30 years ago – April 1991

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After the flurry of guests that we had in March 1991, we were back to being on our own in April….new challenges. My daughter was at a temporary family day care during the day for most of the month; it seemed to be working well but I rejoiced that not only did she remember her original day care provider after several weeks away, but she seemed thrilled to be back in that situation by the end of the month.

My husband was in the process of moving from Johns Hopkins to Applied Physics Lab for his work. It was a big ‘win’ in terms of work and a much shorter commute for him. We made a weekend trip to his Johns Hopkins office to move some items like plants and files. The heavier books were already on the way to the new office. We might have been the only people in the building. My daughter enjoyed pushing her stroller unimpeded in the hallways.

I was traveling to Atlanta frequently for work and by the end of the month was quickly getting to a stopping point on that project so that I could start the next one which would involve a longer commute. There was an announcement about a ‘work from home’ pilot and I wondered if I would be able to participate to avoid the long commute at least one day a week.

The trips to Atlanta – sometimes done in a long day (intense meetings in the middle) – were the first travel I’d done for work since my daughter was born. It felt odd to be so far away from her. At the same time – I savored the quiet time on the plane - enjoying good books. I was using a card I’d received from my Grandmother as a bookmark. It took some effort to carry enough reading material with me on those trips….it made the briefcase heavy since this was well before electronic books!

It also seemed like there were more letters exchanged that April – mostly with family. Everyone seemed to have a busy month – travel to San Francisco for a class, 2 people moving, another getting pregnant, ducklings escaping their enclosure to make friends with dogs, and birthday celebrations. Reading about the flurry of activity was quite a contrast with our lives this year during the pandemic and, to a lesser extent, without the challenge of careers. There were lots of comments about how pretty the spring trees and flowers were; that hasn’t changed.

Zooming – March 2021

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The sunny March days have been so pleasant – great times to be outdoors and photographing what I see. I’ve been venturing out from home a bit more too – Brookside Gardens, Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, and Centennial Park. There are still zoomed images taken through my office window (birds and the moon framed by tree branches); the sunrise and daffodils are from my house as well. Overall - this is just the beginning of the season for spring flowers. Can you find:

  • Skunk cabbage (Mt Pleasant)

  • Mourning Dove (my house)

  • Shelf fungus (2 of them - Mt Pleasant and my house)

  • Witch Hazel (Brookside)

  • Gingko tree trunk and branches (Centennial)

  • Blue jays (my house)

  • Dried hydrangea flowers (Brookside)

Enjoy the slideshow for March 2021!

Getting outdoors on these spring days is a mood boosting activity as well as good exercise. I’ve gotten comfortable enough wearing a mask that I just keep it on if I’ve in a place where I might encounter someone else on the trail. I enjoy it in the moment and then again when I view the images on my bigger screen monitor…and formulate the blog post. The activity is a bright core with tendrils of benefit that are longer lasting.

Volunteering Again!

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The nature center isn’t open at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant but there are more people visiting with the spring weather. So – the plan until the nature center can open again is to have an outdoor greeter on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday…and I volunteered last Sunday. It was a very enjoyable 2 hours. I had a table and chair set up near the parking lot across from the kiosk.

I was surprised at the number of people that were there for the first time…needed some orientation to the place. Right before my shift was over, a girl scout troop arrived and wanted to do a non-meadow hike; I highlighted the trail map for them - through the forest to the skunk cabbage wetland. And there were people that have come for years (and volunteered). The children of one family did cartwheels on the slope near the parking lot before heading out for their hike. A child with his grandfather already knew their way to the picnic area for their lunch. Two women arrived with their own camp chairs and walked to a picnic table near the community gardens…talking for an hour or so in the sunshine. I asked people as they headed back to their cars if they saw something interesting and got a range of answers. A small child pointed out some rocks. Some birders had seen a merlin capturing a meal. One child had searched for ‘stages’ that would work for musical performances – standing on the top of the large silver maple stump was his favorite.

