Gleanings of the Week Ending June 17, 2023

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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.

Humans taking a toll on Yellowstone wildlife - In recent days two black bears have been killed by motorists, an elk and a bison were also hit by vehicles, a newborn elk calf was picked up by motorists concerned for its fate, and a bison calf had to be put down after a visitor tried to help it out of the Lamar River so it could catch up with its mother. I remember that the park had good signage trying to educate people….seems that it isn’t as effective as I assumed it would be.

See the Rare Albino Echidna Spotted in Australia – It’s been named (Raffie) and photographed…evidently still in the wild! A piece of trivia from the article: a baby echidna is a puggle.

Tune in to the Great Salt Lake kestrel cam – Take a look…they hatched on May 17th…and they are growing up fast.

Scientists target human stomach cells for diabetes therapy – Still very much in research phase…but it would certainly improve the lives of a lot of people if it can be developed into a treatment!

This New Device Generates Electricity from Thin Air – Evidently the device can be made from any material that can be punctured with ultra-small holes. Too good to be true….or competitive with established clean energy sources like wind and solar?

Super low-cost smartphone attachment brings blood pressure monitoring to your fingertips – A clip that fits over the phone’s camera and flash…an app. It costs about 80 cents to make but the cost could be as low at 10 cents when manufactured at scale. Evidently it does not need to be calibrated either! I wonder if cuffs will become a thing of the past very quickly!

What we know about the health risks of ultra-processed foods – Research teasing out what exactly about ultra-processed food is bad. I’ve been trying to reduce ultra-processed food…so have been following the advice in this article for at about a year: if you're considering eating a packaged food, read the ingredient list…If you really have no idea what some of those ingredients are, it probably went too far.

You can make carbon dioxide filters with a 3D printer – Printing a hydrogel material that holds carbonic anhydrase (an enzyme that turns carbon dioxide and water into bicarbonate).

Nepal Won’t Move the Mount Everest Base Camp for Now, Despite Risks – Everest’s highest glacier has lost half its mass since the 1990s because of higher temperatures. It may only be a few years before the camp needs to move.

Colombia’s ‘cocaine hippo’ population is even bigger than scientists thought – Wild descendants of the hippos introduced in Columbia by Pablo Escobar….considered the largest invasive animal in the world. There are probably 181-215 of them in Columbia. Several strategies are being tried: contraception administered via dart, castration, exporting the animal to sanctuaries abroad. Culling appears to be the only strategy that can save the biodiversity of Columbia.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 20, 2023

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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.

These four challenges will shape the next farm bill – and how the US eats – Thought provoking. Will the author’s dream priorities for investment (organic agriculture as a climate solution, infrastructure to support vibrant local and regional markets and shift away from an agricultural economy dependent on exporting low-vale crops; and agricultural science and technology research aimed at reducing labor and chemical inputs and providing new solutions for sustainable livestock production) be funded….or will Congress stay entrenched in continuing agriculture as it is today.

The Energy Revolution in 5 Charts – 1. The energy transition is a technology revolution (it’s not a brown to green caterpillar…it is a caterpillar to a butterfly; we are moving from a commodity (fossil fuel) to technology-based system). 2) The renewable revolution is exponential, not linear (and we are at or past the knee in the curve). 3) The renewable revolution is led by China (with the US and Europe recently enacting policies to compete). 4) This is the decade of change (exciting times for heat pumps, electric vehicles, solar, and wind). 5) By 2030, the debate will be very different with the renewable revolution obvious to all.

National Park waterfalls being honored on US Postage Stamps – Beautiful places. Would like to see (and photograph) more of them!

The Camouflaged Looper: This Inchworm Makes Its Own Flower “Costume” – Another reason to take a closer look at flowers….the small creatures that might we living (and munching) there!

Our tropical fruits are vulnerable to climate change. Can we make them resilient in time? – The work to help our food plants tolerate and thrive with climate change. The post is specific to Australia but has applicability elsewhere. Techniques have already been successfully applied to chickpeas to make them more drought resistant, survive higher temperatures, and produce better yields!

Commercial Rooftop Solar on Warehouses Could Power All of Them – Commercial rooftop solar on America’s warehouses could provide 185 TWh of clean renewable energy every year. Hurray! Power produced near population centers where it is used….and avoiding taking farmland for solar panels (unless the plan is to grow crops under the panels).

Water arsenic including in public water is linked to higher urinary arsenic totals among the U.S. population – Not good…and water pitcher type filters do not remove it…..it takes reverse osmosis, activated alumina, or ion exchange (anion) resins to do that.

