Kolache Memories

I recently discovered a bakery in my area that makes Kolaches! I found them online and went earlier this week to see if the confections they made lived up to my memory of my Czech grandmother’s kolaches that were made for special occasions for the first 50 years of my life (she stopped cooking sometime in her 90s and no one in the family picked up the mantle from her).

The tray of kolaches in the place looked very similar to my grandmother’s – lots of fruit rather than just a little dab of jelly on top of a mound of dough that some people claim are kolaches. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have apricot filling (my grandmother’s favorite and thus mine too) but the peach was a good second best.  I bought one to see if the taste would live up to my memories.

Yummy! It was obviously freshly baked. The dough might have been a little heavier than my grandmother’s was…but otherwise it was close enough to bring back a tidal wave of good feelings. I ordered a half dozen with apricot filling (they will make them for special orders) to take as part of my contribution to a pot luck luncheon today! And I’ll probably go back for another half dozen right before Christmas.

Zentangle® – November 2015

Eleven months of Zentangle®-a-day…..it doesn’t get old…but it does evolve. The trend recently has been to use more color (somewhat tied to the season) and to name each tile. I found some Christmas glitter pens (red, silver, green, gold) and have started using them as I transition from fall color schemes.

Gourds, cross-section, puddles…O flower, plant frame, blue thorns…Bindweed, folded leaves, fire, peaks, tangle of color

Water grass, blue aura, flower frame…Aqua, tentacles, papyrus, red and gray…Spiral miscellany, blue and gray, flowers and pine

Crystal earth, micro earth, Tri-fiddle, ball spiral…Curled leaf, triangle figure, ferns, curls, ribbon beads…Green and gold bubbles, diva night, totem

Christmas flowers, frog eggs Christmas, glitter quilt…Lyre, ferns, pumpkin, yarn loops…Fall forest, eddy, crowd space, arches, tassles

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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.

Learning Log – December 2015

November was a busy month – with plenty of learning opportunities.

Coursera. I completed the Ancient Egypt: A history in six objects course from Coursera in November. It was more intense than I had anticipated and help me appreciate how much we are still learning about Ancient Egypt. There are new technologies like DNA sequencing and CT scans that are being applied now. I have finished the reading for the course itself but still have some of the references on my ‘to read’ list.

We got a catalog for non-credit courses from our local community college a week or so ago. I thought I might find a course for the winter months in it but discovered that I am spoiled by the variety and depth of Coursera offerings. I’ll start another Coursera course in December probably…but I haven’t picked it yet.

Travel. In this case – the learning was not in traveling itself…but preparation for it. I am reading every book I can about Hawaii right now in anticipation of upcoming travel.

Schools. I had the opportunity to interact with second graders from several elementary schools in the county over the past month. It is surprising the variability in the schools. The size of the classes, the overall behavior of the children, and the engagement (or lack of engagement) of the chaperones were just some of the dimensions. I was interested in comparing the school my daughter went to almost 20 years ago for second grade with the group that came for a field trip this year; it was different but still ‘good’ in the sense that the children participated and enjoyed their field trip. I decided that it was the myriad of changes outside the school that made up for more of the difference than the school itself. One child had a video game device that the chaperone confiscated before we got very far into the hike…and then he proceeded to participate like everyone else. Learning for all students has a lot of possible paths…and that can be counterproductive sometimes.

Learning Log – November 2015

October provide a variety of learning opportunities.

Two Coursera courses that I had worked on in September continued and completed. The Tibetan Buddhist Meditation and the Modern World course is the first of a series from University of Virginia. The first course was intense but worthwhile so I am watching for the next one to become available

Forests and Humans from University of Wisconsin-Madison was larger in scope that I had initially assumed. It became clear that to understand forests at all – one has to know something about the Earth systems that enable forests to exist – to thrive or decline. The mix of lecture, interviews, and readings was well done.

I’ve completed the first week of a new course: Ancient Egypt: A history in six objects from University of Manchester. The organization of the core material is very good…and that makes the references (there are quite a few very good ones they provide) easier to use.

Change always brings opportunity for learning. There were two instances that seemed more significant this past month:

The annual enrollment for health insurance. There are always a few changes that require study and choices have to be made. The package is as big as a small book!

