Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant for Skunk Cabbage

I am realizing that I haven’t driven very much in the last 6 months. There are at least 2 problems with that: the almost full tank of gas is about 6 months old and I’m getting out of practice when it comes to driving. If my plan is to make some road trips after I get vaccinated and the pandemic begins to fade, I need to keep my car operationally sound and my skills honed. My solution for now is to start making some mini road trips. The first was to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant to see if the skunk cabbage was blooming yet.

There were cars in the parking area when I got there…but no people around. I put on my masks and gloves and set out toward the Community Garden…turning into the path through the forest

Toward Hodge Podge Lodge. It’s gotten some fresh paint on the trim and curtains on the inside.

I crossed the bridge to continue toward the largest stand of skunk cabbage in previous years – taking a picture of the small stream below with some ferns on the banks. The water made pleasant trickling sounds. I noticed some areas of lighter sediment through the water– cleared of the darker colored debris.

I always look for shelf fungus. The two prettiest I found had green markings. Is that the fungus or a partner organism?

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As I walked along the path, I checked the stream periodically and soon found some cones of sprouting skunk cabbage.

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Once I got closer to the marshy area, there were a lot more plants. The reddish cones will eventually have the flowers inside them (they look like golf balls). I didn’t see any that were that far along. Right now, the plants are growing slowly – speeding up with it is warmer, slowing down and sometimes pulling themselves down into the muck when its cold.

I’ll make another mini road trip to see them again next month.

I hiked back toward the parking lot and made a stop at the witch hazel near the drive to the farmhouse. The flowers haven’t opened yet, but the buds are large. I’ll check them again too since the tree typically blooms in late winter…or very early spring.

Zooming – November 2020

November is the month that transitions our forest from fall to winter. As I write this on the last day of the month – it is raining, the forest is wet and dark. It is a wintery scene from my office window.

Of course – the muted colors overall cause me to notice color that much more – in flowers…fallen leaves (that are brown by now)...birds…sunsets. Shapes also come to the fore – the fluffy parachutes carrying seeds away from pods…the disk of the moon in the sky. Overall – there are still lots of subjects for my zooming!

8 months in COVID-19 Pandemic

It’s a challenge to stay vigilant with masks…handwashing…distancing from other people – but even more important now with the cases spiking all over the country. Maryland is back to numbers we haven’t seen since June and the trend looks like it will go higher. The metrics that were established to open restaurants and bars are now indicating that the capacity needs to be reduced…and the governor did that this week.

My husband and I got our first haircut of the pandemic in mid-October; our logic was to get it before the anticipated increase in cases as people began spending more time indoors….anticipating that our next haircut would be after we are vaccinated. Our timing was good based on what is happening now…just 3 weeks later.

The CSA ended the third week in October. That was my only weekly errand away from the house and it was one I enjoyed. I am considering some kind of outdoor foray that I can do every week --- someplace not far from home…but a change of scenery once a week. The end of the CSA impacts my grocery shopping as well. I’ve already started buying more produce; it will increase as I clear out the veggies I froze over the course of the summer. I’ll still be shopping every other week rather than my pre-pandemic weekly habit; I’ve discovered that every other week works well for me.

After the CSA ended and I didn’t have a dusty gravel road to traverse, I got my car washed (drive thru) --- it’s a joy to have a clean car. It’s good for the winter now. I also bought gas – the first tank since January. So now I am back to charging the car and doing my driving as an EV. It was low risk since everything was self-service and I wore a mask just in case someone else pulled into the slot next to me; and used hand sanitizer after I got gas…and after I put the code in for the car wash. My car is probably set with fuel and maintenance until after the vaccination is available.

I had a porch full of stuff to donate. It feels good to get rid of items we no longer need. We also made a trip to the county landfill for some larger trash items and hazardous waste (large fluorescent bulbs). The charities and county facility are probably at lower capacity but functional at this point. Their processes for protecting their employees and the public are established.

My husband and his doctor have changed his prescriptions from mail delivery to pickup at a local pharmacy based on the challenges with timely delivery from the postal service in our area. I’m not sure if this is related to the pandemic at all…but it is all happening at the same time. There are layers of anxiety that sometimes are separate…but tend to meld together over time, stretching our ability to cope with more and more and more.

