Back to the Garden I Go!

One of the roses in the toughest spot near the road, has actually manged a bloom. This is Cherish; she was an unresearched, Walmart purchase, but so far, she's doing well enough.

This poor cactus had its hanging pot fall down and break in the wind. It has actually survived and even bloomed!

The Peace roses are blooming again!

I had almost given up on growing zinias because they always seemed to get powdery mildew and mope. Here, however, they're doing very well, and I'm going to need more seed packets. They're also great for small vases around the house.

Egret Fishing

An egret fishing

Roses! Roses! Roses!

Lots of lovely new roses!

A fully-open Double delight

Ebb Tide in bloom

George Burns opening

A fully-open Just Joey

Just Joey again

Ruffles and Flourishes makes its debut

First Fruits

There are now 8 kinds of tomato growing in the garden. They're just now starting to ripen. These are the black cherry, sun sugar, and redgold cherry tomatoes.



Only a bowlful so far, but I think there will be mountains ultimately!




Also harvested and ate some of the Painted Lady Runner beans. I forgot to take a picture of the pods , but they're over a foot long! I haven't, I confess, ever grown green beans before and I picked these because of their name and the little blurb on the back of the package--apparently they've been grown since the nineteenth century. It's probably not the best-approved way to choose your crops, but they are both beautiful and tasty and the hummingbirds like them, so I'll call it a success.

Photograph: View of the El Dorado Nature Center in the Summer

Just what the title says: The El Dorado Nature Center as seen from the bridge last summer (last year)!

Photograph: Dragonfly at the El Dorado Nature Center

Another dragonfly from this summer. Some red to hold onto while waiting for summer's return!

I think this is a flame wing, but I am still learning, so any correction or comment is welcome!

Photograph: Duskywing on Coastal Sunflower

A duskywing butterfly rests on a coastal sunflower at the El Dorado Nature Center in the late summer.

Link List: Clever Crows, Parasitic Wasps, and Other Such Delights

Take a look at these beautiful photos by Annie Marie Musselman during her six years at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center: "Wild-Animal Photos Capture Calm in Crisis", published in Wired. If you're interested, there are more photos and some more of her story on her kickstarter page, where she is working to raise money to publish Finding Trust as a book of photos.

I'm particularly impressed by the second photo in the image; the juxtaposition of eagle and meditating volunteer is stunning.

2) More artistic news; Artist Michael Anthony Simon uses spiderwebs to make sculptures, from Io9. There are a few additional webs here, on Beautiful Decay. Supposedly, he has a website somewhere, but I can't find it. If you do, let me know!

3) I've seen this BBC snippet before, but it's still pretty amazing: Wild crows in Japan use cars as nutcrackers. Some of them even know how to wait for the light to change. Crows in other parts of the world have used the same technique and other variants, so it's not a one-time deal. This PBS documentary, A Murder of Crows talks about it somewhere, but I don't remember the time stamp. Of course, I think the whole program is worth watching anyway.

4) And on a revolting, but fascinating, note, here's a Nature article on a Wasp Larva that Disinfects Its Roach Host. That's right. The emerald cockroach wasp (Ampulex compressa),a parasitic wasp, exudes disinfectant while it munches its unwilling host. There's even a video on the site because the scientist who decided to study this, Gudrun Herzner of the University of Regensburg in Germany, installed a plastic window in the paralyzed cockroach so she could view the proceedings.

5) On a more peaceful note, here's a New York Times article about The Immortal Jellyfish, the scientist who studies them, and he town where he lives. The Turritopsis dohrnii doesn't die when it gets old; instead, it becomes a polyp and grows up all over again. At the moment, the only person actively raising the jellyfish (which need a lot of attention if they aren't going to die ordinary, starvation or filth-induced deaths) is Shin Kubota, in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The jellyfish is interesting in itself, but so is the article, which was just plain fun to read.

Link List: Oddities and Wonders

Happy New Year!

I debated whether or not to post anything today, but I decided a link list of oddities and interests might just be a good way to ring in the new year.

1) The Most Amazing Science Images of the Year, on Wired. There are some marvels here! I'm especially taken by the spider in amber myself, though the single-cell algae is a close second.

