Day Lilies

The deer are very hard on the day lilies in our flower beds. Most of the time they eat the buds before they can open. This year I have implemented a strategy of sticking the small branches that self-prune from our oak among the day lilies so that the deer get a bite of sticks along with the buds. It has slowed them down a little….but not much. The yellow ones that blooms were very low in other foliage and almost under some bushes.

The only orange ones that survived looked like they were blooming inside the bush!

I cut some buds the deer skipped because of the sticks (eating all the others that did not have enough sticks) and put them in a vase to so some photography. I discovered just how fast the flowers open. The first picture was at 6:40 AM.

Two hours later they were about half open. And I took a lot more pictures of them (including the picture of the stalk in the vase. I liked the lighting outside – using the green of the trees as a backdrop.

By noon the flowers were open. They only last the day – hence the name of these flowers.

After last year’s fiasco when I had no flowers at all because of the deer, I dug up some of the bulbs to put in pots on the deck. I noted the times for the photographs. This first set was at 7 AM. Not there were was already a spent flower to the left of the one that is opening…and lots of enlarging buds.

By 11 AM the flower was open.

Two days later, many of the buds had opened and were already wilting.

Another pot had a different lily. The first picture was at 9 AM.

The second is at 8 PM the same day. The petals are already beginning to wilt…the pollen has been spent....but there are still buds to open on subsequent days.

I’m going to dig up more bulbs this season so that I can enjoy them on the next next summer.

CSA Week 5

It was another two bag week at the Gorman Farm CSA this week….another good week of eating skewed toward the veggie side. Starting in the upper left of the picture below there are: 2 kohlrabi (roots and leaves), 2 pounds of summer squash (I got 3 yellow and one green), cone head cabbage, scallions, 1 pound of cucumbers, 1 pound of broccoli, arugula, beets (roots and leaves), carrots with tops, and kale. The scallions were from the overage table where I could have gotten more greens (collard greens or chard) but I still have both left from last week.

Not the variety of leaf shapes and sizes between the kohlrabi leaves (large), the beet (red veins) and the arugula (convoluted margins). The beet leaves and arugula will be eaten with the carrot tops in salads. I am still trying to decide whether to make the kohlrabi leaves into chips just like I intend to do with the kale.

After I had cleaned up from the first round of prep of the veggies into plastic bins, I found this tiny leaf. I think it might have been from the kohlrabi. It was only about an inch long....very delicate.

I have been eating a lot of the stems but decided to start freezing more of them so that I will skew what I eat now to leaves that will not survive freezing. The stems have to be cooked (steamed, stir fried, or put into soups) because they are so tough – they work well coming from the freezer. In fact, freezing may reduce the cooking required.

Zooming – June 2016

My favorite topics for zooming are the usual: birds, plants, and insects! Click on each of the six images to see a larger version. It was hard to top at six collages because there were so many images to clip. After I went overboard early in the week with the Mesa Verde post – I decided that 6 was enough already. The first image includes a house finch, sweet bay, iris, strawberry and peony.

Next comes a monarch butterfly, a poppy, a mourning dove, the center of a flower, and a thistle.

Then allium ball, the back of a flower and another center, and hydrangea growing on a rock wall.

Then an all-insect collage: a dragonfly, a monarch caterpillar, a bumble bee, a black swallowtail caterpillar and two butterflies.

Next is an all plant collage: castor beans, datura, day lily, canna.

Finally – a moth, two pictures of southern magnolia flowers (l like the curves of the petals around the forming seed pods), and an Asian dogwood.

Mesa Verde in 1980

I posted a picture of our camp in Mesa Verde from August 1980. We cooked everything over a camp fire or on our Coleman stove. It rained every afternoon but we still managed to see quite a bit of the National Park. We drove around the park and got pretty good at spotting identified ruins and ones that seemed to be in every nook of the cliffs. Can you find the ruins in each of the images in the slideshow below?

Of course – there are some that are possible to get a better view – close enough to see the complexity of the places. As I look at these now, I realize that they would have all had flat roofs when they were inhabited…and that would make them look very different.

The pit houses on top of the mesa were quite different from the cliff dwellings structurally - and more exposed to the weather and enemies. I picked up a pinion pine cone at one of the stops and got sap on the dash of our car…and left the pine cone at the next stop.

