Snow Day

Sunrise

I kept checking to see if had started snowing even before it was daylight….and noticed the sunrise. It was a good way to start the day even without snow falling.

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I enjoyed the pumpkin roll I had gotten at the grocery store when I went to buy half and half for the (potential) snow ice cream for my breakfast. It still wasn’t snowing.

Snowing

And then it started. The temperature was 30 or 31….so it didn’t stick immediately to the street and sidewalk, but our deck is raised….and started accumulating snow. Soon there was a dusting. The juncos still found the seeds I’d spilled on the deck…scratching the snow away. The small openings in the mat on the front porch started to fill. Even leave litter turns beautiful with a dusting of snow.

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The leaves on the azalea by the front porch caught snow…the occasional red leaf stands out. I went out on the deck to photograph the stairs down to the yard; the dark mound on the landing mid-way down must be racoon poop after one of their visits to our bird feeder.

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Snowflakes

All the equipment to try snowflake photography was outside to get cold: the glass plate in a bowl, the magnifiers, the wireless clicker to cause my phone to take the picture. The snow was coming down fast enough that it was a challenge to not get too much on the plate. The snowflakes were often already clumped into larger structures on the way down (there were ‘flakes’ falling that were quite large…gauzy looking). So – not a great day for photographing snowflakes. I did get to experiment with the clip on 65x magnifier with its own light and the 25x jeweler’s loupe. Both are used resting on the plate with the phone positioned above them; it makes it easier to hold everything steady for the photos. Hopefully, we’ll have another snow – an opportunity to try again.

Snow Ice Cream

We got enough snow to make snow ice cream (a little over 3 inches)! I skimmed off the top inch just as the sleet started (later it rained), filling a large bowl. I had already measured out a cup of half-and-half, ½ teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of pepper candy chips. The snow was still so icy after I used the mixer to blend everything that I added another cup of half and half and even then it didn’t taste as creamy as I thought it would….but it looked pretty with the bit of color from the candy and we ate it anyway.

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After 2 bowls of snow ice cream, I was so cold I sat in front of the fire in the fireplace – getting warm on one side at least. It was a good end to our snow day.

Anticipating Snow

We are excited to have snow in the forecast for Wednesday.

Visions of snow ice cream!

I previously bought peppermint candy chips to be ready for the winter…sugar and vanilla we always have on hand. So – the ingredient we are missing is half-and-half.

Since last winter we didn’t ever have enough snow to make snow ice cream, my husband and I have decided that I should do a grocery shopping at 1.5 weeks rather than 3 weeks since the last time….for the half and half and other things we’ll need to see us through the holidays (in our case it’s not just Christmas…there is an anniversary and birthday too…all from home this year, connections via Zoom).

Here’s the strategy for making snow ice cream:

Wait until enough snow falls that most of the pollution is out of the air (i.e. 1-2 inches have fallen).

Once there is enough snow – set out all the ingredients (peppermint candy chips, vanilla, half and half, sugar is optional since usually the chips provide enough sweetness, food coloring is optional but helps to know when everything is thoroughly mixed) and the big bowl + electric hand mixer + spatula + serving bowls.

Collect snow with a egg turner or anything with a large flat are to skim the top snow layers and transfer the snow into a large pan. Remember the snow compacts as it makes the snow ice cream. The fluffier the snow is – the more snow the ice cream will require.

Inside quickly put the snow into the big bowl…almost filling it. Add the other ingredients on top. The amounts are somewhat variable since snow has a range of consistencies – I usually start with 0.5 – 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup half and half, and .75 cup of peppermint candy chips. Then mix. Add more half and half if the consistency is crumbly rather than creamy.

Serve and enjoy.

Snowflake Photography!

Another activity to prepare for…probably something to do before enough snow has accumulated to make snow ice cream…photograph snowflakes. I’ve tried it several times in the past. March 2014 was a big year.

I still have glass plates that will work well to catch the snowflakes…provide good background color. They’ll be out on the deck the night before the snow starts to be cold and ready for collection.

I’m going to try my phone with the lighted magnifier first. It’s only 5x so might not be quite enough for snowflake pictures.

I have loupe with a light somewhere that I need to locate. For both I will attach the magnification to the phone with a rubber band.

