30 years ago – April 1992

April 1992 was probably the most traumatic month of my career…I ended my work on what I had come to think of as ‘the project from hell’ but hadn’t settled into my new assignment. My husband had helped my situation when he bought our first laser printer in response to the long hours I spent working at home after a full day at the office. It also helped to be away at a company sponsored event in LA for a week…respite from the toxic work environment; one of the phrases I picked up from the speakers was from Herb Cohen – “Care…but not too much” – a message I needed to apply!

My daughter was a full of energy and enjoying her new bedroom arrangement – no more crib; she was enjoying a twin bed. Her Easter morning was probably one of her best ever – she enjoyed finding the plastic eggs ‘hidden’ all over our den and the Winnie-the-Pooh characters I had purchased at the Disney store when I was in LA. The day was too damp to do any egg hunting outside.  Toward the end of the month, it was warm enough for a trek to Wheaton Park where she picked a zebra to ride on the Merry-go-round.

Overall – a memorable month. I am so fortunate that my family kept me emotionally grounded enough to weather the upheaval at work.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 9, 2022

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.

Winners of Wildlife Photography Competition Show the Power of Water – Starting out the gleanings list with some eye candy this week.

Personality traits are associated with well-being and satisfaction in life after work – My husband and I have transitioned to ‘life after work’ and seem to have easily established ‘new fulfilling life patterns.’ In an odd way, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped us focus on the most important aspects of those patterns.

A New Study of the Permian Basin – a US oil-drippling hotspot is kicking out far more methane that we thought – I keep thinking that the technology to reduce emissions in the fossil fuel extraction process has improved from the early days. Maybe it has…maybe the hasn’t. The industry may not be motivates. Is it all about maximizing profits for them and their stockholders…everyone else doesn’t matter?

Toad Wisdom – A story of webs of life from the Prairie Ecologist.

European earthworms reduce insect populations in North American forest – Even small invasive species can have a significant impact.

Mapping Inequality – Redlining in New Deal America – An introduction….then downloads and data for maps for urban areas across the US from the 1930s.

Top 25 birds of the week: birds on flowers – Enjoy some photographs of birds…flowers…springtime!

Scents help researchers identify contents of Egyptian vessels – The smells of ancient Egypt!

Norway at new record high 92% plugin EV share in March – Hopefully the EV share in the US will start climbing more rapidly.

“Flash droughts” coming on faster, global study shows – Extreme weather….not all on the wet side.

eBotanical Prints – March 2022

20 botanical print books browsed in March and added to the list. The month continued the browsing of Refugium Botanicum volumes that I started in February. The publication dates are all from the mid-1800s (1851-1872)….and lots of color rather than drawings.

The whole list of 2,350 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the March 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

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

Refugium botanicum V3 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1870

Refugium botanicum V4 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1869

Refugium botanicum V5 * Saunders, William Wilson; Baker, John Gilbert; Fitch, W. H. * sample image * 1869

L'Horticulteur Francais 1851 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1851

L'Horticulteur Francais 1852 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1852

L'Horticulteur Francais 1854 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1854

L'Horticulteur Francais 1855 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1855

L'Horticulteur Francais 1856 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1856

L'Horticulteur Francais 1858 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1858

L'Horticulteur Francais 1860 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1860

L'Horticulteur Francais 1862 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1862

L'Horticulteur Francais 1865 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1865

L'Horticulteur Francais 1866 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1866

L'Horticulteur Francais 1867 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1867

L'Horticulteur Francais 1868 * Henricq, Francois * sample image * 1868

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T2 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1872

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T1 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1870

Flore médicale usuelle et industrielle du XIXe siècle T3 * Dupuis, Aristide; Reveil, Oscar; Baillon, Henri * sample image * 1872

Horticulture: végétaux d'ornement * Dupuis, Aristide; Henrincq, Francois * sample image * 1871

Horticulture: Jardin potager et jardin fruitier * Henricq, Francois; Gerard, Frederic * sample image * 1872

Bulbs to Move

Now that we are through the peak of the early spring bulbs, I am thinking about which ones I will dig up to move with us to Springfield, MO.

