Art of Bridges – September 2020

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Bridges in art is the theme for this post. I’ve collected the images over the past month as I browsed through art slideshows on Internet Archive. The post on the same theme in August can be found here. These images give me the idea of doing more photographing of bridges once I start traveling again; it’s a relatively easy thing to do on a road trip when my husband is driving….and the windshield is relatively clean. Of course, there are other – sometimes more dramatic – view of bridges from the side rather than the bridge surface. Maybe we’ll make a point to find vantage points of complex bridges…a short stop for a few pictures!

There are 12 artist featured this month – from showing different countries, time periods, and styles. The bridges are made of stone, concrete, steel and wood – and they are not always crossing water! The artist name/link is to the slideshow where more of their work can be seen. Enjoy these images…and look at the other paintings from these artists in the Internet Archive entry on their work.

Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - )

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cool morning….breakfast adjustment. I like smoothies but when the outdoor temperature is in the 50s, I want something warm. The past few mornings I’ve started out with hot tea with coconut almost milk and a few pieces of dark chocolate. At mid-morning (when I was having a smoothie with the consistency of soft-serve ice cream because of all the frozen ingredients), I have something that is decidedly more lunch-like. I’m changing the name of the light meal from 2nd breakfast to 1st lunch! A bowl of potato soup  with lots of good veggies from the CSA tastes so good on a cold morning!

Birds on our Deck

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The bird feeder camera has not been as interesting recently, but I noticed two sequences where there were 2 or more species of birds there at one time. The first one is a Downy Woodpecker joined first by a female Northern Cardinal, and then a White-breasted Nuthatch.

The next sequence has a female finch (maybe) on the side of the feeder away from the camera and a Tufted Titmouse. The titmouse moves around a bit and is then joined by a Carolina Chickadee. The titmouse flies away and a White-breasted Nuthatch comes. The finch stays on the same perch for the duration.

The pictures I take with my camera through my office window are sharper. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker (female) is coming to the feeder periodically. There must be plenty of food in the forest since she does not come frequently.

The House Finches sometime come in groups. They are probably the most frequent species at the feeder.

The Carolina Chickadees are high energy visitors to the deck…and not just to the feeder.

The Chipping Sparrows sometimes  come a lot and other times appear to be gone somewhere else temporarily.

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A male Downy Woodpecker comes periodically.

Mourning Doves survey the yard from the deck railing. They also like the bird bath…and clean up any seed that falls from the feeder.

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The strangest photograph this month was of a Carolina Wren….that appears to be missing a tail! I didn’t notice the oddity until I looked at my images on a bigger monitor. The bird behaved normally so maybe it will survive (and grow new tail feathers).

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Mourning Ruth Bader Ginsburg….an increase in concern for the future of our country. So many things are adding together to make 2020 a traumatic (and tragic) year. Maybe times like this are the ultimate test of our character as individuals and as a society.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 19, 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.

Asphalt adds to air pollution, especially on hot, sunny days -- ScienceDaily – Evidently, it’s not just fresh asphalt that pollutes air. In cities, pollution from asphalt is significant enough that it needs to be considered in efforts to reduce pollution. Because it is usually dark in color it also contributes to the heat island effect in cities.

The Peopling of South America | The Scientist Magazine® - Sites along both coasts of the continent…analyzed with modern technologies…teasing out more information about the waves of migration.

The fate of antiques and heirlooms in a disposable age - BBC Future – As we come more conscious of the impact of our lifestyle on the environment….maybe durability of our possessions becomes more important again.

Researchers identify five types of cat owner -- ScienceDaily – In this study…the types are defined in terms of their attitudes toward their pets’ roaming and hunting: conscientious caretakers, concerned protectors, tolerant guardians, laissez-faire guardians, and freedom defenders. My husband and I are in the 1st category although there is a component of the second in our attitude as well. We keep our elderly cat indoors or on the screen enclosed deck.

Think Pigeons Are Boring? Not These Birds – From around the world.

How we sleep today may forecast when Alzheimer's disease begins -- ScienceDaily – The study indicates that the amount of deep sleep (i.e. non-REM slow-wave sleep) is predictive of how restorative sleep is for the brain (as measured by the build up (or not) of beta-amyloid plaques). They haven’t yet done the next step: improving sleep quality and observing the impact on beta-amyloid plaques.

Botanical gardens - where nature meets science and society – A short history of botanical gardens of Europe.

