Gleanings of the Week Ending September 11, 2021

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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.

Wind Energy Accounted for 42% of New US Power in 2020 – And solar was 38% of the new energy. And 8 east coast states have large offshore wind projects in the works in the years ahead. Hurray! It’s a good trend and it looks like the slope of the trend will keep increasing for wind and solar (decrease and go to 0 for new natural gas).

How people respond to wildfire smoke -  Another reason to slip on a mask.

Devastating Rain in Tennessee – A map of the change in soil moisture between August 20 and August 21. The floods on August 21 in Tennessee (area circled on the map) killed at least 22 people. I was surprised that there was an area of Illinois (to the north and a little west of the flash flood circle) where the soil moisture increased even more; perhaps that area floods frequently and the area is managed with flooding in mind.

New analysis reveals Vesuvius Victims’ diverse diets – From analysis of Herculaneum skeletons. Men got more of their protein from seafood. Women ate more meat grown on land, eggs and dairy products.

Eye provide peek at Alzheimer’s disease risk – Amyloid plaques can form in retinas of the eye. Does their presence there provide a visible biomarker for detecting Alzheimer’s risk?

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild Birds! – Bird photography…..challenging and beautiful subjects for our cameras.

Have you seen a weasel lately? – There is a suspicion that weasels are in the decline…but the data is circumstantial. These are not predators that have been widely studied. The post points to a role for citizen scientists!

Dispatches from a world aflame – Reviews of two books about the recent fires…and the relation to climate change.

Preemption of Green Cities in Red States – At a time when we need to get serious about addressing climate change – a drive by some states to keep local governments from taking any action. There is a cognitive dissonance between historically arguing for local control then usurping that control when the state government does not agree with it. I like local control but acknowledge that higher up the governance hierarchy could make sweeping changes easier. Perhaps some of these state governments will redeem themselves by quickly taking strong action toward climate change reduction and mitigation – soon. The top issue for me when I vote these days has become climate change!

Climate Change Is The Greatest Threat To Public Health, Top Medical Journals Warn – Another reason that actions to address climate change must be at the forefront of our thinking about the future. Medicine cannot make up for the injury we are making to ourselves and every living thing on the planet.

Christmas depicted in Better Homes and Gardens (1951-2003)

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This summer I browsed all the Better Homes and Gardens available via Internet Archive; they are available in volumes of 6 issues each for most years from the 1950s through the early 2000s. It was fascinating to observe the changes in interior decorating, architecture, and food across the decades – and I picked up some ideas for my own home (some ideas have a timeless quality!). I picked the theme of Christmas (i.e. December issues) across the years to feature in this post. The links are for the July-December months of each year.

1950s. Pecans and walnuts were popular additions to Christmas goodies in the 1950s; perhaps they were still expensive enough to not be used throughout the year…unless you had your own trees. Evidently amaryllis bulbs and caladiums were also part of the December décor.

1951, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959

1960s. I have lots of memories of Christmases in the 1960s. I don’t remember every seeing a Marshmallow Men cake…but I do remember the large and small marshmallows…..and homemade luminaries. I remember artificial trees of different shapes. I am surprised that there weren’t pictures of the large colored lights on any of the trees in the pictures.

1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969

 1970s. By the mid-70s, I had married and set up my own household. I made the bird pattern from the 1977 issue of my mother’s copy of Better Homes and Gardens in red and white felt with glittery red rickrack and red beads (and still have them). In the 1970s those were the colors of all the ornaments on my artificial tree (we did to a tree farm one year to cut down our own tree).

1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979

 1980s. The 80s ushered in the tiny lights. Special foods were more decadent than ever. We moved away from where we’d grown up in pursuit of our careers in the middle of the decade and had our daughter near the end of it.

