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.”

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 11, 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.

New Climate Spiral – A visualizing of average global temperatures. Do this little exercise with the graphic – if you live to be 100, how much hotter will the planet be than when you were born? For me – it is about 2 degrees…almost 3 degrees hotter than in 1850.

Climate change poses threat to World Heritage sites - Melting glaciers, rising seas, increasing wildfires and harsher droughts….these could diminish the value of protected sites and even make them unsuitable for World Heritage designation. That would have a domino effect into local economic development, in particular the tourism sector.

Bionic leaf turns sunlight into liquid fuel – And at a higher efficiency than the fastest-growing plants!

Washington grapples with a thorny question: What is a GMO anyway?  and Report: Still lots to learn about GE Crops – The terms GMO and GE are inadequate to describe the complexity of what is happening now. Both of the articles are about a recently released report on the situation.

What’s up with microbeads – Plastic microbeads cause long term health effects in our waterways (streams, rivers, lakes, oceans). There are US regulations that are being phased in over the next few years to require that manufactures no longer make products with microbeads but prior to that individual can stop purchasing the products. I’m going to check packaging to avoid products with microbeads; the key ‘ingredients’ to avoid are polyethylene, acrylate copolymer, and polypropylene.

Top 25 informative maps that teach us something uniquely different about the world – Displaying data by location makes for easy comparison. If you did not already know about the US and paid maternity leave – the map makes if very clear – not something to be proud of.

Teenage brain on social media – It’s always been true that teenagers are better at doing than not doing (i.e. inhibition develops more slowly than other forms of cognition). This study was about how that translates into the social media realm.

Antibiotics from scratch – Drug resistant bacteria are becoming more and more problematic. This research is a ‘bright spot’ in developing antibiotics to stay ahead. No one wants to go back to the time before antibiotics.

Arctic Foxes ‘grow’ their own gardens – From Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Image of the day: don’t eat me – Usually moths are rather drab – not this tiger moth!

6th Graders at Storm Water Engineering

Last week I volunteered during a 6^th grade field trip to Belmont Manor and Historic Park. It was the last of the Middle School spring field trips there. The field trips activity were a mixture of history, technology, and science. My station for one of the day was about storm water engineering. The majority of the students realized that Belmont is on a hill and that the rain water would run downhill to the Patapsco River into Baltimore Harbor then to the Chesapeake Bay and then the Atlantic Ocean. Each team of 4-5 students was given a paint tray with a mound of earth at the high end of the tray as a model for what happens to storm water. They could add sticks, stones, and dry grass in any way they wanted to slow the flow of the water when it ‘rained’ (via a watering jug) on the soil. After 10 minutes of engineering by all the teams, the teams did a short description to the whole group and then the ‘rain’ came as everyone watched.

A surprising number of teams did not think to cover the soil at the top of the tray. It ‘eroded’ when the rain came down and often resulted in fast water runoff and the water was muddy too.

Some of the teams did cover the soil and used rocks and sticks to hold grass in place both over the soil and rocks; the grass turned out to be very absorbent. The water took a long time to get through to the bottom of the paint tray….and was generally clear.

As I watched the teams decide what they were going to do, implement their design, present their design, and then test it, I was intrigued by the ‘light bulb’ moments of learning that were visibly occurring all along the process.

As I walked back to my car after the last field trip – I took a picture of the bald cypress down near the pond – the tall grasses waving in the misty day…. feeling happy to have been a part of the field trips for middle schoolers at Belmont.

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!

Camping 35+ Years Ago

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, most of the vacations we took involved camping. It was a way to travel inexpensively and we enjoyed National Parks and Forests. One of the first places we camped was at Mesa Verde National Park – driving from where we lived near Dallas all the way across the panhandle of Texas and Colorado to get there. We borrowed a relatively large tent and purchased a Coleman stove and lantern…some ice chests. My husband took one campsite documenting picture on that trip. I was only in it for scale! Surprisingly – we still have and use the green ice chest seen in the picture.

We bought a smaller tent that took a lot less space for subsequent trips. There was an annual fall foliage trip to southeastern Oklahoma (Ouachita National Forest). On one such trip there were 3 couples. Our new 2-person tent is the one in the middle.

We made trip to Colorado the next summer with the smaller tent. The space we saved by having a smaller tent was taken up with the addition of a lawn chair. We still had the Coleman stove but often cooked our meal over a camp fire in a ring of stones. By that time, we had our own grill to put over the fire that we also packed with our camping gear.