The parking lot had 25-35 cars for the whole time I was there – so a very worthwhile time for a greeter to be around.

There was about 10 minutes that were ‘slow’ and I walked toward the picnic tables to take some pictures – pine cones in a tree top…and macro of pine bark.

Then my daughter called for a quick chat…and after a few minutes the activity picked up again. There wasn’t a lot of time sitting around. I have 4 more of the outdoor greeter gigs lined up; they are all weather dependent (if it’s raining…we cancel!).

It’s good to be getting back into volunteering in the outdoors at Mt Pleasant!

30 years ago – March 1991

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The event of March 1991 that I remember without looking back at my notes of the month was my dad turning 60 years old. My notes helped fill in the details. He and my mother flew from Texas to Maryland to spend a week with us; 6 red balloons, a pair of Rockport dress shoes and a pecan praline ice cream cake were some ‘special’ things for the celebration. My 18-month-old daughter thoroughly enjoyed the week with them and the addition of the turtle sandbox to her ‘things to do outside.’ She enjoyed it just after it was purchased while it was still indoors – getting face to face with it (also note – one bare foot…the other with the shoe still on in the picture).

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My husband and I benefited from the emotional support from that week. Both of us were going through work and health anxieties that improved over the next few months but peaked in March.

My daughter was facing challenges from us encouraging her to walk more on her own (even up and down stairs) and the beginning of ‘potty training.’ She wanted to be outside as much as possible. She still liked to pick up leaves to carry around while she explored.

She was not talking well but increasingly more opinionated about what she wanted (and didn’t). She enjoyed carrying around her toys and dancing. The family day care provider commented that she enjoyed dancing so much that once she started…all the other children danced with her.

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Near the end of the month – while my parents were visiting, my family day care provider let me know that her mother who had been with her for the past 6 months had died and that the day care would be closed for the next few weeks. I quickly found other day care for the interim; the visit of my parents helped the temporary transition to the other day care. I’ll always be glad that my daughter had the attention of the older woman for those few months…extra attention and cuddles are so important for young children (and often an joy of older adult to provide). When I arrived to get my daughter in the afternoons, it always seemed like she was either being held by or standing close to the older woman; when they made eye contact it was obvious: they had a special bond.

And now – moving ahead 30 years – my dad will be celebrating his 90th birthday! Hopefully, the pandemic situation will improve with more vaccinations and I’ll be able to see him soon.

New Swopper Chair

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My Swopper chair, that was more than a decade old, broke back in December; the base separated from the pedestal and seat. It could function as a stool that could tilt but had lost connection to the mechanism that enabled the bouncing motion. The new limitation impacted my goal to keep my activity level up all during the day (i.e. minimize completely sedentary time). I tried to shift to a new activity pattern; moving was more clumped than before because it included getting up from my computer to move every hour then having some times that were completely sedentary except some side to side moving on the broken Swopper. I found that I sometimes felt achy even after 30 or 40 minutes of not moving! The Swopper chair had allowed me to move more frequently without breaking my activity at the computer without me even being conscious I was moving…and I opted to buy a new Swopper.

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Now my office is back to the old ‘normal’ with the new chair and my aches are dramatically reduced.

The chair comes in 3 pieces in a big box: the base, the pedestal with spring, and the seat. Once they are put together…they don’t come apart. Its are expensive but will last a long time. I figure I bounced more than a million times on the old one before it broke, and I hope this new one is a durable.

Staying active every day is a lifestyle choice….one that helps me sustain the ability to do things I want to do for as long as possible.

High Key Photography Experiments

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I watched a webinar about high-key style photography done my Lisa Langell for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival earlier this month….and have been experimenting with the technique since then. The goal is to simplify subjects…and overexpose enough to get a totally white background. I haven’t gotten to the stage of attempting any post-processing; all the images in this post were accomplished in camera! It doesn’t have to be a ‘good light’ day to do this type of photography!

Of course – we had some snow days which are a natural for high key photographic experiments.

The cut flowers were good subjects as well. Most of these were taken in my office with light behind them from a lamp or the window in the afternoon.