At the top of my list are the miniature daffodils. They were purchased by my mother-in-law when she moved in with us the year before she died. I’ll move them again since they remind me of her every spring when they bloom….part of her legacy. We moved them from our previous house. The multiply very easily. I am also confident that they would do well in Springfield.

Will I dig up the day lily bulbs that she bought as well? Maybe. Right now, they rarely get a chance to bloom since the deer eat both the leaves and the buds. If our new house in Springfield has a fenced yard…not on a deer trail into the neighborhood…I will probably take a few. They too proliferate well.

I have some iris that come up every spring – not in the numbers we had originally…from my parents. They dug them from their garden in Texas to bring to Maryland shortly after we moved to our current house. In recent years, moles have disturbed their growth. If there is a space in the Springfield house to start an iris bed…I’ll dig up a few rhizomes…or maybe I would be better off getting some from the various family yards in Texas after we move.

I’m already looking forward to establishing a new yard with a little history from our current one!

Cherry Blossoms

Our cherry tree was blooming when I returned from Texas and retained enough blossoms through the rain and wind of my first days back to be worth photographing on the next sunny day. The temperatures were cool (almost cold) which probably slowed down the blooming.

I was most interested in getting macro pictures of the flowers and buds with the clip-on lens my husband got for me in December. There are a few leaves that are beginning to unfurl but the blossoms dominate.

The trees in our yard are progressing in the usual order. The red maple blooming first; that happened before I went to Texas; the seeds are forming now. Then the plum; there are still some battered blooms but there are more leaves than flowers at this point. Both the plum and cherry look better this year because they were professionally trimmed last fall.

The tulip poplar has green buds but will be a few weeks before the flowers open. The leaves are already more visible on the tulip poplars than any of our other trees.

Watching the trees emerge from winter is a rite of spring…always worth observing/photographing.

Coming Home from Texas

The morning I left Texas, I was up early to treat my bug bites and the sensitive skin left from my round of hives. The bites were my main concern…lots of calamine lotion on them to stave off itching. I did the last bit of loading into the car; my parents woke up a little early to see me off. It was dark when I set out. There was about an hour when the sun was in my eyes after the sun came up, but the weather was crisp and clear - great for driving.

I stopped at a Pilot for a rest stop in Texas (and to get my morning caffeine). The upper part of the wall was decorated with ‘Texas tourist art’.

The part of my route in Arkansas was easy…just a little construction around the cities but didn’t slow me down.

The last rest stop in Arkansas had a tree with a fresh wound…a big branch must have come off recently. .

I crossed the Mississippi into Tennessee at Memphis heading toward Nashville. The drive was easy enough that I talked with my daughter on the phone (through my car) - noticing areas of recently downed trees along the highway and a kettle of birds (I think they were pelicans…certainly were not vultures…at 70 mph I didn’t take my eyes off the road for better identification).

I turned north at Nashville toward Bowling Green, KY which would be my stop for the first night. Overall – I made it to Bowling Green 20 minutes earlier than my car’s projected ETA first thing in the morning! It was a long day of trouble-free driving.

The next morning, I got up even earlier since I was trying to get myself back to east coast time. It was dark when I set out again even though I was on the eastern side of the central time zone. The driving was easy at first. It was a weekday but I managed to miss rush hours in the few cities along the way.

By late morning I was in West Virginia and enjoying the scenery….shortly after a long highway construction/special closure caused a 30 minute delay but the weather was good and the rest stops along the highway were frequent.

After a rest stop that included buying gas as I got close western Maryland – I got a rude surprise: snow and wind. I didn’t stop at the first rest stop in Maryland. It was white knuckle driving by then and continued for about an hour through Garrett and most of Allegany Counties. I was lucky that I68 did not have much traffic and few trucks. Everyone slowed. And we all made it through to Sidling Hill where it was cold but not snowing at all! My car was covered with salt, grit…and melting ice.

The sensor in my windshield gave an error that cleared after I use the wiper fluid/wipers so the adaptive cruise control functioned through it all. By the time I got home I had calmed down a little from the stress from that hour of hard driving. The exhaustion from the two days of driving (or maybe more the last afternoon) set in the next day. I took a long nap!

