Zooming – December 2017

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December was not a big month for photography. Still – it was not difficult to find zoomed images to feature in this post. From early in the month, I selected two fall walk-in-the-woods images: a seed pod bursting open and a rock cliff in a hillside forest.

Then there was the small amount of snow during the month – caught in vegetation and on top of sculpture…evidence of animals out and about.

The last picture was taken on one of those snow days, but the white fluff is seeds – not snow. I like the curls of leaves along the stems and the hints of color in the background.

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eBotanicalPrints – May 2017

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This last week of the year is very cold…the kind of weather best dealt with by staying inside…an enjoying botanical prints.

May 2017 included some more recent books; the first photograph is from the 1940s (Trees and Flowers the Hawaiian Islands) and the second is from the  1980s (Woodland Wildflowers from Illinois). There is a fanciful image with flowers and bees…and fairies; I decided to include it since I found the combination of realism and fancy so charming. My favorites of the month were the British Flower Garden series…lots of big beautiful botanical print in those volumes. Enjoy some botanical prints on a winter day!

  1. With the flowers and trees in California * Saunders, Charles Francis and Elizabeth Hallowell * sample image
  2. Trees and Flowers of the Hawaiian Islands * St. John, Harold * sample image
  3. Spring woodland wildflowers of Illinois * Mohlenbrock, Robert H. * sample image
  4. Blumen * Frey, Adolf; Kreidolf, Ernst * sample image
  5. The ladies' flower-garden of ornamental bulbous plants * Loudon, Mrs. * sample image
  6. The British Flower Garden V. 1 * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  7. The British Flower Garden V. 2 * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  8. The British Flower Garden V. 3 * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  9. The British Flower Garden V. 1 (series 2) * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  10. The British Flower Garden V. 2 (series 2) * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  11. The British Flower Garden V. 3 (series 2) * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  12. Gartengestaltung der neuzeit * Lange, Willy; Stahn, Otto * sample image
  13. Neue Arten von Pelargonien deutschen Ursprunges. Als beytrag zu Rob. Sweet's Geraniaceen mit Abbildungen und Beschreibungen V2 * Trattinnick, Leopold; Sweet Robert * sample image
  14. Neue Arten von Pelargonien deutschen Ursprunges. Als beytrag zu Rob. Sweet's Geraniaceen mit Abbildungen und Beschreibungen V3 * Trattinnick, Leopold; Sweet Robert * sample image
  15. Der Garten und seine Bepflanzung c. 1 * Lange, Willy * sample image
  16. Neue Arten von Pelargonien deutschen Ursprunges. Als beytrag zu Rob. Sweet's Geraniaceen mit Abbildungen und Beschreibungen V4 * Trattinnick, Leopold; Sweet Robert * sample image
  17. Neue Arten von Pelargonien deutschen Ursprunges. Als beytrag zu Rob. Sweet's Geraniaceen mit Abbildungen und Beschreibungen V5 * Trattinnick, Leopold; Sweet Robert * sample image
  18. Neue Arten von Pelargonien deutschen Ursprunges. Als beytrag zu Rob. Sweet's Geraniaceen mit Abbildungen und Beschreibungen V6 * Trattinnick, Leopold; Sweet Robert * sample image
  19. The Ornamental Flower Garden and Shrubery V1 * Sweet, Robert; Don, David; Lindley, John * sample image
  20. The British Flower Garden V. 4 (series 2) * Sweet, Robert; Smith, Edwin Dalton * sample image
  21. Cistinae. The natural order of cistus, or rock-rose * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  22. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V1 * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  23. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V1 * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  24. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V2 * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  25. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V3 * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  26. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V4 * Sweet, Robert * sample image

Previous eBotanicalPrints posts:

Ten Little Celebrations – December 2017

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Merry Christmas!

It’s be a month full of little celebrations too! I’ve picked 10 to highlight.

There has been luscious food all through the month. I managed to spread it out and enjoy it more:

My birthday slice of carrot cake has so much icing that I saved half of it to spread on toast for two days following my birthday!

