3 Free eBooks – July 2016

So many good things available for ‘free’ in online libraries. Here are my favorites for June.

Mann, Kathleen. Design from Peasant Art. New York: Macmillan. 1939. Available from Hathi Trust here. I get lots of ideas that turn into Zentangle patterns from books like this. I’ve clipped one page that had depictions of pinks (the flower) in different folk art. This is not the only folk art books I’ve enjoyed in July. It seems that there were quite a few book published on the topic in the early half of the 1900s and many of them are beings scanned and made available when their copyright expires.

Pole-Evans, I.B. The Flowering Plants of South Africa.  Twenty plus volumes available from the Internet Archive here. This is a magazine that has been published since 1921; at first it was published annually and it is now published every other year. The older volumes were made available on the Internet Archive in late June. I’ve enjoyed the first 10 so far. The depictions of flowering plants are outstanding.

Murphy, Thomas D. On sunset highways; a book of motor rambles in California. Boston: The Page Company. 1915. Available from Hathi Trust here. I enjoyed the pictures of what California was like in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, many of the color pictures have moiré patterns which I wish the institution scanning would have noticed and re-scanned. The original must be a beautiful book.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 23, 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.

Microplastics – a cause for concern – Lots of questions…only a few answers. It seems like there have been a lot of articles on the topic recently.

Biodiversity has fallen below ‘safe’ levels – We don’t actually know what the ‘safe’ limit is…but do we want to actually find out when there is no recovery? This report is pointing out that 58% of the world’s land has lost more than 10% of its biodiversity. 10% biodiversity loss is the value that was deemed ‘safe’ limit within which ecological function is relatively unaffected.

Early preschool bedtimes cut risk of obesity later on – Another good reason for preschoolers to be regularly tucked into bed by 8 PM!

Electricity generated with water, salt and a 3-atoms-thick membrane –

Splattered Watercolor Paintings Capture the Beautiful Vibrancy of Delicate Flowers – I like just about everything botanical…eye candy too.

Jupiter and Juno – What do we already know about Jupiter’s chemistry? – An infographic from Compound Interest – background for understanding what we already know about Jupiter’s chemistry and what we hope to learn about it from Juno.

From the Earth’s Oceans (images) – From The Scientist. These images reminded me of how different live in the oceans really is than what we experience on land.

Photo of the Week (from The Prairie Ecologist) – Actually – several photos…of little things that thrive in the prairie.

How Type 2 Diabetes Affects the Brain – Two recent studies that have increased our understanding of the cognitive effects of diabetes – refining not only the description of effects but also how the structures of the brain are changed by diabetes.

Yeast emerges as hidden third partner in lichen symbiosis – Wow! This is something I’ll include in my talk with hikers about lichen. They are always fascinated that lichen grows on rocks and tree trunks….that it’s a combination of fungus and algae…and now we can add that there is usually a yeast there too that is often the part producing chemicals to defend the other two organisms in the symbiotic relationship (and sometimes it changes the appears of the lichen too)!

Photographs through a Window – July 2016

I stopped putting birdseed in our feeder in early July when one of the squirrels got coordinated enough to dump a little seed from it. It wasn’t happening consistently so the ‘squirrel proof’ was not filing totally but enough that I decided they didn’t need the extra food in the summer months. I still go quite a few birds to photograph through my office window. The parent of the juvenile house finches featured in yesterday’s post must have been the birds I saw most frequently around our deck.

This frazzled looking Carolina Wren might be a fledgling from the nest in an old gas grill.

Nuthatches always look alert when they are in their head-down stance. This one was enjoying the last seed I put in the feeder.

There is a male indigo bunting that I see periodically so it might be nesting nearby. I photographed the bird from my office window

Then went downstairs to get a different perspective through the French door in our breakfast area. The mourning dove provides a nice size contrast.

The juvenile cardinal still had some downy looking feathers on its breast and around its head

But its bill has turned the adult color over the past month.

I am keeping our bird bath full of fresh water so I expect that will be the reason birds will continue to visit our deck for the rest of the summer.