I’m still thinking about how to get the plate and phone into focusing range (i.e. close) without being handheld (too much heat generated with my hands). I’ll use voice or an external clicker to signal the phone to take the picture. So – I have a deadline of Wednesday to jerry-rig a set up.

Or - I might end up reverting to the loupes that sit on top of the plate and laying the phone on the loupe – the other end on a box to make it horizontal. The trick it to not add too much heat that will cause the snowflakes to melt too quickly!

I am soooo looking forward to a snow day!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 29, 2020

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. 

Hummingbirds' rainbow colors come from pancake-shaped structures in their feathers -- ScienceDaily – Hopefully they’ll produce some illustrations for these findings; this article and the materials it came from are just text.

New Discoveries in Human Anatomy | The Scientist Magazine® - It’s surprising the things we are just now discovering about our anatomy. Back in the 1970s when I was getting an undergraduate degree in biology, I remember being disappointed that there was so much obviously missing….and then realizing there were also unknown unknowns (thing we didn’t even know we didn’t know)! In the intervening years more has been researched, but we still have lots to explore.

Processed foods highly correlated with obesity epidemic in the US -- ScienceDaily  - I have kept a food log for the past few years and now am paying more attention to reducing the processed and ultra-processed foods that I buy and eat. Most of us probably intuitively know that the store-bought cookies, chips, snacks, etc. are not what we should be eating. And they aren’t even more convenient than foods like carrots or apple or grapes. I’m skewing my purchases at the grocery store to the produce aisle!

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Doves and Pigeons - Wild Bird Revolution and Nectarivorous Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Two groups of bird photos this week…catching up on the backlog.

Image of the Day: Flock in the Night | The Scientist Magazine® - A huge flock of birds picked up by radar going from Cuba…over the Florida straits…on to mainland Florida.

The chemistry of snow and ice – We haven’t seen much snow and ice in Maryland this winter...but it’s a good time to bring up this topic.

Children to bear the burden of negative health effects from climate change -- ScienceDaily – We need to use these types of articles to motivate us to action rather than indifference/depression.

FS1205: Tree-Dwelling Lichens (Rutgers NJAES) – A short description of lichen. Did you know there are at least 13,000 species of lichen?

The 2020 Community Power Scorecard | CleanTechnica – A map of the US and the scorecard with some details – state by state. There is progress being made in the transition to renewable energy!

New, more appealing varieties of kale in the works - UPI.com – I like kale. I buy it in a bunch to avoid plastic bags or containers…use it in smoothies or stir fries or soups (the whole leaf and stem) and as chips. I rarely use it in salads (particularly during the winter when I tend to want something hot rather cold for meals). Chopping it up in the food processor (like in smoothies or before adding it to soups) makes the toughness of the stem and leaves a non-issue. Still – I would try the new varieties. I wonder how long it will be before some of them show up in my CSA share.

Zooming – January 2020

The beginning of the new year….sunrises, birds, snow. It was a busier-than-usual January – but not for photography. I still had plenty of zoomed pictures to choose from. Most of them were taken at home but there are a few from Conowingo (the eagles and crane) and one from Belmont (the sparrow). It was a good start to the year.

Enjoy the slide show for January 2020!

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2020

2020 has started out with more activity than I anticipated….more volunteering, more classes, more events…and some travel at the end of the month.

Bluebird passing through: We don’t see bluebirds around that much….so it’s a special day when we do see one.

47th wedding anniversary: It doesn’t seem like such a long time…compared to my parents celebrating 67 years. I’m going to think of something special for our 50th coming up in 3 years!

Children enjoying the Touch Tank: There are moments in every hour that I spend volunteering at Robinson Nature Center’s saltwater touch tank that are little celebrations for me and for the children. Whether it is awe from something an animal does…or how they feel…or just understanding something new.

Conowingo Eagles: Even on a morning I don’t get any particularly good pictures – I enjoy every trip we make to the Conowingo…and that the eagle population is back from the brink!

Hot tea with cream: Or maybe with just milk. It’s my favorite winter beverage.

Middle Patuxent Water Monitoring: I always enjoy getting in the river and then doing the gleaning of the macroinvertebrates to identify. Since it was winter, I was braced to get very cold…but we had a wonderful sunny (not too cold) day!

