In the Middle Patuxent River – January 2020

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Last week I was in the Middle Patuxent River at Robinson Nature Center for the quarterly (winter) water monitoring. The temperature was in the 50s and sunny – an easier sampling than most years. I always like to take some pictures from right at or in the river. It’s a different perspective that being on a forest or meadow trail.

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I was the only one of the sampling crew with just boots….everyone else had waders. But the river level was not too high. I didn’t get water in my boots…and no one fell in either.

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We caught a madtom (catfish) in one of the collection nets (collecting macroinvertebrates). We took pictures and let it go before we headed up the hill to the Nature Center.

In the lab, we divided the buckets of samples into plastic bins and we all started collecting macros from our bins and randomly putting them into the two partitioned trays.

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Then random numbers were drawn to determine the compartments we would id and count until we got to 100….and then we looked at what was left for anything unique. Almost everyone took a few pictures of macros. The most unique thing we found was a white worm!

This was the first time I participated in a winter monitoring and it might have spoiled me – being as warm as it was.

A Few Minutes at Belmont

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When I got in the car to go to Belmont Manor and Historic Park last week, it was evident I hadn’t been there since November; it was so far down the ‘recent’ list in my navigation system that I switched to the ‘saved’ list! Once there I finished my errand quicker than expected so took a few minutes for pictures.

Inside there was Katrina, the diamondback terrapin. She was very active.

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Outside on the side of the building, there were the familiar signs.

The red maple planted by last year’s HoLLIE class looked healthy (red tinged twigs) – dripping from the mists that were swirling around.

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But the small birds that seemed to be everywhere were what drew my attention. I’d seen a mockingbird as I walked toward the building earlier, but the small birds moved around closer to the ground in larger numbers – in the leaf and brush – blending in. I managed to photograph one – song sparrows!

Reeve’s Conchologia iconica

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I usually select three eBooks to feature in a monthly post…and I’ll do that in a week or so. Today I want to feature a series of books I found recently on Internet Archive: Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals by Lovell Augustus Reeve. There are 20 volumes (Vol v.01 (1843), Vol v.02 (1843), Vol v.03 (1845), Vol v.04 (1847), Vol v.05 (1849), Vol v.06 (1851), Vol v.07 (1854), Vol v.08 (1855), Vol v.09 (1856), Vol v.10 (1858), Vol v.11 (1859), Vol v.12 (1860), Vol v.13 (1862), Vol v.14 (1864), Vol v.15 (1866), Vol v.16 (1866), Vol v.17 (1870), Vol v.18 (1873), Vol v.19 (1874), and Vol v.20 (1878)) all published in the mid-1800s. The author died in 1865 and the series was continued by George Brettingham Sowerby. Soweby did the plates for most of the volumes. I found a reference about the books that said: It will always remain a standard work, although many of the species which Reeve created are now held to be invalid. That’s probably to be expected given the many years since they were published; science is always learning more. Still – the plates are beautiful and provide a broad view of the variety of shells known at the time. I collected one plate from each volume to use with this post.

The question that I wonder about is how many of the mollusks that produced these shells have gone extinct in the intervening years. How many types of shells represented in the books are no longer grown? The International Union of Conservation of Nature lists 310 recently extinct species.

Birds on Busy Days

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Sometimes I manage to see something interesting from my office window even on a day I am not in my office very much. Back in December I walked into my office, glanced at the tulip poplar at the edge of the forest….and stopped because there was a hawk in the tree. I grabbed my camera for a quick picture and then it flew away. It looked like a red-tailed hawk.

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This month – right after we got the board set up for our birdfeed camera mount, I came into my office and discovered that the doves had already discovered the new perch. The camera is only big enough for one but there are other perches nearby – the gutter above and the solar panel to the side are popular.

Overall our back yard seems to be a popular place for birds. Fortunately, the predators are infrequent and don’t stick around. Our feeder and bird bath have busy times during the day…and other times are very quiet. Some visitors come every day while others come only occasionally. I’m always thrilled to find bird action when I first walk into my office!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 18, 2020

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Earth at Night – This is an eBook from NASA that was last updated in December 2019….lots of pictures of the earth at night, analysis, and the technology behind the images.

Genomes Sequenced for Every US and Canada Butterfly | The Scientist Magazine® - Work by an evolutionary biologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 845 butterfly species were studied.

