Project Recap [Balloon birth announcement]

Sometime after I moved back to New England, I was digging around in the basement closet when I uncovered a cross stitch kit. I hadn’t stitched anything since February, so I figured I’d give the kit a try, never mind the fact that neither I nor anyone I knew needed a birth announcement. The kit is Simplicity’s Balloon Birth Announcement (05514), featuring a circle of hearts and flowers with balloons, a duck, and two bunnies. It was purchased from the Windsor Button Shop for $4.25, marked down from $8.50. Since the purchase of the kit, Simplicity has been acquired/sold at least twice, and I believe the cross stitch portion of their business is now managed by Dimensions. Windsor Button, if I found the right shop, closed in 2013 after 77 years of business.

The kit contained a 12” square piece of white 14-count Aida, 100% cotton floss in all required colors, a needle, and the paper chart and instructions. The pattern required the more typical full cross stitches and backstitches as well as lazy daisies and French knots. The chart was easy to read, though I still can’t find where/if they marked the number of strands you were supposed to use for any of the stitches. I ended up doing one strand backstitch and lazy daisies and two strand cross stitches and French knots, which worked okay. Some of the lighter colors are a bit light worked with one strand, but I think increasing the strand count would have made it too crowded and the flowers/leaves would have lost definition. They did have instructions for how to do all the stitches, but I ended up looking up YouTube videos for the lazy daisies and French knots just to make sure I was doing them (mostly) correctly.

Additionally, like a decent number of kits, the floss came in a bundle with no labels. This kit doesn’t have too many colors, so they can get away with it, but two of the yellows are very hard to differentiate it you’re not in strong daylight, then the darkest yellow looks orange and the orange is very reddish. Other than that, the quality of the Aida, floss, and needle seemed good. I did make a mistake in centering, so it’s not quite exactly centered, but they provided a 12” x 12” piece of fabric and the pattern is about 8” in diameter so there’s still enough margin on all sides for framing.

I started working near the end of June and finished shortly after the middle of August (June 22-August 19), so it took me just under two months. [I actually finished the cross stitching in about two weeks and it took the rest of the time for all the other stitches, including a solid week of just French knots.] Because of the backstitching/lazy daisies/French knots, there was a lot more stopping/starting threads and travelling across the back than I usually do, However, I did enjoy using/learning stitches other than cross stitches, even the French knots. I might even try an embroidery project sometime. As usual, I substituted double running stitch for the backstitch and I also changed some of the backstitching to make it less blocky. Other than that, I followed the pattern as written, and overall, I thought it was well put together and I like the finished product more than I thought I would, though I still don’t know what I’m going to do with it.

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

To close out astronomical summer in the northern hemisphere, we paid a visit to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, off the northeast coast of Massachusetts. The island is named for the beach plum shrubs that grow on its dunes, and the wildlife refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Entry costs $5 for a day pass for a car, or it’s free if you have a national parks pass. Parker River is popular with birdwatchers, and it contains a number of beach access points, lookouts, and trails throughout the island. There are also a couple of canoe routes that allow you to get up close and personal with the marshes, but we didn’t explore any of that this time.

You enter the wildlife refuge at the north end of Plum Island, and the road runs roughly north to south up and down the island. Along the road, there are seven numbered parking lots and several other pullouts for lesser attractions. We started at the first, and northernmost, parking lot, which serves as one of the main access points for the beach. The beach was quiet, though not deserted, with a few dozen people spread out across the sand. A couple people were braving the water, but most were walking along the beach, fishing, picnicking, or just enjoying the sun. We walked a ways down the beach, hung out with seagulls, and examined dead crabs before finding a spot in the sand for our peanut butter and jam sandwich and banana lunch.

Ring-billed gull

After lunch, we returned to the parking lot and started making our way down through the rest of the refuge. We stopped briefly at the Salt Pannes Wildlife Observation Area and the North Pool Overlook, a pullout on the road and a small parking lot respectively. At the salt pannes, we saw a wildlife, a lone swan with the tip of its beak submerged (likely a mute swan but it could theoretically have been a trumpeter), and at the North Pool was a family of mute swans, two adults and four juveniles that were adult-sized but still brown-feathered. Our next big stop was at the Hellcat Wildlife Observation Area (parking lot 4), which features a boardwalk trail and observation tower.

