Preservation of History and Nature

Upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Pandemic Sketchbook week 23 

Parthenos sylvia Butterfly on Zinnia ink and watercolor by Meera Rao 

We visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA with friends visiting from India. The highlight of that trip was the enclosed butterfly garden with hundreds of butterflies from all over the world. This particular butterfly is Parthenos sylvia a species from Asia and South Asia on zinnia. Seeing the beautiful creatures up close as they come and even land on your head or shoulder, definitely makes you care and want to save them from extinction! It really paired well with photo for the week in the upcycle Smithsonian Engagement Calender - ‘Front cover from 29th Annaual Catalogue, 1899 Iowa Seed co., Desmoines, IA. This lithograph print is from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. The Libraries and archives has a unique trade catalog collection that includes about 10,000 seed and nursery catalogs. These publications document the history of the seed business and horticulture in the United States. Through their bold text and exuberant illustrations, they also provide a fascinating window into the history of graphic arts and advertising. 

Upcycled Smithsonian Engagement calendar pandemic sketchbook 2021 week 23

Colonial Williamsburg colonial horse and buggy pen and ink by Meera Rao

At first glance the photo in the calendar and the record of a day in my life that week looks like a big contrast - and yet both are preserving the history of our country! Apollo 11 spacesuits transferred from NASA are on display at the Steven F. Unvarnished-Hazy Center, National Air and Space Museum.  The caption for the spacesuits reads: ‘Shown here at the Emil Buehler Conservation Lab at the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center are 3 spacesuits worn by the Apollo 11 astronauts on their historic 1969 mission to the moon. From left to right are the suits of Edwin R Aldrin, Michael Collin’s, and Neil Armstrong.’ 

The quest to find different walking trails took us to Colonial Williamsburg that morning. The horses were also on a walk ! 

 

Lessons from History and Nature

Up-cycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar  Pandemic sketchbook 2022 week 22 

Nautical Mailbox Post Pen & ink, watercolor By Meera Rao 

I did not realize how much pleasure I would get revisiting my up-cycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar and being reminded about how our days and weeks were spent noticing little things around us. I was always looking for new places then to do our daily walks for a change in routine. The experience and novelty of that has continued through and we still have not rejoined the gym but walk on various trails. I noticed this nautical themed mail post and many others like this walking around our little town by the water. It made the postal theme with the photo of the week from the calendar: Schermack stamp vending machine c. 1955 now on exhibit at the National Postal Museum in DC.  The coincidences of what was in the photo of the week matching with at least one of incidences from my week was always a fun project to check ! 

Orchid Bloom Pen &ink and water color by Meera Rao 

Up-cycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Pandemic sketchbook 2021 Week 22

 

We have a couple of orchid plants that are gifts given to us a few years ago. They still bloom almost every year but I can’t seem to figure out their cycle. I remember going on search on the web trying to figure out the cycle when I saw that it finally bloomed during week 22 in 2021.  The note I made on the calendar says that orchids  ‘symbolize the bravery of Harry and Harriette Moore - pictured on the locket shown in facing page. ‘On Christmas night 1951, Ku Klux Klan members bombed the home of Florida NAACP leaders  Harry T and Harriette Moore, killing them both. The Moores were the first NAACP members to be murdered for their civil rights activism. The locket shown belonging to Harriette, features photographs of the couple when they were young.’  Their daughter,  grandson and great-grandson donated the locket to National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC.  It was sobering to see it in person later when we visited the museum. 

Awesome Nature

                                                                                    

Hi-Yu ( Abundance) Pen and Ink /watercolor By Meera Rao

I had a few holes here and there in both of my 2021 and 2022 Journals - a few weeks that I was unable to sketch for some reason or other.  I felt I should fill them up, complete the recording and then start posting - a bit unreasonable on my part but then sometimes that's how I move unfortunately. I relied on my photos to jog my memory. Now that I have filled in every single week in both the journals, hope the posting will be be easier on my psyche - even if its two and three year delayed. 

week 21 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Pandemic Journal 2021 

The photo on the Smithsonian Engagement calendar which I had upcycled as my Covid diary / journal has Hi Yu Apples crate label, from Wenatchee, WA now in the collection of National Museum of the American Indian, The label is done in Ink on paper.  