We made a field trip to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant for birding. It was outdoors, small group, distanced, mostly masked. It was OK…but now that the cases in our state are spiking, we might not do something like that again. We can still go to places like that but just on our own.

There were joys of virtual events over the past month. My favorite was the Hawaii Island Festival of Birds. It was good for the moment…and gave me ideas about the future…things I want to do post-pandemic.

It’s fall. We thought we would take some fall foliage drives but we missed the peak so the main fall activity has been mowing leaves in our yard! Still – the continuity of the natural cycle is something that buoys my spirits.

Right now, I am aware that there are multiple anxieties beyond the pandemic. After 8 months – the pandemic is the one I am coping with the best; I know how to reduce my risk and I have developed habits that are easy to maintain because they incorporate activities in my every day activities that are joyful…it is easily sustainable until the vaccine is available.

My hope for the next few weeks is that several of the other anxieties will reduce dramatically (since I have not discovered good ways to cope with them – who would have guessed that the transition from one US President to the next would be so fraught) and that we’ll be settling in for Thanksgiving and then Christmas with lots of virtual interactions with far flung family and the usual good food/decorations…savoring home and health…looking forward to a post-pandemic sometime in 2021.

Mt. Pleasant – November 2020 (part 2)

The Davis Branch was serene as usual in the rocky beach area. A family with children was at the water’s edge so I focused more on the shed with beech trees still retaining a few leaves, the upstream and downstream view, and the path up the hill.

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I noticed that the treey with the damaged trunk (maybe from a lightning strike) had been cut at the top. Or perhaps the top fell and it was the sawed pieces that I photographed were facing the path.

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A path that was mostly grown over last year at this time is now a clear track…maybe a little too close to the stream, but everyone likes it too much to close it off. I enjoyed some colorful leaves along the way back toward the stone wall.

There is now a new bridge across the Davis Branch! I had missed that news and found it by accident. There are riffles right at the bridge then deeper water. I hope the little trees planted around the bridge survive. It is a great vantage point now and will get better as the trees get bigger.

Overall – our little field trip to Mt. Pleasant was too short to do everything. Maybe we’ll go again some weekday morning ….when there will be fewer people around.

Mt. Pleasant – November 2020 (part 1)

Our second field trip of the pandemic – birding at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. We met the group at the Robbins Skywatch – distancing and wearing masks - to watch for hawks flying over. It was not an optimal morning with calm sunny weather. In terms of numbers we saw more vultures and crows than hawks…and the high point – for me – was a raven. I wasn’t trying to get pictures of the birds…felt lucky enough to track them with my binoculars.

I took some pictures from the vantage point of the skywatch: horse nettle fruits,

Fall foliage across the meadow and on the other side of the Davis Branch,

And some new houses that have been built in the past year or so (they change the feel of that area of the meadow for me…I prefer areas of the conservancy where surrounding development is not visible).

I took a break to walk down to the Davis Branch ‘beach’ area (more about that area tomorrow). Along the way I started taking pictures of seeds spilling out of seed pods.

I walked across the meadow on the path where the chunk of quartz was taken out of the path to keep it from damaging the mower – has been just to the side of the path since. The indentation where was until a couple of years ago has almost filled in now.

On the way back to the car I noticed that there are new doors on Montjoy Barn.

I also walked around the other areas near where we had parked…taking in scenes from previous falls when I volunteered to hike with elementary school field trips: the old farm house,

The leaves under the gingko tree in the picnic area,

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The witch hazel blooming in front of the Gudelsky Environmental Center.

And then we were heading home after a pleasant fall morning at Mt. Pleasant.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

The sound of fall leaves. I ate lunch outdoors on our covered deck…listening to the leaves. The ones still on the trees are getting drier… and they make a different noise as they bump into each other than spring or summer leaves. They are the wind chimes of nature this time of year.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2020

I’m celebrating that everyone in my family is healthy and staying vigilant. We’re all in states that have a growing number of cases, though. As usual – I am looking back of the month and highlighting 10 little celebrations.

Large Monarch caterpillar. Toward the end of the month, there were caterpillars on the milkweed in our front flowerbed. One morning I walked out and saw a large one almost immediately.

