eBotanical Prints – September 2025

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in September - available for browsing on Internet Archive.  The publication dates span over 300 years – 1570 to 1888!

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,203 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from September’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the September 2025 eBotanical Prints!

Album of field plants and cultivated plants * Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques * sample image * 1580

A collection of fruits from the West Indies, drawn and coloured from nature * Byam, Lydia * sample image * 1800

Drawings of tropical flowers and fruits, from South America * Empson, Charles * sample image * 1830

Botanical manuscript of 450 watercolors of flowers and plants * anonymous  * sample image * 1740

Collection of seventy-eight water color plates of plants * anonymous  * sample image * 1700

Tulpenboeken * Marrel, Jacob * sample image * 1670

Album of watercolors of Asian fruits and flowers * anonymous  * sample image * 1798

Plantes des environs de Paris * Turpin, Pierre Jean Francois * sample image * 1805

Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae, sive, Icones generum * Bauer, Ferdinand * sample image * 1813

Piante varie * Garzoni, Giovanna * sample image * 1650

L'art de peindre les fleurs a l'aquarelle : précédé d'un traité de botanique élémentaire, et orné d'un choix des plus belles fleurs * Dufour, Augustine * sample image * 1837

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe V1 * Seder, Anton; Gerlach, Martin; Ilg, Albert  * sample image * 1886

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe V2 * Seder, Anton; Gerlach, Martin; Ilg, Albert  * sample image * 1886

Conversations on the botany of the Scriptures * Coxe, Margaret * sample image * 1837

Water-color sketches of plants of North America and Europe - Volume 12 * Sharp, Helen * sample image * 1888

Album of Chinese watercolors of Asian fruits * anonymous  * sample image * 1810

Paintings of Flowers, Butterflies, and Insects * Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques * sample image * 1570

Roland Thaxter sketch book * Thaxter, Roland * sample image * 1886

British grasses * Wharton, Elizabeth and Margaret * sample image * 1802

The compleat florist * Robsinson, J. (seller) * sample image * 1747

Chicago Field Museum

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We had a free afternoon at the Urban Birding Festival in Chicago last month and opted to visit the Field Museum.

It is huge – enough to be overwhelming! The  main hall is the beginning of the exhibits….and is grand architecture too.

Many of my pictures were of fossils….and that was before lunch.

After lunch we walked through the 3-story replica of an Ancient Egyptian mastaba. It was very different from other Ancient Egypt museum exhibits I’ve seen…and I appreciated the physical presentation…like touring a ruin in Egypt….but with the comfort of air conditioning.

Once we left the museum, we walked toward the Adler Planetarium and took pictures of the Chicago skyline.

I experimented with my iPhone’s pano capability.

We didn’t go into the planetarium, but I appreciated the architecture before we headed back toward where our car was parked.

We were both feeling the early start to the day, the 2 hours of mostly standing at the Bill Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, and the walking in and around the Field Museum. We checked into our hotel and rested a bit before the evening reception for the festival.

Zentangle® – September 2025

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113 tiles created in September ---- 31 selected to appear in this post.

The tile material is more varied this month:

Two corrugated cardboard tiles that were originally packaging around glass food storage containers I bought to replace my old plastic containers. I liked the shape as well as trying a new material. The bumpiness of corrugated cardboard makes the patterns more challenging.

There were 11 plain card stock tiles in pastel and bright colors (only two rectangular…the others square).

I enjoyed some new marble card stock – incorporating the marble lines as the string.

The watercolor tiles are old friends. I like the color changes. They make simple patterns look quite different.

Finally – 3 tiles were cut from magazine pages!

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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.

Sustaining Elder Care – September 2025

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My September trip to Texas to see my dad was at the time of year that the sun rises about the time I make my first rest stop. There were enough clouds to make it worth photographing.

At the Texas welcome center about 4 hours later, the beautyberry and turk’s cap were looking good.

