A Second Look--May 18, 2016

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. We've had more rain. If you look closely, you may notice rain drops on some of the pictures. About half of them were taken when there was a break in the rain yesterday--meaning I took them when it was only sprinkling instead of pouring. While I didn't get out as much as I wanted last week, the plants were very happy. The emerald green everywhere is proof of that.

We put up another bird feeder near our back doors and we're all enjoying the view--especially the cats. While various birds have come by, it is visited mostly by house finches and goldfinches. And among all of the birds, we have seen more than one fight going on over feeder rights. They look so sweet, but these birds are no pushovers.

Here are some things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Cranesbill

If you look carefully, you can see a sunflower seed in the house finch's mouth.

Even though it was raining, the bumble bees were visiting the rhododendron. 

I haven't seen a lot of rabbits this spring. I don't know if that is by chance or that the foxes had a good winter and there are plenty of them around to prey on the rabbits.

Goldfinch

The first purple sage is blooming.

I'm not sure what this is except some kind of snail or slug. I was struck by its white color because I usually associate brown and grey with these creatures. I have no idea if this true, but for a little while I imagined that I was seeing an albino creepy-crawly. 

Buttercups

The squirrels are enjoying the fallout from the new feeder.

The bearded iris have joined the Japanese iris that started blooming last week.

The baby bluebirds have gotten so big that they all don't fit in the picture. Compare this week's picture to last week's. Both were taken from the same distance above the nest.

Kinetic Sculpture Race

or How to Have a Really Fun Day

Last weekend, Ward and I went to the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore. It's an annual race that's been on our list of things to do for several years and we finally made it happen. It lived up to it's reputation of a really fun thing and I think this will become an annual thing for us.

For those of you who aren't familiar with a kinetic sculpture race (like I wasn't until a few years ago), it's a race using human powered works of art. The race we saw was 14 miles long and went up and down steep hills, into the Chesapeake Bay, and through sand pits and mud pits. There were a variety of participants from middle school students to work groups to civic groups.

Below are pictures from our really fun day.

We gathered with the racers and other crowd at the AmericanVisionary Arts Museum which sponsored the race. The contestants were putting finishing touches on their vehicles and there was an air of excitement and fun in the crowd. You see two of the contestants in this picture (FiFi, the Poodlecorn Unicorn and Monsters of a Middle School Brain.)

Each entry had to go through a safety check to show that their brakes worked by stopping on a "dime". This Monsters, Inc. entry passed.

The Chicken is the mascot of the race and Chickens are everywhere along the race helping.

This entry, Leg Power, was the first to break down and they were not able to finish the race. However, they made it further than the one entry that didn't make it out of the starting gate because of bad brakes.

Crowd participation was encouraged with costumes and ride-alongs like this outhouse and ghost buster. The outhouse had a dog in the bottom who seemed to be enjoying itself.

We watched the first part of the race on a hill with a great view of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. If you look carefully, you will see a couple of the racers in the far lane of the street.

Next we joined the race at the waterfront where the sculptures had to enter the water down a boat ramp and make their way around the dock and up the ramp on the other side. This sculpture, Tick Tock the Croc, was so long it had to swing much wider to make the turn than the other entries.

This entry, Flying Phoenix, was in the ACE class which meant that he had to get out of the water by himself.

However, others (Stumti the Tremendous Stork) were pulled out with the help of their pit crew.

The OMHS Scorpion, separated into two pieces and dumped the pilots into the water. However, they were still able to make it out and rejoin their entry together on dry land to continue the race.

This is the mud pit crew waiting for the first contestant. The pit was particularly difficult because there was a speed bump getting in and getting out of it.

It didn't matter if you had a large vehicle ( Golden Eyedra)...

or a small vehicle (Hydra), they all had a difficult time. This one fell over and the pilot took a dive into the mud.

After the mud pit, we headed back home after a full day of fun and amazement. We missed the awards ceremony, so we didn't know who won until a couple of days later.
Below are some of the winners.

Grand Mediocre Champion: The Bee's Knees, 

Engineering: Birdie, The Sculpture Vulture (Birdie was made mostly from milk jugs.)

Art: King Bal-Tut-More

Best Bribes:  Wheel of Misfortune

Want to know more:

I've just barely scraped the surface of this event. You can go to the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture website to learn more.