Fashion World Remembers Mary Quant, the Miniskirt Pioneer – I was old enough in the ‘60s to remember wearing Mary Quant type dresses!

How do you stay optimistic in spite of it all? 6 hopeful souls share their secrets – Thought provoking…maybe we all need to think about the ways keep ourselves positive….not let the pessimism around us overcome us.

The clean energy milestone the world is set to pass in 2023 - Greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, the largest source of the world's emissions, are expected to fall for the first time!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 29, 2023

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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.

Cold is beneficial for healthy aging, at least in animals – Research with nematodes and cultivated human cells. Both carried genes for ALS and Huntington’s disease. Cold actively removed protein clumps…preventing protein aggregation that is pathological for those diseases. The protease activator that caused the change was discovered…and the impact of temperature explored. Interestingly – “human body temperature has steadily declined by 0.03 degrees Celsius per decade since the Industrial Revolution, suggesting a possible link to the progressive increase in human life expectancy over the last 160 years.”

See Colorful Paintings of the Zodiac Signs from an Ancient Egyptian Temple – Ceiling paintings in a Ptolemaic temple…suggesting Greeks brought the zodiac tradition to Egypt.

 Nearly 1,000 Acres Added to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – The acres are in the Preserve part of the park. I have visited the park only once…passing through on one of my many trips between Maryland and Missouri. There is a lot to explore there!

Vehicle Exhaust Filters Do Not Remove “Ultrafine” Pollution – Aargh! No wonder there are so many yellow and red air quality days in our cities caused by particulates.

What it really takes for Asia to get to net zero – Home to 5 of the 10 largest emitters: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. An article posted ahead of the BBC’s Sustainability Summit in Singapore. "The perception of higher cost for sustainability practices remains," says An (chief sustainability officer of City Developments Limited in Singapore). "But companies are starting to wake up to the fact that achieving climate goals is an "investment, not a cost."

Thread-like pumps can be woven into clothes – My first thought was maybe these will be commonplace in clothes – enabling us to work outdoors even on very hot days.

Sabertooth cat skull newly discovered in Iowa reveals details about this Ice Age predator – Almost as iconic as dinosaurs when it comes to childhood curiosity about extinct animals. One piece of trivia about modern cats: 40% of lion skulls in a study had survived head trauma to hunt another day. One of the ‘sabers’ of the Iowa Sabertooth was broken not that long before it died…might have even caused its death. Prey fights back…the predator does not always ‘win.’

Europe's unique trials in food 'social security' – Two projects: Montpellier, France and Brussels, Belgium. Run by collectives. The idea that quality, nutritious and organic food should be accessible to everyone.  Each citizen receives a monthly allowance enabling them to buy food meeting certain environmental and ethical criteria. The trials are running for 12 months. The big challenge is changing the way society thinks about food.

The Beauty of Bugs – The picture at the beginning of the article jogged my memory – of the necklace made from insect exoskeletons I saw at the Edge of Cedars State Park Museum when I visited Utah in 2013! I posted about it and took a picture back then…and am pleased to learn more about it and the possible implication it might have re the Basketmaker II culture.

Scientists discover a way Earth’s atmosphere cleans itself – It’s surprising that we don’t know more about how the Earth’s atmosphere works!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 8, 2023

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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.

Avi Kwa Ame, Sacred Land in Nevada, to Be Preserved as a National Monument – Good! Another place to see when we make a trip in the west.

Volvo Delivers Its 1st Electric Heavy-Duty Truck in Africa – The truck is being used for collecting waste in Rabat, Morocco. Morocco is also home to the world’s biggest concentrated solar power facility.

A 90-year-old tortoise named Mr. Pickles just became a father of 3. It's a big 'dill' – Radiated tortoise native to Madagascar and critically endangered…at the Houston Zoo.

One of Europe’s last free-flowing rivers declared a National Park – Albania’s Vjosa River. Europe is also removing dams along other river just as we are in the US…but rivers that have been controlled by barriers will never be the way they were before the dam.

Clinics on wheels bring doctors and dentists to health care deserts – It’s a step forward and might work well for preventative or chronic care…but what happens in cases where the need is more urgent…like broken bones, having a baby, the aftermath of a car accident?

Technology over the long run: zoom out to see how dramatically the world can change within a lifetime – A graphic from ‘Our World in Data’ – worth the look. See the big developments they selected occuring during your lifetime….and when technologies we take for granted came along.

Take a Virtual Tour of the ‘Doomsday’ Seed Vault – Its doors are only opened a few times each year for new seed entries. The seeds come from countries from all over the world and are kept at -18 degrees Celsius. The most recent withdrawal was to re-establish a seedbank that had been destroyed in Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War.

