Mt. Pleasant in January

I took a walk with a ‘Winter Wellness’ group at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm early this month…on a very cold day. I didn’t take very many pictures because it was more important to walk quickly enough to keep warm. I liked the patterns the ice made along the edges of the Davis Branch – the contrasting colors of fallen leaves, the lighter rocks and pebbles…and a surprising amount of green.

The day warmed into the 30s and as I was leaving I saw a lone turkey vulture soring overhead. The bird circled over me several times and I finally managed a focused image.

As a walked back to my car I noticed how lonely the picnic area was without the large number of students that often picnic there after field trips in the spring and fall.

January Sunrise

January is an excellent month for photographing the sunrise from our front porch: the days are still short so sunrise happens well after my normal time to get up and there are no leaves on the tress to block the view. A little over a week ago – I was lucky enough to catch a sunrise with the moon and Venus visible!

A little later on the same morning I focused on using the sunrise color behind some of our trees. This is the oak. The buds look large for January. They may have started swelling with the warm weather we had in December and early January.

The crepe myrtle has a lot of dried pods that make it look ‘decorated’ all winter long. It makes a good morning silhouette.

Belmont in January

I am working on a winter tree hike for Belmont and did a ‘walk around’ for the route to add to my collection of pictures for the brochure. There were three trees that I focused on:

The Eastern Red Cedar. I realized as I was taking the picture that my grandparents had a pair in the front of their house when I was growing up. Last time I saw the trees – after my grandparents had been gone many years – the trees were gone and I’ve always wondered what happened to them; supposedly Eastern Red Cedars can live for 900 years. My grandfather probably dug them up as saplings from a nearby forest to plan in that yard – or maybe it was the previous owner.

The Dawn Redwood is a tree that is similar to the Bald Cypress – it is in group that usually is evergreen but it is deciduous. The bark is reddish….and the small cones that stay on the tree during the winter are quite interesting looking although you need a zoom on a camera or binoculars to see them!

The Black Walnut had plenty of nuts around its base. They are the easiest way to identify the tree in the winter.

The day I was at Belmont was very cold and a little breezy. I’m always surprises that the species of grass most popular in this area stays green even when it is very cold….but it stops growing so we do get a break on lawn mowing.

My Hawaiian Souvenirs

I enjoyed collecting earrings in Hawaii. There were made of koa wood, shell, and obsidian....island materials. The shell necklace was a lei from the resort where we spent the first night.

I bought 2 T-shirts: one a tropical weight long sleeved T shirt with botanical motifs and the other covered with Hawaiian petroglyph patterns and a heavier fabric.

I bought a lightweight robe with a flowery motif.

Mauna Kea is a good place for warm socks (I’ve already tried them out on a recent cold day here in Maryland) and a stuff bag that is easy to carry and expand as I need to carry more things.

On our last day in Hawaii before we headed off to our last hikes in the national park, we visited 2400 Fahrenheit – the studio of glass artists Michael and Misato Mortara. We bought two pieces. One reminds us of tidal pools and the other of volcanoes.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park
• Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve
• Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, South Point, and Green Sand Beach
• Helicopter over Hawaii
• Maunaiki Trail – Ka’u Desert Hike
• Halema’uma’u Crater
• Mauna Ulu and Sulphur Banks Trail
• Resorts in Hawaii
• Getting Home from Hawaii – An Adventure

Resorts in Hawaii

We spent our first night in Hawaii at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott, where my daughter was finishing up her conference. We walked around the grounds the next morning and saw a number of plants like a screw pine

And Ohi’a lehua.

There were plenty of mynah birds around too

And a large spider in its web.

The lush grounds and fish ponds gave way to the beach.

We came back on our last evening (before we headed to the airport) to photography the sunset.

The resorts cannot close off publish access to the beaches and we walked to one that had a reef later in the week. We saw small crabs in the shallows,

Other birds,

And colorful reef fish that were coming into fish pounds that had a connection with the sea.

Our last experience with a Hawaiian resort happened when our flight was delayed by a mechanical problem. We arrive about 10 and had to leave to get back to the airport by about 2:30….so I only saw the Royal Kona Resort in the dark! I could tell there was lush vegetation and that the courtyards and hallways were open air. I was thrilled that the rooms were air conditioned. The most different feature of the room was sliding louvre doors as the window treatment for the sliding glass door to the balcony.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park
• Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve
• Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, South Point, and Green Sand Beach
• Helicopter over Hawaii
• Maunaiki Trail – Ka’u Desert Hike
• Halema’uma’u Crater
• Mauna Ulu and Sulphur Banks Trail

Mauna Ulu and Sulphur Banks Trail

The first part of our last day in Hawaii was spent in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We drove a short distance down Chain of Craters Drive. We made a quick stop to overlook the Kilauea Iki Trail and I couldn’t resist photographing a fern with crescent shaped sori (clusters of sporangia that contain spores….the beginning of the next generation of ferns).

