Tales from the Microbial Laboratory

My Mother's Birthday

~my Parents wedding~

My parents were the first couple to get married in this church, the Evergreen Church of the Brethren in Greene County, Virginia.  My Mother is now buried there, in a double gravestone with my Father's name also engraved, with only the day of his death missing.  Both of their parents are buried in this cemetery as well as several grandparents, siblings and other extended family.  My Father, for many years after her passing, took flowers from her garden and placed on her grave, on his future grave.  For awhile now he hasn't remembered birthdays or special days, and that is fine - and I'm grateful that such days no longer bring him sadness.  I suppose that is the upside of dementia (perhaps the only one).

Today is my Mother's birthday, a day that has become a bit sad since her passing almost five years ago.  She would have turned 79 today - a feisty 79 I'm guessing.  I never quite know what to do with myself on this day - so I did what I know how to do best, and what my Mom knew how to do best - I planted daffodil bulbs.  Yes, it's late - but they'll be fine.

A few of the views of my Mother's daffodils and her garden:

1 March 2008

21 March 2008

23 March 2008

24 April 2008

20 March 2010

22 March 2010

 

Gardens are sure wonderful things - they provide joy, comfort and more.

~View from the cemetery at the Evergreen Church of the Brethren~

A New Year.

Here it is, the first day of 2013 - and I told myself that I wanted to post something here today.  It's been awhile - my last post was 6 August 2012, not long after I returned to South Carolina from northern Virginia.  The first thing I had to do was to delete about a million spam comments (I know, I need to reconfigure how I handle comments here - I'll do that soon).  I doubt many of you stop by here anymore, or link to this blog - which is understandable.  I've been MIA.  I'm hoping to re-energize myself here, at least a little bit.  I've missed this space.  And I've missed all of you.  So I suppose this is a "recap" post - and what better, than to summarize the focus of this blog:  Gardening, Science, Poetry, and Life?  I keep wanting to post something simple, but its been so long - how can I post that I planted crimson clover?  It just seemed silly.  So hopefully this long and tedious update will catch me (and you) up a bit, and be what I need to get going again.  Hope you're doing well, by the way.  And Happy 2013!

 

Gardening.

 Being away from my yard and garden for a full year was rough (for both me and the garden).  I learned what was resilient and what was not (we had a dry winter in 2011/2012).  I lost half of my blueberry bushes, and I've since replanted three of the four that I lost.  My roses are mere shadows of their former selves - an entire year with little to no attention was not good for most of them (and it made me realize how I was constantly dead-heading and pruning them).  Some might not recover, this spring will tell.  I lost a small yellow camellia (which, frankly, I didn't like all that much - it was a japonica, "Lemon Glow", and it opened a sweet yellow initially, but seemed to fade to a brownish-yellow that wasn't so interesting).

This fall has been mostly about damage control and pruning, but I did plant (from seed) a wonderful fall vegetable garden, sow crimson clover and dutch white clover seed in the back garden, and "adopt" four muscadine/scuppernog vines from a local blueberry farm that are now happily planted in my backyard garden.

 

 

A local Blueberry Farm, Blue Pearl Farms, posted on their Facebook page that they had muscadine vines to give away (they were planting the area in more blueberry bushes) - and so without thinking about the size of the plants, I went with my small car, a shovel and a bucket and some plastic - and discovered that they were giving away (to good homes) 11-year old vines!  So I dug up four, found a way to fit them into my car (or at least most of them in my car - thank goodness for windows) and I now have two yellow muscadines, a red scuppernog, and a concord grape-like grape vine in my back garden (where there ia already an asian pear, two pomegranates, a persimmon, and an olive tree).  I still need to add posts and guide wire for the vines, but I'll get that done this winter.  I can't wait to see how they do this summer, and I especially can't wait to have muscadines to eat fresh off the vine!

 

~a muscadine vine from Blue Pearl Farms, transplanted into my back garden~

 After a year spent in the Washington, DC area (in a rental home) - I couldn't wait to have a good fall vegetable garden.  So in late summer, I placed an order from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and started seeds or direct sowed:  Broccoli (DeCicco, Waltham 28, Ice-Bred Rapini), Beets (Dolce Di Chioggia, Detroit Dark Red, Bull's Blood), Carrots (Chantenay Red Core, Scarlet Nantes, Cosmic Purple).  I aso got seeds for toy choy, swiss chard, red sail lettuce, italian kale, napa and savoy cabbage - oh, and I got four types of garlic and shallots from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  It's been the most wonderful fall garden I've had in years, and I haven't purchased anything 'green' from the grocery store in over two months.

I also broadcasted two clovers (Crimson, Dutch White) in my back garden.  My longterm goal is to have this area a clover mixture, with fruit trees/vines.

