Rockin' Robin

Birds flutter nearby for my viewing pleasure most of the day - I plan it that way. My desk sits right in front of a window that is at ground level and below our mini-deck. A bird feeder hangs out from the deck rail above and draws feathered visitors to entertain our indoor cats. When I fill the feeder I make sure that a fair amount of seed falls to the ground below, thereby assuring me of an equal amount of entertainment from the area doves, cardinals, and squirrels. Nope, no exotic types here...and the hummingbirds are still a good month away.

But we have robins again. Boy, do we have robins! And now I think we will have more robins.

A little while ago I noticed unusual fluttering under the deck. Long strings of what looked liked dried grass dangled from the cross beam, waving in the wet breeze of a rainy morning. Another flutter and the architect arrived with more of the same. I'm going to call it "she" because I can't tell the difference (yet.) She added the new materials to the small collection already there. Three or four times she pulled up the dangling ends and poked them toward the center of her creation. Then she did a little dance, wings about half unfurled, and side-stepping across the nest-to-be. More pulling and poking, then more dancing. Apparently satisfied she flew off, only to return a few minutes later and repeat her ritual. (No, that's not her in the photo - my shots are all too dim.)

I'm sure an ornithologist could tell me what's going on in proper scientific terms. But I just like to think of her as our Rockin' Robin.

Far Out!

Dying Star - Cat's Eye Nebula

Today I re-stumbled upon a Web site I saw several years ago and then lost track of. Thanks to the SPAN Connection newsletter (SPAN is the Small Publishers Association of North America), I spent far too many minutes trolling through page after page of literally out of this world photos.

Dying Star - Ant Nebula


Infrared Image of Saturn

Sombrero Galaxy

When it was first sent up, the Hubble Space Telescope got a lot of bad press and bad jokes about lowest bidders on government projects. It had its glitches, but since the engineers worked through the problems and tuned up the Hubble, it's been sending back amazing images of worlds beyond anything we can see with our puny eyes.

Veil Nebula


Orion Nebula (This one looks like some gorgeous
stained glass I used to put into lamps and windows!)

Yes, I know the images are enhanced and that the colors are probably a guess, but who can argue with the majesty, grace, and beauty of worlds dancing for our pleasure light years away? Since I don't expect to see warp drive in my lifetime, these peeks into the lives of nebulae will have to do.

Home of an Intergalactic Wizard, don't you think?

Star A-borning

Any day you need a break from flashing images or too much text, surf to http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album. Then relax and prepare to be awed.

A National Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight

On Friday morning I dragged myself out of bed and trundled down I-95 toward Washington for an 8:00 a.m. networking and information session. This Women in Business group (part of the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber) usually doesn't see me because their meetings are always at an hour that does not compute. Being your basic "owl", a.k.a. a night person, my brain does not do well before about 9:30 in the morning. So it is a given that the subject or event has to show a lot of promise for me to not only be there but to have appropriate clothing and a public face on.

This one was absolutely worth the effort. Just off Route 1 in Beltsville sits a 14-story brown block of a building that screams "government architecture." Well off the main road that is otherwise crowded with stores, this chunky edifice seems both distant and foreboding.

Didn't your mother tell you not to judge by appearances? Here's your object lesson. Inside this unattractive container lives and breathes a remarkable collection to delight any lover of nature and history. This is the National Agricultural Library - bet you didn't even know there was one. Neither did I. Not only is this the world's largest research library focused on agriculture, but it is open and welcoming to the public. You can't wander the stacks - the helpful librarians will bring you whatever you want - but you can borrow through interlibrary loan, and you can also access many resources via the Internet no matter where in the world you happen to be. In fact, they have several computers right there to help you with research.

The size of the collections is staggering, and the breadth is amazing. Special collections include rare books, seed catalogs dating back to 1771, original correspondence from Thomas Jefferson, amazing original watercolors of fruits and nuts, and more. The library subscribes to thousands of periodicals - where else could you find a copy of the "Common 'Tater" or "Spudman" for potato farmers? Were you aware that there is actually a standard color system for identifying flowers, complete with color chips that remind you of a paint store? The Royal Horticultural Society publishes the color set, and the NAL includes that in their collection as well. Need a program for teaching nutrition to kids complete with videos? They can help. Curious about llamas and alpacas? They have what you need to raise and care for these gorgeous creatures.