I decided to experiment making Zentangle patterns on soft drink bottles to decide if I could transfer what I did on flat tiles to a curved surface (and maybe follow through to make the patterns on spherical balls for our Christmas tree). It was a learning experience…enjoyable but not enough for me to forge ahead with the higher cost project.

Travel learning is somewhat like the opportunities change brings: we tend to do different things when we travel away from home. Our fall foliage trip was my first Star Party so everything was new…and something I want to do again. The places we went in West Virginia were repeats but different enough to be learning experiences too; for example – there could have been puff balls at Beartown when we were there in 2001 but I would not have recognized them!

Sometimes a ‘travel’ type experience happens close to home too. I finally got a tour of the farmhouse at Mt. Pleasant farm…and learned about how the house had been enlarged around the original long cabin. The continuity of a family living there and modifying the house to meet their needs over the years was more interesting than many of the houses of wealthier people I’ve toured over the years.

Zentangle® - September 2015

Zentangle-a-Day is becoming a well-established habit for me. The day is not complete without at least one. In September I continued my experiments with color. I also decided to cut the whole 8.5x11 inch pages into tiles (no left over skinny strips) and continued to use old business cards. The net result was a lot of variability in size.

My husband a virtually new set of Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils that I started using. They have a different ‘feel’ than the older pencils….the colored part of the pencil seems softer.

I experimented with overlaying colors (in the bottom right below, there is a yellow overlay on all the colors. One of my favorite tiles of the month is the middle left one – with gingko type leaves – and left black and white.

I tend to like tiles with one or just a few colors the best. The simple business-card tile with green triangles is one of my favorites.

As the month progressed – I started thinking about using colors at the edges and in spaces of tiles….as in the upper left (below).

The tile in the lower middle below was the same ‘ribbon’ pattern repeated 3 times….the color made a difference!

My most favorite tile of the month was done on a paper coaster (upper left). I think of it as The Flaming Spiral.

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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.

CSA Week 17

I still have a few potatoes, sweet dumpling squash, chives, and bell peppers left from week 16. The potatoes will keep. I’ll bake the squash in a few days I should freeze the peppers and endeavor to use up the chives as quickly as possible.

The share this week was a typical fall bounty:

Beets ---- I am making fruit beety with the beets and using the stems/leaves in stir fries

Broccoli ---- We were warned by the farmer to soak the broccoli to get the insects out of it. I’ll probably make slaw out of it after that….which can be used in salads and stir fries

Bell peppers and snack peppers ---- It’s a bit overwhelming but I like peppers both raw and cooked

Parsley – I’ll use as much as I can fresh but will probably end up drying some of it.

Thyme – I traded my hot peppers to get a second bunch! I’ve become a fan of thyme in stir fry and soup…and it dries very easily

Kohlrabi – I’ll use the leaves and stems in stir fries. The bulbs may become part of the slaw I make with the broccoli

Tomatoes – We are down to a pound of the red tomatoes this week. I got a pint container of the sun gold tomatoes as my pick from the overage table.

Butternut squash – This is probably my favorite winter squash because it is big enough to have enough left over to make custard (made with the cooked squash instead of pumpkin but otherwise the same ingredients)

Eggplant - There are two again this week. I plan to make another batch of eggplant balls and may freeze some of them.

Yummy meals in week ahead!

Personal Metrics - September 2015

Back in January 2012, I wrote a series of posts about personal rhythms (daily, weekly, monthly). They were not specifically about personal metrics…but enough that I am looking back at them today and realizing what has changed - and what has not - during my first few post-career years.