Urban Trees Could Cut Summer Heat Deaths by a Third – Increasing tree cover to 30% could reduce premature deaths from urban heat islands by 40%. Sounds like a good idea of heath…and makes the cities more appealing too. Other actions can help too: green roofs/walls, light colored roofs/walls/landscape pavers, and replacing impervious surfaces with plants and soils.

Fresh produce contaminated with toxic BPA-like chemicals found in food labels – A Canadian study found that the chemicals migrate from labels in packaging materials into the food!

Common sweetener suppresses mouse immune system — in high doses – An artificial sweetener (sucralose) that might become a drug to reduce or replace immunosuppressive drugs that often have a lot of unpleasant side effects (if humans react to it the same as mice).

Diet Changes

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I’ve made more dietary changes than usual these first months of 2023…challenging myself to eat healthier. I am not entirely settled into my ‘new normal’ and realizing that, now that I’ve have succeeded in a few changes, my confidence for changing more is growing. The overarching theme for the changes is eliminating foods that are heavily processed (ones that include heavy metals or ingredients that seem to cause digestive problems first).

The changes I’ve already made –

I moved from Lactaid milk to soymilk when it seemed that the Lactaid was not completely resolving my lactose intolerance. The soymilk was better, but I still sometimes felt bloated. I discovered that all the soymilks that provide calcium also have gellan gum which can slow digestion in some people. All the soymilks I found that did not include gellan gum, did not have calcium. So – I am back to the ‘no milk’ situation and taking supplements to get enough calcium (since I don’t get enough in my diet).

I was using stevia for sweetening my hot tea when the research about erythritol came out…discovered that the packets I was using had erythritol as the first ingredient! The packets in my pantry were thrown away and I didn’t replace them. Right now, I am using honey if I want my tea sweetened but usually don’t need anything.

I started looked at my supplements and discovered that all the chewables have sugar of some kind (usually sugar alcohol or artificial). I have finished my supply of those supplements and bought capsules or tablets instead. Also – I noticed that chewable calcium supplements not only had sweeteners…the also contained talc (which is not something I want to eat either).

Diet Pepsi has been my soft drink of choice for a long time. I have cut back…sometimes stopped completely…but have always started up again. This time I am more serious about avoiding it completely. Aside from the health benefits, stopping has reducing the volume of our recycling! An element of self-discovery: just stopping is easier than gradually tapering when it comes to habitual food choices.

My 1st breakfast has been dark chocolate for years. The recent story about lead and cadmium in dark chocolate was an unpleasant surprise. My brand of choice was high in cadmium and had enough lead to be problematic for eating on a daily basis. So – I ate what I had and will not buy more. A positive aspect to eliminating this habitual food was that my 1st breakfasts have a bit more variety now…and usually include chia seeds (1 tablespoon in water to make swallowing supplements easier and provide a good amount of omega-3 oil).

Bread in the grocery store often has a lot of ingredients that don’t sound like food at all. Presumably most of them are preservatives. I found an organic brand that had ingredients that I recognize…the same ones I would use at home if I took the time to make bread…and won’t buy anything else from now on!

I’m not sure what the next round of changes will be; my focus is to let these changes become established as my ‘new normal’ as I gradually hone my diet toward healthier choices.

Edamame Pods

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Edamame pods have become my favorite light meal/snack. I usually look for shelled edamame for stir fries but recently discovered snack-sized packages of frozen soybeans in pods that are intended to be microwaved 2.5 minutes in the package…then eaten. They are unseasoned. I like them plain but variety could be added by sprinkling with your favorite no salt seasoning. They have 9 grams of protein…90 calories…along with fiber, essential fatty acids and isoflavones….probably one of the healthiest snacks around.

My daughter had introduced me to soybeans in pods served as an appetizer at a restaurant while we were in Canada. The learning curve to get the beans out of the pod neatly was an adventure…but didn’t take long. In restaurants they are often served with salt crystals. I’m glad I noticed the packages at my grocery store so I can include them more frequently in my diet.

The pods are left after the snack. They are not edible. Another edamame pod adventure: some macro photography (with my phone – a Samsung Galaxy S10e). The pods retain the bumps from where the beans were….and begin to curl as they dry. The inside has a lighter layer that looks like padding for the bean. There are also bristles and tiny dark channels on the outer part of the pod.

Now - I’ve collected enough pods over several days. I am putting them in my small compost pile.

