Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/8/2020 - Gleanings
/Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….
Here are the unique activities for yesterday:
Coloring a flower picture. I found a wonderful book on Internet Archive – Flower Designs by Marcia Bradford. It is printed one flower per page with light lines. They were originally intended for watercolors. I selected the one that looks like a California Poppy first (saving the morning glory for another day); there are 18 flower pages to pick from!
I saved the page from the book as a jpeg then printed it on manila cardstock. I used a paper cutter to make ‘tiles’ (so that it would be a mosaic rather than one 8.5x11 inch page). I like the colored result. Tomorrow I’ll fill in some of the blank area with ‘tangles’!
Bringing in more iris stems. We had a freeze watch for overnight, so I cut two more iris stems yesterday. The others are not far enough along to bloom, so I left them outside and hoped they would survive the frost. I took the vase outside so that I could put the new stems into water right away with the stem I’d cut previously.
Unfortunately, I bumped the flower on the way back into the house so now the flower is in its own small water glass.
While I was out, I also cut more mint to use in my smoothie with the chocolate protein powder. It tasted so good last time that I’ve added the combination to my smoothie rotation. Hopefully, the temperature will not get down low enough overnight to kill the mint.
Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.
And now – the Gleanings for this week
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
One little Chipmunk on a Mission! – Pic for Today – Chipmunks are such fun to watch. We have had then periodically around our house but not all the time. They seem to like our front flower beds and porch when they are around. Squirrels are the constant in our neighborhood.
New PMEL Science at Work Video: How tiny particles affect air quality and climate | NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) – The video as just under 4 minutes…. explaining how we learn about aerosol particles (important because the particles can impact health).
Image of the Day: Ancient Dental Enamel | The Scientist Magazine® - Quite a lot can be derived from protein sequence analysis these days.
Top 25 birds of the week: Endemic Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Some birds native only to a certain place.
City of Houston Surprises: 100% Renewable Electricity — $65 Million in Savings in 7 Years | CleanTechnica – The city is planning to power all municipal operations with renewable energy! Also included in the program – the provider will help city employees purchase discounted renewable energy.
Organic food growers see surge in demand during pandemic - UPI.com – Glad the organic farmers are thriving. So far- I’ve been able to get organic produce in my grocery deliveries. My local Community Supported Agriculture farm will begin in June.
Understanding deer damage is crucial when planting new forests -- ScienceDaily – UK research on an issue we deal with in the US too.
Frozen, fresh or canned food: What’s more nutritious? - BBC Future – A little update. The article confirmed what I already knew…it’s good to know I don’t need to reset my thinking.
Analysis of Pompeii's Garbage Suggests the Ancient Romans Recycled, too | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Evidently garbage was piled at city walls and sorted for reuse. They lived much closer to their garbage.
Wildflower Watching as a Source of Solace and Diversion – This is the time of year to find wildflowers. I am always surprised at how amazing even the tiny ones look when I can get close enough to photograph them.