A short distance from the parking lot, you can turn off the boardwalk and cross a dike to reach the observation tower, which overlooks the North Pool to the north, the Bill Forward Pool to the south, and salt marshes to the west. Here we found the largest concentration of bird photographers, fully equipped with cameras, tripods, and telephoto lenses larger than my arm. I had my, relatively speaking, compact 55-250mm lens with me, which on a crop sensor camera is at the bottom end of the range you need to get started birding. I did still manage to capture a bunch of mallards, some yellowlegs, mute swans, a great blue heron, and an unidentified duck-ish bird. Back on the boardwalk, we made a loop through the forest, with trail spurs that led to views of the ocean and marsh. Including all the spurs, the trail is about 1.3 miles, plus another ~1000 feet out and back to the observation tower.

Across the marshes

View from the Hellcat observation tower - North Pool

Shortly after the Hellcat parking lot, the refuge road stops being paved, which ranges from “slightly annoying” to “I hope my engine doesn’t fall out.” It seemed worse going south than north, but we and the car survived. We made stops to hike the Pines and Stage Island Trails (slightly before parking lot 5 and parking lot 6). The Pines Trail is a quick 0.3 miles in the woods with a marsh overlook. The Stage Island Trail is 0.7 miles one way to the Ipswich Bluffs. Along the way, you see marshes, a couple pools, and across the Plum Island Sound to Great Neck. I found a group of yellowlegs at one of the pools, but unfortunately I wasn’t carrying a ruler to determine whether they were 10 or 14 inches tall, so I’m not sure if they’re greater or lesser yellowlegs (or a mixed group).

Yellowlegs

Our final stop was at the last parking lot before Sandy Point State Reservation, a Massachusetts state park. There was another observation tower looking out across an expanse of waving reeds/grass and beach access, which we used to get one last look at the ocean before heading home. I also got my last bird photos of the day, of a sandpiper of some kind. My best guess is a semipalmated sandpiper. We ended up spending a little over 5 hours at Parker River, which included lunch, some time on the beach, and all of the main hikes, but not playing on the beach/in the ocean or extended birdwatching stops, so depending on who you’re with and your interests, your timing and choices of activities may vary.

Field of grass

(Possible) semipalmated sandpiper

Minute Man National Historical Park

No big vacations this summer, but we did a couple day trips. First off, we headed back to the American Revolution at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. We first stopped in at the visitor center, where we were just in time for the multimedia extravaganza¹ put together by the National Park Service about the events surrounding the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolutionary War.

¹ It was a video, with multiple screens, some lighting, and a light-up battle map.

To summarize, British troops stationed in Boston had orders to take action against the colonial militia, the goal being to disarm then and capture rebel leaders. The colonists were aware of these orders and when the British regulars began to move out from Boston, Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent out to warn and muster the militia, Revere crossing the Charles River and taking a northern route while Dawes rode south down Boston Neck. Revere also passed along the message that the regulars were leaving Boston by boat to the Old North Church so they could signal Charlestown using lanterns (the “one if by land, two if by sea” from Longfellow’s poem). At Lexington, Revere and Dawes met up with other leaders and decided that Concord, the site of military stores, was the target of the British. They rode on, joined by Samuel Prescott, then ran into a British patrol. Revere was captured, Dawes was released but lost his horse, and Prescott evaded the patrol and made it to Concord.

Because of the warning they had been given, militiamen were waiting for the British when they made it to Lexington at sunrise of April 19, 1775. During the encounter, someone fired a shot, leading to a brief skirmish that killed eight Americans. The British continued on to Concord, where they met a larger group of militiamen. The armies faced off at the North Bridge, where a British soldier fired first, initiating volleys from both sides (Emerson’s “shot heard round the world”). In the end, several British soldiers lay dead, and the regulars began their retreat to Boston. Throughout the rest of the day, more militia joined the growing Colonial forces as they chased and harried the British troops along the way.

Hartwell Tavern

After refreshing my U.S. History I knowledge, we set off along the Battle Road Trail, an approximately 5-mile long trail that follows some of the original route the Colonial militia and British regulars travelled between Lexington and Concord. Along the way, historical points of interest include houses belonging to militiamen and their families, battle sites, and Hartwell Tavern, a gathering place for the colonists. At Hartwell Tavern, we stopped to hear a program about the Colonial militia/minutemen where we got to see a musket fired (if you were fast and well prepared, you could fire three whole shots a minute). We also saw sheep, pigs, and planes (the park is south of Hanscom AFB). The Battle Road trail isn’t paved, but it’s mostly flat dirt and can be biked, which a good number of people were doing. The trail runs east-west with the visitor center at the east side and Meriam’s Corner, where the regulars’ retreat turned into a running battle with the minutemen, at the west end. In general, the east side of the park is more wooded while there are more open fields in the western half.

