Unique Aspects of Days – September 2022

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The unique aspects for September….

Queen Elizabeth II died. The event is something that will be memorable about 2022. Her coronation was in the year I was born...she was the only well-known person I can think of that was on the international stage for that long period. Closer to home – her death accompanies the older generation of my family ebbing away. I am fortunate that both my parents are still around.

Making a quick run to Walmart for coffee. My dad makes coffee every morning and had somehow forgotten to tell anyone that there was not enough left in the container to make another pot. If I had not been visiting…they just would not have had any morning coffee that day!

Murmuration of pigeons over the Walmart parking lot. Somehow lots of pigeons were on the Walmart parking lot…and they flew up in a big swirl when they were startled by something (maybe a car?) and they did the usual turning in unison….the undulating ebbs and flows in the air. It seemed like they stayed a loft longer than required to escape danger and I wondered if the birds enjoy the ‘dancing’ in the sky.  

Talking with a man hauling hay at the gas station. I stopped to buy gas at a very large gas station just off the highway and a man with a trailer full of the round bales of hay pulled up on the other side of the pump. We had a short conversation and l learned: he is getting $60/bale rather than $30 he got last year, his fields are Johnson grass and cows like that kind of hay, this haul was from the 3rd mowing.

A upside down truck on the highway. The only time I got on the highway once I was in Carrollton, there was an upside truck on the other side….traffic just beginning to back up. It wasn’t obvious how the accident occurred; the truck was against the dividing wall that kept it from crossing over to the other side of the highway. I came back an hour later and could see that the truck was still there (upside down), but a crane has been brought in….and it was rush hour. Fortunately, I was already at my exit and the backup only slowed me down for about 5 minutes.

Rats. My parents had their house treated for rats. Insulation in the attic was replaced and holes in the eaves were sealed. There is a 10-year warranty. Hopefully this is a truly unique experience.

Grilling when it was windy. We didn’t use our gas grill when it was windy at our Maryland house, but we discovered that the house does a reasonable job of blocking the wind at our Missouri house….another reason to like our new location/house.

Laundered/dried our pillows in our new appliances. We don’t launder pillows frequently…and this was the 1st with our new washer and drier. We discovered that the sensor in the drier thought they were dry when they were dry on the outside…but not on the inside. We had to manually run the drier again….but the process was still faster than with our older appliances.

Bakery bread. I have started looking at the list of ingredients for breads…and buying ones where the ingredients are about the same as for homemade bread. It seems like commercial breads have a long ingredient list. I’m finding that the bakery breads with the shorter list taste great and are easier for me to digest.

A third COVID booster. My husband and I got the 3rd COVID booster along with a flu shot (one in each arm). I had more side effects (sore arm, aches) with this 3rd shot than I did the second…but they only were bothersome for about 24 hours and were completely gone in 48.

Zooming – September 2022

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There are 18 images in the zoom slideshow for September. Some are from around my house in Missouri. Others are from the Lake Springfield Meadow and the Springfield Botanical Gardens. One is from Carrollton, Texas. I have skewed somewhat toward macro images taken with my Smartphone but I still like to get ‘close’ from a distance with the optics of my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS). There will be plenty of opportunity for photography with my upcoming travel (2 out of the next 4 weeks) and the beginning of the seasonal change. For now – enjoy the scenes I captured in September…

Artsy Photograph

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A soft focus rose…a flower that was in a small vase on my windowsill.

I like having a rose bush near my office – close to my office. I go out to snip the spent flowers and cut 1 or 3 blossoms to bring inside every week. These are not long-stemmed roses – like found in a florist shop. But the bush has bloomed since June and the colors vary from pink to red (changing with age)…some streaks of white. The bush has become another aspect of my Missouri home that I hadn’t realized how much I would enjoy until I was here for a few weeks. Having the roses to photograph is just icing on an already rich cake!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 24, 2022

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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.

Photographer Captures the Vast Beauty of Alaska Through Breathtaking Mountainscapes – Eventually I’d like to visit Alaska…but pictures are the next best way to experience the state.

Characteristics of older forests can buffer effects of climate change for some bird species – Results from an 8-year study (2011-18). Forests can provide refugia for some species….our stewardship is important.

Ruby was the first Black child to desegregate her school. This is what she learned – I’m glad she survived and thrived….don’t want any child going through this type of experience in the future. Education is challenging for child without accompanying trauma from the community or institution or bullies.

