Online Classes - August 2015

After a hiatus from Courses for about 6 weeks - I couldn’t resist starting Geodesign: Change your World from PennState. The topic appealed to me and I am enjoying the short introduction videos, guest lectures, readings, and activities. These days knowing something about geodesign comes close to basic literacy because so many of the issues we have  are only understood if integrated spatial relationships are considered. This is far beyond the basic map reading I learned in school 40 years ago and the statistical analyses I specialized in during the 1980s and 1990s. Geodesign thinking is helping everyone cope with the increased complexity in the world.

In a departure from Coursera courses - I also did a Creative Live course while it was recorded (and free): Outdoor Photography Experience with Chris Burkard. They are recorded on the west coast and I am on the east coast so watching it ‘live’ means watching from noon to 7 for two days! My husband and I watched it together….he is interested in everything; I am more interested in composition and locations than equipment. These video courses are different in that they are all video - no embedded quizzes, no readings, no web based activities. I take notes while I watch….still learn something…and they motivate me to learn more about my camera and try new things photographically. In the particular class - the discussion about water housings got me thinking about getting one for my camera…using it when we travel to waterfalls in western New York and in a few months to Hawaii.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 1, 2015

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.

The art of the interchange - Where megahighways cross….17 interchanges seen from above.

Mammoths killed by abrupt climate change - Rapid warming….rather than sudden cold…appears to have been the cause of massive extinctions in the past. The research is based on DNA analysis of ancient DNA and improved statistical processing of the data.

Dumbledores and Bumblebees - Take a look at the great pictures…then read the article. Did you know that Dumbledore takes his name from an Old English term for the bumblebee? And this is an upbeat article…pointing to ways individuals can help out the bumblebees! There are about 250 species of which 25% are in that ‘steep decline’ category.

Explore 25 Lost Cities with This Video - How many of these lost cities have your heard about before?

U.S. breast milk is glyphosate free - Good to know.

Summer Bugs that can Bite You - A summary from a medical perspective. I was disappointed that they didn’t suggest Epsom salts soaks and/or baking soda to reduce discomfort. I often find the calamine lotion and/or hydrocortisone cream ineffective for bites - particularly chiggers.

Sea Otters Use Tools and Archaeologists Are On the Case - ‘Tool making’ used to be thought of as a uniquely human trait…but now there are other animals that make tools. In the Sea otter’s case - they use rocks as tools to break open shells of their food. This article discusses how archaeologists are figuring out how far into their past the animals have been using tools.

The Subway Stop to the Underworld - A beautiful spot in Zion National Park.

Link between intelligence and longevity is mostly genetic - The study involved comparisons of fraternal twins….and probably raises more questions than it answers.

Here's the Weird Reason You Get Tartar on Your Teeth - The info about calcium in this article is more interesting to me than the tartar aspect.

Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy - July 2015

Brookside Gardens has a live butterfly and caterpillar exhibit in their conservatory running from July 1 to October 25. We tried to go last Saturday but it was too crowded; parking is very limited because of ongoing construction of the lot associated with the visitor’s center. Sunday was better; we arrived at 9:30 AM when there was still plenty of parking and took a look at the outdoor gardens before the exhibit opened at 10.

The exhibit was warm and humid - wonderful for butterflies and only a little uncomfortable for humans. I was glad the space was not overly crowded. My husband and I managed 45 minutes in the sauna like conditions!

There were lots of butterflies to photograph and we made several rounds spotting butterflies that were feeding or resting at every turn. I challenged myself to try capturing butterflies in different poses than the usual wings-spread/from-the-top view.

The patterning on the underside and the intricacy of the head parts show up better in many of these views.

Sometimes a bit of structural color shows up that wasn’t noticeable before…like the bit of blue along the lower edge of the wings (below).

Sometimes it is not clear how they are balanced on the plant…and I’m always surprised when they look ‘hairy.’