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Peacock feathers are also good subjects. I experimented with different exposures and noted the color changes in the images below.

Now the challenge is to recognize opportunities for high key photography – transition a not-so-good day for photography into something quite different!

Stephen Lucius Gwynn Books about Ireland

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I’ve enjoyed 5 books with pictures of Ireland published in the same decade as World War I. The author – Stephen Lucius Gwynn – was an Irish MP and writer with close links to the Iris literary revival; he had a long and varied career (I always browse the Wikipedia entry for the authors/illustrators of books I enjoy).  These books were illustrated by Irish illustrators of the time; many are in color; I selected one or two for each book. I find the illustrations of this period – just before color photography took over for books like this – very appealing. They capture the places as they were…also representing the history of book illustration.  

The Famous Cities of Ireland (1915) with illustrations by Hugh Thomson

Leinster (1911) with illustrations by Alexander Williams

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The Fair Hills of Ireland (1914) with illustrations by Hugh Thomson

Munster (1912) with illustrations by Alexander Williams

Ulster (1911) with illustrations by Alexander Williams

It is interesting to think about the time it took to produce these illustrations compared to photography. Do as many people make their living as artists today?

Technology has changed our work and the way we live in so many ways. I’ve changed almost entirely from physical to digital books over the past decade! I don’t need to go anywhere to obtain my books these days and there is always a huge number of books readily available to me. I find myself savoring the illustrations – painting and photographs - in books/website more than ever. What a boon during this pandemic year!

Cheshire Cat Moon

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Earlier this week, I glanced out my office window just after 9 PM and saw the Cheshire Cat moon in the treetops. It is the ‘grin without the cat’ of Alice in Wonderland fame. I took a picture, of course. It was a fun way to end the day – a little spice to the routine of shutting down screens and turning off the light…to do some reading before bedtime.

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The routine of my days is like a comfortable base…that increases my notice and appreciation of little things like the moon in the treetops. The mix of mundane and serendipity makes every day a good one!  

Through my Office Window – February 2021 (and Niagara Birding)

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We’ve had a snowy/icy February so far. There are pines and cedars at the edges of our yard that catch the snow. They are easy to photograph from the warmth of my office. Sometimes I intentionally overexpose the pictures to blur the background further…make the most of the dim light.

Our feeder is popular and often has multiple birds visiting. The pictures below show a Junco - Carolina Wren – female Northern Cardinal and Junco – female Northern Cardinal (tail only) and male House Finch.

The female Red-bellied Woodpecker still comes as well – choosing the peanuts from the mix of seeds.

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I also managed some pictures of birds in trees – a Titmouse in the cedar

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And the male Northern Cardinal in the red maple.

We’ve also noticed deer coming through our yard. There are seven in the picture below….two groups coming together.

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I took several more pictures of the same group at various zoom settings. The portrait with just the head and shoulders shows how thick the winter coat is on the animals.

Over the past weekend, we watched the virtual Birds on the Niagara. All the videos are freely available online now: Feb. 12-13 videos and Feb. 14 videos.

I enjoyed all of them but by favorites were:

J. Drew Lanham (keynote)

Timothe Beatley on Biophilic Cities

Paloma Plant on preventing bird collisions with buildings

Anne McCooey on project to certify the City of Buffalo as NWF Habitat Communities

My husband and I talked about whether we would make the trek to the area in winter sometime post-pandemic….decided we’d go in spring or fall instead – try to see it during migration. Seeing it virtually in winter was good enough for us!

Snowflakes (melting)

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Trying to photograph snowflakes when the temperatures is in the low 30s is hard. The snowflakes clump as they fall with the temperature that high…and then the melt very easily even if the surfaces and equipment is cooled to ambient temperatures. I’d gathered all my usual equipment: phone (with a clicker to control the shutter on a lanyard) and clip on 65x magnifying lens (with light)…and was quickly frustrated with not very satisfying images toward my goal of photographing individual flakes.