1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989

 1990s. For us, the 90s included a major shift in our Christmas decorations in 1995; my daughter picked a white Christmas artificial tree for us (she was in 1st grade). Surprisingly all our ornaments still looked good on the new tree – but we did replace all our green wired lights with white wired sets. The look of the tree was very different than the dark green from before. One of my sisters made a pinecone wreath for us and I have refreshed it several times over the years. From the Better Homes and Gardens pictures – it seems the trend was toward decorations that were a little different – even though they might have some aspects from before. I wonder if the tree decorated with hearts and bows was intended to stay in place until Valentines in February.

1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999

 2000s. The last of the Better Homes and Gardens available on Internet Archive are from early in the decade. We had a very similar light tree to the one in the last picture; it was frustrating that it didn’t last longer – once it broke it was trash (not recyclable at all) so we have not bought another.

2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

30 Years Ago – September 1991 (2)

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The other big event for our family 30 years ago in September 1991 was finding a very large wasp nest in a maple tree near our mailbox. It was concerning to have wasps so close to a place we walked at least once a day. We decided the best thing to do was to spray the nest….wait a few days then cut it down.

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It took 2-3 applications of the poison over several days before the activity around the hive ceased. Seven days after the first application – I cut down the nest and sliced it open There were layers of hexagonal compartments for eggs – some hatched, some still full of larvae. And there were a lot of dead insects. The nest was very light weight…but strong. My husband videotaped the action (with a 1991 vintage camera) – my 2-year-old daughter was marginally interested. These wasps are among the great architects of the insect world using thin layers of cellulose pulp to construct their nest. I regret that we didn’t keep parts of the nest in a display box.

In the 30 years since, we’ve never had a nest in a problematic place again. These insects are predators – controlling pests – so it’s good to leave them if the nest is not in a location that it could be accidently bumped by a person that would result in a lot of bites!

It seems that the numbers of these insects must be in decline just like many of the other insects. Culturally we usually think more negatively about wasps because of their sting than about other insects (butterflies are beautiful and they are pollinators…honey bees make honey and are pollinators…etc.), but ever insect plays a role in the ecosystem and our indiscriminate killing of them is producing unanticipated consequences. We’re going to need our ecosystems as health as possible to adapt to climate change impacts the world over…and that requires insects!

30 Years Ago – September 1991 (1)

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Two big events happened in our family 30 years ago in September 1991 so I am doing two ‘30 years ago’ posts this month. The first was my daughter’s 2nd birthday. It stands out in my mind as the birthday celebration that included a full day of activities that she thoroughly enjoyed. The night before we looked at pictures from her first birthday…giving her some clues about what the day we be like.

She opened presents in 3 sessions. The first one included a wagon and we used it immediately to go to the neighborhood park. The day was sunny, 60-75 degrees, light breeze…. perfect weather to be outdoors. She loved the swings – particularly the tire swing which was new to her and required concentration to hold on as it went back and forth and around. As we walked home, we heard a big airplane noise and looked up and saw the Concorde (at that time it was flying into Dulles Airport to the south and west from where we lived in Maryland).

When we got home, we set up a tent in the back yard. She spent a lot of time going in and out the screen door…tickled that she could stand up in the tent while the adults had to sit.

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After lunch, the next round of presents included bubbles and pipes. She enjoyed chasing the various kinds of bubbles all over the yard….and then heading to the house saying it was time for nap….which it was.

She took longer to wake up from her nap than usual….she was still a little sleepy for the third round of presents. She played with her new stuffed animals and toys – watched by the cat. We enjoyed a simple computer game with animal pictures and letters that we played (her on my lap saying the name of the animal and me doing the keyboard) – primitive by today’s standards!

The big finale after dinner as the strawberry ice cream butterfly cake and ‘2’ cookies. She was able to blow out her 2 candles! She didn’t like the icing on the cake – only at the strawberry part.

I had made the batch of ‘2’ cookies for her to share with the other children in her day care so she had munched on a few of those before her big day. They were a good size for her and not overly sweet. I’d purchased a set of number cookie cutters for this birthday intending to use them for subsequent birthdays, but I don’t remember using them again. I found a clipping of the recipe in my notes!