Our group was fortunate to be there the day after a special reception, and saw some truly valuable items in the Special Collections area. A book published in 1539 in Italy, in Latin. An original folio of Carl Linnaeus. A diary of one of the early plant collectors sent out by the Department of Agriculture to travel the world and bring back specimens. And on and on. There is so much, and everyone we met there was not only welcoming and helpful, but they obviously enjoyed their work immensely.

Now here's the sad part - the Current Occupant of the White House (to use Garrison Keillor's term) has proposed a budget that would cut funding for the NAL by 25% in fiscal 2009. If that goes through it would have a non-recoverable impact on the NAL and its collections: They would not be able to buy any new printed books; all subscriptions to printed materials would be cancelled; NAL would not be able to fill the 29,000 requests they receive yearly for delivery of materials that are available only in print; access to most NAL print materials would be available only on site (so if you are a researcher living in California you are out of luck); and access to the special collections - valuable for work against invasive species and in the discovery of new pharmaceuticals - would end.

My husband is a great writer of letters to editors and his elected representatives. Not me - until we got together I was basically apolitical. But this is too much, even for me. Destroying a resource that has taken almost 150 years to build - (Abraham Lincoln signed the act creating the Department of Agriculture and the NAL in 1862) - that is false economy. We're talking a difference of about $6 million. Sounds like a lot of money, until you realize that the total U.S. budget for 2009 is $3.1 trillion (I cannot wrap my brain around a number that big). $20.2 billion went to the Department of Agriculture in 2008, and $6 million is only 3/100 of 1 percent of the Agriculture budget. Pocket change! If my calculations are correct, and Wikipedia has the right numbers, the Department of Defense burns through almost $55 million dollars every hour of every day of the year, and that does NOT include the billions going to Iraq.

Here's a modest proposal: What say we take six and a half minute's worth of DOD's budget and give it to the NAL where it will be used to build rather than destroy?

Rant ended. Please enjoy the treasures of the NAL. I certainly did, and will again. And I'll probably go back for images from time to time - all these photos were downloaded from the NAL's Image Gallery , with the exception of the Amarylis drawing - that's a beautiful holdiay card available from NAL. The sentiment inside is "Peace and Joy". What more could we ask?

Crocuses (Croci?) and Daffodils

Crocuses are running riot out front on a spring-fever day. Temperatures in the upper 60's, sunshine, and windows open to air out the winter-stuffy house. Yes!

Laptop with Photoshop on it is in for repair so there's no way to get the photos I took from the camera to my blog. Phooey! Remembering the sight brightens my mind. For you, some not-from-my-garden shots that capture the feeling.
No matter what Punsxatawney Phil said, my springtime is here. Robins are holding convocations in the backyard and squirrels are chasing each other up and down trees. Maybe it's wishful looking, but I swear the trees out back are starting to blush. For sure I heard a woodpecker this morning. We're going to make it.

Back in your hole Mr. P. Phil - my season is here!

A Different First Female President

Last evening I was in heady company - the MIT club of Baltimore had a reception for Dr. Susan Hockfield, President of the Institute. As the 16th president in its almost 150 years, Dr. Hockfield broke several barriers including being the first female as well as the first to come from the life sciences. As head of an institution that boasts 72 Nobel Prize winners, you might expect a woman more comfortable in a laboratory than a cocktail party.

In person, though, Dr. Hockfield (or "Susan" as her name tag proclaimed) is both approachable and eloquent. Like many others there, my husband - the MIT alum - and I waited to have a few words with her, and she greeted us as warmly as if we had just pledged several million dollars to the endowment. (We didn't.) Turns out this highly accomplished neuroscientist loves the meet-n-greet part of her job. Later during her remarks she talked about what MIT is doing and where they are focusing research and cooperative efforts with industry. These days there is an increasing emphasis on life sciences and the space where biology meets physics and engineering, as well as energy projects around combating global warming.