The temperature was about 90 degrees by the time I got to my dad’s assisted living residence in Dallas. We went outside to water plants (the sunflowers are looking good) but we opted to go back indoors to do his physical therapy exercises. He is managing them relatively well, but they seem to wear him out more quickly than just a few months ago. My sisters and I are staying focused on the exercises with him so that he can maintain is mobility as long as possible.

The next morning, I was there before breakfast, and the temperature was pleasant outside. We did the physical therapy exercises on the patio and talked about the plants that we had brought from his house and the tomatoes that aren’t doing so well this year. Sometimes he seems to remember…sometimes he just shrugs. But he still seems to enjoy the time outside listening to planes coming and going to Addison Airport.

We didn’t work on a puzzle. The last few times we’ve tried, he complained that he couldn’t see. His eyesight is problematic so it could be the new reality.

My strategy is to simply accept him the way he is, encourage him to do the things he can (maybe stretching a bit beyond on some of the physical therapy exercises), and enjoy our time together.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2025

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September still had some hot days…but there were some cooler mornings that were very pleasant. Our trip to Chicago offered some very different scenery! Lots to celebrate.

A cooler morning in the Butterfly House. It was good to finally get a break in the temperatures. I celebrated being more comfortable…and that there were more people that came to enjoy the butterflies too.

The end of busy morning in the Butterfly House. I celebrated the end of my shift in the Butterfly House when I was the lone docent – a bit frazzled but knowing I had done a good job.  A school group came through (45 students plus parents!). And 3 caterpillars had gone walkabout during the shift but I had managed to get them contained before they were stepped on!

Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. I celebrated that Chicago has managed to have a wild area in the big city.

Botany at Lincoln Park Zoo. I celebrated that the Zoo had areas that are mostly native plants…and I recognized most of them since they skew toward prairie plants which are the same as the ones we have in my area of Missouri.

Monarch Butterfly over Lake Michigan. I celebrated the surprise of seeing a Monarch butterfly flying over the lake a long ways from shore…hope it made it to the south shore.

Field Museum. I celebrated that I finally got to see the museum. I had missed it when I went to Chicago back in the early 1980s for a class…had always wanted to go back.

Crystalized Ginger. I bought crystalized ginger for our trip on Lake Michigan (it controls nausea for me). I celebrated that it worked and that it is a good treat when I travel too.

A new grandnephew.  I celebrated that my niece and her new baby are healthy and home from the hospital…was in Dallas so I was able to share pictures with my father; the new baby is his third great-grandchild.

My Missouri yard. I love the subtle changes happening right now – mostly still green but more seed pods forming. Soon the leaves will change to their fall colors.

Brunch with by daughter. My daughter and I tried a place near where I live … and both celebrated an excellent brunch that had a triple berry tart at the end.

Zooming – September 2025

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Lots of locations for the September zooming pictures: Josey Ranch Park in Carrollton TX, scenes from Chicago, Illinois interstate, home, and the Butterfly House in the Springfield (MO) Botanical Garden.

There are the usual flowers…butterflies, birds, cats…and a Chicago skyline.

Enjoy the September 2025 slide show!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 27, 2025

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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.

Flamingos reveal their secret to staying young - A decades-long study in France reveals that resident flamingos, which stay put, enjoy early-life advantages but pay later with accelerated aging, while migratory flamingos endure early hardships yet age more slowly. This surprising link between movement and longevity challenges old assumptions and offers new insights into the science of aging.

‘Montana Miracle:’ The State Actually Succeeding at Housing Reform - In 2023, Montana passed a series of state laws aimed at increasing housing construction that included allowing ADUs and legalizing multifamily housing in commercial zones. This year, the legislature doubled down, expanding on the 2023 law and eliminating parking requirements for most units in the state’s 10 largest cities. A new law also eases permitting for manufactured home parks to eliminate the need for a subdivision review when these parks are not subdivided into private lots. Another allows single-staircase buildings up to six stories, making it easier to build denser buildings on smaller lots.

