Intimate Landscapes – December 2015

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This is the third month for my Intimate Landscapes series (after reading Eliot Porter’s Intimate Landscapes book (available online here)) featuring images from December that are: smaller scale but not macro, multiple species, and artsy.

This first image is from Hawaii – the very dense and green ground cover…with a few reds and a very black leaf that caught my attention.

The camellia that was surrounded by ferns in Hawaii was an arrangement made my nature.

Sometimes there were intimate landscapes in Hawaii that looked similar to ones seen in more temperate climates…but there is black lava underneath this grouping!

Longwood Gardens paired white, green and red plants in their main conservatory.

There was a large tiered fountain that had been repurposed for succulents.

There large bowl with a variety of cactus…one of them with tiny blooms.

Groupings of different pines made with their cones were also part of the natural decorations. None of these ‘intimate landscapes’ in the conservatory would have been together without the help of the gardeners…but I enjoyed them the same way I enjoy finding groupings outdoors.

Last but not least – from outdoors at Longwood Gardens – ferns, moss, and dried leaves growing around the knotted roots of a beech tree.

Helicopter over Hawaii

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We took a helicopter ride to get a better look at volcanoes and waterfall….the overall terrain of the Big Island. It was quite an experience. My seat assignment was in the middle front (seating was three across in the front and 4 across in the back). We made a loop around the island over a two-hour period. A little over half way through we landed at the bottom of a 400-foot-high waterfall. A narrow strip of land divides the waterfall from the ocean. The land is privately owned so not something that can be seen except via a helicopter tour that has obtained permission.

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Afterwards we flew up one of the valleys and saw more waterfalls. Some of them were in areas that could be hiked…but they would definitely take a lot of energy to see and, based on my other experience in the rain forest, might be very difficult to see through all the foliage on the ground.

The deep valleys stand out from the air and how neatly cultivates some areas are. Pineapple and sugar cane are no long the cash crops of the island. There are cattle ranches and eucalyptus forests…Kona is known for coffee…macadamia nuts near Hilo. The eye searches for man-made structures to provide scale to the scenes - bridges across deep valleys or the buildings of Hilo. On the lava fields and the shoreline, the edge of the forest provides a notion of scale but the power of lava to change the terrain is evident everywhere. There were tiny areas where flowing lava was visible before it flowed underneath solidified lava through a lava tube.

At the end of the ride – we headed back to the helicopter base….made on an old lava flow. I missed the green already!

Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve

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The Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve is a wet native forest on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was very near our rental house so was only a short outing. The route to the reserve is a narrow road that dead ends and then there is a short walk back along a fence to the reserve’s sign and a ladder stile to get yourself up and over the fence. Inside is a trail maintained by cutting the prolific vegetation – probably with a machete.

The trees in the forest are koa and ohi’a but they are hard to see because there are so many tree ferns. The fronds are very large on these plants and it is easy to imagine what the understory of tropical forests must have been like during the time of the dinosaurs (in fact, limited visibility in this forest because of plant density makes one hyper conscious of the rustling noises in the foliage and glad that there is a fence to keep the wild pigs out).

As usual – I honed in on the fiddleheads that were close to eye level. There were big hairy ones,

Small bristly ones,

And smooth purple spirals.

There was lots of moss around too and most of it seemed to include sporophytes.

Most of the time, the view upward was filled with large ferns…but there was always a hint of the higher layers of the forest.

I was only able to see the huge trunks of those larger trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back to the car – outside the fence – I notice some camellias that must have been planted along the road. The texture and color of the dried fern fronts with the flower that had recently fallen caught my attention…a nice ending to the outing.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 26, 2015

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Violet Snail spends whole life drifting on self-made bubbles -  A sea snail that floats around underneath bubbles….a pretty denizen of our oceans that preys on Portuguese man o’ war.

There are twelve different kinds of rainbows – I was hoping there would a reference with pictures of the 12 different kinds…but it isn’t in this post.

Ten Cool Thinks the Kitchen of the Future Will Do – Some things on this list don’t seem that great to me. Printing dinner with a countertop 3-D printer does not seem appetizing at all to me.

