schedule!
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.
US National Integrated Drought Information System – 68.4% of the US is abnormally dry…46% is in moderate drought…27% in severe drought. Use the location tab of this page to select state or county level maps color coded for their drought status. Where I live, we are in moderate drought.
Autumn in the Adirondacks – Leaf color has not been impacted by the drought in the Adirondacks. The pictures are from the Landsat 9 satellite. I’m enjoying the color from the ground – even with the drought here in Missouri making it not as colorful as it probably was in prior years.
Why cork is making a comeback – The main product mentioned in the article was cork stoppers….but I thought of the calm I felt when I walked into the University of Michigan’s Law Library with a tour group and realized how much the cork floor muffled our footsteps. It was the highpoint of the trip with my daughter when she was considering the school for her undergraduate studies.
Blue fibers found in dental calculus of Maya sacrifice victims – Analysis of more than 100 sacrifice victims found blue fibers in the mouths of 2 of them. Are the fibers from blue gags left in the mouths of victims over and extended time? Similar pigment called Maya blue has been found in other sites where it may have been used to paint the bodies of sacrificial victims. Another archeological mystery…
See the buzzworthy winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition – Eye candy for the week.
Millions of Americans are losing access to maternal care. Here’s what can be done – 36% of the counties nationwide – largely in the Midwest and South – constitute “maternity care deserts,” meaning they have no obstetric hospitals or birth centers and no obstetric providers. That does not bode well for the health of mothers and the next generation.
These stunning satellite images look like abstract art – and they reveal much about our planet – 8 images selected from US Geological Survey satellite images of the Earth’s surface.
Engineers weave advanced fabric that can cool a wearer down and warm them up – Maybe the ‘cool down’ of this technology (if it can be developed) will help us deal with climate change more effectively. There are already beginning to be more heat related deaths and there will be some occupations that will become impossible without technology to cool the body in outdoor environments.
Rainfall is becoming more intense in most of the US – East of the Rockies…there is increasing precipitation intensity. Water resource management is more challenging. Flooding risk is going up too.
USGS Public Lecture Series – A wide range of topics including volcanoes in Alaska, earthquake early warning for all, migratory big game, droughts and groundwater quality, modernizing the national water information system….and many more. I am beginning to work my way down this YouTube playlist.
Oliver Herford’s The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten is available from Internet Archive…it was published in 1904 with his drawings….showing that the antics of kittens were as amusing more than 100 years ago as they are today. The swatting of the ink bottle on the desk might date one of the sample images I selected, but the motion of the kitten is familiar… and equally disastrous for any small breakable/spillable object on a counter or table…as we experience every day with our 3 kittens.
Enjoy browsing this book online: The Rubáiyát of a Persian kitten!
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.
Previously deployed military personnel show retained dust in lungs – The lingering impact of deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As Rio Grande shrinks, El Paso plans for uncertain water future – Preparing for a year when there is no river water. Elephant Butte Reservoir that stores water for Las Cruces NM and El Paso TX, where I went on a birding field trip in November 2016, is currently at 5.6% of its capacity. So far – nothing has resolved the water insecurity of the region into the future.
Watercolor seas in the wake of Hurricane Ian – The impact of water surging and running off…natural-color imagery from NASA’s Terra satellite. There is also an image from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite detailing the coastline near Fort Myers.
Solar Community Slammed by Hurricane Ian: “Our Lights Stayed On” – And another Hurricane story…this one from the ground – Babcock Ranch, about 2 miles from Fort Myers.
Pre-Hispanic images revealed on early convent walls in Mexico – Hmmm….the building was not always a Christian convent?
Has the pandemic changed your personality? – Declines in extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness among adults were measured…particularly in young adults (ages 18-25). I found myself wondering whether the political upheaval that was happening at the same time contributed to the finding; the collective stress levels were probably heightened by more than the pandemic.
A field guide to Jackrabbits – An animal to look for in the west….next time I travel there.
Multiple health benefits of b-type procyanidin-rich foods like chocolate and apples consumed in right amounts – The study showed that peak benefits are achieved at mid-range doses rather than high or low doses. But it is not clear how to get the mid-range dose through diet…which made this article interesting but not actionable.
How did Vikings make glass beads? – Evidently by salvaging Roman and Byzantine mosaics as their raw material!