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There were a large variety of homemade cookies to enjoy at the annual Howard Count Conservancy (HCC) Natural Holiday sale. It’s wonderful to enjoy just one of my favorite kinds rather than having to bake a whole batch myself.

A few days afterward there was a surprise event for HCC volunteers…as celebration of our 2017 activities.

I did make oatmeal cranberry bars and enjoyed the cookie dough first…and then the bars (another multiple day celebration).

I celebrated a hike in the woods…seeing a lot of different kinds of shelf fungus…

And a conference about water monitoring….well worth the registration fee and time.

We had our first snow – it was easy to celebrate because it didn’t snarl traffic but stuck enough to make a surface for animal tracks.

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There is something to celebrate in almost every shift I do with the Brookside model trains because there are always young children there enjoying the trains – a vicarious celebration.

I also celebrated a special engine during one of the shifts: it has smoke swirling out of its smokestack!

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Finally – we’ve had such dry weather recently, I found myself celebrating a rainy day – realizing that even in winter, plants need moisture. I also celebrated that it was a day I was spending at home.

eBotanicalPrints – June 2017

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As I am writing this post is it wet and dreary. It’s just the sort of day to appreciate books of botanical prints.

June 2017 was a big month for botanical books – 27 of them in all. Who knew that geraniums were so popular in the early 1800s. The Botanical Cabinet series had my favorite images – with the top of the list being the magnolia (near the bottom of the images).

  1. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V4 * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  2. Geraniaceae : the natural order of gerania V5 * Sweet, Robert * sample image
  3. The language of flowers * Ildrewe, Miss (editor) * sample image
  4. Mushirui gafu * Kitagawa, Utamaro;Ishikawa, Masamochi * sample image
  5. Ransai gafu * Mori, Bunsho * sample image
  6. Flower Arrangement in Color * Rockwell, F. F.; Grayson, Ester, C. * sample image
  7. The ladies' flower-garden of ornamental perennials V1 * Loudon, Mrs.  * sample image
  8. The ladies' flower-garden of ornamental perennials V2 * Loudon, Mrs.  * sample image
  9. A wreath from the woods of Carolina, illustrated with colored engravings of native wild flowers * Mason, Mary Ann Bryan * sample image
  10. Flora britannica indigena; or, Plates of the indigenous plants of Great Britain * Walcott, John * sample image
  11. Popular garden botany * Catlow, Agnes * sample image
  12. The Botanical Cabinet V1 1818 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  13. The Botanical Cabinet V2 1821 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  14. The Botanical Cabinet V3 1818 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  15. The Botanical Cabinet V4 1819 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  16. The Botanical Cabinet V5 1820 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  17. A year in the garden * Mustard, Norah Elizabeth * sample image
  18. Futatsubo yori hyakutsubo made Nihon teizō shingyōsō santai zuan shinsho : tsuketari, Chikuteihō kokoroe oyobi shiyōsho to kōji yosansho * Sugimoto, Fumitaro * sample image
  19. The Botanical Cabinet V6 1821 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  20. My villa garden * Graveson,S. * sample image
  21. The Botanical Cabinet V7 1822 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  22. The Botanical Cabinet V8 1823 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  23. Every woman's flower garden : how to make and keep it beautiful * Hamden, Mary; Reeve, Mary S. * sample image
  24. The Botanical Cabinet V9 1824 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  25. Saxifrages, or rockfoils * Irving, Walter; Malby, Reginald A. * sample image
  26. Our Sentimental Garden * Castle, Agnes Sweetman And Egerton; Robinson, Charles * sample image
  27. The Botanical Cabinet V10 1824 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image

 

Previous eBotanicalPrints posts:

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 23, 2017

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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.

Search for Microbial Life on Mars | The Scientist Magazine® - Life on Mars…challenges abound.

Using Data to Inspire: Share Science and Find Truth in the Stories - The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy - AGU Blogosphere – Maria Merian studied butterflies…and discovered that instead of being ‘born of mud’ spontaneously, they grew as caterpillars that metamorphosed into butterflies. That was back in the 1600s. Communication of data can be very inspiring!

