Ten Little Celebrations – January 2022

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As I look at my list of little celebrations in January 2022, I am realizing that my surgery stands out so significantly that getting through the surgery itself (the 1st surgery, the reopening of the incision to release blood, the 2nd surgery) is the major celebration of the month! There are little celebrations around that big one: a sunrise and good grocery shopping experience before the surgery, an excellent chicken soup I made a few days after coming home, the hematoma beginning to fade (although it is still not completely gone 2+ weeks afterward…I am checking/celebrating progress every morning), and my first grocery shopping after the surgery (with the assistance of my husband).

The other celebration that stands out this month….more than a little one…is the death of our cat, Boromir. I was glad I held him close for over an hour on his last day….that he seemed at peace. We are still missing him but also celebrating that Boromir was with us for so many years and particularly through the pandemic when we were at home most of the time; he contributed to the positive vibe that seemed so natural…so easily sustained.

And then there were some ‘usual’ little celebrations:

A great meatloaf. I discovered that adding a little olive oil if the ground beef is very lean and using spaghetti sauce instead of salsa improves the texture and flavor!

Red velvet cake/carrot cake for our 49th wedding anniversary. We both savored our slice of celebratory cake…not having any leftovers!

Peppermint snow ice cream. Celebrating a seasonal favorite and plenty of snow to make it!

A new garage door. It was awful to have a damaged door….I celebrated that we could get it replaced quickly.

Snow on the ground. Celebrating the beautiful scene from the windows of our house….and the different perspective as I walked through the neighborhood.

Unique Aspects of Days – January 2022

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This year I am jotting down something unique about each day…encouraging myself to notice those things that are not the same day after day. Sometimes it is related to what I identify as a ‘little celebration’ – but not all the time.

Some of the unique aspects would happen every year – a first snow of the year, a 49th wedding anniversary (Ok – next year will be the 50th),  and a 1st awesome sunrise of the year.

Others will only happen once – perhaps more truly unique: a pet dying, making a new recipe for the first time (this month is was pumpkin peanut powder curry cream (soup)) and a surgery.

Still others I recorded this first month of listing unique events were simply rare: fog in the afternoon and a new garage door.

Overall – this is a good project for 2022…another dimension of awareness into how I am spending my days…making sure I am not ‘in the rut’ all the time!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 15, 2022

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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 Birds of the Week: January 2022 – This set includes a photo of a white-throated sparrow…one of the birds we see at our feeders only in the winter (along with juncos).

Threatened and Endangered Parks: Ghost Forests and rising seas – I recognized Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in the pictures; I’ve visited it more frequently that any other NWR…and have observed some changes over the years. It was the first place I saw a bald eagle in the wild…back in 1990.

Musfur sinkhole: The chasm in Qatar’s desert. – Usually we think of the Arabian Peninsula being full of sand…but there are evidently sinkholes as well…deep enough to show layers of limestone and gypsum.

The Western megadrought is revealing America’s ‘lost national park’ – The water level in Lake Powell has fallen so much that Glen Canyon is revealed again. Gorgeous.

California mice eat Monarch butterflies – Mice eating butterflies that are on the ground had been observed in Mexico’s aggregation site…and now a similar interaction has been observed at a site in California where the Monarch’s aggregate.

Race and ethnicity across the nation – Data from the most recent census visualized on a map. Explore some places you know.

Findings open the way to more precise diagnoses and treatments of Alzheimer’s disease – A difference in Tau protein relates to slow or rapid development of the disease. There is a lot of research on the Alzheimer’s and other diseases that cause cognitive decline going on; with aging populations around globe, it is important to refine the way the diseases are diagnosed…and then treated. One treatment is not going to work for all.