Honing skills for volunteer gig: None of the classes were very long but were informative and applicable to me becoming a better volunteer. The topics ranged from autism, Howard Country Green Infrastructure Network, sensitivity training (impact of microaggression), outdoor wear fashion and function, and the spotted lantern fly. Wow – quiet a range of topics and all the presentations were excellent.

Snow in the afternoon: So beautiful. I celebrate every snow these days because I don’t have to drive in it!

Zentangle® with Howard County Conservancy volunteers: I love guiding group Zentangle sessions. This particular group seemed to enjoy the session…and had some ideas about ‘next steps’ in a practice. And like the campers last summer…got a little Zen as well.

Cooper’s Hawk on a Snowy morning: Often a ‘little celebration’ is a surprise that just happens. Seeing the Cooper’s Hawk fly into our sycamore was that kind of celebration – although I am glad the hawk is not around my backyard more frequently (since I enjoy the other birds).

A Little Snow

Last week we had a little snow…a few inches one afternoon and evening…enough to delay the schools opening the next morning. I took a picture as it was coming down in the afternoon before the day got too dark.

The next morning, I started before sunrise then took several pictures catching the changes in light as the sun came up and from behind the morning clouds.

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The sycamore has a few leaves that caught the snow…but there were also branches acting like skewers for ribbons of snow on the tree.

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The evergreens always hold a lot of snow. This time it wasn’t enough to break any limbs.

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The red maple twigs already look a little red against the snow they hold.

The tulip poplar seed pods act as little cups for the snow…the branches of the tree like a candelabra. The snow was wet enough to stick to almost all the branches.

The big surprise of the morning was a hawk. When it first flew into the sycamore while I was getting my breakfast, I thought it was a mourning dove, but then decided it was a little larger…and then it turned its head and I knew it wasn’t a dove. The pictures were taken through a window with a screen but the shape of the tail is distinctive enough to indicate that it was probably a Cooper’s Hawk (rather than a sharp-shinned). No wonder there weren’t any birds around our feeder at the time!

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The snow melted slowly over the course of the day. I was glad I didn’t have anything I needed to do away from home.

Tracks in the Snow

Last week we got a little bit of snow. It was an easy snow to deal with: less than an inch, pavement warm enough to melt it. There was no delayed opening for schools or cancelled events. It was pretty on the surface of our deck and the grass in the yard. The juncos were out at our feeder and in the snow. I took some pictures of their tracks on the deck floor. Some areas had been so heavily used that the tracks were overlapping – showing the density of bird traffic for the whole morning. The tracks look a lot like the theropod (dinosaur) tracks I used as a Zentangle pattern with the summer campers! The campers were quick to tell me that birds are our ‘living dinosaurs.’

Of course, I made my own print in the snow when I went out to take the photographs.

By the end of the day, all the snow and footprints had melted away. Maybe the next time it snows there will be enough to make snow ice cream.

Last 2019 Student Event at Mt Pleasant

Last week the annual Howard County Conservancy ‘Weather to the Extreme’ conference was held for 6th grade students from half the middle schools in our county. I volunteered as a session moderator. As usual – I was too busy to take pictures after the students arrive…but there was a little time just after I arrived. As I got out of my car, I heard a noise in the trees just above me and the squirrel continued to work on the black walnut long enough for me to take pictures. It’s amazing that the squirrels can get through the tough shell of these nuts.

There was a tiny amount of snow overnight…still evident in a few areas…no enough to cause any traffic challenges.

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The witch hazel is still blooming, and the seed pods will be forming soon. There are buds on the witch hazel that blooms in February now. I’ll try to check them every time I go to Mt Pleasant over the winter.

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Very few of the cone flower seed heads look intact. The birds enjoy the seeds….and probably knock some to the ground that will grow next spring.

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There are always things to see around Mt Pleasant….even on a cold and damp day!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 31, 2019

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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: August and Sunbirds and Spiderhunters -  Two sets of bird pictures this week…catching up a little on the gleanings…and good picutres to start out the post this week.