10 Truly Guilt-Free Wholefood Vegan Cookies - Many of these cookies look more appetizing to me than the bakery offerings I used to be drawn to. I recently had a slice of carrot cake and left half the icing on the plate because it seemed like there was more icing than cake!

Treating colon cancer with vitamin A – As I read this article – I wondered if the vitamin A rich foods I love in my diet (and think of as ‘good’ for my eyes) are good for other reasons too.

See nature in a whole new light –  17 pictures of bugs!

A historical atlas of America, built for the 21st century – From the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab….the site is called American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History. There are 4 maps now (the forced migration of enslaved people 1810-1860), the overland trails 1840-1860, foreign born population 1850-2010, and Canals 1820-1860) with more to come.

This physicist makes dazzling snowflakes in his laboratory – Wonderful images…Ken Libbrecht has a snowflake machine and photographs the unique snowflakes it creates from water vapor condensing on a sapphire substrate.

Cool roofs in China offer enhanced benefits during heat waves – As people put on new roofs….maybe the lighter colored roofs will become the norm on our warming planet.

Festive underwater creatures look like mini Christmas trees – Even though the Christmas holiday is over…I couldn’t resist including these tropical worms that look like colorful Christmas tree bristles on their calcium carbonate bases.

Akaka Falls State Park

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Akaka Falls State Park is a 400+ foot waterfall with a nice loop trail. The trail is paved which a good thing because the place is very wet; the penalty for stepping off is sinking into mud! The first view of the falls is partially obscured by foliage.Then there is a bend of the trail and more of the falls comes into view.

Finally there is an overlook.

I took several zoomed images as well.

There are lots of smaller watercourses through the foliage too…the place is wet!

It is a place of ferns unfurling

And moss growing even on the metal railings of the path.

There are interesting roots too – aerial

And embracing rocks.

I noticed more insects here too – an ant

And a small grasshopper.

There was a lizard eyeing us from leaves too.

There were lots of different flowers too. The place is full of blooming plants.

Maunakea

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The Maunakea visit was probably the most planned day of our stay in Hawaii for several reasons. We had to rent a car from a local company that permitted taking the car up the mountain (the nationwide car rental companies don’t allow it) and we had to prepare ourselves for the altitude change. Our rental house was at about 3,000 feet; the Maunakea vistor center is at 9,200 feet and the summit (where the telescopes are) is at 14,000.

We started our preparation for our Maunkea adventure the day before by taking a gingko supplement and planning our water supply. The next morning we got up and took another gingko and my daughter put us on a schedule for drinking water. We stopped at the Kipuka at the intersection of the saddle road and the road leading up the mountain.

We climbed the Kipuka and had a snack. I could already feel that the elevation has changed a little. A thin layer of very dark lava is along both sides of the saddle road at this point.The kipuka provided and opportunity for some close up pictures of common mullein (an invasive at higher elevations in Hawaii) and

Some other plants.

Then we drove up to the Maunakea Visitor Information Station. This part of the road is still paved and easy enough in a regular vehicle. Everyone is required to stay at the information station for at least an hour before proceeding up the mountain. We drank a lot more water and ate some crystalized ginger. Our strategy worked…no headaches, no nausea…our bodies were responding to the altitude change reasonably well although we were intentionally not doing any fast walking or running. We made use of our hour with some shopping in the store, observing the cloud deck that was below us and

The side of the mountain above us.

The road from the visitor information station and the telescopes is not paved and often bumpy. It requires a 4-wheel drive vehicle. At the top it is cold and windy. We were prepared with coats and gloves. Our original plan was to tour the Keck but it was not open when we were there but we drove around on the road connecting the telescopes taking pictures of them from the outside and down the mountain. It was bitterly cold and windy…and the altitude (14,000 feet!) made it hard to do anything quickly.

We got our parking spot for sunset. There were other people with the same idea. Everyone huddled in their cars between forays to take pictures. The two round domes connected to each other are the Keck.  The sunset at the cloud deck….and you see the mountains of Maui peeking through the clouds in the distance behind the telescopes.

