Neighborhood Walk

A few days ago, I took a walk down to the storm water retention pond in our neighborhood. It was my first time out of the house after some exceedingly cold days and a head cold/ear ache. It felt good to be bundled up and crunching through the light coating of snow on the sidewalk. The pond is still rather barren looking after it’s refurbishment but there were a few dried cattails at the edge that were surrounded by ice. They had caught some of the snow. It was the ‘artsy’ image of the walk.

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Across the street, the gutter is labeled…whatever goes down, is on its way to the bay. I was surprised at how rusted and cracked the cover for the gutter looked. It’s probably the age of the neighborhood – about 25 years.

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I noticed some of the limbs that had been cut off our street crews by the county to reduce the possibility of equipment damage if fire trucks had to come down our street. The tees have healed in most cases, but I noticed at least two trees where the wound resulted in part of the tree rotting; that’s not good. I’m glad our oak was not one of them.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 20, 2018

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.

Water-based, eco-friendly and energy-saving air-conditioner: All-weather friendly cooling technology works without mechanical compressors or chemical refrigerants, and generates drinking water -- ScienceDaily – This is one of those technologies I hear about…and hope it lives up to the potential talked about.

New Website Explores the Women in Architecture Your History Books Didn’t Teach You About | Smart News | Smithsonian – A little history.

The Ultimate Winter Wildlife Guide: Enjoy and Understand Creatures in the Cold – Cool Green Science and How Does Extreme Winter Weather Affect Wildlife? – Cool Green Science – It has been a cold January for us. The second article mentions that Carolina Wrens often don’t handle very cold temperatures; I did notice that I didn’t see or hear any on the extremely cold days and have only seen one since it has warmed up a little.

If Birds Left Tracks in the Sky, They’d Look Like This – Another instance where photography allows us to see our world in a way that we can’t do with our eyes.

Archaeologist debunking myth that most people died young prior to modern medicine - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) – Looking at teeth of 300 people buried in Anglo Saxon English cemeteries between 375 and 625 AD…and finding some that were older than 75! It is probably true that average life expectancy was short…but there were some that lived to reach old age.

Frozen Bubble Photos Capture the Amazing Beauty of Ice Crystals – I don’t think I am patient enough for this type of photography – but I can enjoy someone else’s work!

Revelations in the Way Poison Frogs Care for Their Young – National Geographic – There is a video of a parent frog getting tadpoles on its back…taking them to a new pool of water!

Face of Ancient South American Queen Reconstructed – Pictures and short video of the facial reconstruction from the woman’s skull. She was at least 60 years old when she died….and died some 1,200 years ago.

Bones of the victims at Roman Herculaneum - HeritageDaily - Heritage & Archaeology News – Skeletons were found in ‘boat houses’ where they were buried under thin mud….preserving the bones. There are enough of them to understand more about the population of the town…like the frequency of pleural inflammation causing rib lesions, skull depressions from excess irritation and scratching attributed to head lice and age demographics.

DNA confirms the Two Brothers’ relationship | Egypt at the Manchester Museum – I remember the Two Brothers from a course on Ancient Egypt and was interested in the DNA analysis that showed they were half-brothers (same mother, different fathers).

400+ Botanical eBooks

The eBotanicalPrints area of this site lists over 400 Botanical eBooks that are freely available. The list is provided by title and author. There is also a Botanical Blog that I’ll use to avoid overwhelming the main blog with botanical oriented content. I’m trying to feature some of my favorite items; there is so much…and it’s hard to pick! A summary of blog posts so far is shown below.

Prius Prime – Year 1

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I’ve own my Prius Prime for a year as of today….and enjoyed the serenity of driving in EV mode for most of my errands. I took this picture just after I bought the 3rd tank of gas (it came with a full tank so it’s on is 4th tank at this point).

It has been an easy thing to transition from a gasoline powered car (my 10-year-old Acura TL) to a plug-in hybrid. I view it as a stepping stone toward and purely electric vehicle by the time I buy another new car…and maybe that will be self-driving as well. The plug-in hybrid has worked well for me since I do make road trips occasionally that would have taken more planning – changes to the way I travel – than I was ready to undertake. This car makes it easy since it just uses some gasoline when I am on the road for a longer time.