What has changed:

• I no longer use an alarm clock (unless I need to wake up for a very early plane) so I am rarely jarred from sleep before I am ready to wake up.
• I am more consistently in the ‘normal’ weight range for my height (I was still slightly overweight when I retired). Weight is something I check every day.
• I pay more attention to exercise - specifically to my level of activity during the day and strive to have at least 30 ‘active’ minutes (measured by Fitbit).
• I went through a period where I closely monitored the nutritional content of my diet and stopped taking some supplements so that I would not get ‘too much.’ I eat more whole foods - particular produce now. This has been helped along by joining a CSA (5 months of the year). I have dramatically reduced the artificial sweetener and caffeine in my diet.
• My reading/book browsing goal for the month has increased slightly (to 100 per month). The Internet Archive and eBooks from the library are so easily available that there is no excuse!
• The volunteer naturalist gigs are a significant part of my interactions with people outside of my family…in some ways similar of interactions during my career but different because of the wider range of ages and backgrounds of the people…and being outdoors.
• A Zentangle a day.

What has not changed:

• I still sleep between 7 and 8 hours a night…going to bed about 10 and getting up between 5 and 6 most days.
• My exercise goal is still 12,000 steps per day and I reach it unless I am travelling for a large portion of the day.
• I still do household chores are a weekly cycle…although I sometimes realize that some cleaning chores have been ignored for too long.

Carry In - Carry Out in State Parks

The state parks I’ve visited in recent months in Maryland and New York have a carry in - carry out policy for trash; they don’t have trash cans anywhere. Many states are trying to save money on operational costs for state parks and trash collection is one way they doing it.

I was sad to discover how much trash is left in the parks rather than being carried out by the people that carried it in.

In the Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland there were beer bottle caps, a hub cap, socks, empty water bottles, a broken grill, pieces of plastic (some looked like pieces of plastic ware…some I couldn’t tell what it had been), and broken glass. Wading in the Patapsco River we found broken glass and pieces of pottery. The patterns on the pottery looked old; the age of the glass was indeterminate; either way I was glad I had on water shoes.

At Stony Brook State Park it was much the same although the trash was right at the water’s edge; the next rain would wash it downstream; the trash included crushed aluminum cans, a baby’s soiled diaper, empty water bottles, empty and full soft drink bottles, and beer bottles.

In both places there was a lot of trash - too much to rationalize as accidents. It was apparent that some people were carrying in….but not carrying out anything at all. It is probably the minority of people….but it is a messy (and potentially toxic) behavior.

Do the parks remind people as they enter the park (the person in the kiosk looking the driver in the eye) that they need to carry their trash out with them? Not in any of the parks we visited. It seems like that would be a minimal thing that should happen. Maybe people are not fully away of Carry In - Carry Out since it has not always been like that.

I saw one stand that had plastic bags for people to take to gather their trash to ‘carry out’ but I wonder how many people miss the display just as they ignore signs.

Or maybe the people that leave trash in State Parks are simply slobs and no amount of signage or verbal reminders will make a difference. Depressing - if true.

CSA Week 14

When I returned home….the whole week 13 share was waiting. My husband had not even cut the watermelon! I managed to eat a few tomatoes, some peppers and half the watermelon before I picked up week 14! I was glad that I still had room in the freezer for the larger tomatoes.

I celebrated that sweet potato leaves were included in this share. I like the so much I traded the okra for a second bundle….and there was lettuce too. There will be lots of good salads this next week. I made tomato soup for the first meal after I picked up the week 14 share…using some of the tomatoes, peppers, sweet potato leaves, and oregano.

Another celebration in this share: honey. It was well timed to sooth my linger sore throat (along with lemon in hot tea).

CSA Week 12

Wow - do we have tomatoes! The four pounds of red tomatoes we got in this week’s share have already been processed (minimally - the top of the core and blemishes cut out, otherwise whole) and are in the freezer. I plan to slice and eat the heirloom tomato as soon as possible since it is very ripe. Then I have a little over 3 pounds accumulation of the small multi-colored cherry tomatoes (I traded my poblano peppers for another 1.5 pounds!); they’ll be my snacks for the whole week; they taste good and I like the variety of their colors.

There are a lot of peppers too (even without the poplanos) - 5 snack peppers and a red bell pepper. They’ll be additions to salads and stir fries

I haven’t decided what I will do with the eggplant…maybe include it in a stir fry or cut it in wedges and roast it.  It was a different shape that the traditional eggplant - still the same deep purple color.

The spaghetti squash can be quite a treat….as a veggie ‘spaghetti’…as another ingredient in a stir fry…as a component of quiche or custard. I won’t have any trouble eat it up.