As we got ready to head down the mountain, we commented that it must have been too windy for the telescopes to open…..but as we made our way down the road our line of sight changed and we saw that one of the Keck’s had opened.

Everyone is required to come down the mountain within 15 minutes of sunset. The visitor center hosts star viewing…..and then it is time to head for our vacation rental in Volcano HI.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

Lava Tree State Monument

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Lava Tree State Monument is a small park with a loop trail. The lava trees (molds of tree trunks formed when lava flowed through a forest) are older than the ones seen along Chain of Craters Road.  Many of them were upright – look like totems, the hollow from where the tree trunk once was not visible.

Many of the ohi’a lehu trees has ferns growing and other epiphytes growing on their shaggy trunks – those plants providing more green than the leaves from the tree.

I had not seen mushrooms or shelf fungus in Hawaii until Lava Tree State Monument…and here they were brilliant orange. They reminded me of dried orange peel.

Sometimes the trees must have been horizontal when the lava surrounded them.  Some of the lava trees are mini-communities of small plants, lichen and moss.

I was always startled by the orchids that thrive just about everywhere on the wet side of the island (i.e. the Hilo side…the Kona side is too dry for tropical plants except where extra water is provided by the resorts.

Some of the lava trees are overgrown but the black – almost shiny – lava makes a stark contrast to the green plants.

The route to the monument passes through Pahoa, the small town that was threatened by a lava flow in October-November 2014.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

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The Hawaii Tropical Island is along the coast north of Hilo on the Big Island. The garden includes tropical plants from all over the world and is located on a cliff going down to sea level. The first part of the path is a boardwalk that is just wide enough for the golf carts that help people that cannot walk down (or back up) the garden paths.

The understory of the forest is almost overwhelming with ferns – sometimes growing on soil but also coming from tree trunks too.

Some trees have colorful roots that start before the soil line

Moss and vines grow on trees trunks too.

Gold Dust Day Geckos (native of Madagascar) are colorful; they are easier to spot when they are not on foliage close to their own color.

I was surprised to spot these pitcher plants

And a lot of flowers that I had only seen in Conservatories previous!

The forest was shady for the most part but where the sun did make it through – the plants seemed to glow.

And the streams through the garden were brimming with lush vegetation – sometimes almost like carpets.

When we got down to the ocean – the boulders of lava were being battered by waves –

The surging for water against rock….on and on.

And then we made the climb back up the cliff.

The garden was a good place to be in the morning before the heat of the day. We covered exposed skin with sun screen and sprayed ourselves with bug repellent since we’d hear of Dengue Fever being a problem on the Big Island in the weeks before we arrived. The gift shop at the garden was good too….more on that when I summarize our purchases during the trip (later in this series).

Previous Hawaii Posts:

Chain of Craters Road

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Chain of Craters Road extends from the Kilauea Caldera down to the sea in Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park – an elevation change of about 3,700 feet in just under 19 miles of roadway. There are stops along the way….and some ‘road trip’ type pictures through the car’s windshield.

The eye is drawn to the plants that are surviving on the lava – ferns and grasses 

And epiphytes covering trees that are not doing so well.

Any color change from black or gray is noticeable. This is a ‘lava tree’ where lava surrounded a tree and cooled enough to retrain the shape of the trunk before the tree burned away completely.

Sometimes there are collection of glassy blobs – shiny and different colors from the surrounding lava.

The color differences may be caused by different cooling rates or mineral content of the lava.

There are craters along the road. Some are quite old with light gray lava and tress clinging to the sides.

 And then there is a stretch where there is fresher lava on both sides of the road. Mauna Ulu is the background of this picture.

As we drove down the cliff to the sea – it was clear where lava falls has gone over the surface and down to the sea.

There was a road cut through one such flow.

Seeing this – I wondered why the majority of Hawaiian beaches are not black sand!

Previous Hawaii Posts:

Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail

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The first small hikes that we did at Volcano National Park were two that share a parking area: Thurston Lava Tube (Nahuku) and Kilauea Iki.

The first is a trail that goes through a lava tube. My pictures of the lava tube did not turn out (lighting was too dim) but it was interesting to see the marks on the sides of the tube from the lavas that flowed through it. Along the way I saw colorful birds (this on might be an Apapane in the forest

And ferns and moss that are colonizing the lava at the entrance to the tunnel.