The Whole Orange

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I’ve enjoyed oranges all my life….sometimes cutting them in slices…sometimes in wedges. In recent years, I cut them in wedges so that after I eat the pulp, the peels fit nicely into the food processor.

Once the peel is chopped up, I let it dry on a plate to be used in cooking…or in hot tea.

It feels good to use the whole orange….getting all the nutrition from the fruit! I have some recipes that use the whole fruit as well; my favorite is cranberry orange relish that I make any time I see fresh cranberries in the produce section (usually November and December).

My mother reminisced that oranges were special treats of the holidays when she was child, and her mother often candied the peel. Every time I use the whole orange, I feel an affinity with my maternal grandmother…good vibes through the years!

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2023

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January is usually the calm after the flurry of holidays and other big celebrations in November and December. Still - there are plenty of little celebrations to choose from; these are the top 10 for January 2023.

50th wedding anniversary. My husband and I celebrated our 50th anniversary….a delivered lunch with our daughter. Our anniversary celebrations have always been relatively low key; this year I thought more about my parents’ 70th anniversary back in December…savoring enduring relationships with my family.

A new low weight for the year. I put on some weight in November and December. I put myself on a “healthy food” diet (logging my food into the Cronometer app) and celebrated that it worked…slowly but surely taking off pounds!

Lake Springfield. A winter meadow…and black vultures. Celebrating being outdoors in winter.

Another frost data point. I celebrated getting a second frosty morning to add to my project…noting temperature and humidit and photographing the crystals.

Hurray – bone density results still in the ‘normal’ range. Every time I get new bone density check, I am always a little anxious. I am leery of medications to treat bone density issues so I’m glad my preventative exercise - calcium – magnesium – Vitamin D regime seems to be maintaining my bones.

A sunny day in Carrollton (and seeing a downy woodpecker). After clouds and rain, a sunny day is always welcome and seeing a small woodpecker getting breakfast in a tree near a window adds to the celebration.

Coursera anatomy course. Starting a new course…celebrating filling in gaps in what I already know. Its always fun to slip back into the student role.

Pumpkin custard with peanut powder. I celebrated the success of my culinary experiment of the month: adding a cup of peanut powder to pumpkin custard (and rounding up on the spices). Yummy…and high in protein.

Snow (pictures) from Nixa/Springfield. I celebrated the event while I was in Texas.

Frosty morning in Carrollton. I added 2 frost events into my project while I was in Texas…celebrated that the conditions were cold enough…humidity high enough too.

2023 Diet (Strategy)

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I am thinking about my diet strategy for 2023. It’s a mix of things that have worked before to keep my focus on nutrition and moving toward a sustained ‘normal’ weight…skewed toward lowering my carbon footprint.

  • Use the Cronometer app to watch nutrition and calories until I am at the ‘normal’ weight for my height. This worked for me 5+ years ago so I am going to do it again now that I have gained a few pounds. It is important to sustain a healthy weight rather than yo-yoing. Using the app I know I am getting enough protein; if I need to reduce something to get the calories low enough, it is usually a fat…and I want all the calories to go toward meeting nutritional goals.

  • Reduce ultra-processed foods (those foods that have a long list of ingredients…some of them unrecognizable). The hardest might be soft drinks. I also notice that when I travel, there are more instances of ultra-processed foods in my diet.

  • Eat less red meat. In 2022 it was about half my protein. In 2023, I want to reduce it to 25%. I’ll ramp up eggs, chicken, turkey, and vegetarian sources of protein (although I am not keen on the vegetarian sources of protein with ingredient lists that indicate they are ‘ultra-processed’).

  • Become vigilant about avoiding lactose. The Lactaid does not seem to totally solve the problem anymore, so it is better to avoid the foods. The big change is moving away from Lactaid Milk to Soymilk. Deciding what to eat when I travel will be a bit more challenging as well.

The theme for my 2023 diet is:

‘Good for me…and for the planet.’

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 14, 2023

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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.

Study investigates source of Amazon’s “Dark Earth” – Created intentionally? It is less acidic than surrounding soils…probably from the addition of ash.

New York City Greenery Absorbing All Traffic Emissions on Many Summer Days – There is a lot more greenery that previously thought…looking beyond parks to modest backyards, shrubbery growing in vacant lots, and trees dotting city sidewalks. That’s good for the summer when everything is green and growing….but it also implies that winter air quality is problematic.

‘Stomp’ Performers Hang Up their Garbage Lids – After 3 decades off-Broadway. Watch the video!

Riddle solved: why is Roman concrete so durable? – It wasn’t just volcanic ash that made Roman concrete better…lime clasts play a self-healing role!