Being Sick While Traveling

There was one time I had a terrible cold while traveling during my career – but I was never sick enough to seek medical attention until my time in Texas last month. It was quite an experience.

I was tweaking the dose of a medication per my doctor’s instruction and, at first, I thought my high heart rate and feeling hot was caused by that change…but it continued to get worse over the next 24 hours. I finally noticed a pink area of skin on my abdomen and went to an Urgent Care…where I was diagnosed with cellulitis by the doctor (after the first place I called would not accept Medicare…aargh!). At first the antibiotic seemed to work very well. My heart rate declined back to normal with a few hours of the first dose. The pink area was reduced in size and fading after the second.

Trouble started about the time I took the 4th dose. I haven’t taken much medication so didn’t know any antibiotic I was allergic too…it happened that the one prescribed caused me to itch…I scratched…welts formed ---- HIVES! It was scary since it was described as an indication of an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. I managed to take some Benadryl and reach a doctor to switch me to another antibiotic.

I thought everything was going well – finally. Then I somehow attached something that bit me multiple times (maybe it was multiples of the same insect?)…so I had the remnants of hives (that were no longer itching as much) and bug bites that were new and itching. I covered all of it with calamine lotion to keep from scratching.

Fortunately - I was recovering by the time I started the two-day drive between Texas and Maryland. That trek is the topic of tomorrow’s post.

Zentangle® – March 2022

March was a busy month with an overlay of trauma (laptop problems, getting sick while I was traveling) but making Zentangle tiles helped me weather the increased stress. The daily routine of creating at least one tile is one of my most reliable methods of coping with whatever is happening otherwise.

I am still using up old pens so there are fewer colors in this set…although while I was in Texas, I had the box of old gel pins to add to the variety. I used more round and square coasters this month – realizing that some of them were yellowing after being unwrapped – perhaps absorbing some moisture from the air and beginning to deteriorate. There were a lot fewer rectangular tiles this month. Overall – I like the patterns and colors in this collection.

I’m always a little surprised when I choose the tiles for the month….enjoy again what I created during the month.

--

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 2, 2022

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.

Where Have All the (Big) Cypress Trees Gone ... And Are They Coming Back? – The cypress stands survived logging but they may never again be as dominant as they were before. The largest trees now are about 3.5 feet diameter; the largest stumps from logging are about 5 feet diameter.

8 bird migrations, from past to present – The annual movement of birds is a part of spring….part of the yearly progression.

Cherry Blossom Time In Washington, D.C. – I was glad to get home in time to see the cherry tree in our yard bloom; it’s a little behind the trees in DC (we are a little north and not on the water).

Nature Conservancy to build solar farms at abandoned coal mines in Virginia – And thus an energy producing community, continues…leaning into the future!

The sound of Merlin: like Shazam, but for birds – An app that IDs birds by their songs…a learning experience to take on a walk.

Higher risk of temperature-related death if global warming exceeds 2°C – We’ll have to be more aware of heatwaves. Perhaps we would modify our behavior during those times…and medical interventions might help. There is a heat threshold above which our bodies are not adapted very well…that will cause increasing problems.

Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape – Another perspective of Tolkien…through his art rather than writing.

No breathing easy for city dwellers: particulates – Southeast Asia has seen the largest annual average increases in concentration and mortality rates between 2000 and 2019 from this type of air pollution.

How climate change is leading to bigger hailstones – The records for the largest hailstones have been broken in the last 3 years in Texas, Colorado and Alabama….reaching sizes of up to 6.2 inches in diameter. Large hail causes a lot of damage…if the incidence of large hail increases the damage/costs will trend higher too; the post includes a picture of a car damaged by large hail…daunting to anyone that doesn’t have their car parked in a garage.

Missouri Man Indicted For Fire That Destroyed Ozark National Scenic Riverways Visitor Station – I am paying more attention to news about natural areas in Missouri…now that I am preparing to move to the state. It’s sad when this type of destruction occurs – hard to fathom why someone would burn a visitor station.

A. A. Milne Books (and not Winnie-the-Pooh)

I browsed 3 books written by A. A. Milne from the early 1920s available on Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive last month. They were all before the Winnie-the-Pooh books although two of them contain material that later became part of the books that made Milne famous.  