“2” cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  (I added food coloring at this point.)  Add baking powder and flour one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.  The dough will be stiff, blend in last flour by hand.  Do not chill dough.  Roll out dough to approximately 1/8 in. thick on a floured surface.  Dip cutters in flour before each use.  Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet on top rack of oven for 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.   

Overall – a great birthday for a 2-year-old!

Ferns under the Covered Deck

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I bought some Christmas ferns for under our deck about 6 or 7 years ago. This year I realized I planted them in the wrong place – under the part of the deck that is not roofed; the boards have enough space between then that heavy rains come through with such force that the dirt under that area looks like a model of ridge and valley topography in exactly the pattern of the boards above. The parent plants managed to propagate in the more hospitable area where the covered deck overhead provides more protection! I’ve noticed a few ferns in the area in previous years but this year they seem to be taking off. And there are more than Christmas ferns in the mix – all of them are growing very well in almost complete shade. I’m going to spread some finished compost around them this fall to help them grow even more profusely next summer.

Two kinds of ferns seem to have spores on the back of their fronds so there is potential for the area to fill up with native shade loving plants!

Ready to Volunteer Again

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Over the past week or so – I’ve been attending training sessions at the Howard County Conservancy’s  Mt Pleasant in preparation for field trips that might happen this fall. With schools in the county just starting this week, there is a lot that is TBD for the fall field trips. There are more that the usual challenges: potential for COVID-19 outbreaks (vaccination and masking helps but is not 100%), shortage of bus drivers, and a higher percentage of new volunteers than in past years. The usual weather challenge for the outdoor programs seems small in comparison!

I am hopeful that there will be at least some field trips. The scheduling requirements probably mean there will not be a lot of them until October, and there might be some opportunities where the volunteer gig will be in the school yard rather than at Mt. Pleasant. Either way – being outdoors with students is something I look forward to every fall; I missed it in 2020.

The training session this past week was on a sunny, cool day after Hurricane Ida came through our area. I couldn’t resist some photography before/after the session.

Honors Garden

Sweet Bay seed pods just outside the Honors Garden – smaller than the pods of the Southern Magnolia but still looking like red M&Ms peeking out of the pod.

A little fall look with sunshine bringing out the changing color of leaves

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Looking again at a tree stump cut earlier in the pandemic. I noticed that the rings are somewhat concentric for the early years of the tree’s life. Then they get very closely spaced on the side toward the bottom of these image. The tree seemed to grow skewed to the left!

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As I got close to my car, I noticed that the old pear tree in the old orchard is loaded with fruit this year!  .

The place….the people…it feels good to be on the cusp of fall volunteering!

Texas Butterflies

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After I shared my video of the Monarch butterfly emerging with my sisters, we started talking about the butterflies they are seeing in Texas. They are not seeing as many as they remember being around in the past….and in recent years the only times they have noticed Monarchs is in the fall during migration. One sister noticed 2 butterflies drawn to her cosmos…more than she had noticed before.  The plants are blooming profusely.

There was a Monarch that moved all around the garden. The picture shows that it is a female. The yard has plenty of nectar  for the butterfly but no milkweed for eggs/caterpillars. This time of year, a lot of plants go dormant in that part of Texas unless they are watered and milkweed usually grows in places that aren’t watered. Is this butterfly already on its way further south?

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She sent pictures of another butter asking for an ID. It’s obviously one of the swallowtails. The pictures of the upper side show clearly that it is a male pipevine swallowtail. Again – enjoying the nectar in the yard…but there are no host plants for caterpillars.

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In the not so distant past – there would have been a lot more butterflies drawn to the nectar in her garden. Butterflies – like a lot of other insects – are declining rapidly. There are a lot of reasons…mostly derived from human activity. Hopefully our actions can begin to reverse the trend…starting now. Nectar plants are prevalent in many gardens although skewing more toward native species rather than exotics would be an improvement. Beyond that, I am going to focus on host plants and not keeping my garden so tidy that I remove chrysalises/cocoons!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 4, 2021

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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.

Entomologists Eradicated the First Asian Giant ‘Murder’ Hornet Nest of 2021 – Includes a picture of the 9 layers of the nest that was carved into an alder tree’s interior.