The bird on the right is making motions like a chick begging for food – but the one on the left does not look like they will be obliging!

Birds with Eyebrows/Horns

I was curious about some little birds that showed up near my window this month that seemed to have tufts of feathers that looked like eyebrows or horns. The lighting for the first picture I got was not that good – but did capture what I was seeing.

I did some research and discovered that they were juvenile house finches! They must have just recently fledged because there was usually a parent bird around when these birds with eyebrows came to our deck.

Sometimes the birds went into begging mode – probably hoping for a feeding from a parent…and sometimes they did not seem as adept at flying as the adult birds. They’ll gain flying skill and lose their eyebrows in a short time.

I’ve been thrilled to see more finches this year even before these fledged….and now there are apparently even more.

Green Heron at Kenilworth Gardens

Last weekend when we went to Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, I decided to walk out to the boardwalk rather than stay in the area around the lotus and water lily ponds --- and I found the high point of the visit in the wetlands beside the boardwalk. Not far from the boardwalk, on a partially submerged fallen tree, was a green heron fishing for breakfast.

When I first saw the bird there was another nearby that flew away…but this one stayed long enough for me to move around to get some of the twigs out of my line of sight to the bird.

I zoomed out to get more of the scene. The bird was catching tiny fish – moving so quickly that I didn’t quite capture an image of the fish before it was swallowed.

The bird moved and my line of sight was even better.

The bird is only about as big as a large robin but has much heavier legs and feet...and a longer beak.

And it even posed for a maximum zoomed portrait!

Eastern Painted Turtle at Kenilworth Gardens

On one of our visits to Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, there was a crowd around one of the ponds looking at – not lotuses or water lilies – but a turtle. I think a child had spotted it first but then everyone around looked too. It was surprising how difficult it was to see it in the pond. It was a rather small one and it was sitting in a puddle of water on a lily pad.

It seems more interested in the bees that were visiting a nearby flower than it was the people at the edge pf the pond.

I took enough pictures to identify it as a young Eastern Painted Turtle when I got home. On other visits we saw other turtles but they were in the water and not very photogenic. Maybe it was the season. We are past the time when the turtles need to sun on logs to get warm!

Charlottesville VA in 1980

I recently scanned pictures from a conference my husband went to at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville back in 1980. At the time, we didn’t even think about me accompanying him; I was working full time but we were both still in graduate school…and very conscious of living within our means. So – the one or two roles of film he took on the trip was the extent of my experience of the trip. I think my favorite image from the beginning was the oculus skylight from The Rotunda at the university. Evidently there was a tour offered to conference participant to Monticello as well.

The thing that I realized as I was looking more closely at these pictures was that we still take very similar pictures today but, because we don’t have to worry about the cost of film and its processing, we take many more images and probably try more experiments. Enjoy the slideshow of the University and Monticello in 1980!

I picture that my husband was surprised by was a picture of a Ryder truck that had gotten stuck under an overpass! It was with the pictures of Charlottesville so it was probably something he came upon as he was walking around the campus.

Deck Garden Challenges – July 2016

Through June and into July, it rained frequently enough for the pots on the deck to not need other attention. The day lilies bloomed profusely earlier in the month with almost no effort on my part. Give them a reasonably deep pot and they do great.

But then the rains stopped. Everything started to wilt and I pulled the house attached to the spigot down below up to the deck to make watering easier. Now that the temperatures are getting into the high 80s or 90s in our area of Maryland, I water every morning while the deck is still in the shade and the temperatures are still in the 70s. I empty and refill the bird bath every morning too (a way to make sure I am not breeding mosquitoes!).

The day lilies are about done for the season. I’m going to use every pot and large container I have around to transplant day lily bulbs from the flower beds where the deer at the flowers before they could bloom. There are both yellow and red day lilies that should bloom on the deck next summer if I manage to dig the right bulbs!

I’m transferring attention to plants that the birds and butterflies will like now or when they go to seed in the fall. I’ve already had gold finches checking the zinnias; the flowers have not quite got to seed yet so this bird was out of luck.