Fortunately the onions, garlic, and potatoes will keep just fine not in the refrigerator...because I have a watermelon taking up a lot of space right now!

CSA Week 11

It’s a good thing that some of the veggies this week do not need to go into the refrigerator (onions, garlic, potatoes) because we got both a watermelon and cantaloupe along with 3 kinds of tomatoes (3 heirloom, a pint of cherry, and 2 pounds of romas) and 2 kinds of peppers (1 bell and 4 snacking (since I traded my 2 jalapenos for snacking)). I decided to put the thyme in water on the window sill since I am using it up pretty quickly (I’ve already finished the bunch I got a few weeks ago). I had to make two trips to the car for this share since the watermelon was so heavy it had to be carried by itself; the same thing happened to me last year.

I am enjoying the herbs from the CSA (thyme, basil, chives and oregano so far) and the ones I have in my garden (basil, chives and mint). They - along with the garlic and onion - definitely add a lot of flavor to foods very quickly. Stir fry sauces are not needed when there are so many herbs readily available around the kitchen!

Am I to the point of freezing the cherry tomatoes? Maybe. I did it last year about this time and they were very easy to pop into soups - still frozen - to provide tomato flavor and color in the dead of winter. I like to just make sure they are clean then put them into a plastic container to freeze. Usual their skin does not break - or if it does the tomato is already frozen enough that the juice does not leak out. For me - it is the fastest way to save the goodness of summer tomatoes until winter.

CSA Week 10

About all I have left from the week 9 share is chives, onions and leeks…a few purple skinned potatoes. But I think the week 10 share is a bit overwhelming.

The variety and amount of tomatoes skyrocketed this week: 2 big heirloom tomatoes, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, and 2 pounds red tomatoes. There was some fresh oregano which encourages me to make homemade tomato ‘something’ - soup or sauce.

We also got potatoes - this time with red skins. Fortunately potatoes last long enough that they won’t go to waste even if we don’t eat them this week.

The assortment of peppers went up: snack peppers of all colors (I got red/green ones), bell peppers, and jalepenos (which I promptly exchanged for another bell pepper).

We had a choice between cucumbers and summer squash; I picked the squash to I can make squash hummus again.

We had our choice of cantaloupe, red watermelon or yellow watermelon this week. I got a red one - just to be different from last week’s yellow one (which we enjoyed).

One of the items available on the overage table was lettuce….it will go well with the tomatoes and peppers for summer salads.

Once again - the next week is going to have a lot of good eating --- enjoying the bounty of summer foods!

Nature Photography for Summer Campers

Yesterday I lead a Nature Photograph Introduction for summer campers at Belmont Manor and Historic Park. It was an exciting and gratifying volunteer gig - exceeding my expectations in just about every way. I worked with 5-8 year olds in the morning and 9-12 year olds in the afternoon. The campers became so engaged in taking photographs that they were surprised when it was time to stop! And they took some excellent pictures.

I used 8 pictures to introduce nature photography before we hiked into the forest - tailoring the discussion a little for the age group but both groups had a lot to say about each image and used some of the ideas in their photographs during our hike. I’m including the ‘priming’ images in this post and a few notes about how I talked about them.

Image 1: What story does this picture tell? Concepts: leading line (path), foreground/background, person for scale

Image 2: How was this picture taken? (Remember you don’t have to always point the camera straight ahead or down!). Concepts: bright spots, attention to light

Image 3: What is this? (birds nest fungus) Concepts: scale…approaching macro photography…get as close as your camera will focus, different stages of fungus development in the same image

Image 4: What is it? (blue bird)  Concepts: zooming, introduce possibility of cropping (older group)

Image 5: What is the butterfly doing? Concepts: photograph butterflies when they are still (eating or drinking), zooming

Image 6: What is it? (blue jay feather) Concepts: photographing things you shouldn’t pick up, get as close as your camera will focus

Image 7: What is it? (mouse ears) Concepts: get as close as you can, if you want to identify the flower later - take pictures from several perspectives and at least one that includes the entire plant

Image 8: Let’s review some concepts - light (some overload)…leading line…hints of color

Then we reviewed how to hold the camera (strap around the wrist at all times), how to turn it on and take a picture, and how to zoom…..how to hold the camera while we were walking (turned off, camera in hand, strap around wrist).

