KatysBlog

December 6, 2012 · 10:21 pm

Interesting Data on Mentoring, and on Internet Growth

This week has produced two very interesting data analyses, one on mentoring success and failure, and the other on Internet growth. I recommend them to you:

A major new scholarly report has just been published on mentoring called “Characteristics of Successful and Failed Mentoring Relationships: A Qualitative Study Across Two Academic Health Centers” by Sharon E. Straus, Mallory O. Johnson, Christine Marquez, and Mitchell D. Feldman, January 2013, Academic Medicine, Volume 88, No. 1. While this report is in the context of the medical profession, there is much we can all learn from the new findings. The authors completed a qualitative study through the Departments of Medicine at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine between March 2010 and January 2011. Successful mentoring relationships were characterized by reciprocity, mutual respect, clear expectations, personal connection, and shared values. I included more about this research in my recent MentorCloud blog entry.
Mary Meeker, a partner at the famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, has just published a fascinating analysis: “2012 Internet Trends Year-End Update.” I found the country-by-country data on smart phone usage growth particularly interesting. Check it out at VentureBeat.

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December 6, 2012 · 9:21 pm

Bricklaying

This week, we are getting the bricks laid on top of some of our new concrete paths in our back garden. Jack and Rudy Batinich are the masonry contractors working on this project. The picture above is of Rudy’s work boots – showing the toes of a man who kneels a lot.

They started by sorting our collection of old bricks so that they knew what they had to work with. We probably need about 200 more old bricks than we have.
Next, we decided on design. The big area to be bricked will be running bond pattern with a border, and will connect with two walkways – one jack-on-jack (or stacked bond) and the other in basket weave classic brick pattern. We have about fifty irregular clinker or burnt bricks which will be in the border.

I think this is going to look good and be very functional.

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Tagged as garden, House Work, San Jose, Willow Glen

December 4, 2012 · 11:38 pm

Shakespeare Garden Books

I collect Shakespeare garden books. The photographs in this blog entry are of one of the most beautiful books I own: Henry Ellacombe’s The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare, 1896.

What is a Shakespeare Garden? Such a garden can be inspired by Shakespeare’s works, or can include plants he mentioned, or can reproduce a famous play setting. There are many famous Shakespeare gardens, including those at The Huntington (Pasadena CA), Golden Gate Park (San Francisco CA), Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York), Central Park (New York), Northwestern University (Evanston IL), The Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington DC), and of course the garden of Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare’s wife) in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. Check out my Pinterest Board to see pictures of over 50 Shakespeare plants. Most plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s works are still common today, 450 years later.

Publications about Shakespeare plants and gardens have been popular for 150 or more years – since they are in the charming intersection of beauty and literature. Some examples:

Beisley, Sidney, Shakespeare’s Gardens, Longmans, Green: 1864
Bloom, J. Harvey, Shakespeare’s Garden, Tower Books: 1971 (reprint of the 1903 edition)
Carter, Annie B., Shakespeare Gardens / Design, Plants, and Flower Lore, Dorrance & Co.: 1937
Chronicle Books, Shakespeare’s Flowers, 1994
Crane, Walter, Flowers from Shakespeare’s Garden, Macmillan Publishing: 1980 (reprint of the 1906 edition)
Damrosch, Barbara, Theme Gardens, Workman Publishing: 1982
De Bray, Lys, Fantastic Garlands: an anthology of flowers and plants from Shakespeare, Blandford Press: 1982
Dent, Alan, World of Shakespeare: Plants, Taplinger Publishing: 1973
Ellacombe, Henry N., The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare, Edward Arnold: 1896
Eyler, Ellen C., Early English Gardens and Garden Books, (booklet) Folger Books: 1979
Fleissrer, Robert F., A Rose by Any Other Name / A Survey of Literary Flora from Shakespeare to Eco, Locust Hill Press: 1989
Fox, Levi, An Illustrated Introduction to Shakespeare’s Flowers, (booklet) Jarrold Publishing: 1990
Fox, Levi, The Shakespearean Gardens, (booklet) Jarrold Publishing: 1953
Grindon, Leopold Hartley, Shakespere Flora, Palmer & Howe: 1883
Hales, Mick, Shakespeare in the Garden, Abrams: 2006
Hubbart, Edith, America’s First Shakespeare Garden, (booklet) 1938
Hunt, Doris, The Flowers of Shakespeare, Webb & Bower: 1980
Huntington Botanical Gardens, Garden Notes, (booklet) 1978
Kerr, Jessica, Shakespeare’s Flowers, Thomas Y. Crowell Co.: 1969
Law, Ernest, Shakespeare’s Garden / Stratford-Upon-Avon, (booklet) Selwyn & Blount: 1922
Pallen, Nancy Shumaker, Shakespeare’s Garden, Cedco Publishing: 1999
Pomeroy, Elizabeth, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, Botanical Gardens, Philip Wilson Publishers: 1983
Pickles, Sheila, The Complete Language of Flowers / A Treasury in Verse and Prose, Pavilion: 1998
Prince, Martha, “Shakespearean Bouquet”, from American Horticulturalist v.64, number 4, April 1985
The Printing Corporation, A Trip Through Internationally Famous Golden Gate Park / San Francisco, California, (booklet) 1937
Putnam, Clare, Flowers and Trees of Tudor England, New York Graphic Society: 1972
Rendall, Vernon, Wild Flowers in Literature, Scholartis Press: 1934
Rodway, Avril, A Literary Herbal, Leprechaun Library: 1980
Rohde, Eleanour S., Shakespeare’s Wild Flowers, Medici Society: 1963 (reprint of the 1935 edition)
Ryden, Mats, Shakespearean Plant Names / Identifications and Interpretations, 1978
Savage, F.G., Flora and Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, E.J. Burrow & Co.: 1923
Simons, Adelma G., Herb Gardens of Delight, Hawthorn Books: 1974
Singleton, Esther, Shakespeare Garden, AMS Press: 1933
Thorpe, James, William Shakespeare at the Huntington, (booklet) The Huntington Library: 1977
Warner, James A., and Margaret J. White, Shakespeare’s Flowers, Middle Atlantic Press: 1987

