penn

Of all beautiful things

Of all the beautiful things in the world, I saw one of the more amazing tonight. I was leading my students (a group of 10 eighth graders) on an evening night hike. Having exhausted our planned activities for the forest, we ventured to the beach to watch some stars, enjoy the soothing sounds, and relax in the sand.

Then, we ventured into the wet sand exposed as waves rolled back from the shore. With care, due to the advancing tide, we played in the sand. And, there, we discovered something most amazing:

bioluminescent dinoflagellates

Okay, let's break the Latin down. Bio: living. Luminescent: lights up. Bioluminescent is specifically used to talk about organisms that make their own internal light. Dinos: whirling, flagellum: small whip. This beautiful, glowing light is made by a small, single-celled organism with two whip-like tails (flagella). Relatives of what we saw produce red tide, but this was just sheer beauty. As we dragged our fingers through the sand, the plankton glowed momentarily. In some areas, the concentration of dinoflagellates was so high that my fingers appeared to glow in the sand.

The beauty is simply indescribable. I am now motivated to swim amongst the bioluminescent plankton. What I saw was not nearly so bright, yet it was still amazing. For now, I am happy playing in the sand on my little piece of the coast of Maine.

PS Do yourself a favor and check out this google search for pictures of bioluminescent dinoflagellates. So beautiful!

Beautiful Friday

A few beautiful things I've seen over the last couple months. I love carrying around a camera phone; the pictures aren't pro-quality, but they're good enough to capture a lovely image and preserve it for me. Somehow, I remember things much better once I've photographed them. And it's not just looking at a photograph repeatedly; something about the act of taking a photograph, of studying the object to capture it best, helps me remember the beauty of the object.

a shell interior at the Oregon Coast ground nest on gooseberry bush -- found while hiking a luna moth

Something there is that doesn't love my nose

Overnight, spring has sprung. Literally. Somehow, it's been so long since I've paid such close attention to any deciduous trees. One day, the woods were all brown. Then, spring wildflowers began to carpet the ground, and I enjoyed the patches of color they provided in an otherwise barren landscape.

Today, while biking in to work, I was stunned. Miraculously, from out of nowhere, the forest has become full again. Leaves have appeared on branches, flowers are bursting forth everywhere, and all is green.

Of course, I know this potential has been waiting for quite awhile. All winter long, buds slept on the trees and roots protected sap, the lifeblood of the plant.

And then, last Friday, it all came out in full force. And with the awakening of full-fledged spring came the awakening of my allergies. This has been my worst year so far; Saturday found me practically incapacitated and then floating along on a haze of allergy medication. I've evened out in my response to the medication, but even with a combo (recommended by the doctor), my nose is still dripping. I don't remember ever having such a sudden onset of vicious sinus lashback, but it's here now.

side note: I've been trying to use a cloth handkerchief in my attempt to make household changes to be environmentally friendly (#49). It went really well for two weeks, but the handkerchief is a retreating army in the face of my current nasal discharge.

I appreciate my modern pharmaceuticals, as there's no way I want to miss this beauty. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes summer has in store for me.

Happy Earth Day!

a great blue heron in flight

Go enjoy some nature today!

Prairie Burning

Tonight was a prairie burn here at my nature center. We do prescribed burns on a rotating yearly basis; the fire department gets practice, and we get to simulate natural burn cycles. This helps us maintain prairie, reduce invasives, and maintain needed open spaces and edges within our landscape.

As an added bonus, my boss brought her photo-savvy son. He has the same camera as me, so he showed me some awesome ways to use it and improve my technical photography. I'm very happy about this.

Here's the fire from several different viewpoints:

eerie in black and white . . .

Legacy

One day, in a forest in southern Minnesota, a great tree will fall down. This tree might become covered in lichen, moss, and fungus as it slowly decays. It may become a home for small animals or a damp, dark, warm place for invertebrates. Perhaps the tree may be split up for firewood.

Eventually, someday, this tree will no longer be standing.

And when it comes down, someone might be poking through the remains. Whether the tree rots or whether it is split up, some being will inevitably find a strange piece of metal there. This piece of metal, long ago absorbed into the tree and healed over, will be a lasting testament to practices of a previous era.

And this little piece of metal will be my fault.

The tree in question is a maple tree, and the cold nights and warm days mean that sap is running here in Minnesota. Somehow, today, one of my students managed to break off the tip of a drill bit inside the tree. It was freezing today, which may have made the metal more brittle; the cold weather certainly made tree tapping less fun, since the sap will only run out once the weather warms up.