Photographers Capture Underground Pools and Passages of Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico - So far, 150 miles of Lechuguilla Cave have been explored. With every new survey, the cave offers new insights as to how underground chambers like these are formed and the microbial beings found there. Its beauty earned the entire Carlsbad Cavern National Park the title of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. But due to its complexity, entrance is limited, with the NPS restricting explorations to highly trained speleologists with pre-approved plans.

Plastic Free Water Filters: Can We Find Water Purifiers without Plastic? – My daughter and I are looking to upgrade our water filters. I hope the water filter technology improves with emphasis on reducing microplastics in water.

Inside Ukrainian Artist Dmitry Oleyn’s Sculptural Approach to Landscape Painting - Rather than use the traditional approach that embraces the flatness of the canvas, the artist instead builds his pigments so there is an element of bas-relief, leaving the surface rugged and with a marked sense of tactility from the artist’s hand. When they are displayed, the irregular surface casts shadows, which when viewed against the painted shadows, is especially intriguing; it also creates a degree of mutability, as depending on the time of day and where the paintings are hung, the lighting of the space dialogues with the work both physically and compositionally.

Photography In the National Parks: Mesa Verde Revisited – I’ve been to Mesa Verde once….back in the 1970s. This article reminded me that I want to go again.

Map Reveals Toxic Pollution Leaking from U.S. Drilling Sites - Scientists have shown that U.S. oil and gas drilling sites are not just leaking methane but also a host of toxic chemicals that pose an urgent threat to the health of those living nearby. A new interactive map details the impact of hundreds of major leaks. At nearly every oil and gas site, leaks also produced benzene, a known carcinogen, as well as other chemicals that have been shown to harm bone marrow, weaken the immune system, impair the nervous system, as well as cause headaches, dizziness, vomiting, and fatigue. Is the fossil fuel industry so arrogant that they don’t care that they are spewing poison (some of which could be used for fuels and other industrial purposes if captured) that negatively impact the health of people and other life?

World’s Tallest Douglas Fir Tree Damaged in Mysterious, Multi-Day Blaze, but It’s Alive After Firefighters Extinguish Flames – It burned from August 16 to August 21. The tree is estimated to be around 450 years old and has a diameter of 11.5 feet. It no longer holds the title of the tallest Douglas fir in the world. However, officials are hopeful the old tree will rebound from the damage wrought by the fire. It’s possible the fir will even grow a new crown.

Six tips from the Middle Ages on how to beat the summer heat – Save the ideas for next summer: work flexibly, wear the right hat, eat to lower body temperature, try wild swimming, use aftersun, or flee.

8 Hints to Reduce Your Food Footprint - You can make food decisions today that change your food footprint. Eight ways you can reduce your food footprint so it’s more environmentally food-friendly: limit ultra-processed foods, curb waste, eat a primarily plant based diet, buy local, compost your food scraps, avoid plastic food packaging (sometimes difficult to do), lose the gas stove, call out Big Ag for its polluting practices.

Life Magazine in 1941

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1941, I thought about the buildup of war activities in the US and then Pearl Harbor occurring in December. The US did not formally enter the war until December 11th but it is obvious from the pictures Life published that people were very aware of what was happening and the US involvement too. And there were still other aspects of life that continued on – iceboats, Coca-Cola, glass food packaging, the New York skyline. (Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

 Life Magazine 1941-01-06 – Ernest Hemingway

Life Magazine 1941-01-13 – Hitler with big guns

Life Magazine 1941-01-20 – Florida sand and mud creating Camp Blanding for 70,000 soldiers

Life Magazine 1941-01-27 – London on fire from war

Life Magazine 1941-02-03  - Wright Field wind tunnel

Life Magazine 1941-02-10 – American bombers poised to take off from Newfoundland

Life Magazine 1941-02-17 - Iceboats

Life Magazine 1941-02-24 – Railway gun built by US Industry

Life Magazine 1941-03-03 – Greek Peasant troops into Albania in winter

Life Magazine 1941-03-10 – Mayor LaGuardia explaining the food stamp plan

Life Magazine 1941-03-17 – English children

Life Magazine 1941-03-24 – Tornado shelters

Life Magazine 1941-03-31 – Bombing rehearsal off Diamond Head, Hawaii from aircraft carrier