Here's what you should keep in your car and other ways to prepare for winter driving – After the recent prolonged closure of I-95 in Virginia, I started thinking more about this…and will pack a few extra things in my car if I make a road trip to Texas this winter. I would normally have the items listed in the article anyway since I am minimizing the need to stop along the way during the pandemic (but I would need to check the batteries in the flashlight…and add some extras). I would add a sleeping bag too since it is relatively compact and would make it a lot easier to stay warm; I was surprised that this item was not on the list in the article. And I will not wait until the gas tank is down below ¼ tank before I stop for more!

See something weird at the bird feeder? It’s not just you – So far, the only somewhat unusual bird I’ve seen at our feeder was a red-breasted nuthatch; we see the white-breasted ones all the time but there was a season that we had a few of the red-breasted birds too.

See Pandas, Elephants, Cheetahs and More Enjoy a Snow Day at the National Zoo – Fun in the snow…the young panda seems to enjoy rolling or sliding down hills!

22 Months in COVID-19 Pandemic

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22 months in COVID-19 pandemic is a long time to be in heightened awareness mode…long enough for new habits to become well established. I would feel very odd going into a store without a mask….or going shopping at a time where there are lots of people in the store…or shopping slowly…or going out to eat rather than getting takeout. These new habits are just part of the way I am out in the world right now; they are not difficult to sustain.

My concern about COVID-19 has increased over the past month as the Omicron variant has become more widespread and the infections/hospitalizations in Maryland (where I live) have increased dramatically. My husband and I have backed off the plans we had for beginning to get out more. We are enjoying our house and yard…doing outdoor activities on our own in areas without a lot of other people rather than meeting a group.

I take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy whatever I am doing:

…a sunrise before going into the grocery store

… the unfurling of yellow roses over several days as I do my normal activities in my home office (I had the vase on the window sill)

…the snow caught in the pinecones/greenery on our front door (I had opened the door to take it down to dismantle/take to the compost pile but decided to leave it)

Making the conscious effort to appreciate my surroundings is my best strategy for sustaining a positive attitude. I have also started setting 30 minute timers all during the day and doing 3 minutes of walking. It is a great way to move throughout the day and stay focused on whatever I need to do during the other 27 minutes!

My husband and I have planned what we will do after my cancer surgery since there will be a higher than usual chance we will be exposed to COVID-19. For him, being in the waiting room for hours is the challenge; even if he goes outside to eat/drink and everyone is masked when indoors…it will be a lot longer indoors away from home since the initial lockdowns of the pandemic. For me, the exposure could take place during the surgery itself…from the time I take off my mask to the time I wake up from anesthesia; presumably everyone will be masked and the air filtration will be good….but still more chance of exposure than my normal routine. Our plan for 5 days post-surgery is to be on separate floors of our house when we have our mask off (sleeping, eating/drinking, showering) ….and test if we have any symptoms. I’ll post more about it as we implement the pan.

By the time I am recovered from surgery and ready for another road trip to Texas, the Omicron variant may be waning and hopefully another variant is not burning bright and hot….but maybe that is wishful thinking.

Neighborhood Walk in the Snow

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I bundled up in snow pants, hiking boots, scarf, coat and gloves for a walk in our neighborhood after the snow had stopped; it was afternoon, but the temperature was still below freezing. My phone was on a lanyard and the Bluetooth clicker was in my hand….all set to take pictures along my route. Our driveway was still pristine when I walked through; we had opted not to shovel since we didn’t need to get out for a few days and it would melt before then. Our street had not been plowed yet, but cars had made tracks.

The evergreens were flocked with snow. I liked the way the long needles looked from underneath…more green showing. The cedars were heavy with snow, but I didn’t see any broken branches. There was a little breeze that would cause small amounts of snow to fall; the temperature and the wetness of the snow kept most of it in place.

There was a large tree that had many large branches starting a couple of feet above my height; the snow seemed to highlight their juncture. I wondered if the primary stem had been damaged when it was young.

The pond was surrounded by cattails holding snow. It appeared that erosion has reduced the size of the pond since it was dredged a few years ago.

I photographed a branch from a small tree from underneath. The branches were close enough together to hold a lot of snow….the cohesion of the crystals in this particular snow were impressive. A little breeze came through, but the snow stayed in place.

