I picked some favorite photos from the year for a slide show. They are all outdoors. Thematically there are birds and insects more often than lizards or turtles. Some are documentation type pictures and others are artsy. They were taken in four states: Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Texas. For some reason – the fluffed up Eastern Bluebird is my favorite. Enjoy the show!
I don’t send cards anymore, but I’ve been saving cards for a long time. Every December, they decorate the house: attached to metal doors with magnets, attached to giant scrunchies with miniature clothespins, and under plastic mats on the kitchen table. The collection is large enough to always have a few extra and I’ve scanned some to share in a slideshow….wishing everyone a great holiday season!
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.
H5N1 Bird Flu Detections across the United States (Wild Birds) – A map of US counties where bird flu has been detected in wild birds as reported by the US Department of Agriculture. It would be great if data could come from the National Wildlife Refuges (reporting through the US Department of the Interior) since they often have concentrations of wildlife and staff that would be monitoring the flocks. I know that there were instances of bird flu – primarily in snow geese - that the Bosque del Apache NWR staff were reacting to when we were there the November before COVID-19 curtailed our travel.
Electric car sales drive toward cleaner air, longer lives – Another reason my next car will be an electric rather than a plug-in-hybrid that I have now. However – this should probably be seen as an offset to the negative impacts on public health that climate change will bring; the air could be cleaner, but it will also be warmer and more turbulent. I am becoming less certain that my lifespan will last into my 90s like it has for my parents.
Living the lava life on Mauna Loa – A satellite image from NASA’s Landsat 9. It shows how close one of the flows came to Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) project habitat. Fortunately, the most recent mission there concluded in May 2022.
The Dead Sea is dying – The lowest exposed place on Earth…water level dropping 4 feet per year…salt formations and sinkholes.
Beyond cola: the strange flavors of soft drinks – Carbonated drinks were invented by Johann Jacob Schweppe in 1783. They were sold in glass bottles and that were recirculated. Regional delicacies. Everything changed with the advent of plastic bottles in the 1970s. Moxie, state beverage of Maine, continued independently for a long time – bought by Coca-Cola in 2018. Soft drinks had a heyday in the years of Prohibition. Follow the link for the whole article, more soft drink history.
Construction of the world’s largest radio telescope begins – Square Kilometer Array (SKA) – one in Australia and one in South Africa. Construction will be completed by the end of the decade, but observations will begin in 2024.
Flameproofing lithium-ion batteries with salt – Finally….hope this solves the fire problem with lithium-ion batteries and, if so, moves into new battery manufacturing quickly.
The 120-year search for the purpose of T. Rex’s arms – A little history of T. Rex finds…and the various ideas about why the animal had such puny arms.
A new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria – Work to find a new treatment for Klebsiella pneumoniae infections that are resistant to common antibiotics with some strains fatal for 40-50% of infected people. A new strategy: weakening bacteria with an existing drug previously used to treat herpes that alters its surface layer to make it easier for the immune system to kill the bacteria. The idea works in the research model…effectiveness in human beings yet to be confirmed.
The science of why hawks are one of nature’s deadliest hunters – Birds and bats….The birds steer toward a fixed point in the swarm instead of singling out a bat. It’s a good strategy against a gathering of prey!
I enjoyed finding familiar scenes in Walter Hale’s drawings of sights in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia in the book We Discover the Old Dominion that was published in 1916. The text was written by his wife, Louise Closser Hale who was an American actress, playwright, and novelist.
The three sample images I picked from the book are places I have been in recent years. It was interesting to see how they looked in the time before World War I!
The first image is South Mountain (in Maryland). It’s now a rest stop on I-70; in 1916 there was a toll house there and the road was much more rustic.
The second is the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry – still a scenic spot today and part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
The third is the White House. It looks very similar today --- although there are barricades and fences that weren’t in place in 1916.
Several other Hale books are available on Internet Archive as well: A Motor Car Divorce from 1906, Motor Journeys in 1912, and We discover New England from 1915. The vision of the couple traveling together and creating a book as a product of their experience is appealing – and provide of historical view of the places they saw. Walter Hale died in 1917. Louise Closser Hale continued writing (but not travel books) and went to Hollywood – portraying older women in movies until her death in 1933.
We are having colder temperatures in southwestern Missouri…. changing the scenes around our neighborhood. I was out on a sunny morning when the temperature was in the 20s and the ‘feels like’ temperature was 15 – noticing that the Lamb’s Ear in our back flower bed is curling in the cold.