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It was eating way…probably getting close to the size to pupate. I’ll look around for the chrysalis in the bushes nearby in a few days.

Cantaloupe in the CSA share. Yummy melons…one of the best foods of summer.

Regenerative landscaping webinar. Sometimes a webinar just comes at the right time. This one had so many interesting ideas. The one that I’ll probably try first is over seeding with mini-clover instead of grass seed in the thin places of our yard.

Morning hour on the deck. I love the quiet time on the deck first thing in the morning. I enjoy my morning caffeine, create a Zentangle tile, read a little….usually with our cat as company.

Neighborhood pond in the morning. Lots of interesting things at the pond --- different every time…birds, turtles, plants, insects.

Milkweed. Blooms, pods, insects (milkweed bugs and beetles, aphids (aargh!), Monarch caterpillars). The plants are little worlds of activity.

Summer sunrise. It’s getting easier to get up and out to catch the sunrise.

Mt. Pleasant. Venturing out just a little…early enough that there are not very many other people around.

Western Regional Park (Howard County, Maryland). A place I hadn’t been before but worth discovering.

Goldfinches. Looking out the window at the right time.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

NOAA Get into Your Sanctuary! Events. There was a post on the NOAA feed about this; relatively short notice but maybe ‘just is time’ is good enough. The events are live 7/31-8/2. I am planning to watch as many of them as I can. https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/visit/giys.html

Observations at the grocery store. When it got to the grocery store, the sun had only been up for about 10 minutes, so the short drive was scenic with the glow of morning light. As usual – there weren’t very many people in the parking area or in the store and everyone was wearing masks. I noticed that most masks were similar to mine but there two outliers: a woman that was wearing something that looked more like a gas mask and then a shield over that and a staff person that was wearing a mask that looked like it was very thin (had been through a lot of washings).

There was a sign saying that the carts were sanitized when I approached the area to get my cart – so I didn’t wipe the cart down again but did use the hand sanitizer station for my hands.

Things seemed well stocked although some of the store brand products we bought previously have not been replenished; the more expensive ‘name’ products are available.

I am enjoying the SCAN app my store provides. My bags are loaded as I shop (in the way I want them) and the checkout is as close to contactless as one can get inside the store! I wonder if all grocery stores will develop this kind of app for their customers.

Zooming – July 2020

I’m not taking as many pictures these days…but there are still plenty to choose from for the monthly zoom post. The locations this month are my yard, my neighborhood, Howard County’s Western Regional Park and Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm. Enjoy the slideshow for July 2020!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

More Zentangle tiles with circular voids. I’ve continued to make tiles with circular voids…. another name for bubbles. It’s interesting how many variations there are with the starting point of a few circles on a tile.

Coronavirus uptick. We are having an uptick in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Maryland. Hopefully, it will stabilize and decline but that might be tough with the surges happening elsewhere in the country as well. The decisions the local school systems made to be virtual for the first half of the school year are looking better and better. In the early summer we though that maybe the community spread would be very low by the time school started….and then we’d worry about the increase in cases as the ‘flu season’ started…maybe have to go virtual then. But the level of cases never went a low as we thought they might this summer…and now we are seeing an upward trend.

Outside hour to start the day. After a day of poor air quality kept me inside, it was great to return to being outside for the beginning of my day. As I passed by the front door, I stopped to step out and take a picture of sunrise…about 2 minutes after sunrise. The cat did not join me on the deck – preferring to stay indoors and meow loudly.

Walk at Mt Pleasant – Part 2

Continuing from yesterday’s post…..

I took the wide path across the meadow toward the rock wall. I wanted to photograph the tree within a tree – a maple that has roots halfway up the trunk. I came to the shady side first. What a difference the sun makes! I think the early morning sun on the other side made for the best picture I’ve ever taken of the tree.

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I also took pictures up and down the stone wall from that point…uphill (the way I was heading) and downhill (where  I had come from….the path I’d used to cross the meadow being the break in the vegetation on the upper right side of the second picture.

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The rock wall is always an opportunity to talk about local geology…and lichens and mosses…and what might live in a rock wall. Of all the places at Mt. Pleasant, the rock wall was where I missed the field trips with children the most.