Why is every parking lot covered with solar panels? – Evidently Michigan State has done it…hopefully other universities and big box stores do similar projects. 

How the war in Ukraine is killing marine mammals – The dolphins that were washing up on the shore of the Black Sea prior to the war were few and usually had markings suggesting entanglement in fishing gear.  The theory about the increased number appearing now, without marks, is that the dolphins are experiencing acoustic trauma from the increased use of sonar by Russian submarines.

Climate impact labels on sample food menu had strong effect on food selection – A study done by Johns Hopkins. The result indicate that this kind of labelling could promote more sustainable choices….and have positive health benefits as well!

Aerial Photos Capture the Abstract Beauty of Salt Ponds – From a new book….with images and background about these man-made landscapes.

Great Salt Lake will disappear in 5 years without a massive ‘emergency rescue’ – My husband and I visited the lake back in 2008. The pictures in the article are so different that I needed the captions to recognize the place. The lake was already shrinking in 2008 but the shrinking has increased with long term drought and increased population diverting more water that would otherwise flow into the lake. Aside from the ecological collapse if the lake goes dry, the dust from the dry lakebed is kicked up by winds and can damage lungs/exacerbate other respiratory illness. This does not bode well for public health in Salt Lake City.

Painted skulls from Peru’s Chincha Valley analyzed – The red paint on the skulls was not all the same on all the skulls: some have iron-based ochres and others have mercury-based cinnabar….the red paint on one of the skulls was a combination of the two!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 7, 2023

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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.

Macro Photos Highlight the Diverse Beauty of Butterfly Pupae – The pupae are Asian species….so no Monarch chrysalis (which is my favorite).

Good hydration linked to healthy aging – The findings don’t prove a causal effect…but hydration is linked to serum sodium…and chronic high serum sodium (i.e. when a person is dehydrated frequently) increases risk of developing chronic diseases like heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation and peripheral artery disease, etc.

The Infrastructure Sector Is Bleeding Workers – The workforce is aging…more are nearing retirement…and younger people are not coming into the jobs fast enough.

This new year – decarbonize your life – The beginning of a series about a family of 4…taking steps to dramatically reduce emissions and sequester carbon.

Gradient Arrangements of Food Highlights Biodiversity Not Often Seen in Supermarkets – Wow – what a range of colors and shapes in common fruits and veggies like: tomatoes, corn, potatoes, pears, peppers, squash, cucumber, kale, and beans.

Heat and cold as health hazards – Controlled experiments on how the body reacts to hot and cold…and the health consequences.

Water Worries: Threatened and Endangered Cultural Sites – Climate change has caused increasing severe rainstorms in the Southwest impacting the adobe walls  in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Arizona and Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico. Storms, flooding and sea level rise are impacting other parks including Statue of Liberty National Monument, Colonial National Historical Park and the Jamestown Settlement, and Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The tidal basin in Washington DC is crumbling as flooding increases as the Potomac River rises.

Researchers identify bird species depicted in ancient, finely detailed Egyptian painting – Click on the images to get a larger view of the birds. Key to the second image: a–f rock pigeons (Columba livia); g red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio); h white wagtail (Motacilla alba); i pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis); j–l unidentified.

How microplastics are infiltrating the food you eat – Right now microplastics are viewed as a contaminant but research is revealing they may have harmful impacts….and should be studied and regulated as a pollutant. Will systems that use sludge as fertilizer need to change dramatically? It appears likely.

2022 Year in Review: Top Stories from Around the National Park System – Flooding at Yellowstone, Mauna Loa eruption, drought at Glen Canyon, maintenance challenges, invasive species …crowds…a lot of big stories.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 31, 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.

Best of 2022 - A Fun Map Puzzle – There are parts of the world where political boundaries have changed a lot since my elementary school geography class. The MapPuzzle game is a fun way refresh (or relearn) countries/states/provinces.

The year in chemistry: 2022’s biggest chemistry stories – I like these summary articles…and think about which one of the stories will be the most impactful in 2023.

Top 7 Building Decarbonization Wins In 2022 – Finally….now to maintain the momentum of these ‘wins’ and more into 2023!

Ten Remarkable New Plants Discovered in 2022 – And one of them is the largest waterlily on Earth…from Bolivia.

Shrinking Pollinator Populations Could Be Killing 427,000 People Per Year – The world is losing 3-5% of its fruit, vegetable, and nut production because of shrinking pollinator populations and lower pollinator diversity. That translates into less healthy food available…and associated health conditions like diabetes and heart disease. In Honduras, Nepal and Nigeria, the pollination deficits are responsible for a reduction of 3-19% in crop yields. This highlights the importance of making changes to support pollinator populations such as limiting pesticide use, maintaining existing natural habitats, and restoring others, and planting more flowers and diverse plants.