I like that the car charges overnight (I have it programed to start charging at 11:15 PM); I haven’t needed to upgrade the regular outlet in the garage since I don’t need faster charging. There have been a few times that I’ve come back from an errand knowing I had another later in the day that I’ve had it ‘charge now’ rather than waiting for the overnight….but it hasn’t been a frequent occurrence.

The only bad experience I had with the car was a tire blowing out (on my first road trip!) last summer. The passage of time has dimmed that trauma….and the car has been a wonderful drive for the rest of the time.

I’m still pleased with my decision from a year ago today!

Soups for Winter

Homemade soups are my winter lunch favorites. I like Root Soup: easy to make with fresh beet, potato, and carrot…seasoned with onion, garlic and basil. I let it cook long enough for the vegetables to become soft enough to mash a little. The pumpkin seeds on top provide just enough crunch (and protein too).

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I’ve already had a cold (and ear infection) this year and Homemade Chicken Noodle soup tasted so good. I made it several different ways. This one started with chicken bouillon with orange peel, dried onions and garlic, soba noodles and canned chicken. The soba noodles only take about 5 minutes to cook. While the soup bubbled on the stove, I use the scissors to cut up some arugula into the bowl. At the end of the 5 minutes, I poured the hot liquid over the greens – gave a stir. The arugula was part of the soup but not overcooked! So good… and just what I needed to get better.

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Bluebirds at our Birdbath

We have a group of Eastern Bluebirds frequenting our birdbath on these very cold days. The first time I saw them there were 6 birds gathers around the rim. By the time I managed to get my camera there were only 3 left.

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I was taking pictures through a window, but one seems to know exactly where I was!

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The bird’s attention was a little diverted by another bird flying away.

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Then it returned to me.

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The last bird seemed very comfortable at the birdbath. Its feathers were fluffed and it was savoring the bit of warmth from the heated rim. Its colors were muted – a female. It was the last to leave.

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I’ve seen groups of bluebirds at the bath several times since on very cold days. I’m glad we can provide a source of water for them. Bluebirds are in our area year-round. Their numbers are the result of an aggressive nest box program … dedicated people that help maintain the boxes.

What a joy to see these little birds on a cold day!

Winter Tracks

We are getting another round of very cold weather now and I’m remembering some tracks I saw from my front door during the cold just at the year began. I took pictures through the narrow windows from either side of the door – it was too cold to open the door. The tracks stayed for days until the snow sublimated rather than melted! The ones on the front sidewalk include deer…not sure what the rounds ones were.

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The ones on the front porch were smaller but came right up to the front door! Maybe a squirrel? I thought of a chipmunk at first but haven’t seen any recently. We have lots of squirrels.

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We are well supplied with food and have no appointments for the next few days…so we are staying warm inside and recovering from colds until it warms up. Our forecasted high for today is 30 degrees and cloudy. A good indoor day!

Moon in the Treetops

Earlier this month, I noticed the moon shining through my office window like a spotlight from the sky first thing in the morning. The first time – on January 2 – I didn’t wait around for it to sink into the treetops.

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But on the 3rd I was more patient. The tall tulip poplars behind our house were catching the moon before the sky brightened.

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By the 6th the morning was already well underway before I took my picture.

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Catching the moon is a great way to start the morning.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 13, 2018

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.

Cache of Newly Digitized Travel Photographs Will Transport You to 1900s California | Smart News | Smithsonian – A little California history. I couldn’t figure out how to browse photographs almost like a slideshow. The interface seems to only provide one-at-a-time viewing.

With wrist-worn gadget, researchers capture real-life sleep for the first time -- ScienceDaily – I wondered how this differed from my Fitbit Alta HR tracker. I assume it has more detail and that raw data is processed with more sophisticated algorithms.

The National Gallery of Art Releases Over 45,000 Digitized Works of Art – Wow! Follow the link to the NGA images and enjoy!

BBC - Future - The labs that protect against online warfare – Even with the labs….is seems like we are not doing enough. Governments are serious about the problem from a military standpoint…not necessarily about infrastructure or healthcare.

Habitat on the Edges: Making Room for Wildlife in an Urbanized World - Yale E360 – A good summary of some things that appear to be working to increase and/or preserve wild life habitat even as human populations increase. The habitat is gerrymandered…and different that the original, but may be almost the only path forward.