~toy choy~

 

~swiss chard~

I still have poppies to sow - just a few packages of seed that I picked up at a local nursery.  I've also got some daffodils and aliums (50% off purchases at the end of the season) to get in the ground (I planted about half of them today).  My next garden goal is to get the crinums divided, to move a bunch of the salvia that is getting shaded into the side garden - and I think I'm going to try and divide my Farfugium giganteum (which I just love) - it has gotten to be a fairly large clump right now, and there seems to be some natural dividing taking place (or at least I hope!).  I need to move some gingers out into the sun too.  I've also made my asparagus bed about 30% larger, so I need to prepare the new area for new plants this spring (I need to order the new plants too).

~~~~~

Science.

 There are things I can share on the science front, and things that are just to complicated to get into here.  In late August I ended my year as a Visiting Scientist at a wonderful agency - it was quite the experience, an "insider's view" - and it was also nice to spend a year in northern Virginia, not far from where I grew up (and close to my Father's home) and where I still have quite a few friends.  I couldn't get enough of the autumn colors, and it certainly was a treat being able to hope on the metro over lunch and get to see the cherry blossoms on their peak day.  It was also nice being able to see more Father more frequently - I went several times on Sunday morning and took him to church, and drove back to DC on the same day.

Being back, of course, means that I have to confront the "what's next?" question that is the elephant in the room. The big, roaring elephant... who has brought a few friends along.

So, the easiest stuff first.  I still have a soft-money Research Professor Position at a local marine laboratory - an office, lab, etc.  So there was headlessness again!  Yes, on 31 October 2012, there was a small gathering of esteemed scientists (as well as two ravens and a buzzard) at the end of the marsh boardwalk at Hobcaw Barony.  I think the last time I posted a headless photo on this blog was Halloween 2009, but there were 2010 and 2011 headless gatherings as well - I need to get all of the images together and post them sometime.

 

~Headless Scientists at Hobcaw Barony toast to Halloween 2012~

This semester (starting in mid-January) I will be teaching an Ecology of Coral Reefs course.  And yes, you are right - I'd better get busy!  I will have to do some lectures, but for a big chunk of the class, I want the students to 'become' a coral reef.  How exactly am I going to do that?  Well, like I said:  I'd better get busy.

I have a new graduate student that started Fall Semester.  I'll most likely be picked up in the next month or two (at 50%) effort by the federal agency I worked with last year (as an "expert" - and I'll be able to telework from South Carolina).  I have an interview within the next month or so for a more permanent position at my current place... a grant is pending, a manuscript is pending and another will be submitted within the next day or two - and a few others are waiting to be finished up.  I'm a "Guest Editor" for a special issue of a journal.  That about sums it up, for now:  I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I'm trying to stay positive and things are still moving forward.

~~~~~

Poetry.

 Nothing to report.