Life Magazine 1941-04-07 – Coca-Cola six-bottle carton (cardboard and glass)

Life Magazine 1941-04-14 – British war prisoners (sketches from a German prison camp)

Life Magazine 1941-04-21 – Damaged British battleship seeking repairs in New York’s upper bay

Life Magazine 1941-04-28 – Glass for food packaging

Life Magazine 1941-05-05 – Big classes at Harvard

Life Magazine 1941-05-12 – Gandhi is the voice of Hindu masses

Life Magazine 1941-05-19 – Nazi blitzkrieg reaches London’s oldest cardroom

Life Magazine 1941-05-26 – Balkan war

Life Magazine 1941-06-02 – Nazis wreck great monuments of English culture

Life Magazine 1941-06-09 – Crete invasion

Life Magazine 1941-06-16 – Women bringing pans to provide metals of the war

Life Magazine 1941-06-23 – Chinese children (orphans)

Life Magazine 1941-06-30 – Wrecked Axis ships

Life Magazine 1941-07-07 – The arming of America - tanks

Life Magazine 1941-07-14 – Beer and ale

Life Magazine 1941-07-21 – Tin makes Singapore rich

Life Magazine 1941-07-28 – War in Russia

Life Magazine 1941-08-04 – Germans execute Russian sniper caught in wheat field

Life Magazine 1941-08-11 – Life photographer in Moscow a week before Nazi invasion

Life Magazine 1941-08-18 – Line of tanks

Life Magazine 1941-08-25 – Naval gun construction at Bethlehem

Life Magazine 1941-09-01 – Moscow camouflages itself by day and black out by night

Life Magazine 1941-09-08 – Hard times of Alden family

Life Magazine 1941-09-15 – Battleship tests its guns at sea

Life Magazine 1941-09-22 – Roosevelt mourning his mother

Life Magazine 1941-09-29 – Spitsbergen – British blow up coal mines

Life Magazine 1941-10-06 – Rain, mud, dust….the Army goes through

Life Magazine 1941-10-13 – Appalachian trail

Life Magazine 1941-10-20 – Pan American Airways Clipper

Life Magazine 1941-10-27 – Crowd in Moscow park listening to war speakers

Life Magazine 1941-11-03 – Army builds its Iceland base

Life Magazine 1941-11-10 – New York skyline behind New Jersey suburbs

Life Magazine 1941-11-17 – Russian mud and blood stall German army

Life Magazine 1941-11-24 – B-19, world’s largest warplane (at the time)

Life Magazine 1941-12-01 – Balloon houses for defense workers under Virginia trees

Life Magazine 1941-12-08 – American flag goes down in the south Atlantic

Life Magazine 1941-12-15 – Jap bombers aim first blow at Oahu base

Life Magazine 1941-12-22 – US planes fight to command the air

Life Magazine 1941-12-29 – Knox Report – deeds of heroism at Pearl Harbor

Chicago – big city views

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We stayed at The Drake Hotel while we were at the Urban Birding Festival in Chicago. We had a view of a beach and the lake from our window. There was a lot of light on the beach at night – probably confusing to the birds. My husband commented about how much city noise could be heard through the night from our 5th floor room in the historic hotel! Perhaps traffic made a lot less noise when it was built!

Since my husband was driving while we were at the festival, I took pictures as we drove around the city. There are some very tall buildings. Most of the time we were near the lakeshore…so not driving down a ‘canyon’ of tall buildings!

I was impressed that the parts of the city where we were had so little (almost no) trash – very different from other big cities I’ve visited.

Out on Lake Michigan

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We had signed up for birding out on Lake Michigan on the last day of the Urban Birding Festival in Chicago. We had to be at the dock by 5 AM so we were leaving our hotel about 4:30…checking out and loading everything into our car. Both of us were feeling a bit sleep deprived.