Rare Lightning Strikes Detected 300 Miles from North Pole | Smart News | Smithsonian – I’d never thought about lightning or thunderstorms over the arctic….so this was ‘news to me’ from several perspectives.

Impact of largescale tree death on carbon storage -- ScienceDaily – In our area, invasive insects have caused the deaths of two tree species in recent years: Eastern Hemlock (wooly adelgid) and Ash (Emerald Ash Borer)…die-offs that are definitely not the norm. I wondered if the research included these in their ‘insect outbreak’ category.

The practical ways to reduce your carbon footprint (that actually work) | WIRED UK – How many of these have you considered…implemented?

Here's How the 'Fish Tube' Works | Smart News | Smithsonian – And it doesn’t injure the fish? It seems like it would be very traumatic for the fish.

Tracing the History of Decorative Art, a Genre Where "Form Meets Function" – Short…with some good pictures…and links.

Microplastic drifting down with the snow: In the Alps and the Arctic, experts confirm the presence of plastic in snow -- ScienceDaily – Aargh! Something we have in our minds as being ‘clean’ because it is white, is polluted by things so tiny we can’t see them.

Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides – Why are we still using such huge amounts of pesticides when we don’t need to….we have methods to grow our food without decimating pollinators and other beneficial insects.

BBC - Future - The wildlife haven in a Cold War ‘death strip’ – The land between what used to be East and West Germany…the borderland between Finland and Russia….places where the Iron Curtain divided people. This is a long corridor of land left alone for the decades of rapid growth in Europe – land where people didn’t tread but where plants and animals could thrive. It is the European Green Belt through 24 countries. Some species are already using it to migrate north to escape the effects of global warming.

What drives inflammation in type 2 diabetes? Not glucose, says new research -- ScienceDaily – A surprise finding….and now a lot more research needed about fat derivatives and mitochondria in people with type 2 diabetes.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2019

March had increased activity from February – a nice ramp up to the busy months of the spring field trip season of April, May and June. It was easy to find little celebrations all during the month.

A Creative Live course on bird photography – I always celebrate courses that hone what I already know…and show me something new that I want to try.

Getting new glasses – I had skipped getting new glasses last year – thinking that my prescription had not changed enough. It’s worth celebrating to see better again.

Snow on the ground but no on the streets – I celebrated a beautiful snowy day when the streets kept enough warmth to remain clear. It’s one of those instances where you can enjoy the scenery and not worry about hazardous driving conditions.

Cleaning out stuff – We donated two carloads of stuff (a bicycle was a big part of one load. I celebrated making progress on cleaning out accumulated things that we no longer need.

Then there are signs of spring – appearing throughout the month – and celebrated for the breaking of winter’s hold on the landscape:

Miniature daffodils blooming in the front flower bed that bring back memories of my mother-in-law that bought and planted the bulbs in another garden 30 years ago.

Tulip poplar and cherry buds brought inside and opening a few weeks before the buds outside open.

Doves mating on the deck railing.

Frogs eggs in the little pool at Mt. Pleasant.

A spring-like afternoon – full of sunlight and a warmer temperature.

The biggest celebration of the month was the news that both my daughter and son-in-law have faculty positions beginning next fall in the same place! It’s quite an accomplishment for them to both get their PhD and then do a couple years as post docs…then this milestone.  

Snow Day

Years ago, when my daughter was in school, I almost always took off when the schools closed for snow – either with vacation or make up hours or working at home. Now that I’m retired, I am still doing it. Having a snow day is a mini-holiday with traditions. My daughter knew all the best sledding slops in the neighborhood. I enjoyed being outside too although it was usually to shovel the drive or take a walk. The snow day last week did not require shoveling since the forecast for the next day was temperature in the 50s. So - I took a walk. I bundled up in lined boots, snow pants, coat with a hood, scarf with a hood and gloves. I took my cell phone and small camera with me – deciding not to take the larger camera since it was still snowing, and I couldn’t shield it inside my coat easily.

There were about 3 inches on the ground already when I opened the garage door and headed out.

The fire hydrants in the neighborhood looked festive with their burden of snow.

My destination was the water retention pond. When I got there the old cattail stalks were catching snow and the still parts of the pond were skimming over with ice. The temperature was in the low 30s.