The black eyed susans will be popular for their seeds too. I planted some sunflowers but they don’t even have buds yet.

I haven’t harvested any mint yet this year and I’m not sure that I will. I love the smell of the plants when I am watering.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 16, 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.

The Chemistry of Bell Peppers – Green to Yellow to Red….the chemistry of the pepper’s color change.

Ancient Brazilians occupied the same homes for centuries – Homes that were never abandoned…just extended with new floors on top of old ones, different types of ceramics and new building techniques.

Photography in the National Parks: Don’t Forget to Pack Your Flash or Reflector for Some Fill Light – This post shows images in bright sunlight with and without flash/reflector….a good ‘lesson’ in improving photos of flowers particularly.

Discover Your World with NOAA: An Activity Book – For kids and educators. The Earth Origami activity was one I looked at. This is quite a treasure trove of activities…all available online.

How to Raise Brilliant Children, According to Science – An interview with the author of Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children. She defines 6 Cs: collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creating innovation and confidence spread across 4 levels of development (summarized as seeing is believing, multiple points of view, opinions, and evidence/mastery/intricacies of doubt).

Professor finds positive effects for bringing physical activity to the desk – A positive link between mood, motivation and physical activity without detracting from work or study effectiveness…what’s not to like. For me – the Swopper chair seems to have these effects.

The People vs Coloring Books: The verdict is in – For children…the overall message may be to ‘step away from the coloring book’ and celebrate difference rather than conformity. When I was cleaning out my daughter’s papers from 1^st grade (over 20 years ago) I found a lot of lightly used coloring book type pages; it appears that she didn’t like them very much. She recognized them for what they were – busy work.

Incidence of cancer in patients with large colorectal polyps lower than previously thought – 92% of the colorectal patients referred for operation were noncancerous! My family had this experience and it is interesting to find out that it is not uncommon. Hopefully the more advanced endoscopic techniques can replace the traditional operation in some of these cases.

7 ways to find things to do in nature near you (US Edition) – Good ideas!

Butylparaben can have several endocrine disrupting effects – This is an ingredient (preservative) in many cosmetics and skin care products. Whatever testing was done in the past on the chemical probably did not even check for this kind of issue. And now we have a pervasive chemical that is impacting our biology in a negative way.

Insects in our Garden

A few days ago was out working in our garden by 7 AM – pulling weeds and cutting spent flower stalks in our flower beds…but I got sidetracked observing insects. The first I noticed were on the skeleton of a milkweed plant. The milkweed tussock caterpillars had eaten all the leaves leaving only the stem and the larger veins of the leaves. They had started crawling over to the bush next to the stem. It seemed like there were hundreds of caterpillars.

After I finished some work, I went inside to clean up and recover from heat. I started wondering if the caterpillars would find the other milkweed plants that were about 5 feet away from the one they had consumed. I went to check at 9 and they had indeed found another plant! I continued to check periodically throughout the day. The gradually spread to 3 more plants. Sometimes they would appear very active and other times they would be resting underneath a leave that was still whole. When they ate, individuals worked on the leaf from the top and the bottom. It was a mass feeding frenzy.

The next surprise came the following morning. I went outside and found that the caterpillars had been active overnight and seemed to be larger. When I went back to check an hour later – more than half of them were not anywhere on the milkweed and I watched as more of them dropped off the plants. It was time for them to go roaming in the leaf litter!

On one of the checks of the caterpillars, I noticed some insects on a blazing start that was in bloom. They were tiny – about a quarter inch. The yellow and black insect is a syrphid or hoverfly.

There were two other insects on the plant but they stayed down in the flowers so much that it was hard to get a good identification.

Maybe some kind of bee?

The two types of insects did interact a little…did not seem to like the other being nearby.

I was very pleased with the performance of my camera (Canon PowerShot SX710HS) and the monopod’s contribution to stabilizing the camera to get clear images.

CSA Week 7

I used up a lot of the week 6 squash by making 2 batches of zucchini bread – one as little cakes which I have been enjoying for breakfast.