2) Villa Epecuen: The Town That Was Submerged For 25 Years. An Argentinian village was submerged for 25 years before the water subsided and left some haunting ruins--and one man determined to move back in (found via io9).

3) And, because I can't resist parrots, here are two articles on parrot music preference. The io9 is titled The One Type of Music That All Parrots Everywhere Despise, which seems a bit misleading because both the io9 and the Telegraph article it cites, Parrot Listens to Scissor Sisters' Music, mention only a couple of parrots, and parrots have varying personalities. I am curious about this, though, and hope to follow up on it. My own lovebird likes music, but not oldies. These liked music but not electronic dance music. Who knows if there is a universal like or dislike?

Note: Kizuri's preferences aren't nearly as scientifically studied as those of the birds in the article. She doesn't have her own radio or web connection, though I think she'd enjoy it. She is however very good at making her pleasure or displeasure known; she'll sing along with music she especially likes, and (if on my shoulder) has been known to nip my ear if I change to music she doesn't like. I will also add that her tastes don't always reflect mine. I do like oldies, at least sometimes, and I'm not that fond of opera. Fortunately, both of us like a good range of classical music.

4) And on another note, LiveScience has a great article here on China's Terracotta Warriors. I knew they were multitudinous and elaborate. I did not know that the army included acrobats, and that those acrobats were posed enough that researchers can guess that "they are not indigenous to central China, but probably come from the south – probably the Burma area." I'm going to try to get hold of at least one of the books mentioned.

5) And worms, common garden worms of the sort used for composting, "can turn metals into semiconductors", if, that is, someone feeds them the right metals--cadmium chloride and sodium tellurite), to be precise. In detoxifiying themselves "The worms ended up making tiny particles of cadmium telluride, a crystalline compound that is also a semiconductor. Those tiny particles — called quantum dots — were then taken out of the worms' tissue." Since another spot in the article mentions the worms excreting toxins, I'm wondering if a more patient researcher might be able to wait for the worms to do their thing and harvest them, much as one harvests "worm gold" in the garden. There isn't enough detail in the article, though, for me to be clear on that point.

6) Oh, yes, and in October of 2012 a shark fell from the sky onto a golf course.

Probably a peregrine falcon or an osprey dropped it, though no one knows. Also strange--and wonderful--is that the workers at the golf course did their level best to save it and drove it back to the ocean, where it swam away, possibly to tell tales of strange sights to other sharks. Or maybe it only warned against birds, but one hopes that it at least lived.

Happy New Year, everyone. Here's hoping your coming year is full of wonder and strangeness and beauty and sudden small joys.

Tree at the El Dorado Nature Center

A summer tree at the El Dorado Nature Center. I'm getting quite fond of the place!

Link List: Miscellany

This and that from here and there and then and now:

1) A couple cleaning their chimney found a the body of a World War II carrier pigeon still carrying its coded message. So far, no one knows what it said, or why it was in code. If you happen to find out, do let me know! These things have a way of vanishing from the news, stories left all dangling and unfinished in a most untidy way.

Thanks to Charlotte of Charlotte's Library for bringing this to my attention (See "Christmas won't be Christmas without any [dead pigeon bones]")

2) There's an old, not-quite abandoned, city/oil platform, Neft Dashlari, in Azerbaijan, of the former Soviet Union. Really, this should be under "photographs" as well, as it includes a slideshow of the near-ghost town. Part of what's so haunting is that it is not quite abandoned. Some people still live and work there, as the place crumbles around them.

3) And that made me remember this long ago video of China's empty cities. Nearly-empty would be more accurate, and that makes the images all the more haunting. Can you imagine living in a someday-town, waiting for it to come to life?

4) Herman Goring had a little brother, Albert, who worked to save Jews. He did it quite openly, trading on his name and his brother's protection (at least, his brother intervened for a while). Unfortunately for Albert, no one really believed that after the war was over—not with that last name--so he couldn't get work and died poor and bitter. There's also a biography, Thirty Four, by Will Hastings Burke, that came out in 2009.