I was trying to capture butterflies but noticed that this plant looks a lot like a fiber optic light! The butterfly seems so precariously perched but it was stable enough feed on the flower.

Many of the butterflies looked battered but could still fly effectively and continue to feed.

The one with the pale green area and darker green iridescence might be my favorite for this year.

The large morph butterflies are difficult to catch with their wings open. This one feeding on watermelon had lost part of one wing so the blue color of the other wing was revealed. I saw several with wings like this - and they were still flying!

A clear winged butterfly sat on an elephant ear leaf…and sipped at a water droplet.

Invasive Plants in my Yard

I’ve been working in my yard between 7 and 8 AM all this week and finally got around to looking more closely at the area at the edge of the yard that blends into the forest. Yikes! The edge has been overrun with invasive plants!

I noticed the wavy leaf basket grass first. It was covering the area. I started pulling out handfuls and noticed other plants underneath --- maybe some of them are natives; I’ll have to go back with a book next time I work in that area. Then I noticed the mile-a-minute; not profuse (yet) but it does live up to its name. I pulled it out too.

Then I saw a pretty little blue flower that I didn’t recognize. I left it and went back later to take a picture so that I could identify it. Aargh! It’s Commelina communis (common names Asiatic Dayflower, mouse ears, dew herb) and it’s an invasive from Asia. That’s one more plant to pull in the area.

Zooming - July 2015

I enjoyed traveling over the past month and many of the places provided ample opportunity for some close photography. Some highlights in this set of zoomed images are:

• Bluebird
• Hollyhocks
• Bees
• Cone flowers
• Milkweed
• Butterflies
• Dragonfly
• Poppies
• Red yucca pods
• Swan

Enjoy!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 18, 2015

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.

Toward Blood-based Cancer Detection - Lots of promise….but it is still a work in progress.

Buzz Kill for Bumblebees: Climate Change Is Shrinking Their Range - Bumblebees prefer cooler temperatures than many other insects and they like open areas rather than forest. As the ‘normal’ temperatures get hotter, the bee’s southern range is creeping northward but the forests of the north are a physical boundary to their expansion…thus a shrinking area for bumblebees.

Why can’t we move? - A lot of people in the US spend too long commuting…stuck in traffic or on inadequate public transportation. The US has fallen behind the rest of the developed world in our ability to move people to and from and within our cities.

Solving the Energy Efficiency Quandary - It often hard to measure the efficiency of an improvement that is ‘supposed’ to save energy. Not there are some standards emerging that may help do that. It is something needed for homeowners to finally gain enough data to understand the energy use of their home…and guide their decisions re improvements that will have the most impact.

For the Love of Plants - I enjoy botanical prints in old books…and here are some modern ones from botanical illustrator Mindy Lighthipe! (art work) My favorite one is the Monarch Butterfly with milkweed; it includes the Monarch lifecycle.

How free is Your Produce? - How well do you know your 19th century history? Evidently the free produce movement was a food justice movement propelled by Quakers and other abolitionists who hoped to abolish slavery through food ways. And now we have the Fair Trade movement and Fair Food program which are very similar.  

The Chemistry of Ice Cream – Components, Structure, & Flavor - A favorite warm weather treat!

Dragonflies and Damselflies - Check out Elizabeth’s Wildflower Blog --- this time about insects rather than flowers.

Smoke North and Saharan Dust South - Smoke and dust travel a very long ways across land and ocean.

Photography in the National Parks: Framing Wildflowers in the Parks - Good photography tips…and National Parks offer so many subjects to choose from!

Josey Ranch Lake - July 2015

Every time I visit in Carrollton TX, I walk around Josey Ranch Lake and post some photos (February 2015, and August 2014). There is quite a seasonal variation.

The swans are a year round residents. There were adult swans this July - no juveniles (there was a juvenile in August 2014).

They were preening quite a lot - with down feathers stuck on their bills afterward.

I picked up a large white feather; it graces the pencil pot on my mother's desk now.