Some of America's favorite produce crops may need to get a move on by 2045 -- ScienceDaily – A third of veggies and two thirds of fruits/nuts consumed in the US are grown in California. In 20 years, climate change will make much of the area hotter and drier. The study looked at 5 crops (lettuce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and cantaloupe) that make up 64% of California’s cash value of veggies/melons. In the future, cool season crops (like broccoli and lettuce) will be grown not just in fall and spring…but in the winter too. It will be too warm to continue growing tomatoes during the summer as that they are grown now and it could be challenging to find a 4 month period where the temperature is in a good range for tomatoes. The main message of the study is that planning needs to be done now to maintain food production in the US.

Eat, Prey, Love: Fast Facts on the Remarkable Praying Mantis – Mantises are fascinating insects. I listened to a video  recently about hummingbirds from one of the birding festivals that talked about mantises sometimes eating hummingbirds!

Playfulness can be trained - here's why you should do it -- ScienceDaily – Applying interventions of positive psychology to playfulness. It appeals to me that the study is coming out now when we have so many people in awkward situations trying to stay healthy. Increasing playfulness was found to improve mood!

Children of our Town (in 1902)

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The illustrations in Children of our Town were done by Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire….showing children as they were in towns and cities in 1902. The verses were written by Carolyn Wells and link the book to New York (i.e. a city) where it was published. Still – it’s interesting to browse the pictures and think about how reflective these images are of children of that era.

There are several indications that these were children of people that were well off:

  • they are always wearing shoes even in warm weather,

  • they are often at places that would have cost money (a merry-go-round, a zoo, an excursion boat),

  • they have equipment like skates and toys,

  • sometimes the adult with them appears to be a nanny or maid.

1902 is an interesting year in my perception of the time since my grandfathers were born in 1901 and 1903. Their situation would have been very different since they were not living in a city or town; they were part of a rural population that had enough to eat because they grew food but were generally challenged for things they couldn’t produce themselves. One of my grandfathers talked about going barefoot all the time as a child and also an instance where he fashioned shoes for himself out of shoe boxes when it was very cold. They also were more involved in the work of the farm as soon as they were old enough to gather eggs or pull weeds or scare birds away from the garden.  Whatever toys they had were ones they (or their parents) made from materials available to them (bark boats for the creek, clay from the creek bank, etc.). I wondered if they had marbles like the city children.

(Note - There is a version of Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses illustrated by the same artists available from Project Gutenberg published in 1928. It’s interesting to see how the work of these artists evolved over time.)

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Mowing leaves. I made a first mulching of leaves on our yard. The oak and sycamore are beginning to drop their leaves and those leaves are big enough to form mats if they are not mowed to bits at the right time. From now on the mowing will be more about leaves than grass!

Winding down in the cutting garden. There are fewer flowers in the CSA’s cutting garden. I cut fewer this week.

At some point I’ll be making very different kinds of bouquets – may some amaranths and seed pods. The stevia and fennel had the tops cut off  (appeared like it was done just a few hours before I got there) so I gathered the clippings that were on top of the remaining plants and have the stevia clipped and drying on a tray. The fennel seed heads are still in a bag. I haven’t quite figured out how to handle them.  

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The cooler temps mean that we have lettuces again. We got two single-salad size lettuces this week and they look almost like flowers (and are edible)!

Under the Bird Feeder

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I poured out the seed left in the bird feeder before I refilled it – and we had more visitors than usual come to the area to get the food. I was surprised that a squirrel did not come. I took some pictures through the French door of our breakfast area of a mourning dove, a chipmunk and a juvenile cardinal that were the first to come and cleaned up most of the bounty.

Mourning doves are on our deck regularly. One came almost immediately after I went back inside from refilling the feeder. They are too big for the feeder itself but always part of the cleanup crew underneath. I got a blink sequence of the bird!

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Zooming even more, look at the feather structure on the back of the Mourning Dove! The different shades of off-white….and then very black spots.

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The Eastern Chipmunk has tunnels all around our house (or maybe there is a whole family). Only one came to the deck. They are fun to watch with their oreo striped sides…the way they stuff the seeds into their cheek pouches to maximize what they can take back to their nest…the occasional pause to eat something (I assume those are particularly tasty sees) under the sheltering parts of the deck structure. I hadn’t previously noticed the way the inside part of the ear is somewhat folded….the zoomed images provide a lot of opportunity to observe details. Use the arrows at the side of the image to move through the slideshow at your own pace.

I took a picture of the juvenile Northern Cardinal with an adult male a few days before the extra seed. The juvenile is almost adult size, but its beak is still black rather than orange. It is a clumsy flyer and the female was bringing seed down to the feeder for the young bird (and it was begging with fluttering wings and vocalizations under the watchful eyes of the male).