Adding copper strengthens 3D-printed titanium -- ScienceDaily – Current titanium alloys used in 3D printing were prone to cracking and distortion. The copper alloy seems to overcome that problem.

When the best way to take notes is by hand - BBC Future – I like to take notes by hand….it always seemed easier to me than using a laptop (although I tried using a laptop to take notes in meetings during my career). Now it seems that it is better for internalizing concepts too. No need for me to try to change to anything else!

Blue Whales’ Hearts Can Beat Exceptionally Slowly | The Scientist Magazine® - As low as 2 times per minute! The high was 37 beats per minute.

Image of the Day: Ochre Paint | The Scientist Magazine® - Evidently ancient people heated aquatic bacteria mats growing in iron rich water to make a bright red paint which was used for rock art. The paint contains microfossils of the bacteria (Leptothrix ochracea). The red color is highly thermo-stable…something that has applicability to manufacturing.

Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates - BBC Future – Clever crows. Not so long ago we thought humans were the only ones to make and use tools.

Incredible Winners of the 2019 EPSON International PANO Awards – Panoramic photographs…a little eye candy for the week.

Trashed farmland could be a conservation treasure -- ScienceDaily – Interesting idea…but how much land is in this category and what happens to the people that are still trying to eke out an existence on that land.

Future For Silversword Plants At Halaeakalā National Park Dark – Rare plants…have not recovered as well as the Nene (Hawaiian goose) – for several reasons. Plants around the world are having to adjust to changing climate and some will not be able to change fast enough to continue to exist in the same places…some may become extinct. I hope the Silversword survives.

Maryland State House Ceiling as Zentangle® Prompt

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I am always noticing potentials for Zentangle patterns. An easy one was in the skylight at the Maryland State House (when we visited back in December). I made a tile without much thought about deconstruction. The stained glass ‘flower’ is was my primary interest.

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I used a string to guide the pointed arc shape around each flower…then just make the curves. I filled in the spaces between the ‘petals’ to add some drama…and then it was just the tried and true Zentangle auras to fill in the rest of the space.

I did a simple step out of the way I deconstructed the pattern after I made the tile!

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Zentangle prompts are everywhere! I’ve been looking at books about ancient pottery recently….lots to patterns to glean from them. I try to limit myself to one of the ‘Zentangle prompt’ posts each month, but I am very tempted to do another this month.

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

A Little Snow

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Last week we had a little snow…a few inches one afternoon and evening…enough to delay the schools opening the next morning. I took a picture as it was coming down in the afternoon before the day got too dark.

The next morning, I started before sunrise then took several pictures catching the changes in light as the sun came up and from behind the morning clouds.

The sycamore has a few leaves that caught the snow…but there were also branches acting like skewers for ribbons of snow on the tree.

The evergreens always hold a lot of snow. This time it wasn’t enough to break any limbs.

The red maple twigs already look a little red against the snow they hold.

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The tulip poplar seed pods act as little cups for the snow…the branches of the tree like a candelabra. The snow was wet enough to stick to almost all the branches.

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The big surprise of the morning was a hawk. When it first flew into the sycamore while I was getting my breakfast, I thought it was a mourning dove, but then decided it was a little larger…and then it turned its head and I knew it wasn’t a dove. The pictures were taken through a window with a screen but the shape of the tail is distinctive enough to indicate that it was probably a Cooper’s Hawk (rather than a sharp-shinned). No wonder there weren’t any birds around our feeder at the time!

The snow melted slowly over the course of the day. I was glad I didn’t have anything I needed to do away from home.

Memorable Picture

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I took this picture back in November. It is the side of the Missouri State University stadium. What do you think the image between the two columns represents?

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My mother glanced at it – thought it was a spider….but the logo is actually of a bear! It a rectangular clip of a squarish logo that is obviously a bear. But I can see how it does look like a spider at first glance….and that’s what makes the picture memorable. It draws me back to a moment in time on a cold November day, walking between the building and our car, noticing the fierce whatever-it-is, laughing. I took the picture just after my mother’s comment and we all pilled into the car. A happy time.

Touch Tank – January 2020

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I enjoy the volunteer gig at the Robinson Nature Center Touch Tank….getting more experienced every time I spend an hour there. The Discovery Room, where the touch tank is located, is full of activities for pre-school through elementary school aged children with the Touch Tank being available when there is a volunteer to open it.