There are birds to hear and search for in the trees

and the cattails.

The nutrias that were evident back in February and last year were not around at all. Did the city manage to get rid of them somehow? They are invasive and probably made the maintenance of the wetland end of the lake more challenging.

The birds that come when someone throws bread/food to them are not as varied as in February. I only saw ducks, pigeons and the swans (the ducks always beat the swans to the food on land!).  In February there were acrobatic seagulls and coots too!

The ducklings from this year were getting their adult plumage. They tend to look a little scruffy and are doing a lot of preening.

The desert willows were blooming. The color of the flower highlights the light green of the foliage and the blue of the clear Texas sky on a very hot day.

There was a low growing plant with similar colors in the xeriscape garden beside the library and senior center on one side of lake.I was disappointed that I only saw one egret and no herons. In August 2014 there were several different species of herons at the lake. What a difference a month of so makes!

Sunflowers at Monticello

The sunflowers had a large bed to themselves in the vegetable garden at Monticello when I was there in June. I took a huge number of pictures and am just now getting around to looking at them again. I’ve picked a series that show various stages of flower development.

The flower stalks were much taller than a person and the flowers larger than a dinner a plate. As the seeds begin to develop the petals fade and the tops of the plants must get heavier because they bend over rather than continuing to turn toward the sun.

Sunflowers are always bright spots of the day!

Red Yucca

Red yucca is a popular landscaping plant in the area around Dallas where I’ve been the last few weeks. This time of year they are blooming and seed pods are beginning to form.

The long stalks with blooms lean over and move with each list breeze. They add color and motion in gardens that require relatively little water.

I managed to get a picture of the same branch on July 1 and July 6. Notice how fast the purplish seed pods developed. Soon they will be green….and along their growth to split open in the fall and spill their seeds.

Monticello - June 2015

I’ve made periodic trips to Monticello since 1983 when I moved to the east coast from Texas. There always seems to be something new to learn at Thomas Jefferson’s home. We arrived early for the first Behind the Scenes House Tour and Day Pass - with reservations made ahead of time. There was a lotus blooming in the courtyard of the visitor center; I had not even remembered a pool there from my previous visit so it was a pleasant surprise.

Later in the day it would have been impossible to get pictures of the house without people milling around. Did you know that Monticello has three floors above the basement? Jefferson intended for it to look like a single story. Here’s how he got light to the 3 floors. Look at the stacked windows on the front of the house. The windows with the shutters are the first floor. The windows with a white frame and no shutters are the second floor. They fill the lower half of the second floor walls. The third floor has sloped ceilings and skylights!

The viewshed for Monticello is somewhat changed from Jefferson’s day. There were farms where the trees had been cleared within the viewshed during his time but probably not as many clusters of other buildings. From the house it is easy to position yourself where trees block the view.

No pictures are allowed inside the house so I don’t have a picture of the staples that were used to support the alcove beds. I’d not noticed how the beds were supported on previous visits. Jefferson’s bed was open on both sides (and he had a clock positioned on the wall at his feet…he got up when it was light enough for him to see the clock). The other alcove beds had walls on three sides; Dolly Madison visited with her husband frequently and did not like them (probably because she was on the side to the wall!).

The kitchen has separate ‘burners’ for cooking at different temperatures. But they are not vented. The kitchen would have been hot, sooty, and smoky.

The back of Monticello includes the dome. More of the house is visible these days because a giant tulip poplar planted by Jefferson had to be cut down in the 1990s. The inside of the dome room is being monitored closely these days because there are cracks that appeared in the plaster after an earthquake…and they are getting larger.

After Jefferson’s presidency there were quite a few people living at Monticello: his daughter and her many children and his sister….as well as other relatives and friends. They had to have quite a garden to feed everyone.

The view from Mulberry Row - the series of cabins for the slaves that worked in or near the house - may have included more trees that it does now. The kitchen is to the right of this view…the south pavilion above on the far left.