Will Squid Soon Rule the Oceans? | Zócalo Public Square – These creatures thrive on disruption in our oceans…benefiting from climate change, overfishing and pollution.

Suburban ponds are a septic buffet -- ScienceDaily – Suburban animals behave, look and function differently because of the fundamentally unique ecosystems of suburbia.

Cancer imaging aid developed from horse chestnuts -- ScienceDaily – Horse chestnuts are trees I recognize in our local gardens….so I took a second look at this article. Evidently an extract from the tree may have a medical use!

What is the Bauhaus Movement? The History of Bauhaus Art – A short history of  Bauhaus art, architecture and design….how it all comes together and its legacy.

Free Technology for Teachers: The Science of Snowflakes – Two short videos about snowflakes.

100,000 Digitized Art History Books Are Now Freely Available to Any Art Lover and the Getty Research Portal – Another source of eBooks…it is easy to spend a lot of time browsing this one.

Photographer Takes Stunning Portraits of Endangered Animals: Goats and Soda: NPR – Photography with a message.

Dinosaurs Were Around Before Saturn Had Rings | Smart News | Smithsonian – There are timelines relating events around the world. This is a link between our planet and the rings of Saturn.

eBotanicalPrints –July – October 2017

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I am still working on creating a new section of my site. It should be ready by early 2018; my plan to include all the botanical prints books I perused in 2017 to get is started. This month I am getting the material formatted….working out the details for the new section.

Today I am highlighting the books I read from July – October. There were not as many botanical print books because I shifted to butterflies (prompted by my volunteering at Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy).

July

Most of the books in July were The Botanical Cabinet volumes. There are 20 in all published in the early 1800s. Note that not all the books I am including in the collection are formal botanical prints; sometimes, they are art or catalogs or garden pictures….that are dominated by plants. They are not meant to be scientific documentation of the plant; I enjoy them too much to leave them out.

  1. The Botanical Cabinet V11 1825 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  2. The Botanical Cabinet V12 1826 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  3. The Botanical Cabinet V13 1827 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  4. Hours of gladness * Maeterlinck, Maurice; Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander * sample image
  5. The Botanical Cabinet V14 1828 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  6. The Botanical Cabinet V15 1828 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  7. The Botanical Cabinet V16 1829 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image

August

The last book listed for August is relatively recent. It was published in the mid-1950s and includes color photographs of cactus…the modern ‘botanical print.’

  1. The Botanical Cabinet V17 1830 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  2. The Botanical Cabinet V18 1831 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  3. The Botanical Cabinet V19 1832 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  4. The Botanical Cabinet V20 1833 * Loddiges, Conrad, & Sons; Cooke; George * sample image
  5. Among the flowers; selections from the standard poets illustrated in colors.  * misc * sample image
  6. The flowering cactus; an informative guide, illustrated in full-color photography, to one of the miracles of America's Southwest * Carlson, Raymond; Proctor, Claire Meyer; Proctor, Ralph C. * sample image

September

Botanical prints are also for children’s books; The books by Janet Kelman were published in the early 1900s.

  1. The botanical works of the late George Engelmann * Shaw, Henry; Trelease, William; Gray, Asa * sample image
  2. Gardens shown to the children * Kelman, Janet Harvey; Allen, Olive; Henderson, J.A. * sample image
  3. Trees, shown to children * Kelman, Janet Harvey; Smith, C.E. * sample image

October

Botanical prints were produced in different cultures. The two from October are from Japan in the early 1900s.

  1. Bairei gafu V3 * Yamado Unsodo (publisher) * sample image
  2. Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis - or figures of Indian plants V1 * Wight, Robert * sample image
  3. Banshō zukan v. 2 * Kobayashi, Bunshichi * sample image
  4. Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis - or figures of Indian plants V2 * Wight, Robert * sample image
  5. Garden Photography * Fitch, Charles Marden  

Previous eBotanicalPrints posts:

November 2017

Birding through a Window – December 2017

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The high-point of ‘birding through the window’ this month happened too fast for me to photograph! I was working at my PC and looked up to see a bald eagle fly over and then down into the woods behind our house! Awesome…but fleeting.