Scientists are finding fungi in cancerous tumors – A surprise…and lots of research still to be done to understand if the fungi are a correlation or contributor to the tumor.
I am featuring 5 books, available from Internet Archive, by Norwegian explorer and ethnographer, Carl Lumholtz. His way of working influenced the field of ethnography – broadening the field to include of social relationships, attitudes, and the role of women. The illustrations from 4 books about his work in Mexico skew toward material culture – which was, from the beginning, part of ethnography; he spent longer in the field than most researchers of the time. He was in Mexico off and on between 1890 and 1910.
Decorative art of the Huichol Indians (1904)
New Trails in Mexico (1912)
Unknown Mexico V1 (1902)
Unknown Mexico V2 (1902)
His expedition to Borneo was from 1915-1918 and it turned out to be his last. The sample image I chose from this book is a high-status couple. I was intrigued by the woman’s clothing…of the different kinds of materials and where they might have originated.
Through Central Borneo (1920)
Lumholtz died in 1922 of tuberculosis.
Continuing from yesterday’s post about our visit to Belle Island, Detroit, Michigan….
The conservatory has a koi pond that had some large specimens that seemed particularly dense near the waterfall. I liked the turtle fountain…reminded me of similar ones at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. I wondered what happened to the koi pond during the winter. Detroit must get very cold.
The structure of the conservatory has some high portions and there are some plants that have grown very tall…filling the spaces.
The grounds are grassy areas with some flower beds that were beginning to fade. I took a few macro images
There was a black squirrel that zipped across the very wet grass (we dodged the soggiest areas). There were black squirrels in London, Ontario too – more than the gray/brown ones.
The grounds also included a Japanese lantern and tower.
We went into the Aquarium. It reminded me of the
Washington DC aquarium that was in the Department of Commerce building; it closed in 2013 but I remembered touring it when I was pregnant with my daughter back in 1989…and becoming very queasy from the fish smell. The aquarium in Washington DC was completed in 1932. The one on Belle Island has been operational since 1904! They used the lull during the pandemic for renovation…it seemed to be in great shape (and no fishy smells). The lighting was such that it was easier to get reasonably good pictures through the glass! I particularly enjoyed the puffer fish, brittle stars, sea horses, and anemones.
Overall – our visit to Belle Island took about 2 hours. We headed back into Detroit to find a restaurant before we continued our journey to London, Ontario.
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 Collective Highlights Washington State’s Beautiful Vistas in New Book – My husband and I were talking about a trip to the northwestern US before the pandemic…maybe it’s time to think about it again. It’s one of the few areas of the country we have not visited.
The people resurrecting India’s ancient fruit trees – Saving varieties of trees through grafting…mangos being the dominant example in this article.
Longhorned tick discovered in northern Missouri – I perked up when I saw ‘Missouri’ in the title…since I now live in the state. It turns out that this tick is originally from eastern Russia and Australasia…and was first found in the US in New Jersey in 2017. It has been spreading rapidly with Missouri being the first state in the Midwest. It has a negative impact on cattle.
Cactus holes and cobwebs: the weird nesting habits of birds – Some unusual bird nests.
James Earl Jones Retires from Voicing Darth Vader – End of an era….but not the sound because that will continue on recreated by a proprietary AI.
As carbon dioxide grows more abundant, trees are growing bigger – Increased CO2 accelerates photosynthesis and plants grow faster. The phenomenon is called ‘carbon fertilization.’ That can help reduce climate change if we can keep our forests intact (and increase forests). Drought, insect infestations, and wildfires are a big challenge toward that goal.
NASA successfully crashed a spacecraft into its asteroid target – A baby step toward defending Earth from space rocks.
Cacao consumption no limited to Maya elites – Cacao residues were found on jars, mixing bowls, serving plates, and drinking vessels used all over the El Pilar site.
Neonatal sepsis: the new threat posed by superbugs – Antibiotics were introduced in the 1940s, saving many lives…but they have been over-used – unintentionally breeding resistant microbes that no antibiotic can treat. In India, 20% of neonatal deaths are caused by sepsis.
US Plan to Add 500,000 EV Chargers in All 50 States Gets Final Approval – Hurray! I am enjoying my plug-in hybrid (Prius Prime) right now but want my next car to be an EV….and I still want to be able to take road trips! This project getting underway is a start toward making that easier.