My favorite photograph of the house during this visit was through the flowers.

I was surprised at the number of butterflies we saw in the short walk around the grounds.

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Instead of riding the bus down the hill to the visitor center we walked past the cemetary and through the forest.

And then it was time to splurge for lunch at Michie Tavern. The food is good….but I’m not as fond of ‘all you can eat’ places as I once was. In this case - it is tradition. I think we have gone to Michie Tavern for lunch every time I’ve visited Monticello!

Maymont - June 2015

The golden age Maymont mansion in Richmond is well worth touring. I knew I wanted to see it when we walked the grounds and gardens back in April - on a Monday when the house is not open for tours (see my post here). I was very pleased to be back in Richmond in June and on a Saturday.

The basement area is set up as the waiting area for the tour and has displays of how the ‘upstairs’ of the mansion was supported. The maids’ room (used for sleeping and sewing/mending) had more outside light than I expected. The walls of the room are well back from the edge of the foundation for the upper floors; the windows are normal sized and the window wells in the external wall are large enough to lessen the ‘below ground’ feeling a basement usually has.

The tour allows pictures inside the house. The furnishings were left to the city of Richmond along with the house so the furniture that was in the house when Mrs. Dooley died in 1925 is still there. Mr. Dooley’s library/office has dark woods and large windows….and a winged lion chair.

Across the entry hall - Mrs. Dooley’s front parlor also has lots of large windows and a very fancy ceiling: pink and blue - roses and clouds. There is a lot of gold leaf too.

In the entry hall there is a fireplace with a comfortable chair….a dog sculpture…and a teapot on a hook.

The staircase to the upper floor has a large Tiffany window and a stuffed peacock.

All the windows have stained glass transoms at the top. They are different for each room.

One of my favorite rooms was a small parlor upstairs used as a breakfast room. The China on the table was perfect for a summer morning. One of the chairs had a water lily inlay - that included a dragonfly. The poppy pattern of China in the cabinet along one of the walls….and the cabinet itself...added to the ambience of the room.

In the niece's bedroom a tea set was displayed on a small table. There was a lot of trade with Asia during the late 1800s when the house was built.

Probably the most famous room of the house is Mrs. Dooley’s bedroom. The swan theme is everywhere: the bed, a rocking chair, the painting over the fireplace. Another unusual item in the room: the dressing table and chair are supported by narwhal tusks.

Out on the front porch after the tour I noticed the mosaic on the floor.

There is a small garden with sculpture and columns with a very large magnolia in the background.

As we walked back toward our car we walked through the herb garden. The bees were enjoying the beebalm and cone flowers.

Celebrating Southern Magnolias

I am contemplating my history with southern magnolias this morning. My grandparents had one in their front yard in Wichita Falls, Texas that struggled with the high heat and low humidity of the area. The same was true with the tree in the front yard of my first house in Plano, Texas. I noticed them more when we moved to the mid-Atlantic piedmont area in the 1980s.

In Maryland, there are some large specimens but the weather sometimes is too cold for them. They survive well with care. Belmont has a large one in front of the manor house. I photographed a seed pod from the previous year back in March. The red seeds that remind me of M&Ms were already gone. The buds for 2015 were already showing on the branches.

Richmond is where I first noticed very large magnolias. The short trip to the area in June was well timed to see them in bloom. Maymont has a number of large specimens with ropey trunks. They were trimmed high enough to walk under and it was a popular place to position a bench!

The classical picture with the white flower and glossy green leaves is very appealing but in this series - my favorite has rust petals and developing seed pods!

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!

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens - June 2015

Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens are full of lotuses in bloom this time of year….and dragonflies and waterlilies. We made our first day trip to the place last week on the first sunny day after a huge rain storm. Some of the grassy paths between the ponds were flooded but the circuit wide path was passable. We’ll go again before the end of season.