In any case, there is now a lasting testament to my work here. By next year, no one will be able to see this inch of metal bit. But years in the future, someone or some thing will find this bit and know just a little more about the past.

short-eared owl

A prairie find from way back in November, Matt and I saw a short-eared owl while doing a deer census with some coworkers. I finally got the pics off my phone!

Seriously, we were just driving up onto the prairie in a golf cart, and the owl was in the middle of the path! It was quite awesome.

Power of positive thinking

I'm learning to cross-country ski, and it's pretty awesome. With the help of youtube videos and gentle encouragement, I've been tackling more difficult trails out at the nature center where I work. It's all pretty fabulous.

After work on Saturday, I went out for an hour with a coworker and Matt. It's been hovering around or below zero here for a few days, so it is darn cold. I typically just wear windpants and my shell for skiing, but I got totally outfitted to go. For Matt, this meant borrowing a hat; as a Minnesota native, he's full of hubris regarding the cold. My coworker lent him a little whimsy along with the headgear, and he thanked us afterward for taking care of his ears. We went down into the woods, but there was still wind around that kept us chilled.

I learned to branch out some; I even went downhill! Of course, I fell down about four times on just one hill, but I am becoming a pro at standing back up. Except for the downhills, I've started skiing without my poles to help me refine my kick-glide.

On to the title topic: the power of positive thinking. Near the end, we have to go back uphill again to get back to our office and main building. The hill is pretty steep, so you've got to herringbone to get back up. I'm a total novice at that and therefore still slip a lot. I was working my way up the hill and heavily relying on my poles to keep me from sliding backward. I started to think "man, I've got to apologize to Matt and my coworker. I'm going so slow." Then, I straightened up my abs and decided, "No, I don't have to apologize. They're both good skiiers; I'm just learning. This is perfectly natural. And I'm actually doing a good job getting up without falling down or sliding backwards." After that, I managed to make it up the hill just fine. I'm elated at the progress I'm making!

An example of how cold it was: Matt's beard froze, and the front of my jacket got covered with frost. Turns out that the balaclava (my funny hat/face thing) was really useful. All in all, a fun time!

People are gosh darn cute

alternative title: fun stuff I do for work and domestic things I wish I did

In preparing for our winter festival here at work, I have been a busy bee. I am the intern in charge of all the fancy-pants large events. Among other things, this means that I pick our craft activities. For our winter festival, we will be making paper chains and little tiny snowshoes out of pipe cleaners (oops, I mean chenille sticks! Must avoid those drug references).

I've got some paper chain templates for things like birds and butterflies and whatnot; turns out some of my long-ago Christmas presents have suddenly become quite useful (other useful Christmas presents include books on string games and books about teaching nature to children).

I have found some of the cutest paper chain things online! Check out these neat templates for different shapes. And also cool is this lady's idea about decorating on the cheap for parties: rubber stamped paper chains!.

And the cutest of all: stapleless paper chains! This preschool mom found a way to make paper chains with no staples, tape, or stickers. They take a little more time, but they are so awesome.

Back in the day, I found this fabulous guide for 30 things you can do with kids. It looked so fun that I've kept the tab open forever at work. We haven't yet done any of these projects, but they look like so much fun. Wait, I lie -- at last summer's boating camp, we did Andy Goldsworthy projects every week; we had kids make art out of nature, and then we photographed the results. This was a big hit, and I'm looking forward to replicating it during one of the spring camps here.

On the domestic end, I love Margaret Mason's suggestion for ensuring that you are always ready to entertain. I don't have guests stop by often, but it is nice to encourage that sort of behavior, and I think having little treats readily available is always nice. Plus, if you keep it in a special jar or box (I'd personally pick a tin box or something similarly non-see through), it reduces the urge to graze. Gosh darn cute, and a perfect hostess gift!

Okay, now back to work for me. Just wanted to share some neat projects.

Hot days

Another resurgence of Indian summer here in Minnesota is really worrying me. It is November, and I was vacuuming my car in running shorts yesterday (I had just gotten back from the gym). This morning, I had to take a shower because I was so sweaty from sleeping. And I biked to work in short sleeves this morning!

Thankfully, it is supposed to rain soon. With rain should come cooler weather. I hope.

PS I hope all my US readers voted today!