Closer to the dwellings, it was possible to tell more about how they were constructed – how beams were placed to make floors,

How the walls were plastered and designs painted on the inside,

Very narrow steps down into a kiva,

T shaped doors,

And a spiral made on a stone.

My husband enjoys botanical photography as much as I do….so there are those kinds of images in the set of slides as well.

We haven’t been back to Mesa Verde since 1980. It would be interesting to see what has changed…what has stayed the same. This time my husband would not be the only one with a camera.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – June 2016

June has been transition month – from the flurry of volunteer gigs for spring field trips to settling into summer.

A flock of gold finches were feeding on grass seeds in the meadow during one of the last field trips. The third graders and I just stood and celebrated the birds as they moved around us. There was an indigo bunting with them too.

Progress on cleaning out – I’ve had cleaning out boxes of keepsakes on my ‘to do’ list for quite a long time and am finally making progress that I can celebrate!

Dutch Apple Caramel Cheese Cake – This was a splurge at the Cheesecake Factory. I ate half with dinner and saved the rest for breakfast the next morning….2 celebrations in one piece of dessert. By the way – I discovered that the best way to do this is to request it in a ‘to go’ container from the beginning so every bit of caramel goody stays with the part you are going to eat!

Getting home from a long drive – I was so happy to get home from a 4-hour drive (2 hours longer than I had anticipated) that I celebrated! 

The CSA started the first week of June. I celebrate every week when I fill up my bag with veggies I know are going to turn into delicious meals.

Finding kitchen strainers in the $1 store – They came in package of 2 for $1 (celebrating the bargain!) and will work great when I volunteer for macroinvertebrate field trips in local streams/rivers.

Computer glasses – I finally got some and now wonder why I didn’t get them years ago. I’m celebrating them as a ‘gift to myself.’

Shopping for new flooring – My husband and I have been talking about replacing the flooring in our kitchen (first and then other rooms). I celebrated that we have finally started shopping….making progress toward getting the project done.

Finding Merrell sandals at the thrift store – I found a pair of gently worn Merrell sandals at the thrift store for $5. When I first saw them, I thought – “this is too good to be true, they won’t fit” – but they did! I celebrate the bargain every time I wear them!

A day at home – May and the first half of June were so busy that by the time I did get a few consecutive days at home …. It was something to celebrate. I love photographing birds and the day lilies opening….getting caught up on things that took a back seat when so many other things were going on.

Photographs through a Window – June 2016

The wildlife has been active at the bird feeder and bath on or deck this month. The squirrels empty the seed bowl so quickly that I am not filling it very often. They still come to sniff around periodically – looking for the small windfall from the birds dropping seeds to the deck as the feed at the squirrel-proof hanging feeder.

I like the chipmunks better and cheer when they find the seed first when I fill the bowl. I think the chipmunks have their home under our deck since I see them in that area almost every time I am in the back yard.

The gold finches made a few appearances.

But the house finches are the frequent visitors

As are the chipping sharrows.

I had to be quick to catch the Carolina Wren. This was one was looking for nesting materials so there may be a second brood starting.

There was an occasional white breasted nuthatch on the roof and at the feeder. They are easy to identify at the feeder because they almost always are head down – not on the usually perch.

Not filling the bowl means that the cardinals and the mourning doves don’t get seed as much either since they are too big for the feeder. That caused a particular problem for the cardinal parents. Their baby was very demanding. The male brought it to the deck under the feeder first.

He was looking frazzled from the constant begging by the time they flew away.

The female brought the young bird as well.

The chick was as big as the parents – looked bigger with the fluffiness of the down that had not been quite replaced with ‘grown up’ feathers.

Finally – the young bird appeared on his own under the feeder just yesterday. Do you think it is a male of female? It will become recognizable in the coming weeks. I’ll include the follow up pictures of the bird next month – assuming the young bird keeps coming to our deck.