I’ve seen red-trailed hawks more frequently at the edge our woods – surveying the scene. This month there was a smaller bird – a red-shouldered hawk. Its feathers were fluffed from the cold. While it sat in our tulip poplar, the smaller birds kept their distance.

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Even the crows gave the hawk wider birth. The crows seem to enjoy sorting through the gutters of our neighbor’s house looking for tasty morsels. Their numbers have recovered from the low when West Nile Virus arrived several years ago.

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We had a frustrated chickadee on one of the very cold mornings early in the month. I need to get our heated bird bath out so that this won’t happen again.

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The cheerful song of the Carolina Wren lets me know when the bird is around. I think he stays nearby all through the year.

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The juncos are here for the winter and seem to be the most frequent birds at our feeder although they don’t seem as numerous as in previous years. We have had a small flock that use our feeders (and those of our neighbors) as their winter feeding ground.

The finches have not been as numerous either. I see them occasionally but not every day.

I am savoring the comfort of bird watching from my cozy office on these cold days.

3 Free eBooks – December 2017

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This month I picked books with an Asian theme:

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Bing, Siegfried. Artistic Japan: illustrations and essays. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Six volumes available from the Internet Archive here; published in the late 1800s. Most of the illustrations are in color…and represent a broad range of Japanese art from the time. I picked an image of a textile but there is a lot of other types of art in these volumes.

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Ando, Hiroshige. Ehon Edo miyage. Kikuya Kozaburo han. 1850 or after and before 1868. Six volumes available from Smithsonian Libraries here. Images in soft colors depicting Japan in the mid 1800s. I picked one from the fourth volume that looked like a road lined with cherry trees blooming in the spring. There were some other images of landscapes with snow that I liked almost as well.

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Oriental Textile Samples. 1700. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book is a reminder of how rich the textile tradition is – particularly from China. I clipped a part of the cover – which must have also been textile. There is a note that the book is ‘fabric samples mounted in accordion-style, silk covered, volumes in brown cloth-covered folios’.

New Fitbit

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Last week my Fitbit One started to fail (stopped counting steps and blank screen…until reset); after the second failure, I decided to replace it. I thought I wanted one that could be worn somewhere out of sight – like the Fitbit One, but quickly discovered that the trend was bracelet styles.

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I was thrilled that my husband had bought an Fitbit Alta HR for himself and then decided he wanted something with more function linked with his phone. All I had to do was get his unused Alta HR linked to my ID and phone. Within a couple of hours of deciding to replace the One, I had the replacement up and running without having to leaving home. A few days later I threw away the old one.

I thought for a little while about buying another brand of activity tracker, but I’ve had a Fitbit since 2010…a lot of history there. And it felt good to reuse something that had already been purchased (and that would not have been useful otherwise). I wore it for about 24 hours with the large band that my husband wore. It was too clunky. I spent $20 and got a very nice wire mesh loop band that is held snug with a magnet; the reduced bulk helps a lot.

Like all new devices – there have been some new discoveries. The most positive one so far is that my sleep (REM, light, and deep) is better that average for my age and gender!

Keeping Warm on Cold Winter Days

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We’ve been having winter weather for the past few weeks and I’ve been applying the usual tactics for keeping comfortably warm.

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  • Wearing thick socks in my house rather than going barefoot (my feet are most comfortable sans shoes). My sister had gotten me ‘cuddle socks’ the past two Christmases and they are my favorites for ‘at home’ days.
  • Enjoying sweaters and sweatshirts. The T-shirts and lighter weight tops are put away for the season. We keep our house comfortably warm…assuming we are wearing our winter clothes.
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Most skirts are packed away. I have one heavy brocade skirt that I wear for special occasions with tights or leggings under it.

