17 May 05
Capricious Deities
I knew better than to gloat here that the Yankees were tied for last place in the AL East, with a winning percentage of about .370. So I didn’t — but the baseball gods didn’t keep their end of the bargain! The Yankees have just won 10 in a row, beating up on the poor A’s, and now Seattle. What petitions did we forget to make?
16 May 05
Caterpillaration
The painted ladies we saw in their thousands a few weeks ago have disappeared, but on Thursday I noticed hundreds of caterpillars on a section of the bike path between here and campus. Same on Friday.
They’re dark gray, spiky with bristles, and have intermittent yellow striping. Yep, painted ladies. They are looking for good sites to pupate, according to Art Shapiro. When the butterflies emerge they’ll continue north.
I saw one today getting nowhere fast on my window at work. I know you’re not supposed to intervene in these things but I helped it over to a spot where there was at least a bit of traction on the wall, unlike the sheer glass.
They are travellers, these creatures…
15 May 05
Heavenly Thistle
Artichokes for dinner. Yum.
14 May 05
Taking Joy in Things of Delight
Today we drove about 45 minutes due west, beyond the hillside where we got married two years ago, and headed into Cold Canyon.
This canyon is part of the UC Reserve System; it’s a creekside hike up a fairly steep trail in places. The rain has made the vegetation very lush; it was warm; I wondered about rattlesnakes a lot but as usual saw nary a one.
You’re encouraged to sign in and are invited to leave an optional comment beyond your name and the number in your party. “Sketching,” said Numenius, below the numerous “hiking” folks that were uphill. (The wags we met on the way out put “trotting” in this category.)
We sketched. We sat by the creek and used pens, pencils, crayons, watercolors, and the new stools I picked up at REI in Boston (okay, Reading) last week.
13 May 05
A Bee’s Course
In the 1960s, biologist Karl von Frisch came up with the hypothesis that honeybees communicate the distance and direction to nectar sources via a waggle dance performed in the hive. His theory was largely accepted, but some scientists argued that the bees who had attended the dance picked up the scent of the food source from the dancing bee and made their way to the nectar site by following the scent. Lacking a way to directly follow these bees en route, some controversy remained.
Technology moves along, and we are now able to attach harmonic radar transponders (weighing between 6 and 20 mg) to insects. In a paper just published in Nature, scientists used radar to obtain flight tracks of honeybees as they went out to find the food source after observing the waggle dance, thus directly confirming von Frisch’s theory. (Image courtesy of the BBRSC and Rothamsted Research).
12 May 05
Feet and Memory
I have small feet. It makes walking hard. I also develop blisters even before I put my shoes/boots/sandals on. It’s genetic.
It’s also ironic, because I love walking.
When I was in Boston last weekend I went to the same usual haunts I somehow always manage to get to when I’m there—Mount Auburn, Harvard Square. It was the first time in probably twelve years I’d been in Central Square, though.
Central Square used to be on the dangerous side of funky. There were gunshots routinely on a Saturday night; walking past the Greek mom and pop greasy spoon would subject you to a cascade of cigarette smoke early in the morning or late at night. I lived down Magazine Street and then down Western Avenue. It didn’t feel very scary, but it should have. It was the kind of place I didn’t give too many details about on the phone to my parents.
Once I got over my stupefaction at seeing the Gap and Starbucks as I made my way from the bus stop to the Cambridge Zen Center last Friday, my feet took over.
They remembered the bricks. The sidewalk on Magazine is mostly brick, with a little cement in front of the Greek Orthodox Church parking lot. All of the eight blocks home were buckled from the roots of sidewalk trees that had grown too big for their housings and eventually been cut down but nobody leveled the sidewalk. I knew all the buckles, or rather my feet did.
I trust my feet. They have memory. Sometimes, as during practice at the Zen Center that evening when they had gone to sleep, they have more memory than sense (try standing up on a leg that is 100% asleep; it doesn’t work). But they took my shivering self through the Dell, down the Harvard Square bus ramp, over the hills and dales of the Magazine Street pavement.
Here’s to feet, and the hard work they do for us…
11 May 05
Shipment O’Goodies
It’s a fine day when the box of ordered art supplies arrives.
10 May 05
Slowly Edging Back Into California
I’ve been slowly uploading some of the sketches I did while in Boston (and on the way there). This may take a little while but there are about six of them here. [Postcript, Thursday May 12: a few more are now loaded, including one of the curious and animated discussion taking place across the courtyard which qB snuck over to listen in on…]
I met my father-in-law for lunch yesterday in Berkeley on the way home. We talked about some wonderful things, including the excellent series on race over at Abdul-Walid of Acerbia. Not content to call it quits on my trip, I continued sketching all the way home on the train.
As someone who tending not to process much but dash about from experience to experience, I’m rather savoring everything that happened over the last week. I’m also fading. I may add to this post in the morning.
Heads-up to Davisites, though: David Neiwert of Orcinus will be speaking in our town about the recent hate crimes here (wot? Davis? NEVER!) on Thursday evening.
9 May 05
Snail Day
There was light rain all day yesterday. Not so good for the Whole Earth Festival, but good for the snails.
8 May 05
Soggy Days
Yesterday was extraordinary, spending time with such congenial people in such congenial places (S&S deli, Gardner museum, Middle East restaurant). I will write more about this when I get back to Davis.
Today I went with my friend Linda to Plum Island by way of Newburyport (blue grosbeak, Nashville warbler), Ipswich (blue heron, which we didn’t see), Rowley (wilson’s phalarope, ditto), and lots of wind and rain.
I’ll be heading out tomorrow to California. I have a lot of sketches to complete on the plane. More then.