The hike to Kilauea Iki – a cooled lava lake – begins at the rim of the crater in the rainforest. The path proceeds down a series of switchbacks. The ferns are at eye level.

I captured quite an array of fiddleheads – purple, green, encased in a brown husk, hairy.

And then the trail emerges from the forest onto the lava lake. The trail here is marked with stakes of rocks on the undulating terrain of solidified lava. Do you see the people along the trail? That provides a sense of scale for the place. The lake was formed in 1959 – so a relatively young volcanic feature.

Ohi’a lehua have colonized the edge of the lava lake.

Ohelo are there as well. This one does not have any red berries. The Nene (Hawaiian goose) evidently like the berries.

The Ae ferns area also hardy colonizers of the lava.

At one edge of the lava lake there are steam vents.

We didn’t hike all the way across the lake…climbing back up the trail to the parking lot through the forest. Here is the view from after we reached the top.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 12, 2015

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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.

Women don beards for documentary about inequality in the geosciences – This documentary is about women in paleontology but the challenges faced by women in any field that is overwhelmingly dominated by men are similar. The ‘beard’ is a fun visualization! It reminded me of the female pharaoh that wore a beard.

Report: China Clean Energy Investments Beat U.S., U.K, and France Combined – Hmm. Maybe the whole world is getting more focused on the challenges we have re climate change. It would be great if the US could be a leader…sad if we abdicate.

How will future archaeologists study us? – CDs last 2-5 years before they risk losing data. This article is about encoding information on DNA and storing it in glass particles…artificial fossils. Of course – they may also find our landfills to be sources of information of how we really lived.

Some Thoughts about the Coming Winter: Part One – The further out a forecast is – the less accurate it is. The post from Dan Satterfield explains why…some graphics about weather model results.

Failing phytoplankton, failing oxygen: Global warming disaster could suffocate life on planet Earth – I’ve often wondered what happens to oxygen levels as the Earth’s temperature climbs. This is on scenario…and a scary one. If we have a 6 degree Celsius increase in the water temperature of the oceans – which some models predict by 2100 – the photosynthesis of phytoplankton in the oceans could be disrupted. Two-thirds of the planet’s total atmospheric ocean is produced by phytoplankton.

Photographer Captures Stunning South Korean Landscapes Reflected in Mirror-Like Lakes – Some beautiful images. I like reflections….and I need to be observant to find them and photograph them. I always try at Centennial Lake (image to the left) but there are other places that I probably overlook completely.

The Unregulation of Biotech Crops – In some ways – this situation is similar to the designer performance enhancement drugs that are hard to test for too. Modern techniques are streaming ahead – creating things we have little ability to understand very well – let along any unintended consequences.

Physicians and burnout: It’s getting worse – This was a frustrating article. It reported the burnout statistics comparing 2011 to 2014 but no deep understanding for why burnout is increasing. I am not particularly happy with the US health system either but any attempts to change it very much seem to be impossible politically.

DIY: Cinn-Apple Ornaments – One of my daughter’s friends made and gave us some of these ornaments for Christmas …probably about 15 years ago. I carefully put them away at the end of each season and they still smell like cinnamon every time I get them out! I’m not going to make any this year but I may do it next year and put them on every knob in the house!

Eat a paleo peach: First fossil peaches discovered in southwest China – Peach pits that are 2.5 million years old! The peaches from this time period would have been about the size of the smallest commercial peaches of today.

Some Winter Trees

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Sometimes trees get a lot harder to identify in the winter but there are some easy ones to notice on winter hikes or drives. Here are my favorites from the area of Maryland where I live.

Holly. There is a holly growing as an understory tree in the forest behind our house. Whether they are in a forest or used as landscaping around houses – their red berries and bright green leaves are a spot of color in the winter landscape. The branches are used in greenery arrangements and garland at Christmas….but watch out for the prickles on the leaf edges.

Sycamore. After the leaves fall, the white inner bark of the sycamores is very striking. They grow quite large along the rivers and streams in our area.