The fire hydrants in the neighborhood sported snow on every surface that was even a little horizontal. The roughness of tree bark also held snow.

When I got to the main road – I saw that the clouds were beginning to clear…great blue – yellow – orange color for the late afternoon.

I took one last picture before I turned back toward home. Someone had been out with a snowblower to clear sidewalks…preparing for the neighborhoods school children catching the bus the next day….or the day after.

There were some crepe myrtle pods from last fall holding mounds of snow. Two boys were making a small snowman nearby.

As I walked by the pond again, I noted that there were no sled tracks down the hill that my daughter thoroughly enjoyed 20 years ago. Have the neighborhood children not discovered it, or do they stick closer to their own yard and siblings because of the pandemic?  

First Snow this Winter

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Our first snow of the season came this week…and it was about 6 inches that fell from the wee hours of the morning until about noon. The temperature hovered around 30 degrees.

I did little photography projects throughout the morning. The accumulation between 7:30 and 10 AM shows in the pictures below.

I stood in the open garage door to photograph the scene from the front of our house about sunrise while it was snowing heavily and leaned out to take a close picture of the holly growing at the corner of our house.

Later I went out on our covered/screened deck and opened the door to take pictures of the sycamore – old leaves, tangle of branches, and the snow clinging to the texture of the peeling bark.

The snow was sticking to near vertical surfaces of the deck.

I did some experimental pictures of the maple and a cedar through the screen (the screens were catching snow too). It made a counted cross stitch effect!

I heard a wren singing when I was in my office and looked for it…found it under the bench…and watching for a space at the feeder to open.

I also noticed some crows cleaning up around the base of the feeder out in the yard.

My husband too a picture of the deck. The feeder was periodically full of birds throughout the morning!

I made our traditional peppermint snow ice cream after most of the snow had fallen…skimming off the top layer of snow into a big bowl and then adding milk, pieces of peppermint candy, sugar, and vanilla. Mixed with my electric mixer. Yummy! I was not as successful at another traditional activity: photographing snowflakes. At first it was too warm and then it seemed like the flakes were all breaking on impact with my chilled plate. Maybe I’ll have better luck with the next snow.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 25, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

New copper surface eliminates bacteria in just two minutes – One of the emerging technologies to fight bacteria (and viruses) without antibiotics. Copper is already being used in some applications, but this materials research developed a new structure of copper that is more effective and faster. The article didn’t comment about durability…but still very promising finding.

Home Battery Storage: The (Solar) Rich Get Richer – There is beginning to be more equity in solar panel installation….but storage is still a challenge at lower incomes. Some states have programs that may be the wave of the future and there are incentives in pending legislation. Hopefully a positive momentum will build over the next few years.

California Readies Launch of Largest Food Waste Recycling Program in the U.S. – Part of the county where I live in Maryland has curbside pickup of food waste for composting…but not the part where I live. I have a backyard compost bin…but many people do not so there is still considerable food waste going to the landfill.

10 Winter Birds to Spot During the Christmas Bird Count – Seen any of these in your area?

Why is snow white? – 3 videos…the last one with more ‘bonus’ explanations (such as why polar bears are white).

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Pigment – This post was a bit confusing since it wasn’t explicit about which colors were from pigments ( as in the red of cardinals) and which were from light scattering caused by the physical structure of the feathers (for example, in blue jays). Read more about this non-pigment phenomenon particular for blue feathers here.

Winter is coming: Researchers uncover the surprising cause of the little ice age – New research shows that the little ice age in the early 1400s occurred when the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapsed after a warming period which flushed Arctic ice into the north Atlantic, cooling it and reducing its saltiness. Could the AMOC collapse again with ice melting because of climate change? Existing climate models do not model the impacts of ice melt (making the north Atlantic cooler and less salty)!

