Ten Days of Little Celebrations – December 2015

Happy "Winter" Holidays!

I enjoy the big celebrations of the year....but the little celebrations that happen daily are the ones that keep me going all year long. Here are my top 10 for December 2015….and – no surprise – they all are some aspect of the trip to Hawaii!

Some of the places I’ve already posted about:

• Akaka State Park
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Chain of Craters Road

Others are still posts in development:

• A helicopter ride to see waterfalls and volcanoes
• Green Sand Beach
• Maunaiki trail in the Ka’u Desert

And then there are non-place related celebrations:

• Purple sweet potato pie (pretty and tasty at the Kona Pub and Brewery)
• That our luggage arrived with us on the flight home (even though we had to change airlines in the middle of our flights)

A Different Holiday Season

I’ve did a subset of decorating I do every year after Thanksgiving – put up the door scrunchies with cards from past seasons,

Filled the milk glass vase with glittery swirls (the milk glass vase was one that was left in a house we bought over 30 years ago...and I always put something in it for Christmas), and

Put cards under the plastic on the breakfast table.

But that is it for decorating this year. We just got back from more than a week in Hawaii (blog posts to come about that) and are planning day trips to other places (Longwood Gardens, Brookside, etc.) that are decorated for the season through early January.

It is a different plan for the holiday (Thanksgiving – Christmas – New Years). There is less decorating, more time with family and more time traveling! Wrapped gifts are not on the agenda at all. My husband gave me a binocular harness strap before we went to Hawaii and he bought himself more gear for star parties that are in our future!

I’m still thinking about what traditions I want to squeeze back into the plan….maybe pumpkin custard for Christmas day…putting away all the decorations we did get out on New Years Eve.

Happy Thanksgiving!

When Thanksgiving Day first started, it was a celebration of the abundance of food after the annual harvest. Now – the vast majority of people have ready access to plenty of food throughout the year and the day is a holiday that (hopefully) acts as a reminder to be thankful for that aspect of the modern world. I applaud the efforts of organizations the seek ways to make the availably of food true for everyone, going beyond the majority that it true today.

The holiday period from Thanksgiving through the New Year have been a time of overeating and weight gain. I’m starting with a strategy this year to avoid the weight gain: spread out the treats so that no particular day is ‘over the top.’ I started off my making my ‘new’ treat for this season based on the cranberry carrot cake recipe from VegKitchen on Tuesday and enjoying one piece each day as my morning snack. I substituted grated sweet potato for the carrots and processed an apple with its peeling for the applesauce….and didn’t make the icing at all. It is still yummy.

Thanksgiving is also a time of traditions – particularly food related. My husband does not like turkey so we’ve always had roast. We have pumpkin custard (not crust) as one of the desserts. Sometimes I can’t resist a pecan pie but I make a small one (about half the usual size…and skip the crust). One food tradition that faded away with my grandmother was kolaches (apricot) and raisin buns; no one in the family makes that kind of bread any more.

Enough about food….there is a lot we all have to be thankful for every day. Having a day set aside each year with the name ‘Thanksgiving’ is a good reminder to realize that more often…not let the busy-ness of life cause us to savor and appreciate the wonderful aspects of our lives.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – November 2015

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 2^nd graders. This is the last season for the soil hike for 2^nd 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

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!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – September 2015

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 September 2015.

Haircut – I’d gotten rather shaggy over the course of the summer….the shorter hair was worth celebrating!

Laptop – Hurray! My new laptop (after a rough start) is living up to my expectations. I am celebrating that it is definitely better than my old one in every way.

Acorn squash with homemade orange marmalade and butter – A vegetable that tastes like the dessert is always a celebration.

Homemade veggie soup – I used up some of the overwhelming numbers of tomatoes and other vegetables on one of our first cool days….celebrating the beginnings of fall with food.

Art of Flower Photography – A class that it beautiful to watch and spurs my own photographic experiments; this was another multi-dimensional celebration.

