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March 22: World Water Day

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  Today is World Water Day. Did you know that only one-hundredth of one percent of Earth's water is available for human use? That boggles my mind. It reminds me to be mindful of water and not waste it!!!! Here are a few more interesting facts about water. *Water covers 70.9 percent of the planet’s surface. *97 percent of the water on Earth is found in the ocean; 2.5 percent is unavailable fresh water (trapped in glaciers, underground, etc); and 0.5 percent is available freshwater. *There is more water in the atmosphere than in all of our rivers combined. *If all of the water vapor in our planet’s atmosphere fell as water at once and spread out evenly, it would only cover the globe with about an inch of water. *More than one-quarter of all bottled water comes from a municipal water supply – the same place that tap water comes from.  *On average, an American resident uses about 100 gallons of water per day. Find more facts about water, and references to the a...
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Recipe for leftover spaghetti noodles

 Recently, I made spaghetti for my neighbors. We have been spending time together during the COVID isolation, since we are all very careful and know each other well. I overestimated the amount of noodles and had quite a bit left over. So I did some Googling, and have created an easy frittata recipe, which is vegetarian, but you can add meat if you choose. About 1/2 pound, cooked, chopped spaghetti noodles (enough to cover the bottom of a quiche dish) 3 eggs 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese 2 TBS EVOO 2 TBS butter 1 c chopped broccoli 1 c chopped or sliced mushrooms 1/2 c chopped onions Salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using half the butter and EVOO, saute the onions and mushrooms. I steamed the broccoli in the microwave, about 2 minutes on high. Mix together the noodles, eggs, cheese, and salt & pepper. Add the sauted & steamed veggies. Place a quiche dish over an eye on med-low with remaining butter and oil until butter melts. Add pasta mixture, flatteni...
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Alice Ball, American Chemist

 Alice Ball, 1892-1916, was an African American chemist who helped solve the problem of preparing an oil for injection into a human. A little background first. Kalaupapa, a small area on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, had become a holding area for people with leprosy. If you are familiar with biblical references, leprosy was an issue then. It ravages the skin, attacks mucus membranes, and attacks peripheral nerves of the brain and spinal cord. It is contagious, which is why people were isolated. For hundreds of years, the only medication was an oil from the chaulmoogra tree. Because it's an oil, it doesn't mix with water, so injecting it was useless. It also tasted terrible, nauseating. Apparently, rubbing it on skin didn't do much good. Dr. Harry T. Hollmann worked with leprosy patients, and knew he needed a chemist to help find a way to make the oil into a usable form. Alice Ball, who grew up in Hawaii as a child, returned there to be the first woman and first African Am...
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Ode to a Winter Morning

Parker and I wander down the steep driveway on a quiet, still, cold morn. A house wren announces our arrival; Titmice twitter among the dogwoods. The sun's rays filter through bare trees creating a shadow forest in the pasture. Parker sniffs the usual spots with the waxing gibbous moon hanging serenely in the clear blue sky. I stop and marvel at the peacefulness!      No cars.      No lawn mowers.      No leaf blowers.      No barking dogs. We head back up the hill.
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White Ibis

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Today, Dan and I visited Clam Bayou Nature Preserve in St. Petersburg, FL. We walked along the many trails in the park, built specifically to help preserve waterways and protect the natural water filtering of mangroves and grasses. We saw quite a few birds such as egrets, osprey, ducks, and cormorants; but the white ibis ( Eudocimus albus) was fun to watch. This group was eating something (grass?) along the edge of a waterway.  I enjoyed seeing their curved, orange beaks, pink backward bending legs, and the way they eyed us as we walked by.   
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Kayaking around Florida Mangroves

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 Today, Dan and I went kayaking with Capt Yak, aka Greg Stoppelmoor, around Shell Island Preserve. It was a cool winter day, upper 60's, with a light wind at the start, but got a bit stronger toward the late afternoon. The mangrove "caves" were very calm and quiet places to explore. I had never done that before, so it was a lovely new experience. Greg told us there are three types of mangrove trees in Florida, red, black, and white mangroves. The red ones produce seed pods (propagules) that we had seen along the gulf coast. Black mangroves grow taller, and white mangroves tend to grow more inland.  Another fun part of our afternoon was being joined by, at first just one, then two cormorants! They would dive and swim along with us. It was fun to see them dive, swim ahead a bit, then come up. Unfortunately, we had no fish to share. We also saw a flock of white pelicans in the distance, brown pelicans diving for mullet, which were leaping (for joy?) out of the water ahead of...
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Horseshoe Crabs

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This horseshoe crab ( Limulus polyphemus ) on the beach was not alive; it was washed ashore overnight. But I was reminded how scientifically important these ancient animals are to medical research. Horseshoe crabs have been around for more than 300 million years, making them even older than dinosaurs. They look like prehistoric crabs, but are actually more closely related to scorpions and spiders. It has a hard exoskeleton and 10 legs, which it uses for walking along the seafloor. I was surprised to learn that it also uses appendages and legs to crush food, such as  worms and clams, and maybe some algae, then uses those appendages located in front of its mouth to carry  it to the mouth. No teeth! This one was found along the Gulf coast (St. Pete beach), but most are located along the Atlantic seaboard. The Delaware Bay ecosystem considers them a keystone species.  Horseshoe crab blood is a bright shade of blue, as well as having remarkable antibacterial properties that ha...
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