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It managed to get to the deck where the seed was located a few days later and found seeds on its own. The dark beak is beginning to change color. The zoomed pictures show that the feathers are still more down-like on the breast and the way the bird holds itself is different. It isn’t standing up on its feet like adult birds do…and maybe that is why it can’t handle the roosts on the feeder yet.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Another sunny day with haze in the sky. This morning (Wednesday, 9/16) the haze from the western fires is not as dense over Maryland. The sky is slightly blue (not yet the normal blue-sky color) and we can distinguish some puffy clouds under the smoke layer during some parts of the morning. The light has a different quality with the haze overhead. Air quality at ground level is not impacted.

Gas grill. Our propane tank on the gas grill ran out a few months ago and we’ve be talking about how we could safely do the exchange for a new tank…and then an email from our neighborhood group included a blurb about Propane Taxi becoming available in our area. So – we have a low risk way to get a replacement tank (arrangements via website, paid for in advance…contactless). The service is associated with Home Depot and becoming available in metropolitan areas. We’ll put our empty tank on our porch and a full one will be left in its place. And we’ll be grilling again soon!

30 years ago – September 1990

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30 years ago – in September 1990 – my daughter passed her 1-year mark and a few weeks later started to walk rather than cruise. The transition from taking few steps/walking while holding onto something to walking all the time happened on a single day and we took lots of pictures. She even started carrying things in her hands on that day (her favorite being a blanket). She also figured out a way to get on our bed without help – by using the foot board as a step up and then a leg up and over. She might have been motivated by the books that were in the headboard since the first thing she did once she was on the bed was to pull them all out to look at. The cat patiently supervised.

She was speaking in single words…mostly people or food. A day or so after she started walking, she kept repeating ‘book’ as we came into the house from her day care….and she insisted on going up to her bedroom….where she immediately went to the stack of books we had by our rocking chair and pulled out the book she wanted….sat down to look at it. She must have been thinking about it as we drove home.

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I had been gradually increasing my work hours during the month and had my full-time assignment that would start October 1. I was making plans for some family travel over Thanksgiving…but concerned that my new assignment had the potential to be in crunch mode at the same time. I was trying to not get too anxious but had not quite acclimated to the mom and career duality. The ‘Sally Forth’ comic strip was becoming my role model of the type relationship my daughter and I would have as she got older….maybe.  

My husband was being supportive…helping more with our daughter and setting up an office for me. This was the time that we went from 1 home computer to 2. I had the best room in the house for my office (a view of our front yard trees from the window).

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Haze at 30,000 feet. We are having hazy skies in Maryland from smoke created by the fires in California! Evidently the jet stream is carrying the smoke across the northern part of the US. By the time it gets here, it is a thin layer and high enough to not cause air quality issues. We can tell it’s a sunny day because there are shadows on our yard…but the sky is not blue.

Black-eyed Susans

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The Black-Eyed Susan is the Maryland State Flower. There are a few plants that always grow in the front flower bed – coming up year after year since we had a butterfly garden there more than 10 years ago. The other plants were not as enduring. The day lily bulbs are so dense that the leaves shade out just about everything else.

The Black-eyed Susan leaves come out early and are big enough to hold their place among the day lilies. Sometimes the buds form low enough that they are protected from the deer by the day lily leaves around them.

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Other times the buds are on the end of spindly stems and the deer sometimes eat a few of them. The buds must not taste as good as other vegetation because the majority survive.

I’m always please to see the flowers more easily after I cut back the day lily leaves in later summer. The Black-eyed Susans become the big color in the garden then.

When I was taking pictures of the flowers recently – I managed to get close enough to get a relatively good picture of a bottle fly. The temperature was in the low 60s and the fly was not as active as it would be later in the day.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Working Cat. My daughter sends us texts with pictures of her cat. He became part of the family during the pandemic, so the pictures provide our first impressions of him. He has favorite lookouts where he can monitor the rabbits in the yard. Her annotation for pictures below were “working at his desk” and “at his standing desk today.”

6 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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September 12th marked the 6th month since the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic. I started a monthly post taking stock of the impact on day to day life back in July (previous posts: July and August). Here’s the one for the 6th month!

There were three activities that were new during this 6th month – things that were critical enough to not put off:

  • Our clothes dryer broke. Our first reaction was panic…a bit more than we would have during pre-pandemic times. Fortunately, the problem seemed to be something we had experienced before (the heating element) and the manufacturer had a website to make a repair appointment. It was a little frustrating that the repair person came to diagnose the problem but our dryer was old enough that the part had to be ordered…so it took 2 service calls. On the plus side – masks were worn by all….and we didn’t have to buy a new dryer.