Mediation Course – I’ve only learned the bare minimum…enough to realize the potential…and am celebrating it as a beginning.

Glass birdbath – The glass bird bath in the front our house is something I check every morning when I come downstairs. Sometimes there is a bird…sometimes not. The sight of glass bowl in the morning light always starts the day on a positive note.

Longwood Gardens – Earlier this week my husband and I made a road trip to Longwood Gardens (posts still being developed). It was a 13,000 step walk around the gardens and meadow on a near perfect fall day.

Bird Walk – I’d never taken a walk with a birding group until recently. It was a good experience even though it rained off and on….birds seemed hunkered down rather than active. I celebrated that the area I live in has a number of active birders.

An indoor day – Sometimes it is a relief to just be indoors at home. I love the view from my office window!

Blog: Ten Days of Little Celebrations - July 2015

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 July 2015.

Fireworks on the 4th! -Fireworks are often use as a ‘symbol’ for celebration….I like them in small doses and not too frequently. Somehow the 4th of July is always my favorite event to enjoy fireworks and this year is was so simple - walking about a block from my Parent’s house after spraying myself with insect repellent. It was 15 minutes of summery celebration.

Goldfinches - We have goldfinches that are frequenting our bird feeder and the plants on our deck. I always celebrate seeing them - both for their color and their loopy flight pattern.

A new Coursera course after a hiatus - I had about 2 months of absolutely no Coursera courses….and celebrated starting a new one about Geodesign this month. I’ll ramp up again in the fall probably - but I’m setting three as a maximum. I enjoy the courses tremendously but more than three concurrently is overwhelming.

A day at home - Now that I am post-career, I look back on the time of my life when I left home for work every weekday and some weekends…and I wonder how I did it. I find myself frequently celebrating a day at home these days…it is my favorite place to be!

Hydrangea on the desk - I like having flowers or something else from outdoors as a focal point on my desk even though the view from my office window is wonderful. When I close the drapes to block the afternoon sun - the piece of outdoors that I’ve brought in side sustains me until I can see outdoors again.

A new computer - Not for me…for my Mom.  She has had hand-me-down computers before…so we both celebrated a new one just for her (and that I was there to configure it the way she wanted).

A hike to the Patapsco River - I hiked to the Patapsco River from Belmont with summer campers. It was a hot day and we all celebrated wading in the river before we hiked back. I celebrated when I got home and discovered I’d already gotten the 12,000 steps for the day!

Bug Blitz - Another activity with Belmont summer campers. It was a warm (not too hot) sunny day - perfect for finding bug. The elementary school aged campers were very good at capturing the insects for a photo into iNaturalist. Their enthusiasm was contagious! My favorite was a small moth with orange markings - a chickweed geometer.

Blue jay feather - I found a blue jay feather. It was mostly black but has a rim of blue and black on one edge - unusual looking. I celebrated finding it…and realizing what it was.

Red highlights - We painted a concrete floor - base coat then sprays of green and copper. The final touch was some streaks of dusky red made with a paint coated marble. We all celebrated how great it looked!

Wishing you something to celebrate today!

Fireworks on the Fourth

We walked to a viewing location for fireworks last night - spraying ourselves with insect repellent to deter mosquitoes. I already had enough bites from earlier in the week!

The fireworks were scheduled from 9:30-9:45 PM. The display started with a few 'test' sequences....a long pause between them; we begam to think the fireworks were going to be a 'dud' --- but then the more connected bursts of booms and light commenced.My monopod stabilized my camera well enough to capture some of the 'light' portion of the show (even though the power lines were between our viewing location and the fireworks)…and I am enjoying the fireworks again this morning as I prepared this slideshow. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July celebration!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2015

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 the earlier days of May 2015.

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden. For a few weeks every year - the gates open to a wonderland of flowering azalea bushes and dogwoods. The tall trees make it a shady cool area even as the temperatures get warmer. It is usually at its best for Mother’s Day.