So – I changed the goal and opted to create a series of a clump melting. I did several series and the one below is my favorite. It takes place over only 34 seconds!

Just before I went inside, managed to photograph some spheres on the sleeve if my coat. The magnification shows the black fibers of the coat. I think the spheres were ice (micro hail stones!) and the second one appears to have some crystalline structure inside…maybe a fracture.

Using frustration over a goal that has become impossible to prompt innovation/creativity is probably one of the best resilience strategies of all.

11 months in COVID-19 pandemic

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It’s been 11 months since the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic. The US appears to be through the peak of cases and deaths that resulted from the late 2020 holiday celebrations but there is a lot of concern about more contagious variants of the virus that have been detected in the country. We could be nearing a low and then see another peak before enough people are vaccinated to bring it down again (assuming the vaccine still is effective with the variant). Vaccinations offer tremendous hope, but they are still in relatively short supply with only around 10% of people vaccinated. The administration of vaccines is still confusing – with a maze of sign-up processes and locations to navigate. There are times I think that the vaccine is going to people that are gaming the system rather than the intended groups.

The news stories about the COVID-19 variants have prompted several actions in our household:

  • Curbside grocery pickup. I decided to switch from early morning grocery shopping in the store to curbside pickup. We’ve done it twice now and I like it better than delivery to the house. There do not appear to be shortages like there were last spring and I include a bouquet of cut flowers on my list. I submit the order so that it is one of the first orders of the day for the shopper and have gotten an experienced shopper both times (judging from how fast they pull the order together). They also package the order in paper bags which I like much better than the plastic.

  • New masks. I ordered some new masks that had wires to help them fit better over the nose…thinking I would double mask from now on. Then we decided that we needed some better masks for the inner layer and my husband ordered some KN95 and the KF94. The KF94s are what my daughter and son-in-law are wearing when they teach…the university is still trying to continue in-person classes. The key is to have a mask that fits snuggly but does not muffle speech. My daughter said that the KF94s fit her the best – and her glasses did not fog at all!

  • My sisters and I have started a sisters zoom session every other week. I’m not sure why we didn’t do it before. I guess we thought the sisters text messages were enough. The zoom meeting is a positive addition to our routine.

My plan was to restart some mini-road trips, but I only managed one to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant to photograph skunk cabbage. It worked out well since there were few enough people around that it was a solitary hike. I wore 2 masks….appreciating their warmth! It’s good to drive my car again and I’ll plan so more as the weather improves – either purely a driving activity or to a place I expect there to be very few other people.

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There were lots of webinars over the month. The birding festivals are a lot of webinars over a short time…the others an hour or less at a time. I like the variety of topics and places. They are my best substitute for travel right now.

  • Finishing up the Virtual Celebration of Cranes from Tennessee

  • Natural History Society of Maryland hosted a Snow Crystal Photomicrography session which reminded me to keep my gear ready for every snowfall…with limited success so far. We have some colder temperatures this week that might make for excellent snowflake photography.

  • Capital Nature hosted The Secret Life and Folklore of Winter Trees

  • Missouri State University Foundation hosted 2 sessions about the Jordan Valley Innovation Center

  • Brookside Gardens is hosting Friday lunch and learns. The first one was a video tour of the conservatories that are closed because of COVID-19. It was good to see the staff faces again. I miss seeing them and the ramp up for the butterfly exhibit that usually starts in April.

My big purchase of the month was a new Swopper chair. My previous one was 10+ years old and when it broke, it was an internal part….couldn’t get to it positioned again to reattach it to the base to it is currently acting as a stool rather than a bouncy chairs. The new one is at my desk…by back feels great again! I am so glad we can get items like this delivered to our front porch.

Of course – I still spend considerable time on various photography and Zentangle projects…browsing books…enjoying meal prep as much as eating.

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My husband has started a project to photograph birds every day using his camera on a tripod on our deck and his phone to control the shutter from inside where it is warm!

There is quite a lot that could happen over the next month:

  • I am full of anticipation about getting a vaccination, but our county hasn’t started my group yet (maybe in a few weeks).