5) Then there is this tale in Wired of scholarship, computer translation, friendship, a 250 year old code, and asecret society that may or may not have been spying on another secret society. Long, strange, and completely fascinating.

6) Remember the Neiman-Marcus Cookie recipe? Neither do I. That is to say, I remembered the story quite well, but had failed to keep the recipe for the delicious cookies. Now, thanks to Wired, and this article, Eat Like a Geek: The Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe, I have it again--and so can you!

Link List: Photographs Around the Web

I have never quite decided what to do about links on Bookwyrme's Lair. On the one hand, I rather like links and places with lists of links and little notes about why they are awesome can keep me happy for hours (sometimes too many hours!), on the other hand, I don't want my Lair to be all links all the time; the hiatus while I moved and focused on The Geek Girl Project is depressing viewing (It wasn't a depressing time, but the blog is all, "Nothing happening here, move along," and I don't like it). So, no all-the time links, but for the time being, I'm going to be working on an irregular "link list" column, wherein I round up the latest really good links, categorize them, and post them for your perusal.

Actually, for the next bit, it's going to be quite regular because I find I have a backlog, so I'm splitting things up by type. After that, we'll see!

"To Snap a Predator", an Atlantic article about Michael Muller, a man crazy enough to figure out how to bring bright, studio lighting down into the ocean so he can take glamour shots of sharks. Several of the photos are included, and they are gorgeous. There are more photos and an interview here, on featureshoot.com.

"Birds Photographed Like Human Models", on Slate. Bob Croslin is sane enough to stay on land, and both imaginative and patient enough to go to a bird sanctuary for models. The result is a stunning series of close-ups.

They are all beautiful, but I am especially and forever grateful to him for the crow close-up.There are not enough people who properly appreciate crows.

By a sideways turn, these made me remember a series of photos of abandoned Olympic sites published in The Atlantic a while back. The photographers, Jon Pack and Gary Hustwit, have a book coming out in March, 2013, The Olympic City, which I'm looking forward to seeing.

And, speaking of books of photographs, io9 just published this image of a snake's skull, which was beautiful and creepy in its own right, but I almost let it pass, until I went to look at the other images, over at Wired, and realized that that it's in a book Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection, written by Simon Winchester. Yes: That Simon. The one who wrote The Professor and the Madman, which I loved, so I ran over and put it on hold at the library as fast as ever I could. I think I may grab a few more of Winchester's books while I am at it. I don't invariably love everything he wrote, but certainly he's up there on the ever-expanding list of authors-to-watch.

Photograph: Egret Elegance

I like the way the egret is studying itself intently, very nearly touching and making a perfect circle.

I've always had trouble telling the snowy egret and the great egret apart when they're not near one another for size comparison, and especially when the snowy egrets aren't in their breeding plumage, but someone recently clued me in: the Great White Egret has a yellow beak and black feet; the snowy has a black beak and yellow feet. How simple!

This was taken in Huntington Beach Central Park in Talbert Lake which has, bless it, lasted all year long this year. If we get any decent rain this winter, we may have it for two years running, to the benefit of frogs, turtles, waterfowl, and photographers.

Rat Poison is Bird Poison?

Bartlett Park, my favorite little not-sure-what-it-is place, is full of birds of prey. Of course, they hardly stick to the park--it's deep, but not wide, and they have to hunt elsewhere.


The park is right behind a shopping center full of restaurants and grocery stores, and therefore, lots and lots of food waste. Rats, of course, like food. Store owners, understandably, are less than enthusiastic about rats.

A while back, I posted a pair of pictures (1) of the resulting contrast: Wildlife sanctuary (of sorts) on one side, rat poison on the other. I idly wondered whether the poisoned bait might be hurting the birds.

From this article in Nature, it looks like the answer may very well be "yes," and not just birds of prey, though it apparently varies from bird to bird just how much.

The question, then, is "Now what?" Store owners and shoppers (including me!) aren't going to get any fonder of rats, nor is anyone whose house and backyard has ever been invaded by the creatures. Alternate poisons are one possibility, but any poison is going to have some effect (and almost certainly some unexpected effect).