CSA Week 4

The medium share at the Gorman Farm CSA was large again this week. I’m going to take two bags instead of one next week…since the bounty really does require the spaces – and I can more easily spread the weight to carry it all to the car. This week the share included (starting in the upper left corner and moving clockwise: mizuna (my choice from the overage bins…it is only available early in the season and I really like it), peas, scallions, beets, chard, Romaine lettuce, collards, broccoli, savoy cabbage, and kale.

I took some close up pictures of the broccoli,

Chard, and

Peas….so many beautiful foods for this next week.

I fit the leafy things into two plastic bins and some plastic bags. The beets (minus their leaves, cabbage, and broccoli in the crisper. So far, I’ve not had anything go to waste via spoilage and I want to keep it that way.

I’ll make fruit beety tomorrow. While the beets cook I’ll make kale chips. Both will keep longer in processed form although the fruit beety is one of my favorite summer snacks so I probably won’t put any of this batch in the freezer.

Brookside Gardens – June 2016

I had guests over the past two weeks and Brookside Gardens is one of the places that just about everyone enjoys. We got their early enough to be part of the first group into the Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit. The butterflies inside were pretty much the same as we saw in late May that that I posted about early this month. I did get to see caterpillars for the black swallowtail. I had them on parsley growing on my deck a few years back – so many of them that the parsley was demolished!

There were insects in the gardens that were active because the day was already warm: dragonflies like the garden rooms that include a water feature and

Bubble bees seem to be everywhere.

There was a mockingbird that made lots of noise from the pinnacle of a small tree.

Every bush in the rose garden seemed to be blooming.

I like the ones that seemed to glow from within in the bright sunlight.

A succulent has been planted in an urn where it was blooming and spilling over the side.

The early summer flowers were at every turn.

The tadpoles near the Tea Garden pavilion were huge – about 6 inches long. since the tail was still so long I wondered how long it would be before they made the transformation to frogs.

The native dogwoods are already done with blooming for the year but the Asian ones were still in bloom. I liked the soft pink of one so much that I took a lot of pictures of it. My three favorite images are below.

Milkweed Update

A few days ago the milkweed flowers were still only buds. Now they are blooming and the insects are very active around them. The smell very sweet to human noses too!

I have seen several types of bees – the very large bumble bees

And the smaller honey bees and native bees.

There are other insects as well – did you note the ant on the flower in the first picture?

There are bugs on the leaves too. The one I noticed yesterday – and identified via a web search – was a Pennsylvania leatherwing beetle or goldenrod soldier beetle. The yellow ovals on the ends of its legs are aphids!

Unfortunately – I can’t find any Monarch caterpillars. I hope we have some that hatch and survive when the Monarchs arrive from Mexico since the early ones seem to have all perished. I talked to a third grader that had been in a class where they tried to raise Monarch caterpillars this spring and she told me that most of their caterpillars died because they were infected with parasites…and that it seemed that the stripes of the ones that died early were more wiggly than straight (i.e. they looked different than the caterpillars that survived to make their chrysalis and eventual emerge as a healthy butterfly). I don’t have a large enough sample size for comparison but from now on I’m going to photograph every caterpillar I find so I can do some comparisons with photographs.

Bandelier National Monument in 1980

The first time I visited Bandelier National Monument was in the spring of 1971; I didn’t take any pictures on that trip but remembered the place and wanted to return. An opportunity to visit again didn’t come until August of 1980; I recently scanned the images my husband took and remembered that visit. We had driven from our home in Plano TX. It was quite a road trip through New Mexico – camping along the way.

There is a large D shaped ruin on the canyon floor and eroded rocks everywhere.

There are ruins along the side of the canon that used eroded spaces for storage. Some of plastering and black markings from fires remains from the long ago uses of the place.

Post holes into the rock show that the ruins once had multiple floors along the canyon wall.

Here is a close up of a row of holes for a floor/ceiling support and some pecked images in the rock.

Some of the designs made in plaster had been protected from the elements.

Some areas were left as they were but the black at the top of the cavities show that they once had fires. Perhaps there are ruins under the rubble at the base of the cliff.

These rooms are probably restored although some of the posts look battered and may be original. There has been a lot of study of the tree rings in ruins like this and a sequence has been established to date construction via tree ring analysis.