Our first hike was toward Mauna Ulu - a lava landscape formed from 1969-1974. Like the other trails where plants are sparse – it is marked by cairns. But these cairns are harder to spot because there are so many piles of rocks in the landscape. We must have missed a cairn fairly early on and wondered around a little before we found it again.

There are lots of glassy rocks on this hike and sometimes the lava makes little cracking sounds when you walk on it.

My daughter picked up several pieces of rocks for me to photograph – a lot of color and texture variety. She probably should have been wearing her gloves since tiny shards of glass come off these rocks. I got one in my thumb when I picked up one.

I took pictures of plants that were colonizing the lava too. This area gets plenty of rainfall but is still a very harsh environment. The plants manage to find enough for their survival in tiny cracks. Sometimes they appear to grow out of solid rock! Every bit of green or red catches your attention in a place like this.

There were some lava trees that look very ‘fresh’ with distinct and sharp edges.

There is a sparse forest that one hikes through as the trail leads upward. The lava is relatively smooth and compacted by all the previous hikers (i.e. no little cracking sounds when you walk on it). It still takes a lot of energy to walk along the undulating path. We turned around before reaching the end of the hike.

The last hike we did in the park was back near the visitor center – the Sulphur Banks Trail. It is an easy hike along a board walk.  There are vents on both sides. The Sulphur shows up as yellow splotches mixed with white (gypsum), milky glaze (opal), and red (hematite).

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park
• Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve
• Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, South Point, and Green Sand Beach
• Helicopter over Hawaii
• Maunaiki Trail – Ka’u Desert Hike
• Halema’uma’u Crater

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 9, 2016

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.

Here’s how climate will affect what we eat – Several alarming items from this post: “High quality chocolate will be less available in the future, and if you want it, you’ll have to pay a lot more for it” and crops that grow in small geographic areas (most things besides stables) will be most severely impacted. It appears that diets will become more standardized (maybe boring too).

A Breathtaking view of the World’s Oldest River System – The New River Gorge in West Virginia…maybe a vacation destination?

Mapping the National Parks – Topographic maps, national scenic trails, geologic maps, and remote sensing…there is a lot of information best displayed on a map!

Ancient city of Pompeii unveils restored homes – The results of 12 projects done by a 2012 partnership been the EUs European Commission and Italian authorities. I was glad to see that some restoration work is being done; the many tourists take a toll on the site.

The Best of Cool Green Science: Birds & Birding Edition – Pointers to 10 birding posts from 2015 on The Nature Conservancy web site.

The Year in Food: Artificial Out, Innovation in (And 2 More Trends) – How many of the trends have you noticed? Some of the labeling (‘all natural’ and ‘clean’) is not well defined but it is pretty clear that consumers are voting with the dollars – which forces the food system to respond. I know that we don’t go out to eat as often as we used to, do most of our grocery purchases around the periphery of the store, and compost the small amount of food parings we don’t eat.

Mapping 260 years of Global Carbon Emissions – A short video map of the world that shows the global emissions from fossil fuel burning from 1750-2010.

Chocolate + Fresh Fruit = Easy, Impressive Vegan Desserts – All of these desserts look good to me….and they are on the healthier end of the spectrum for desserts!

These Are Our Favorite Earth Images of 2015 – The image of earth from space – awesome!

Appliance upgrades that save the most water, energy and cost – Thought provoking article. Sometimes deciding the ‘best bargain’ is more complex that we realize. One surprising result: one of the best appliances to update for water efficiency was the gas furnace, not the more intuitive shower head or dishwasher, because of the water associated with producing energy.

Halema'uma'u Crater

The Jagger Museum in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park overlooks the Halema’uma’u Crater – the main crater of Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. During the day, white plumes billow from the crater – some from the center

And some from the sides.

At night, the part of the plume that is visible is smaller – but more dramatic.

It gets even more dramatic using the ‘zoom’ on the camera.

It isn’t the actual molten lava that is visible…but the heat of it just below the rim.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park
• Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve
• Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, South Point, and Green Sand Beach
• Helicopter over Hawaii
• Maunaiki Trail – Ka’u Desert Hike

Longwood Gardens – December 2015 (Part II)

The rest of Longwood Gardens was – as usual – very beautiful. I’ve selected some themes for this post. The first grouping is some ‘artsy’ attempts inside the conservatory: a bamboo forest,

A bent calla lily and

A simple water feature.

The next group are plants I saw growing outdoors in Hawaii; they only survive the winter in conservatories in Pennsylvannia: a bird of paradise and

A hibiscus.

There were also some landscapes I enjoyed: in the conservatory,

A treehouse at the forest’s edge across a grassy lawn,

Around the model trains and

One of my favorite rooms in the conservatory (there is a water feature that gently flows through the central plantings…which change seasonally).