River Birch. Most of the ones I’ve seen have been used as part of a landscape. Their peely bark is full of color in the winter landscape.

White or Paper Birch. The high contrast (black and white) of the bark makes these trees easy to spot.

Bald Cypress. This one not common in our area. We are little too far north. But is survives as a landscape tree. The knees give it away!

Southern Magnolia. The leaves on these trees say green all during the winter: waxy green on top and velvety brown underneath. You made find seed pods on the ground.

Sweet Gum. Sometimes it is easy to identify a tree by what is on the ground. Most Sweet Gum trees are so prolific that there are lots of gum balls around the tree all winter long.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 5, 2015

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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.

Indestructible Water Bears Have a Genome That Is Seriously Weird – Over 17% of their genome comes from other organisms! 9% of rotifer genome is from other organisms. Now that we are sequencing genomes nothing is as absolute as we’d once assumed.

Discover Jordan’s past and present in Google Maps – Take a look at Petra and other sites in Jordan.

5 Root Vegetables to Put on Your Radar – Parsnips, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, jicama, and daikon radish…have you tried any/all of these? There are 3 that I have not so maybe they will be part of a food adventure this winter.

Farming Sped Eurasian Evolution – And it was a migration of people not a diffusion of ideas that spread farming into Europe.

London Was Diverse Even Its Early Roman Days – In 50 AD…London was already a cross roads with people from other parts of Europe and as far away as North Africa living alongside people that had been in Britain for longer.

Loss of mastodons aided domestication of pumpkins, squash – Mastadons ate pumpkins! The wild pumpkins of that time was bitter and maybe even toxic to humans. Initially the plant may have been used as containers or fishnet floats. Gradually (and in multiple locations) the cucurbitas were domesticated and we have the squashes we eat today.

1,400-Year-Old Gingko Tree Sheds a Spectacular Ocean of Golden Leaves – Even the smaller gingko trees can be spectacular. The shape of the leaves is unique too.

New treatment potential for heart attack sufferers – I was intrigued by the title but even more in statement that was buried more than halfway through the article: “Currently, 5-10% of the population is believed to have mildly elevated levels of bilirubin in their blood – a condition with no negative side effects….People with this syndrome have a 30-60% reduced chance of having cardiovascular disease…” I’m one of those 5-10%!

The grim and gory reality of surgery in space – It has some similarities to any remote exploration…with the added challenge of weightlessness.

Inside Each Flu Shot, Months of Virus Tracking and Predictions – I’ve been getting flu vaccines regularly for the past 10 years or so…and haven’t gotten the flu a single time. And now it is easier than ever – no visit to the doctor required now that pharmacies provide flu shots.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – November 2015

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Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for November 2015.

Like October several celebrations involved the volunteering I do with the Howard County Conservancy. There were several types of volunteering this month and it was a grand finale to the season for me:

Fall hikes for 2nd graders. This is the last season for the soil hike for 2nd graders because of curriculum changes. I celebrated every hike that I did because the hike is such a favorite with the children and they participate so enthusiastically – getting their hands dirty learning about soil.

Belmont Colonial Holiday Celebration. The event is the beginning of the season for me and it gets me in the mood to decorate…to cook…to enjoy the people I am with.

Mailing Party. The ‘party’ to stuff envelopes with the annual accomplishments and request donations for the Howard County Conservancy is a ‘once a year’ volunteer event. We all are work madly for 3+ hours…but there is a lot of laughter and sharing of stories while we work. This time we took a break for a delicious Italian food lunch and then got back to work to finish everything. I celebrated the comradery and good food and getting it done!

I celebrated two ‘close to home places’ in November too:

Conowingo. Seeing a Bald Eagle is always a celebration. They have made quite a comeback in the 30 years we’ve been on the east coast. I remember vividly the first time I saw one in the wild – at Blackwater Wildlife Refuge on the eastern shore of Maryland…in 1990. Now we go to Conowingo and consistently see many of them fishing in the river there.

Brookside Gardens Conservatory. There is something special about every visit to Brookside. This time the highlight was seeing how they clean the glass top of the conservatory! I celebrate that we have a place like Brookside Gardens in our area.