There are two kinds of sea urchins: the slate pencil with spines that look like slate pencils from the 1800s and pin cushion with spines that are more prickles. Both names are somewhat historical for young children. Some have never seen a pin cushion! Even the adults haven’t seen slate pencils that look like the sea urchin. Everyone enjoys seeing how the pin cushion urchins ‘hide’ by holding shells and little hats to themselves. The pin cushion urchins can also hang on well enough to hang upside down for a little while on my hand…always a surprise to the children.

Sometimes the sea urchins attach themselves to something else – a rock or a conch. Do you see the pin cushion urchin on the back of the milk conch in the pictures below? The conch was on the move with eye stalks extended and vacuuming up its food from the sand.

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There are three conchs in the tank. The largest is usually the most active.

And then there are the sea stars. I like to look at them through the glass of the tank…with their suction-cup feet out and hanging on. I pick them up for the children to touch – back and front – but I like them better through the glass.

Overall, I am getting more comfortable with the animals in the tank and better at controlling the flow of people (children) around the tank. An hour at the touch tank is always an hour well spent!

Eastern Bluebird – January 2020

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On the second day of the year, a male Eastern Bluebird appeared in our backyard. I saw him first near the bird bath. By the time I got my camera, the bird was in the sycamore…looking serious. It was a relatively cold day so the bird’s feathers were a little fluffed to provide more warmth; he looks very rounded.

I thought he had flown way but when I checked the videos from our birdfeeder, I found that the bird had attempted to visit the feeder….but headed to a perch was too high to get and seed. It quickly backed away and I didn’t see it again. Even though the clips from the Reolink video are a little blurry – it does show how the bird maneuvers to back away from the birdfeeder.

We don’t see bluebirds very often so this it was a pleasant surprise to see the bird. In January 2018, I managed to photograph 3 bluebirds at our birdbath!

My 2019 in Review – Technology

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Every year there is something new from a technology perspective that I incorporate into the way I do things. 2019 was no exception.

The warranty on my old laptop expired and I bought a new one (Dell XPS 13 Laptop, Dell Thunderbolt ™ Dock TB 16-180W and Dell Ultrasharp 27 Monitor with Premier Color – UP2716D) – the current version of the same laptop I bought previously. The big enhancement from my perspective is the solid-state drive (the new one has a 1-terabyte drive compared to the 500-megabyte drive on the old one). I also got a new Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (Logitech MX Anywhere 2S and MX Keys). I’ve already learned to turn the key backlight off to extend the battery life on the keyboard. I also graduated from one monitor to two. I like to see a lot of the windows I have open all at once! The Dock centralizes all the cables mostly away from the laptop itself which makes it easier to unplug from my office when I am traveling. It took several months to get everything installed and operating the way a want. At the beginning of 2020, I am enjoying being done with the transition…not planning any more near term.

The birdfeeder camera (Reolink Argus 2) is a relatively new addition to the technology at our house. I posted about it last Friday. I think our set up has stabilized and we might be mostly through the technology learning curve. Now we’re ready to use the camera to learn how birds interact at our feeder. Maybe we’ll put a camera on our heated bird bath too.

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I subscribed to a year of the Headspace app in February 2019. It’s been a learning experience….using the app to prompt a 15 minute Headspace session for 260 days so far. I’m done a lot of the courses. I just finished the Mindful Eating course and it has been a big help in slowly changing some of my long standing eating habits….letting them go.

I am still using the same phone and iPad that I had before 2019…I make tweaks but no big changes. And they still get used almost daily. I did link my phone and laptop more closely in 2019 via the Your Phone app. That allows me to see my phone’s notifications, messages and photos on my laptop. I often type messages on the PC rather than the phone (if I happen to be in my office).

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 11, 2020

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Seabirds – Starting with the birds this week. I’m thinking about the Delmarva birding sessions later this month…they’ll be sea birds and more to see.

Clearing damaged cells out of the body helps heal diabetics' blood vessels -- ScienceDaily – Interesting….but still a lot of research needed before it could potentialy be used in treatment.