  • There is a glut of birding festival webinars on the Valentine’s weekend from 3 places: Niagara Falls (New York and Ontario), Laredo (Texas), and Bosque del Apache (New Mexico). The forecast is for very cold weather here in Maryland so we’re planning a fire in the fireplace and hot foods (except for snow ice cream if the snow is deep enough and the right consistency).

We are staying at home except for curbside pickups at this point….but continuing to add projects to our routine. It’s not a boring time at all. Our outlook is more positive than it has been since last year this time….because of the vaccine and the transition of power away from a stress inducing national leader. I’m hoping to be able to see my family in Texas sometime in 2021!

30 years ago – February 1991

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I couldn’t find any pictures we took in February 1991. As I looked back through my notes, I found references to us have bad colds/flu – daughter first (with an ear infection) and then me…my husband last. I was busy at work trying to write a proposal while I was sick. I was worried about my parents having trouble buying the house they wanted because of an easement issue, one of my sisters needing surgery, and the sister-in-law that I had never met/that my husband hadn’t seen in almost 20 years communicating sporadically while she was getting rounds of cancer treatment; it was all happening very far away from Maryland but the worries were always there while I did everything else.

On a happier note – we discovered that our 17-month-old daughter had picked up some counting skills (maybe Sesame Street or at day care). Her dad was playing with her one evening dropping disks into a can with a slot…he picked up several and counted…one, two, three, four…as he dropped disks into the slot. She picked up one and dropped it into the slot and said ‘five’…and another and said ‘six.’ We were both so surprised that there was a little pause before we celebrated her accomplishment!

It seems that I always find some nuggets when I look back at notes and pictures from 30 years ago There are events – like the counting skills surprise – that my notes indicate I thought would be something we would always remember…but I didn’t. I’m so glad I have the notes and can savor the surprise again!

Red-Shouldered Hawk

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Sometimes the more frequent handwashing results in a surprise observation through the window above my kitchen sink. After putting away some groceries last week…just as I was finishing up the soap and water routine, I glanced at the sycamore tree and saw a larger bird that I expected there. It was a red-shouldered hawk! I alerted my husband and he grabbed his camera to try to get a picture. I went upstairs to my office because all my cameras were there. I got three pictures from my office window before it flew down into the chaos garden at the base of the sycamore…not visible from my vantage point upstairs.

My husband got a picture too, but he groused that the window had too much glare.

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It was the most exciting minute of our day!

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There are two virtual birding festivals coming up this weekend…visual treats for the Valentines weekend:

The Niagara birding festival is free – Feb 12-14 - http://www.birdsontheniagara.org/ - 19 species of gulls….sometimes arctic species like snowy owls.

The Laredo birding festival is $25 – Feb 13 – this is the one we went to last year just as the pandemic was beginning – not sure how much will be virtual local field trips but that area is very unique with lots of tropical and subtropical birds…I got the best look ever of a great horned owl there….and road runners…and an Audubon’s oriole and white pelicans feeding together (like a ballet, all dipping their heads to feed in unison) https://riograndeinternationalstudycenter.formstack.com/forms/9th_virtual_laredo_birding_festival

I like the little surprise of seeing a bird I don’t expect to see in our backyard…gives a little serendipity to the day. It’s also a good feeling to realize that I am learning to recognize birds that I didn’t a few years ago. The pandemic has given us all a time out….and an extreme ‘learning experience.’ I am choosing to focus on the positive lessons.

The Coffee Toed Cat

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Descriptive naming is something we all learn. Often those names are temporary nick names. They have value beyond simple description…they are fun too. One example that I heard recently was my daughter saying her cat had coffee toes. Do you see them in the picture? And the coffee toes are symmetrical too!