I got back to the gravel drive and walked toward the Honors Garden. I stopped to photograph the flowerpot people in summer garb and remembered hand made ‘hook’ on the black smith shop.

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The witch hazel that was blooming back in December (yellow petals like streamers) now has green immature seed pods. I’d never though to look closely at the small tree in front of the main building this time of year…so it was the first time to photograph the seed pods at this stage.

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I got to the Honors Garden. The small pond near the entrance almost always has frogs. This time of year, they are green frogs. They were visible in and near the water. I walked around and then started hearing them – a rubber band chorus of 2 or 3 frogs. I went back for more photos.

There were lots of flowers, of course. I was somewhat disappointed that there were not a lot of butterflies. Maybe it was not quite warm enough for them to be active. The Joe Pye Weed was not quite blooming yet. The light was still great for photography. I liked a backlit fern; the stems contrast dramatically with the fronds.

And then I spent time trying to photograph an orb weaver spider web! It was a good finale to my morning walk.

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Air quality alert. I’m glad I enjoyed some extra time outdoors yesterday because today there is an air quality alert and I will stay indoors. It turns out that the alert is  not about ground level Ozone….it’s particulates (PM2.5) based on the Maryland Department of the Environment site. Our alerts come from Maryland now rather than the EPA because of Maryland’s higher standard of air quality – the desire to warn groups that are susceptible to air quality health issues. It seems like during the pandemic, everyone would need this type of information.

Walk at Mt Pleasant – Part 1

I got up at my regular time and was out of the house a few minutes before 6; the sun was up but it was still very much the ‘magic hour’ for photography when I got to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm. There were only two other cars and I didn’t see any other people around before I headed out on my walk. I hadn’t been there to walk around since back in January….completely missed the spring which I usually get to observe many times as I volunteer for school field trips that come there…but not this spring. I noted a sign about social distancing and no large groups. The picnic tables looked so pristine and lonely. There would be plenty of space of a group of 10ish to eat lunch far enough apart; it would look odd to me since I am used to the school groups that often ate there after a field trip and were almost always more than 100 people.

On a positive note – the orchard has fruit this year. In 2019 a late frost caused all the blossoms/newly forming fruit to fail. I thought it might have happened this year too but there are fruits on both the pear and apple trees. The pear might not have edible fruit (I think they are usually bigger by this time)

But the apples have a lot of green fruit that will be begin turning red soon.

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The door to Montjoy bar seemed to not fit as well as they did at one time…they sag a little. I wondered how long ago they were painted.

The trumpet vine was growing profusely over the arbor near the children’s garden. Insects were enjoying the flowers. I made the mistake of walking under it and a bee flew around my head for some distance beyond. Not sure why I was attractive to the bee.

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There were lots of meadow plants in bloom – horse nettle, thistles, Queen Anne’s lace, bindweed, a pleated mushroom. Something to photograph at every turn.

I’m not usually keen on landscape pictures but there was mist coming off the ground and it added dimension to the contours of the land. The sun had been up for about 45 minutes. I could already tell that the mist was burning off as I walked…could feel the high humidity.

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The bird houses have been refreshed and painted. The background paint is a light blue and then natural things are painted over the blue. It’s a nice change in the meadow even though I also appreciated the old natural wood houses with occasional patches of lichen and moss. There is a sign on the pole cautioning to stay away because they are tree swallow homes. I wonder if they put the signs on after they knew it was a tree swallow using the house rather than a bluebird.

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The meadows looked very lush and growing wild. The place looks more overgrown than most summers…and I think it is more than not mowing as much. There are not as many people around. There are even ripe blackberries in the meadow than haven’t been picked. During previous summers, the campers ate blackberries as soon as they were ripe!

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The stream seemed to be running more in the channel closest to the beach area rather than the one we used to think was the deeper one. It was running slowly…the last rainstorm already mostly drained off.  It felt a cooler down at the stream in the deep shade.

Most of the milkweed was past blooming with tiny seed pods forming although I did find two flowers– one in the meadow and one in the garden area near the flowerpot people. Both had interesting insects:

Milkweed beetles meeting each other – moving around quite a lot….another insect further down that didn’t move during my picture taking.