  • I got a flu shot at my grocery store pharmacy. It was not crowded but I was very aware that I felt more stressed than in previous years – hyper aware of where people were around me. It feels strange now to be closer than 6 feet to anyone other than my husband. Everyone was wearing masks which made it a little better; I had to go later than my usual shopping time because the pharmacy opens later than the grocery part of the story. When an effective vaccine is available there will be a time of re-socialization – getting acclimated again to having more people around in closer proximity.

  • My husband and I both got our cars serviced – something we had been putting off. My husband’s car was the forcing function because a button came off/broke. We didn’t wait at the dealership for the service to complete. That meant that we chose a closer-to-home dealership for his car. For mine – the dealership where we purchased the car 3 years ago was the closest. Overall – it was an OK experience: all the people in the service area were wearing masks and we could (mostly) maintain distance. We brought our own bottle of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes --- drove way after the service with the windows down to fully exchange the air in the car.

We’ve started talking about when we might venture out to get haircuts since are looking a bit scraggly (last haircuts were in January). The place we normally go is accepting appointments so maybe we’ll go in the next month.

Virtual Bird Festivals are dominating our webinar experiences. In the past month we’ve enjoyed Yampa Valley (Colorado), Bosque del Apache (New Mexico), and Puget Sound (Washington) videos and webinars.   There will be others coming up throughout the fall.

I am prioritizing finding activities that give us joy....to combat the aspects of these pandemic times that are depressing.

  • Who would have predicted 20 years ago that improving communication (i.e. social media and the internet) would result in such a dramatic increase in anarchy (other names could be conspiracy theories, fictional stories/events presented a fact, encouragement of armed resistance) along with the positives? I would really like it to be easier to find validated/confirmed news stories and a lot less opinion (outright lying).

  • Growing up in the 1960s at a time when everyone was following public health guidance re the sugar cube polio vaccines….it surprises me now that there are people opposed to wearing masks. I grew up thinking that it was a social responsibility to behave in a way that cared about others: getting vaccines, stopping at stop signs/red lights, requiring people in the car with me to wear seat belts, wearing shoes in eating establishments, etc.

  • In this 6th month the linkage between climate change and the pandemics became more obvious to me with the fires along the west coast (record breaking hot dry conditions, big electrical storms). In the near term –the evacuations make social distancing a challenge and the smoke impacts lung function in ways that probably will increase the deaths from COVID-19 in some areas. It’s a compounding tragedy. In the longer term – perhaps it increases the overall awareness that more climate actions (moves to reach drawdown and change mitigation) are required for our own health (as well as the health of everything on our planet). The life expectancy for humans may have already peaked.

I still think my husband and I are positioned to weather this pandemic by continuing the vigilance of the last 6 months. We are making carefully planned adjustments but continue to spend most of our time at home until there is a safe and effective vaccine.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Gleanings from the Puget Sound Birding Festival. The first day was the most intense with some pre-recorded videos then 4 hours of webinars. I was glad there were 30-minute breaks between the sessions but was exhausted by the end. Here are some links I gleaned from the sessions:

Just as with the Yampa Valley virtual festival…..I want to go to this festival one too!!!! Maybe next September – and plan some visits to some of the parks in the Northwest on the same trip!

Mini-clover update. There’s only been one day that we could skip watering because it rained. Otherwise – I’ve turned on the water 1st thing in the morning and my husband goes out an hour later to move the hose to the second location. Teamwork.

Cat at the door. Our cat tends to watch us from the window beside the front door when we are working in the front yard. Sometimes we can tell that he is meowing (yelling) at us.

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Onion Flowers and Skipper

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The onions are blooming our chaos garden. They come back every year. I keep thinking I will harvest the tops for salads, but I am always overwhelmed with items from the CSA – never need to augment the crisper during the summer!

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There was a Southern Cloudwing – a Spread-winged Skipper – getting nectar from the flowers…enjoying a last hurrah of summer. (Ref. Maryland Butterflies and Maryland Biodiversity Project). Use the arrow to the side of the image below to go through the slideshow. The proboscis is visible in some of the pictures. Note the shape of the eyes and the fuzziness of the body.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

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Prototype Grinch? I was browsing through the 1914 edition of Tik-Tok of Oz (L. Frank Baum) on Internet Archive and one of the first illustrations in the book (John Rea Neill was the illustrator) looked like a prototype the Grinch! Do you see the resemblance too?

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 12, 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 birds of the week: September 2020 - Wild Bird Revolution – Starting out this list with bird pictures!

The wind turbines standing up to the world’s worst storms - BBC Future – Designing turbines that can withstand typhoons in the Philippines and Japan….at the same time climate change is making the storms stronger. We are going to need more of this kind of engineering.