The toxic killers in our air too small to see - BBC Future – Nanoparticles – 90% of particles by busy roads are nanoparticles below 100nm. The smaller the particles, the greater potential toxicity. Anything smaller than 30 nm can make it to through the lungs and into the blood stream (larger than that doesn’t gets past the lungs). The Global Burden of Diseases study estimates that air pollution could account for 21% of all deaths due to stroke and 24% of deaths from ischaemic heart disease.

A little prairie can rescue honey bees from famine on the farm -- ScienceDaily – Food crops can provide good food for honey bees…but maybe not for the whole season.

Adult Humans Can Regenerate Cartilage: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - microRNA may have potential in human regeneration of tissue.

Agar Art Contest 2019: See this year’s winners – Art made with live bacteria.

Infrared Reveals Egyptian Mummies' Hidden Tattoos | Smart News | Smithsonian – 7 mummies – 3,000 years old. All the mummies with tattoos at the site were women.

Gabapentin: A Risky Answer to the Opioid Epidemic - The Atlantic Gabapentin has become the 10th most-commonly-prescribed medication in the US. It is viewed as a safer alternative to opioids for chronic pain….but it is problematic in combination with other sedating medication and it doesn’t work as well as hoped….particularly for back pain. It appears that looking for a quick fix for chronic pain is – again – not working as advertised.

Photography In The National Parks: My Favorite Spots For Great Photos – From Arches, Bryce Canyon, Big Bend, Acadia, and Padre Island.

Scientists Don't Know Why Freshwater Mussels Are Dying Across North America | Smart News | Smithsonian – It’s not just in one place….and may have multiple causes. But this just highlights that some mussel species that have already gone extinct…and our rivers are very different than their ‘natural’ state.

Camera on the Birdfeeder – Setting Up

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I posted some initial results of our bird feeder camera back in December. This post is a little more about our experience…now that we’ve settled on a configuration. The camera we are using is a Reolink Argus 2. In December, we were experimenting by using a ladder to temporarily mount it; our goal was to decide where to mount the camera and the best settings.

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Our first attempt at more permanent mounting (and one that would not show in the pictures like the ladder did) was on a bracket just below the eave of the covered deck. We discovered almost immediately that the bracket was not as stable as we had thought it would be; a breeze could cause the camera to move. So – we started thinking through alternatives.

Even with a wobbly camera,  we did capture a good sequence of a male and female red-bellied woodpecker interaction at the feeder (the male is the one that has red from front of his head all the way back to where the black and white feathers begin). The female was there first but flew to the support for the covered deck when the male arrived – pecking the wood (in frustration?) then flying off.

Our next mounting scheme was to mount a board to the supports for the covered deck and then the camera with its solar panel on the borad.  So far it is working well. We’ve been tweaking some settings. I’ll post some results in a few days.

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I use the Reolink Client on my PC to view the videos captured by the camera. I download the ones I want to clip for my blog – either as single images or a sequence of images. It’s been a lot of fun to watch the antics of birds that I didn’t catch from my office window. So far, we haven’t had any unexpected visitors…but I am enjoying the views of behaviors I would not have seen otherwise.

30 Years Ago – January 1990

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30 years ago this month – my daughter was 4 months old and I was still taking unpaid leave from my career at IBM. We visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on the first day of the year. My husband took pictures of me and the baby near the elephant in the rotunda! She probably couldn’t really see the whole elephant clearly, but she was wide awake for most of the museum (napping in the car on and from).

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That January had enough snow and ice that we didn’t get out very much. I had a scary fall on an icy driveway early in the month. It was icy. I thought it was just wet when I headed out to get the mail. My feet slid forward; I fell backward and hit my head. I lay on the driveway for a few seconds assessing….then crawled back up/to the side to the grass…kept to the grass to get the mail before I went back inside.

The view from the front of our house shows a newly planted Bradford Pear near the street (still has stakes on both sides). The neighborhood had organized to plant the trees along the street, and we went along with the idea. Now Bradford Pears have become invasive in our area – coming up everywhere as Callery Pear. Aargh!

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In the back of the house we had some larger evergreens. One leaned way over the woodpile. We were using our fireplace more that January than before or since.

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Our one PC and keyboards were in the basement. We had a full house upstairs with a bedroom and sitting room for my mother-in-law, a room for the baby, and the master bedroom.

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There were two baby milestones during the month: she started eating baby cereals and rolling over. At the beginning of the month the rolling over was occasional and took a lot of extreme effort on her part. By the end of the month it was so easy for her that she rolled until something stopped her…and then figured out that she could roll away in the other direction.  