Overlooked Gems of The National Park System – In the cold of winter…time to plan some trips to parks for the year…including a few of the overlooked gems highlighted in this article.

Snow Day in Delmarva – Reminder of the area where we enjoyed a lot of day trips while we were living in Maryland….

Stunning Satellite Images of Our Changing Planet in 2022 – The before and after pictures have different elapsed times…be sure to read the captions.

22 Photos Honoring the Triumphs and Challenges That Face Wild Cats – A collection of pictures from Panthera, the world’s leading wildcat conservation organization.

Home Depot Does a Big Energy Deal, But It Does More Behind the Scenes – The Home Depot commitment is to produce or procure 100% renewable electricity equivalent to the needs of all its facilities by 2030 and they are taking actions to make it happen. Hope more big box stores will be taking similar actions.  

Peanut Butter Breakfast

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My favorite quick breakfast on cold days is a slice of oat bread with peanut butter. Preparation is easy: a big blob of smooth peanut butter on a slice of bread…microwave for 30 seconds…spread the peanut butter like icing over the bread. At first, I tried picking the bread up to eat it…but found using a fork is less messy!

Yummy…and nutritious with protein from the peanut butter and the bread…a good amount of dietary fiber too!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 3, 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.

Drought hit large portion of the globe in 2021, state of water report says – Bad news for water: the negative trends are stronger than the positive ones.

Bloating common among Americans – I am so glad I discovered that I was lactose intolerant; it’s been relatively easy to change my diet to avoid bloating completely!

Do students really eat that badly? – Yes and no…and alcohol plays a negative role.

Fungi that cause lung infections may be spreading across the US – Infection causing soil fungi Histoplasma, Coccidioides, and Blastomyces – evidently the diseases are more widespread now than in the 1950s!

White House unveils its holiday décor, including 77 trees and ‘We the People’ theme – Getting in the mood for December celebrations!

From Patches to Pies, Illinois Knows Pumpkins – A little pumpkin history…and a satellite image (NASA’s Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager) from after the pumpkins are harvested.

Cranberry bogs in Plymouth County – A satellite image of production of another seasonal food: cranberries! Massachusetts supplies about 25% of the cranberries grown in the US (outpaced only by Wisconsin). The cranberry bogs look pink/red in the natural-color image at the beginning of the article.

We’re told to ‘eat a rainbow’ of fruit and vegetables. Here’s what each colour does in our body – Love the colorful foods!

Effigy Mounds National Monument Becomes a Tribal Sister Park To Ioway Tribal National Park – A new type of agreement….hoping it is a good one for everyone.

How to be a sustainable parent – It’s hard since the most easily obtained products are obviously not and there are no pre-defined alternatives that are more sustainable…aside from buying second hand (i.e. reuse) whenever possible.

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2022

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Ten little celebrations for November. Some of them weren’t so little: a 91st birthday, a grandnephew, and Thanksgiving. There was a lot of food involved too. Celebrating November foods is probably my favorite lead up to the crescendo in December and then the beginning of a new year.

A mini-pumpkin – perfect for 4 servings. My sister bought small pumpkins for a table centerpiece; we decided to cook one of them for lunch along with meatloaf. The oven was nicely full. I pricked the skin of the pumpkin before I put it in the oven since I was cooking it intact. After about an hour, I took it out of the oven, lifted the stem off, cut it into quarters, and took the seeds out from the center. Everyone sprinkled cinnamon and added butter to melt into the pulp. All that was left at the end of the meal was the skin! Yummy!

Cranberries. I like cranberries in just about everything: stir fry, sauces for meatballs (combined with tomatillo salsa), chopping as an addition to stuffing, sauteed with apples + butter + cinnamon + honey for dessert. I used to make cranberry relish on the stovetop because I enjoyed watching the cranberries pop as they cooked, but I don’t like the relish as much anymore (too sweet) so now I enjoy cranberries pooping in stir fry or when they are sauteed. I celebrate both their flavor and their color!

Getting 141 bulbs planted. It took multiple sessions in the yard…and I celebrated when they were all finally in the ground. I hope most of them survive the squirrels and bloom next spring!

Leaves – raked, blown, shredded. Mowing is adequate for the leaves at our house but not my daughter’s. She has very large trees and the leaves were thick enough to kill grass. She and I spent an afternoon focused on leaves…and celebrated our accomplishment! The weather cool and crisp for a traditional fall activity …. always helps get me in the mood for the beginning of the holiday season.