There was a bee on the flower in the other garden. I watched it as it went to several small flowers – trying to avoid bee butt pictures!

The rest of my hike report in tomorrow’s post…

Scenic Drive 1

I haven’t been driving much since February and everywhere I go is relatively close to home. I plugged my Prius Prime in after every trip and drove exclusively as an EV in the early months of the year. Then I stopped driving completely for almost 3 months. Here we are in July and I haven’t bought gas since January. I am realizing that I need to use up the gas before it goes bad. My solution is to take some scenic drives over the next few weeks. I found a map of scenic roads in the county where I live (here) to help me pick routes. My plan is to pick routes that will take an hour or so.

For my first drive – I picked addresses that were already in the navigation system of my car. I’d done several field trips to the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area.

That got me to the scenic Trotter Road. I stopped to get a picture of the entrance to the South Wind Trail. The milkweed was in full bloom. Its sweet smell wafted through the air. There was a tiger swallowtail on one of the plants. There were several cars parked near the trailhead and, in the nearby neighborhood, there were people out for morning walks and one person roller blading!

I set the next destination for Howard County Conservancy and picked the alternative route my navigation system presented that would take me via two other scenic roads: Sheppard Lane and Folly Quarter Road. I’d not driven that route before, and it was indeed scenic - a 2-lane road that followed the contours of the land. Chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace were blooming along the roadsides except where a huge house had been built and the wild plants had been replaced with mowed turf (not something I prefer any more). I also noticed a field of corn that had a stand of wild plants at a corner of the field that included milkweed! Hurray for a farmer than didn’t use herbicide!

When I turned into Howard County Conservancy, there was a family walking out along the road and more cars than I expected. I took a picture of the entrance sign as I drove out…thinking that I would start my scenic drive at HCC some future morning (and wear hiking clothes so I would have a longer stop).

Overall, it was a good first drive. The car gets excellent mileage to I didn’t use very much gasoline; there are a lot of scenic drives left on this tank of gas. They’re a low risk mood brightener as much as spending time outdoors on my deck/in my yard….part of the new normal in this COVID-19 pandemic time.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Corn-on-the cob. Last summer we grilled corn-on-the-cob with the shucks on our gas grill. That is not an option this year since we’ve used up the gas and haven’t figured out a low risk way to buy more. So – I decided to try it in the oven.  I cut the ends of the silk and the wayward leaves off with kitchen scissors and put them in the 350-degree oven (no pan…just on the oven rack) for 30 minutes. I turned them at 15 minutes but that was probably not necessary. They were excellent! I cut the ends off and took the shucks/silks from the cobs. Both come off more easily after cooking! The corn was excellent eating. It didn’t have the char marks that it gets on the grill, but the flavor was the same. Now we have no pressure to buy more gas for the grill.

Zucchini bread. I made the zucchini bread with yellow squash - used chunky apple sauce for half the oil in the recipe - used up the brown sugar I had on hand rather than white sugar. Usually I make muffins, but my refrigerator is so full right now that I opted to use glass baking dishes that have lids that allow easy stacking. It won’t last long with my husband and I both enjoying it for our breakfasts.

Venturing Out and Weekly Gleanings

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

A Zentangle Prompt

Inspiration for a pattern can come from our environment. Sometimes creating a pattern is relatively straightforward. The prompt for today is to create your own pattern based on the picture of tiles to the right. Hint: start with a grid of squares. Use your pattern in a tile. Other patterns in the tile are tangler’s choice (i.e. whatever you want).

Here are some tiles I made based on yesterdays prompt: Make a tile using the gingo pattern.

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It is one of my favorite patterns for mono-tangle tiles.

Venturing away from Home

I went to Howard Country Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant to record a Facebook Live Zentangle session. It was the first time I had driven my car in May! It was also my first volunteer gig since early March – and a good experience – but I realized how out of practice I have become with getting out and about. There was a ‘newness’ to my car even though I’ve had it for a few years. Mt Pleasant is a place I know very well but hadn’t been there since January; it felt unfamiliar.

I was glad the flip chart pad and gallery board were wrapped in plastic trash bags because it was raining heavily when I got there. It took two trips to get into the building and I was glad I had worn a windbreaker and waterproof boots.