Everyone that had signed up for the trip appeared and we were heading out of the harbor by 5:30 AM. The boat was a fishing boat. It wasn’t a windy morning, but I appreciated the extra handholds that the rod holders provided when I tried to move around. I sat most of the time!

Everyone that had signed up for the trip appeared and we were heading out of the harbor by 5:30 AM. The boat was a fishing boat. It wasn’t a windy morning, but I appreciated the extra handholds that the rod holders provided when I tried to move around. I sat most of the time!

We saw the sunrise on the lake. We passed several of the water intakes for the city that are a ways out into the lake and often host colonies of cormorants.

The guides were throwing chum (fish, bread, popcorn) to the birds from the back of the boat. There were more Herring Gulls than Ring-billed Gulls already. We saw a few terns. The hope was for some rarer birds – like a Parasitic Jaeger. That didn’t show up so I focused on observing gulls at various stages of development and how they used their tail feathers to control their flight/landing behind the boat.

The rocking of the boat was calming…at least while I was sitting…not so much when I was moving around.

The skyline of Chicago was always present…although we were at least 15 miles out on the lake. The air around the city was hazy. The air in the city and on the lake was humid and the air quality was yellow (small particulates). It is a big city and there are a lot of cars.

The surprise of the trip was seeing a Monarch butterfly – flying south – when we were between 10 and 15 miles from shore. I had assumed that they took the land route south from Canada…but some of them obviously don’t.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo

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The headquarters and registration for the Urban Birding Festival in Chicago was at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. We were in and out of the building during all three days of the festival. They have a small butterfly house with some exotics…some natives.

I managed to make a short video of a butterfly feeding.

There were lots of activities for young children. It was fun watching them explore. A fiber mural appealed to me too.

We signed up for a walk at Lincoln Park Zoo – birds and botany – skewed toward botany.

The two birds that I photographed were in a wilder area of the zoo…where wild birds sometimes drop in…sometimes decide to stay. The wood duck was relatively close and preening. The green heron was further way and harder to see through the vegetation. On the underside of a bridge were some barn swallow nests; the birds had already left for the season.

There were turtles out and about – including a soft shelled one.

The plantings in the main part of the zoo are a mix of formal landscaping plants (non-natives) with some natives like coneflowers and turtlehead and sunflowers mixed in.

The zoo has a very old elm that is treated to keep it from succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease. They have started planting elms resistant to the disease.

The walk around South Pond is landscaped with all natives….as close as the horticulturalist can to get prairie…with a few woody plants mixed in on the outer edges. I was surprised at how many plants I recognized! There were lots of yellows and seed pods this time of year!

We made the mistake of using Google Maps to show us the shortest route back to our car; it had exits from the zoo that didn’t exist! We circled back to find an exit….had a much longer walk than we would have had without technology!

Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary

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Our first field trip at the Urban Birding Festival in Chicago was at the Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We sought out the rest room facilities in the clock tower beforehand. The doorway there was half covered in ivy. There was an unopened protein bar that someone had dropped on the walk nearby…and cicadas and leaves/small branches. Not trash. There were trash/recycle bins…and evidently, they are used. I noticed a young catalpa with seed pods as we walked back toward the sanctuary.

The core of the sanctuary is protected by a fence; visitors have a good view from a platform that is high enough to look over the fence and vegetation….the platform is where our group spent a couple of hours. There was plenty to see!

There were plenty of birds – including flickers, red-headed woodpeckers, Copper’s hawks (which scattered all the other birds when they were about), downy woodpecker, hummingbirds, and goldfinches.

There were monarch butterflies feeding and resting…before they continued their migration south.

A racoon made an appearance…climbing a tree then coming back down and disappearing into what must have been a hole on the other side of the trunk!

Of course, there was a lot of vegetation to look at when the birds were not active enough. The humidity was high so there was moisture on a lot of the leaves. The usual fall color was there – golden rod and pokeweed included!