A 91st birthday. Both of my parents are 91 years old as of November. Our family celebrates these milestones…enjoying that we still have them with us.

A grandnephew. Celebrating a baby in our family…the 1st one in over 20 years…adds a another facet to our joy during the holidays.

Walnuts. Not sure why…but walnuts have become a favorite this year. I am celebrating all the ways I’ve found to add them into food I am preparing!

Ritter Springs and Neighborhood Ponds. Celebrating the crisp air outdoors…the color of leaves…the frost on the grass.

Thanksgiving. Celebrating a day to appreciate all the recent events of our lives…a prelude to the family events/gatherings of December.

Leftovers. It’s a treat to have great food in short order… prolongs the celebration. I ate too much on Thanksgiving…did better on the subsequent days and maybe enjoyed the food more.

Happy Thanksgiving 2022!

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We are at home for Thanksgiving. Our daughter and son-in-law are coming for the midday feast. I started cooking on Wednesday – making rice pudding and pumpkin custard (pecans on top) for the desserts. I hadn’t planned the rice pudding originally, but we had leftover rice from Chinese takeout…and I decided making pudding was a good way to use it! It was a full oven!

The appetizer this year is Impossible Burger meatballs (with a variety of sauces). This is a first – an experiment to see if they are good enough to be one of the “heavy hors d’oeuvres” for my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary later in the year.

The meal with be brisket (our tradition since my husband does not like turkey), sage dressing with added cranberries, Waldorf salad (apples, celery, raisins, walnuts).

There will be mulled cider – to drink and to make the whole house smell wonderful.

I made a mosaic of Zentangle tiles under a clear plastic mat for the center of the table.

There is so much to be thankful for this year….some of the ones I think of immediately are below but there are so many more. 2022 has been a good year.

  • The addition of a grandnephew to our extended family…the first baby in over 20 years

  • My elderly parents enjoying some recent changes we made to their garden room and the flower bed just outside --- their health and well-being

  • Adding more face to face activities with our daughter now that we are living in Missouir

  • Realizing that we successfully made a long-distance move…enjoying our new house…home

  • The waning of the pandemic…and our improved understanding of mask wearing for avoid respiratory infections

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the flurry of celebrations for our family: my birthday, my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary, Christmas, New Years, our 50th wedding anniversary….a lot to look forward too!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Cooking a Big Pumpkin

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One of the 10 pumpkins my daughter and son-in-law bought for their pumpkin carving event was not used.

My daughter volunteered to bring it over for me to use as decoration for Thanksgiving or to cook; I decided to cook it. I had cooked smaller pumpkins whole…but this one was too big to fit in the oven. I cut it in half.

I scooped out the seeds and put the bottom half in a large pan.

After cooking, it for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees (the top half was covered with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator to cook another day), it was soft enough that the pulp could be easily scrapped off the skin.

I filled two of my larger Pyrex containers with it and planned to use some in recipes the next day.

The next morning - I processed the pulp into puree in the food processor. It was a good color…more a yellow orange than a deep orange.

I made 3 recipes and used about 3 cups of the puree: pumpkin oatmeal muffins, pumpkin quiche, and pumpkin peanut powder soup.

I froze 2 cups of the puree, and another two cups is in the refrigerator. I’ll make a pumpkin custard with the refrigerator portion….and then I will cook the top of the big pumpkin. I am going trying a lot of pumpkin recipes over the next couple of months!

Red Cabbage

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My rule of thumb is to always buy the more colorful version of veggies when they are available – so I always buy the red cabbage rather than green (unless the red is not available)! The extra nutrients in the red cabbage make it worth the little bit of extra cost. However - red cabbage always looks more purple than red to me.

The outer leaves come off easily enough – to roll and then cut into thin slivers for slaw, but the leaves quickly are so tightly wrapped together that they cannot be separated; I cut cross sections through the head and then cut the pile on the board until the pieces are small enough for slaw. I am always fascinated by the patterns of the white and red/purple in the cross sections.

Of course, I never use the whole head at once…and I’ve saved pieces for a few days to see how the patterns change as they age. They shrink a little as they dry…and the purple color may deepen! The white part gets bumpy and begins to look spongy!

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2022

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Ten little celebrations for October 2022 – selected from the ones I logged throughout the month. About half the little celebrations are from my trip to London, Ontario!

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. Our only sight-seeing stop on our road trip to London, Ontario was at a conservatory. It was just right – interesting for botanical photography and history….close to our route…and the weather was perfect. I celebrated that the stop was a great as I expected it to be!