I have no idea, incidentally, what specific poison the folk around Bartlett Park are using, nor can I swear the traps are still there; I'm no longer living where it's easy just to run across and look. It's just something to think about.

---
(1) Not this particular pair. These were taken at Bartlett Park on a different day. It's been an ongoing concern.

Celebrating Creativity

As I returned to this blog, I started thinking about all the really fantastic, creative people I am surrounded by, and I wanted to celebrate them. They are writers, artists, photographers, book makers, home makers, violin players who also sail and teach, reviewers. Some of them I’ve known for years, some I’m related to, some of them have blogs I read regularly, some are published. All of them are awesome, and I wanted some way to celebrate them.

So I’ve started a new guest column, one I plan to run monthly. This is actually fairly unambitious of me; I know more than twelve really awesome people, but I figured I’d work myself up gradually in the asking department.

My good friend, K. Zolnoski, has agreed to be my first guinea pig guest and is beginning the column with an article on her new, non-fiction book, The Shadow of the Hand of God. She's also currently writing a novel, In the Flesh. I expect to hear a lot from her everywhere, soon!

I hope you enjoy the new column.

Sightings

While out walking:

A mosaic-covered house, cupboard, and porch with an assortment of objects awaiting further work scattered about.

A horse and rider calmly using the crosswalk and then moving into the bike lane to continue on over the bridge.

A snowy egret landing in the Los Angeles River near sunset.

Pink, gold, and orange clouds over the river.

A family riding together, Mom and Dad on horses, younger child on a pony, the two smallest in the saddles in front of their parents,  accompanied by a cheerful black and white goat which trotted along quite happily, unleashed.

TeWinkle Park, Costa Mesa

I love parks, all kinds of parks, all kinds of places.

TeWinkle, though, is a standout. It has water (always a plus), shade, plenty of room to roam, and the gorgeous, accessible Angel's Playground.  A win all around, I'd say.

The first noticeable feature of TeWinkle Park (for an adult, anyway) is the gorgeous, big pond/stream system running through the main area. There was, briefly,  fountain in the center, too, though I do not know how often or for how long it is on.

Several small waterfalls and a small, meandering stream make this a very restful spot. Also, there are bridges for dreaming on, though I have to admit that, when I was there, they were mostly being used as photo ops for various celebrations. I guess they're good for that, too!

Critter count: I found the usual suspects--pigeons aplenty, lots of rowdy crows, some squirrels high up in those lovely pine trees, ducks and geese (of course), and painted turtles in the pond. There seemed a relatively low amount of the insect-type of critter, which is odd, given all the water, but, then, I was primarily visiting for picnicking, not taking a census (this time).

Trees: Lots, and of good height. The pine trees, especially, had been allowed to get nice and tall.

There was also plenty of room for running around/soccer games/what have you and the absolutely gorgeous Angel's Playground, a fully accessible playground with wide ramps, plenty to clime and explore, and appealing bright colors.

There are bathrooms, water fountains, and plenty of picnic tables in the shade, making this a park well worth going out of your way to visit (Not "I'm going to drive an hour or more to see this" sort of out of the way but "I want a nice, afternoon picnic"  or "I need somewhere for the kids to play kind of visit.

The Laughing Mannequin

I'm starting to keep an eye out for her:

At the beach.

Near Halloween.

Last year at the Civil War reenactment.

Langenbeck Park, Huntington Beach, Notes

Langenbeck Park is (according to the official website)half a mile long, a long skinny L of a park directly below humming power lines and decked with huge, spiked power-line towers, complete with "Do not climb" warning signs.

Picnic Tables: Yes. Some of them are even in the shade. This is not a given, by the way. I'm not sure that the people who plant the trees and the people who park the tables ever talk with one another at all, or look at how far shade is likely to reach.

Trees: It has plenty of trees. I counted at least four kinds, most kept to the tall, straight ideal, not my favorite kind, I admit, but a tree is a tree, and I'd rather straight than none.  They also included a couple of types I had not seen in other parks, so hurray for keeping things interesting and varied!

Two were even flowering when I visited. It's not the sort of park that really invites sitting down and pondering the nature of the universe, but still, the trees are there to provide grace notes and to shade the path.