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Tagged as garden, Shakespeare

December 2, 2012 · 3:51 pm

Flat Nutcracker

Willow Glen gets into the winter holiday spirit with charming, funny, and bright house decorations. Some are more successful than others. The stores have different offerings each season. This year, icicle lights with blue-white flashing patterns – like creepy daggers hung along the roof line – are unfortunately popular. For several years, large blow-up characters have appeared front lawns. These Santas, bears, elves, and snowmen look good at night but very sad lying flat on the grass during the day. I commented on her deflated nutcracker when our neighbor was outside recently – she said it is fun to see him pop up, light up, and fling off the accumulated rain every night when he turns back on.

This is what happens when the blow-up nutcracker gets water inside…

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Tagged as San Jose, Willow Glen

November 30, 2012 · 9:40 pm

Walking in the Middle of the Road

Down the middle of the road, my husband John and I go for long walks each night. Willow Glen is a pleasant old neighborhood of San Jose, California, with wide streets and many big trees. Probably for reasons of economy, street lights are only at the intersections. To reduce the light pollution for the Lick Observatory on nearby Mount Hamilton, San Jose’s street lights are yellow (rather than white). As you can see in the photo above (taken about 7 pm tonight), all of this means that our streets are very dark at night. If you add in residential driveway dips and the haphazard condition of the pavements in our area (see photos below), walking down the middle of the road is less dangerous than keeping to the dark and broken sidewalks. In the evening roadway, we can see lights of the cars heading our way.

There is a friendly community of night time dog walkers and couples like ourselves who work during daylight hours. We know which pairs of little yippy dogs are friendly, and to keep to the other side when Monster the excitable husky is dragging his human around. We keep an eye open for the couple trailed by a bobbing light – the cat who follows their evening walk. John and I sometimes see our wilder neighbors – the raccoons and opossums who come out of the storm drains to hunt and explore in the dark. Even on a blustery rainy night, Willow Glen is a charming place to walk in the middle of the road.

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November 30, 2012 · 9:06 pm

Caboose Twinkle Lights

Just in time for December, John put the twinkle lights around my caboose roof. WP668 is the 1916 caboose where I have my office. I have a fondness for twinkle lights, so John climbs up to the roof and gives me a fresh set for Christmas every year.

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November 30, 2012 · 2:30 pm

Hopper Conference, TechWomen Press

I have been honored to have been included in two news stories recently:

“Sharing the Hopper Conference” – a story about my daughter Jessica and me attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing together, on the fascinating website Anitasquilt.org
United Nations – Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Weekly News story (Issue 45/52) “Women and ICT”, about the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing 2012 panel “Arab Women in Computing: Challenges vs. Aspirations” for which I was the moderator. The UN ESCWA story is about the participation of the impressive Sukaina Al-Nasrawi, Associate Social Affairs Officer at the ESCWA Centre for Women in Beirut, Lebanon. Sukaina was one of the amazing participants in the U.S. State Department’s 2011 TechWomen mentoring program, four of whom returned as GHC12 panelists (the others were: Reham Nasser of Egypt, Maysoun Ibrahim of Palestine, and Hania Gati of Algeria). Read more about the panel in my 4 October 2012 blog entry and in Larissa’s 7 October 2012 blog entry.

Here are screen shots of the news stories: