Brookside Gardens in September is making the transition to fall. We went first thing in the morning; the temperature was decidedly cool. Here are the highpoints of what we saw:
Enjoy the slide show!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
Another Way to Think about Learning - from Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop per Child Foundation
Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #22 - from the Wild Bird Trust
Antlion - otherwise known as doodlebugs…find out what the ‘bug’ at the bottom of that conical pit really looks like?
Antietam 'Death Studies' Changed How We Saw War - 1862…. photography of the aftermath of the battle at Antietam
Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?
New Test House to Generate More Energy than It Uses - a stereotypical suburban house that can generate as much energy as it needs to run
U.S., Russia Move Closer To Sharing Their "Beringian Heritage" - Beringia National Park in Russia to be linked with Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alasak
Crews Uncover Massive Roman Mosaic in Southern Turkey - 1,600 square feet of mosaic….from a Roman bath
Rx Guide for High Blood Pressure - BP medications are currently failing millions. The author of a new book on the topic says “Despite their best intentions many physicians continue to place their hypertensive patients on blood pressure medications, drug combinations or doses that may not be the best treatment available to them”
Give peace (and quiet) a chance - Is there any place to hear the early morning bird song without the backdrop of traffic?
I’m remembering warm summer nights and the fountain display at Longwood Gardens….celebrating the passing of the season for the year. This year we were there on a night in August that it was just the fountains - no music. Years ago we were there when the Stars Wars sound track played for the fountain show. Another year - my 3 year old daughter started singing while we waited for the show; all the adults around her sang along once she started! There was a lightning show on the horizon that accompanied the fountains during another performance.
The slide show below contains my top 10 photo picks from our visit in August. I like the colors, the jets and curtains of water, the close in and the wide angle. Of course you miss the motion - the sound of the water. Hopefully your imagination can fill in the missing parts!
What are you normally doing at 10 AM on Saturday morning?
Are you sleeping in…getting children to a practice/lesson/event…shopping or running errands? Is it different every Saturday or pretty much consistent?
For years - I was putting away groceries. Saturday morning was my time for weekly grocery shopping. I always did it as early as I could along with the other errands of the week. Generally I was done and home right around 10 AM. It was a very regular rhythm.
Now - I do my grocery shopping on a weekday morning and avoid the Saturday shoppers. That leaves my Saturdays in the ‘different every week’ category. Sometimes there is a scheduled community event on Saturday. 10AM is about the earliest they start. There are some Fall Festivals coming up that I’d enjoy; I’ll have to put them on the calendar as I hear about them.
Taking a time check like this highlights how significantly my life has changed over the past months…and it’s all for the good!
This week is the last hurrah for the annual butterfly exhibit at the Brookside Gardens south conservatory. There were still a lot of butterflies to see. It was the first time I’d gone with a camera - and I found that I enjoyed it more while I was there and now that I am looking at the photos again. My more challenging shot was of the blue morphos (to the left) because they so rarely stay anyplace for long with their wings open. Enjoy the slide show below of my favorites for the photos my husband and I took!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
Stalking Sharks - researchers monitor movement of sharks off California’s coast
In Bike-Friendly Copenhagen, Highways For Cyclists - one third of the people of Copenhagen ride their bikes to work or school…and they are extending the existing infrastructure out to the suburbs.
Birds hold 'funerals' for dead - experiments with western scrub jays
Face of America: Spirit of South Florida Montage - high energy montage of clips from Wolf Trap's upcoming Face of America: Spirit of South Florida, set to appear at Wolf Trap National Park (article at National Parks Traveler here)
Raw Veggie ‘noodle’ dishes - a step beyond spaghetti squash. If you don’t want to invest in a spiral slicer, try putting your veggies horizontally in your regular food processor and using the grating blade; the opening in my processor is large enough to make 3-4 inch ‘noodles’ this way (see zucchini and sweet potato noodles at left)
Learn the Top Native Plants for Your Backyard - beautiful and usually require less maintenance!
Grand Canyon National Park - the guide from National Parks Traveler.
Wow! NASA Video Shows 'Mind-Bogglingly Gorgeous' Solar Eruption
Green Money-Saving Tips: Cheap Ways to Be Environmentally Friendly - 10 tips (scroll over the images in the slide show to see the accompanying text). The 8th one (make your own cleaning supplies) includes of link to recipes for cleaners!
Cheers, Voyager: 35 Years of Exploration - the most distant human-made object was launched 35 years ago on Sept. 5th
A few weeks ago at Longwood Gardens I decided to try some photographing the lights by intentionally moving the camera during the longer exposure.