I headed over toward the neighborhood ponds with an idea of photographing some ice. The first place I stopped was dry!
Turning in the other direction to the main body of the pond, I had more luck. The water froze in the shallow area – making frozen patterns of ice shelves connected to the bank. Some leaves were frozen into the ice. In one area, the ice was breaking with the movement of the water (either from the pumps or the wind).
The surprise of the morning were birds on the water. I spotted the Great Blue Herron first. It was standing very still…. until it noticed me in my red coat and flew away.
A pair of mallards was enjoying the pond as well.
I made the short loop aroud the largest pond. My new coat with its hood and hiking boots kept most of me warm; my hands (even with gloves) and my nose were cold. I should have worn a mask for my cold nose…and need to inventory my gloves for a warmer pair!
My parents have been married 70 years this month. We’re celebrating on a smaller scale than their 50th in keeping with the types of gatherings they enjoy now. We’ll be having mini-celebrations spread over several days around one big meal with most of the immediate family. I’m thinking about various perspectives of their 70 years together.
There are contrasts between their growing up years and personalities:
He was an only child of 1 generation US citizens and didn’t speak English until he started school; she had 8 brothers/sisters and many in her family had been in the US since the Revolutionary War (or before).
She was gregarious, he was more introverted. That aspect of their personalities has continued with her doing most of the talking!
He grew up on a farm and she grew up in town.
She had part time work at the drug store in town while she was in high school; at the same time, he was using farm profits to buy land, cars, and an airplane.
Going to Stillwater for college was the farthest she’d been from home; he had made road trips to Tennessee and other places.
But some aspects were similar:
They went to small town schools where there was only a small group of students at each grade level (she in northeastern Oklahoma and he in western Oklahoma).
Their parents had elementary educations, except for my maternal grandmother who had graduated from high school.
They were the first in their families to go to college.
They were close to their families and sustained relationships with them after marriage.
They spent their first few years of married life in Oklahoma: Stillwater for my dad to finish college, back to the farm in Willow where my dad had grown up, and then to Muskogee for my dad’s job. The following 67-68 years were in Texas: 15 years in Wichita Falls, 21 years in Dallas, and the rest in Carrollton. There were 7 houses during the Texas years. My mother returned to college and got her first degree when they were living in Wichita Falls…her masters after they moved to Dallas.
They started out their life together with a single income but by the 1970s they were a 2-income family to support their 4 daughters through K-12 and then undergraduate degrees. They retired in their 60s – enjoying grandchildren and travel and participating in various home improvement/maintenance projects.
They are still living independently (with increasing support from their children and grandchildren) in the house they purchased shortly after they retired.
The whole family is benefiting from their example of aging gracefully together!
My daughter recommended the drive-through light display at Ozark, MO’s Finley River Park. She had gone with a friend and then had dinner at the Ozark Mill Restaurant on the other side of the river.
The park was not crowded when we got there, and we enjoyed a leisurely drive through the lights – many of them animated.
Ozark is a suburban community south of Springfield…population of about 22,000. Kudos to the community for providing this display!
Our short drive from our home and the park was a good experience too – on curvy two-lane roads in the dark. It provided the ‘over the river and through the woods’ vibe for the evening!
I bought several of the MODGY Expandable Flower Vase back in October when I toured the Museum London (in London, Ontario). They are great gifts because they are flat and light (easy to wrap/ship) – made of heavy, reusable plastic that expands when it is filled with water. What a clever idea! Last week I finally picked the one I would keep – the Louis Comfort Tiffany Field of Lilies vase. When filled with water, it was stable on the windowsill; adding the bouquet was very easy and the cinching at the top makes it easy to position the flowers!
I’m giving away the others I bought…but maybe I’ll order some additional vases. There are so many to choose from on the MODGY site!
I walked around my yard on a cold, windy, cloudy day….not a good day for landscape compositions; it was a good day for macro photography, though.
I had some fun with a bush with colorful leaves. One of the leaves looked (to me) like a green alien figure surrounded by a yellow and red prison!
There were seed pods and colorful leaves from last season, buds on the rhododendron for next spring, greens of pine needles and rich browns of cones, and lambs ear with water droplets in a flower bed.
The rose bush was caught by the abrupt and very cold spell in late October. It is putting on some new leaves which probably won’t last much longer. I decided to look at the thorns more closely….staying far enough away to not get caught!