Photography in The National Parks: Capturing Sunrise, Sunset, And the Milky Way At Mount Rainier’s Sunrise Area – Good views of Mount Rainier…and a photography tutorial…with ‘how to’ during the pandemic.

Home Valuation Needs to Consider the Risk of Climate Change - News | Planetizen – The piece is focused on sea-level rise but there are other climate change factors that might also need to be considered: increasing drought (i.e. some places that won’t have enough water to support the population living there) and – perhaps related – extreme heat/fire risk. Our government should not be willing to buy increasingly risky mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Cassowary Quest: A Tale of Danger and Defecation – Learn a bit about the cassowary – great picture and video too.

American Academy of Sleep Medicine calls for elimination of daylight-saving time -- ScienceDaily – I hope the drive to not switch times begins to gain momentum. It’s annoying – and not healthy for us either.

Dragonflies the Star of Photography Book About Their Lifecycle – We didn’t get to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens this year to photograph dragonflies (along with the lotuses). These pictures are awesome….and encourage me to think about spending more time near ponds next summer.

The rare plants that ‘bleed’ nickel - BBC Future – Phyto-mining may be an alternative to using heavy machinery, destroying an ecosystem, and producing toxic waste. Hopefully, the work being done now will quickly become the dominate way to mine nickel.

A Field Guide to Finding Cool Moths – Mothing is (not yet) as popular as birding. The techniques discussed in this article are a good start. I’m going to try leaving the porchlight on tonight – checking around it before I go to bed and then again when I first get up (when it’s still dark outside). I’ve seen and photographed several of the moths mentioned in the article:

Hummingbird moth (Maryland in 2016)

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Ailanthus webworm moth (Maryland in 2018)

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Luna moth (Missouri in 2019)

Polyphemus moth (Maryland in 2019)

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Understanding how birds respond to extreme weather can inform conservation efforts -- ScienceDaily – An example of how scientists use the data submitted by a large number of people into eBird to answer questions re the impact of climate change and the resilience of birds (or lack of resilience).  

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Prius Prime maintenance. The miles put on the car since the last service were minimal, but it was time for the maintenance. Everyone at the dealership was wearing masks but there didn’t seem to be any hand sanitizer stations (I was glad I had brought my own). I brought disinfectant wipes for the inside car surfaces when I picked up the car and then drove away with the windows open to clear out the air in the car….continued to wear my mask for most of the drive home.  

I’ve about used up the tank of gas I bought 9 months ago so I’ll fill it up and start plugging it in again to do all my errands with it as an EV. I hope there is a vaccine available by the end of the year --- and I’ll be out and about a lot more.

Mini-clover update. We’ve had gentle rain for the past few days and temperatures in the low 70s into the 80s. The clover is a cloud of tiny of green leaves on the surface of the bare spots in our yard. This is evidently good clover growing weather!

Monarch Caterpillar update. I only found one caterpillar this morning and it hasn’t moved much since I saw it yesterday. It’s large…hope it is about ready to make a chrysalis.

Fall in the Cutting Garden

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Flowers are not the only thing I get from the cutting garden at my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I like getting extra basil and stevia as well. A few leaves of stevia in pots of tea give it just enough sweetness…and basil provides another flavor in my smoothies and stir fries. Both plants are about ready to go to seed. There are only a few stevia plants, but it seems I’m the only one going back to that part of the garden.

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Next to the stevia were some big feathery plants that I glanced at just as I was cutting the stevia. There were two caterpillars!!!! I knew the type they were from several years ago when I had some black swallowtail caterpillars on a parsley plant in a pot on my deck.

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As I walked to the end of the row where the sign that identified the plantings was located, I saw another caterpillar.

It turned out the plant was fennel! When I got home I did some research (I am old enough to remember having to go the library for references we now have with a simple search on our home computers!) and it is listed as a food plant for black swallowtail caterpillars! I also learned that the fennel seeds are edible and will harvest some of the seed heads on the plant next week. The leaves are being eating by caterpillars but otherwise the plants look ignored by other CSA folks.

The compost pile to the side of the cutting garden was very colorful. I guess some of the tomatoes and squashes had animal bites or got overripe before they could be picked/distributed.

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Of course, I got the usual fresh flowers. They are bracketing the red maple seedling this morning. I still have 2 kombucha bottles with flowers from the previous week as well.

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Frog in the street. I start out for my grocery shopping before 6:30 AM and these days it is still dark at that time. This week it was wet which might have also made it seem darker. After I passed the recycle truck heading further into the neighborhood, I saw a frog (in silhouette) hoping across the street toward the neighborhood pond! I stopped…to give it time to get across.  