  • Hurray for corduroy. Heavy jeans are OK too.
  • If I want to be warmer, I wear a sweater cape or cardigan. If I am moving around enough, I don’t need it.

If I am going outdoors for a short time – the essential outer layer includes coat, gloves that work with my cell phone, a scarf/hat, and boots (either hiking boots or dressier lined boots).

If I will be outdoors for longer – birding for example – I add to ‘quick trip’ gear:  wear ski bibs over leggings, a balaclava for my head, and a hoody under my coat and then over my head.  Handwarmers and footwarmers are well worth it to. A thermos of hot tea is welcome too!

eBotanicalPrints - November 2017

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Botanical prints are probably my favorite type of visual images and I’ve found a lot of electronic versions of them over the years. Many of them are scanned versions of books from the 1800s – before photography…a time when exotic plants were being documented and finding their way into gardens of Europe and America.

Back in November, I happened upon several books (items 16 and 23 below) that can be checked out from the Internet Archive; I realized that I had seen the work of many of the artists highlighted in the books…but there were others that I had not found yet. I did a quick check to see if their work was available on the free eBook sources I know about…and was thrilled with several new finds.

That started me thinking about the free eBooks I’ve browsed through previously and how I could make what I’ve found more easily accessible for others with similar interests. I will be creating a new section of my site in 2018 – eBotanicalPrints – toward that end. My plan is to provide a link to the free eBook; if it is there is not copyright issue – I’ll provide a sample image as well.

This post is an experiment to highlight the botanical print books I looked through last month. I’m surprised that there were 26! After the list, I have a gallery of the sample images. The individual images can be accessed via the ‘sample image’ link in the list. The books themselves often have pages of text (sometimes not in English)…but the images are plentiful. Enjoy!

  1. Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis - or figures of Indian plants V3  *  Wight, Robert  *  sample image
  2. Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis - or figures of Indian plants V4  *  Wight, Robert  *  sample image
  3. Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis - or figures of Indian plants V5  *  Wight, Robert  *  sample image
  4. The Huntington: library, art collections, botanical gardens  *  Bernal, Peggy Park   
  5. Botanical prints with excerpts from the artist's notebooks  *  Evans, Henry Herman   
  6. Botanical garden from Rio de Janeiro  *  Jobim, Antonio Carlos; Araujo, Zeka   
  7. Bonsai kabenzu  *  anonymous  *  sample image
  8. Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis - or figures of Indian plants V6  *  Wight, Robert  *  sample image
  9. Flowers in Shadow  *  Oelbaum, Zeva; Stein, Sara Bonnett 
  10. Drawn from Nature: The botanical art of Joseph Prestele and his sons  *  Van Ravenswaay, Charles  *   
  11. Abbildung und Beschreibung bluhender Cacteen  *  Dondorf, Bernhard; Fischer, Theodor Georg Viktor.; Fischer, Theodor.; Francke, Gustav.; Otto, Friedrich; Pfeiffer, Ludwig Georg Karl; Prestele, Franz Joseph Ulrich.  *  sample image
  12. Hydrangeas for American Gardens  *  Dirr, Michael; Dirr, Bonnie L. (illustrator) 
  13. Icones plantarum cryptogamicarum  *  Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von; Mohl, Hugo von; Prestele, Joseph  *  sample image
  14. Ever blooming: The art of Bonnie Hall  *  Hall, Bonnie B. 
  15. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1895  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  16. Women of flowers: a tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators  *  Kramer, Jack; Sunshine, Linda 
  17. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1894  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  18. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1897  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  19. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1898  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  20. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1899  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  21. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1902  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  22. Le Moniteur d'horticulture - 1903  *  Chaure and Ballif  *  sample image
  23. Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society  *  Elliott, Brent 
  24. The Pupils of Redoute  *  Hardouin-Fugier, Elisabeth   
  25. Jardin de La Malmaison, Tome 1  *  Ventenat, EP; Redoute, PJ  *  sample image
  26. Jardin de La Malmaison, Tome 2  *  Ventenat, EP; Redoute, PJ  *  sample image

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 16, 2017

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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.