I’ve also noticed that the two boxwood bushes at the front of the house have brown leaves on the ends of their branches. It took some time for the damage of that early frost to show…but it is very evident now. I guess in normal years, the bushes stop growing as the season cools down and the new grown is better prepared when the first days down in the 20s occur – unlike this year when it happened abruptly and early.
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 2022 Environmental Photographer of the Year Use Art to Tell Important Stories of Our Planet – Photography with a message
Rare good news from the Amazon: gigantic fish are thriving again – Pirarucu, an air-breathing fish that must rise to the surface every 15 minutes or so…can grow to be 10 feet long, weigh up to 450 pounds…are valued for their meat. The fish are making a comeback thanks to sustainable fishing programs in northern Brazil.
Stunning Winners of the 2022 Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest – Capturing a place…and a tiny amount of time.
Top 10 Discoveries of 2022 – from Archaeology Magazine
Remains of last surviving Tasmanian Tiger discovered in museum cabinet – Finding and following the trail of an older female thylacine that was trapped and sold to the Beaumaris Zoo in mid-May 1936. She died in September 1936. The zoo transferred her body to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery where taxidermist preserved the hide, and the skeleton was broken apart and positioned on 5 cards. Both hide and skeleton were used by the museum for educational purposes…and then forgotten. They were found recently in a cabinet in the museum’s education department.
Best of 2022: Top Astrophotography That Captured the Beauty of the Cosmos – Quite a few from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Volcanic activity increases worldwide – There are 47 volcanoes around the world that are in ‘continuing eruption status’…more than double the normal. The article includes short videos of several of them.
The rich marine life under frozen ice – Phytoplankton and organisms that eat it….discovered by geologists trying to get a mud core, hitting rock, then seeing organisms when they reviewed what the camera on their equipment recorded!
Top Websites for Urban Planning – 2022 – From Planetizen. This year they highlight an increased attention to the social and environmental outcomes of planning…enabling identification/resolution in the intersections between the built/natural environment and the lives of people.
Exploring a forgotten Jewish Land – The Beta Israel in northern Ethiopia. The 100,000 strong population fled to Israel in the 1980s to escape war and famine.
A little archaeology from the early 1900s…books available from Internet Archive with great illustrations made immediately after excavations:
The Temple of the warriors at Chichen Itzá, Yucatan (plates) (1930)
Earl H. Morris did archaeological field work from 1912 to 1940….contributing artifacts to institutions that supported his work and a myriad of publications until his death in 1956. Both books are well worth the time to browse.
The first book’s pictures of pottery from the southwest reminded me of a visit to the Arizona State Museum’s The Pottery Project room….it was a place to savor shapes and patterns…I spent more time in that room than any other at the museum.
My favorite quick breakfast on cold days is a slice of oat bread with peanut butter. Preparation is easy: a big blob of smooth peanut butter on a slice of bread…microwave for 30 seconds…spread the peanut butter like icing over the bread. At first, I tried picking the bread up to eat it…but found using a fork is less messy!
Yummy…and nutritious with protein from the peanut butter and the bread…a good amount of dietary fiber too!
My husband bought a rocking chair a month or so before we got married…about 50 years ago. We moved it with us from Texas to Virginia to Maryland to Missouri. It got a varying amount of use over the years, but I sat in in a lot recently since I positioned it in front of one of the windows in my office. The rocker was perfectly positioned for watching birds at the feeder, talking on the phone, crocheting, and making Zentangle tiles (using a clipboard to provide a hard surface). And then the back separated from one of the arms; it happened while I was rocking…talking on the phone…there was a crack and I stood up quickly to avoid breaking it even more.
My husband had mended the same place within the first year that we had it – putting in a larger screw and gluing the joint. He was going to mend it again but discovered that the screw had broken in half at the joint and he couldn’t remove either piece! We removed the cushions thinking we might reuse them and prepared to carry the rocker upstairs to go out next to the dumpster on the next trash day.
Both of us feel sad to let it go; it’s a part of our history as a couple. We are frustrated that it can’t be mended and has become trash. We’ve ordered a glide rocker to replace it.
We walked through the Gardens Aglow event at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Springfield, MO last Friday. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our first winter holidays in Missouri…will become an annual tradition from now on.