A Gallery of Children illustrated by H. Willebeek Le Mair (1925) is my favorite of the group because of the illustrator. I posted about 4 other books she illustrated by in August 2021; she’s one of my favorite illustrators of the early 1900s.

Once Upon a Time illustrated by Charles Robinson (1922) was written in 1915…before the birth of Christopher Robin at a time when ‘life was not very amusing.’ It was published at the end of 1917. Milne commented that ‘I am still finding it difficult to explain just what sort of book it is.’

When we were very young (1924) is dedicated to Christopher Robin Milne (or Billy Moon as he prefers to call himself). He was born in 1920. The Internet Archive book does not include illustrator’s name; the A. A. Milne entry in Wikipedia lists E.H. Shepard (Punch cartoonist).

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2022

March was a busy month with a variety of little celebrations – both at home and traveling.

Brookside Gardens. Brookside is one of my favorite places for photography….in any season. There were plenty of plants to photograph/celebrate in March 2022.

Snow that didn’t stick. The temperature can vary so much in March. I celebrated a snow that was pretty…but didn’t stick to the streets or walkways.

Successful transition to alternative laptop. My laptop died suddenly and completely…had to be sent to Dell for diagnosis and repair (under warranty). I celebrated that my husband helped me 1) make sure I had everything off the drive (i.e. we took it out of the laptop and accessed it from another computer…I got everything I’d been working on since the backup which was about a week old…and we made another backup) and 2) provided an alterative laptop for me to use until Dell could make the repair and return it. Writing this – I realize how much I appreciate my husband of almost 50 years still dropping everything to help me through a problem.

Big pictures fit in my car. I celebrated that the last of our big pictures fit in my car…got transported to Missouri…won’t have to go on the moving truck.

House hunting in Springfield. I learned a lot on my first round of house hunting in Springfield MO…celebrated that the process of moving has begun.

Getting to Carrollton…healthy parents. Both of my 90+ year old parents were healthy during my visit…something to celebrate after not seeing them since November.

Travel scale fixed. I was chagrined to discovered that my travel scale was not working….a little panicked that I would gain weight during my two weeks away from home. I celebrated when replacing the battery solved the problem!

New low weight of the year. And then shortly after my scale was working again – I achieved a new low weight for 2022…I always celebrate those days (usually with a little extra dark chocolate).

Antibiotics. I’ll write about my adventure of getting sick while I was away from home in a few days…will just say now that I celebrated when antibiotics worked very quickly.

Home again. I am home again as I write this…and celebrating as usual after a road trip. I’ll write more about how I got home and the backlog of activities in the upcoming week.

Zooming – March 2022

When I use my bridge camera, pictures are composed using the zoom on the camera. I chose 9 to feature in this post; they’ve already appeared in other posts with others from the same location, but I like to pull my favorites together as a way of summarizing the locations I enjoyed in March: home, Brookside Gardens, a yard in Carrollton TX and Josey Ranch Lake (Carrollton)…seasonal representatives of the usual types of subjects: plants, insects, birds.

Unique Aspects of Days – March 2022

There are a range of unique aspects that I recorded in March:

It was the first time there were amorous cattle in a field that I drove by on my way from Springfield to Carrollton. I guess it is another sign of spring!

Seeing the spherical sculpture glow from within from reflected light at Brookside Gardens was something I had not anticipated….will now always look for again.

Seeing a bird on an empty suet feeder…then clearly seeing the under bright yellow feathers of a flicker as it flew away.

Starting to get our house ready to sell…touching up interior paint.

Being able to photograph the arch in St Louis from the bridge over the Mississippi when I was driving – it is one of the few times that I appreciated a construction delay that snarled traffic.

Total failure of my laptop. This is one that I hope never occurs again! It was under warranty so is being fixed by Dell.

Very cold drive through WV with snow all over…except on the roads.

Carrollton Yard in Early Spring – Macro

I posted about the larger view of the Carrollton yard last week; today the post is from the macro perspective. I started indoors where my mother had some vases of spring blooms (daffodils and hyacinths) that looked cheery.

