We hit 39 weeks of gestation this past Sunday, and I had a friend take some pictures of us for posterity. We hadn't done any nice posed photos since our wedding, so it was about time.
I'll be 40 weeks this Sunday, and the little one is still hanging in there. Not a lot to report at this time; I've been using my days to nest, rest, and sometimes work on school stuff. My parents fly in Saturday night, and I can't wait to see them.
Here's a few of my favorite pics from the shoot:
Now that the heat has broken, it is nice to be back home. Especially nice are sleeping in my own bed, snuggling my cat, and being able to work on our apartment.
Today, we took a short bike ride to go hike. We packed along the picnic below. It was great to get to finally use the picnic set we received for our wedding (unexpectedly, I might add. We had a small registry and were pleasantly surprised to see all the nice things folks gifted us). Even a simple meal of sandwiches, coleslaw, and fruit tastes better outdoors.
Has the heat broken where you live? What are you doing to enjoy summer?
Just two shots of some of the lovely tulips coming up in our yard. I'll try to snap more pics soon. Matt and I both love tulips, and this is the second year our bulbs have given us a gorgeous spring show. I need to remember to plant some seeds so we can enjoy flowers this summer as well.
Two months ago, Matt and I spent a good weekend with his parents exploring in our area. We took them to Nerstrand State Park, which is fairly close to where we live. It was great to visit there again. This was the site of our first camping trip together.
It was an awesome spring day full of beauty. Lots of great flowers and some special little friends too.
One of my favorite plants was there: the maidenhair fern!
The waterfalls actually had water in them, as opposed to the tiny trickle when we were last here. (note: these are some up-close pictures of the falls)
We also had some quality time with Matt's parents. I know he loved having them there to harass him.
A truly lovely day.
From my friend Will on Facebook:
"Fungi breathe oxygen, eat other things, digest, and respire CO2, just like us. Many live in partnership with plants and animals, mediating the breakdown and direction of nutrient flow in natural ecosystems. Some even produce chemicals very similar to mammalian neurochemistry. Mushrooms are amorphous, spore-producing, animal-like networks that may or may not ponder their own existence."
And a retort from his friend: "If soil is the heaven trees root their dreams in, then think of it; fungi must be angels."
Outside of our apartment/house, there are a number of lovely old trees. Our house was built sometime in the late 1890s, and many of the trees around are just as old. We have massive oaks, maples, and cottonwoods providing delicious summer shade.
My favorite tree, however, is much younger. It's a curious tree, and before I had looked closely I thought it was perhaps more than one tree.
It certainly looks curious, doesn't it? The dark parts, the light parts. I must have edited the photo, right?
Nope, that's just the way that tree looks. I don't know if the tree has always looked that way, but it has definitely had this phenotype since it leafed out this spring. Once I took a closer look, some wheels started turning in my head.
Those white and green leaves have quite a distinctive pattern. And they remind me of an activity I did in genetics this past semester. We raised up plants with both mutant and normal chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are an organelle within the cell of a plant (a little piece that does something but can't live on its own). Normally, chloroplasts have a lot of green chlorophyll inside, and that green chlorophyll performs photosynthesis for the plant. This is how the plant gets its energy.
However, in some plants, there are mutant white chloroplasts instead. They don't work as well, so the plant doesn't get as much energy. If there are just white chloroplasts in the plant, the plant stays white because there's not much the plant can do. But if there are both green and white chloroplasts, the plant might stay variegated, or the green only leaves might out-compete the variegated leaves.
I don't know what will happen here to my variegated maple. There certainly are variegated and green-only leaves on the same branch.
Only observation and time will tell. Amazing what you can see when you open your eyes, look around, and truly watch the world.
Just a quick pic to share today. This is my favorite barn in the area. It's close to a local state park and is on my route home from school. It's even more lovely in winter when covered in snow.
A week or so ago, Matt and I picked up a shepherd's hook and a finch feeder. We've had quite a bit of action from chickadees, gold finches, chipping sparrows, and more. The bird book is getting plenty of use. Matt thinks we may have seen a purple finch a time or two.
Surprisingly, Matt and I are not the most avid birders in the household. That award goes to Lucy, who spends hours each day sitting on the back of the couch while observing the wildlife.
She seems content to sit and watch. Lucy does prefer an open window. When she isn't sitting there and hears the birds chirping, she comes running. So far, she doesn't seem to faze the birds. We're hoping to get another type of feeder to attract a wider variety of birds. We live right next to woods and a ravine, so there is plenty of wildlife to go around.
Do any of you feed the birds? What is your favorite bird to watch?
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