The canyon was a great place to hike. I remember that we hiked all the way down to the Rio Grande. When I looked at the web site for the monument now I saw that they had experienced flood damage to that trail and it is closed past the upper falls. Unfortunately -  I haven’t found the slides from that part of the visit – yet.

Mount Vernon

I’ve posted about Mount Vernon before – back in the summer of 2013. This time it was hotter and the wind was blowing hard enough to kick up dust. There were a lot of people. I enjoyed trying to photograph the magnolia flowers again while I waited for them to call our time slot for the house tour but the wind had contorted their petals; none of them were symmetrical! Based on the signage about them - most were planted in the 1860s.

I took a picture of the ‘necessary’ at the corner of the garden. This was the area that had overgrown boxwood when we first visited Mount Vernon in the 1980s. Now the garden beds are surrounded by small boxwood and there are flowers and vegetables planted there.

I didn’t remember the shutters over the front door. This is the view from the line for the house tour…on the land side of the house.

Standing further back on the circular drive – on sees the breeze ways on both sides of the house. There used to be steps on the route from the kitchen (on the left) to get to the house but now the line for the house tour goes there and they have a raised floor so that the house can be entered via wheelchair.

The river side of the house has comfortable chairs that are used by almost everyone for a few minutes after they finish the tour - a pleasant shady spot on a hot afternoon.

This is the view of the Potomac River from the house.

The cupola is worth looking at from several vantage points: the river side of the house,

from the side where there are other out buildings, and

from the front.

I’ve noticed lightning rods in all of the older trees before. This time I also saw them on all the outbuildings.

There was also a building that had been newly shingled – not yet painted red. There must always be some maintenance going on even during Washington’s time. One of the outbuildings actually was for storing paint!

Last but not least – I had never really looked at George Washington’s signature….it’s everywhere in the visitor’s center.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 18, 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.

How dirty is your air? – Based on this article – I am trying to get in the habit of turning on the vent fan when I am cooking….and opening some windows when the outdoors temperature is pleasant.

Serious Putty – A clay with antimicrobial properties…even against resistant strains! More research is needed – but it is exciting that this could be a totally different mechanism for fighting infection that the current antibiotics on the market.

Snow in Vietnam and Other New Climate Patterns Threaten Farmers – This is from the Business Report section of the MIT Technology Review. The article focuses on farmers in Vietnam in an area that got snow for the first time in their life time (and historically) last winter and how weather patterns are impacting their finally honed rhythm for crops. It would be interesting to hear stories from farmers around the world. Climate is changing globally – but not always in the same way.

Sunflower Spirals: Complexity Beyond the Fibonacci Sequence – The results of a crowd sourced look at sunflower spirals: 1 in 5 did not conform to the Fibonacci Sequence. Some of those non-conformers approximated it and others approximated more complex mathematical patterns! Either way – I like the look of sunflower spirals.

Genome Digest – Recent findings of genomic research on giraffes – carrots – zebrafish and gar – herring – Atlantic salmon. A lot has changed since I got my biology degree in the 1980s.

Seeing the Inevitable, companies begin to adapt to climate change – Most companies are aware that climate change is likely to affect their future but are not planning for it with any consistency or depth. Those furthest along are those already dealing with climate change on a daily basis: agriculture and insurance. Ikea and Ford are two companies used as examples in the article.

Tranquil Impressionist-Style Paintings Showcase Beauty of Natural Parks Around America – Eye candy for the week!

Life in the Dark – Photographs of sea and cave creatures that live their whole lives in the dark.

C40’s Executive Director Mark Watts on how mayors are changing the way we think about food – Area of focus are food: procurement, production, distribution, and waste.

Frog, Turtle Species Being Reintroduced to Yosemite Valley – The California red-legged frog (the largest native frog in the western US) and the western pond turtle are being reintroduced to lake, river and meadow habitats.

Monarch Caterpillars

Some milkweed came up in my front flowerbed. It is not the best looking plant around and my husband was lobbying to dig the plants out. I asked him to wait until I got out to photograph them since they were just getting ready to bloom.

Some of the leaves has been partially eaten…and I took a closer look. Sure enough – on the underside of the leave was a monarch caterpillar! The elementary schools in our area raised caterpillars in their third grade classrooms this year – and one of the resulting monarchs must have found its way to our milkweed. That clinched the decision to not dig out the plants at all.