French cheesecake. I celebrated that it tasted as good as it looked (and the Lactaid tablet enabled me to avoid a tummy ache).

Harvest festival (outdoor and indoor music at Covent Garden Market). A crisp fall day…an outdoor picnic court decorated with winter squashes…country music ---- then indoor for a salad at a bistro table on a balony above the market shops and music from a strings duo. Celebrating fall with my daughter!

The fall color in the first 2 hours of our drive (the Canadian part). The very first hours of our drive toward home from London, Ontario were the best fall foliage of the trip: maples and sumac were at their peak redness in the morning sunshine. Another celebration of the season!

Being home again. Returning from more than a week away….always brings a celebration of home….appreciating where I live.

A sunny day at home. We had two very cold days – but they were sunny. I celebrated the sun streaming in the windows…realized there were certain times of the morning that the sun shines onto my hands on my computer keyboard if the blinds are raised --- vowed to enjoy that as many mornings as possible this coming winter (and celebrate how great my Missouri house is!)

Finding a large bag of daffodil bulbs. The first place I looked for bulbs only had small bags….so I celebrated when I found one with 40 (and many of them were doubles). I am planting them in flowerbeds and around trees in our Missouri yard.

Haircut (short and neat). Celebrating my first haircut in Missouri…I should have done it earlier.

My new floaters are evidently not anything serious….probably just some normal aging. I had a scary experience --- noticing a flurry of new floaters in one eye and some of them seemem to be very bright. They were already reduced by the time I got to an eye doctor a day later…and he confirmed (after some testing) that they were probably normal and would continue to decline. I celebrated that they were not caused by some serious eye problem.

So many good books. I appreciate the online sources of books – particularly Internet Archive. This October it seems like every time I finish a book – or a series of books – there is another one that is just as interesting. I celebrate the ‘stacks’ in virtual libraries that are so huge they would not ever fit on a night stand or even in my house (much less be affordable to purchase). There is always something on hand to read these days!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 29, 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.

How an asteroid impact would transform the food we eat – Thought provoking…and scary. Right now, I am beginning to wonder how the level of drought in the US is going to change the food we eat…or will we eat the same way but pay much higher prices.

A Field Guide to Unexpected, Out-of-Place Wildlife – Why wildlife shows up in the ‘wrong’ place… I had read about the shifting range of armadillos last spring (was reminded of it by the reference to the Virginia opossum in this post).

State Of the Birds Report: More Than Half of U.S. Bird Species Are Declining – Sad….another indicator that the Earth is changing.

Economic losses from hurricanes become too big to be offset by the US if warming continues – I’ve been wondering about this since Hurricane Harvey and finally there is some analysis of the data…but, so far, it does not seem to be changing the way we deal with the aftermath of these catastrophic storms. The dominate idea still seems to be ‘rebuild.’

Life expectancy improves in some countries after big drops in 2020 – but US and others see further falls  - The life expectancy at birth in the US was 79.8 in 2019 and was down to 77.4 in 2021. It might take a few years until the impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy is fully understood. It seems to me that there are other cultural changes that happened concurrent with the COVID-19 pandemic that could impact life expectancy in the US into the future: reduced vaccination rates, reduced trust in medical professionals, increased belief in whatever is said on social media and conspiracy theories, increased stress/mental health challenges, etc.

The Clean Water Act at 50: Big Successes, More to Be Done – The Act was passed the year I graduated from high school. I had done a project about algae as pollution indicator in the streams around Dallas, Texas in the fall before so I was aware of water pollution issues of the time. It is frustrating that there is still so much to be done….

New model of Alzheimer’s as an autoimmune disease – A new perspective….maybe leading to new therapies in the future.

Ancient Maya Cities Were Polluted with High Levels of Mercury – The Maya coated surfaces (walls and floors and bodies) with cinnabar…and the mercury from that leached into the water supply and soils. Chronic mercury poisoning causes tremors, weakened vision and hearing, and paralysis! The contamination at some sites is high enough that archaeologists need to use mitigation techniques and protective gear.

Young kids avoid one learning trap that often snares adults – Young kids are not as good at focused attention as adults which means they notice new things happening away from a ‘focus area’ more quickly…..but focused attention can also mean learned inattention in adults which might not be the best strategy in all situations.

After Three Summers, Man Finally Gets Photos of Hummingbird with Rainbow Wings – Beautiful pictures. They prompted me to look up why hummingbird feathers can show the colors of the rainbow. I found a Science Daily post from back in 2020 that offers an explanation.