One of the most remarkable accomplishments of recent years started before her Presidency - placing every bit of MIT courseware online - free - and available to anyone, anywhere in the world. Not only does OpenCourseWare have lecture videos, notes, exams, and other resources for more than 1,800 courses online, but many are available in languages other than English. No other advanced learning institution has made such a commitment to sharing knowledge.

The reach of MIT's influence touched close to home. We sat with a high school Physics teacher from Columbia, MD who was recognized as an inspirational teacher by MIT. His enthusiasm for his work and his students was contagious.

They say that a tennis player improves competing against a better player. It wasn't competition, but being in the company of all those intelligent and dedicated people gave me the same kind of energy boost that I get from other kinds of creativity. Besides, I just love seeing a woman as the respected and successful leader of one of the finest science and engineering institutes in the world!

Creativity Infusion

I've been silent for a long time here. No crises prevented me from writing other than the usual small ones that come along under the guise of Life and Aging. No crushing deadlines to blame either, though there have been plenty of semi-crushing ones that seemed like looming dragons at the time. Nope, it's just been a case of too much to do and not enough time. I'm still looking for that "Time Turner" that J.K. Rowling used in one of the Harry Potter books – a lovely necklace with a small hourglass on it, as I recall. Turn it once and you get that hour back so you can be somewhere else and doing something else. Oh, boy, do I want one of those! (TimeTurner from http://tinyurl.com/dmswu)

What's brought me back is an infusion of creativity that I enjoyed on Saturday. Every February, several hundred talented craftspeople descend on Baltimore for the American Craft Council show. For the first few days they see only wholesale buyers, but from Friday through Sunday the rest of us can get in at the massive Convention Center.

There are a few craft shows that draw the best of the best, and this is one of them. In the mid-Atlantic area, the others are the Philadelphia Museum show in November and the Smithsonian show in April, and they both have their charms. For sheer size and variety, though, nothing beats ACC in February.

My friend and I do other things now, but we've both been working artists in the past – she in porcelain, and I in stained glass. So we go to shop, of course, but we also go for the sheer enjoyment of filling our eyes and ears and fingertips with the beauty of finely crafted work presented by the people who created and crafted the work themselves. Her blog about the show is well worth a read.

What a treat it is to spend time talking with fine crafts makers! Just as birders flock to the blogs of Julie and Mary for inspiration, we artists soak ourselves in the colors of creative craft. Mentally I spent thousands, and every dollar well worth it. My finger still itches for an exquisite ring of 18K gold set with a brilliant green tourmaline, and just my size. Reality, of course, is another matter, but I did come home with earrings that have my colors (turquoise, gold, and carnelian), and a bookmark of finely inlaid woods. My friend found a necklace of silk cords with a clever magnetic catch, and a sweater/jacket in her browns, plus a couple of gifts.

We both came away with ideas and designs dancing in our heads, and with that warm glow of confirmation that we still recognize and appreciate fine design and craftsmanship. Back home, I polished my prize from last year's show - a Josh Simpson "Inhabited Vase." Had I unlimited funds, I would be a serious collector of Simpson's work, and I thoroughly enjoy the few small pieces I do have. Amazing what he can do with glass!

For me, the surest proof of the benefit of a day out for art is right here – a new blog article after a very long, very dry spell.

Kindle-ing a Buzz

Amazon's new Kindle "wireless reading device" generated a "Yecch!" reaction in my gut when I first heard about it. I love books made of ink on paper. Old ones show the tatters of loving use. Books from my childhood share shelf space with those from my mother's early life. Christmas would not be complete without pulling out my copies of Miss Flora McFlimsey's Christmas Eve, or Big Susan. The content is not the issue - it's the memories that are held between their covers. No electronic device could ever replace them.