20 botanical print books in September. My favorite books are the third and last ones on the list…because they reminded me of some of my own history. The third book is about the plants of the Four Corners area of the southwest US (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) – a lot of great vacation memories over the past 50 years. The last book on the list is about gladioli and it reminded me of my maternal grandfather’s garden in the 1960s. He had a long row of gladioli and there were always plenty of flower stalks to cut for bouquets; the most common place for the big vase was on top of the tea cart under my grandmother’s portrait; that tea cart is now in my daughter’s house.
The whole list of 2,472 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the September 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.
Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the September 2022 eBotanical Prints!
Flora Costaricensis No. 18 * Burger, William (editor) * sample image * 1986
Flora Costaricensis No. 49 * Pupulin, Franco * sample image * 2010
Flora of the four corners region * Heil, Kenneth D. * sample image * 2013
Fossil floras of Cape Colony * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1903
Plant life through the ages * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1933
Links with the past in the plant world * Seward, Albert Charles * sample image * 1911
Lewis David von Schweinitz drawings of fungi Part IV * Schweinitz, Lewis David Von * sample image * 1805
Historia muscorum * Dillenius, Johann Jakob * sample image * 1741
The Miscellaneous Botanical Works, Vol. III- Atlas of Plates * Brown, Robert * sample image * 1868
The Botanical Atlas: A Guide to the Practical Study of Plants, containing Representatives of the Leading Forms of Plant Life, Vol. I * M'Alpine, D. * sample image * 1883
Eucalyptographia: A Descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts of Australia and the Adjoining Islands * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1879
Iconography of Australian species of Acacia and cognate genera * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1887
The Vegetation of the Chatham Islands * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1864
Description and illustrations of the myoporinous plants of Australia * Mueller, Ferdinand von * sample image * 1886
Histoire Naturelle des Vegetaux; Phanerogames; Atlas- Renfermant 152 planches gravees sur aoier * Spach, M. Eduard * sample image * 1846
Atlas du Repertoire des Plantes Utiles et des Plantes Veneneuses du Globe * Duchesne, E. A. * sample image * 1840
Botanischer bilder-atlas nach De Candolle's Natürlichem pflanzensystem * Hoffman, Carl * sample image * 1884
The Alpine Flora * Correvon, Henry; Robert Philippe; Clayforth, E.W. * sample image * 1911
Atlas des caractères spécifiques des plantes de la flore parisienne & de la flore rémoise * Lemoine, Victor * sample image * 1880
Gladioli * Macself, Albert James * sample image * 1925
Every month I go to Carrollton TX for a week…and become more familiar with the road trip down from my home in Nixa MO and back again. These are the highlights of the August trek.
The sun was not quite up when I left Nixa. There were some clouds that made it colorful. My route is north for a few minutes then turning west (and slightly south) to Tulsa OK so I didn’t have sun in my eyes.
The drive was easy – very little weekend traffic and no active work zones. The Texas Welcome center after I crossed the Red River has a great native plant garden. This time the plants were surrounded with grass (shortage of staff, plants not quite as vigorous?) but the American Beautyberry was robust…so much so that the grass didn’t seem to be invading that area as much. I have added this plant to my list to consider for around my house in Nixa.
I stopped for gas north of McKinney TX and had a pleasant conversation with a man hauling a substantial load of hay…a little serendipity socializing along the way. It doesn’t happen every trip (usually I just nod or greet the people I walk by…just a few words) but conversations are often something unique about the trip…particularly if the person is not someone I would normally meet.
A week later, I again was starting out before sunrise. I took a sunrise picture framed by a mulberry tree. It was the only morning of the week to have clouds to catch the color.
My route heads east for the 1st 10 minutes and my timing was perfect. The color changed from red/pink to orange….and a few minutes after my route turned north, the sun popped above the horizon. The week had been full of 90-degree afternoons but the day I drove home, the temperate stayed in the low 80s for the whole day!
The OK Welcome Center after I crossed the red river was just opening when I arrived. There was a cicada on the sidewalk that sat for portraits. Perhaps it was a little too cool for the insect to be singing/looking for a mate in the trees.