Should you feed garden birds? – Right now we have 2 bird feeders and baths…with a few plants in the yard that attract birds as well. Over the next few years, I will be planting for the birds – native plants that will support insects the birds need particularly during their breeding season…produce pollen and nectar and seeds to round out their diet.

Earth’s Iconic Waves, observed by Landsat – A 3.5 minute video about places on earth where the waves are significant enough to be visible from satellites…and a little about why those spots produce the types of waves observed.

The sands of Mars are green as well as red, rover Perseverance discovers – The discovery of volcanic rocks on Mars rich with large grains of olivine! I remember going to a green sand beach on the big island of Hawaii – olivine on earth.

Enhanced Geothermal Technology Cracks The 24/7 Energy Code – Maybe a technology that will be as important as wind and solar in our renewable energy portfolio.

What older adults do while they sit affects dementia risk – Passive behaviors like watching TV increased dementia risk-- on the plus side active behaviors while sitting like reading and using computers reduced dementia risk. The study had more than 145,000 participants aged 60 or over with nearly 12 years of follow-up.

Cataracts: we’re working on eye drops to treat them so people don’t need surgery – Glad the research is happening…probably not fast enough to be available when my cataracts will require treatment.

When Told About Flood Risk, Homebuyers Shun Vulnerable Homes, Study Finds – I shouldn’t be a surprise that people don’t want to buy properties that flood….and there are a lot of expensive coastal properties that have an increasing flood risk.

Advertising and British Art in the 1920s

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Walter Shaw Sparrow published Advertising and British Art in 1924. The illustrations in the book are historical as art…also for what they were ‘selling.’ Quite a few of them were about travel…places to go and how to get there!

The book got me thinking about art and advertising 100 years later. We do so much with photographs and digital media now….very different than the 1920s. Some of us have shifted somewhat to experience over additional possessions when it comes to discretionary spending – which would fit in with the ideas for travel in the book. But it seems like most of my ideas come from destination or topical searches rather than advertisements!

Through my office window – September 2022

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I am finally situated to do ‘through the window’ photography from my home office in Missouri. The last tweaks were to put the screen in storage and clean the window. I also moved one of the bird baths for easier viewing. My husband and I moved a bird feeder to be surrounded on three sides by hollies….the open side being visible from my window; the other feeder, in a more open space, has become secondary based on bird traffic. Here are the best images from this month:

House finches at the bird bath

Rain drops pelting the bird bath

A chickadee that seemed to be looking at me!

Goldfinches at the feeder

A downy woodpecker at the feeder

Doves taking over one of the patio chairs

Dried Roses

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Sometimes the roses I bring indoors for my windowsill or a center piece on the table turn into subjects for macro photography as they fade…before they go into the compost pile. While they all start out as a pinkish red, there are variations in color that develop as the petals dry. Often the color darkens to a burgundy…other times there are tinges of orange and yellow. I used several variations in magnification with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for these images….was pleased with the results.

My phone is almost always with me and I’m still in awe at the quality of images it can produce. The cameras in phones have come a long way in the past 10 years…and mine is not even ‘top of the line’ at this point! The technology is no longer a limiting factor for much of the photography I want to do. It’s up to me to be creative…and consciously utilize the technology in my hand!

Springfield Botanical Gardens (insects/spider) – September 2022

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The temperature was in the low 70s and sunny during our visit to Springfield Botanical Gardens last week. There were plenty of insects to observe. I used my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) with its optical zoom for insect groupings and photographing a buckeye butterfly that flew out of the meadow onto a dusty patch. There was also a dragonfly a few feet into the meadow that appeared to be enjoying a snack.

Otherwise, I used my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for more extreme macro shots where I could get closer to the subjects. I saw the solder beetles on several different flowers in the natural garden near the Botanical Center building – the very first place I looked to find insects; there were quite a few mating (maybe they overwinter as eggs?). The Monarch butterfly surprised me – landing on a butterfly bush very close to where I was standing. I didn’t have enough room to swing my bridge camera around to photograph it….but I am pleased enough with the results from my phone.

I photographed an adult stink bug then something a had not seen before: a small jewel like insect on a flower that might be a nymph of the green stink bug!

Springfield Botanical Gardens (plants) – September 2022

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Last week my husband and I headed over to the Springfield Botanical Gardens for some early fall photography. I quickly opted toward macro shots with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) even though my external shutter clicker had a dead battery. I was pleased with the results.

Early fall is a great time for seed pods and drying flowers. There are the cheery yellow flowers and green foliage (sunflowers of various kinds, goldenrod)…it seems like some plants are throwing a last burst of energy into their flowers.

