Field Trip to Antietam Lake County Park

East of Reading, Berks County, PA is the newest county Park:  Antietam Lake

 Sassafrass Bark

 Seeking plants, late spring.










Skunk Cabbage at spring seep.

Trout Lily

Volunteer Work Day: Philadelphia DPR and WEP

Saturday April 26:  Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation and Wissahickon East Project.  Leader David Bower.  At a new park site along Cresheim Valley, Mount Airy.

Team celebrates dragging an abandoned water heater up from Cresheim Valley stream for trash and recycling.

Clearing logjams out of the stream.

Circle gathers at the end of the day

Volunteer Work Day: Philadelphia DPR and CHFM

April 12 Joint Workday Philadelphia Dept of Parks and Recreation 
Volunteers from Accenture, Timberland and Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting
Leader David Bower

 Orientation by David Bower to tools and techniques










Setting out

        A successful day:
180 cubic feet of trash and recycling


Josh

Rock Creek Park Woods in March 2014

Notice the softening of the light taking place over just a few days at the end of March.  The color tone shifts from black and grey to warmer blue, yellow and brown.

CHFM Volunteer Days

Spring begins volunteer cleanup days in the woods around Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting.

 David Bower, Volunteer Coordinator for Philadelphia Parks & Rec, gives a thank you to volunteer team from Holderness School in Plymouth, NH.

 Damaged and fallen pine boughs are collected and then carried away for chipping and shredding.






Ginger the dog is an important part of the work team!

Dragging Away Abandoned Tent and Trash

 Dragging.

 Carrying.

Smiling.

Taking Out a Fencepost Set in Concrete

Initial digging.










Advice.

Leverage.














Below, lifting.

Cool Art

 'Tinzenhorn,' by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.  1919.  Pastel.  From the Bruecke Museum in Berlin.

 'Wind Map,' by Fernanda Bertini Viegas and Martin Wattenberg.  2012.  Custom software showing wind patterns from NWS data.  In the Museum of Modern Art and also available online at 

Airline flight paths map the United States.  In the Museum of Modern Art.

'Urbino Tea Service,' Trude Petri-Raben.  1930.  Glazed porcelain.  Museum of Modern Art.

Several Images from Philips Gallery Collection

Duncan Phillips and his wife created a small and very fine collection of art.  It is open to the public in Washington DC.  There is an entry fee.  http://www.phillipscollection.org/index.aspx

'Aspiration," by Augustus Vincent Tack.  1931.  Oil on canvas

'The Mediterranean,' by Gustave Courbet.  1857.  

'New York, Lower Manhattan,' by Stefan Hirsch.  1921.

'The Migration Series, Panel no. 59:  In the North they had the freedom to vote,' by Jacob Lawrence.  1940-41.  Casein tempera on hardboard.

Snow, Snow and More Snow: Feb, 2014

January and February in Philadelphia have been among the coldest and snowiest on record (even as western US had heat and drought).  

Upright shrubs without leaves managed.








Evergreens suffered more.

White pines were especially hard hit.
Many had branches split or snapped in half.