Red Tailed Hawk at Belmont. The first day of BioBlitz there was a red-tailed hawk that watched from a perch tall in a sycamore for the arrival of the first student. What a beginning to the event!

Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam. I’ll do a post later with more about our day trip to Conowingo. There were at least 10 eagles feeding on fish come from the flow from the hydroelectric generation dam….and there were great blue herons, cormorants, tree swallows, and black vultures too….and that was just what I immediately noticed.

Whooping Crane lecture at Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge. Do you see a theme? I hadn’t noticed how many of my ‘celebrations’ this month included large birds until I put this list together. The birds are hatched and prepared for release at Patuxent.  It was interesting to understand how the researchers and volunteers disguise themselves so that the young birds don’t imprint on the human form as ‘parent.’ I’m glad they’ve had enough success to celebrate.

National Arboretum. Every time we go there is something new to see….and old favorites. I celebrated that I recognized an Eastern Towhee in the leaves there during the visit this month.

Strawberries. A quart of strawberries was the first offering of my Gorman Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership. They were eaten before I thought to take a picture! The berries freshly picked from local fields always taste better than the ones from the grocery store. They evoke memories of previous springs and other strawberry fields….finding the berries among the green leaves…taste treasures.

No cavities. I had a dental appointment and was pretty sure a filling was going to need to be replaced because a small piece had chipped off leaving a small divot in the front surface of the tooth (no sensitivity or discoloration). But the dentist decided to just watch it! Hurray!

Volunteering for nature fieldtrips and BioBlitz. Seeing the wonder of discovery in the outdoors from a child’s perspective is awe inspiring. It happens almost every hike I lead…every time I assist I give to identify a ‘find’ ---- celebrating the wonder of children in the natural world.

Rain---finally. We are at close to average for precipitation in our area right now but I noticed a dry spell when I had to fill the bird baths and water my deck garden….but then we started having some afternoon showers. One of them caused a rainbow too.

A last cool day before summer. The forecast is for 90 degree days this coming week but the Memorial Day weekend had cool mornings….and we savored the perfect weather for being outdoors.

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden

Today is Mother’s Day and I’m remembering the first year I was a mother on Mother’s Day. We made our first visit to Brighton Dam’s Azalea Garden that year and I carried by daughter in a carrier on my back. She stayed awake for most of our walk around the garden.

This year the garden seemed to be in near peak bloom when we were there on Friday. As we walked in there were Canadian Geese protesting on the lake and when I got home I realized I had managed to get a picture of one in mid-honk (and a lot of the pollen floating on the water's surface).

The gardens are wonderful from every angle - looking up

Up close

360 from the observation (the benches with the movable backs always appeal to me)

The gazebo near the entrance looking toward the dam

Surprising colors of azaleas

The white and pink dogwoods near the entrance…but always near the end of the loop we walk

And last but not least….jack-in-the-pulpits under the dogwoods.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Ten Little Celebrations - April 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each dayis 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 April 2015.

Countdown to a little vacation - Even though lots of my days feel like ‘vacation’ I have adjusted my definition for vacation to equal ‘away from home’….so I savored the anticipation of the North Caroline road trip in the days prior to leaving.

Otters - There were so many plants and animals I could have celebrated from the North Carolina trip but I am singling out the otters because it was the first time I has seen the animals in the wild.

A barbeque dinner - Sometimes a high calorie splurge is truly worth it. The restaurant advertised ‘Texas Barbeque’ and they delivered.

The Elizabethan Gardens - A lovely place in Manteo, North Carolina. A garden is a great place to celebrate spring.

Maymont - This was a spur of the moment stop in Richmond VA on the way home ---- a gold age mansion and grounds that was donated to the city after the owners died in the 1920s. It is now a park. We were there on a Monday when the mansion and visitor center is closed….but the park is well work the stop. I have post planned for it in a week or so (it’s taking me some time to get all the posts done from the North Carolina trip.