I also used the week 5 bunch of carrots to make a carrot cake. I didn’t make icing for the cake – so it will work for breakfast as well. Needless to say, with only my husband and I around more than half the baked goods are now in the freezer! Otherwise I did well eating up the veggies from week 6 – only some carrots and cucumbers were left when I went to pick up the next share.

The medium share at our CSA this week was ‘heavy’ both in terms of size (two bags again) and weight (included 6 pounds of squash and 3 pound of cucumbers). Starting up at the upper left corner and working around the picture below clockwise: cucumbers, onions, carrots, summer squash, chard, basil, lettuce, and kohlrabi. The hotter days will reduce the greens in a few weeks but now we have plenty for salad stuff: lettuce, carrot tops, basil, and chard.

I’ve already decided to shred the squash and freeze it in 2 cup portions. 6 pounds is a lot of squash! It will take up less space to freeze in that form than baking it already into zucchini bread to freeze. I might do something similar with the carrots although I haven’t gotten tired of carrot raisin salad yet.

Sunset…and then Fireworks

The fireworks nearest to where we live were on July 9^th rather than the 4^th. We headed out to the parking lot where my husband works since we knew it would not be crowded…and we’d viewed the fireworks from there in 2014. Unlike 2014 – we left the house early enough to get a parking place that was next to the curb so that we could get our lawn chairs out and unfolded onto the sidewalk by our car. I was using my usual Canon Powershot SX710HS. I put it on my monopod/walking stick and continued to sit comfortably during the whole event. It was a very relaxed photo shoot and I enjoyed the fireworks too because I could look over the top of my camera while they were happening.

The sunset was colorful. I took a few pictures about 10 minutes apart while families with children played on the grassy area that will become the location of a new building by next year.

The fireworks stared about 9:15 – just as it got dark enough. The images I’m including in this post were selected for a variety of reasons: streak of exuberant color,

Burst within burst,

Simplicity,

Red orbs,

Lots of complex structure….it seemed like there were more sequences like this that previous years,

Another complex sequence…and a smaller one below the main starburst,

Wow – I wondered how the fireworks were made that delivered this,

And this one too.

My husband has a more expensive camera and I picked some from his collections as well. I like the colors and the crisper images he was able to capture.

Going to fireworks that are close to home meant that we were home by 10!

Lotuses at Kenilworth Gardens

The lotuses at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens are in bloom in June and July each year. We’ve visited three times so far this year…and the lotuses were the most numerous and largest flowers of the place. They grow in shallow ponds and range in color from white to darker pink. The leaves are lived out of the water on stalks; the leaves are large and round with veins that radiate from the center.

The stalks that end in buds, flowers, or seed pods rise above the leave layer. The ponds contain many stages of lotus development during this season. Eventually – only the pods will remain.

I’ve organized some pictures to show the development toward seed pods….starting with buds and newly opened flowers. Dragon flies often alight on the tips of the buds – a good perch for them because of the small diameter and relative stability of the stalk in the breeze compared to the stalks with full flowers.

Then the flower is fully open and insects are frequent visitors. As long as the central portion is yellow – the flower has not yet been pollinated.

The flowers follow the sun. These are my favorite images of the flowers…when they glow with the sunlight through their petals.

Eventually the flower has been pollinated and the center part turns green and the rest of the flower begins to fall apart. This flower grew up into the lowest branches of a bald cypress.

The petals fall off and the seed pod is all that remains. The pods start to mature. They dry out as the seeds mature but none of them are at that stage yet this year. The petals last a little longer if they fall onto leaves rather than into the water but they decay very rapidly even on the leaves.

Most of the time the leaves are above the water forming shallow bowls that undulate in the breeze but there are exceptions. If they are on the water surface – they often have large beads of water that last much longer than dew on a summer day. They reminded me of glass pebbles used with flower arrangements or a form of abstract art.

The Grand Canyon in 1971 and 1983

I posted about our visit to Grand Canyon National Park back in January 2015. My scanning project has digitized the pictures I have from 2 earlier visits! The first was in March of 1971. The two pictures below were probably taken through a bus window.