To and From Chicago

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My husband and I signed up for an Urban Birding Festival in Chicago earlier this month. I’ll be doing a series of posts about it over the next week. This post is about our drive to and from the city; as usual my husband did all the driving.

We made frequent rest stops along the way. At our first one I realized that the route from Springfield MO to Chicago via Route 66 was depicted on floor! The Interstate route of today is likely a bit straighter that the old route…and the speed we traveled was probably higher too.

I took pictures as we drove – road cuts in Missouri, the arch in St. Louis just before we crossed the Mississippi River, and sunflowers in Illinois.

At the end of our trip, I took a few pictures as we left the city…and of sunflowers along the roadside. I like that Illinois encourages sunflowers in the medians by only mowing the edges (and not mowing too frequently even at the edge). The farmland appeared to be mostly planted in soybeans and corn.

At the last rest stop in Illinois, I recognized a hackberry – it was full of galls produced by insects as most hackberries are.

And then I photographed the arch and bridges as we crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis.

There was a little fall color in the forests west of St. Louis…and the bluffs always make for added interest.

We got home easily; our three cats were a great welcoming committee.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 20, 2025

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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.

Fewer than half the calories grown on farms now reach our plates - The world produced enough calories in 2020 to feed 15 billion people – but only 50 per cent of those calories ended up reaching people’s plates. This proportion is now very likely to have fallen even lower because of the declining efficiency of the global food system. (This article is behind a paywall…but even the headline and first paragraphs that are freely available are thought provoking.)

Humans inhale as much as 68,000 microplastic particles daily - Every breath people take in their homes or car probably contains significant amounts of microplastics small enough to burrow deep into lungs. The smaller bits measure between 1 and 10 micrometers and present more of a health threat because they can more easily be distributed throughout the body. The concentrations indoors are higher because it is an enclosed environment with high levels of plastic in a small area, and there is generally poor ventilation. The concentration of plastic in the cars’ air was about four times higher than in homes. Researchers matched the microplastic material with that used on the dashboard, door handle, steering wheel and other components. (Makes the case for replacing plastic in home furnishings and air purifiers that remove small particles…the car is more challenging.)

The 25-Ton Stone Relic That Once Lay Hidden Beneath Mexico City - In the winter months of 1790, construction workers were busy repaving the Mexico City’s Plaza de Armas when their shovels struck upon a large, circular object buried in the ground. It was so heavy, they had to create a makeshift pulley system to remove it. Once they did, they were in for a surprise, as they had just discovered one of Aztec civilization’s most iconic artifacts: the Calendar Stone. It is a large sculpture carved into 25 ton, 4 feet-thick circular block of olivine volcanic basalt that measures 11.8 feet in diameter. It was removed from Tenochtitlan’s main square and buried face-down in the ground after the conquistadors conquered Tenochtitlan.

The Paradox of American Technological Leadership in Renewable Energy – From a journalist’s perspective, thriving in a developing nation, dependent on first-world technology.

Earliest Evidence of Indigo Processing Identified on Paleolithic Tools – From analysis of 34,000-year-old stone tools found in the Dzudzuana Cave in the foothills of Georgia’s Caucasus. The pebble grinding tools contained traces of plant matter and indigotin, the deep blue compound also known as indigo.

Global Solar Installations Up 64 Percent So Far This Year - Solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity worldwide, and the buildout continues to gain pace, year after year. In the first six months of 2025, countries installed 380 gigawatts of solar capacity, up from 232 gigawatts in 2024. China accounted for most of the growth, installing more than twice as much solar in the first half of this year as it did in early 2024. For the first time in China, solar isn’t just supplementing coal power, but replacing it. The U.S., by comparison, saw solar installations rise by just 4 percent. Through its exports of low-cost solar panels, China also drove growth in India and across much of Africa

Permitting Pollution Jeopardizes Clean Water - The PERMIT Act, will let large-scale polluters off the hook for trashing our waters, leaving the American people to pick up the tab. If it becomes law, this bill will pollute our drinking water, compromise our health, put more communities at risk of floods, and ruin many of the places we swim or fish.