A few days later, I walked around the yard…the hyacinths and daffodils were mostly spent so I photographed other flowers: oxalis, Japanese quince, dandelion. The dandelion is my favorite.

The new rose leaves were not wet…but the new leaves must have some waxy material that protects them from cold temperatures this time of year.

A larger rock under one of the old mulberries had several kinds of lichen growing on it. The encrustations overlap and I found myself wondering if, in the overlap, are they melding or overlapping. Lichen are an organism that operate on an entirely different timescale than me do; some might continue to slowly grow and dissolve their rock for thousands of years.

Josey Ranch

The winter birds have already left Josey Ranch Lake (no shovelers or scaups or buffleheads or ruddy ducks). The normal residents were going about their morning routine when I ventured out at sunrise. The Coots were noisy.

I only saw one Swan. I wondered if there was a nest in the reeds (with the other swan on it); it would be great to have cygnets this year. The nest was flooded last year.

There was a Great Egret walking around the shallowed. Maybe the bird had already caught breakfast because it seemed to be moving about rather than actively fishing.

There was a pair of Pigeons interacting. I assumed the larger one strutting around was the male.

There were Cormorants that were staying on the lake but occasionally flying to another part of the lake. They too seemed to have already gotten breakfast; there were not diving.

Even Mallards are worth photographing in morning light!

I didn’t photograph the Canada Geese or the Grackles….they were a big part of the morning soundscape around the lake.

I’ll be in Carrollton again soon…can track the progress of the birds using the lake in late Spring and into Summer.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 26, 2022

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.

How triple-pane windows stop energy (and money) from flying out the window – How long will it be before all window replacements and windows in new houses will be triple paned? I guess is depends a lot on affordability….and then availability. I like that they reduce noise too.

Yellowstone At 150: Challenges Go More Than Crowd-Deep – A post about Yellowstone’s past, present…projections for the future. My husband and I have only visited the park once…hopefully we’ll be able to see it again.

Beware the joro spider. Scientists say the giant, but harmless, arachnid is spreading – A native of Japan…it has been in the southeastern US for the past decade. It may be poised to continue up the eastern seaboard. Fortunately, they are not lethal to humans and the eat mosquitos/stink bugs.

Top 25 birds of the week: Seedeaters! – We see some of these at our birdfeeders!  

Cognitive Bias Codex, 2016 – A graphic I had not seen before….very thought provoking.

Revealing an Ice Age Route of Indigenous Peoples – Vancouver Island…analyzing lake sediments. One of them, Topknot Lake, was evidently never covered by glaciers so the sediment was very deep.

Hidden dangers lurking in your kitchen - A little history…and one that is relevant to my house hunting: I don’t want to buy a house with gas stove…if I do, it will be replaced with an electric ASAP.

Common house plants can improve air quality indoors – Modern homes are more airtight than ever…and indoor air quality can become a problem. Good to know that plants can help – and they are generally aesthetically pleasing too.

Spring is starting sooner and growing warmer – (A color coded map) Almost the whole US is experiencing earlier Spring. A small area of North and South Dakota is the exception.

Here are the world’s 25 most endangered cultural heritage sites – The post is a summary from Smithsonian Magazine. More details are available from the World Monuments Fund. There are sites in Ukraine that are in danger from the war there – will probably be on the next list (Smithsonian post and article with pictures of the 7 Ukranian UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (on Internet Archive)

I’ve enjoyed browsing 8 books from the color series of Fairy Books attributed to Andrew Lang and illustrated by Henry Justice Ford this March. Lang credited his wife, Leonora Blanche Lang, with translating and transcribing most of the stories in the collections; it’s heartening that he publicly acknowledged her contribution since other women were given no credit at all for their authorship during the late 1800s/early 1900s when these books were published.  According to Wikipedia: “The Langs' collections did much to shift (the) public perception of fairy stories as unsuitable for children and unworthy of critical analysis.” Enjoy the 8 sample images….and browse some of these books!