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There were two pairs of ducks at the pond! The surprise (for me) were  Hooded Mergansers.  

I’ve seen more of them this year in our area and I wonder if their numbers are increasing. Were the pair was looking for a good nesting area? I don’t think our water retention pond would be a good place for ducklings although the pair were occasionally diving and (maybe) finding something to eat in the pond.

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The other pair were Mallards. They are dabblers and I noticed they both had snow collecting on their backs since they don’t go completely under water for edibles.

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I headed home. The pan and spatula to collect snow to make snow ice cream was in the garage to cool down. I filled the pan to overflowing then left it to prepare the other ingredients: peppermint candy puffs in a Ziploc broken to bits with a hammer and vanilla soy creamer (it has sugar and vanilla already…so it reduces the ingredient list). I got out the electric mixer and big bowl.

Then I went out to get the snow. The bowl is so large that it holds the whole pan of snow. I added the peppermint candy and creamer…then beat it all together. The snow was drier than expected so I added more creamer and vanilla coconut almond milk to get the consistency I wanted for the ice cream.

My husband and I each had two large servings to finish it off in one sitting. It was a yummy lunch.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2019

February is usually a quiet month for me – not much going on. February 2019 was dominated by the birding after the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in January, family visits, and celebration of the staff where I volunteer. It seemed like a busier than usual February.

Conversations with my daughter – I celebrated my daughter being more available recently. Seeing her forging ahead in her career and life is something to savor. It feels good to see how wonderfully independent and caring she is these days.

Icy day – staying indoors – Ice is much worse than snow but has its own beauty. This one was easy for me to celebrate since I didn’t need to get out and none of our trees were damaged.

Snow day – What’s not to like about a snowy day if I can stay at home. Since I am retired…staying at home when I want to is easy. I celebrate every snow day – taking pictures and making snow ice cream. On our most recent snow day, the weather was warming to 50 degrees the next day, so we didn’t even shovel the drive way.

Spring-like day – And then we had a breezy day in the 50s. I celebrated that this will become the norm in a few short weeks.

Books – On all the cold days, I enjoyed good books on my PC, on my iPad and regular books. Celebrating all the forms that books come in these days.  

Cleaning out progress – We have so many things in our house that we no longer need or use but getting motivated to collect and then donate, recycle, or trash things is challenging. I am celebrating that I am making some progress…building the will-power to continue the trend.

Howard County Conservancy staff – The volunteers held a big celebration for the staff of our favorite non-profit this month. The staff makes volunteering a pleasure and a shared celebration is one way we show it.

Downy woodpecker – I was home in cold, snowy, or icy weather and enjoyed birding from my office window. I celebrated many of the sightings…the downy woodpecker the most. It’s small, it’s hyper, and it seems to enjoy both our trees and our feeder.

Pink egg salad – I discovered that adding a few slices of beet to hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise in the small food processor makes beautiful, spreadable egg salad…celebration worthy food.

Headspace app – I subscribed to the Headspace app and am doing a meditation prompt every day. I am celebrating how easy it is to get started and keep going with this app.

Snow Day

Last Sunday was a snow day for us. It had snowed all night and was still snowing when I got up. Our neighbor had a spotlight on and it illuminated the back of our house enough that my camera’s ‘hand held night scene’ setting was enough to capture the snow draped over pots and chairs on our deck. In the front of our house there was less light – but the oak near our driveway was visible in the darkness.

There was no sunrise color – the clouds were too thick – but the day brightened a little. Snow was accumulating on the bushes.

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I went out to measure the depth of the snow about 9 AM; it was about 5 inches and snow was still coming down.

The day was brightening a little more.

We shoveled the driveway. The snow was heavy enough to stick together but not too heavy to shovel easily. I took a before and after picture.

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I took a picture of the kokopelli metal sculptures dancing in a low pot on the deck from my office window

When we came inside my husband started a fire in the fireplace and I went out to skim the top inch of snow off a portion of our deck and into a big pan. I left it outside to stay frozen while I gathered the other ingredients for snow ice cream. I had purchased some French vanilla coconut creamer (sweetened) that substituted for the usual milk, sugar, and vanilla; I added the last of the peppermint candy chips I had bought before Christmas. The snow went into the biggest bowl I have and then the milk and peppermint candy mixture. My handheld mixer does a great job mixing everything fast enough that the snow doesn’t have time to melt. The color from the candy was my indicator that the ice cream was becoming thoroughly mixed. I had to add a bit more creamer because the snow was so icy; it looked crumbly instead of creamy.