Turning thermal energy into electricity – It seems like this type of electricity production would have application beyond the military. Even solar panels produce heat and finding a way to automatically harness that into more electricity would be a good thing.  

Climate Change Producing More “Fire Weather” as Far East as Oklahoma – It’s not just the west coast that has a higher risk for fire as the planet gets hotter.

Aztec Pictograms Are the First Written Records of Earthquakes in the Americas – One of the pictograms matched to a 1507 earthquake that coincided with a solar eclipse!

Food systems: seven priorities to end hunger and protect the planet – A thoughtful commentary re ending hunger and improving diets; de-risking food systems; protecting equality and rights; boosting bioscience; protecting resources; sustaining aquatic foods; and harnessing digital technology.

Eating walnuts daily lowered 'bad' cholesterol and may reduce cardiovascular disease risk – There was a similar article about pecans a few days ago. I’m glad I like both walnuts and pecans! However – ½ cup is a lot to eat in one day. Usually ¼ cup is considered a serving.

Top 25 birds of the week: Woodpeckers! – I always enjoy hearing a woodpecker in the forest…and its a special tree to see them in our yard. The piliated, downy, and red-bellied woodpeckers are native to our area.

How to fight microplastic pollution with magnets – Many people filter their drinking water…but the conversation about filtering microplastics is newer. Hopefully filters that are effective and affordable will become the norm. It will take a long time to reduce the microplastic load already in the Earth’s water. We are just not recognizing the damage they are causing.

Americans Moving to Disaster-Prone Areas, Despite Climate Change – I’ve started to think about this more recently so appreciated seeing this post. Taking climate change into account – why would anyone buy property in areas that will be increasingly flood prone or incredibly hot/dry? A house nestled in a forest may look appealing but there are an increasing number of people that have already experienced the hazards of that beauty.

1,800-Year-Old Flower Bouquets Found in Tunnel Beneath Teotihuacán Pyramid – I visited Teotihuacan in the spring of 1966 when my parents took me to Mexico City. It was one of the highlights of the trip. The new discoveries are interesting….and I am thinking about whether I would like to see it again. Maybe in spring of 2026? The article references a site with some great pictures of Teotihuacan – worth a look.

eBotanical Prints – August 2021

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21 botanical print books in August and added to the list. There is quite an age range in this group. The first 10 are from the early 1900s and are a continuation of the Jakob Sturm series I started browing in July. . The rest were published earlier; one is quite old – back to 1625!

There is something to enjoy in the botanical illustrations in all these volumes. I admire the meticulous detail recorded throughout the years, the colors that have remained vibrant for over 100 years, and the perseverance it must have taken for the authors to create and then publish their works.

The whole list of 2,209 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the August books is at the end of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the August eBotanical Prints!

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 5 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1901

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 6 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1902

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 7 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1902

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 8 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1902

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 9 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1901

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 10 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1903

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 11 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1903

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 12 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1904

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 13 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1905

J. Sturms Flora von Deutschland, in Abbildungen nach der Natur BD 14 * Sturm, Jakob; Krause, Ernst Hans Ludwig; Missbach, Ernst Robert; Lutz, K.G. * sample image * 1905

De frvctibvs et seminibvs plantarvm V2 * Gaertner, Joseph; Sturm, J.G. * sample image * 1788

Flore d'Amérique, dessinée d'après nature sur les lieux * Denisse, Etienne * sample image * 1843

Flore d'Amerique : dediée à la Société Linnéenne de Bordx. * Denisse, Etienne * sample image * 1835

Coloured figures of English fungi or mushrooms  * Sowerby, James * sample image * 1797

Descriptio et adumbratio microscopico - analytica muscorum frondosorum  - nec non aliorum vegetantium V 1-2 * Hedwig, Johannes * sample image * 1787

Fvndamentvm historiae natvralis mvscorvm frondosorvm concernens eorvm flores frvetes, seminalem propagationem, adiecta genervm dispositione methodica V 1-2 * Hedwig, Johannes * sample image * 1782

Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum, que continentur Rome in Horto Farnesiano * Aldini, Tobia; Castelli, Pietro * sample image * 1625

Horti academici Lugduno-Batavi catalogus : exhibens plantarum omnium nomina, quibus ab anno MDCLXXXI ad annum MDCLXXXVI hortus fuit instructus ut & plurimarum in eodem cultarum & à nemine hucusque editarum descriptiones & icones * Hermann, Paul * sample image * 1687

Botanica curiosa oder Nützliche Anmerckungen, wie einige frembde Kräuter und Blumen * Stisser, Johann Andreas * sample image * 1697

Hortus Herrenhusanus - seu Plantae rariores quae in Horto Regio Herrenhusano prope Hannoveram coluntur * Wendland, Johann Christoph * sample image * 1798

Botanische Beobachtungen : nebst einigen neuen Gattungen und Arten * Wendland, Johann Christoph * sample image * 1798

Taking a Day off

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What does ‘taking a day off’ mean when one is post-career? Next year it will be a decade since I left my career – my formal ‘work’ - behind. I’ve filled my days with a wide variety of activities that vary from day to day, season to season…evolving over the years. For some reason, I’ve been thinking about what is means now to ‘take a day off’ --- I still do it occasionally. There are some characteristics of those days:

  • I clear the day of other commitments. For example – I write my daily blog for the ‘day off’ ahead of time and post it so that it gets released at the appropriate time without anything more from me.

  • The day is filled with activities that are different than my normal…maybe it is spent traveling or in a special class or on a field trip…or maybe it is simply a pajama day at home, being lazy.

  • The normal daily goals I have for myself (books browsed, steps, Zentangle tiles, calorie limit, yoga time) become optional. I might still achieve some of them….but they are not required.

I don’t take a day off completely very often because I enjoy every day so much. There is no equivalent to the surge of activity that used to happen during my career that would exhaust me emotionally and physically…. necessitating a day off to recover. A partial day off does happen with some regularity because achieving some of the daily metrics takes enough time that I can’t achieve them all with the other unique activities of the day. There is so much to enjoy every day!

Zentangle® – August 2021

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The August Zentangle tiles include some from the end of July – made after I had done the post a little early for the July tiles while I was still in Texas…and then making the road trip home. There are tiles made in Texas, Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland in this batch!

Making tiles is a calming activity before bedtime or while I am watching a burst of news. A variety of pens were used this month: Ultra Fine Sharpie Markers, Fine Sharpie Pens (new), various brands of gel pins (some with glitter…in Texas), Sakura Pigma Pen 05, and Sakura white Gelly Roll for highlighting.

It seems that doing something creative like making one or more tiles every day helps me be creative in other areas of my life. This month I’ve been breaking some of my dietary bad habits (dramatically reducing refined sugar and eliminating soft drinks) and tightening my personal actions re climate change. Those are significant changes for me….and require creativity for the actions I take to be as effective as possible.

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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.

Macro Photography Practice (6 and 7)

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Continuing my practice sessions…

The big difference in the 6th and 7th practice sessions was location; instead of my yard, I was at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. The 6th session was in and around the Honors Garden before a volunteer training class. There were late season flowers that made good subjects. There are two bugs; for one the light was wrong…and the other I didn’t notice while I was in the field (accidently in the picture)!

The 7th session was in the meadow. There were plenty of late flowers and seed pods. I’d taken a collapsible stool with me. It worked well but the backpack I was using for my gear didn’t. Next time I’ll use my many-pocket vest. Backpacks are great for the hiking part but terrible when doing the actual photography. I found it easier to already have my camera on a sling strap. The macro lens and diffuser can be in the many pocket vest along with a water bottle. The stool can clip onto the vest too. My favorite images are the two chicory flowers. The blue-purple color is wonderful, the shapes in the central part of the flower look like stylized palm trees and the pollen looks like sugar crystals!

It was a very hot, humid morning in the meadow, and we didn’t stay long.