Paintings of Flowers Indoors – September 2020

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Today the artists I’m featuring are from slideshows on Internet Archive that I looked at back in July and late August. It’s a treat to savor them again – and share them in a blog post. I picked out the flower pictures but there are many paintings with different subjects by all these artists. (Clink on the images below to see a larger version). The slide shows are well worth a look.

Rupert Bunny (1864 - 1947)

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

4 Caterpillars update. I found 4 Monarch caterpillars first thing in the morning. The one that was in the wheelbarrow then on a milkweed in another flowerbed may have moved to be closer to the other 3 since I didn’t see it for about 24 hours and now there are 4 on a group of milkweed near the front porch. The 2 of the 4 are now quite large. Hopefully, all of them will make their chrysalises in easy-to-see places so I can avoid disturbing them when I work in the flowerbed.

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Mini clover. We planted the mini clover 4 days ago and it’s already sprouted! (The clover is the small plants coming up between the other grass/weeds.) We’ve been watering the two areas every morning to give the seeds the best possible start.  Now there is rain in the forecast for the next few days so maybe we are about over the need to provide the extra water.

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4 Monarch Caterpillars

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I swept acorns from the driveway and picked up sticks that had fallen off the oak; the wheelbarrow was not very full when I started toward the front flower beds to do some bush trimming. I looked down as I started and saw a medium sized monarch caterpillar on the edge of the wheelbarrow closest to the handles. It was a shock since I had not been anywhere near any milkweed plants. I took the picture after I moved the caterpillar to a milkweed plant.

The caterpillar moved from the leaf I’d encouraged it to crawl to (used to transport it) onto the milkweed leaf right away and then rested – made it easy to get some pictures.

I checked some of the other milkweed plants that I had left in the front flower bed and found 3 other caterpillars!

By the time I finished doing some bush trimming and filling the wheelbarrow, the caterpillar that I’d found on the wheelbarrow was busy eating on the milkweed plant where I’d moved it.

The following morning, I went out early when the temperature was only about 60 degrees and saw 2 of the caterpillars actively eating. Hopefully, the others were still around too…just not actively feeding where I could see them.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Two woodpeckers on the birdfeeder. I was reviewing the videos from the camera we have on the bird feeder and found an interesting one from first thing in the morning back on the 6th….2 woodpeckers (red-bellied and downy) on the feeder at the same time! Both were females. The downy flew off without getting any seed but the red-bellied got something before she flew away.

Coloring Zentangle® Tiles

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I enjoy making the Zentangle tiles. Recently I’ve discovered that making a second pass at tiles – coloring them – is also very enjoyable. Here are two tiles - original and then colored. The look is quite different!

I’ve picked 8 others from the ones I’ve been working on for the past week. Coloring is a bit faster than the creating of the original tile, but it is Zen in the same way. It’s very easy to keep focus on the task rather than bouncing around to all kinds of thoughts. And when I’m done – I savor the creation…then let it go.

Allowing at least several days between the original creation and the coloring means that often the tile seems ‘new.’ I don’t remember the order I made the original pattern. The two rounds of activity on the tile are separate endeavors.

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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.

Maple Seedling

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A maple seedling has been added to the row of Kombucha bottles on the windowsill in my office. I did this several years ago with a smaller seedling and it lasted for a long time – the leaves eventually turning red (long after the leaves fell from the red maple tree in our yard). This one will have a place with the cut flowers for the next few months.

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I pulled the seedling while I was working in the front flower bed. It must have missed my attention previously. My husband filled the bottle with water for me to put it in since my boots were muddy.

It was one of four red maple seedlings I found.

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There were 5 tulip poplars!

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I filled the wheelbarrow with bush trimmings and milkweed (without caterpillars) – once again using that as the metric for my morning round of yard work.

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When I took the wheelbarrow back to the brush pile to empty, I noticed that the small puffball I had seen over a week ago was done with its development – had puffed its spores away.