And then we were hiking and finding a lot of the natural environment to photograph!

Zentangle® - July 2015

It’s hard to fathom that I have been doing ‘a Zentangle a day’ for 6 months already. The ‘Zen’ part of it is a welcome part of my day and the art that it produces is gratifying. I have collected the June and July tiles in a file box and am contemplating what to do with them - whether I should put more under the plastic on the breakfast table or make a cover for a scarred desktop with clear contact paper holding tiles in a long ‘runner.’

The tiles made in July include some work with colored pencils, pens and markers….but I find the black pens (various thicknesses) are still appeals to me the most. I occasionally give in to make something more ‘real’ looking - like a dragonfly.

I have a red pen that is not as good as the black Micron pens…but I like using two colors. I’ll add some high quality colored pens to my Christmas wishlist.

There is still a lot of experimentation to do with pencils and markers to add color - but I am not as please with the results most of the time.

Sometimes I get ideas from looking at pottery or design books on the Internet Archive.

Sometimes I start out with a botanical idea…other times I realize that what I’ve done looks botanical even if I didn’t start out with the intent.

Looking at it again - the pink and purple floating flowers appeals to me more now that right after I created it.

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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.

Zentangle® - June 2015

June is my fifth month of ‘a Zentangle a day! Early in month I decided to put the tiles from previous months under the plastic on breakfast table (like I do with Christmas cards every year in December). The arrangement will have to become more ordered when I put the June tiles in the same location. I am already thinking of other locations I could display them this same way.

I started using markers and pencils to add color to some of my tiles. Most of the time the old style - black in on neutral card stock - appeals to me the most.

I do still have some teal card stock left and I may buy some more of it…or maybe an assortment of bright colored card stock. I realized that I should put the boxes of old business cards that I accumulated over the years to Zentangle use too; they will always be the smallest tiles.

I made two in a row that I really like - the one on the upper left and then the next one to the right. I was thinking ‘beads’ when I made the first one and decided the second one was ‘medusa’ as I added the tentacles near the end.

My favorite from the collection below is the on the lower left. I used markers that had miraculously not dried out that my daughter left behind (they are probably over 10 years old!).

I get ideas for patterns in all sorts of places. They pop up everywhere: hotel bedspreads and carpets, antique furniture, and pottery! Sometimes I start with a pattern from TanglePatterns but most of the time I do deviate in some way….or surround it with something completely different.

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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.

Zentangle® - March 2015

March was my second month of ‘a Zentangle a day’ - and I’m planning to continue for the foreseeable future and limit myself to one blog post about them each month. Sometimes I create more than one tile in a day…just because I feel the urge or because I need the Zen the activity brings.

After the first week of March - I decided to use the letters of the alphabet as the ‘string’ and quickly discovered how easily the string can disappear. Do you notice the A - B - C in the three tiles at the bottom of this group?

What about the D - E - F and G - H - I?

And the J - K - L and M - N - O? The K and the O are pretty clear.

P - Q - R  and S - T - U. I noticed after the fact how much the Q ended up looking like a dream catcher.

V - W and X - Y -Z. The Y looks so delicate.

I discovered the plastic that comes with Health Choice Café Steamer frozen entrees makes a great stencil. The first time I used it was for the O string tile.

The one on the upper left was another attempt to use it.

And a more complex tile using more of the strainer ‘holes’ is in the lower row - middle.

As you can see I occasionally am using red pens and cleaning out various colors of card stock from the office supplies that have accumulated from years of school projects and - I’m not sure what else.

By the end of March - I had quite a pile of 3.5 x 3.5 inch tiles and I begin experimenting with displays for groups of them. I taped a bunch together and suspended them from a strip of balsa wood using binder clips as a first attempt. I’m sure I’ll come up with some other types of displays over the course of April.

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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.

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!

Sustainability - Thrift Stores

Thrift stores are a study in re-use. Items are used (sometimes gently). I donate any items I have that have some usable life rather than recycling or trashing…and they generally end up in thrift stores.