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Making the bests of the time my husband was grumbling (and then heading back to the car), I used my position on the stool to take some zoomed images. The thistles had small insects in them…and the occasional skipper and butterfly. There was a milkweed pod that had split open, but the seeds were not spilling out yet.

The 7 macro photography practices session have been successful in acclimating me to the camera gear/configuration. Going forward – I’m adding a macro photography monthly post to my blog plan (keeping the zoom one too). The macro post will feature images that would be impossible to get via zoom!

Previous macro photography practice posts: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoor images); 5 (included Monarch chrysalis and increased magnification)

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2021

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So much to celebrate in August….

Drive through West Virginia. The beauty of the interstate in West Virginia (I64, I79, I68) that is part of my route from Springfield, Missouri to my home in Maryland is something to celebrate. It is full of curves, forests, mountains….and not a lot of traffic. It’s easy to enjoy as I drive.

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Cloud at sunset. Maybe it is being in the right place at the right time to see it that makes this a little celebration for me! This was taken from my office window.

Home again. I like to travel…but every time I do, I celebrate coming home. This time the delta variant ramped up while I was traveling and was relieved to get home…glad that my precautions on the road (vaccination last spring, masking, hand sanitizer, air purifier in hotel room, eating outdoors or in the car/hotel room) evidently worked.

Macro photography. My husband got me started with new gear and I’m improving although I am still at the stage of celebrating every in-focus image I get.

Stopping my diet Pepsi habit. I am celebrating more than 2 weeks free of my habit….still very consciously avoiding soft drinks completely!

Sunny day that was not overwhelmingly hot. We’ve had so many very hot days…that it was a treat to have one that was pleasant outdoors. My other strategy is to get some outdoor time before 8 AM before the day heats up.

Farmers Market. It’s fun to shop for veggies straight from the farm. In August, the cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and peppers were all tasty. The watermelons may be what I celebrate the most.

Zentangle tiles make on the deck in the early morning. A celebration pf creativity to start the day.

Spaghetti squash custard. Yum. I celebrated the flavor and texture of a simple custard.

Video of a Monarch butterfly emerging. Probably the high point of August for me. I’ve always wanted to capture the moment. And this time I did!

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Zooming – August 2021

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While I was out waiting for the Monarch butterfly to emerge, I took pictures of other insects and plants…using the zoom on my camera while I sat comfortably on a gardening stool on the front walk that borders the flowerbed. There was a black eyed susan with petals in disarray, flies, aphids on a milkweed leaf, and various insects on the mint flowers. It was a good way to fill in the time. Enjoy the slideshow!

These days – I appreciate seeing insects more than ever before. Many times when I expect to see them, there don’t seem to be as many around…or any at all; the stories about the crash of insect populations is observable in the field! It’s one of the manifestations of how humankind is warping the planet. With insects, the impact is direct with the use of pesticides and the herbicides on food/host plants for insects and indirectly through the cumulative effect of more and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that impacts the climate overall.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 28, 2021

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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.

The subtle influence of the moon on Earth’s weather – Tides….and a lot of complex interactions associated with them. High tide flooding will increase as the climate changes for example.

So much ice is melting that Earth’s crust is moving – When the weight of ice is removed, the land lifts upward…but new measurements show that it moves horizontally as well.

Top 25 birds of the week: Spiderhunters and Sunbirds! – Lots of colorful feathers in this group!

Pecan-enriched diet shown to reduce cholesterol – 470 calories per day is a lot of pecans more than ½ cup. I like pecans but will generally stick to about ¼ cup at a time…may skew toward eating pecans over other nuts although walnuts are a healthy choice as well.

California Drought Hits World’s Top Almond Producer – And maybe almonds are a nut that will be increasing in price…maybe driving people away from almond milk. I’ve already made my switch to lactose free milk.

Northern paper wasps recognize each others faces – Each face is unique!

Giant clams have a growth spurt – thanks to pollution – Evidently modern clams grow faster than ancient ones because of nitrates in the water. It doesn’t necessarily mean that are healthy…just that they are growing faster.