How long can one RSV shot protect seniors? Study shows surprising two-year shield - A single RSV vaccine dose is proving to be a powerful shield for older adults, significantly reducing hospitalizations and severe illness over two consecutive RSV seasons. While protection is strongest in the first year and declines somewhat in the second, the findings highlight both the immediate benefits and the importance of ongoing monitoring.

84% of Chicago's Pipes Contain Lead — and They're Not Equally Distributed - Chicago has the highest number of lead water service lines in the nation, with an estimated 412,000 of about 491,000 lines at least partly made of lead or contaminated with the dangerous metal. The city’s Black and Latino communities are most impacted, but the issue is widespread across the city’s water distribution network.

How to Go Plastic Free for Beginners. Your First 10 Items! - Start with 10 items, step by step and then progress slowly to more once you feel more confident.

Homeless in America (1988 eBook)

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The opening message of this book concluded by saying ‘We must not let homelessness become an American institution.’ And yet – in 2025, there are still a lot of people that are homeless and the cost of housing is rising fast enough that it is unlikely that there will ever be enough affordable housing….or effective enough attention to reduce the tragedies that unfold for people that find themselves in the situation.

The book is a pictorial work – full of photographs from cities all over America. Some of the people had died before the book was published. It is available on Internet Archive. I found myself thinking about what has changed. There are new drugs that are, at least, as addictive as the ones in 1988 and some are more likely to cause death from overdose or wounds that will never heal. The tents are similar. The cars that people try to live in are different models…probably just as uncomfortable. But in the end – the efforts that non-profits and churches and cities made really have not been very effective.

Homeless in America: a Joint Project of the National Mental Health Association and Families for the Homeless

Pawpaws from Butterfly House

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I have been watching the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) fruit develop in the Roston Native Butterfly House every time I volunteer (about once a week). Yesterday, as I was pointing a group of them out to some visitors, 2 fell off! They weren’t very big, but they were soft – ready to be eaten. I brought them home and thoroughly enjoyed them with my breakfast this morning.

I’ve saved the seeds to plant in pots after scarifying/soaking ….and will plant them outdoors next spring. Since the seedlings will all be from the same genetic line, I will buy a seedling this fall at a native plant sale to provide two genetic lines; I want my pawpaw patch to produce fruit! It might take 5-7 years of growth before they do that.

Cool Day Yard Clean Up

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We had a few mornings that started out in the 50s. I chose one of them to clean up the accumulated pile of sticks and branches (mostly forsythia but some redbud, maple, and hackberry) on the patio under my deck. The pile has been accumulating all during the summer and was, mostly, dry enough to burn easily although there were dried leaves attached to some of the branches.

I put a small pile of dry grass in the bottom of the chiminea and then piled on some bundled sticks before using a fireplace lighter to ignite the grass. The blaze started and I kept it going by feeding in more bundles of twigs. The bundles are mostly from a branch that I break and turned back on itself enough times to produce a bundle that would fit into the chiminea easily. I learned to sit down for much of the bundle creation to keep my back from hurting too soon/much.

The pile was large, and I realized after an hour or so of burning, that the ashes were building up in the chiminea and were taking up too much space to easily fit in more bundles to burn. Most of the branches were small diameter…but there were a lot of them and ashes built up. I closed the screen on the chiminea and watched as the flames died down and then the red glow begin to fade.

I stirred the ashes to try to make sure the sticks burned as completely as possible. It will be a few days before the ashes are cool enough to remove from the chiminea….and then I can clean up the last of the accumulated sticks and branches.

Cats at Eyelevel or Above

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We have the three cats. The least athletic of the three (Puma) has suddenly decided that she likes to be high. We discovered her on the top of our glass display cabinet…well above our eye level. She didn’t want help getting down either. Maybe she had been getting up there periodically and we just hadn’t noticed…but she seemed very pleased with herself so maybe we noticed the first time she did it.