We got there shortly after the opening at 5 PM. There were a steady stream of cars arriving but there were people directing parking which eliminated confusion; it was a short walk from where we parked to the entrance and there was no line although next year I will plan to buy tickets in advance.
My husband and I had enjoyed the Brookside Gardens lights during the many years we lived in Maryland and found ourselves comparing the two displays. The lights in both places used the gardens as a theme and the trees as scaffolding. The lights at Mizumoto seemed brighter (maybe slightly larger LEDs?) and they had more water to use for reflections/dark areas of the display.
In some ways it was easier to photograph the lights this year because the animations were changes in light color within a fixed grid rather than across a space. I liked the wall of color…watching as it moved through a cycle of colors.
There was a weeping cherry in lights; the tree underneath was probably a weeping cherry too!
The arched bridge over a water feature became magical with all the lights and a shed looked like a gingerbread house.
I managed to notice two Japanese lanterns and maybe next year I will try to photograph more of them. They don’t have lights themselves but offer a link to the place that is not as obvious looking at the lights.
There were several butterflies along the way that were photo opportunities…a person could become the body of the butterfly! This was something new to us…lots of fun; I was glad they had a small butterfly too (but didn’t see any children getting their picture taken).
We spent about an hour strolling the loop through the garden…enjoying the lights and happy noises of people around us.
At the end of 2021, I wrote down 4 intentions – things I wanted to be different in 2022:
Releasing myself from some of my daily ‘metrics’
Look for the unique
Reverting to a cleaner/neater house
Moving to life closer to my daughter
The last one was the most finite and the only one to be marked ‘done in 2022.’ The others are continuing. I was least successful in releasing myself from the daily ‘metrics.’ It worked well for me to do a mid-year assessment of my intentions…so I’ll do the same in 2023. My intentions for 2023 are:
Reliably spend a week of each month supporting my parents in their home (Carrollton TX). My sisters and I are determined to keep them as comfortable and independent as possible…honoring their wishes.
Restart volunteering. The pandemic caused a pause in my volunteer activities. At this point, I have tentatively identified where I want to volunteer…am hopeful it will be as rewarding as my previous volunteer gigs.
Update and maintain my yard. Our first summer in Missouri we hired a yard service. In 2023 I will use my (new) electric mower and mow it myself. I will also begin my project to reduce the amount of grass by planting several native bushes (I am thinking Beautyberry, Oakleaf Hydrangea, and maybe Ninebark). I also will start some perennial beds…maybe a ruff of day lilies around the base of maples in the front of the house.
Make some birding/hiking road trips. We were so busy moving in 2022 that we didn’t do the usual ‘vacation’ travel that we did pre-pandemic. We probably won’t do any airplane travel…but our location in the Missouri is a great starting point for road trips. There is a lot of Missouri that is ‘new to us’ too. The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis will probably be part of one of the road trips.
Attain and maintain ‘normal’ weight. I am close…but a few pounds too heavy. I’ve got into the normal range during 2022 but didn’t maintain it.
It was a foggy morning at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center; I opted to do macro and zoomed images rather than landscape compositions…and am relatively pleased with the way they turned out. There are remnants of the native plants in the area around the nature center: berries providing splashes of color along with the subtle colors but interesting shapes of dried plant parts and seeds…
The Beautyberry near the main entrance has wrinkled berries now that there has been more wintery weather.
I took a short walk down one of the trails. Some desiccated fungus on a downed limb was close enough to the trail to photograph.
Another branch had some interesting lichen that seemed to be growing more upward that usual. I regretted that I didn’t have a better camera with me to photograph it.
The other end of the branch must have broken recently…the shape reminded me of an open mouth or cave surrounded my lichen!
I long ago had ago had this stump be cut/exposed. The bark was gone from around the edges, but the rings were still easily visible. I didn’t take the time to count them.
The patches of missing back on a standing tree (probably dead) were probably the work of something looking for insects – maybe a woodpecker?
I started taking macro pictures of tree trunks…realized that it was more interesting if there was a patch of something rather than just the bark; lichen is the most common find…a bit of green and different shape among the crinkles of bark.
As I walked on the path, the floor of the forest was covered with small plants protruding from the thick layer of leaves. I realized that these small plants were an indicator that the area was not overly browsed by deer as so many places in Maryland had been…and a good indication that the native plantings I want to add around my house will survive!
Last but not least – I took one picture looking upward through the winter tree branches. Maybe next month I will do more landscape images from around the nature center….or maybe it will be cold enough to hike down to the water and take some ice pictures!
