The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller

The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

i'm currently on daily blogging sabbatical, but i'll be back very soon.

Water droplets on green bean leaves
|| 4/29/2011 || 1:25 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

green beans1 4 29 11 Water droplets on green bean leaves

green beans2 4 29 11 Water droplets on green bean leaves

Some of the plants for this year’s garden I’ve been growing in my bedroom. I’ve dubbed these plants the VIPs, which stands for “Very Important Plants.” The close-up photographs above show how water droplets on the leaves beautifully reflect light. If you look closely, you can see the coil of the compact fluorescent light bulb reflected in the droplet.

Photographs of a Ladybug in the garden
|| 4/25/2011 || 12:05 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

lady bug1 4 15 11 Photographs of a Ladybug in the garden

lady bug2 4 15 11 Photographs of a Ladybug in the garden

lady bug3 4 15 11 Photographs of a Ladybug in the garden

I spotted this little ladybug crawling through the Rose of Sharon bush the other day. I wish there were more ladybugs so they’d eat all the aphids I know will be coming to the garden later this year.

Photographs of pink chive buds
|| 4/22/2011 || 11:54 am || + Render A Comment || ||

chive buds close 4 22 11 Photographs of pink chive buds

chive buds far 4 22 11 Photographs of pink chive buds

About three years ago I planted these chives and every year since I’ve been either harvesting these pink chive buds & adding them to salads (they taste like an onion) or I’ve let them get pollinated, then wait a couple weeks, and harvested their tiny black seeds in order to grow more chives. I’ve read that they’ve been used throughout history as a means to naturally prevent bugs from eating different plants in the garden. In practice, however, I haven’t seem chives be very effective combating the aphids.

You know it’s spring when daffodils begin to bloom
|| 4/12/2011 || 11:47 am || + Render A Comment || ||

daffodils1 4 6 11 You know its spring when daffodils begin to bloom

daffodils2 4 6 11 You know its spring when daffodils begin to bloom

These daffodils were planted a long time ago and I’m thankful they bloom every spring :-)

Calvert Cliffs Quilt
|| 4/10/2011 || 3:37 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
calvertcliffsquilt Calvert Cliffs Quilt

I’m not a fan nuclear power. While it happens to be one of the cheapest fuel that is known to man, its also the most deadly. Years ago I made my first map of a U.S. nuclear reactor, Enrico Fermi Nuclear Reactor Quilt, and then followed it up with “Terra Fermi,” an interactive Google Earth Globe, to highlight this intrinsic danger. Given the ease in which the imagery of nuclear power plants can be obtained, I intend to make more maps of nuclear reactors to highlight their fragile existence.

View the Google Map of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.

: detail :
calvertcliffsquilt cut Calvert Cliffs Quilt

View the rest of the details:

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Springtime photographs of sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’
|| 4/6/2011 || 3:27 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

sedum1 Springtime photographs of sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’

Last years growth with this year’s new growth.

sedum2 Springtime photographs of sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’

sedum3 Springtime photographs of sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’

sedum4 Springtime photographs of sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’
The leaves trap small droplets of water.

Empty Planters (not for long)
|| 4/2/2011 || 3:15 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

empty planters Empty Planters (not for long)

Soon there will be a garden…

Photographs of the 2011 Indoor Germination Station
|| 3/31/2011 || 3:07 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

I can truthfully say that I use the internet to grow my vegetables! For the last few years I’ve been using the passive heat from my cable modem & router to germinate my seeds. It’s pretty simple to do: find a leak-proof plastic container, throw in some dirt, add seeds of what you want to grow, add some (but not too much) water, and then place it on your cable modem or internet router. Seeds do not need light to grow, rather they need heat and moisture to germinate. By using the passive heat from the cable modem & router, I can grow just about anything…

germination station3 3 31 11 Photographs of the 2011 Indoor Germination Station

This year I decided to scale up my efforts,
germination station 3 31 11 Photographs of the 2011 Indoor Germination Station

and added a couple lights and some reflective aluminum foil.
germination station2 3 31 11 Photographs of the 2011 Indoor Germination Station

Within a month most seeds will sprout and will then be transplanted into larger containers outside…

Basil Sprouts
|| 3/26/2011 || 2:59 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

baby basil close 3 26 11 Basil Sprouts

Using last year’s seeds I was able to quickly germinate this year’s supply of sweet basil.

Agent Orange? A chemical defoliant used on my neighbor’s backyard
|| 3/23/2011 || 2:43 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

The photograph below shows why I maintain a container garden:

agent orange 3 23 11 Agent Orange? A chemical defoliant used on my neighbors backyard

Every year my next door neighbor puts some type of chemical defoliant over his backyard so he doesn’t have to mow his lawn. I sincerely wish he didn’t….

Baby Potato
|| 3/19/2011 || 2:53 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

Last fall I planted some potatoes to see if they would grow and sure enough a few did. I think this one looks like Venus of Willendorf.

Letter from Hannis Taylor to Honorable Thomas H. Carter, United States Senator, Rendering An Opinion As To The Constitutionality of the Act of Retrocession of 1846 – January 17, 1910
|| 3/15/2011 || 2:43 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

hannis taylor retrocession Letter from Hannis Taylor to Honorable Thomas H. Carter, United States Senator, Rendering An Opinion As To The Constitutionality of the Act of Retrocession of 1846 January 17, 1910

Scan from the Internet Archive

Someday, when I have more free time, I will post the full text of Hannis Taylor’s letter to Senator Thomas Carter. In the meantime, you can download the PDF of this document and read that he believes the retrocession of Alexandria in 1846/1847 was not constitutional. I originally discovered this letter in December of 2009 when I posted a newspaper article titled “Does Virginia Own Alexandria County?” which was published in The Washington Herald the following day, January 18, 1910.

Related Retrocession Entries:

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[FOUND MAP] The Lining of a Leather Jacket
|| 3/13/2011 || 4:11 pm || 1 Comment Rendered || ||