We hiked down a little way down the Bright Angel Trail. The wind was cold and a light snow started to fall. You can see some of the accumulation in the rocks.

But the sun came out soon. I remember getting sand in my contact lenses (this was before the soft contact lenses were invented…so it hurt a lot) and being very teary eyed on the hike up because I was afraid the lenses would blow away if I tried to take them out.

Back at the rim – it’s easy to see that the clouds with the snow are moving away…and the dust on the color slide that I didn’t get off before I scanned it.

Skipped forward to late May of 1983 – we got up at dawn and caught the sunrise on the rocks.

We started early for a hike down to the plateau.

We could see the river soon enough.

See how brown the river looks? I looked up when the Glen Canyon Dam came online because I knew that when it did the sediment in the river was dramatically reduced...but discovered that it was completed in the 1960s. The Wikipedia entry did mention that in the spring and early summer of 1983 the water level in the dam was very high (and climbing) because of the runoff from the heavier than usual snow that fell the previous winter. The dam almost failed and a lot of water was being released…along with sediment...during the time we visited the Grand Canyon!

It appears that there were people on rafts in the river in 1983!

The path down is a lot of switch backs then a downward slope of the plateau.

We were walking but there were people on mules on the same trail - all the way down.

Looking up to the sky…..from inside the canyon...good memories.

Buttonbush – Pickerel Weed – Horse Nettle

There are other plants at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens besides water lilies and lotuses. Three that I noticed – and was pleased that I recognized – were buttonbush, pickerel weed, and horse nettle. The button bush grows at the edges of many of the ponds – often under a larger tree so that the bush is at least partially in the shade.

The flowers form round balls on the plant. They are green toward the center then white.

And the bees love them at certain stages of their bloom.

The pickerel week grows at the edge of ponds – in wetter ground that the button bush – and it likes full sun.

The arrow shaped leaves point upward.

The flowers start blooming at the bottom and move up to the tip of the stem….keeping the bees happy for the duration.

I spotted horse nettle near the ponds as well. This is a weed that is native…and very common to our area. It grows in our front flower bed (where I promptly pull it up) and in the meadow at the Howard County Conservancy. During the fall hikes the children always comment about this plant’s yellow fruits that look like tomatoes….and I tell them right away that they may look like tomatoes but they are definitely not tomatoes; the fruits are poisonous.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 9, 2016

The machines that run the internet – A short film.

A Murder of Crows: When Roosting Crows Come to Town – We don’t have large number of crows in our area – but we are seeing more than we were a few years ago when West Nile Virus killed so many of them.

Picky Eaters: Bumble Bees prefer plans with nutrient-rich pollen – The protein to lipid ratio makes a difference to bumble bees!

Ocean Acidification and Chemical Signaling – How ocean acidification impacts chemical signally of shell fish…an infographic about research on peptides that are involved in detecting predators, homing, and reproduction.

How one of history’s bloodiest wars eventually saved lives – By the end of World War I, combatant deaths has reached 10 million. Twice as many were injured. Post-traumatic stress disorder was recognized for the first time – called ‘shell shock.’ Blood transfusion, oxygen and treatment on the front lines became the norm. See some of the devices developed and used during that time period in this post or at the Wooded exhibition at London’s Science Museum.

Floating Solar: A Win-Win for Drought Stricken Lakes in the US – Will this idea become reality? It seems that in places where water is scarce that reducing evaporation and producing power at the same time would be a positive thing.

Humans artificially drive evolution of new species – Human drive extinction but also speed up evolution of new species as well. For example – a common house mosquito has evolved into a new species that thrives in subterranean environments – like subway stations; it can no longer interbreed with its above ground ancestor species.

Beyond Sightseeing: You’ll Love the Sound of America’s Best Parks – A project to record the (non-human) sounds of national parks.

Boosting potency of broccoli-related compound for age-related macular degeneration – Macular degeneration impacted the last few years of my grandmother’s life and I still notice articles about current research on prevention and/or remediation…. macular degeneration might happen to many of us as we get older.