I experimented with making different shapes - can you see the D and S and O? Of course - most of the light tracks are just squiggles. Enjoy!
For more traditional photos of the lights at Longwood see my earlier post.
September is the winding down of summer. I have onions blooming - a brilliant display over the lemon balm cut back last month. The insects really were enjoying the flowers.
The dahlias are still blooming profusely but sometimes one just dries out to look more like a sculpture than a flower.
The mushrooms are still growing around the old oak stump. The ones on the stump itself just get bigger and bigger. The puff balls a little further way on the mulch grow and then the puff opens to send spores out to grow other puff balls. It seems like we always have new pristine white one somewhere in the mulch around the oak stump while the older ones still disperse more spores when the wind is just right.
And finally - a feather in the grass. It must have come from a good sized bird. Since it was the only one - I’m assuming it was from molting rather than a death.
Previous Months: August 2012, July 2012, June 2012, May 2012, April 2012, March 2012, January 2012
I’ve posted before about water lilies (Cheekwood in June 2012, Longwood in November 2011). This time I’m sharing macro photos. These were all taken at Longwood Gardens in mid-August 2012. I love the colors and the shapes the magnification brings out. If I didn’t tell you they were water lilies would you be able to guess?
Enjoy the show!
Longwood Gardens has a display Bruce Monro’s Light installations through September 29. They are interesting to see in the daytime to understand the technology and then in the dusk/dark to get the full effect of the light. It’s all done with various configurations of LED lights and fiber optics. I’ve put together a slide show of my photos; also check out the links (green font) to see pictures supplied by Longwood Gardens.
The Arrow Spring display includes sprites of light fibers among plantings. They are almost invisible in the daytime but show up like little fountains of water at night. The first installation is at the entrance to the visitor center - large glass spheres with internal spheres. During the day it looks like bubbles within bubbles. At night the fibers inside give changing color. The Field of Light and Forest of Light are both glass spheres with a fiber inside. The Field of Light is reflected in water of a small lake. The snowballs hang from the ceiling of the conservatory. They are glass balls with fiber inside. The Water Towers are made from plastic water bottles and fiber. Their color is more vivid in pictures than on the field - the longer exposure making the colors deeper and more jewel-like.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
The Secret Life of a Cardboard Box - infographic
Developing Economies At Highest Risk of Climate Change Disasters - resilience outranks risk
3D-Printed Exoskeleton - Engineers at the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Philadelphia used a 3-D printer to make a lightweight plastic exoskeleton for a 2-year-old girl named Emma Lavalle.
Slideshow: Echoes of the Ancients - large file but wonderful images of Mesa Verde and other Southwestern US National parks
Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #20 - learning about more birds from around the world with each of these postings
Sunflower Party Time - great pictures of the plant and some insects
Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano (pictures)
Easy whole grain pumpkin-banana bread - sounds yummy….but I would just double the recipe to use up the whole can of pumpkin
Make Room for (the New) Daddy - Essay and slide show from Marlo Thomas
Renewable Energy’s Growth Over the Past 15 Years - infographic
Our learning expectations for children are huge…consider setting a similar expectation for yourself. It’s quite a challenge to come up with something as significant as learning to read. Everything else seems like a less significant step but, just like learning to read, it is not as hard as it appears as first. So - forge ahead with the audacity of youth toward whatever new thing you want to learn.
Here are some examples from my own experience:
The bottom line is that continuing to learn new things all the time is an integral part of living. It’s the way we become resilient to whatever changes come our way!
On a recent day at Longwood Gardens, I got to the conservatory early. Surprise! - There were no children in the Indoor Children’s Garden. Normally it is a very popular part of the conservatory and there is no easy way to photograph its features. The photographs in this post are the results of that little serendipity (and my most significant ‘celebration’ for the day!).
The garden was redesigned/upgraded several years ago. The conservatory had an area for children even 20 years ago that my daughter enjoyed; the things she liked the most have been doubled and redoubled in the new garden - lots of water for little hands, musical instruments, sculptures and mosaics…low ceilings and narrow stairways….all with a nature theme.
We took advantage of a cool, cloudy morning recently to revisit Catoctin Mountain Park near Thurmont, Maryland. It’s a forested area with hiking trails and winding roads. For us - it’s a place to celebrate all the times we’ve been there before (over the past 20+ years) and the beauty of the place even in August: (from the top down in the collage below) Catoctin geology, tiny mushrooms in moss, sunflowers at the visitors center, Cunningham Falls - not much water but the scour holes to the right of the water are indicators of how much there is at other times of the years, and a blue chicory flower.