"Before they were replaced by the cardboard boxes in the 1960s wooden boxes bearing colorful designs were used to ship fruit and vegetables. Often the designs featured Native American motifs. HI-Yu the Chinook language words meaning abundance was the name of a brand of apples shipped from Wenatchee, WA." True the word for the week, in our garden on that week the blueberries and blackberries were in abundance ! We did not get to enjoy them because the birds were having feast  and we weren't invited :) 

Week 21 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Pandemic Journal 2022 

This week's photo in the Smithsonian Engagement calendar 2022 is "Niimiipuu(Nez Perce) quiver and bow case c.1890 Idaho. It is made from otter skin and fur, hide wool cloth, muslin, glass beads and silk ribbon and is in the National museum of the American Indian.  

On May 17 2022, I had gone to check the trees I had planed to sketch for a Tree sketching Class I had volunteered to teach later in the month at the Historical Endview at Newport News, Va. As I was walking around the property I saw a snake skin under one of the bushes. Upon further research, I learned that snakes shed a layer of their skin in on continuous piece, a process called 'ecdysis'  which occurs between four and twelve times a year. Why? While snakes body continues to grow, the skin does not! How cool is that !

Snake skin on forest floor  watercolors by Meera Rao.  

Recording Memories

Me And First Born Pen and ink by Meera Rao

Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of sketching and then recording it in the blog.  Doing the covid diaries, I have recorded moments that looking back now, I could have easily forgotten and dug up memories that brought me joy. Now publishing in the blog after two and three years later brings some amazement to me!   This was a memory from years ago and yet now fresh - and refreshed again ! 

Week 20 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Pandemic journal 2021 

The photo in the Smithsonian Engagement calendar 2021, upcycled to pandemic diary/journal 2nd year in a row, is by Elinor Cahn: East Baltimore Documentary Survey Project c.1975Gelatin silver print Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Cahn was one of the several photographers involved in the National Endowment for the Arts 1978 East Baltimore Documentary Survey Project, which aimed to capture the realities of life in a multiethnic community. 

Week 20 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Pandemic journal 2022

 My sketch for this week is of the mural Pool House Blues by Anickan Udofias at the William H  Ramsey Aquatic center by the Eastern Market at DC.  I have learned a lot about various artists and history, science, archeology etc. through the photographs in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar and also by the art I saw in and around various places I visited during those days.  The poster shown in the calendar photograph is for Richard Norman’s 1922 movie.  The movie featured “Bill Pickett(1870-1932), a famous cowboy and a rodeo performer of African and Native American descent.  Pickett created the technique of bulldogging( also known as steer wrestling) featured in the film. The film itself is presumed lost, as only fragments have been found”. 

Sketch of the mural ‘Pool House Blues by Anickan Udofias’

Sketch by Meera Rao 

Geese and Goslings

Canada Geese color pencils by Meera Rao

A pair of geese have been a presence in our neighborhood over the past few years. They arrive early spring and I am assuming it’s the same pair! They dine all around our and our  neighbor’s yards and leave droppings everywhere :) This year though one day in May, they came as a family with tiny four fur balls of goslings in their midst.  I still don’t know where their nest is.  They always have the goslings in the middle with at least one parent on very high alert!  The goslings are growing up fast and now are rounder and taller even though still have downy feather. They seem to be eating machines. I have watched them for a few weeks now and sadly there are only three goslings - never have found out what happened to the fourth one :( It is a lot of fun to watch them all eat, move and lounge around as a family. We usually postpone yard and garden work when they are out and about as they get very territorial - Besides, we don’t want to be chased by a goose ;) 

Swallowtail Tales

Black Swallowtail Butterfly colorpencil By Meera Rao

In mid April, one day for garnishing my pasta I brought in a bunch of parsley from the garden. Being a Vegan, I always check to make sure nothing is crawling around among the leaves. This time I found a bunch of tiny black dots and couple of  little larger ovals with a white band in the middle! Looking at them using a magnifying glass confirmed right away my suspicions. Those were the Black Swallowtail caterpillars :) I had to rescue them. So the bunch of parsley went into a vase and I now had new pets to watch over! A new page idea for my 'covid diary' obviously.