Usually I take a lot of close ups of the orchids. This time I took the room itself. I’d never quite noticed the spirals behind the pots before.

There was a tiered fountain that had been repurposed as infrastructure for succulents and small aloes. I like the muted colors and shapes.

The last grouping is cycad textures. There were several different kinds in the Longwood Conservatory and I focused on the non-leaf structures.

Longwood Gardens – December 2015 (Part I)

I am interrupting the rest of of Hawaii blog posts for two Longwood Gardens posts. We made the trek north to the garden last week. It was more crowded than on any previous visit both because of the season and it was the first non-rainy day in a while. One of the staff told me that they thought there were about 15,00 people in the gardens; the crowd is felt most keenly in the conservatory where the staff set up a one-way path to handle all the people and the visitor center where there are extra staff around to assist people in moving toward the gardens or the exit.

We made our way to the conservatory when we got there since they allowed tripods until noon and the crowds had not arrived yet. Somehow I noticed several fiddleheads just after entering the conservatory – which brought back memories of Hawaii!

Then we focused on winter holiday displays in the conservatory: paperwhites (also near the entrance

Then poinsettias in several colors. I like the color and shapes of the center of the blooms.

The flowers were arranged all around the edges of the central conservator and in hanging shapes overhead.

They were also in the sunken garden with lots of surrounding greenery and sprinklers that kept everything wet.

Sometimes the poinsettias have a very different form; these had layers of smaller petals…still the brilliant red color that was paired nicely with the paperwhites.

There were pink poinsettia’s too

With interesting centers.

Another red flower used to make a tree were anthuriums – another reminder of Hawaii.

The third ‘red’ flower that I noticed were dark red amaryllis.

And there were lilies – both white and pale pink. I suspect these will be part of the display into the spring.

Continuing outside – there were trees decorated with sprays that were edible by birds. What a great idea. They looked like the birds had nibbled – but not nearly as much as I expected. I wondered if the gardeners had refreshed the sprays.

There were also garden themed light displays. This was my favorite – during the daytime…

And at dusk.

There were Canadian Geese enjoying the area round one of the other light displays.

To be continued tomorrow!

Learning Log – January 2016

December was full of learning opportunities - surprising with no Coursera classes!

Udemy. I discovered a new-to-me source of free or inexpensive short courses. The first one was referenced in the Ancient Egypt course I’d completed via Coursera in November. The courses I finished in December were:

Blue: a symposium exploring aspects of life in Ancient Egypt

Napoleon in Egypt

I have already started two more in January:

Unearthing the Trojan War: The Life of Heinrich Schliemann

Photography Masterclass: Your complete Guide to Photography (I got it when it was on sale for $10)

The Udemy courses tend to be chart sets with a lecturer…not as many references or extended reading that usually accompanies the Coursera course. Still – I enjoyed the topics and will explore more of the courses they offer.

Travel to Hawaii. The biggest source of learning experience in December was traveling to Hawaii. I had never been to anyplace like it and the length/complexity of the travel was more too. There were all kinds of tangential topics too – like learning about Dengue Fever (they were having an outbreak while we were there).

Looking forward into January – I am set for more courses because there is not so much going on otherwise. Along with the two Udemy couses, I’m starting one from Coursera as well: Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences – Historical Foundations.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 2, 2016

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.

12 Machines that show modern farming isn’t the bucolic life you imagine – Wow! The way our food is harvested is mechanically amazing but also seems violent. I wondered if it was dangerous for the workers that tend the machines.

How do you prepare for the isolation of space? – Using Antarctica as a training location for space missions.

What’s the difference between reindeer and caribou – It’s past Christmas – but I didn’t see this article in time. Evidently they are the same species! But reindeer show the impact of domestication.

New kind of thermal vent system found in Caribbean – They are formed of talc rather than sulphide minerals.

How Juneau handles its garbage – They ship their recyclables south via barge and try to minimize the garbage that they landfill nearby (although space is limited). Other municipalities may not face quite the transportation challenge that Juneau faces (no overland transportation from the city) but the long term issues toward sustainability are the same.

Photography in the National Parks: Your Armchair Guide to Mesa Verde National Park – It’s been over 30 years since I was Mesa Verde; these pictures encourage me to plan another visit.

Is This Snowy Wonderland Or The World Inside A Petri Dish? – Cut paper versions of bacteria and other organisms

Our Energy Transformation in 2015 – Even with low oil and gas prices, we are still shifting way from fossil fuels. Oil consumption in the US is on a downward trend and the adoption of clean energy hit record rates in 2015. For the first time in history, carbon emissions fell even as the world economy grew.

US Wild Bee Populations Waning – Not good. Most of our agriculture needs pollinators and yet these are the very areas where the wild bees are being decimated.

New Species Abound – And these are new species that are large enough to be visible. What about all the soil microbes that we know so little about? It’s time we internalize that we really don’t know all the species on our planet.