Photography In The National Parks: Fun Fact Photography, Part 2 – The post not only includes ‘fun facts’ about the National Parks – it also explains how the images were captured!

What happens to your brain when you give up sugar – A well timed article for me --- I am dramatically reducing refined sugars and artificial sweeteners in my diet (i.e., I still eat foods that are sweet like bananas).  I thought the headaches that occurred in the first week of my new diet were the simultaneous reduction in caffeine but maybe they were also caused by the sugar reduction.

Watch a bolt of lightning strike the Washington Monument – The monument is on a hill and the tallest thing around…..a conduit to the ground for lightning.

Some other Frances Hodgson Burnett books (with illustrations)

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I remember Francis Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911) and A Little Princess (1905) from my childhood. She wrote many more books over the course of a relatively long writing career….doing well enough to support her family, travel, and own several homes. Several books that she wrote around the same time as those books are available from Internet Archive and I browsed them recently.

The Cozy Lion: as told by Queen Crosspatch (1912)

None of these three are as enduring as the The Secret Garden – but they are examples of what books for children were like during that period. I found myself wondering if any of my grandparents – would have seen these books. I don’t think they would have; the families were farmers and barely making enough to keep families housed, clothed and fed. The schools were small schools and 3 of my grandparents went to work as soon as they were able…knowing basic reading and arithmetic required to continue into adulthood and beyond. The one grandparent that did graduate from high school managed it by living with another family in a small town for the last years of her education. It is likely that about the only books in the houses were Bibles; the schools might have provided books but probably not books like these.

Did only children of relatively wealthy, educated parents that lived in cities have books like these?

30 years ago – August 1991

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August 1991 was a stressful month at work for me – several people I depended on took advantage of an early retirement offering from the company and the two projects I was working on were both demanding a lot of time. It might have been one of the highest overtime months of my career after motherhood. Between work and my daughter’s needs, I had very little discretionary time for myself. It was the month I fully appreciated how critical my husband’s support was to enable the peaks of my career.

We had a surprise visit from one of my aunts (with her husband and 2 grandchildren); they only stayed one night but it just added to the overwhelming activity for the month.

We had visited Texas in July and were getting follow up letters in August: my Mother starting her last year of teaching, one sister house hunting and planning to visit in October, another going through similar motherhood experiences with her child the same age as mine, and the sister 8 years younger than me realizing she didn’t know me very well. The documentation I have for the month is largely through those snail mail letters!

My daughter was savoring some activities at home that she had enjoyed for the first time while we were in Texas: dabs of shaving cream to wear around before playing in her pool (a substitute bath) and painting (on paper and herself). She was beginning to use her right hand more although she was not as strongly right-handed as her cousin. She discovered she could make footprints on the deck if she walked with wet feet.

She also remembered music from the Texas visit. Whenever the cassette tape with “Let’s go fly a kite” on it played…she always smiled and clapped when that song played.  

When we went to Wheaton Park we discovered she liked the swings under a large catalpa tree better than the carousel!

It was a time of tension between work and motherhood. The techniques I had for coping were developing - not perfect; over the next few years – I accepted that it was OK to always be developing rather that achieving perfection. But in August 1991, I was pushing for perfection.

I also noted a high ozone day. Looking back, I realize that if there had been action during the 1990s…the climate situation would be better today. I was aware of the greenhouse effect…and that the earth was warming; but in 1991 I thought it was an academic idea, not something that was actionable. Like so many others – I thought it would be very gradual and there would plenty of time for corrective action. So now we are facing an urgent need to pivot --- a challenge to us all. I find myself thinking about what it will be like in 30 years – trying to take actions in my own life to sustain hope for the successful transitions we’ll have to make going forward.

Emerging Monarch

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I went out each morning after finding the Monarch butterfly chrysalis on the day lily leaf; on the second morning that the chrysalis had turned from pale green to clear – the indication that the butterfly was almost ready to emerge. Since I hadn’t seen any Monarchs in our yard this year…I decided to attempt capture the emerging butterfly with my camera.