The chipmunks were interested in everything going on in the campsite. We were glad we had not left the bag of M&Ms open! This picture also reminds me that we were still using borrowed sleeping backs (the red, yellow and brown colors behind the rodent).

The spring before we moved to the Washington DC area, we made a trip to the Grand Canyon with friends. We camped the night before we hiked down to the plateau. I vividly remember my legs being very sore before we even got back to the top and realizing that my hiking boots were not as broken in as I thought they were (raw ankles). Standing in the camp shower (coin operated) felt so good and I used up all the change I’d taken with me! We were all feeling even more sore the next day – no additional long hikes for that vacation. The blue ice chest in the picture is still something we have and use; our choices of ice chests have proved to be very durable. The blue car with the trunk open is a 1983 Honda Accord that we had just purchased; we owned it until the early 1990s.

Between that time period and now we have not done much camping. We’ve recently bought a new large tent and two air mattresses. The motivation is not so much to save money but to be able to stay at Dark Sky sites for Star Parties. The camping equipment can only take about half the cargo space because a telescope has to come too!

Thrift Store Finds

Every time my daughter comes to visit – we check out the 2^nd Ave. thrift stores in Columbia and Laurel. She went back to Tucson with skirts and dresses, and a pair for jeans…13 pieces in all. Her closet has been refreshed for the summer!

My closet is already in reasonable shape but I couldn’t resist the bargains either. I got two pair of casual shoes for summer – a little more substantial than flip flops. Both have leather uppers.

I bought two skirts as well. One is a gray knit – a ‘go with any top’ classic – and the other is more artisan with bright blue highlights and a handkerchief hem. That second one is a good example of something I probably would not have bought at full price but will enjoy tremendously this summer and celebrate its bargain price of $8. It is the type of find I enjoy most in a thrift store.

I always feel good when I can find things I will wear in a thrift store. It is a good form of reuse. The clothes are ‘new to me’ and I enjoy finding the bargain…increasing the range of clothes I have in my closet. Sometimes I like what I buy so much that I wear it out in a few years – other pieces I only wear for a season. Either way – I donate clothing I am not going to wear again and the reuse/recycle continues.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 4, 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.

Exposure to chemicals in plastic and fungicides may irreversibly weaken children’s teeth – Another reason to pay close attention to Bisphenol A (BPA) and Vinclozolin in diets of children. Based on this study – this is not something that fluoride treatments or supplements would overcome.

Identifying Wildflowers: part one, part two, part three, part four – From Elizabeth’s Wildflower Blog. This series include a lot of practical advice for identifying wildflowers in the field (and confirming after you get home). I’ve been following Elizabeth’s blog since I was in Master Naturalist class with her --- learning about wildflowers.

Language of Women versus men – An analysis of language in Facebook messages shows that women use language that is warmer and more agreeable than men. The graphic associated with the study is worth a look.

Mysterious Cave Rings show Neanderthals liked to build – And more than 1,000 feet into the cave where it would have been very dark.

Kazakhstan’s treasure trove of wildly-flavored apples – Forests where apple trees are the predominant species!

Tidal Troubles in the Mid-Atlantic – A place where the sea level is rising at a much faster rate than almost anywhere in the US (except parts of Louisiana and South Florida)…and an explanation that goes back to the last ice age which left the area with a ‘fore-bulge’ – so the land is sinking from that then the ocean is rising too! The net is a predicted sea level rise of 3 feet around much of the Mid-Atlantic by 2100.

Three perfectly blue days at Crater Lake National Park – I haven’t been to this national park – yet. This is an article to look at again when I finally get around to planning the trip.

Swarms of Octopus are taking over the oceans – Cephalopods as ‘weeds of the sea’!

The Cactus Smuggler: Are Desert Plants Being Loved to Extinction? – Not a good trend and very difficult to change.

Low-salt diets may not be beneficial after all – Evidently the prior recommendation for low-salt diets was not based on data – the old recommendation was ‘popular thought’ rather than based on objective evidence! High-salt is still bad….but average (between 3 and 4 grams per day) is best!

Zentangle® - May 2016

I’ve selected 31 Zentangles to include in this post since there are 31 days of May. Five that I chose were made on the back of old business cards – so did not display well with the square slide show of tiles. I liked them too much to pick others so I’m displaying them first. Some are plant like…

Others start out as webs….