Critter quotient: I went in the early fall, which may affect the count somewhat. Still, this is Southern California, so looking for birds and bests is not unreasonable. Overall, it was lower than I'd have expected for that much open space, with most of the birdsong coming from chattering finches who seemed to really like the power-towers (contrary creatures!). Most of the crows I saw were flying over nearby houses, though a couple had strayed into the park. Oh, and a pair of ring-necked pigeons were hunting for food under one of the towers.

I did not do a very detailed bug-hunt. Nothing notable flew up when I scuffed my feet. I did see a Phoebe sitting on one of the picnic tables, though, which is an indication of at least some bug-ness. Overall, I'd put the critter count at higher than average for the city in general, but I wouldn't suggest going to Langenbeck Park to bird watch.

The landscaping is not especially welcoming for birds and beasts, being mostly clipped grass and the aforementioned trees. No raggedy edges or ripened grass for anything to hide in or eat from.

Bathroom? Nope.

Drinking fountains: Also no. (As someone commented, "If you don't drink any water, you won't need to pee.")

Sports stuff: No. No kite flying, either, for obvious reasons.

Parking: On the street. It looked like there were plenty of different neighborhood areas with access to the park, so I doubt there's much trouble finding space, though I do advise checking street-sweeping days and the like.

Play Structures: I can't remember, and I didn't make notes on this.  I think not, but I'm not going to swear to that.

 

 Does this look like something you'd want to climb?

Will you be able to forget you're in the city? Not with those towers and that hum overhead. That said, there are worse uses to make of power line land (I've seen some stretches of rocky, barren wasteland, all fenced off and good for no one, not even the bugs). Also, there is a nice, long, curving sidewalk running the length of the park, and I imagine that it must make a pleasant addition to the daily walk or run. I saw quite a few people walking their dogs and one person intently rollerblading along the way.  It looks like it might be nice for varying a bike route, as well, but I did not think to check what the park regulations said about that.

As an added bonus, someone who wants more than half-mile Langenbeck provides can also cross Magnolia at the crosswalk by the nearby Home Depot and continue on through Talbert Park.

Talbert Park, Huntington Beach

Talbert Park and Langenbeck Park are, in many ways, two halves of one park. In fact, if Magnolia did not provide a rather considerable interruption, there would be no reason to say They were two different parks.

They share the same long, straight stretch of power line, the same definite hum, and the same curving path under the trees. Also, with the  nearby shopping center providing a nearby crosswalk, it's not too bad getting from one to the other, a definite plus for those who want to get their daily jog or walk in without having to stick to city streets.

Trees: Yes, including some rather pretty ones with nice, large, pink flowers (see above). Lake Park has a big one, but they don't seem too common.

It looked like there were maybe one or two different plantings of trees, as well, which always adds to the beauty, letting the trees be different sizes. Also, there are a couple that have been allowed to gain character.

One big one has a good spread of low-lying branches at crazy angles. It looks like it might be worth sitting under for a while.
Critter count: This surprised me. There were a whole lot more birds here than in Langenbeck, and all I had done was cross the road--and I noticed the difference crossing back, too. However, the Talbert Park website mentions that Talbert Channel is nearby, and that may explain matters. Both birds and bugs are going to be happier with water nearby. I wonder, though, is Talbert Channel like Talbert Lake, a come-and-go matter? This year, it would be all "go," water-wise,but there may not be any water at all, some years, if it's like many of our creeks/lakes/channels.

Bathrooms: I didn't see any.

Water fountains: I didn't see any.

Playgrounds: Yes. The standard setup with the yellow slide, red ladders, swings. Comes in two sizes, too, so it's great for all ages. Don't bring any little ones who are potty-training, though (see above on bathrooms).

Sports stuff: Yes. Talbert Park actually spreads out later on, merging with a school area, and has some big, flat areas for soccer etc. You'll have to check just what, though, as I forget. The sports equipment is not really high on my list of priorities, I'm afraid.

Parking: On the street--not on Magnolia, though.

Will you be able to forget you are in a city? No. See humming power lines. Is it a Good Thing to Have? Yes. Definitely. Parks are always good!