Later I found another smaller caterpillar ---- and then I haven’t found them again in the past few days. Usually they are obvious as they get large because of the amount of the milkweed foliage they eat. Their food generally makes them unpalatable to predators but maybe something else has caused them a problem. We are still leaving the plants for other monarchs that reach our area….something we can do to help the population of Monarchs to increase.

Valley Forge National Historical Park

Last week – the day following my visit to the Scott Arboretum – I walked around Valley Forge National Historical Park. I’d been there before but had never had time to see all of it. I remembered the cannon that were point at meadows. This time I wondered about how they were maintained. The one I looked at more closely had a fleck of paint that had flaked away and some rusty areas.

I remembered reconstructed log structures.

The structures help one imagine how miserable it must have been at this place in winter. The structures were very crowded - lined with crude bunks along the walls - with a crudely made fireplace for warmth.

We drove around as far as we could on the road that loops through the park but we came to a section that was closed because of damage to a bridge and construction of a replacement sewer line. We followed the detour signs through a beautiful older neighborhood (one of the highlights of the trip) and back to the visitor’s center to check the map more carefully on how to get to the other parts of the park. My sister was keen to see the DAR tower at the Washington Memorial Chapel.

I was fascinated by the eagles on the four corners of the tower.

Further down on the corner facing the chapel, there is a statue of George Washington.

There is a cannon in front of the chapel that points into the main area of the park and an obelisk.

There are numerous cool courtyards with statuary and dedications. The chapel area was getting ready for a Flea Market the next day but even with the extra activity, it was a serene place.

Further along the road was Washington’s Headquarters. There as a statue of George Washington that has been replicated in other places because

His family indicated that the face depicted him better than any other.

The headquarters was a house…that was crammed full of people when it was the headquarters. The house part was never changed structurally. The kitchen part (to the left) was ‘modernized’ in the 1800s but is now back to the way it would have been in the 1770s.

There is a train station near the Headquarters that provided transportation for people to visit the park up to the time it became a National Historical Park. The addition of the railroad created a tall berm between the headquarters area and the Schuylkill River which would not have been there in the 1770s; it changed the relationship that then encampment had of the river but may have protected many of the structures from flooding.

The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College

Last week I walked around some of the Scott Arboretum while my sister did some genealogy research at the McCabe library. It was not an ideal day for photography because it was very windy. Fortunately, it was bright enough that the shutter speed froze some of the motion and I was able to get some flower pictures.

 

The arboretum is integrated with the college buildings and I like the quiet places with benches (lush vegetation spilling around them) and just having the structures as backdrops to some of the garden (in particular in the rose garden).

The vintage buildings appear to be well maintained…with exteriors much as they were when they were first built.

There was a cloister type courtyard with the bell tower and chapel.

When I first walked to it there was a person sitting in the shade reading – enjoying the space out of the wind.

There was climbing variety of hydrangea along the arches of the courtyard.

I definitely want to plan another trek to Scott Arboretum and explore it more thoroughly – without a time constraint and on a day when the wind is not a problem.

Conowingo – June 2016

I stopped by Conowingo Dam on my way to Philadelphia. It was not a great day for birds. The water was low and the large number of birds we saw last time (probably many newly fledged Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons) were foraging elsewhere. The picture of the point of rocks that always seems to attract at least one heron illustrates the low water (the white marks are how high the water is normally).

We saw a few eagles fishing. After I looked at one of my pictures on a larger screen, I realized there were more than I thought. Click on the image below to get a larger view of:

• 3 eagles on the abutments (a juvenile and adult on the closer one, an adult on the further one),
• 3 black vultures near the center of the picture, and
• 3 or 4 cormorants on the rocks in the lower right!

We took a few pictures and continued our road trip.

Last of the Spring Field Trips at Mt. Pleasant

It’s about time for the school year to end – even with the elongation due to snow days last winter. The last of the spring field trips scheduled for the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm happened this past week. I took a few pictures before the last few hikes. Many of the formal plantings are blooming: peonies,

Flags, and

Sweet bay.

The gingko is shading the picnic area.

On one hike there was a flock of gold finch in the meadow….and an indigo bunting.