A Floating House to Resist the Floods of Climate Change | The New Yorker – It seems far fetched that whole neighborhoods would be built like this – but it is appealing to think about non-traditional approaches now when extreme storms seem to be more common.

Deep learning sharpens views of cells and genes – Using a neural network to look at retinal images and determine the likelihood of heart attack…and other applications of high end computer algorithms for improving understanding of medical images.

Badlands National Park – It’s been 20 years since I visited the park. I enjoyed it…think I would appreciate it more now.

National Park Service Begins Roof Replacement, Masonry Repair at Lincoln Memorial – Something going on in DC. The memorial will be partially open during the work.

US childhood mortality rates have lagged behind other wealthy nations for the past 50 years: Leading causes of death are prematurity and injuries -- ScienceDaily – Very sad. We have a system that is expensive and not very effective. Infants in the US were 76% more likely to die than in other economically similar countries.

Icy Stream

At mid-week, I hiked down to the stream restoration area at Mt. Pleasant. The day was a little warmer than many of our recent days and there was very little wind. I dressed for the weather and didn’t get chilled. There has been enough rain that the ox bow portion had water/ice in it. The trees that were extracted during the restoration and repositioned in the stream to upside to down as habitat were indicated how high the water has gotten since the restoration reconnected the stream with its flood plain. The stumps have not been completely covered but the water has gotten a few feet higher than it is now.

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Further along the stream a smaller stream – frozen – cascades over rocks.

Some ice had broken free with the melting and turned over – showing frost crystals…bubbles…smooth contours. It looked like a chunk of clear glass.

I liked the leaves held in place my ice on the flowing water; they added color.

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The water level had gone down since this ice froze. It was a shelf above the flowing water. Based on the sediment on top of the ice, it is older and may have had sediment laden water flowing over it briefly.

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The beach area that used to be mostly small pebbles and sand, has had large rocks since the Ellicott City flood before the restoration project and then additional rocks were added during the restoration. It makes it harder to walk in the middle of the stream…but better habitat.

One area had conditions just right for forming crystals…a favorite photography target for me.

As we started back up the hill, I noticed a battered lichen on some of the rocks.  After all the clear ice, the bit of color caught my attention!

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Chocolate Covered Graham Crackers

When I spotted some chocolate covered graham crackers in the grocery store before Christmas – I quickly bought some….and then both two more bags in subsequent weeks. This is a food that reminds me of a person – a great grandmother. Every time we visited her, she had chocolate covered graham crackers to offer us as a ‘treat.’  I never ate them anywhere else so, in my mind, they were extra special.

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These modern versions – more than 50 years after I ate chocolate covered graham crackers at my great-grandmother’s – are different. The chocolate coating is thicker, harder, and dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate. Those differences don’t matter. The ‘treat’ is wrapped in memory.

eBotanicalPrints

There is a new area of the website – a collection of links to and sample images from eBooks freely available online containing botanical prints; I’m calling it

eBotanicalPrints

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It’s accessed from the site menu and currently includes 4 things: a general introduction, a botanical blog (where I’m showcasing sample images and providing more detail about my recent finds), and then links to the books themselves sorted by author and title.

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The lists of links currently include the eBooks I found in 2017 but I have at least 10 years prior to that to wade through and add to the lists.

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My intent is to use the botanical blog to showcase the collection. Some of the more general ‘how to’ posts will probably be collected into another item on the eBotanicalPrints pull down for References. Once the number of posts gets longer.

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I’ve also added

Recent-Posts

To the site menu. That page will list the 10 most recent posts for the Blog and Botanical Blog.

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Cathedral of Learning (part 2)

The Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning. The Nationality Rooms on the 3rd floor are open when classes are not in session; the ones on the first floor are available with a tour guide or via an audio tour. Some of the rooms are decorated for Christmas; in 2005, when my daughter has seen the rooms, it was August…so the decorations were new to us. Each room has a one-page description on the wall near the door.

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I like the wood patterns and folk-art plates in the Ukrainian room. My husband thought the seating looked uncomfortable…but maybe that’s true for most university classrooms.

The Turkish room is probably my favorite. I liked the stained glass, the doorway, and the pattern on the ceiling.

But most of all, I liked the seating. It looked like simple benches along the wall at first. Then I realized that the lighter wood portion was hinged and lowered to make a writing surface…and it worked for both right and left-handed people!