I came back 30 minutes later…thought perhaps the chrysalis wall was weakening…that some parts in the middle were beginning to split. I had changed to my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS), mounted it on a monopod, and was sitting on a comfortable stool.

30 minutes later it looked like the top – above the horizontal row of gold dots - was beginning to split.

Another 30 minutes and I was out again – zooming in with the camera and thinking, at first, that nothing much had changed. But then I noticed some action on the other side of the chrysalis.

I changed to video since I knew the emergence would happen very quickly. It is not a great video (I need practice with video as much as I do with macro photography!) but I learned a lot from watching it later. The chrysalis did crack open but not exactly in the way I anticipated. What I was seeing at the top of the chrysalis was the abdomen of the insect which was huge! It must contain the fluid that is needed to expand the wings. The papillae on either side of the proboscis moved a lot at the beginning and I wondered if they were somehow involved in the fluid distribution or simply cleaning up the area around the face. See the video here.

After the video of the main event – I went in to let my husband know it had occurred and came back out to finish the event with some photes. Over the next 30 minutes the butterfly’s wings continued to unfurl and expand. At some point the butterfly ejected the extra fluid in its abdomen.

30 minutes later the butterfly finally opened its wings. Note that the abdomen is smaller than when it first emerged and it is probably a female.

What a great way to start the day!

Macro Photography Practice (5)

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Continuing my practice sessions…

Finding the Monarch chrysalis was the prompt for the fifth practice. There are so few of them these days; very different from the 1990s. I sat on a gardening stool to be comfortable and worked to get magnified views of the golden beads and the top of the chrysalis. The water droplets were just nice ‘extras.’

While I was busy with the chrysalis, a cabbage white sat for a few seconds on a nearby plant. It wasn’t a good angle and the picture is not sharp…but it was the first active insect for my practice session. I’ll be trying for more of these. The trick it to practice enough to be able to focus quickly!

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I practiced on a mint flower and a leaf….higher magnification that I’d attempted before.

There was a sticker like weed (one that I pull when I find it) within easy distance of my seat on the stool so I did a series of images – with increasing magnification. It was a more interesting subject than I anticipated!

I tried the same thing with a nearby day lily leaf – without as much success. The colors are somewhat interesting but my focus is off in some of the images…..more practice required.

Previous practice post: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoors images)

Day Lily Leaves

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In the later part of summer, I always cut the day lily leaves when they start to turn yellow so that they come back with new growth that is fresh and green until the frost. It probably reduces the amount of bulb growth underground but the beds are so dense in the beds that it doesn’t matter. Last year it happened in early August. This year the leaves stayed green longer. Maybe we got more rain or maybe the temperatures were better for the leaves to continue growing – or maybe their season is longer now due to climate change. The two areas we have day lilies are in the front flower beds and around the base of our oak tree.

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And every year, one of the tools I use is the old hedge trimmers I have from my grandfather.

He gave them to me when I bought my first house in the mid ‘70s; the handles were already mended. They must be over 50 years old and maybe much older! They are a wonderful reminder of him. I like using them more than the electric hedge trimmers because of the good memories that crowd into my mind when I pick them up (and they don’t bother my hands as much as the vibrations from the electric trimmers do). I also think how much things have changed since he was born in 1901…the way we now live on the Earth with a lot more people and technology that is damaging the planet…how we have to make some difficult changes to enable ourselves and future generations the quality of life on Earth that recent past generations experienced.

The area around the base of the oak was trimmed all the way around. When the new leaves come in they will cover over the mess. I noticed one side was lower than the other and realized the deer must have been nibbling there. The bed near the house was another story. I got about half done – avoiding cutting any of the black eyed susans – when I stopped because of a small discovery.

Do you see the Monarch chrysalis on the leaf (near the center of the image)? I was surprised to see it since I hadn’t seen any Monarch butterflies or caterpillars this year in our neighborhood. I’m going to take a daily picture of it until the butterfly emerges.

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Tomorrow’s post will include a few macro pictures of the chrysalis so stay tuned!