From blood clots to infected neurons, how COVID threatens the brain – An overview of the research into how COVID-19 impacts the brain; there is still a lot more to be learned about this - probably one of the most devastating aspects of ‘long Covid’. It appears that the cognitive impact experienced by some COVID-19 survivors improves over time, but half the patients in one study were not back to normal after a year. It is a very sad prospect for individuals and for or society.

Watch This Giant Phantom Jellyfish With 33-Foot-Long Arms Float Through the Deep Ocean – The video is less than a minute…worth watching.

AAA Electric Vehicle Infographic — The Good & The Bad – My current car is a plug-in hybrid….the next one will most likely be an EV.

Last Snow of February 2021

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It snowed for a short time on the 22nd – the last snow of the month. I was disappointed with my first foray out to photograph snowflakes.

They looked like pellets although not always sleet spheres like I had photographed earlier in the month. They were very white…and I could see that some were hexagonal even without magnification.

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When I used my clip-on magnifying lens with my phone – I saw that they were indeed heavily encrusted snowflakes. They were thick enough that the shallow depth of field with the magnification meant that parts were out of focus.

I tried again 30 minutes later and was surprised at how different the flakes looked. They were still encrusted but not as heavily. The temperature was warm enough that there were clumps of icy flakes --- pieces of structure.

My favorite image of the morning was taken during the second session. The lighting caused a little aberration, but I like the glitter of the ice…and the overall shapes.

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At dusk of the same day, the snow was still on the ground as the deer came through; they never stop for very long in our yard. This time they stopped for long enough for portraits. I’m quite sure the animal in the second image saw me in my window!

Overall – it was a winter’s day to enjoy…my routine pursuits with the added spice of snowflake photography and noticing deer staying a few minutes longer than usual in our back yard.

Mini Road Trips: Mt Pleasant – February 2021

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I visited Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant twice in February. The first attempt was a beautiful day – one of the warmest in February. It was a little traumatic because when I attempted to leave my house, my car’s battery was low; I decided not to hike – just make the round-trip drive to let the battery changed again.

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I took a picture of the river birch in the rain garden near the parking lot through the windshield.

The next day was colder but I was intent on hiking…seeing the skunk cabbage again about a month from when I’d hiked to see it back in January. The paths were often muddy and sometimes snow covered. I was glad my hiking boots were waterproof!

The approaches to the bridge over the stream near Hodge Podge Lodge were very muddy but I managed to step on and off onto vegetation. There seemed to be more sand than decaying leaves in the stream bed below the gentle ripples.

The area where the skunk cabbage grows is a low spot where a seep creates a muddy spot then forms the beginning of a stream that feeds into the Davis Branch. There are skunk cabbage plants in the muddy part and then along the tiny trickling stream. It takes a little hunting…watching your step to avoid stepping on plants emerging through last summer’s vegetation.

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There seemed to be about the same number of plants as in January. Some appeared to be damaged at the top by the recent very cold days. The plants create some heat chemical and pull themselves deeper in the muck to survive cold days…but the top part of the spathe would probably always be above the muck.

I did manage to zoom in on one plant that had a visible bloom! They look like a golf ball inside the spathe!

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I’ll make at least one more hike to see the skunk cabbage….try to photograph some of the first leaves unfurling.

Zooming - February 2021

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As I selected the images to include in this monthly post, I found more variety than usual. The experimental high key images are quite different than my usual photography – a type of photography I will continue to use in otherwise poor lighting conditions. There was also a lot of snow….in landscapes and as background to the usual birds. I took more pictures of deer in February too. One subject carried over from last month – the skunk cabbage is still blooming at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant and it’s the only picture taken away from home! Enjoy the slideshow.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2021

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The biggest celebrations of February 2021 were about my family surviving very cold weather in Missouri and Texas relatively unscathed…..and everyone staying well for another month. Of course – there were a myriad of little celebrations. I easily list one every day – and sometimes choosing what to record is a challenge!