I took pictures of the milkweed plants in the meadow a few days later; they’re getting ready to bloom.

A little further down the path -  I spotted the first monarch I’ve seen this season. Is this one that flew from Mexico or released by the school children that are raised monarchs in their classroom? Maybe it doesn’t matter – because Mt Pleasant has milkweed for the butterfly to lay its eggs and for the Monarch caterpillars to eat.

Monjoy Barn gets a little shade in the mornings but by the time I came back with my hiking group it was in full sun.

The children enjoy seeing the orchard with the still-small apples (and pears too). In the fall, the fruit will be the size they see in the grocery store.

The tulip poplar is mostly done with flowering and the seed pods are beginning to form.

The trees around the farm house are in full summer green. Time for “school’s out for the summer.”

CSA Week 2

My pickup on Wednesday afternoon at the Gorman Farm Community Supported Agriculture was very breezy…and full of green. Picked a red leaf butter lettuce to just get some color variety.

When I got home I rinsed everything and organized it into bins, bags, and trays: red leaf lettuce and half the scallions in one bin….the lettuce needs to be eaten before the other greens since it will wilt first; the older half of the scallions and romaine lettuce into the second bin; the kale and garlic scapes into the third bin; the collard cut in half and into a gallon Ziploc, and the thyme spread out on a small tray to dry. With the exception of the thyme – it will all go into the refrigerator.

I managed to eat everything we got in the week 1 share but I’m already anticipating that it will be more challenging with the second week simply because it is larger. I already am planning to make Kale chips from all the kale leaves (the stems will go into a stir fry as will the collard stems). I am going to skew toward salads immediately to use up lettuces and scallions and some of the garlic scapes. Hopefully having everything in closed bins and plastic bags will help keep the rest in good shape long enough to get it all eaten!

Brookside Gardens at the end of May

The overabundance of rain we got in April and May caused the gardens to become lush very quickly as soon at the temperatures began to warm toward the end of May. There were people enjoying being outdoors before we went into the butterfly exhibit…and after we came out.

There were still some azaleas blooming although the peak of their season was well past.

The rhododendrons were full of blooms. I took a cluster through a veil of a cluster closer to the camera.

There were other flowers as well – in small trees.

Mixed with green foliage closer to the ground,

And vines (I think this was a morning glory just beginning to unfurl for the day).

Insects were beginning to make an appearance too. This leaf hopper was using a bridge railing as a highway to the next plant.

There was a moth perched on a poppy.

Sometimes – leaves are spectacular enough to catch attention: the color of these in the shade and sun – layers or

The combination of color and shape (I think these were leaves although I wonder what the flower will be like) or

Huge leaves uncurling (this one reminded me of a scroll with the bumps being writing).

Peonies were blooming the gardens near the exit from the butterfly exhibit. The plants were full of blooms…were lots of buds left to open too.

The alliums caught my attention as I turned to go. They often remind me of the large fireworks that burst into a ball of bright light. The big difference is size and the alliums are more durable!

Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy

Brookside Gardens’ annual butterfly and caterpillar exhibit is going on now - continuing until September 25th. It’s best to go as early as possible since the conservatory where the exhibit is housed is about 10 degrees warmer than the outdoors. It if gets above 100 in the conservatory, they often close the exhibit; the butterflied like the heat but people wilt quickly in the heat and humidity.

The caterpillar part of the exhibit is an entry way before the main exhibit. A volunteer is there to explain the exhibit and point out the caterpillars on the food plants. Can you find the cecropia moth caterpillar in the image below?

If not – I’ve circled it in this thumbnail.

Right after I entered the butterfly exhibit – a blue morpho settled for a bit on one of the walls. Usually they do not sit for long with their winds open like this so I felt lucky to get the picture right away. This one looked very battered – probably near the end of a relatively short life cycle of about 115 days.

The day was warm enough for all the butterflies to be active and one of them settled on my T-shirt; I got a picture before it flew off.

But it came back and landed on the hat I’d tied to the strap of my bag.

Another butterfly liked the back of my pants.

Enjoy the slide show of my photo picks from the rest of my walk around the conservatory. I’ll be going again every time we have guests from out of town this summer!