Eventually I’ll get better at recognizing the different dragonflies. The Blue Dashers are the only ones I recognize easily (the ones that look like they’ve been dusted with light blue powder).

The surprise this year was pots of red hibiscus near the visitor center. I wonder if I somehow missed them last year.

Enjoy the Kenilworth Gardens via the slideshow below!

Brookside Gardens in June 2015 - Part 2

The small animals on or near plants are sometimes the challenge I choose for photography. The walk around Brookside Gardens resulted in a few worth sharing:

The spider on the yucca flower

A damselfly that must have been tired since it stayed put for such a long time. It is an ebony jewelwing!

A mourning dove enjoying the summer sunshine in the garden

Bees at the hollyhocks. I always associate hollyhocks with a great aunt’s house. She always had them planted around the side steps to her house.

A bee on a hydrangea. Brookside has quite a variety of hydrangeas these days and this type seemed the most popular with the bees the day I was there.

Brookside Gardens in June 2015 - Part 1

Brookside Gardens is blooming all over! The renovation to the ponds that had so much of the garden fenced off is open and green. The drainage areas are much improved and many of the bridges were replaced too.

I found myself doing some photographic experiments as I wondered through the garden - a red fire hydrant with white hydrangeas (1) and one yellow leave among so many green ones (13). There were lots of opportunities for looking closely at flowers (2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14), capturing the range of colors for cone flowers (3,6, 9), and remembering caster beans in gardens during my childhood prompted by seeing the plants at Brookside this year ( 8). I couldn’t resist a photograph of the cycad (12) in the conservatory either; I notice the plant every time I walk into the conservatory!

Wheatland Arboretum

The grounds around Wheatland and the LancasterHistory.org building have been transformed into an arboretum with careful plantings and signage for the trees. There was a map provided but I decided to walk around and photograph rather than reference it frequently. It was a very warm day and I found myself staying to the shady path whenever possible. The bright sunlight made the pine needles glow!

There was a large camellia in a shady area and I did some close…and closer shots of the flowers.

The dogwoods (non-native ones) were still blooming. I’d seen this same kind at the National Arboretum a few weeks ago.

The tree that caught my attention the most was the ‘tri-color beech’ which is an import from Europe. It was a striking tree in an otherwise green landscape.

And after my walk - I was ready to be in an air conditioned environment for a bit before heading out for lunch and then driving toward home.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 27, 2015

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.

No Bake, No Stovetop Cookie Bites - I’ve always been intrigued about ‘no bake’ cookies. I like all the ingredients in these so maybe it’s a recipe to try.

Electric Motorcycles Used By Over 50 Police Departments - I like technology that is good for the environment and also is has a positive impact on the mission (they are quiet!).

Smart insulin patch could replace painful injections for diabetes - New technology hones delivery of insulin based on when the body needs it….much more like a correctly functioning pancreas.

Once and Future Nut: How Genetic Engineering May Bring Back Chestnuts - These trees once grew in Maryland. It would be great to have them part of scene again after 100 years.

Climate change threatens to undermine the last half century of health gains - Increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events (heat waves, floods, droughts and storms) as well as indirect impacts from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition, involuntary migration, displacement and conflict….it adds up.

The rise of Africa’s super vegetables - Indigenous foods…rather than imported…to feed the continent. And trying the preserved the variety available while studying only a few of the species.

Doctors often misdiagnose zinc deficiency, unaware of impact of excess zinc - Wow! I remember a few years ago when it was widely suggested that zinc helped recovery from colds….I wonder how many people developed zinc induced copper deficiency (anemia, low white cell count and/or neurological problems?

The Prairie Ecologist Goes to the Beach - Photos of the gulf coast beaches in Texas.

How the US, UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, & Italy Can Each Go 100% Renewable - The article and the comments - lots of potential ways to get it done.

The Best Weather Photos of the Year Will Blow You Away - I couldn’t resist. Good photographs. I was a little surprised that a rainbow picture was not in the group.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - June 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 June 2015 (actually there are a few more than 10 listed below…it has been a month full of celebrations!).