Yummy! It was the best snow ice cream I’ve ever made! My husband and I had two servings each – ate the whole batch in one sitting.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2018

March 2018 had a lot to celebrate; some of the top ten were unexpected.

The Snow Day just last week was our first substantial snow of the winter. There had been so many forecasts that didn’t quite pan out that I didn’t bother to buy the makings for snow ice cream like I usually do. We celebrated with just the view and that we didn’t have to get out in the thick of the event.

Beavers at Mt. Pleasant

Two birds with fish at Conowingo. I celebrated that we saw both a bald eagle and a cormorant getting their fish within a relative short period of time after we got to Conowingo.

Another sign of spring – the first pre-K field trip of the season. I enjoy all of the volunteering I do but somehow the youngest children almost always are the highlight of the season.

The HoLLIE classes continued from February into March; each one was a finely-honed learning experience. I was overwhelmed with little celebrations so I picked a bird that I saw on one of the field trips that I had not seen before in our area – a hooded merganser pair.

The shell spiral in my front flowerbed was a visual celebration – somehow it made the day for me. I think earlier it had been covered with leaves but after the March winds, its whiteness made it stand out.

I also celebrated that we didn’t lose electrical power in the wind storm like a lot of other neighborhoods did. There was some siding damage and at least one tree down in our neighborhood….but nothing happened to our house.

The miniature iris at Brookside were something I did not expect; I didn’t remember them from previous years. Seeing them blooming among the other spring bulbs was a treat.

Yellow grass might not be something to celebrate in other seasons, but the bright color was like a beacon at the end of winter.

Finishing up our 2017 taxes was worth celebrating too. It’s something that happens every year and I’m glad my husband does more of the work…it’s celebration – and relief – when they are done.

Snow Day - Part 2

By mid-morning – it was obvious that the ‘big snow’ was going to be during the day on Wednesday. The backyard became a winter wonderland with snow accumulating on every available surface.

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The azalea that has been showing a lot of stem and leaf color earlier in the day became indistinguishable from other mounds of snow.

After lunch I opened the garage door and took a snow measurement on the driveway – a little over 4.5 inches and it was still snowing. I also photographed the sidewalk in front of our house. I wondered if the plum tree was going to have some breakage from the weight of the snow; there was no wind – a good thing.

I decided to shovel the driveway. The snow was not as heavy as I thought it would be – which made the job easier. There were plops of snow falling from the trees and I could hear some slow trickles of water. The temperature was about 33 degrees.

A little while after I came in from shoveling, the snow plow made a down and back pass at our street. Later in the day they came back and did the side streets. Events for Thursday began to be cancelled.

The next morning (Thursday), there was still snow on the trees at sunrise. But the day was sunny and the forecast was for a high of 45…probably the last of the snow days! I got some pictures of the forest and the maple blossom in the morning sunlight.

Snow Day - Part 1

The forecast Tuesday night was for a lot of snow in our area overnight and all day Wednesday, so meetings were cancelled, schools closed, and the recycle truck pickup to our neighborhood delayed. The temperature hovered close to freezing. I saw some deer crossing our street at dusk as the announcements came out.

 I had planned to shovel my driveway in the morning and then again later in the day since the snow was going to be wet and heavy. I was anticipating getting a workout. But….

The temperature stayed high enough that the streets and driveways were mostly clear in the morning. I took pictures and enjoyed the relative quiet of the neighborhood without rumbling vehicles (no buses or recycle truck). It seemed that there were less cars on our street; the adults were taking a snow day just like the school children – a time to savor being at home. In the front of our house, I took pictures through the skinny windows on both sides of the front door of vegetation laden with snow and ice: daffodils,

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Azalea, and

Bushes.

In the back, there was the top of the snow filled pine,

The heated birdbath with the snow knocked off its rim by birds that visited,

And a gutter filling in with snow and ice (hopefully it will melt and drain gracefully).