And there were things at home that were good too:

A cold autumn day at home. Sometimes after being out and about almost every day – I celebrate a day at home. This month it came on a very cold day and I celebrated that I could stay indoors! There will be many more cold days soon but in November they are still ‘new.’

Wind blowing the leaves off the lawn. I had to rake quite a few of the leaves on our lawn but some of them were carried by the wind into the forest where they will decompose and nourish the forest. Hurray for the raking effect of the wind!

And 3 more celebrations to round out the 10 for November:

The Martian. I celebrated a going to a theater…and seeing a good movie!

No cavities. I had a dental checkup this month and I thought for sure I had a cavity on one of my front teeth…but it was only a stain! They polished the stain off….and I celebrated all the way home.

Getting things done on my list. Sometimes I move items from one day to next….then I have a day that everything gets done…and I celebrate that discipline comes to the fore!

Holiday Decorations at Belmont – 2015

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The Howard County Conservancy hosted their second annual Colonial Holiday Celebration at Belmont last weekend. I volunteered to help with set up and registration – just as I did last year. There was enough time during the set up to photograph some of the beautiful decorations.

Here is the front door – with wreath hanging from the knocker and urns full of Osage orange seed balls. We put small sacks with LED lights on the stairs before it got dark. Those stairs look like they seen a lot of traffic over the years!

The registration table was just inside the front door and we had homemade ornaments to commemorate the event on the tree just beyond (and for sale). I was part of the team that had the adventure creating them!

I loved the old style decorations like strings of popcorn and read ribbon.

The dried hydrangea with magnolia leaves on one of the mantles was very attractive. The color remaining in the hydrangea flowers are very subtle…..and they provide a contrasting texture the magnolia leaves’ velvety brown and shiny green.

I like the ribbons draped from the chandelier with cranberries as ‘weights.’ This was the decoration remembered from last year and I was glad to see it again.

Now for a slide show of some of the other decorations. The decorators focused on natural materials rather than glitz of modern decorations. Pomegranates, cranberries, nadina, holly, bittersweet, clove studded oranges, and apples for the reds and oranges…boxwood, pine and cedar and magnolia for the greens….gum balls, dried vines, pine cones, turkey feathers, antlers, and acorns for browns…hydrangea for the light green, pink and blue. Wow – it’s quite a collection!

Fall Yard Work

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There are a lot of fall yard chores! I’ve been trying to do a little on every sunny day recently.

Raking leaves always takes a lot more energy than I remember. Our trees are 20+ years old and big enough to have a lot of leaves….too many to leave on the grass since there are enough of them to form thick mats and kill the grass. Actually – the raking is easier than carting them back to the forest where they can decay into thick mulch on the forest floor. The yard crews use high powered mowers to blow them into piles and into the forest but the noise is overwhelming; for me it negates the pleasure of being outdoors on an autumn day…so I rake.

Cleaning up the deck takes some time too. This year, I am cutting the dried summer stalks and transplanting day lily bulbs (taking them from the beds where the deer always find the buds before they can bloom) into pots and planting native flower seeds (False Indigo and Joe-Pye Weed) that require overwintering before they can sprout. Our deck should attract even more butterflies and hummingbirds next summer! I’ve also harvested the celery stems and leaves that rooted last spring from the base of purchased (organic) celery. I’ve already enjoyed them in soup!

My husband will do a final mowing of the yard sometime this week to mulch the leaves still on the yard…and we’ll declare the fall yard work ‘done’ – ready for winter.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 21, 2015

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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.

Poland's Mysterious "Crooked Forest" Populated with 400 Bent Pine Trees – Trees are remarkably resilient. Whatever caused these trees to be bent near the base…and then continue growing upright…they are survivors!

Why do we still not know what’s inside the pyramids? – I usually notice stories about Ancient Egypt that come in on my newsfeeds but my awareness is even higher right now because of the Ancient Egypt course I am taking on Coursera.

6 Homemade Vegan Sauces and Condiments that are better than Store-bought – I’m trying the recipe for peanut sauce after I finish the store bought bottle I have in my refrigerator!