Home Again - I always celebrate coming home after being away….no matter how great the ‘vacation’ was.

Cherry Blossoms - We didn’t get down to Washington DC this year for the cherry blossoms but the tree in our yard had its best year ever….timed perfectly to welcome us home.

Last Master Naturalist Class - I celebrated getting through the 8 class days - not missing a single one! And now I am waiting for my final exam to be graded!

GreenFest - I celebrated finding the native plants I wanted for my yard at the county celebration - along with some additional reusable bags and information on dealing with deer in the neighborhood.

Figuring out a technical problem - I figured out how to use the GPS info from a series of picture to overlay a map. It was easy than I thought it would be….something to celebrate.

Ten Little Celebrations - March 2015

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 March 2015.

Snow Day. It was pretty…and I enjoyed it - but I was ready for it to be the last one of this season.

A Muddy Hike. Who knew it would feel go to be outdoors on a cold cloudy day - squishing through the mud to find animal tracks. It felt good to get out of the classroom.

A March Day. It seemed like there have not been very many of the sunny, breezy, warmer days yet this year but there was one - and I celebrated it between the recurring waves of cold weather.

Fungi of Belmont. The snow had just melted and the jelly fungi were making fruiting bodies - a first bit a spring color to celebrate.

Magnolia puzzle. It is sometimes challenging to identify something with just dead leaves from last season and buds….I am planning some hikes to watch the trees flower this spring to make the final ID.

Brookside on the edge of spring. There was not a lot blooming last weekend ---- but there was a hint of the season. It will be worth a weekly trek to celebrate new flowers.

New hiking boots. So comfy! They felt great as soon as I put them on. I have worn them on one hike already - just to confirm that they are ready for a day long hike. The old ones still have some life in them - but I’ll wear the new ones for the longer hikes.

Last class of the week. March has been a busy month for classes…sometimes 3 days a week. I generally like class - but I’m saturated and celebrating when the last one ends for the week.

A day at home. I celebrated that I had no reason to leave home on one of the icy days early in the month. It seemed like I had a commitment to be somewhere else every other day that week!

Mailing books. I celebrated mailing off books to family far away. It harkened back to when I was mailing off books frequently via paperbackswap and I enjoyed the trek to the post office with my packages.

Lots of Birthdays

There are 8 birthdays in my family over the next 2 months. It is an overwhelming task every year to come up with good ideas for meaningful birthday presents.

I was pleased with myself for getting two of the presents back in February: a small appliance that the birthday girl wished for that I could buy immediately and give as an ‘early birthday’ and a pink floppy hat for another birthday girl that she found in a museum store while we were tourists together (and I paid for as an ‘early birthday’). I am sending a card with a Zentangle ® to wish them Happy Birthday on the actual day.

One of the birthdays is my husband’s and we’re planning a photography road trip to the North Carolina coastal wildlife refuges for that celebration - not exactly a gift but linked to his birthday.

Now it becomes hard. I’m sure there are things the 5 other people need; if we lived in closer proximity perhaps those things would be obvious. The last resort is a gift card or check if I can’t come up with anything else.

One strategy I used to follow was to buy gifts for others that I would enjoy getting myself…but these days I have trouble coming up with a wish list even for myself! Specialty teas, dark chocolate or flowers might work…but I don’t want a huge amount. I’m overflowing with clothes and jewelry and household items so there is nothing like that to put on the wish list.

Hopefully - I’ll wake up tomorrow with some wonderful ideas for birthday gifts!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - February 2015

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. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations’ - as had been the usual for the past few months. Here are my top 10 for February 2015.

Zentangle® Class - There were 4 classes in the course and I got to three of them; there were 2 snow days so the class extended across 6 weeks rather than the 4 planned. And now I am hooked on Zentangles and do at least one each day because they make the day better.

A day in the 70s - I celebrated the warm days in Texas - knowing there would be none that warm in Maryland in February.

Snow - I do enjoy snow scenes (in Maryland) as long as I don’t have to drive until the roads are treated and plowed. It has been so cold that the snow has lingered for most of the month and I’ve enjoyed feeding the birds and watching it slowly melt in the sunshine.

Snowed in at home - There have been a few days when it was snowing hard enough that we didn’t get out at all --- and I celebrated the days warm at home. We had plenty of good food, a fire in the fireplace, and a movie to watch.

Piles of books - I ordered over 100 books via paperbackswap to use up most of my credits before mid-February and now I am savoring the piles. It is a lot like Christmas when they arrive in the mail and then I have lots to choose from for winter reading. Every time I see the stack - I celebrate all over again. I’ve read 6 so far so the pile will be around for a while.

Carrot cake - I couldn’t resist buying two slices in my Mother’s grocery store….and celebrated that they didn’t skimp on the spices. It was good carrot cake.

Sizzling apple pie - One of the Mexican food places I went to in Dallas served apple pie on a hot skillet with sizzling syrup and topped with cinnamon ice cream. Yum! It becomes my favorite place for dessert in Dallas.

Birds at Josey Ranch Lake - It is hard not to be joyous at the sight of birds and people in the park.

Beginning of Master Naturalist training - I celebrate the content - the intensity - the instructors - the students. Everything was even better than I anticipated….and I did more follow up studying than I thought I would do too.

Valentine’s Day

Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day?

I made a Zentangle® with heart shapes…that’s about the extent of my extra activity this year. I will be traveling tomorrow….celebrating the return home rather than Valentine’s Day.

I can remember in years past ---

Creating paper bags to receive valentines from classmates in elementary school; it was the tradition to give Valentines to everyone in the class whether you liked them or not!

My grandfather buying a big heart-shaped box of chocolates of us (the 4 granddaughters)

Helping my daughter to decorate my husband’s piano with red and white curly ribbons and hears

Buying a coffee mug with hearts (which we still use occasionally)

Sometimes we have used it as an excuse to go out to eat….but most years we choose the 13th rather than the 14th because then it becomes one of the monthly wedding anniversaries for us. 

First Day Hike

It was a cold January 1 in our area of Maryland and my husband was just getting over a cold --- he didn’t want to hike. So I took a very short hike from a two lane road near us down to the Little Patuxent River. I want to try out my new monopod/hiking pole. It turned out to be a good idea since I managed to unscrew the bottom section completely!

All the leaves were brown and brittle. The sycamore leaves were still largely intact and quite large from the trees growing along the river.

I was not fast enough to photograph the great blue heron that was evidently fishing in the river when I arrived.  There were some deer that were on the opposite bank - white tails flashing by the time I saw them.

The places where the water was still enough were still frozen from the previous night’s temperature drop into the 20s.

I looked for shelf fungus on the downed logs but only saw tiny ones but this moss with sporophytes add some color to the otherwise drab colors of winter.

On the way home I stopped at the storm water pond in our neighborhood.

The stumps from a visit from a beaver a few years ago were still visible near the short - and punctuated the ice at the pond’s edge.

And a surprise from my daughter in Tucson - they had snow on January 1! She sent the pictures below.

2015 Begins

Beginnings are so full of potential. I always celebrate on the 1st day of the year for that reason. If there is a beautiful sun rise - it just feeds into the celebration. It is easy to get up early enough to see it since we are not that far past the solstice.

I’m starting another ‘tradition’ this year: a hike. Many state parks are hosting hikes but my husband and I are planning something short because it is so bitterly cold. I’ll get to experiment with my new monopod/walking stick.

I’ve decided on a theme for this year (rather than a resolution): to live more sustainably. I have not figured out all the ways I’ll change over the course of 2015…just that I will.  I already know it will be a learning experience.