I’ve been doing some traveling the past few weeks: two one-night-away trips and half-day jaunts.

Winterthur (Delaware) was overwhelming in many ways. I did the Introductory tour and Antiques and Architecture tour --- which is almost too much for one day! But the walk back to the visitor’s center through the woodland garden is soothing. It is a place to celebrate. I am prompted to read the biography Henry Francis DuPont that I’ve had in my ‘to read’ pile for the past few months - and celebrate Winterthur again as I savor the book.

Wheatland (Lancaster PA) was a place I had touring more than 20 years ago but I enjoyed much more than I expected to this time - both the house and grounds. By the time we headed home I was celebrating the place. Maybe it was because I was early enough to get a private tour. The guide was excellent. The highpoint may have been seeing how hooped skirts compressed to go upstairs!

Centennial Park was one of the ways I celebrated being home again. The walk around the lake on a summer morning is good exercise and another opportunity to photograph milkweed.

Maymont (Richmond VA) my favorite ‘golden age mansion’ …. better than anything in Newport RI because the house and furnishings were left intact when donated to the city of Richmond. The tour guide was knowledgeable and photography was allowed. It appealed to me that the house was lived in except for the hottest months of the year rather than being used for 6-8 weeks only like many of the mansions in Newport. I’ll do a complete post about Maymont in a week or so. Maymont is a celebration of tangible history!

Monticello (Charlottesville VA) is a place I’ve been every few years since we moved to the east coast in 1983. There are always a lot of people and the foundation has evolved to handle the crowds. We made reservations for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ and it was well worth it; the renovation and furnishing of the upstairs rooms were just finished in May! During the tour, I celebrated that some of the spaces had been furnished to allow for sitting (after more than an hour of walking around the house!) but now I celebrate that every time I got to Monticello I notice something I did not  before - sometimes on my own and sometimes prompted by a tour guide. I plan to post about the Monticello experience in a week or so.

Brookside is always worth a walk around. It is a good celebration close to home. Pictures are coming soon in another post.

Thrift stores celebrations are always about the serendipity of finding something great at a low price. In June I went twice. The first time I only found blouses….the second time skirts. And several ‘match’!

Gorman Farms CSA started their season this month. It is a weekly celebration of fresh produce….as long as I don’t feel overwhelmed by the bounty. So far - I am just barely keeping up (although there is some fruit beety in the freezer).

A mouth guard may not be something to celebrate but my new one is more flexible than my old one…it’s sparklingly free of deposits. Overall - I celebrate that a mouth guard enables me to sleep better!

A new hot water heater was installed in our house this month. The old one had started to leak after 24 years. I celebrated that we discovered it almost immediately, that it didn’t leak fast enough to get anything in the basement wet, and that we were never without hot water!

Master Naturalist activity was very high at the beginning of the month: the annual conference and the last few elementary school field trips. Both were celebratory crescendos to the spring season activities. I am taking a ‘vacation’ until mid-July when I’m signed up to help with summer camps.

Winterthur Garden

Most of the gardens at Winterthur are woodland gardens (my earlier post about the museum is here). Henry Francis Du Pont was a naturalist gardener. He did include some exotic plants…but otherwise his garden exemplifies all the principles of woodland gardening.

The plants are arranged in natural settings.

There are plants in every nook and cranny.

Patches of light spotlight different plants during the day. There are lots of different textures and types of plants.

There are pergolas as destinations within the garden…and paths that go from meadow to forest to wetland.

Most of the garden is green and brown but the eye catches on white

And red

And orange.

I was not looking for animals but two appeared very obviously - a chipmunk

And a spider.

I noticed a violet with a double seed pod.

Closer to the museum/mansion - there was a lotus in the koi pond that used to be the swimming pool!

There is more lawn as understory closer to the mansion…still a lot of big trees.