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.
Adults living in areas with high air pollution are more likely to have multiple long-term health conditions – A study of more than 364 thousand people in England. Respiratory and cardiovascular problems dominate but neurological and common mental conditions were also observed.
Best of 2022: Top 50 Photographs from Around the World – The first of the year in summary type articles. I had seen some of these photos before…but not all of them. They are worth a look.
Larger wheat harvest in Ukraine than expected – Based on satellite imagery, 94% of the winter crop was harvested…including 88% in areas not controlled by Ukraine. Some Ukrainian grain made it to global markets…however Russia is reaping the benefit of a significant portion of the harvest.
Medieval woman’s burial in Switzerland yields gold broach – A wealthy burial from a 7th century AD cemetery…excavated prior to construction work. The article didn’t say whether the finds would be going to a museum…or be reburied with the skeleton elsewhere.
More Than 52 Million Birds in the U.S. Are Dead Because of Avian Flu – It began last year in Eastern Canada and has affected flocks in 46 states since then. Wild and domestic birds are impacted…and there is a risk of infections in people too.
Study finds that experiences of daily stress decrease as people age – As we get older, we begin to deal daily stressors better. It’s a positive aspect to aging!
Archaeologists Find 1,900-Year-Old Snacks in Sewers Beneath the Colosseum – The debris from 1,900 years ago: olives, nuts, meats, cherries, grapes, figs, blackberries, and peaches!
Biodiversity unbalanced as ice-free Antarctic areas grow – Non-native species invading Antarctica
Idaho’s Potato Belt – 1/3 of the US potatoes are grown in the Snake River Plain….satellite images from NASA’s Aqua and Landsat 8.
Dam safety: New study indicates probable maximum flood events will significantly increase over next 80 years – This is a paper about 546 dams in Australia. We need to extend this type of analysis around the world…to improve the integrity of critical infrastructure into the future.
Coles Phillips was an illustrator known for his stylish images of women for books, advertisements, and the covers of popular magazines. I browsed two of his books on Internet Archive recently:
A Gallery of Girls (1911)
A Young Man's Fancy (1912)
More of his magazine covers can also be found on Internet Archive (list here).
He died relatively young in June 1927; Life magazine featured one of his creations on the cover in July 1927 (and a 2-page illustrated obituary). His last Life magazine cover was in September 1927. The illustrations are available from Internet Archive via the link above.
He was one of the artists that depicted the greater freedoms of women in the 1920s. I wondered, as I realized how young he had been when he died, how his art would have evolved had he lived through the great depression and World War II.
Once we made the decision to not have a tree this year (see part 1), there was only a little more decorating to do before we declared it ‘done.’
We hung a wreath on the door with a magnet hook (since it is a metal door). The hook worked very well and will be easy to take off when we don’t need it. This wreath worked well on our Maryland house, but its lights are not dense or bright enough to look good on our Missouri house with its covered porch. We opted to turn on the front porch light in the evenings and the wreath looks great.
I continued to add decorations to my office: a garland of silver bells around pinecones from the tree in our back yard, some red glittery swirls in a tall vase on the hearth, old Christmas cards attached to the frame of the fireplace with magnets, and a garland of red bells on the door to the outside!
This time of year, I always look for (and usually find) a bag of organic oranges….and then proceed to use the whole fruit (peel and pulp)!
Usually, the first way I enjoy the oranges is to eat the pulp then process the skin in a small food processor and dry it to enjoy later.
This year I have already used some dried orange peel as an addition to the loose tea in the filter of the ‘coffee’ maker. My office smells of tea and citrus (and the flavor is good too). I can always use it as a seasoning in mulled cider or a stir fry…it’s not possible to have too much dried orange peel!
The recipe I like for cranberry orange relish uses the whole orange. I cut the ends off and any large areas of pith…but most of the orange is cut in chunks and put into the food processor along with cranberries and a little sugar. The relish is good on its own or combined with other things:
With tomatillo salsa and heated…used as a sauce for meatballs or stir fry
With some oil to make a dressing for salads…particularly for salads that include other fruit
In muffins
In soup
Cold or hot…cranberry relish is one of my favorite winter foods (I sometimes prolong the season by freezing cranberries and sometimes the cut up oranges as well)!
Oranges are one of the great flavors of winter!
Copyright © 2025, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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