Let sleeping pigs lie

In the end, it took us about 4 hours of walking to cover the ten miles out and back of the trail, though we were in the main section of the park for a total of slightly over 6 hours, including our initial stop at the visitor center and later breaks at Hartwell Tavern and for snacks. As of our visit, there was no fee to enter the park. To finish off the day, we drove to the North Bridge, in an unconnected section of the park, to see the bridge and the Concord River before heading home.

North Bridge

Odds and Ends

Before leaving Ann Arbor, besides wrapping up as much research as possible and more or less packing up most of my belongings, I went for a few final adventures around town. I got to experience a last spring season and see the wild violets, bloodroot, dandelions, daffodils, tulips, trillium, wild geraniums, etc. bloom. Despite telling myself I wouldn’t, and that 250 mm (400 mm field of view full frame equivalent) isn’t that much zoom, I went bird watching with my camera to catch the spring migratory season, featuring red-winged blackbirds, robins, grackles, mourning doves, great blue herons, and more. There were also plenty of squirrels like always, plus rabbits (eastern cottontails), baby geese, a beaver, a painted turtle, and mating snapping turtles.

Clockwise from top left: wild violet, wild geranium, bloodroot, trillium

Clockwise from top left: snapping turtle, rabbit, painted turtle, baby geese

I baked cranberry orange scones, molasses cookies, and cranberry apple bread to use up ingredients in my freezer and pantry and celebrated warmer temperatures with courtyard lunches at the office. During my usual perambulations I discovered one weekend that Traver Creek had overflowed, flooded some of the trails, and washed out a wooden footbridge. In honor of Star Wars day, I put together a mini Lego Millennium Falcon that I added to an online order for free shipping. For the first time since Covid happened, I went to a library program, on how to birdwatch with the Washtenaw Audubon Society (sidenote – the first book I borrowed from AADL was Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; the last: Star Wars: X-Wing: Wedge’s Gamble by Michael Stackpole).

Left: swollen Traver Creek (bottom) and flooded trails (top), right: same locations a few days later, with water levels slightly down (bottom) and the bridge replaced (top)

Millennium Falcon microfighter

My lab had a celebratory barbeque/game night party at our advisor’s house for a few of us who were going to leave Ann Arbor soon (we ended up holding four dissertation defenses in just over six months). I also tried to meet up with some friends that I hadn’t gotten to see much during the pandemic times. One of those meetings was when I saw the mating turtles. Another time a friend and I biked downtown to play arcade games (including both Star Trek and Star Wars pinball and skee-ball) at Pinball Pete’s and drink a quart of sangria at Casa Dominick’s. Finally, our lab plus friends met up at the best (and only) bar on North Campus for after work drinks one last time.

Right before I moved my parents and I spent a day downtown returning my office key for the $5 deposit, visiting U-M’s Museum of Natural History and Museum of Art, and spending my M-Den gift card. And that was some of my last months in Michigan. Until next time, Ann Arbor.

Pinball

Tulip Watch 2022

Going back to before I moved from Ann Arbor for a quick look at how the tulips fared this year. As I’ve mentioned before, someone who had the apartment before me planted tulips at some point. Without me doing anything at all, they keep coming back each year, and may possibly be spreading, or it could just have been a good year for them this year. Sometimes they get eaten by deer before having a chance to bloom, or last year they were unceremoniously mowed down shortly after blooming (I rescued the less mangled flowers, stuck them in a jam jar, and brought them into the apartment), but this year I had just under two dozen tulips bloom.

I took my telephoto lens out for a spin on a few separate evenings to take advantage of the shallow depth of field on the lens and the softer light of the declining sun. Without getting into an optics discussion, given a particular focal distance, a lens with a longer focal length has a shallower depth of field. For example, if you’re taking a photo of a flower two meters away with a Canon Rebel T6, at an aperture of f/5.6, an 18 mm wide angle lens has a depth of field (DOF) of 4.63 meters (0.79 m in front/3.84 m behind), a 55 mm focal length has a DOF of 0.28 m, and a 250 mm focal length has a DOF of just 0.01 m. Of course, the wider the focal length the more you have in the picture besides the flower, but generally speaking, using a longer focal length decreases the depth of field and increases the separation between your subject and its background. That said, here are the tulips.

Most of this year's tulip crop