There were more notations than usual about food in February. Some were experiments that were yummy…others were opportunistic:

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Snow ice cream. We had enough snow this month to make snow ice cream. I always wait for the snow to get at least 3-4 inches deep…then collect the top inch for the snow ice cream. I collect a bowl full then add half and half, chipped peppermint candy/sugar, and vanilla. It’s one of the few times I use my old electric mixer! The challenge is to make only as much as my husband and I can consume right away…we usually each manage a large bowl full. …celebrating a snow day favorite

Broccoli  with orange marmalade glaze. When it’s cold outside, I rarely want salad….this experiment was an easy way to have a ‘hot’ equivalent. I cut up broccoli just as I would for salad, tossed it over a spoonful of orange marmalade in a bowl and microwaved it for a minute or so. A quick stir to coat the broccoli with the melted marmalade, and it was ready to eat! …celebrating ‘hot’ versions of salads

Microwave apple with oatmeal and pecans. I bought a large bag of apples that my husband did not like as well as I thought he would, so I was looking for ways to use them. Breakfast in a bowl seemed to be a good option. I put about ½ cup almond milk in a microwavable bowl then 1/3 cup oatmeal, some brown sugar and cinnamon, a cut up apple, some chopped pecans. Microwave for a minute….stir…microwave for another 30 seconds to a minute…and enjoy. I’ve had it for breakfast several times but realize it would taste good to me any time of day! ….celebrating a new ‘comfort food’

Hot chocolate smoothie. I like smoothies and started experimenting with heating them up. My favorite is made with almond milk, chocolate protein powder, cocoa, banana, and kale. I make it the usual way in the Ninja then put it in a Pyrex measuring cup to heat in the microwave. I stir is several times while I heat…it thickens a bit. ….celebrating a decadent (healthy) treat

There were photography entries on my list too….some attempts that produced images to celebrate.

Snowflakes. There were several snow day during the month so I got several opportunities. I learned to pay attention to the temperature; in general – lower is better! …celebrating the challenge of macro photography outdoors in the snow

High key. This is an example of learning something new….being inspired…and lucky enough to create some interesting images almost immediately! …celebrating learning something new – well enough to be ‘dangerous’

And then there was the variety in the rest of the list:

Multiple virtual birding festivals in one day: Niagara, Laredo, and Bosque del Apache. It was almost overwhelming. We ended up saving some of the webinars until the next day. I was not ‘in the field’ but something that would have been physically impossible: New York/Canada – Texas – New Mexico all in one day! …celebrating the wonders of virtual travel

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Quiet snowy Sunday. Sometimes it’s good to have a day to just enjoy the scenery from our windows! …celebrating home

A warmer day in Maryland that Texas or Missouri. Texts were flying across states…the family checking in…worried about water pipes breaking or loosing electricity. My family was lucky enough to come through with relatively few problems! …celebrating family sharing during times of near/potential crisis.

Curbside groceries. I have noticed how different it is from last spring. The shoppers are faster (probably more experienced) and the supply in the store is better. It will be wonderful to shop for my own groceries again but for now I am….celebrating the curbside pickup grocery service.

Sleet and Snowflake Macros

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I try to do some photography with my phone and clip-on macro lens with every snow event. On the 13th, the snow event was mostly sleet, but I enjoyed looking at and photographing the tiny spheres of ice. I caught them on a red glass plate...and also scooped a few onto the plate from the surface of the deck. Sleet is more durable to rough treatment that snowflakes! The icy spheres have swirls in them…smaller ones are stuck to larger ones…sometimes there is a visible fracture. My lens is a 65x magnification, so these are very small.

On the 19th, the tail end of our cold weather was snow rather than freezing rain. The temperature was about 30 degrees – a bit colder than my previous snowflake photography forays…and it turned out to be an interesting session. The flakes looked somewhat flattened….not as delicate as they might be if the temperature was lower. But – I didn’t have the challenge of inseparable aggregates that was the norm for my sessions when the temperature was just a few degrees warmer. I used a black acrylic tile to catch the flakes and then to photography them. It sat outside on the covered deck for several hours to cool down. I was pleased with the results…chagrined that I had forgotten to turn on the light associated with the clip-on lens; the pictures would have been even better with the extra light….an improvement I’ll make next time!