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Miniclover. My husband mowed at the lowest setting (i.e. scalped) the areas of our yard that tend to have problems keeping their turf…we raked over the areas…and planted miniclover. In the past we’ve tried over-seeding with grass seed and it hasn’t worked very well so we decided to try something different. Now we are watering every morning (if it didn’t rain overnight) for the next week or so….and we’ll see what happens.

eBotanical Prints – August 2020

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20 botanical eBooks in August 2020! The time range is quite long in this group from 1700 to 1999. The 4 Weinmann books are the only ones in color this month and they are quite old – from the 1700s.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of 1963 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 20 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V1 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V2 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V3 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

Phytanthoza iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquot millium V4 * Weinmann, Johnn Wilhelm et all * sample image * 1737

The Agricultural Grasses of the United States * Vasey, George; Richardson, Clifford, US Division of Botany * sample image * 1884

Pomona, or, The fruit-garden illustrated - containing sure methods for improving all the best kinds of fruits now extant in England * Langley, Batty * sample image * 1719

Icones pleurothallidinarum V76 1999 * Luer, Carlyle A. * sample image * 1999

Icones pleurothallidinarum V39 1991 * Luer, Carlyle A. * sample image * 1991

Jacobi Zanonii Rariorum stirpium historia : ex parte olim edita, nunc centum plus tabulis ex commentariis auctoris  * Zanoni, Giacomo * sample image * 1742

Institutiones rei herbariae V2 * Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de * sample image * 1700

An illustrated guide to the flowering plants of the middle Atlantic and New England states * Stevens, George Thomas * sample image * 1910

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXXVIII - 1900 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1900

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXXI - 1893 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1893

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign LVII - 1919 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1919

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XLIV - 1906 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1906

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XLVI - 1908 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1908

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXV - 1887 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1887

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign XXII - 1884 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1884

Journal of Botany, British and Foreign LIII - 1915 * Britten, James (editor) * sample image * 1915

Botany of to-day, a popular account of recent notable discoveries * Eliot, George Francis Scott * sample image * 1911

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 5, 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.

Why cavemen needed no braces – Our diet and behavior have changed a lot since the stone and hunter/gather stages of our species….and those changes have impacted our jaw (and teeth and air way). There are more health consequences than just crooked teeth. I’ve bought the book (Kindle version) to learn more.

Characteristics that give viruses pandemic potential – An article from The Scientist that is more future oriented. What we are experiencing with COVID-19 is something that could happen again. The article talks about various types of viruses that pose the greatest threats.

Peer into the Past with Photorealistic Portraits of Roman Emperors – Taking historical sculptures and drawings to the next level. The Smithsonian Magazine summary has images of Augustus, Maximus Thrax, Caligula, and Nero….the rest can be viewed in Daniel Voshart’s site.

Amazing Macro Winners of the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2020 – Visual treats. This it the type post that gives me ideas about things to try with my own camera.

1,200-Year-Old Soap Factory Unearthed in Negev Desert – The soap was made from olive oil and the ashes of the saltwort plant. The factory produced enough for export to places like Egypt and other parts of the Arab world.

Low humidity increases COVID-19 risk: Another reason to wear a mask – This finding does not bode well for the winter when many homes and workplaces have much lower humidity because of furnaces.

Top 25 birds of the week: Birds in Pairs – Beautiful birds….I always enjoy looking at the 25 pictures each week.

Hawaiʻian Snails: A Tale of Discovery and Rediscovery – I remember seeing a snail in a planter box at the airport on the big island while I was waiting for my luggage a few years ago…and I dug up the picture I took when this article prompted the memory.

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Wolverines Seen Roaming About Mount Rainier National Park – What a boon remotely triggered cameras can be….and then DNA testing of hair to determine relationships!

 Meet the Squad of Mosquito-Eating Species – Birds, dragonflies, newts, aquatic turtles, and bats. We haven’t noticed very many mosquitoes around this year, but we try to replace the water in our bird baths frequently and make sure our gutters are draining properly. Having the birds around our house probably helps…and the turtles at the neighborhood pond do their part.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Going to the basement during a storm. Our phones went off with tornado warnings – which is rare in Maryland. We went to the basement. It turned out to be only heavy rain for us (not very windy either); to the east and south of where we live there was a lot of damage with trees/big branches falling and shingles flying.

Cleaning the leaves off the deck. Over the past week we’ve had several fronts come through that have blown leaves and branches onto our deck. They were still wet when I went out to clean up. I dumped the sediment that had accumulated in the bird bath too.

Finding Witches’ Butter. I photographed the fruiting bodies of Witches’ Butter on our deck railing. The deck is over 25 years old and even regular treatment can’t keep it clear for fungus; it is only visible during times when the wood is wet for several days.  

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I’m more concerned about a window frame that has the same fungus growing. I’m not keen about replacing the window but we might have to consider it.

More Butterflies at the CSA

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There seemed to be even more butterflies at the Community Supported Agriculture cutting garden when I went to cut my flowers and stevia this week. I’d remembered to take my better camera so got some reasonably good pictures. I managed to identify all of them using the Maryland Butterflies web page when I looked at the images on my big monitor.