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The Israeli room featured a replica of a mosaic and seating with a unique carving on each seat back.

My daughter and I both remembered the African heritage room. The seating – meant to look like molded clay – is surprisingly comfortable. I liked the fretwork patterns and the art work on the lower part of the wall. Each of the stools has a unique base.

The Indian room had a mix of left and right-handed seating…seemed large enough to hold more people that many of the other rooms.

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The Swiss room included a stove. The building is heated with radiators now, but it is interesting to think about what classrooms in the 1800s would have been like with stoves like these. There is are work everywhere. I liked the sleepy looking owl on fascia.

Do you see the hole in the fascia near the ceiling? That’s where the projector is located. The renovation must have included modernizing the AV technology in all the rooms...but it's always somewhat hidden.

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The Armenian room included a lot of carved wood. They also managed to incorporate chalk boards into the architecture!

The Austrian room was a room with very decorated walls and ceiling. It was also decorated for Christmas with garland over the door and a creche (under glass…apologies for the reflection).

We spent over an hour at the Cathedral of Learning. It had not stopped snowing or gotten any warmer when we emerged outdoors again. It was time to head for home – allowing enough time for the trek to complete while it was still daytime.

 

Cathedral of Learning (part 1)

Our trip to Pittsburgh just before New Years included a walk around the public parts of the Cathedral of Learning. The building is part of University of Pittsburgh built in the 1920s and underwent its latest renovation in 2007. My daughter and I had visited the building in 2005 when we were making a big loop road trip from our home in Maryland up to Chicago and back while she was a new driver. My first impression of the building then (and again now) is that it could be part of a Harry Potter set! There are high vaults

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And unusual furniture.

There are places to study in every nook and cranny…and along hallways. I wondered if the different patterns on the benches reflected when they had been purchased…which ones were there since 1920 and which ones were new with the 2007 renovation. Some of the areas are not well enough lit for reading physical materials; they’re for conversation or work on laptops/phones.

We went up to the third floor to see some of the Nationality Rooms (more about them tomorrow). Looking down to the first floor from this perspective.

We noticed that the snow outside was not ending as the forecast had predicted.

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I didn’t remember the courtyards from our previous visit. The windows looking down to them were single paned but well-sealed. Keeping the Cathedral heating is quite a challenge.

We went up to the 36th floor to see Pittsburgh from that vantage point. Did it look even more snowy?

The floor was part of a library area and I wondered how much of it was original vs from the renovation. Certainly, the stained glass fits the character of the building even if it is relatively new.

eBotanicalPrints – December 2017

December was a big month for botanical eBooks – 28 in all. The first series (Flora Graeca) was from the early 1800s and the second (Le Jardin) was from the late 1800s. Both were full of color. There was another series (Artistic Japan) – also from the late 1800s) that was not exclusively botanical, but I like the ones that were there so much that I included them in the collection for this month.

Enjoy!

  1. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V1  (1806) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  2. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V2  (1813) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  3. Trees  * Gates, Galen; Johnson, Ethan; Clausen, Ruth Rogers *  
  4. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V3  (1819) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  5. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V4  (1823) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  6. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V5  (1825) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  7. Artistic Japan: illustrations and essays V1 * Bing, Siegfried * sample image
  8. Artistic Japan: illustrations and essays V2 * Bing, Siegfried * sample image
  9. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V6  (1826) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  10. Artistic Japan: illustrations and essays V3 * Bing, Siegfried * sample image
  11. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V7  (1830) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  12. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V8  (1833) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  13. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V9  (1837) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  14. Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae V10  (1837) * Sibthorp, John et al * sample image
  15. Bulbs and tuberous-rooted plants * Allen, Charles Linnaeus * sample image
  16. Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris * Parkinson, John * sample image
  17. Le Jardin - 1896 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  18. Le Jardin - 1897 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  19. Le Jardin - 1898 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  20. Le Jardin - 1899 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  21. Le Jardin - 1900 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  22. Le Jardin - 1901 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  23. Le Jardin - 1902 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  24. Le Jardin - 1903 * Martinet, H. * sample image
  25. British Flowering Plants * Kirby, William Forsell * sample image
  26. British Edible Fungi: how to distinguish and how to cook them * Cooke, Mordecai Cubitt * sample image
  27. A plain and easy account of British Fungi, with especial reference to the esculent and economic species  * Cooke, Mordecai Cubitt * sample image
  28. Rust, smut, mildew, & mould. An introduction to the study of microscopic Fungi.  * Cooke, Mordecai Cubitt * sample image

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 6, 2018

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.