Switching Jobs | FlowingData – How often do people change jobs and what kind of job to they move to. In the field I was in (computer mathematical), almost 70% stay in the field. I certainly did for the duration of my 40 year career.

You’ve Seen the Washington Monument. Now See the Other Washington Monuments | Smart News | Smithsonian – A little history.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #117 – National Geographic Society – I always enjoy the weekly collection of bird pictures.

Autonomous Driving Levels 0–5 + Implications | CleanTechnica – A good reference re autonomous cars. Right now, I have a level 1 car (it has adaptive cruise control). I am hoping that by the time I am very old and want to stop driving that level 5 cars are easily available.

Cataloging Fungal Life in Antarctic Seas | The Scientist Magazine® - Fungi that thrive in extreme conditions…some surprises.

Water-loving cats: Unique Tiger facts – National Geographic Society – I like the last image the best: tigers in the snow.

3 Reasons Why California’s Fire Risk Won’t Dampen Anytime Soon - NPR – I was interested in this article but it didn’t answer the question that I thought it would: In areas where fires are burning now – are they reducing the ‘fuel’ enough that fires will not burn again for a long time…and could we develop techniques to maintain that reduction in ‘fuel’ (i.e. dead wood, brush) without damaging the ecosystem.

In Luxor, Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Unveil Their Secrets | Smart News | Smithsonian – There seem to be more finds in Egypt recently – but will they be enough to draw tourists back to the region?

The Secret in the Sand Dunes – Cool Green Science – Midway Beach survived Sandy…because they pay a lot of attention to maintaining their dunes --- including after-season Christmas trees to provide structure to dunes…catching sand.

Common psychological traits in group of Italians aged 90 to 101 -- ScienceDaily - Study finds group displays distinct optimism, stubbornness and bond with family, religion and land

Mt. Pleasant – December 2017

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I took a short walk around Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm yesterday morning after delivering the reports of the conservation easement monitoring. This was probably the last trek there until January, so I took the opportunity to look around at the signs of winter. There were still some patches of snow in shady places and I realized this was the first time I’d been at Mt. Pleasant when there was snow on the ground.

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Montjoy Barn has its doors closed. The ramp retained some snow.

The path to the meadow was soggy and icy at the same time.

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I walked a little ways down toward the stream until I decided the wind was making it feel very cold. I did a quick zoom series on a round of hay in the field on the other side of the trees that mark where the stream divides the meadow from what’s beyond.

There was a large clump of grass with curly seed heads moving in the wind. I headed back toward the parking lot.

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The high point of the walk about was tracks in the little bit of snow. There would have been more and better ones if I’d gotten there earlier.

Just as I turned to leave I noticed a fluffed cardinal in a tangle of branches. He was on his way to the bird feeders in the Honors Garden.

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Monitoring Conservation Easements

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This December is my first experience volunteering to do the annual monitoring of conservation easements for the Howard County Conservancy. I went to a training back in September and then ‘shadowed’ an experienced monitor visiting 2 easements in November. In December, I was ready to monitor 2 easements with a cohort that was doing it for the first time as well.  The owners were notified by Howard County Conservancy that we would be monitoring on a particular day and the weather cooperated for both days – dry and not overly cold. The first property was mostly forest and the hike around the property was different than my usual hike since there were no well-defined trails; deer trails or picking a path through the briars (glad we were doing this in December when it was cold enough to wear heavy pants to protect my legs from thorns). It was a wonderful early winter ‘walk in the woods.’

The land was crossed by a stream that feeds into the Patuxent River. We had one stream crossing over a culvert but made another stepping on rocks; it was good that it had not rained recently. Most of the trees were native…but there was a substantial clump of bamboo growing on one streambank.

The land was easier to see with the leaves on the ground. As usual, I noticed fungi.

There was an odd holly-like plant as part of the understory. The leaves looked like holly but the top did not.