Some of my favorite books have underlines and highlights. There is sensual pleasure in the texture of a fine binding and the promise of something new and wonderful as you turn each page. There's a feeling of discovery even with a new mass market paperback. What's waiting there for me? The lyrical writing of Julie Zickefoose would still be beautiful, but her watercolor illustrations add so much to Letters From Eden, and they need paper.

So the Kindle started out as a "no way, no thanks, not for me" device. The name alone turns me off. Why did Bezos choose a name that conjures images of fire? Does this man who's made millions on selling real books believe his new toy will make ink and paper obsolete, leading to bonfires a la Fahrenheit 451?

Then I went to the Amazon site and saw the image - not as bad as I thought. If the screen truly is as easy to read as promised, then it might be a good solution for people who have limited mobility. If you have one arm in a cast, for instance. People with poor eyesight can adjust the type size which will give them access to many books without having to wait for a "large print" edition. Those who commute on public transportation could read the newspaper without flapping it in their neighbor's faces and ending up with blackened fingers. Except if they happen to ride the DC Metro, in which case they'd be out of luck when the trains go underground.

The thing is, though, that you still need to have access to the network in order to read a book. I don't know anything about Sprint's data network, but I do question whether you'd be able to read everywhere. Backwoods of Maine? On a cruise ship in the Caribbean? For $400 plus $10 for each volume I can buy a lot of real books that I can read anywhere in the world without charging a battery or finding a network. And the ones that I love I can pass around to friends, who can pass them on to their friends. Who can pass them on to people who perhaps cannot afford to buy a book at all.

Lest I sound too curmudgeonly, I'm not against the thing - though I really dislike its name. I'm just a very long way from adding it to my wish list. If I see someone using it, of course I'll ask them about it and even try to get my hands on it. But to own one? No thanks.

Sideling Up to Geology

A couple of weeks ago we were in Western Maryland where the hills roll from one into the other, and roads do the best they can going up, over, and through. It's all beautiful country, but there's one brief section that makes you say, "Wow, look at that!"

Just beyond Hancock, I-70 turns north into Pennsylvania, and I-68 begins its westward track. Old U. S. 40 follows the same route but then veers sharply south to climb the side of a hill, and then does a switchback down the other side. It's clear that when the old National Pike was built, it was no match for Sideling Hill.

Fast forward a few decades to the building of I-68. Engineers blasted through and created an easy, curvy run for the new interstate highway. And in the process, exposed a remarkable geologic formation that clearly illustrates the immense powers that formed our Appalachians. Thanks to the construction, you can see how the rock layers were lifted, curved, and eroded away over the millenia to the gentle mountains we know today.
Thank goodness they didn't just blast through and leave it at that. In the visitor's center there is an informative display that explains how Sideling Hill was formed as well as a three story-high timeline of the earth's formation. Outside, stairs let you walk up to the rock formations, and a pedestrian bridge across the interstate - complete with "camera ports" that let you photograph without having to thread your lens through the protective wire fence - gives you a remarkable view.

This is one example of your highway taxes not only at work, but doing something very worthwhile.

Move-In Condition Haunted House

Our recent drive through western Maryland was a lovely respite from the megalopolis of Baltimore/Washington. Here, buildings nudge each other for space, and anything that is more than 25 years old seems at risk of razing. Buildings rarely become charming derelicts. Their land is too valuable as the future site of a mega-store that I'll never go to.

So it was a delightful discovery we made on a road just a few feet north of Interstate 68. Visible from the highway, this lovely old place seemed to want just a few ghostly moans and flickering lights to be the perfect haunted house. There are no neighbors to complain - the nearest building is an old barn. Property values don't suffer because the value is in the land. It's clearly not safe for any but the spirits of the departed, but isn't it nice to know that such a place still exists on Halloween?

Learn Something Good

One of the frustrations of being very busy is that I don't always make the time to give back in meaningful ways. For now, my business requires the attention of an infant. That limits my ability to get involved as I might like in causes that matter to me. I write checks at the end of the year, but wish I could do something more often.