The thrift store offerings are unpredictable but often great bargains. I have several I like that are located in upper middle class areas - people that buy more than they need and often end up donating items that are well worth a second round. One has to shop with an open mind rather than a particular item in mind.

At first, I thought it would be impossible to find specific clothing. Now when I look at my closest I realize that almost all my slacks and jeans are from the thrift store. I look for black pants of any kind every time I go to a thrift store. Sometime I find several pairs in my size - sometimes none at all. Right now I am replacing pants that have gotten too big now that I’ve lost weight!

I also have collected skirts. With the low cost - I pull out anything I like and check size and washability. I have several that I would never have bought if they had been priced higher than $5!

Blouses wear out faster than pants and skirts…so when I find blouses that will supplement what I have, I purchase them even if I don’t need them right away. Only about half my blouses/sweaters/tops are from the thrift store…still a substantial contribution to my closet.

Another thrift store find: Several years ago, I discovered that I like ‘meal in a bowl’ (salads, soups, stir fry) and it needs to be a larger bowl than a cereal bowl…more like a small serving bowl. Small serving bowls are easy to find at thrift stores….I just wish I had purchased the second bowl they had like the one I bought! Never count on being able to find it again later!

Anything I am able to buy from a thrift store rather than new is an act toward sustainability….and good for my budget too.

Plans for Spring

We had a first spring-like March day this past weekend: breezy, a little warmer, and sunny. I started thinking about our typical spring plans.

After being at home more than usual during the latter part of winter we are ready for some travel. We are planning a road trip to the coastal North Carolina wildlife refuges sometime in April. The rest will be day trips. I want to visit old favorites and some of places mentioned in the Master Naturalist Training:

• Brookside Gardens
• Longwood Gardens
• Washington DC cherry blossoms (picture from last year)
  
• Soldiers Delight State National Environmental Area
• Adkins Arboretum
• Cylburn Arboretum

Other plans fall into the spring cleaning:

• Pulling leaves and dried stems from flowerbeds, moving compost that is ‘ready’ to the beds and starting a new compost pile
• Cleaning all the windows in the house - inside and out
• Dispositioning the piles of ‘stuff’ that have not been moved since fall (most if it should probably be given away)
• Moving warm weather clothes to closest and deciding which winter clothes to keep/which will not be worn again and should be given away

Now that I’ve made the lists - it is enough to overlay on activities like Master Naturalist class and the subsequent volunteer work for the Howard County Conservancy. I am anticipating a busy - and fun - Spring 2015.

Coursera - February 2015

Only two courses in progress for me right now! It takes a lot of will power to not sign up for more; there are competing activities this month: travel and classroom-based courses. Here are the two that will keep me busy in February.

Circadian clocks: how rhythms structure life (from Ludwig-Maximilians - Universitat Munchen (LMU) is off to a good start with a mix of history of the research and vocabulary. It’s a topic that is interesting and has lots of implications for health and well-being.

The Land Ethic Reclaimed: Perceptive Hunting, Aldo Leopold, and Conservation (from University of Wisconsin-Madison) started off by having student pick an avatar that reflected their perspective of the course topic. I chose ‘naturalist;’ it will be interesting to see the demographics of the other students in the course. I like the way the instructors are using surveys and probing questions along with the typical MOOC videos, reading list, and discussion forums.

Two courses finished in January:

Recovering the Humankind’s Past and Saving the Universal Heritage (from Sapienza University of Rome) was a more philosophical course than I expected. It included discussion of the science/technology of archaeology and how it developed over time which is what I expected. But the more thought provoking parts of the class were about the concept of ‘universal heritage’ and why it is important; the relationship of wars and destruction of material culture of the past is striking. It happens alongside the human lives lost and plight of refugees in Syria and Iraq.

Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, and Life (from University of Copenhagen) was a very broad course taught by a team of people from the Natural History of Denmark. It was a good update on what has been discovered since I was in college in the 1970s. Scanning Science Daily over the years helps - but it was refreshing to get a fresh update that tied it all together in an organized way.

As usual - I thrive on having some new topics to learn about and Coursera is a prime avenue for that. Hurray for Coursera!