The mask that I wore during set up did not stay in place as well as I wanted. I need more experience with securing it and being certain that I can breathe well enough through the layers of fabric. It’s a good ‘lesson learned’ before I venture out to try doing my own grocery shopping in June.

The materials I had prepared ahead of time worked well…minimizing the amount I had to create while I was talking.

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The Facebook Live session lasted about 20 minutes and made a three-part tile using TIPPLE, CRESCENT MOON, and either MEER or POKEROOT. I missed not being able to create a mosaic of the student tiles at the end. Here are tiles I made with the patterns after the session.

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I’m not sure how any of my volunteer gigs will be possible anytime soon but I’ll probably do some hiking at Mt. Pleasant…on a sunny day…another small ‘venturing away from home.’

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

Gleanings of the Week

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.

Soak in the Details of the Moon with this High-Definition Photo – A backyard astrophotographer with a lot patience.

Record conservation study of Tutankhamun's tomb solves mystery and raises new questions – Teasing out more history from a much-studied place.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bright Colours - Wild Bird Revolution – It’s a gray rainy day as I write this….I am appreciating the colors!

New Thoughts on Turkey’s Oldest Temple Complex - Archaeology Magazine – Gobekli Tepe…built by hunter gatherers over 11,000 years ago….requiring hundreds of people to construct. I first learned about it in a Coursera course a few years ago.

NASA's ICESat-2 measures Arctic Ocean's sea ice thickness, snow cover -- ScienceDaily – ICESAT-2 was launched in September 2018; I learned about it during visits to NASA Goddard during my HoLLIE class in spring 2018. It’s good to get an update on it now.

The ingredients for a longer life - BBC Future – Study of populations where many live to 100…focusing on eating habits, social connection, a few cups of tea or coffee, sweet potato and bittersweet melons, landscape…and moderation.

Saving energy and lives: How a solar chimney can boost fire safety -- ScienceDaily – If a building has a solar chimney, it will suck smoke out of a building during a fire…giving people more time to escape!

Risks of Clutter, Tips for Decluttering Your Home | Berkeley Wellness – I had intended to spend some of the ‘stay at home as much as possible’ time de-cluttering. But I moved on to other projects. Now I am returning to the idea just as I am beginning to tentatively venture out. The clutter in my house is not enough to make it unsafe…but I do have a lot of stuff that I no longer need.

Tracing the human genetic history: Every tooth tells a different story – Another data point for forensics when DNA is not available. Teeth often survive for longer than other parts of the body.

New evidence of watery plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – I’m missing Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series. This article is about new analysis of data collected by the Galileo mission flyby of Europa in 2000.  The ESA Juice mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2022, will study the potential habitability and underground oceans of three of Jupiter’s moons: Ganymede, Calisto, and Europa.

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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.

A Few Minutes at Mt Pleasant

I went to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant for a couple of Winter Wellness presentations (for the HCC volunteers) on a cold bluster day. It had been over a month since I had been but it was not a good day for lingering outdoors – even though the sun was shining, it was not one of those ‘colder-than-it-looks’ days. All the leaves were blown off the deciduous trees and the flower beds were brown or very wilted green. The hay field to the left of the drive as I drove in had been cut and the round bales left in the field.

I parked as close as I could and took a picture of the farmhouse as I walked in. The big tree that previously hid the left side of the house was cut down in 2019 and the new walk was installed. It gives the area a more open – and formalized – look. The flowerpot people still look a little Christmassy…but at least the hats and scarves were staying in place even with the blustery wind. I took that picture on the way out.

Overall…it was only a few minutes outdoors – good bookends for the lectures.

Mt Pleasant in November 2019

The Howard Country Conservancy fall field trips for elementary students are over for the season. I took a few pictures at Mt Pleasant as the place moved through the fall – between hikes with the students. The meadow is shades of brown now. The students almost always ask about the yellow fruits of horse nettle that are nestled down in the grasses; the color makes them stand out. Many times, we see black or turkey vultures soaring over the meadow.

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Some of the dried foliage and seed pods are worth a closer look….for their complexity or the seeds attached to fibers that easily carry the seeds away (thistles and golden rod and milkweed).

There are vines on some of the trees that are colorful – invasives like oriental bittersweet usually.