Now I've found a way I can. Thanks to The Publicity Hound, Joan Stewart, I learned about Good Search. Whenever you use their search engine, GoodSearch donates money to the nonprofits and charities of your choosing. Just go to GoodSearch, choose your charity, and enter your search terms. It's based on Yahoo! Search, and you can even add a local charity or school of your choice to the list.

As an info-packrat I do a lot of searching. Now that I've added GoodSearch to my Firefox toolbar (they make it easy), each of those searches will generate a donation for my choice, Heifer International. True, it's only pennies a day, but they will add up. GoodSearch is a great idea – give it a try and know that your searching will help a cause that matters to you.

Of Leaf Peeping and Barn Art

It's the end of October. In Maryland that means brisk days, cool nights, and breezy cascades of gold, terracotta, and scarlet as the trees shed their leaves.


Except this year. Like too much of the country, we are unseasonably warm and very dry. Usually we have some nice colors in the trees even here in the Baltimore area, but this year the trees seem just tired of it all and are dropping leaves of pale yellow-ish tan, brown, and only an occasional peachy orange.

In need of a long weekend away, and celebrating our anniversary, we headed for the hills. Western Maryland and that bumped up part of West Virginia that threatens to crush the panhandle right up to the Mason and Dixon line - that was where we hoped to find some proper leaf peeping.

The C&O Canal

In three days of wandering around Berkeley Springs, WV, and the area between Hancock and Cumberland, MD, we did finally find some good fall color. Even better, we found peaceful vistas, twisty roads that crawl sideways up a hill and then switch back for the downward run, and a few quirky buildings. One of my favorites was this barn that stood right up against the road. Clearly abandoned and weathered to a stately gray, it boasted three paintings hung on its sides. Long ago weathered and with the paint worn off in streaks, the painted wood panels spoke of an artist whose work seemed to foretell the fate of the building and its farm.


Interstates 70 and 68 allow for a quick trip from Baltimore to Western Maryland. But for a better ride, I recommend getting off the highway and taking good old U.S. 40. In many areas it parallels the interstate, but allows for those spur of the moment side trips that make your day.

Tonight! The 17th First Annual Ig Nobel Awards

Do you remember Rowan & Martin's "Laugh-In"? Yes, that dates me, too. And do you remember Jo Anne Worley asking, "Is that a chicken joke?" Well, tonight, the mere speaking of the word "chicken" is drawing a roar from the crowd in Cambridge, MA. That's right, in staid old Harvard's hallowed halls, the world (in)famous Ig Nobel awards are being conferred this very night. For reasons not entirely clear - I haven't had time to do an in-depth study - the theme of tonight's event is Chicken. This unique, hand-crafted prize will be given to this year's lucky(?) honorees.

Now these are serious scientists, not just a bunch of sophomoric intellectuals, and winning an Ig Nobel confers a certain cachet. The following is taken directly from the web site of Improbable Research, and they can say it so much better than I:

"The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) is a magazine printed on genuine paper, and also in digital form on the web. Subscribe, and you'll find our very best stuff -- genuine, improbable research culled from more than 20,000 science, medical, and technical, and academic journals.

We administer the Ig Nobel Prizes, given each year for achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think.

Our goal is to make people laugh, then make them think. We also hope to spur people's curiosity, and to raise the question: How do you decide what's important and what's not, and what's real and what's not -- in science and everywhere else?

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but, 'That's funny..." --Isaac Asimov

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." --Sherlock Holmes"

So what qualifies for an Ig Nobel honor? In 2006, winning research included an exploration of why woodpeckers don't get headaches, a study of the different odors emitted by frogs under stress, and my personal favorite, the discovery that herring communicate with others of their kind by...how to put this delicately...passing gas.

All of these research projects had a serious purpose. Really, they did. And tonight, the ten newest Ig Nobel winners have traveled from all over the world, at their own expense, to accept their honors. According to the web site, "The Prizes will be handed to them by a group of genuine, genuinely bemused Nobel Laureates, all before a standing-room only audience of 1200 people."

Isn't it good to know that there's still room for such silliness in the world?