When I first started working in the computer industry in the 1970s, I realized that creating names was a skill I needed to develop. Naming of variables, lines of control language, and file names required a huge uptick in that kind of thinking for me and many others as well. Some of the abbreviations we use today (like using 4 instead of FOR or 2 for TO/TOO/TWO) was one of the techniques I learned in the 1970s since many of the names then were limited to 8 characters and couldn’t have spaces or special characters. The numbers were a kind of punctuation as well as a ‘word!’

Unfortunately - there is a dark side to the naming skill - when it is derogatory or bullying. It would be great if the public discourse could reverse the uptick in that kind of naming over the past decade….develop a trend toward fun and descriptive names like ‘the coffee toed cat.’

Moon Set

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Late in January, we had some clear nights, and I noticed the light streaming in from the full moon when I first got up…well before sunrise. At first the moon was still high enough that it was clear of the treetops. I used the ‘night scene’ setting on my camera to get some reasonable handheld pictures.

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A bit later, the moon was down in the upper branches of the tulip poplars and the pines – depending on which window of the house I was photographing through.

The next morning, I photographed it again while the moon was still above the treetops. Look at the lower left of the orb…notice the edges are not smooth: the craters of the moon.

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The natural world is full of things to notice – even in the cold of winter through a window. Somehow starting off the day noticing something like the moon setting, the sun rising, the frost on the rooftops, a breeze moving a pine branch….fills me with joy in the moment and anticipation of the day to come.

Zentangle® – November 2020

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30 Days in November…such a challenge to pick just 30 from all the tiles I worked on in November! I am striving to do all the layers before I put the tile in the collection for the month….but have a pile of tiles I’ve made over the past few years that I took out from under the plastic tablecloth on the breakfast table when I put out the Christmas cards; I am still coloring and highlighting those old tiles….savoring them again.

There are 9 rectangular tiles (made from the separators in the cat food boxes). My favorite is the first one….reminiscent of fall bouquets.

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The square tiles are more numerous. My favorite is on the left; it looks a little like a ruffled headdress to me.

I didn’t take enough materials to keep me busy during the NCIS commercials….and used the cardboard backing of a pad of paper for a Zentangle tile – an irregular size. It reminds me of coiled snakes – or maybe pangolins.

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Another unusual shape for the month – triangular tiles. I didn’t quite get the 6 lined up perfectly for the scan but it was fun to make each gingko leaf tile….and then put them all together. I’ll be doing more of experiments…seeing how they look singularly and together.

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The time I spend making Zentangle tiles is enjoyable and rewarding. I am often pleasantly surprised by what I create by the time I finish. I never thought of myself as an artistic person, but maybe that was an assumption I made based on experiences in elementary school ‘art’ classes. Somehow the things we did in art class were not what I wanted to do!

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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.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/12/2020

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

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Aargh! Brown-headed cowbirds. This is the first year I’ve noticed cowbirds coming regularly to our feeder. There is a pair that seems to be hanging around and I’m concerned that we’ll have baby cowbirds demanding food from the robins and sparrows and cardinals and maybe even the finches.

Making a new plan – then changing it. I had big plans for my front flower beds yesterday afternoon because it was so warm – mixing soil with compost and planting some seeds, placing the glass bird bath on its stand and filling it with water. Then I looked more carefully at the 10-day forecast and remembered that there had been ice in the birdbath cantilevered from our deck for the past 2 mornings. Planting seeds needs to wait until after danger cold temperatures…and I wasn’t keen on the glass bird bath having frozen water in it either. So - I picked up sticks that had fallen from several trees. The oak and sycamore always have small twigs around them after gusty days. But this spring I noticed our cherry does too. There are a couple of larger branches that aren’t getting leaves this year. I told my husband that he’d have to help me when I cut them – although I want to wait a little while to make sure they aren’t going to leaf out.

Photographing windfall. While I was making multiple trips to the brush pile with loads of twigs, I noted small bits of trees that had blown to the ground: a twig from a pine with very green needles still attached, groups of samaras blown from the red maple before they could fully ripen, and some seed pods formed last fall on the tulip poplar. I gathered up my treasures before going inside. Just after I put them on the kitchen table, I noticed that one of them had a hitchhiker.