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On a very cold day, I rolled over a small log. I didn’t see any squiggling critter but there was a small mushroom and amber droplets (maybe fungus?).

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On a log at the edge of a brush pile, fungus was continuing its decomposition; the bark had already sluffed off.

There is always something interesting on every hike….I’m always in awe of what the student notice and ask about….glad that they enjoy being outdoors as much as I do.

Luna Moth

A few weeks ago – a Luna Moth was found on the parking lot of Howard County Conservancy’s parking lot at Mt Pleasant. It was not able to fly very well (probably injured) so was taken into the nature center. The first time I saw it, the long ‘tails’ were still relatively intact…but I didn’t have my camera with me.

The next day it had managed to fly up to the ‘exit’ sign in the nature center and I had my camera. The ‘trails’ had broken off, but it is still a beautiful moth. The creamy green jade color is very appealing.

This was the second Luna Moth for me this year. The other was at a rest stop on I-44 in Missouri back in June.

Both sightings were cause for a little celebration!

Mt Pleasant in October

Last week, I got to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant just as the sun was coming up over the place. There were a few fall colors even with the drought which is causing a lot of the leaves to change and fall very quickly.

We were working with high school students --- assessing the water in the Davis Branch with abiotic and biotic sampling. The water was very low.

We found some macroinvertebrates…but everyone was more enthusiastic than usual with other living things we found that weren’t part of the assessment. This large spider caused quite a lot of excitement!

I took a few pictures of fall plants between the early morning and late morning groups. Much of the meadow is turning brown early. Some of the gardens closer to the building may be getting a little watering and are more colorful.

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Zooming – August 2019

There are 10 images in this month’s ‘zooming’ post – a selection from places I’ve been over the month: Brookside Gardens, Patuxent Research Refuge, and Mt. Pleasant Farm. I used the zoom a lot on my camera, so I always have a lot to choose from…and the collection almost always is dominated by plants. This month is no exception although there are a few insects (butterflies and a cicada) and a frog.

There is one type of plant that is featured twice. Can you find it in the slideshow?  The answer is below the slideshow.

The hibiscus is the plant featured twice: the red flower and the three green buds!

A Serendipity Hike at Mt Pleasant

Last Saturday morning, there was a Serendipity Hike offered at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant location. There were quite a few registrations for the free event after the forecast temperature and humidity were lower than recent days in our area. About 50 people came and we had 4 volunteers to lead hikes. My group included people that had not been to Mt Pleasant before.

My focus turned out to be about landscaping with native plants (like the sweet bay magnolias)

And cone flowers.

We headed through the Honors Garden to see more flowering plants and around to the stand of Joe Pye Weed (full of tiger swallowtails). Along the way, the green frogs provide a serenade from the pool. I told them that I had seen 3 frogs earlier but that the summer campers had found 7 a few weeks ago. My hiking group saw 5 and one was positioned to easily observe when he made his croak!

From the Joe Pye Weed we hiked around to see Ranger the Barred Owl…then to the meadow, noticing the orchard and Montjoy barn along the way. Down at the stream we noticed the steep slopes that now have vegetation growing on them --- an indicator that the stream restoration upstream has slowed the flow of water from storms. To avoid a steep uphill climb, we crossed the meadow and walked along the stone wall and then back to the nature center. I pointed out the tree with myriad yellow-bellied sapsucker holes.

The hike was a little over an hour…several people came in to get maps of the trails afterward.

Summer Camp Volunteering- Week 3

The theme for last week’s Howard Count Conservancy’s summer camps was ‘Water Wizards.’ The campers at both Mt. Pleasant and Belmont made terrific water themed Zentangles®! I started out the sessions by briefly talking about the water cycle…how water moves on our planet and in the atmosphere….honed for the 5-12 years old campers. I projected a simple diagram of the water cycle from the NASA website….and then used the same set up to enable the campers to see how I drew some water themed patterns on pale blue cardstock (using the camera on the iPad which was hooked to a projector).

There were three groups at Mt. Pleasant. They all enjoyed frogs eggs and tadpoles, raindrops making ripples in a pond, mist….and clouds. The youngest group made rainbows! I used 4.5-inch squares for the youngest group (last of the group of 3 mosaics below); the other two used 3.5-inch squares.