I’ve seen the Common Buckeye many times but they seemed to be a lot more of them in close proximity than I had seen before.

The Pink-edged Sulphur was a new one for me. I knew it was a ‘sulphur’ when it photographed it but didn’t see the edges clearly until it was on the big screen.

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The Red Admiral on the cone flower was one I don’t remember seeing before but it is evidently found through most of Maryland.

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I’d seen the Palamedes Swallowtails in previous year’s Wings of Fancy exhibits inside the conservatory. This was the first one I’ve seen in the wild. I realized it was a swallowtail when I photographed it and that it looked a little different than the dark morphs of tiger swallowtails that often are more common in this area.

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What a thrill to see three new-to-me butterflies this week!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Car service. We took my husband’s car to the dealership for a gear shift button repair (it popped off!!!). It turned out to be a recall item and they had the replacement part. Now the service is up to date on the car as well. My car will get serviced next week. We haven’t been driving much this year….but the cars do have a maintenance schedule.

Yampa Valley Festival of the Cranes. I started making my way through the videos. They are well done. It is positive story as well because Northwest Colorado’s Greater Sandhill Cranes have gone from endangered to threatened (1993) to special concern (1998). I’d like to go to the festival held just before their fall migration south some year….see the young cranes leaving the nesting grounds. Some of them end up in Bosque del Apache where we’ve been twice to the festival in November (cancelled this year).

Fledgling chipping sparrow. This is the time for fledging chipping sparrows (probably second brood). There was one that was trying to come to the feeder while I was out with my morning caffeine. It couldn’t quite manage getting on the perch so would flutter down to the deck railing and an adult bird would bring some seed. Hopefully, it will become coordinated enough to get its own seed soon.

New Phone

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My new phone is a Samsung Galaxy S10e – that is the smallest of the current Samsung phones (the others are too big for me to mange one-handed). I got it set up on the same day as it arrived with a little help from my husband. Last time I bought a phone the initial set up was done at Best Buy. This time the phone was delivered to the house from Verizon and we did all the set up at home. I have all the apps I use all the time working as expected and will do the others as I need them.

Setting up a new device is always a high-stress time – remembering infrequently used passwords…trying not to mess up the set up and having to back track (or worse yet…not be able to figure out how to back track)…somehow losing something unrecoverable in the transfer. With the phone I had the added challenge of applying the screen protector…making sure it was very clean before the application and that all the bubbles were out before the adhesive set.

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I’m past the anxiety now and enjoying the new device. The sunflowers cover I got Is OK but I think I might order a more unusual one (orange jewelweed) as a treat…maybe to remind myself that the phone is the ‘big present’ for my birthday later this year.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Clearing the crispers. I had quite a lot of produce left from last week’s share on the day I picked up the new one so I spent time in the morning putting as much as I could in the freezer. I’d managed to eat the 4 pounds of larger tomatoes but still had 2 pints of the cherry size…which freeze well with just a simple rinsing and then placing in a Ziploc.

The beets were more challenging. They had to be scrubbed and then cut up into bit size pieces that could be used in smoothies or cooked (stir fry or soup).

All the mild peppers I cut up and put in a Ziploc. The jalapenos I cut up and put in their own container….I’ll use them in small amounts – making taco filling (beef or chicken).

I still need to cook the spaghetti squash (next time we turn on the oven for something else). All the other things I had left, I ate as part of my lunch before I made the pickup later in the afternoon.

Zentangle® – August 2020

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There were a lot of tiles made in August….more than 3 per day. Picking just 31 of them was challenging. 16 of the ones selected were rectangles cut from separator cardboard in boxes of cat food. The rounded shapes in some of them are inked indentions from the cans of Fancy Feast! My plan for September is to limit myself to 2 tiles per day…but then ‘color’ old tiles if I want some more ‘pen in hand’ time. The rectangular tiles created with black ink are prime candidates for this activity.

There are two series that I developed during the month and some of them made it into the 31 selected: 3 of the ‘5 gingo’ series

And 4 of the ‘x string’ series.

And then here are the rest of the square tiles.

Most tiles were made in my early morning outdoor time on the deck…and I am increasingly sitting in a chair using the back of my iPad as a surface for the tile. I like the freedom to grab a pen and some tiles and just go wherever I want in the house or yard. That means there is no shading (don’t want to deal with the pencil and tortillon rolling around)….and I’m fine with that sacrifice.

The new pen I am experimenting with is a white Sakura Gelly Roll 08. The Sharpie Ultra Fine points are still my favorites, but I am experimenting with other pens that I have around. It’s been over a year since I got quite an assortment at the CZT class and I want to use them before they dry out.

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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.