It was good to be home by mid-afternoon….another relatively easy road trip.
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 is the right age to get a smartphone? – No set answer or surprises in this article. I was a little disappointed but maybe the answer will always start out with “it depends….”
Air pollution might spur irregular heart rhythms in healthy teens – Air quality is important for everyone…not new news, but this study has supporting data for a segment of the population we generally think are very healthy.
A rapid shift to clean energy would save the world $12 trillion – I wish I was more confident that the people of the world have the will to save the planet (and ourselves).
Seven healthy lifestyles may reduce dementia risk for people with diabetes – Getting all 7 might be hard….but the 5 or 6 out the 7 should be something everyone can do.
Cool and Overlooked Critters of the Sagebrush Sea – Someone commented that they had driven across Kansas once and it was such a long slog that they didn’t want to do it again. This article reminded me that learning to look at unfamiliar places is a challenge…one we should consciously accept!
Daily multivitamin may improve cognition and possibly protect against decline – Easy to do!
Why you need a 'wellbeing wardrobe' – Most of my clothes are over a decade old and some were bought from a thrift store. I wear them until they are worn out and then I turn them into other things, compost them (if they a compostable fiber) or donate them (hoping that they can be sold or recycled). My sister commented that she was saving jeans to make a quilt. There are some items that seem to last longer than they did in the 70s (I remember inexpensive underwear and panty hose that were rarely worn more than a few times). Since I don’t buy many new clothes, I wondered about the demographics of who is buying so much clothing…and then trashing it so quickly.
Older adults with regular activity routines are happier and do better on cognitive tests – Picked up a vocabulary word from this article: zeitgebers – time cues which help set the body’s internal clock and can also assist in creating a stable routine. Some examples of zeitgebers are sunlight, exercise and eating…pets that require certain kinds of attention at about the same time each day.
Why plastic doesn't dry in the dishwasher – A little physics. I’ve noticed that we are using less plastic these days…more ceramic, glass, and metal. The last change was the containers we use for leftovers; I’ve gradually been replacing plastic with glass containers. My popcorn bowl (that I use in the microwave) is still plastic…but that’s about it.
Meet the Bat Falcon, the ABA Area’s Newest Bird – About the bat falcon, the ABA checklist and its importance to birders chasing a Big Year.
I like books that reflect when they were written…provide illustrations that allow easy comparison with today. Casimir Hermann Baer edited 120 interiors in colours, designed by modern artists and it was published in 1912 in Cleveland OH. It’s interesting to pick out elements of the designs that look familiar. It’s one of my favorite ways to think more deeply about history – in this case, the best-that-money-could-buy shelter in 1912…in contrast to modern homes. Here’s are some samples from the book:
Open floor plans and natural light
Bedrooms with plenty of storage, rugs near the bed
Plenty of room for dining
Sometimes exotic wall treatments and high ceils for entries/stairs…chandeliers
These illustrations are clearly not from 2022!
There were no pictures of kitchens or bathrooms in the books. Those have changed a lot over the last century!
The 10 celebrations I am featuring in the September 2022 of this monthly post are about foods and health and getting things done. There is also a lot to celebrate about the outdoors this time of year.
Frito pie. I have discovered Dickey’s Frito Pie with brisket, beans, and cheese. It is packed with the Fritos in their own bag for takeout….and I like it without the Fritos! It’s a good thing for me to get when my husband is hungry for a barbeque sandwich…celebrating that the barbeque places where we live now are much better than the ones convenient to us in Maryland.
A birthday. We celebrated by daughter’s birthday. I was chagrined that ice cream cakes are harder to find these days, but she said she wanted ice cream sandwiches…and those were easy to purchase!
Getting the flu and COVID vaccine. I celebrated that the shots were available in time for me to get the shots early enough for them to protect me during my upcoming travel.
Legal updates completed. My sister and I collaborated to get my parents legal documents updated according to their wishes….and celebrated the completed milestone.
Rings of Power series. I don’t watch much television but I am enjoying the Rings of Power….celebrating the quality of the production and seeing more of Tolkien’s world.
Our large wind chimes. My office is situated where I can hear the wind chimes on breezy days…I celebrate their sound and the memory of when we bought them too.