At Belmont, the session was on a hot afternoon and the campers appreciated the time to cool off inside. I took a picture of the room before the campers arrived – the cool and calm before a flurry of activity.

After a short discussion of the water cycle, the room was filled with very focused campers making Zentangle patterns. One of the counselors came in and commented about how quiet the room was. It wasn’t silent exactly…everyone was just busy. The first mosaic were made by the older group and are 3.5-inch squares…and some that finished early made mini-tiles on 2-inch squares. The younger group used the larger 4.5-inch tiles. Both groups enjoyed frog eggs and tadpoles, cattails (or seaweed), raindrops into a pond, and mist.

Each week I do Zentangles, there are a few campers from prior weeks that know the Zentangle basics…and others that are new. All are keen to learn some patterns and are tickled with the tiles they create. There’s always a crowd around the mosaic at the end.

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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.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2019

There was a lot going on in June – the last of the spring field trip season with Howard County Conservancy, the Wings of Fancy shifts, helping my daughter move from Pennsylvania to Missouri….and there were a lot of little celebrations along the way.

Springfield Art Museum – The first visit to a museum is always the best…because everything is new. This one was no exception….and it was free!

Luna moth – Finding a Luna Moth at a rest stop in Missouri was the high point of a long day of driving toward home. I celebrated that it was there….and that it was a pleasant surprise in an unexpected place.

First week of CSA – I am always thrilled to get the fresh produce from the Gorman Farm Community Supported Agriculture. Every meal I prepare with the CSA veggies is a celebration.

Frogs at Mt Pleasant – Finding the frogs in the small pond is like working a puzzle…you look carefully and finally see….and celebrate. I celebrated along with my hiking groups of elementary aged students too.

Perfect field trip weather at Belmont – I was braced for June field trips to be overly hot…but the weather for all of them at Belmont was near perfect. The pre-schoolers at Belmont celebrated being outdoors and I did too.

My summer office – I moved my home office to a room that doesn’t get direct sun in the afternoon (so doesn’t heat up) and celebrated that the new location provided a better vantage point to the bird feeder while I am working at my computer.

Kombucha – My new food find of the month was mint lemonade kombucha from Wegmans. I didn’t drink the whole bottle all at once…wanted to savor it so I had about 1/3 each day for 3 days. Yummy! I might not get it every week…maybe only for a celebration.

1st monarch butterfly and caterpillar sighting of the year – I celebrated a Monarch butterfly on some milkweed at Brookside Gardens and then a Monarch caterpillar on another milkweed nearby. It’s always a milestone for the butterflies to make it Maryland and start laying eggs. The milkweed is blooming and sweet…plenty of food for the caterpillars.

1st Zentangle® class is history – I celebrated leading my first Zentangle class…and the tiles created by the students.

Fledglings – I celebrated seeing several fledglings come to our birdfeeder over the past few weeks: downy woodpecker, titmouse, Carolina chickadee, and catbird. Our maple tree seems to be a popular place for many of these birds….or maybe they just come through that tree from the forest and return to the forest the same way.

Mt Pleasant Field Trips

Schools didn’t end until June 21st in our area so the Howard County Conservancy spring field trips were still happening into mid-June! As usual, I volunteered for field trips at both Mt Pleasant and Belmont. Today I’ll share some pictures I gleaned from before the school buses arrive at Mt. Pleasant….tomorrow I’ll do the same for Belmont.

In late May – I noticed how lush everything was looking: the sweetbay magnolias, the blue flags, peonies, the new plantings around the flower pot people, and the trees along the gravel road toward Montjoy Barn.

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By early June the flowers in the Honors Garden, like the columbines, were blooming.

But the big draw of the Honors Garden – for me and for the children on field trips – were the green frogs in the pool. I would talk to the students before we came near the garden about walking very quietly…not talking…as we approached the pool so that we would see frogs. And I challenged them to find more than 4 frogs (or however many had been seen with my previous group). One group claimed to see 7…but I only saw 6. The pictures in the slide slow below were taken over several mornings before the buses arrived. Green frogs sound a little like a rubber band being strummed. It was fun to share the sights and sounds of the frogs with my hiking groups!