The Orange Fairy Book - The Violet Fairy Book - The Green Fairy Book - The Brown Fairy Book

The Pink Fairy Book - The Yellow Fairy Book - The Grey Fairy Book - The Olive Fairy Book

There are more Lang Fairy Books to explore on Internet Archive….outside the color series. Evidently there were 25 Lang fairy collections published between 1889 and 1913!

Carrollton Yard in Early Spring

I walked around my parent’s yard in Carrollton and took some pictures of winter giving way to spring. The greenery is still sparse enough that the debris from last season is visible. There are a few tiny flowers (note the pentagon in the center).

Some English Ivy is climbing the old mulberry. In recent years, several mulberries in their yard have been cut down (before they fell). They were probably planted shortly after the house was built.

The hyacinths are about done for the year. There were not as many daffodils this year. The Japanese Quince is an early bloomer with wonderful color.

In the front yard there are grape hyacinths around the base of another mulberry.

The high point of my walk-around was noticing an insect under a dandelion! It walked out of the shade…posed for a portrait.

This time of year…the yard views are more nuanced than they will be later which there will be a riot of perennials/annuals and warmth loving flowering bushes. I look forward to seeing them - anticipating being in Carrollton more this year as I move to Springfield MO. The the trek to see my parents from my new home will be much easier than from Maryland.

Road Trip to Texas

My trek from Springfield MO to Carrollton TX was on a blustery March day. I wanted to leave a bit before 7 AM…the recent switch to daylight savings time meant it was very dark at that time!

The only picture of the travel day was from the sun room of my daughter’s house as I ate my small breakfast and noticed that the moon was very bright in the tangle of trees.

My route was west at first, so the moon was in my view as long as it was dark, and a colorful sunrise developed in my rear-view mirror…then a very bright day (I was glad when the sun got a little higher and wasn’t shining straight through from the back of the car).

The driving was easy….all interstate this time because of a stretch of construction and a missed exit in Tulsa for US 75. Instead of turning me around to get on the usual US 75 south, my navigation system recalculated to keep me on the interstate to Oklahoma City and then down I35 to Carrollton TX. At first all was well, and I noticed lots of new calves in the fields (and an amorous pair of adults), soaring birds (mostly vultures but there were some hawks as well).

The challenge began after I passed Oklahoma City and was heading south on I35. There were still lots of calves in the fields to notice, but the road had multiple active construction sites that narrowed the highway to one lane in each direction. The wind had picked up as well so between construction zones when the speeds picked up again, I didn’t want to be anywhere near a truck; the wind was causing the big rigs to move around a lot in the lane. I had to consciously relax my hands rather than gripping the steering wheel!

The delay was not too bad. I arrived in Carrollton about 30 minutes later than the original projection. Without the construction zones, that route will be my preferred one between Springfield and Carrollton because it is all interstate…no speed traps going through towns like on US 75. The Oklahoma interstates don’t have as many rest stops (West Virginia is the best state for rest stops on my recent road trips) so most of the stops are at fast food places or truck stops…not very scenic. The road itself is not bad…through farmland and then the Arbuckle Mountains which make for curving highway…fun to drive when it isn’t too windy. Once we move to Springfield…I might leave even earlier to make some stops in places I experienced as a child (like Travertine Creek)!

This time I was glad when the drive was over…primarily because the wind was so strong. There was a wind advisory for the whole area that extended into the next day too. Fortunately my parents trees have been pruned professionally….do downed limbs. I was glad to not be on the road for more than a week when I head for home (Maryland).

Springfield Yard Macro – 2

The cold weather has kept most plants still winterized. Taking a macro view of the situation…

The leaves of the azalea are reddish from repeated blasts of winter temperatures.

The seed pods of the magnolia have been deteriorating all winter on the ground. The seeds are gone but the pods are still fuzzy with chasms of darkness or golden color.

The Queen Anne’s Lace is dried…still holding a wad of seeds at the top of the stalk.

The rose bush has some dried remnants of last season’s flowers….and some new leaves.

The cedars are a little burned from the winter.

The pine was ‘blooming’ and there was also a cone from last year still on the small tree.

One great plant that did have buds – the oak leaf hydrangea. I want to plant one of these bushes at my new house (if it does not already have one).

I’m sure by the next time I am in Springfield there will be a lot more spring growth to see and photograph!