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My 2019 in Review - Photos

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I managed to pick 26 pictures that were my favorites of the year either because I liked the way they turned out or because of a memory they evoked. I noticed some themes after I had collected them.

All except one are outdoors (although two were taken through my office window so I was standing indoors when I took them).

Many were pictures of plants: bare trees, witch hazel, red yucca seed pod, button bush, joe pye weed, cardoon, sunflowers, beautyberry, and red buckeye (nuts).

7 were pictures of animals or evidence of animals (other than birds): whelk shells, horseshoe crab beginning to roll over, northern red-bellied cooter (turtle), tiger swallowtail butterflies, cicada, spider, gray tree frog.

6 were pictures of birds or feathers: pelican, ibis, gallinule, bald eagle (wet), red-bellied woodpecker.

There are two sunrise pictures: one from my front porch on the first day of 2019 and one from October when we were camping in southern Virginia.

More than half the pictures are from places I go that are close to where I live (i.e. not requiring an overnight trip).

My 2019 in Review - Travel

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The Space Coast of Florida….Providence, Rhode Island…Carrollton, Texas…Cape May, New Jersey…Springfield, Missouri… Smith Island, Maryland…Scottsburg, Virginia --- these were the places we traveled in 2019.

The Space Coast of Florida was for a birding festival held in January. I had quite a few blog posts about it. That road trip got the year off to a fast start for birding.

In late March/early April, I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island on the train to take the CZT class (Certified Zentangle Training). I posted about the experience of the trip and the training here.

The only plane trip of the year was in April – to Carrollton for a niece’s wedding. And it was perfect timing for the pocket prairie (posted about here).

In May, the Cape May Birding Festival…another road trip and lots of birding…blog posts.

There were multiple trips to Springfield, Missouri during the summer to help get my daughter and son-in-law moved from Pennsylvania to Missouri. It’s a 2-day road trip in each direction…often with very full carloads of fragile stuff.  And then I was back for Thanksgiving too! I did a little exploring – the botanical garden, the art museum, and the conservation nature center. The posts are here.

The first attempt at a boat trip to Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay was cancelled due to wind in April. The re-scheduled time was in October…and we enjoyed the trip. I posted about what we saw. The pelicans were the high point for me.

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Later in October, we were camping at Staunton River State Park near Scottsburg, Virginia for a star party. We’ve been going every year that the weather permits for the past several years. It’s always cold at night but we survive - enjoy ambience of a field of telescopes, tents, campers and cars. This year we took a short hike on one of the mornings.

Looking back – our travel was full of variety (places, activities, and seasons)…a good mix. I’m already primed for more adventures away from home in 2020!

My 2019 in Review - Volunteering

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I am looking back at the volunteering I did in 2019…what was like prior years…what was the same…how might things change in 2020.

Howard Country Conservancy is where I did more than half my volunteering. I enjoy the school field trips at Mt. Pleasant, Belmont and the streams around the county – “connecting people to nature”. The variety of locations and age groups keeps my interest. The field trips evolve to stay linked with curriculum in the schools but being out in the natural world is a continuing learning experience for a lifetime. In 2019 I changed the activities I did with summer campers…and volunteered more frequently during the summer than in previous years. Looking forward to 2020…it will be more of the same, but I’ll add the expertise I gained from the “Flying Wild” and “Growing up Wild” workshops to summer camp activities. The HCC staff and other volunteers are engaging and thoughtful. HCC is a great place to volunteer over the short and long term.

Three years ago, I added Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy to my volunteer activities.  I’ve increased my hours each year. In 2020, I’ll probably do about the same as I did in 2019: 1-2 shifts per week when I am in town. The butterflies, interactions with the visitors to the exhibit, and helpful staff members keep me coming back.

Toward the end of 2019, I started volunteering at the Robinson Nature Center – specifically for the Touch Tank. I’ve enjoyed the shifts so far (I am still learning something new every time I volunteer!) and will continue volunteering in 2020. It’s an indoor venue…different from my other activities.  Right now my strategy is to volunteer more frequently at Robinson in the cold and hot months….less frequently in the spring and fall.