30,000 Shards of Historic Stained Glass Found in Westminster Abbey’s Attic | Smart News | Smithsonian – Glass found in the dust and dirt that accumulated in the deep cone-shaped pits of the interior of the triforium. Evidently most of it is from the Medieval period.

Streams can be sensors -- ScienceDaily – Using streams to assess the health of a region’s landscapes my lead to more focused actions for sustainable agriculture and development. This research highlights that basic concept but also points to some way to improve the way streams are monitored.

Stunning Images of Hokkaido Covered in Snow by Photographer Ying Yin – It is very cold in Maryland while I’m creating the post…fortunately we only have a dusting of snow.

BBC - Future - The mosquitoes that are fighting dengue and Zika – Increasing mosquito born diseases….new measures.

John Wesley Powell: Soldier, Explorer, Scientist and National Geographic Founder – National Geographic  - A little history – one of the founders of the National Geographic Society.

Scientists find surprising evidence of rapid changes in the Arctic -- ScienceDaily – Chemical changes in the arctic ocean…open waters, increased wave action, stirred sediments. There is a need for international collaboration to understand what is happening.

Hawai’i Volcanos National Park – A reminder of our vacation a few years ago to the Big Island

The Race North – Cool Green Science – Some trees may not be able to move north or up fast enough as the climate changes. Will foresters for the future step in?

New desalination method offers low energy alternative to purify salty water -- ScienceDaily – In places where water shortages are happening (and projected), desalination may become a very important technology.

The Year Climate Change Began to Spin Out of Control - MIT Technology Review – An aspect of 2017 in review. When will everyone decide climate change is an existential issue rather than a political one?

National Aviary (Pittsburgh) – continued

When we first arrived at the National Aviary, we were hurrying back to the Atrium to get food. I went back later to take pictures of the Eagle Owl (sitting just over a heater in its outdoor enclosure),

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The Stellar’s Sea Eagle (seemingly focused on something other than the cold and the crowds on the other side of the glass), and

A roadrunner (my son-in-law was drawing this birds attention – not sure how) in the exhibit with the sloth and toucan.

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We also went outside the Condor Court. The Condors were not well positioned for pictures but the two Snowy Owls looked comfortable in their enclosure…they’re adapted to cold.

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The Grasslands Exhibit has a lot of smaller fast-moving birds. I managed to capture a few of them even in the low light. At least two had very long tails.

The Tropical Rainforest Exhibit was my favorite during a previous visit, but it was too crowded this time and the cloudy (and snowy) day meant that the skylights provided poor lighting for photography. We were there for the bird feeding….and I noticed one bird that was the same as in the Wetland Exhibit.

National Aviary (Pittsburgh)

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Last Friday afternoon was very cold in Pittsburgh – and a lot of people decided it was a good day for the National Aviary. Our first clue that it was going to be crowded was the full parking lot. We pulled into a parallel space across the park from the aviary and walked across the frozen, snow dusted paths to the gate in the fence around the Aviary. The priority was food instead of seeing birds since we hadn’t had time earlier for lunch. The café area was crowded but we managed to satisfy ourselves enough to last until dinner…and then headed to the Wetlands area. We walked in a few minutes before feeding time. The schedule feeding times are great for picture taking. They have several spoonbills and I got a picture of the underside of bill like I did for the white ibis on South Padre Island; the spoonbill underside is the same concave shape. I also realized that spoonbills are don not have totally bald heads like vultures, but they certainly have a receding feather-line.

The flamingos seemed to be doing their preening while standing on one leg.

As the staff (and volunteers) started feeding the birds, the birds moved about more, and I was able to get different angles of the same bird. Some of the colors change dramatically.

There are sometimes surprising patches of color that become visible only from the side or back.

The hadada ibis has wings with a sheen.

Some birds are small and fast…hard to photograph except when worms are offered on the railing and they fly down to gobble them up.

Some appear drab but have ‘personality’ when viewed via the camera’s zoom.

One of the pelicans flew up to the top of a tree in the enclosure….closer to the glass roof….alas no sun while we were there.