The digital revolution in higher education has already happened. No one noticed. – Another dimension of higher education not mentioned in this thoughtful piece is the continuing education that many post-career individuals seek. I recently looked at face to face classes offered in my area of Maryland and decided that the selection available from Coursera and other online providers was much greater (and the price was right too). Another case where the digital revolution in higher education has already happened.

Photography in the National Parks: Your Armchair Guide to Big Bend National Park – Part 2  - A continuation of an article I included in my October 31 gleanings….good info for planning a trip there.

Tangy and Tasty Fresh Cranberry Recipes – My ‘new’ recipe to try for Thanksgiving is the Cranberry-Carrot cake. I am not going to put icing on it….eat it more like muffins for Thanksgiving Day brunch. Don't forget Cranberry Orange Relish either! Wegmans recipe is here.

Move Over, Turkey: Meet the World’s Other Bald, Be-wattled Birds – Thinking of turkey this week….here are some other birds that have similar heads. They all look odd to me!

Field Drain Tile and the “Re-Eutrophication” of Lake Erie – Why the algal blooms have worsened in recent years after improving for the prior 15 years.

Elegant Greenhouse Photos Mimic the Ethereality of Oil Paintings – Hmm…the textured glass reminded me of a shower door. This might turn into a winter photography experiment!

Incan Mummy Genome Sequenced – The mitochondrial DNA analysis was the first completed and placed the boy in a very small subgroup – only 4 other known individuals. Other genetic analyses of the 500 year old mummy of a 7-year-old boy are ongoing.

3 Free eBooks – November 2015

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So many good books to choose from…it was hard to pick just 3 – like it is every month. I’m having a hard time making progress on my stacks of physical books when there are so many beautiful eBooks that are freely available.

Linden, Jean Jules. Lindenia : iconographie des Orchidées . Gand (Belgium): Impr. F. Meyer-van Loo. 1885. Ten volumes are available on the Internet Archive here. What not to like about orchids….and more orchids!

Burke, Doreen Bolger, et al. In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1986. Available from the Internet Archive here. The Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s and 1880s pervaded so much of the way ‘home’ looked…and it is surprising how much the individual pieces still appeal even though the aggregation in many of those rooms would look overwhelming today. The gilded peacock feather motif (that I clipped) was used on a book binding.

The Griffith Institute. Discovering Tutankhamun in Color. The Griffith Institute, University of Oxford. 2015. Available from the Griffith Institute site here. The black and white photographs taken when the tomb was first opened in the 1920s have been colorized and many are available with annotations online. Click on the image to get an enlarge view. I’ve seen two different King Tut exhibits and still learned some new things from these photos! This site was one of the references from the Ancient Egypt course I am taking via Coursera.

Bonus!!! A fourth eBook for this month…also a reference from the Ancient Egypt class I am taking: Teeter, Emily (editor). Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization. Oriental Institute Museum Publications: The University of Chicago. 2011. Available here. Easy to read…and well illustrated. A lot has been added to our knowledge in this area in the past 20 years.

November at the Brookside Gardens Conservatory – Part 2

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The Brookside Gardens Conservatory offered a number of opportunities for thematic photography when we walked around its paths earlier this week. Yesterday I posted about the mums and the reds/oranges that I missed in those flowers but found in others. Today the themes are focused on light and curves. There was a leaf that seemed to glow in a spotlight. I’m not sure which magnification I like the best. The higher magnification almost looks like it is on fire!

The corner of the conservatory seemed crowded but there was one plant that found a way to shine in the jumble.

And what about this ‘light at the end of tunnel!

Shifting to curves….the variegated crotons were crowded together – I like the curves of their leaves and the veins too.

The cycads are all curves….from the fibrous centers to the stubby arms of the trunk.

The fiddleheads are nestled in center of this large fern…their wavy curves still tightly coiled.

The bromeliad is orderly curves…except for the green one in the foreground that seems to be going in a different direction!

Succulents are stuffed curves. This one has a little point at the end of each leaf (or is it a stem). Look at the orientation of those points toward the center of the plant. They could be a model for aliens conversing.

Papyrus – river rocks – ripples of water…lots of curves.