Poke weeds. Yes – they are weeds…but they are native, and they do produce berries that birds eat. I celebrate that I have several plants that out of the way in my landscaping so I can leave them rather than battling them all through the season.
Springfield Botanical Garden. I find something to celebrate every time I go! This time there were lots of insects to photograph.
Spider Lilies. I don’t know how I missed the orange spider lilies in my parents’ garden in previous years…but I was there at the right time this year to see them!
Great weather for being outdoors. There were still some hot days but as the month progressed, I celebrated some cooler temperatures….the ease of getting outdoors without being concerned of high heat or poor air quality.
I will probably have to retire my favorite pair of shoes soon and I am savoring them to the end. I like their rounded toes and decorative stitching….their metal decoration over the Velcro closure…their arch support and very slight wedge.
I bought them used several years ago. The padding on the sole is very thin and there are small tears that have formed on the sides. The metal decoration is tarnished and dented. The bottom has almost worn smooth.
I wish I could find a new pair that is the same but that is (most likely) impossible. Shoes are produced in quantity and then production is stopped for that style. A new style is produced in quantity, and it happens again…endless change hoping to attract new buyers in a faster and faster swirl of newness that encourages early trashing of products before they’re worn out. My favorite pair of shoes will be thoroughly worn out…but I am putting off buying anything new to replace them for now.
The unique aspects for September….
Queen Elizabeth II died. The event is something that will be memorable about 2022. Her coronation was in the year I was born...she was the only well-known person I can think of that was on the international stage for that long period. Closer to home – her death accompanies the older generation of my family ebbing away. I am fortunate that both my parents are still around.
Making a quick run to Walmart for coffee. My dad makes coffee every morning and had somehow forgotten to tell anyone that there was not enough left in the container to make another pot. If I had not been visiting…they just would not have had any morning coffee that day!
Murmuration of pigeons over the Walmart parking lot. Somehow lots of pigeons were on the Walmart parking lot…and they flew up in a big swirl when they were startled by something (maybe a car?) and they did the usual turning in unison….the undulating ebbs and flows in the air. It seemed like they stayed a loft longer than required to escape danger and I wondered if the birds enjoy the ‘dancing’ in the sky.
Talking with a man hauling hay at the gas station. I stopped to buy gas at a very large gas station just off the highway and a man with a trailer full of the round bales of hay pulled up on the other side of the pump. We had a short conversation and l learned: he is getting $60/bale rather than $30 he got last year, his fields are Johnson grass and cows like that kind of hay, this haul was from the 3rd mowing.
A upside down truck on the highway. The only time I got on the highway once I was in Carrollton, there was an upside truck on the other side….traffic just beginning to back up. It wasn’t obvious how the accident occurred; the truck was against the dividing wall that kept it from crossing over to the other side of the highway. I came back an hour later and could see that the truck was still there (upside down), but a crane has been brought in….and it was rush hour. Fortunately, I was already at my exit and the backup only slowed me down for about 5 minutes.
Rats. My parents had their house treated for rats. Insulation in the attic was replaced and holes in the eaves were sealed. There is a 10-year warranty. Hopefully this is a truly unique experience.
Grilling when it was windy. We didn’t use our gas grill when it was windy at our Maryland house, but we discovered that the house does a reasonable job of blocking the wind at our Missouri house….another reason to like our new location/house.
Laundered/dried our pillows in our new appliances. We don’t launder pillows frequently…and this was the 1st with our new washer and drier. We discovered that the sensor in the drier thought they were dry when they were dry on the outside…but not on the inside. We had to manually run the drier again….but the process was still faster than with our older appliances.
Bakery bread. I have started looking at the list of ingredients for breads…and buying ones where the ingredients are about the same as for homemade bread. It seems like commercial breads have a long ingredient list. I’m finding that the bakery breads with the shorter list taste great and are easier for me to digest.
A third COVID booster. My husband and I got the 3rd COVID booster along with a flu shot (one in each arm). I had more side effects (sore arm, aches) with this 3rd shot than I did the second…but they only were bothersome for about 24 hours and were completely gone in 48.
There are 18 images in the zoom slideshow for September. Some are from around my house in Missouri. Others are from the Lake Springfield Meadow and the Springfield Botanical Gardens. One is from Carrollton, Texas. I have skewed somewhat toward macro images taken with my Smartphone but I still like to get ‘close’ from a distance with the optics of my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS). There will be plenty of opportunity for photography with my upcoming travel (2 out of the next 4 weeks) and the beginning of the seasonal change. For now – enjoy the scenes I captured in September…
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.