This time of year the fungus steal the show from wildflowers. The slide show below captures some of my favorites. There are a lot of tree falls and forest mulch at Catoctin that provide lots substrate for these decomposers.
And last but not least - there were a few colorful leaves….reminding us that fall is just around the corner.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #19 - From National Geographic
Prisoners pitch in to save endangered butterfly - Hurray for the Sustainability in Prisons Project
The Story of Stuff - a new movie (“The Story of Change”) has been posted…the others on the site are worth a look/listen too
Easiest Hot Bean Dip - Sounds yummy!
Should Doctors Treat Lack of Exercise as a Medical Condition? Expert Says 'Yes' - it would be great if doctors made this change - prescribe a gradual buildup of exercise rather than medication
An Artificial Retina with the Capacity to Restore Normal Vision - sight is often a challenge for otherwise healthy older people. This approach may be helpful. Hope the clinical trials get going and the technology/treatment becomes available sooner rather than later.
Fall Packages Make National Parks Attractive Destinations - Death Valley, Denali, Glen Canyon, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verda, Olympic, Shenandoah, Yellowstone, and Zion….what a line up
How people spend money in America - Any surprises? Maybe the % spent on Transportation and Gasoline was a little surprising.
Andrea Marshall: An up-close look at the majestic manta ray - TED talk
Marianne North Online Gallery - North’s botanical paintings hosted by Kew Gardens; browse by country, plant group, or category
Clouds are a constantly changing aspect of our world. I’ve picked some examples today of how that ephemeral nature of clouds can be a frequent source of delight…if we just remember to look to the sky.
Winter sunrises (Maryland 2012) with the red to orange to yellow
Summer afternoon clouds build up (Loveland Pass, Colorado 2012)
Spring sunset before a cold night (Death Valley 2012)
Summer clouds after a monsoon rain (Tucson 2012) Note the moon in the picture below.
Brookside Gardens in August - the plants are hanging on in the heat, making seed pods. There are quite a few with lots of buds brought on by the recent rains and the coming reduction in temperatures. The textures and shapes that I focused on during my walk included:
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
NASA images reveal massive forest die-off from tiny beetle - Before and after satellite pictures of Colorado
Movement Along Fault Line Threatening Cliff Palace At Mesa Verde National Park
Video Sampler Introduces You To The More Than 20 National Parks In Virginia
Zentangles - Get more out of doodling!
Black Drink: Evidence of Ritual Use of Caffeinated Brew at Cahokia - made from a holly tree that grew hundreds of miles away
10 Green Ways to Improve Our Cities
Sky-High Design: How To Make A Bird-Friendly Building - tweaks to make modern architecture better for birds
How Olympic athletes' bodies have changed over the last century - an infographic from NPR
The Bison: A National Symbol for All Americans - From National Geographic…the first post in a series about the American Bison
Chart: the world's endangered mammals - From the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The primates are faring the worst with 49% of the species being ‘threatened’ - which means that they are threatened with extinction. Overall - 21% of mammal species are in ‘threatened’ status.
Pictures: Surprising Effects of the U.S. Drought - From National Geographic
Before I adjusted from Eastern to Mountain time on a recent trip to Breckenridge, Colorado - I took an early morning walk and took pictures of flowers growing around the resort - some with water droplets left over from the shower the night before. Hope you enjoy the slideshow below!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:
How to store produce without plastic - a good reference
Museum of Food Anomalies - Some natural…some contrived
Nadya Andreeva: A healthy lifestyle you can stomach - A tummy exercise for everyone
Visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park With Insider Tips From Friends Of The Smokies - - This is a recent post about Great Smoky Mountains but the site includes posts on all the parks. One for Theodore Roosevelt National Park has just been posted…check it out as you plan a visit to one of them
What’s the Most Important Thing We Can Do To Take Control Of Our Final Days? - A collection of recommendations from healthcare professionals….also A Discussion of How Doctors - and the rest of us - Prepare for the End
Bedtime Math - making math a fun part of kid’s everyday lives
Rym Baouendi: Learning ecodesign from ancient civilizations - TED video
The Ghostly Grandeur Of A Desert Graveyard - El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery
Making Green More Macho - Apply the lessons from the “Don’t Mess with Texas” anti-littering campaign more broadly
Three wonderlands of the American West: Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River…in 1912 - read it - or just look at the pictures online at the Internet Archive (see last week’s gleanings for a graphic on how to use the interface to read online). To view the book in a different format, start with the main entry for the book here.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
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