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Of course, there was water below the bridge walkway we were standing on…if there were fewer people around I would taken more time to photograph the variety of ducks present in the exhibit.

As I turned to leave - I noted the brilliant yellow tail feathers of a bird on one of the pipes high overhead, near the ceiling…a last hurrah for the wetlands exhibit.

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A Cold Road Trip to Pittsburgh

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We drove to Pittsburgh last Friday for a quick visit with my daughter and son-in-law…returning home on Saturday. It was a very cold trip. The trek from our house to the first rest stop (South Mountain) was cold but the sun came out from behind the clouds occasionally.

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As we were leaving South Mountain, the clouds thickened, and we didn’t see the sun for the rest of the day. We stopped at a truck stop between I-70 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Breezewood). It was miserably cold. I took one picture of a car carrier pulling out through the windshield.

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By the time we stopped at the New Station rest area on the turnpike, there was snow on the ground.

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As we got closer to Pittsburgh, there was more snow on the ground and almost every road cut had ice flows. On the plus side, it wasn’t snowing….just very cold.

Overnight it snowed. We were staying at the Hampton Inn Waterfront; I took a picture through the window of our room before sunrise.

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During the day the snow was supposed to stop but it kept on longer than was forecasted. We started back a little earlier than planned. I didn’t take any pictures on the way back; the light was too dim. The rest stops were overcrowded, and we were glad we had some protein bars in the car, so we didn’t need to stop for food!

More about what we did in Pittsburgh over the next few days…

eBotanicalPrints – February – March 2017

We are having some very cold days here in Maryland – starting out our days in the single digits…sometimes not making it into the 30s. A good time for me to be working on my lists of eBooks with botanical prints. Today I am featuring books I perused back in February and March of last year

In February, there were more that were photography rather than drawings or paintings. I particularly enjoyed the book about the US Botanic Garden; it was published in 2007…so it was a relatively recent collection of photographs of a familiar (botanical) place.

  1. Tentamen hydrophytologiae danicae  * Lyngbye, Hans Christian * sample image
  2. The British flora medica, or, a History of the medicinal plants of Great Britain c1v2 * Barton, Benjamin Herbert; Castle, Thomas * sample image
  3. Forty years of gardening * Hill, Anna Gilman * sample image
  4. A botanic garden for the nation: the United States Botanic Garden * Fallen, Anne-Catherine; Shimizu, Holly H.; Solit, Karen; Allen, William C. * sample image
  5. The ivy : a monograph comprising the history, uses, characteristics, and affinities of the plant, and a descriptive list of all the garden ivies in cultivation  *  Hibberd, Shirley * sample image
  6. The golden garden guide; a practical handbook of gardening and outdoor living * Strohm, John * sample image
  7. Wild flower gardening  * Taylor, Norman * sample image
  8. Alpines in color and cultivations * Mansfield, TC * sample image

 

March was more typical with several volumes of A new British Flora topping the list; they were published just after World War I in 1919. European Ferns – the last book of the month – is full of traditional botanical prints; the one I selected depicts a familiar one – rattlesnake fern!

  1. The Gardener's Travel Book * Farrington, Edward Irving * sample image
  2. Wild gardens of New England * Eaton, Walter Prichard * sample image
  3. A new British flora : British wild flowers in their natural haunts - v 02 * Horwood, A. R.; Fitch, John Nugent * sample image
  4. A new British flora : British wild flowers in their natural haunts - v 03 * Horwood, A. R.; Fitch, John Nugent * sample image
  5. A new British flora : British wild flowers in their natural haunts - v 04 * Horwood, A. R.; Fitch, John Nugent * sample image
  6. Adventures in dish gardening * Beard, Patten * sample image
  7. A new British flora : British wild flowers in their natural haunts - v 05 * Horwood, A. R.; Fitch, John Nugent * sample image
  8. Japanese Gardens * Taylor, Harriet Osgood; Tyndale, Walter * sample image
  9. Our Monsoon Plants - Bombay Natural History Society * Raut, Madhav; Lucas, Mrs. * sample image
  10. Roof Gardening  * Mellen, Ida * sample image
  11. Rock Gardens * Rockwell, F. F.; Hollrock, George L. * sample image
  12. Beautiful Gardens in America * Shelton, Louise * sample image
  13. European Ferns * Britten, James * sample image