Vanishing Act: Why Insects are declining and why it matters – Another example of the importance of biodiversity to our future…and the future of the planet.

Kenilworth Water Lilies

The two dominate plants at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens during June and July are the water lilies and the lotuses. The sign for the visitor center has a water lily design. The flowers rest at almost the same level as the leaves very near the water surface while the lotuses are above the water – the leaves being a layer that flutters below the flowers that are higher still. I like photographing water lilies – particularly ones that have a lot of color and the background is dark enough to set off the color.

I always wonder what causes the plants to grow only in part of a pond. Perhaps it has to do with water depth.

During our visit in late June there were quite a few geese in one of the ponds that was filled completely with water lilies. They moved through the heavy foliage. They just swim through the foliage and the plants close behind the big birds. I zoomed in (series below) to get a closer look at the geese and noticed that some were juveniles – just beginning to get their adult markings.

As usual – I looked particularly to find flowers that be being visited by bees. Do you think these two bees are the same kind of bee? The lighting makes it hard to tell.

CSA Week 6

I am not getting further behind as far as clearing out the crispers – but I’m not catching up either. This week I still had carrots, a full head of cabbage, some broccoli, and a few beet leaves left from the week 5 medium share….and it was another 2 bag share for week 6.

Starting in the upper left corner: collard greens (one of my favors for rolling up and cutting in small pieces for slaw), fennel (new this week…and I haven’t decided what to do with it yet), onions (not cured so have to be used relatively quickly – they had been out on a trailer beside the barn and were warm from the sun….very alive), beets (the beets will become fruit beety that will go into the freezer and I’ll eat the leaves in salads, the stems in stir fry), hiding behind the beet is a small bunch of arugula ( from the overage table since adds flavor to any salad), cabbage, 3 pounds of summer squash (all the zucchini is going for zucchini bread – some of which will be frozen), 3 pounds of cucumbers (I tried to get small ones and will put one in every salad until they are going), lettuce (this will have to be eaten before the beet and collard greens) as well the carrot tops (I have so many carrots…some of them will have to go toward carrot cake).

Whew! That’s a lot of veggies.

Dragonflies at Kenilworth Gardens

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in June and July is my favorite place to practice photographing dragonflies. We’ve been twice so far this year and seen at least three different kinds. There are the ones that are powder blue with green eyes – their wings almost clear.

There are darker ones – that look almost black….and their eyes are glossy black.

Last but not least, are the ones with black and white markings on their wings. There were not as many specimens of this particular kind so I only got two pictures.

All of the swoop among the lotus flowers and buds – alighting long enough for photographers. I captured all the above pictures with my Canon PowerShot SX710 HS…. attached to a monopod. I wanted to capture some of them dragging their abdomens in the water laying eggs…but didn’t see any so far. There were some that were defending territory; there was some noisy mid-air collisions!

Spent Lotus Flowers

We are making weekly jaunts to Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens since the later part of June. The lotuses and water lilies are in bloom during this time. It’s a good place for photography projects. One of my experiments the last time we went was to capture recently jettisoned flower parts on the big round leaves. I liked the colors – white, yellow, green…and occasional tinge of pink – and the curves. The first on I photographed still had water droplets left from the rain during the night.

The petals don’t last long once they fall. This one was a little past its prime but I liked the curves at the attachment end of the petals and the undulation of the leaf.

Sometimes they curve back onto themselves. The edges furthest from the attachment end of these petals have a tinge of pink…and the veins of the leaf under them seem to be radiating from the petal-as-sculpture.

Sometimes other parts of the flower spill onto the leaves while the larger petals slide down into the water below.

This leave held almost an entire flower with the petals turned in different ways. The pink edge shows on one of them. The veins of the leaf underneath don’t look as straight as when seen from the top.

I wondered how the flower parts came to be arranged. These seem neatly stacked!

I have a series of posts planned with images from the aquatic gardens...so stay tuned for lotuses, dragon flies, water lilies, and other things observed at this special place.