Tomorrow’s post will be about insects and spiders. We skewed toward the meadow and pollinator gardens – and found the ‘wildlife’ just about everywhere we looked!

Foggy Morning

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I am up before sunrise these days…in my office before it is light outside. I noticed the fog advisory in the forecast and waited until it was light enough to go out to the patio for some pictures. Fog takes away familiar landmarks…making everything look different. It changes the perception of place considerably. I like the image with the holly and pine around the edge best.

At closer range everything just looks wet. Spider webs stand out because every strand is coated with tiny water droplets.

The leaf texture makes a difference in whether water beads or makes a film. The poke weed (picture on the right) had regrown very quickly from the cut stump of a few weeks ago.

A few minutes…and I went back indoors to continue my morning routine: dark chocolate and some reading.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 17, 2022

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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.

Federal flood maps are outdated because of climate change – The challenge of record rainfall events becoming more common and resulting in flooding of places not seen as vulnerable previously.

Hundreds of Monumental “Kites” Spotted in Arabian Desert – Low stone walls that could be enclosures used to guide game for capture/slaughter as early as 8000 BC.

The mystery of the human sacrifices buried in Europe's bogs – Sacrifices or maybe burial for anyone that died mysteriously or unnaturally. I remember being fascinated about the ‘bog bodies’ back in 1970s…buying the book about them by P.V. Glob.

Diet change may make biggest impact on reducing heart risk in people with hypertension – Too bad that the study also found “the availability and affordability of healthy food sources does not easily allow people to follow the DASH diet.” Diets are hard enough to sustain without those extra challenges.

Despite its innocently furry appearance, the puss caterpillar’s sting is brutal – The don’t look vicious….but the hairs have poisonous barbs! There are other caterpillars that also have ‘hairs’ and can deliver painful stings – like the saddleback caterpillars. In general…I avoid handling caterpillars with hairs or bristles!

Cancers in adults under 50 on the rise globally – Earlier detection could account for some of the increase…but it is unlikely to be the sole reason. 8 of the 14 cancers on the rise are related to the digestive system. With those types of cancers, the hypothesis is that the food we eat has changed dramatically and has changed our microbiome composition…and eventual these changes influence disease risk and outcomes. There is still a lot of work to be done but it appears that the drastic rise in early onset cancer began around 1990.

The biggest myths of the teenage brain – Hopefully some of these findings will be factors in decision making for things like high school hours and how to help teenagers better understand themselves.

NREL Study Identifies Opportunities & Challenges of Achieving the U.S. Transformational Goal of 100% Clean Electricity by 2035 – No single solution….having multiple pathways to the goal is probably a good thing.

Arctic lakes are vanishing a century earlier than predicted – Warmer temperatures and more abundant autumn rainfall have caused permafrost around/beneath Arctic lakes to melt…and the lakes shank between 2000 to 2021. The reduction in lakes impacts migratory birds and other wildlife…and human communities in the Arctic.

Fall Foliage Prediction Map – My road trips this fall will offer many opportunities to see fall foliage: 1st week in October in Michigan and Canada, the rest of October around Missouri, then Texas later in October into November.

Reflecting the world when my grandparents were born

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I recently browsed 12 books by Clifton Johnson in Internet Archive and realized that the years when they were published (1893 to 1915) were just prior and during the years my grandparents were born (1901-1912). My grandparents were born in Oklahoma and Texas; these places were not direct subjects of any of the books, but I thought my grandfather born in 1901 might have walked down a dusty road in Texas kicking up dust…dressed in overalls and a hat…just as pictured in The Farmer’s Boy. I couldn’t tell whether the boy in the picture had shoes or not; my grandfather talked about not wearing shoes when he was a child if it was warm enough because they always fit poorly and there was never enough money to buy new ones that fit. In the picture of “a schoolgirl at home” in Highways and Byways of the South – the bonnet reminds me of the type one of my grandmother’s wore when she was working outdoors for the duration of her long life.  

Johnson used both drawings and photographs to illustrate his books. The majority on this list are travel type books…but there are some fairy tale books too! According to the Wikipedia entry about him, he treated photographic prints as a “rough draft” – a challenging decision in pre-Photoshop days! He lived most of his life in the northeast of the US but travelled broadly…recording what he saw.

The Oak-Tree Fairy Book

The Farmer's Boy

New England and Its Neighbors

Highways and Byways of California

The New England Country

Highways and Byways of the Great Lakes

Highways and Byways of the Rocky Mountains

The Country School in New England

The book of country clouds and sunshine

Highways and Byways of the South

The Land of Heather

A book of fairy-tale bears; selections from favorite folk-lore stories

 

Enjoy the sample images (one from each book)!

