Gleanings of the Week Ending April 22, 2023

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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.

Home Electrification Incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act – Now to decide what to do first….

How mobile phones have changed our brains – Some research about the impact phones have on our focus.

Drug overdose fatalities among U.S. older adults has quadrupled over 20 years, research finds – Overdose is a problem across the lifespan. Most deaths are unintentional.

Macro Photography Captures the Delicate Dance of Mantises in Malaysia – Wonders of the insect world. We have mantises in North America…but not as colorful as these Malaysian species.

A Plateau in the Heart of Texas – The Edwards Plateau…one of the geologic features of Texas that makes for scenic drives.

The Shaman’s Secrets – A 9,000-year-old burial of 2 people (one adult, one very young child) with 100s of ritual objects. The grave was first excavated in the 1930s…and assumptions were made…the adult was a man, blond hair, blue eyes. But modern analysis tells a different and more complete story.

Winter Rains Bring Mushroom Boom in California – Extra rain….and there are a lot more mushrooms!

Protecting Nēnē, The Threatened State Bird of Hawai'i – We didn’t see in nēnē when we went to Volcanoes National Park in 2015….it was good to see pictures of them.

Want to Improve Your Outdoor Recreation? Try Birding. – Yes! It has certainly been true for my husband and me. There are so many good resources about birding (festivals, birding trails, apps)!

A must-see sunset spectacle at Monument Valley – Wow! We visited in 2013 at midday. Next time I’ll plan to go in late March or mid-September…and stay until sunset.

Older adults with dementia but without close family: Who are they? And who cares for them? – Thought provoking.

Bradford Pear

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The Callery (Bradford) Pear trees near the entrance of our neighborhood are blooming. It was cold and windy when I went out to photograph the flowers. Supposedly the trees have value as early season food for pollinators – but I didn’t see any – probably because it was so cold.

Their trunks are heavy with lichen…which I like to photograph….magnified with my phone. On the day I was out, lichen was one of the few macro opportunities since everything else was moving too much with the wind. The textures (crevices of the bark, delicate lobes or nets of lichen, ovoid shapes on the top of the larger lichens) and colors (brown and black of the bark; orange and greenish gray lichen) are nature’s abstracts.

My house was built near the end of the 90s so the Callery Pear trees in the community space at the entrance might be nearing the end of their lifespan which is typically less than 25 years if they were planted about the same time as my house was built. The trees appear to have been radically trimmed not that many years ago and that might have prolonged their life since the trees tend to be damaged by wind (big branches or trunks breaking). Hopefully another species of tree will replace them since most conservation agencies view the trees as invasive and not as appealing as they were decades ago. I know I have a Callery Pear hybrid that came up very close to a crepe myrtle. I cut it down as soon as I discovered it…and punctured myself as I was hauling it out before I realized that it had thorns! I am still cutting all the leaves that sprout from the stump since I don’t think I can dig deep enough to get it out without also digging up the crepe myrtle.

But – they do have pretty blooms in the spring.

Frost Ferns

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18 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity at 98% in the sunshine shortly after sunrise. Those were the conditions shortly after sunrise a few days after we got some snow. I went outside on the patio for some macro photography.

My first stop was where there was some residual snow (and maybe some fresh frost) on the deck stair railing. There has been too much freeze thaw…maybe a little interesting, but not worth standing out in the cold to fully capture.

I looked around for another surface where frost crystals might have formed…took a closer look at the wrought iron table and charts. There were small crystals around the edge of the table! I set my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) magnification to 8x and walked around the table. Most of the crystals looked like ferns to me! I am going to check the table rim on upcoming cold mornings…and document how the forms of frost change with temperature and humidity. Enjoy the sideshow below to see the results of 18 degrees and 98% humidity!

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!