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A tiny spider crawled around. I quickly tried to get a picture, but it was moving too fast and was very small. I decided to use the jeweler’s loupe to contain it…and get the picture with my cell phone The jewelers loupe is 22x magnification…it was a very small spider!

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I took a close look at the junction between the pine needles and the twig with the clip-on macro lens on my cell phone. The twig has wrinkles at the junction!

The samaras from the red maple have been a topic previously. They are drying out and losing their color…but still are quite beautiful with the green and muted pink.

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The pods from the tulip poplar are thoroughly dry. One still contained some seeds. I pulled a seed out to photograph. I’m always in awe that such a tiny seed grows to be such a big tree!

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

I am opting to continue this series of blog post to emphasis how different this time is. This is the longest time I’ve stayed home that I can remember. While I am here, I am choosing things I enjoy doing and documenting some of them in this series….and following recommendations to keep myself and others healthy. Overall – the emotional roller coaster from the early days has become more subdued. Every day I become more confident that the way I am living now is sustainable for as long as it takes. My wish for everyone is to

Stay well and help others to be well too.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/22/2020

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

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Trying macro photographs of spicebush and red maple. My original plan was to tromp through the backyard and into the woods…do the photography outdoors. But – it was colder and breezier than I anticipated so I cut a small spicebush branch and picked up a twig of red maple samaras that had blown off. The photography part of the project would be done inside.

I worked with the red maple samaras first. I used a jeweler’s loupe and my cell phone with the samara on my kitchen countertop…a small flash light supplementing the natural light coming from one side. I like the graceful ridges in the ‘wings.’

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Then I ‘got close’ with my Canon point-and-shoot camera….let its macro setting do it’s best. These are small immature samaras…about 1/4 inch.

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The spice bush flowers are small too. I put the branch in a vase (with the sycamore branch). I might get to see its leaves unfurl too…after the flowers are done. I noticed an ant on the branch as I put it in the water. Can ants be pollinators?

I tried several approaches to photographing the small flowers. The ones below were done with the clip-on macro lens on my phone. The challenge is the shallow depth of field. These flowers are small but not flat!

Then I tried putting my Canon bridge camera on a tripod across the kitchen and using the zoom. It blurs the background and provides more depth…but the color is gone. Maybe I’ll put more light on the flowers and try again. The sycamore buds might benefit from the same photographic strategy. My husband gets into the action too – helping me with the more complicated set ups.

Catching up on the Cincinnati Zoo Home Safari videos:

Completing the Jackson Pollock segment of the In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting Coursera course. I’ve been doing one ‘week’ of the course every day and enjoying all of them – particularly the part about learning how they were made.

Re-assessing our investment strategy…making some changes. At first, we thought that maybe the social distancing strategy would work, and the economy would blip but recover soon. Not enough people are following the guidance – it says something very sad about us as a nation – and means that the pandemic with be more overwhelming. From an economic standpoint, it is more than a blip and deteriorating further. So we made some investment changes to stabilize rather than free fall…..continuing our social distancing…and hoping that the tests of potential therapeutic drugs work well enough to save lives and shorten the time people are in the hospital to recover. Both my husband and I fell of the wagon of limiting time spent following the coronavirus stories and statistics yesterday…back to limiting that activity today – no one needs a constant pounding of repeating bad news.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16, 3/17, 3/18, 3/19, 3/20

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/16/2020

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

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

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Discovered some to go peanut butter in my pantry that are ‘best if used by’ April 2020 which prompted a snack of peanut butter and celery….and taking everything out of the pantry to see if there was more items that needed to be used promptly. There was some cocoa that should have been used by 2014 and some coconut flour by 2017…into the trash they went. The before and after shot of the pantry is below….it was a good ‘cleanup and out’ project for the day.

Continued “Life in the Universe Pandemic Series” videos from Dr. Charles Cockell – Is there life on Mars? And Will Samples from Mars cause a Pandemic?