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!

3 Days of Snow

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Today our forecast is mostly cloudy…after three days of cloudy skies and snow. The streets are already clear, and the driveway has some clear patches without us ever shoveling. We enjoyed our snow days but are glad to see a bit more sun!

On the first day we had a lot of webinars from the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife which we were watching on the biggest screen in the house (the television) and had a fire going in the fireplace. We had a power failure a little before 8 AM for a few seconds and the cable/internet was out for about an hour afterward. It’s a good thing the first festival session of the day was recorded so we could watch it later!

I tried some snowflake photography twice during the day. I used my phone with a clip-on lens that included a light and a red glass plate to catch the snowflakes. The temperature was about 30 degrees which is on the warm side for good snowflake photography.

The flakes during the first session about 8AM were clumping although there was one that seems to look like a pyramid with a hexagonal base! Even though I had cooled down the plate and lens for over an hour, there was still some melting.

During the second session shortly after noon, it was easier to see individual snowflakes, but they were heavily encrusted with tiny ice spheres.

I tried to capture some scenes from our back and front yard over the course of the day. Our deck and bird feeder still drew the birds even while it was snowing.

I made snow ice cream in the afternoon – after enough snow had accumulated. We ate the whole big bowl!

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Overnight there was freezing rain so there was an icy crust on everything the second day.

I cracked the ice of the top of the snow on the deck and made snow ice cream again. It was too icy, but we ate most of it anyway.

It snowed more overnight than we though it would so the third day had snow on top of ice. I worried that it might be too heavy for some of the trees because there was some wind as well….but we didn’t hear or see any breakage.  I took pictures of scenes through several windows.

Two of my favorite pictures of the day were taken through the windows on the side of the front door. The vertical ice and snow covered thread in the azalea is an old spider web that’s been there since last fall! The seed pod with a hat of ice and snow is a black-eyed Susan from last summer.

Our plum tree was so full of snow that it obscured the evergreens across the street. The view through the skylights was different too; one had patches of ice partially obscuring the branches of the sycamore in the background.

As always – the view from my office window was the best in the house.

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Zooming – January 2021

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We had some sunny days….and then ice and snow twice during January. One is still happening as I write this post on the last day of the month. The forecast says it will extend into February. The second snow was after some colder days, so it began to stick to the street almost immediately.

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The only picture not of my yard was the skunk cabbage at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant.

Enjoy the January 2021 slideshow!

30 years ago – January 1991

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In January 1991 – we went down to the Smithsonian on the 1st. I didn’t note which museums we saw…just that our 16-month-old daughter walked across the mall on her own – stopping to exam interesting pebbles and clumps of grass, etc.

We had more snow that January than we have this year. There are pictures of our daughter sledding down the driveway in a plastic tub; her snowsuit is a little tight and she does not look happy at all…maybe because I forgot to put on her mittens! She was much happier indoors eating spaghetti.

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Her new skill was taking off her shoes and socks. Her father called me one morning after I’d gotten to work with the news that I was going to have to do something about her…he had gotten her ready to go to day care and was putting on his coat…turned around to discover that her shoes and socks were not on her feet anymore! Her day care provider said the same thing happened all day long. Once she discovered she could do it – we all had to be patient until the novelty wore off…or her feet grew a little and the shoes were not as easy to pull off. I also started putting her in tights, so she had at least one layer on her feet.

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We all enjoyed the Cats musical that we taped from PBS. Our daughter made the connection between the characters of the show and our cat. The cat slept through most of the video viewings.

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My husband and it were worried about events in the Middle East (Desert Storm); after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, there had been such hope that the world was heading toward a better time, but the optimism did not last. I was feeling the physical distance between where I lived in Maryland with the rest of my family in the Dallas just as I am now. Maybe it was a little better in 1991 because I could travel – not something that can happen in January 2021.