Or loops.

I was inspired by art nouveau books I found on Internet Archive and Hathi Trust as well.

Those same themes show up in the tiles as well. The tiles also are some new colors this month. I was cleaning out boxes of brochures and old folders; instead of putting everything into recycling, I used some of the heavier paper to cut tiles: red, yellow, and rust. I also found some dusty poster board that had probably been on the shelf for 10 years that I cut up into 3.5 x 3.5 inch tiles!

Enjoy the May slideshow!

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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 1

Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) started this week right on schedule; the last few weeks have finally gotten warm enough and dry enough for the veggies to grow very quickly since a week or so ago it appeared that the start of the CSA would be a week or two late. This first week included lots of green: kale, garlic scapes, chives, pac choi, mizuna, and lettuce (I got the red leafed variety just to break the green monopoly). The strawberries also added a nice color contrast. I like everything in the share this week – but the garlic scapes are probably the most ‘special’ because they are not generally available in grocery stores and they are only available for a few weeks; I’m already thinking about how I want to use all 8 of them in the next week!

I used a bin left from some greens bought at the grocery store (and already eaten) to store the veggies I washed right ways: chives, lettuce, and mizuna. The other veggies went into the crisper in the same form I picked them up from the bin at the CSA.

Then I enjoyed a serving of strawberries with coconut milk – my summer afternoon snack.

Learning Log – May 2016

Most of the learning I logged in May was experiential or in conversations with other people. I went to a lecture on wildflowers – the closest I came to a class. The speaker included a segment on buzz pollination, reinforcing what I already knew about it from my son-in-law about the topic. He also pointed out that the jack-in-the-pulpit flowers look the same from the outside but the male and female flowers are quite different inside – but one has to cut away the outer part of the flower to see the structures. Not something I would do!

One area of experiential learning in May was picking strawberries. Years ago when I picked strawberries, I did so on my knees so I was pleasantly surprised that the mounds of my CSA’s strawberry patch made it easier to just bend over to gather the fruit. I’m still enjoying the strawberries I picked.

The other big experience of the month was using the scanner – primarily for old slides, pictures and Zentangle tiles. I learned to use a can of compressed air to clean the dust off periodically and how to scan multiple items at a time (into separate images). I also raised the scanner on a stand so that I didn’t have to bend over slightly each time I loaded it.

There were a lot of factoids I picked up in conversations with other naturalists before field trip hikes:

• Carolina wrens build multiple nests and then the female chooses one (from a birder),
• Earthworms come to the surface during rains not because they are drowning but because they are migrating (from another naturalist that had been reading about it),
• How the ‘points’ of antlers are counted (from a chaperone of a hiking group),
• Inexpensive wire mesh kitchen strainers work great to capture macro-invertebrates in rivers and streams (from a leader of a field trip to the Patapsco River).

Zooming – May 2016

The zoomed images are more familiar things list month. See how many of them you recognize (click on the image to see an enlarged version of the collage).

Grackle and chives bud

Horse chestnut and paulownia (princess tree) flowers

Sweet bay bud, chives (further along their bloom cycle than the first image), tulip poplar flowers

Toad, lacewing, grass with heavy dew

Mourning doves, strawberries, iris flower

Arecibo in 1978

I saw a story about a large radio telescope being built in China recently and it reminded me of the one in Puerto Rico – Arecibo. My husband was there in September 1978 – just a few months after he went to Wallops and Chincoteague. It was all part of his first years as a graduate student. The trip he made to Arecibo was the longest travel-for-work either of us ever did and we were a little discombobulated by it; looking back I wonder why I didn’t take the opportunity to take some vacation and see Puerto Rico; I suppose that we were so unsure of our financial situation that we didn’t even think about it. He brought back a lot of photographs of the place. Look closely at this first picture and note the people on the structure (upper left) and in a small enclosure evidently hoisted to allow work on the structure (center).

There are some pictures of 1978 vintage computers.

Then the view looking down to the dish at an angle

And to the very center.

Underneath the vegetation is kept at bay.

At that time – I had never seen variegated croton. My husband brought back pictures and some dried leaves as a souvenir.

Mourning Doves in May

I noticed a mourning dove with a sheen on his neck feathers and immediately wondered if maybe there would be dove pair mating on our deck railing like we’ve had for at least twice this spring already.