Interlude

This brilliant, crisp, promise-of-fall day brought with it a gift. Concentrating on spiffing up a photo my favorite client had taken for her blog, I almost missed it. First, it stopped me cold. Then sent me scrambling upstairs for my camera and wishing I had the lenses and skill of fine nature photographers like Julie and Mary.

Just beyond the support for my tiny deck, right by my neighbor's hydrangea bush, there he was. And I recognized him from last spring! Sadly, it wasn't his gentle eyes or fine young antlers but his lame right foreleg that gave him away. Last time he wandered through our puny excuse for woods his antlers were furry and rounded, but now he has a couple of points on each side. When I first saw him last spring I didn't expect he would survive since walking was so difficult for him. When he touched his right front hoof to the ground, it was as if he was permanently en pointe. It looked painful and awkward and I just wanted to run out and hug him or somehow make it right.

So today when he wandered by again, I was delighted to see he is still here. I drew the curtains back from the sliding door and then stood still - he was looking right at me, measuring the threat. Soon enough he went back to eating low-hanging leaves from the trees and even wandered in and out of sunlight for my enjoyment.



This is one of the delights of working at home, looking out a window. With townhouses all around I'm amazed at how much wildlife comes through the few feet of trees and tiny stream that separate one group from another. Usually it's robins, blue jays, squirrels, and Scamp, the resident rabbit. Today it was the gift of seeing a special fellow again.

What I Did On My (Not Long Enough) Summer Vacation

If this blog had smell-o-rama you would be able to enjoy the scent of sun-washed pine. With sound-o-rama you could hear the soft splish of mini-waves washing over the rocks on the shore, and the wispering of birch leaves trembling in the breeze. And enviro-true would help you feel the warm sun, then as the light ebbed, you would feel the cool come down from the hills.Now multiply that by about 6 days and you have a perfect vacation in New Hampshire.

Wish I were there.

Nature Next Door

The press of obligations has smooshed blogging off to the side in recent weeks; here's my attempt to loosen up and post just because something neat happens, even though small.

Case in point: my next-door neighbors have kindly done a wonderful job of landscaping around their town house's postage stamp back yard. This includes a butterfly bush that is easily 10' tall and that lives up to its name. A few days ago it was a particularly beautiful warm, non-humid summer's day. Looking out the window beyond my desk I kept seeing drifting waves of butterflies headed next door. So for a few moments I put the computer on standby and took my camera out for some fresh air.

We were obviously no threat to the beautiful yellow and black butterflies since they posed nicely before drifting away. I was amazed at how many of them had ragged wings. Some were missing whole chunks but it didn't keep them from flying and feeding on the brilliant purple flowers. After about 10 minutes of butterfly therapy the day went much better.

She's Got a Baton and Knows How to Use It

She walks out in front of the crowd with assurance, bows briefly, steps up...and the magic begins. Marin Alsop has not even officially begun her tenure as the Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, but she's clearly not letting that stand in the way of showing what a woman with a baton can accomplish.

Today's BSO concert validated the decision to hire her that was controversial at the time, even - if you can believe the news stories - unpopular with some of the musicians in the orchestra. I never could understand why anyone would lament the departure of Yuri Temirkanov who spent as little time as possible in Baltimore, who never spoke to the audience, rarely spoke English for heaven's sake. Now we have this dynamic woman who is proving she can pull the orchestra together and get them bounding in her direction, making magnificent music the like of which the Meyerhoff hasn't heard since David Zinman left.

Elgar's Cello Concerto and Dvorak's symphony From the New World were today's offerings, the latter being recorded for a CD of Alsop leading the BSO. Watching her draw the music out with energy and emotion, and working without a score, was as much a pleasure as the glorious sounds themselves. I challenge any other symphony orchestra, anywhere, to better today's reading of the Dvorak. The standing, cheering audience would have given Alsop a fifth bow had she not drawn the Concert Master off with her on her fourth exit.

If anyone from the BSO is listening, you have finally regained the support of long-time season ticket holders who quit in disgust during Temirkanov's time. Thanks for having the guts to appoint the first woman to lead a major American orchestra. She's already proving you made a great choice.