Zooming – December 2020

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I took fewer pictures in December…and shifted toward macro rather than zoomed. It was an indoor month because of the cold and the activities associated with holidays. Still – there were pictures of birds and snow – sunrise and sunset…the wintery scene. I’m going to bundle up to take more walks even in the January cold!

Ten Little Celebrations – December 2020

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A month with lots of celebrations…with some old and new ways of celebrating.

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Snow. My husband and I celebrated the first snow of the year by making snow ice cream, attempting snowflake photography, and having a fire in the fireplace. The way we celebrate snow is something that hasn’t been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic; maybe it was better because we didn’t bother to shovel the driveway since we knew we weren’t going to be going out!

Maryland Water Monitoring Council Conference. I enjoyed two mornings of Zoom presentation that were this year’s version of the one-day conference held in December. This was another instance of something better in some respects than the pre-pandemic….no crowded conference rooms or not being able to see the bottom of the slides! I am still celebrating by reading Rita Colwell’s book (she was the plenary speaker) – one chapter per day!

CSA stevia. I thoroughly enjoyed putting a few stevia leaves dried from my collection of it at the CSA into pots of hot tea….a little sweetness to celebrate in something hot to drink on a winter’s day.

Getting stuff put away…given away. I am celebrating getting our basement a little cleaned out. There is still a lot of stuff we won’t ever use again (i.e. to give away…or somehow get it out of the house) or we won’t need in the next year or so and can be boxed up to better preserve it. Getting it sorted and organized feels good….like we are back in control rather than being overwhelmed by possessions!

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Making haystack cookies. This was a first for me. I had eaten them at holiday events previously and remembered how much I liked them. None of those events are happening this year so the only option was to make them myself. What a great treat! They will probably be something I make every year…a new tradition coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sunny afternoon. The weather has turned colder but there was one sunny afternoon that was warm enough to open the windows a little and get some air exchange with the outdoors. I celebrated the day…so different from the others of the month.

Chipotle take out. I enjoy my own cooking…but also a change of pace. And my husband has something he likes from Chipotle too. We order ahead and he picks it up.

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Sunrise moment. The color of sunrise light on our forest….always a few moments to celebrate when it happens at the beginning of the day.

Finale of Mandalorian season. We watched every new episode as it came out then celebrated the finale and the prospect of more Star Wars spin offs…nothing too serious but fun to watch.

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Last big leaf falling from the sycamore. That last leaf signaled the end of fall…the beginning of winter. I celebrated the passing of the old season…and the new one too.

Skylight Snow Slide

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The skylight on the covered deck is easily photographed from my office window. After the snow covered it last Wednesday, I watched as the snow and ice started to melt. 48 hours after the snow fell…we had warm enough temperatures that the melt was starting, and the sheet started to slide.

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The overnight temperatures froze everything again. The next day…it melted some more but stayed intact as is moved down the slope.

The day after the sheet broke about noon.

The next morning the skylight was clear but there was still some ice melting on the roof -

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And the morning was full of fog.

Our forecast has us getting cold again later in the week…but no snow for Christmas.

Remnants of Snow

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Once we had snow on the ground, the cold kept it there for a few days. There was slow melting in the daytime but hard freezes at night – down to 20 degrees on one night.

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I decided to try some 5x magnification photography with my phone using a magnifier with a light feature. A rubber band held the magnifier positioned over the phone’s camera which allowed me to hold it with one hand and use a external clicker to take pictures (I could have used voice commands but they aren’t as reliable as the clicker which I wore on a lanyard around my neck).

The depth of field makes it challenging to have everything in focus, but I picked images for the slideshow below where the blurred part is not essential to seeing the remnants of snow. I think some of the structures were just as they fell as snow and others were from re-freezing that occurred over several nights.

All these were taken in the early morning…very cold…on my front porch. The day was cloudy so the majority of the light was coming from the magnifier’s LED.