Later we noticed her on the cabinet above the refrigerator. She was taking a nap but woke up as her sister (Pooky) jumped up there as well.

Pooky likes to hide in plain sight on top of our bookcases with some stuffed animals…blending in very well. She naps up there; now we know to look up there if we can’t find her.

Our male cat (Sooty) was the first of the three to jump to the high places.  He still does occasionally but he not as frequently as he did at first; the novelty has worn off for him.

My daughter’s cat (Audi) likes the bookshelves at her house. He seems to prefer the shelf that is about eye level!

Our Missouri Yard – September 2025

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There are parts of my yard that I am enjoying even with the prospect of the big landscaping change that is coming (which hopefully will not impact any of the plants in this post):

The Missouri Evening Primrose is thriving by my mailbox (there is a tiny remnant of a prickly pear cactus underneath it that I discovered when I cleaned out the weeds earlier this summer…its growing too!) and a crape myrtle that seems healthier than in previous years.

The Virginia Creeper is crowing on the front steps and onto the bricks. I’ll enjoy it a bit longer than pull it down – relegate it to the horizontal surface of the front flower bed.

The chives are thriving in several places in the back yard. They were started from seeds harvested from my mother’s garden. They don’t seem to care if they are in the sun or shade!

The American spikenard – one of my first native plant purchases – is larger each year. There are violets under it (and a small pokeweed in the foreground). The fruit is beginning to turn purple. I’ll harvest some and try to sprout them indoors to plant outdoors next year.

There are a variety of things in the garden where a pine tree once grew. The iris leaves look a little burnt on the ends, but the pokeweed is full of berries that the birds will eat as they ripen. I am still watching developments…not sure of everything there although I like the surprises discovering the naked lady lilies blooming in August and the beautyberry that I planted…glad that has survived.

The area under the short leaf pine is full of pokeweed – mostly. As the season changes, I will enjoy its red foliage…then cut it down and clear out anything else growing under the tree….except the redbud (perhaps).

Plastics crisis: Interactions with Food Manufacturers

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I chose a product that I buy frequently – Lactaid 2% milk – and went through the process of figuring out how to contact the manufacturer to stress my concern about microplastics in food from plastic packaging.

I found their ‘contact us’ web page and used the ‘email us’ option intended for comments, questions, and feedback. They responded in less than 24 hours with a response pointing to what they were doing to increase the recycled plastic content in their packaging. I sent a second ‘email us’ that included their reference number for my previous comment emphasizing that I was interested in net reduction in plastic packaging because of the microplastics it adds to food…I wanted to buy their product in non-plastic packaging. I got the same response. I became uncertain that there was a person behind the response or simply an AI selected canned message that didn’t answer the question/comment. I got two survey forms (one for each use of the ‘email us’) and filled them out the same….that I was unsatisfied with the response.

(Update: I got a call based on the ‘unsatisfied’ feedback on the survey! Now I am more confident that my concern has been heard. I am not confident that they will move to non-plastic packaging for at least some of their produces…but I have given then a heads-up that there may begin to be a lot more people concerned about microplastics in our food. I’ll see if there is anything new on their packaging on their website in a month or so.)

I am not going to buy their product again and I’m not sure I want to buy any other milk either. I am considering returning to a calcium supplement as I did years ago and getting protein from other sources.

Taking another route:

Beyond Plastics has a letter from members for consolidation into a package for Coco-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle about their contribution to plastic pollution around the world. They sent a draft which I personalized and returned.

A second call came out from Beyond Plastics to contribute a letter to Coca-Cola specifically urging them to expand their successful El Paso refillable beverage system to every community rather than continuing to use plastic bottles.

The experience has been eye opening in the sense that it appears that food manufacturers are still relatively clueless about the growing awareness of microplastics in our environment and the news of the micro and nano plastics found in many parts of our body. It is no longer about forging ahead with plastic packaging…..it is about net reducing the plastics packaging for foods.

Previous Plastic Crisis posts