It started to snow again, and I decided to wait for the afternoon to take a walk (hoping that I would not need to shovel the driveway at all).

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2018

February 2018 has been busier than usual for me than in previous years since ‘graduation’ from my career (that does sound better than ‘retirement’!). The activity that caused that was the day long HoLLIE (Howard County Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment) classes once a week. I celebrated 1) after the first one – realizing what a rich learning experience the institute was going to be – and after 2) after the second week when we are at Goddard learning about how and what satellites help us understand the Earth…and having the serendipity add on to the class seeing the big rock with dinosaur and early mammal tracks. I could have counted all 4 days as ‘celebrations’ but decided to choose some other items to add variety to this post.

I celebrated seeing 3) 2 kinds of woodpeckers within about 10 minutes from my office window: pileated and downy and 4) the springtime tussling of male cardinals in the maple tree while the female looked on and stayed out of the way (a sign that winter in waning already).

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The old crock pot being replaced by 5) an Instant Pot was a little celebration (because of immediate success using it) and continuing.

Usually I don’t find anything to celebrate in the news…but the 6) successful launch of the Falcon Heavy was something to celebrate. It’s great that there is a heavy lift capability available - a capability we need to further our exploration of space.

Several things came together this month – focusing my attention on how much I’ve enjoyed being a 7) Maryland Master Naturalist…I celebrated the 4-year journey.

I vicariously shared some of my daughter’s experiences this month – 8) celebrating her post doc – teaching – and ‘what next’ search. It’s invigorating to understand how full her life is --- how much we still share so easily.

The weather after mid-month has turned very mild here in Maryland. Earlier I celebrated 9) enough snow to be pretty and that I had 10) no commitments and could stay home on the day it turned icy.

Snow Days

The schools didn’t have to make a decision…the snow was on the weekend! It started last Saturday and by mid-afternoon had flocked seedpods

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And tree branches….and it was still snowing.

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As it got dark, we had a winter wonderland.

Sunday morning, the sun came out and the melting got underway – slowly. The Tulip Poplar seed pods were still holding a lot of snow at mid morning.

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The squirrels came up to the deck to dump the seed from the feeder. I never saw them do it! After the snow got slushy in mid-afternoon, one visitor left some very nice tracks.

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The snow and ice on the skylight of our covered deck always slides down the slope. It reminded me of the ice shelf discussion in the HoLLIE sessions from the past to weeks. This ‘shelf’ didn’t have sea water underneath but it did demonstrate that ice and snow can bend without breaking!

By the end of the day on Sunday there were only patches of snow in shady places left…and we had a warming trend for the early part of the week.

Neighborhood Walk

A few days ago, I took a walk down to the storm water retention pond in our neighborhood. It was my first time out of the house after some exceedingly cold days and a head cold/ear ache. It felt good to be bundled up and crunching through the light coating of snow on the sidewalk. The pond is still rather barren looking after it’s refurbishment but there were a few dried cattails at the edge that were surrounded by ice. They had caught some of the snow. It was the ‘artsy’ image of the walk.

Across the street, the gutter is labeled…whatever goes down, is on its way to the bay. I was surprised at how rusted and cracked the cover for the gutter looked. It’s probably the age of the neighborhood – about 25 years.

I noticed some of the limbs that had been cut off our street crews by the county to reduce the possibility of equipment damage if fire trucks had to come down our street. The tees have healed in most cases, but I noticed at least two trees where the wound resulted in part of the tree rotting; that’s not good. I’m glad our oak was not one of them.

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Winter Tracks

We are getting another round of very cold weather now and I’m remembering some tracks I saw from my front door during the cold just at the year began. I took pictures through the narrow windows from either side of the door – it was too cold to open the door. The tracks stayed for days until the snow sublimated rather than melted! The ones on the front sidewalk include deer…not sure what the rounds ones were.

The ones on the front porch were smaller but came right up to the front door! Maybe a squirrel? I thought of a chipmunk at first but haven’t seen any recently. We have lots of squirrels.

We are well supplied with food and have no appointments for the next few days…so we are staying warm inside and recovering from colds until it warms up. Our forecasted high for today is 30 degrees and cloudy. A good indoor day!