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Overall – volunteering is my best way of connecting to my community…helping to make it a good place to be for everyone.

eBotanical Prints – December 2019

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There are 7 more volumes of La Belgique Horticole from 1851-1885 that I added to the list in December (continuing from November). The month also includes some other books from the 1800s: shrubs of Ontario, thistles, field botany, and a 6-volume gardening dictionary. There were two volumes from 1949 about Malayan garden plants. All of them were found via Internet Archive.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of more than 1800 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 18 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V29 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1879

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V30 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1880

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V31 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1881

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V32 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1882

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V33 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1883

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V34 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1884

La Belgique horticole : Journal des jardins V35 * Morren, Charles; Morren, Edouard * sample image * 1885

Malayan garden plants, no. 1-7 * Botanic Gardens (Singapore) * sample image * 1949

Malayan garden plants, no. 8-11 * Botanic Gardens (Singapore) * sample image * 1949

Shrubs of Ontario * Soper, James H.; Heimburger, Margaret L. * sample image * 1982

Illustrated description of thistles, etc., included within the provisions of the Thistle Act of 1890 * Mueller, Ferdinand * sample image * 1893

The field botanist's companion : comprising a familiar account, in the four seasons, of the most common of the wild flowering plants of the British Isles * Moore, Thomas * sample image * 1862

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division I - A to Car. * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1887

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division VI - Pin to Sci * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1887

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division VIII - supplement * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1889

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division II - F to O * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1884

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division III - P to S * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1884

The Illustrated dictionary of gardening Division III - Ero to Lav * Nicholson, George (editor) * sample image * 1887

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 04, 2020

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Scientists Use Agricultural Waste to Develop New Road Deicer - Yale E360 – Grape skins and other agricultural wastes rather than sodium chloride.

Poor Potato Crops Could Lead to a North American French Fry Shortage | Smart News | Smithsonian – Not a good year for potatoes in the US and Canada evidently. I wonder if prices will go up.

Hydration may affect cognitive function in some older adults -- ScienceDaily – Evidently overhydration has an impact on cognitive function as well…so it is important for older people to understand symptoms of both and actively manage their hydration.

Could Migraine Pain Relief Be Found In The Color Green? : Shots - Health News : NPR – Interesting research. Do green glasses help as much as the green LED light?

How everyday products are supercharging landfill gas, and what that means -- ScienceDaily – Some basic research that could be applied to getting more energy from our landfills.

U.S. States Have Eliminated Thousands of Environmental Protection Jobs Since 2008 - Yale E360 – “Neither EPA nor states have the funding they need to meet their responsibilities under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other laws that protect the public’s health and our environment from dangerous pollution.” Not good.

How hacking the human heart could replace pill popping - BBC Future – Pacemakers are primitive compared to the devices that are being worked on now. The future implants will adjust to the situation…reading and writing to the nervous system to treat such things as diabetes, bladder control and chronic pain (and heart issues). Maybe they will address the root cause of some chronic diseases rather than just the symptoms.

Colouring Europe at Work: download our industrial heritage colouring book | Europeana Blog – Learn some history while your color.

IBM Changes the Energy Storage Game With Cobalt-Free Battery – Lots of research in the battery arena these days. This one caught my eye since I spent some of my career working for IBM. Maybe these will be part of the next-gen technology for batteries.

Tiny shells reveal waters off California are acidifying twice as fast as the global ocean -- ScienceDaily – Looking at shells of foraminifera in sediments provides a vertical record of ocean acidity.

Putting Christmas Away

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We put the Christmas decorations away on New Years Eve. This year it was easy because they were less complex than usual. I took my Zentangle ornaments off the tree after I enjoyed the tree one last time while I ate my breakfast. I left the hooks attached to their string hangers – ready for next year. They fit nicely in a snowman tin I had previously used for the hooks.

We took the wreath off the door and put it into the box it came in several years ago after taking the batteries out (it will get fresh ones when we unpack it next year). Our cat approved its packaging. The whole thing went into a big trash bag to keep the dust off until next December.

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My husband took the lights off the tree and coiled them into a plastic bin.  We stuffed the tree into the box the it came in 24 years ago. We used tape to close it up for many years then switched to bungee cords in more recently. It’s a two-person job to close it up and carry it downstairs to the closet in the basement.

Now we are gathering up the smaller decorations and taking them downstairs an armload at a time to go into storage bins until next year: cards and door scrunchies and curly ribbons.

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