In a plaza downtown, there are several fountains. The water had been turned off, but not drained from the basins. With all the cold weather, the water had frozen. For Floridians, this is interesting stuff.
We found it funny that not only were there pennies on the bottom, there were pennies sitting on the ice.
And not only that; pennies could be made to stand on their edge in the ice.
Check out the patterns in the ice.
Nice!
Today was another cold one like many others recently. After it warmed up to 32, it pretty much sat there all day. The difference was that it was Saturday and we did not have to go to work. So what do you do when it is too cold to do much outside? Well, we like to go for a drive because it is warm in the car or truck, especially on a sunny day. So we ended up going to the lighthouse and we were so glad to find that the signs that had blocked us from walking the bayside beach were no longer up. There were several different kinds of small, migratory birds foraging on the beach. This line of scrub on the right serves as a windbreak for that cold north wind and it was almost pleasant on the beach---in my scarf, hat, two jackets, boots, etc.
During the afternoon, we think we set a personal record for seeing 5 bald eagles. There were thousands of coots---no, really. There were more coots to be seen than I have ever seen in one location. There were lots of migratory ducks, too. In one spot, I counted nine great blue herons.
Here is a female anhinga warming in a bit of sun.
Those who could find a protected spot did pretty well.
But out in the open, it was enough “to chill a mockingbird.”
;^)
One of the concepts we teach in kindergarten is the three states of matter. (And yes, I have read about plasma, but so far, I only mention it in passing to my students.) Water of course can provide a good example of matter changing its state. In Florida, our opportunities to see ice form naturally outside are limited---and to tell the truth, I am fine with that.
This week, though, we are setting some records for cold temperatures and on Monday morning, we went out to find our rain barrel with a sheet of ice covering it.
The swamps that I drive through on the way to school have been covered with ice the past two mornings. We were officially recorded at 16 degrees yesterday.
For a while, they were talking of snow on Thursday; that has been dropped to a sleet warning. Oh, goody.
What state are we in?
Guess we do live in north Florida!
B worked in the garage as I packed up the Christmas decorations. Our tree was wonderfully tall again this year and even with a chair, I could not reach the very top to remove the last of the light cord and final ornaments. B came to help with a step ladder and discovered when he thought he was finished, yet one last ornament: a tussock moth caterpillar perched at the top, posing as an angel, I suppose. Or maybe a long, skinny star.
After I shot the picture above, it dropped and disappeared in the tree. We did not find it again until the tree was outside in better light.
It is a beautiful creature. I love the coloring; the black tips on the long hairs are so striking.
I was having some trouble with the automatic focus and so we transferred the caterpillar to a different branch (that was fir) to take the picture below.
Again, I called on the IFAS rep to help me out with the identification. I had gotten as far as tussock moth. He took it further to a more specific, Dasychira manto. This works for our geographical area, as well as for the fact that their main food source for this larvae is pine. He said that they do not have stinging hairs, but still some folks seem to be sensitive to them. I won’t be touching it.
I noticed on a webpage that a person by the name of Strecker was credited with the name, dated 1900. So since I had not found much about the caterpillar, my mind wandered to who this Strecker person might have been. Below is a summary of what I learned.
Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Strecker was born in 1836 to German (no kidding!) parents who had immigrated to Pennsylvania. He began work following in his father’s footsteps as a stonecutter and sculptor. He must have been quite bright as he became fluent in several languages and as a young man, he began to travel extensively, especially in the Americas. As he traveled, he collected butterflies and moths. This became his true passion. His collection became the largest on this side of the Atlantic at its time: 200,000 individuals, including 300 new species and around 150 new subspecies. One of these, it can be supposed was Dasychira manto. At his death in 1901, some of this collection was sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Strecker also wrote and illustrated a major work on this topic: Lepidoptera Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, Indigenous and Exotic, with Descriptions and Colored Illustrations. He illustrated over 300 specimens in the book.
So, thank you, Mr. Strecker, for your many contributions to the study of entomology.
Our public elementary school where I teach has a strong commitment to art. While many of us have art experiences built into our regular classroom curriculum, we are also blessed with two fantastic art teachers.
Just before we let out for our winter break, there was an exhibit in the media center of ceramic pieces done by third through fifth grade students in their art classes. I took a few shots of some of my favorites.
I liked the background drawn to go with the ceramic fish.
The pieces above were glazed. These ceramic tiles are painted with acrylics in colors that really pop. Some of the students wrote poems to go with their pieces.
Well done, guys!