Cooked pinto beans. I soaked them for a full 24 hours (part on the counter…then in the refrig) then cooked them in the morning and ate a small portion with some leftover stir fry chicken for lunch. Yum!

Learned about Anna Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae Cyanotype Impressions in a Europeana Blog post (one of my news feeds) and then searched to find an online copy. I was frustrated that the Internet Archive only had one print! It turns out that The New York Public Library Digital Collections has a digitized copy of the volumes once owned by Sir John Herschel. I enjoyed the first volume and added the others to my reading list for subsequent days.

Watched the first Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Home Safari…daily at 3PM EDT…for children but interesting for adults as well…the first video is about their young hippo Fiona. From their Facebook Page.

Went to dentist to get permanent crowns. I was worried about the temporary ones that I had for over 3 weeks coming loose/off at a bad time….having a painful dental problem when the office might be closed. So - I had a very short breach of social distance…but I decided it was worth the (slight) risk.

Overall, this is my 8th day of adhering to the low density, 6 feet rule (except for the dentist which was low density but could not always achieve the 6 feet separation)…stay at home as much as possible…hand washing with soap/not touching face. The last time I was at a place with more than 25 people in a room was 19 days ago. I’m beginning to realize that some of what I am doing now (like the more frequent hand washing with soap) might be on the way to becoming habits.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/15/2020

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I normally do a daily blog post…but during this time, I might do an extra post from time to time. Since I am ‘staying at home as much as possible’ to reduce our COVID-19 exposure (and potentially slow the spread of the virus), I have more time at home.

Normally this time of year I travel, get training for upcoming volunteer activities, and take day trips---as spring is unfurling. This year was no exception, but it all came to a screeching halt last week. So – what am I doing with this extra time at home? Fortunately, I have a house that I enjoy and there is a lot to do. If you are at home and getting a little low on ‘things to do’ maybe these extra posts will give you some ideas.

There are the usual things that I always try to work into my day (but don’t always succeed when I have a lot of other things going on):

  • Zentangle (more than one)

  • Breathing App (this is an smartphone app that provides tones for breathing – in and out – in a rhythm that people meditating achieve….I find it very relaxing for 15 minutes…better than a substantial nap and makes me even more focused on whatever I do afterward)

  • Yoga (I’ve already built up my routine in the past week!)

  • Browse through 3-4 books on Internet Archive and other online sources. (I like variety. Today I am still working my way through 1) The Vermont Life magazines – I am up to Autumn 2011; 2) Starting The English Home magazines; 3) Working backwards through the Quarterly Journal of the Audubon Society of Missouri – I am back to 2013 now…getting to know to birds found in the state where my daughter is living; and 4) Keeping in reserve the Internet Archive collection by or about Alphonse Mucha.)

  • 12,000 steps (this one is a little harder being at home all the time although I am taking walks around the neighborhood or working in the yard on days that the weather is good)

  • Pictures of birds at the feeder or birdbath – right now the feeder is empty because we are discouraging a hawk from frequenting our back yard and it’s been raining so the birds don’t need the birdbath as often

But what I am doing more than the usual today…what are some ‘different’ things that I did today to keep boredom at bay?

  • Cleaned the foyer and kitchen floors. I don’t do this often enough.

  • Dusted the top of all the door frames. It might have been over a year since I did it. They were dusty!

  • Photographed the plum tree (once the rain was over). There were blossoms at different stages of development and the day was cloudy enough to avoid the harsh shadows of sunny days.

  • Read a chapter in a physical book (I usually read online these days but have a stack of books I’ve been meaning to read for several years)

  • Started soaking some pinto beans (the bag has been in the pantry for over a year, their ‘best if used by’ date was December 2020...I’m going to cook them to use in chili…we have plenty of time to do slow food!)

  • Watched Are Viruses Alive? Video by an astrobiology professor from University of Edinburgh (recorded at home for his “Life in the Universe Pandemic Series”). I enjoyed his Coursera course several years ago.

What I am trying not to do?

  • Eat more than usual

  • Spend too much time looking at COVID-19 news and analysis