It was amazing to watch the tiny little caterpillars with voracious appetite methodically chomping away the parsley leaves! I had not seen any butterflies in the yard yet so I researched and found out that the eggs may have been hibernating during the winter waiting for the right signal from mother nature. We had to constantly restock the parsley leaves to keep up with the chompers and clean all the droppings that seemed to rain down constantly! It took about ten days for the caterpillar to be full grown. 

Then one started getting restless and racing up and down the stems. My husband guessed it was looking for a sturdier twig and brought a couple from the garden. And he was right! Next, one of the caterpillars did a 'purge' and then settled on a twig.  First its hind end was attached to the twig and then it spun one single thread and attached itself like a telephone linesman! (or a coconut tree climber) We kept checking on it for many hours. While we were away for about an hour to go pick up the groceries we had ordered, the caterpillar discarded its outer skin to reveal the chrysalis shell. In the lower left box of the photo montage above, is the discarded skin(top left corner ) and 'the purge'

Unfortunately, one of the caterpillars fell victim to a spider - I guess we were not vigilant enough :(  It happened soon after the caterpillar became immobile after attaching itself to the stick.  The spider must have come in with the twigs and leaves ! I guess the natural cycle has many aspects.

Chrysalis about ten minutes before the butterfly emerged (hindsight!) 

Last night the chrysalis started turning dark in color.  It had been about twelve days and my research informed me that in the morning as the sunlight and warmth come about the butterfly may emerge. We both checked the chrysalis around six in the morning and again around 6:20 when I noticed beautiful dots and design. I took a photo and assumed it was not time yet thinking it had to turn darker. I went to make myself a cup of coffee. Next thing I knew, the butterfly was already out of the chrysalis and hanging next to a leaf. We took it outside and waited.  It took its own time warming up and stretching its wings. About three hours later it hopped to a flower close by and in no time at all flew off!  And I found out more blue in the wings makes it a female butterfly :) 

We have one more chrysalis indoors.  Hoping we will be able to see the butterfly emerge from this cocoon from the start !  Meanwhile we have to make sure there is plenty of parsley and dill growing in the garden. 

Some See A Weed, Some See A Wish !

Dandilion graphite and color pencil sketches by Meera Rao 

What a wonderfully complex world is in there on our lawn! We have always let the yard stay 'green', not really bothered by the 'weeds' and have admired the tiny colorful flowers that show up voluntarily. They bring with them many birds, butterflies and bees. The lawn does get mowed but we avoid weed killers or insecticides. When our daughter was a little girl, she would ask her Dad not to mow down the pink clover flowers and he always obliged by mowing around them! Blowing the fluffy seed heads of the dandelion was always a favorite pastime for her too ! 

I look up the names of the different plants every so often and admire the flowers but had never really checked each flower and plant carefully until now.  I take my time with these nature journal pages now for what I have dubbed as 'covid diary' .  Each page covers days and months and I sketch and add pieces as time goes on.  It has been about 8 weeks now and I have had about that many pages going in various stages at the same time :) The page above has been assigned #4.  

Dandelion journal page by Meera Rao 

I learnt some interesting things about dandelions in my research:  "Dandelions tend to flower most abundantly in spring, but can re-flower in the fall, too. Flowers open in the morning and tend to close up at night. After a couple of days in flower they close and the seeds develop inside the closed head. The seeds, technically a fruit called a "cypselae" are produced on the flower stalk with each seed representing one of the florets in the flower head. Each has a pappus, a set of feathery bristles that act as a sail or parachute ensuring distribution of the seed by the wind. (What kid doesn't know that?) As the seeds mature the flower stalk elongates greatly, raising the fluffy seed head up into the breeze."

Ken Willis, head of horticulture at the U of Alberta Botanic Garden says "Dandelions were brought to North America from Europe and Asia as a vegetable, so they have many culinary uses. They are high in vitamins and the leaves are good in salads, the taproot can be ground into a coffee substitute and the flowers make wine. Grow it like lettuce and harvest it before the flowers bloom,"  

I am yet to try it in my coffee, wine or salad though!!!