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At the end of the walk, I rejoiced that the property owner had made the effort to make it a conservation easement and that it was about that same as it had been in previous years.

The second easement was entirely different: surrounded by housing developments and an active farm/golf related business rather than forest. The business was about the same as it had been in the previous year…but there was a change at the farm: a guard dog. The dog did not appear immediately, but no one was home. We could tell that there had been some earth moving going on upslope from the stream that starts on the farm and eventually flows into the Patuxent River. If a heavy rain came – a lot of soil would slump down into the stream. The dog appeared…and we decided to gracefully retreat without completing our check of the easement. The monitoring will have to be done when the owner or their representative can be there. It was a rattling experience, but we enjoyed a hefty morning snack with hot tea/latte to recover!

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Maryland Water Monitoring Council 23rd Annual Conference

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Last Friday, I attended Maryland Water Monitoring Council conference. The theme was “Managing Water Quality in a Changing World.” This was the 23rd conference held by the council…but the first one for me. I’d signed up as soon as I found out about it – months ago – and looked at the agenda ahead of time. The agenda was packed with interesting topics from 8:30 -4:30. Except for the two keynote talks there were 7 concurrent talks for the rest of the day plus poster presentations and vendor booths. Based on my experience with the symposium I went to back in October about the War of 1812, I hoped that I would make it through the whole day.

It turned out to be an invigorating day all the way through to the last talk! It helped that the food was fabulous and easily available, the chairs were comfortable, and the venue was large enough to provide easy transitions between sessions for the 600 attendees. Those things provided the infrastructure for the high-quality talks.

I’d printed off the agenda before the conference and highlighted the ones I thought I would be most interested in attending. Of the 12 talks I’d selected, only 1 did not live up to my expectations. At the end of the day I was very glad that I’d attended and plan to go again next year.

Brookside Gardens Model Trains

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I am volunteering at the Brookside Gardens G-Scale Model Trains exhibit in the conservatory this season. The exhibit is active during the day when the conservatory is open and in the evening during the Garden of Lights display. I like the trains better during the day when there is a more light – the better to see them – and have signed up for my shifts accordingly. There have been 4 shifts so far: 3 in the morning and one in the afternoon. I try to take a few pictures every time I am at Brookside, just as I did during the Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit last some. There is always something new to notice. During the first shift, I was familiarizing myself with the layout of the display. The central display always has two trains in motion; usually one of them is Thomas….or another engine from the series. I also learned that this size of model trains is often used in gardens. Evidently the tracks are durable enough to be outdoors in a garden! I also began the hunt for all the figures on the scavenger hunt lists; Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, and Tiger were one of my first ‘finds.’ There is a model of the Brookside Gardens Conservatory too.

The second shift I worked was a few days later and I discovered that the volunteers that put the exhibit together and are there all during the open hours sometimes bring their own trains. On this day there was a very long train with the exact number of cars to fill the loop; the caboose cleared just as the engine got back around to where the track crossed.

To the side of the conservatory there is another kind of model train display – one that models historical places in Montgomery County! The Ferris Wheel moves just as the trolley does.

Before I started my third shift I took some pictures outside: the bald cypress still have some of their needles – rust colored against the blue sky with gathering clouds – and the small gingko near the door to the gift shop end of the conservatory still had yellow leaves at its base.

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Inside, Thomas was making rounds. So many of the children recognize Thomas and want to take in everything about the exhibit. The height of the central exhibit was lowered a few years ago so even children as young as 2 years old can see almost everything standing on their own. Sometimes I think they have a better perspective than the adults since the trains are almost exactly at their eye level.

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Last weekend was my fourth shift and my first in the afternoon…and there was still snow on the ground. I’d never been to Brookside in the snow, so I snapped a few pictures before I went into the conservatory. I made quick work of it because it was so cold.

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nside – I finally managed to get some pictures of my favorite poinsettias this year – in the conservatory with the trains – along one of the walls where the trains are not.

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Emily was moving about the track rather than Thomas. Many of the children know all the characters in the series so I always let them tell me.