Lake Springfield Meadow (2)

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Continuing from yesterday’s post about our photography at Lake Springfield….this post features the images from my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS).

The water at the edges of the lake was low enough for lotus to flourish. There were still a few blooms. The sun was shining though one of the leaves showing its intricate veins.

I used my camera’s zoom to photograph the meadow from the path or mowed area. There were plenty of flowers to photograph.

And critters too. There was a large spider that was mostly hidden behind its web.

The grasshoppers were still enough for some photography. One was much smaller than the others and I wondered if it was an earlier instar of the larger ones.

The skippers were active. I didn’t see larger butterflies…maybe it wasn’t warm enough yet.

Dragonflies were flitting about…harder to photograph. One stayed on the asphalt path for a few seconds…a terrible background but the image shows the great color and structure of the body (too bad that the wings don’t show up very well).

Another was on a grass head for longer and I moved to get a better angle. The light on the body showed the structure and colors better than I remember seeing in the past. There was a notch out of one of the forewings and some wear on the trailing edge of both wings on that side. This was not a recently emerged dragonfly!

Overall – a lot to see and photograph with a short walk.

Lake Springfield Meadow (1)

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My daughter suggested that we see that meadow near the Lake Springfield Boathouse…and it was a great end-of-August photography session. I took by phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for macro photography and my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS). Today’s post contains the macro images and tomorrow’s post will showcase the bridge camera results.

When I use my phone for macro photograph, I almost always use my remote clicker to capture the image; that makes it easier to hold the phone still and at the right distance from the subject to get the composition/focus that I want.

There was a large sunflower near the boathouse that was full of insects. Since we parked near the boathouse, I photographed the plant at the beginning and end of the visit….mostly at the beginning. The only one of the series below from the later stop is the grasshopper! The morning was still cool enough for the insect to not be moving around yet.

In the meadow itself there were thistles and other late summer/fall flowers. There was a heavy dew that morning which had not dried up completely. The skippers were already flitting about but one of them was still for long enough for me to get close with my phone.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more from the Lake Springfield Meadow….

Slime Mold

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One morning when I came back through our back gate after walking around the neighborhood ponds, I saw something unexpected in the grass. At first, I thought it was some escaped packing peanuts.

I took a closer look. Not packing peanuts. I took pictures….and later put them into iNaturalist. It identified it as a slime mold! I think I had expected slime molds to be shiny…and yellow…because that is how they were depicted in my biology textbook (many years ago when I was in college). But – it turns out that they dry out and are no longer slimy and they are other colors beside yellow too!

It’s thrilling to see something in my own yard that I’ve known about only from books previously….another thing to like about my move to Missouri!

Josey Ranch – August 2022

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What a change a month can make! It has been raining in Texas and the water level in the Josey Ranch Lake is back to near normal. The big surprise was the city renovating the boardwalks and dredging part of what used to be the cattail area. I didn’t stay very long although there were people still getting their exercise on the concrete path around the lake. I noticed some of the edges of the concrete path had broken and collapsed…maybe from cavities forming underneath during the hot/dry months. There was no indication that the city was doing maintenance on the walkway so far; maybe that will be the next project.

The birds don’t like the disruption. The two swans were on the opposite bank, and I wondered if the smaller area of cattails was still their ‘home’ or whether they would soon be seeking another place. There were a few ducks near the swans, maybe they are the ducklings I saw back in July.

Overall – it was my least scenic visit ever to Josey Ranch….I’m hoping the work the city is doing will be finished soon.

Rats!

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The guest room at my parents’ Carrollton TX house and is near the kitchen – and there were a couple of instances of odd noises during the night during my last visit. One morning when I went into the kitchen, the flour canister had pieces of brown plastics around it (remnants of the lid’s seal which was not entirely breached but was almost gnawed off). I trashed the canister and bits of plastic….scrubbed my hands with soap and water….wiped down the counter with disinfectant several times during the day…acknowledged that there were RATS in the house.

Later I saw one near the baseboard of the cabinet below where the canister was. It ran into my Dad’s office. We pulled a set of plastic drawers out from the wall…and there were rat droppings behind it.

Aargh! I coordinated with my sisters to get a specialist out to assess the situation further after I read through the CDC’s recommendations for how to clean up a rat infestation safely.