Photographer Captures the Vast Beauty of Alaska Through Breathtaking Mountainscapes – Eventually I’d like to visit Alaska…but pictures are the next best way to experience the state.
Characteristics of older forests can buffer effects of climate change for some bird species – Results from an 8-year study (2011-18). Forests can provide refugia for some species….our stewardship is important.
Ruby was the first Black child to desegregate her school. This is what she learned – I’m glad she survived and thrived….don’t want any child going through this type of experience in the future. Education is challenging for child without accompanying trauma from the community or institution or bullies.
Should you feed garden birds? – Right now we have 2 bird feeders and baths…with a few plants in the yard that attract birds as well. Over the next few years, I will be planting for the birds – native plants that will support insects the birds need particularly during their breeding season…produce pollen and nectar and seeds to round out their diet.
Earth’s Iconic Waves, observed by Landsat – A 3.5 minute video about places on earth where the waves are significant enough to be visible from satellites…and a little about why those spots produce the types of waves observed.
The sands of Mars are green as well as red, rover Perseverance discovers – The discovery of volcanic rocks on Mars rich with large grains of olivine! I remember going to a green sand beach on the big island of Hawaii – olivine on earth.
Enhanced Geothermal Technology Cracks The 24/7 Energy Code – Maybe a technology that will be as important as wind and solar in our renewable energy portfolio.
What older adults do while they sit affects dementia risk – Passive behaviors like watching TV increased dementia risk-- on the plus side active behaviors while sitting like reading and using computers reduced dementia risk. The study had more than 145,000 participants aged 60 or over with nearly 12 years of follow-up.
Cataracts: we’re working on eye drops to treat them so people don’t need surgery – Glad the research is happening…probably not fast enough to be available when my cataracts will require treatment.
When Told About Flood Risk, Homebuyers Shun Vulnerable Homes, Study Finds – I shouldn’t be a surprise that people don’t want to buy properties that flood….and there are a lot of expensive coastal properties that have an increasing flood risk.
Walter Shaw Sparrow published Advertising and British Art in 1924. The illustrations in the book are historical as art…also for what they were ‘selling.’ Quite a few of them were about travel…places to go and how to get there!
The book got me thinking about art and advertising 100 years later. We do so much with photographs and digital media now….very different than the 1920s. Some of us have shifted somewhat to experience over additional possessions when it comes to discretionary spending – which would fit in with the ideas for travel in the book. But it seems like most of my ideas come from destination or topical searches rather than advertisements!
Sometimes the roses I bring indoors for my windowsill or a center piece on the table turn into subjects for macro photography as they fade…before they go into the compost pile. While they all start out as a pinkish red, there are variations in color that develop as the petals dry. Often the color darkens to a burgundy…other times there are tinges of orange and yellow. I used several variations in magnification with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for these images….was pleased with the results.
My phone is almost always with me and I’m still in awe at the quality of images it can produce. The cameras in phones have come a long way in the past 10 years…and mine is not even ‘top of the line’ at this point! The technology is no longer a limiting factor for much of the photography I want to do. It’s up to me to be creative…and consciously utilize the technology in my hand!
The temperature was in the low 70s and sunny during our visit to Springfield Botanical Gardens last week. There were plenty of insects to observe. I used my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) with its optical zoom for insect groupings and photographing a buckeye butterfly that flew out of the meadow onto a dusty patch. There was also a dragonfly a few feet into the meadow that appeared to be enjoying a snack.
Otherwise, I used my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for more extreme macro shots where I could get closer to the subjects. I saw the solder beetles on several different flowers in the natural garden near the Botanical Center building – the very first place I looked to find insects; there were quite a few mating (maybe they overwinter as eggs?). The Monarch butterfly surprised me – landing on a butterfly bush very close to where I was standing. I didn’t have enough room to swing my bridge camera around to photograph it….but I am pleased enough with the results from my phone.
I photographed an adult stink bug then something a had not seen before: a small jewel like insect on a flower that might be a nymph of the green stink bug!
Copyright © 2025, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2025 Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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