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I have signed up for 5 more shifts and may do more if there are not enough volunteers during the crescendo week between Christmas and New Years when schools are out.

First Snow of the Season

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We had our first snow of the season on Saturday and I got up early enough yesterday to catch some color from the sunrise.

It was the non-disruptive kind of snow: melted quickly on the streets and sidewalks but stuck to the trees and grass. On our asphalt driveway, there were clumps of snow on Sunday morning and they all were associated with a leaf!

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It was very cold on Sunday morning, so I took pictures through my office window of the backyard – the sun making the forest look rosy in the background, the pines and tulip poplars holding clumps of snow, a junco comfortably sitting on the snow-covered deck railing waiting for a turn at the bird feeder.

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A few minutes later – I took a few pictures through a picture from another room. The color of the morning light was fading but the pines and forest were still a pleasant scene.

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I opened the garage door and leaned out to take a picture of the milkweed that are still standing in our garden. In past years the plants have lost their leaves before the frost but this year the leaves are still there, and their curls catch the snow.

A Few Decorations

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My husband and I decided to go light on Christmas decorations this year. We didn’t drag out the tree and ceramic Santa that always holds the candy canes. I did put Christmas card from years past under clear plastic on our table.

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My husband decided we needed something festive on the door – so he bought a wreath with battery powered LED lights. I like it best during the daytime and it does provide a festive look on the door.

We have opted to savor experiences this season rather than presents that we wrap. The few presents that are accumulating from others are packed into a sleigh that is on the hearth of the fireplace.

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Those few decorations are enough for us this year!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 9, 2017

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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 is Impressionism? Impressionism Art and Impressionism Definition – Maybe your recognized Impressionism….but here is a definition!

United States Map from Over 1000 Million Acres of Forests – based on Landsat data. If you want to look at some maps online – try the Global Forest Change link in the article. I looked up the forest change for my home address (and hence the area immediately around where I live).

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Completed its Eighth Flyby Over Jupiter – This is item is almost a month old now – images are too awesome to not include in the Gleanings this week.

Two NASA Science Planes Are Capturing Some Glorious Images of Antarctica – More images from NASA – this time looking back at our own planet.

Free Technology for Teachers: 6,500 Vintage Travel Photos - Free to Use – Refine the results to find some of your favorite places. I looked with the US collection at Yosemite and Yellowstone. There is an image of “Old Faithful” from 1898.

Infographic: Understanding Our Diverse Brain | The Scientist Magazine® - Surprise! The idea that all cells within and organism sharing an identical genome may be – at best – an oversimplification.

Can Exercise Prevent Knee Osteoarthritis? | Geriatrics | JAMA | The JAMA Network – Increasing age and obesity levels do not totally account for the increase in osteoarthritis! Maybe those other factors mean that it is more preventable that we think.

The National Parks in Winter – Keep warm…and enjoy the view of some special places:

Meet The Magnificently Weird Mola Mola – Cool Green Science – I’ve seen Mola Molas in aquariums….have always thought they were an unlikely fish.

Image of the Day: Butterfly Wing Scents | The Scientist Magazine® - The wings of some male butterflies are not just for flying; they also have special ‘scent’ scales that attract females!

Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens

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I am volunteering at Brookside Gardens this holiday season so was invited to the pre-opening walk through for the Garden of Lights display just before Thanksgiving. It was a great evening to walk around Brookside – crisp but not overly cold and dark. My two favorite displays are back again this year: the caterpillar arch near the visitor center and

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Nessie (and baby) in one of the gardens near the conservatory (Nessie’s smoke was working great!).

There were the lights in the form of insects: dragonfly, butterfly and ants --- critters that can be found in the garden in the warmer parts of the year.

There were lights of critters that would not be found the garden (like a giraffe and polar bear); I am featuring ones that do live in Maryland – a fox and snail.

Of course, there were plant forms made with lights. It’s all very clever. The children in the gardens that night were excited and thrilled to be walking through it all…their joy was contagious. It was a great beginning for the winter holidays.