He fluffed his feathers and strutted. He lifted and spread his tail feathers as he preened while a female looked on. At first the female seemed interested. She approached but then sat down on the railing. The male continued to show off his plumage. He tried grooming the female but she continued to sit although she did groom him a little – not very enthusiastically. Then she moved away. The male seemed surprised and looked around to determine where she went but she had already flown much further away.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 28, 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.

Hawai’I at the Energy Crossroads – A case study about the issues with how we produce electricity – now and into the future.

“Top tips for men juggling a successful career and fatherhood” hilariously nails how sexist the advice given to working women is – For anyone that doubts that gender bias is still quiet prevalent in the workplace.

Ancient tsunami evidence on Mars reveals life potential – Evidence of cold, salty oceans on Mars (the image of Mars was produced using Google Earth!)

Restoring an Ancient Nursery for Atlantic Sturgeon – These fish can reach 14 feet in length and weigh 800s pounds – a species that has been around since the dinosaurs. In the 1890s, caviar from Delaware River sturgeon was a thriving enterprise. Within a decade, the population of sturgeon fell to 1% of its historic numbers. Even with a moratorium on sturgeon fishing in the 1990s, the fish were not recovering due to ship strikes, channel dredging, and poor water quality. Now – with focus on dissolved oxygen, salinity, and flow conditions….and understanding the extent of spawning and nursery habitat in the freshwater portion of the river…slow recovery is beginning.

Antibiotics that kill gut bacteria also stop growth of new brain cells – Another reason antibiotics should not be overprescribed….and that we look for ways to resolve an infection that does not kill gut bacteria.

Wildlife is where you find it – A reminder that the natural world often survives even in a very man-made environment…and to be observant enough to notice it.

Bright light alters metabolism – Blue-enriched light in the evening seems to be problematic….will electronic devices of the future modify the type of light they emit based on time of day to help us stay healthy?

State of North America’s Birds Report Released to Commemorate Centennial of the First Migratory Bird Treaty – Birds connect our continent and some progress has been made. There is still a lot to be done. Individual actions like choosing sustainably created products, preventing bird collisions with windows of our houses and office buildings, and participating in bird related Citizen Science project (like eBird) make a difference.

10 Overlooked Wildlife Experiences in our National Parks – Sometimes small creatures that make their homes in National Parks are just as memorable as the scenery.

Toothpaste Tips and Myths – Toothpaste comes in lots of different formulations. Educate yourself about the good – and not so good – aspects of some of the benefit claims.

Strawberries

It has been a wet, cool spring here in Maryland and the Gorman Farms Community Support Agriculture is going to get a late start…sliding from June 1^st into the 2^nd or 3^rd week of June depending on what happens in the next week or so. But ---- the strawberry season is going strong. CSA medium share members get a pint of strawberries free each day the farm is open for picking!

I’ve been twice so far. The picking is easy from the mounds although that means the path between the plants is lower and very muddy right after a rain….which was definitely the case the first time I went. The good news was that there were plenty of berries to pick and more left to ripen.

On both days I ate half the pint right after I got home! And then the rest the next day.

Aside from just eating strawberries just as they are – I love them in salads. My favorite salad so far has been arugula, quinoa, almond slivers, and strawberries….with an orange marmalade dressing (a little oil combined with orange marmalade). This is salad as dessert (but actually eaten as lunch)!

Next time I go – I plan to pick a bucket of strawberries and pay for the amount over the pint. As a CSA member we get a discount. I’m going to load up the freezer with strawberries to start of the summer.

Patapsco Valley State Park – Volunteering

Earlier this week I spent the day with 1^st graders in Patapsco Valley State Park. They were releasing fish they had raised at their school into the river. There was a ‘field day’ planned around the release and the activity I helped with was looking for macroinvertebrates in the river.

There was a nice pebble beach and gentle slope a little way into river although the current further out was swift due to all the recent rain. The water had run off enough that some pools had separated from the main channel. Our gear was simple: seine nets, strainers, ice cube trays, plastic tubs and jars, magnifiers, and pictures of macroinvertebrates we were likely to find.

The view in the other direction shows the sticks we put into the river to mark the area the 1^st graders were allowed.

The day started out cool but warmed up enough that no one complained about being in the water.

Across the river, some geese with goslings decided to go further upstream before entering river rather than encountering the students.

We did find hellgrammites which are an indicator that the river is clean enough to support ‘sensitive’ macroinvertebrates – a good sign for the fish being released as well.