A Second Look--May 11, 2016

We are continuing with our rainy, cloudy, and cool weather. However, it's still warm enough for everything to continue growing. Green is everywhere with just a few trees left to leaf out all of the way. These are mostly the oaks. The hummingbirds are here and we've put up our feeder. So far, a few have found it and that causes a bit of excitement every time it happens.

Unfortunately there are plenty of weeds to feature in the weed showcase. They are the happiest of all from the ample rain we have gotten. But I don't have space this week for that. In the meantime...

Here are a few things I saw this week

 during a Second Look.

The azaleas are in various stages of bloom. If you look closely, it looks like some pruning
has been done on this bush. The deer have helped us with that.

Star of Bethlehem

Another woolly bear on the move.

Black-capped chickadee

The Japanese Iris continue to bloom, but the bearded iris are still just budding.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I haven't seen this wildflower for a couple of years since it got accidentally cut down with the lawn mower. I was very happy to see that it had returned.

All of the rain is bringing out some interesting fungus.

Goldfinch

Rhododendron

Geranium, hosta, peris japonica

House finch

Baby bluebirds, 7 days old

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone 

out there who has ever had a mother. 

Below is a post that I wrote for my mother four years ago. A lot has changed since then as my mother has gone from being independent to living in a nursing home. However, the things she taught me and the way they shaped me has not changed. 

Happy Mother's Day

When I think about my mother and what she taught me, my head spins because the list seems endless. She taught me how to measure a cup of flour with the straight edge of a butter knife and the dying art of ironing a shirt. I know how to treat a fever and plan a menu thanks to her tutoring.

A table I helped lash at Girl Scout camp.

And when she didn't know how to do something herself, she made sure that I learned in other ways. She took me to swimming lessons and clarinet lessons. That says a lot for someone who was afraid of the water and wanted to wear earplugs during my early music instruction. Thanks to her, I know how to lash a table out of branches and I don't think that's something she learned in nursing school. I think the 23 years she dedicated to being a Girl Scout leader had something to do with that.

However if I have to pick one thing that she taught me, I think the most important is respect for others and especially the elderly. When I was growing up, we had several older people in our neighborhood.

Mrs. Craft, one of the neighbors I visited growing up.

We regularly took food to them and just visited—sitting on the couch and talking. It wasn't always easy for me, but I learned how important it was over time. I hope that I have taught this respect to my children as well.

So, Mother, when I can't be there to take you some food and just sit on the couch and visit, I want you to know that you've got one* grateful daughter wishing you a Happy Mother's Day.

*Actually, I've got three sisters, so my mother has four grateful daughters this Mother's Day.

Slinky

Do you remember Slinkys?  The coiled metal toy that walks down stairs? Well, I certainly do. I had a lot of fun with them back in the day walking them down steps and springing them down and up like a yo-yo. However, at some point, they would get tangled up and rarely work as well as they once did. But still everyone I knew had one and loved it.

Slinkys did not start out as a toy. Engineer, Richard James, was trying to figure out a way to lesson vibrations to sensitive equipment on a Navy ship. He discovered that his "invention" would walk downstairs. (Do you ever wonder what made him think to try that, anyway?)

He took it home and between the neighborhood children's excitement and his wife, it ended up in Gimbels in Philidelphia in 1945. And the rest is history, so they say.  (BTW, its Philadelphia beginnings made the Slinky Pennsylvania's State Toy.)

So just as the Slinky came from efforts not related to a toy, it has been used for many other things besides walking down stairs. First thing that comes to my mind is demonstrating compressional waves in science classes. Also, they were used as antennas during the Viet Nam War. And NASA has used them in zero gravity experiments.


However recently, I heard about my favorite use of all time. My mother fell a few months ago and broke her wrist. The recovery from that has been long and hard. One of the people who is doing therapy with her bought a birthday party box of Slinkys. She used one for my mother to manipulate and gave the rest to other nursing home residents. After a while, she looked around and saw a room of smiles as Slinkys were springing everywhere. She said even people she has never been able to get to smile were smiling.

Sometimes it's the little things that put a "spring" in our day. I want to thank to Richard James and the Navy's sensitive instruments for bringing us the Slinky and putting smiles on people of all ages for a long time now.


More about the Slinky:
http://www.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Slinky

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/slinky.aspx