One of my sisters had worked with a ‘critter control’ company previously and they came out soon after she contacted them. It turns out that the rats are everywhere in the attic. The company has a process to treat and remove the insulation…replace it. Treat the rooms in the lower part of the house and put traps outside the house…seal places the rats were getting in. They dispose of the material they remove. They can do it in one day if the weather cooperates. And there is a 10-year warranty. We set the date for them to do the work.

We’ve cleared the papers and books from my dad’s office, bought the paint to match the external house trim that will have sealed places, and planned for my parents to be elsewhere for that day. It is happening this week.

I am relieved that it is happening quickly. It is traumatic for my parents to have the flurry of activity to clear out of my dad’s office and then to have a long day away from home….but the health and safety risk from rats in the house is so great that they and our whole family agrees it has to be done. I’ll be back in Carrollton for the aftermath and trying to get my parents routine re-established.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 10, 2022

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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.

Circadian rhythm disruption found to be common among mental health disorders – A lot of research challenges…therapeutic potential.

Striking Winners of the 2022 Black and White Photo Awards – Perhaps I’ll try a B/W photography project…

Global Survey: Climate Change is the Top Threat – Finally….more people are beginning in realize the peril of doing nothing.

Industrial Revolution Reversed 7,000-Year Cooling Trend in Siberia, Bringing Temperatures to Unprecedented Highs – Another aspect of climate change…that threatens to unleash more greenhouse gases…spurring further warming.

Wooden canoe burial discovered in Northern Patagonia – From 850-1,000 years ago….a woman buried in a ceremonial canoe made from a Chilean cedar.

Photographer gets rare glimpse of British Columbia’s Spirit Bear – The black bears with a mutation that blocks the production of melanin…and makes them less visible to salmon (i.e. they catch the fish more effectively than the bears that are black!).

Feeling anxious or blue? Ultra-processed foods may be to blame – A study with over 10 thousand participants. Learn more about the NOVA food classification system used in the study here.

In the field with wolverines – Interesting animals that live in northern areas around the world…only about 300 of them in the lower 48 of the US (in Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming).

First sighting of massive Atlas moth confirmed (in Seattle) – The Atlas moth is from tropical Asia. The conservatory-based butterfly exhibit I volunteered with for several years (in Maryland) included them occasionally; they were contained in the facility following the permit requirements. Hopefully the one in Seattle didn’t find a mate. Their caterpillars would feast on leaves of apple and cherry trees.

These Early Entries From the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards Are a Hoot – Ending the gleanings list with some fun images.

Town Planning in 1909

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Raymond Unwin’s 1909 Town planning in practice: an introduction to the art of designing cities and suburbs is available in Internet Archive…a snapshot of the ideas of period with illustrations of examples. The illustrations I found most interesting were town/city plans. The ones from Moscow and the excavated part of Pompeii are the two samples I picked from the book.

Of course – a lot has changed in all the places shown in the book in the years since it was published but there are anchors in the built environment that are still around….sometimes perturbing modernization efforts and making infrastructure improvement more challenging. And there are some concepts that are still very much in evidence in modern cities – like ring roads (interstates) that surround all our major cities!

Kittens! – Month 1

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The first month with our 3 kittens has been full of small adventures for the whole household. They quickly got comfortable outside their sequestered area. Sometimes they were quiet enough for us to take pictures.

When I started packing for my trip to Carrollton, one of them decided one of the bags was a good perch….and he didn’t want to vacate.

While I was gone, my husband experimented with them out of their room during the night. The first night was OK but the second one they wanted to play most of the night. So - we’ve reverted to enticing them into their room with a late night snack.

The kittens like my husband’s office. They sometimes attempt to take over his keyboard and monitors. He has tried putting towels and boxes over the electrical cables on the floor to discourage their biting on the cables….they prefer the towels for naps. They still get into the extra office chair, but it will soon be too small to hold all three at once.

Puma discovered the receipt bin and Pooky joined him…tussle ensued. Typical behavior when they meet anywhere in the house.

The kittens have broken two glass coasters as they race around the house and over/under end tables. One end table fell over sending a coaster flying and another was swept clean when the racing kittens used it as part of the route through the den…another coaster flew and shattered. I’ve put the remaining glass coasters away and we are using unbreakable coasters.

It is now impossible to keep them off the kitchen counters completely. I made a small bouquet with items from the yard. The roses and crepe myrtle are still in place, but the wavy grass seed heads are bent and scattered. Maybe they looked too much like a toy to the kittens.

Overall – it’s been an eventful month and we are anticipating continued kitten adventures.

Previous Kittens! Posts: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, week 1, week 2