(Hopefully this will change in 2013).

~~~~~

Life.

I'm back in the Airstream.  It's a little harder the second time around, but it's fine - really.

I think the tough part is that when I moved in the first time, it was more gradual - I slowly added things that I needed, and had time to figure out where they would go.  This time I moved in at the end of an eight hour drive (arriving at 2 am in the morning), and I'm a rotten unpacker - rather, I just don't want to do it.  It wasn't a very organized re-entry into Airstream life.  So gradually things are finding their most efficient spot.  I'm hoping for a warm winter.  And am really glad that I have a Man Cave (aka Woman Cave). At the end of the day though I'm comfortable and the simplicity of it all is still  nice - while in my rental home in Virginia, I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the space (and it wasn't a large home).

 ~home~

 

~28 January 2012~

 I think the last image I posted of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (Earlysville) White Oak was last December 2011 - although I did continue to take photographs of the tree during my visits to see my Father over the past year.  My first photograph of this tree was taken the Christmas before my Mother passed away - and now it seems that it's become a habit, and each image represents another visit home.  My visits to see my Father, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia several years ago, are becoming more difficult.  I spent Christmas with him last week, four days - and now with every visit there is a noticeable decline in his cognitive abilities.  He gets up from his chair at night, in the home he has lived in for over 35 years, and asks me where his bedroom is.  He then asks if he needs to keep his bedroom door open, because he isn't sure if his bathroom is the only one in the house or not.  On the other hand, he loved his simple gifts, and said they were the best presents he has ever received.  He is still living in his home, with 24/7 care, but I don't know how much longer this is sustainable.  I was there with him at Christmas alone, and after he had gone to bed - I sat in my family's home, accepting that it might be my last Christmas there.  Of course the memories came flooding back - the smells, the sounds - my Mother would have loved Christmas Eve, with huge snowflakes falling down for several hours.

Dementia is hard.  Somehow taking photographs of this tree helps.

 

~26 December 2012~

 

The dogs!  Now this is a cheerier subject.

The Pointer Sisters (THE DAN and Annabelle Lee) and Stanley and Haiku (the cat) are happy to be out of the city and back in their large yard (although I do believe they miss the rental home).  But I must make a confession.  Yes, there is a new addition.

So - I was back this summer and finished up with my Visiting Scientist stint and there were posts on Facebook by the Pointer Rescue I support (and where I got THE DAN)  - a simple image of a black and white pup looking pitiful at a shelter.  A puppy with a 3 pm Monday euthanasia deadline.  I waited to see if anyone would step up - they had to have a certified rescue group with a foster person at a minimum to save this little guy.

So I told them I would foster the pup.

I've never fostered before.

(I still haven't, so it seems...)

The pup was rescued from a shelter in North Carolina (around the Raleigh area) - so I drove to meet someone in the Cracker Barrel parking lot off Interstate 95 in Dunn, North Carolina.  I wasn't really all that sure what shape the little guy would be in (actually, I thought it was a pointer mix, and a female).  The poor little thing was scrawny - and feeling kinda green (seems that I have my first dog who gets pretty bad car sickness).  He road back to Charleston on the front seat (thankfully with no more food in him) and he didn't make a sound.

 

He was all ears and spots - with a little brown around the face and on his lower legs - so he is more hound than a pointer.  Ends up he is mostly (perhaps all) Bluetick Coonhound.  He was probably four or five months old when I got him - he's now eight or nine months old.  His name is "Blue" although he loves being called "Puppy".

He's a sweetheart.

 ~Blue with his pet flea~

 

~Blue's brown paws~

 

~Blue~

 

The Pointer Sisters consider Blue "their hound".  They have spots in common, but otherwise their personalities are quite different.  He's a lot more laid back than the pointers - and when he barks, it's the 'bay' of the coonhound that comes out (deep and booming) - the first time I heard it I couldn't stop laughing.  He's a sweetheart, and while a fourth dog wasn't something I exactly needed, he is a wonderful addition to the pack. And I haven't had a hound since the Wonder Beagle - and it sure is nice having one to hang out with again.

~the Pointer Sisters and their hound dog~

 

~a portrait of the Pointer Sisters and their hound dog~

 

How does Stan feel about it?  I think Stan has decided that he's an only dog, and he's ignoring the whole pointer hound trio (he is 12 and a half years old now, so he might be a tad delusional - and me as well, since I'm in denial that Blue is already bigger than the Pointer Sisters).  The cat, Haiku, just considers another dog someone else to boss around - she's totally cool with it.  

 

~Stanley in Virginia, Christmas 2012~

 So, this covers some of what has been going on for the past six months - and I'm hoping that I start posting somewhat regularly here again.  I've missed this space, and all of you.

~morning sky~

~Copahee Sound~

~~~~~

It's almost been two weeks since I've been home - and I've alternated between feeling disoriented (where are the tall buildings?  why are there so many empty parking spaces?) and feeling elated to be back.  This morning was one of elation - a slightly cooler morning, a morning when there was a quick rain shower while the sun was shining - a morning of absolutely spectacular clouds. 

So I was lucky to be heading out to get the air pressure checked in my car - and I'm glad I pulled over in my neighborhood down by the water to snap this photo with my Blackberry camera.  As I was standing there I was thinking about how much I missed the sky while I was in DC - the sky was there (of course!), but in DC you are often surrounded by tall buildings and you only get a limited view.  It reminded me of when I moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to East Lansing, Michigan for graduate school - and how the huge sky overwhelmed me at first, and I remember talking to Michiganders who said that when they visit the mountains, they feel claustrophobic.  Perhaps that is how I felt in DC.  I was - and still am - in awe of the city.  But I missed the big sky - and this morning I remembered why.

Home.

So this is what happens when you abandon your garden for 11 months:  a lovely bronze fennel decides to take root in your open bag of mushroom compost.

I'll transplant it soon - nearby, next to a large clump of bronze fennel.

Last August 6th I said goodbye to the Airstream, and later in August - after a quick trip to Japan and a rare Virginia earthquake, I summarized the move.  Over the year I returned to South Carolina and the Airstream and the garden five times for week-long visits - visits where I frantically mowed, weeded, watered (and met friends at my favorite restaurants) - but as all of you gardeners know, five weeks out of 11 months isn't much time (although I must say I was grateful that the position supported visits home and to work in the lab).

The garden is in bad shape.  It will get better.

Living in the DC area for close to a year was a wonderful experience.

But I'm really glad to be home - in my neglected garden and space-constrained Airstream.

~gardenias in late November~

~gardenias...in the wild~

~~~~~

On 6 June 2009, I uploaded this image here, gave it a caption - and never returned to finish whatever train of thought I had...and here I am, nearly two and a half years later - at my Father's for Thanksgiving, thinking that I'd like to post something here, since this space has been neglected for a long time - and what do I find?

Gardenias.

A photograph of gardenias taken in my garden on a warm South Carolina day.

As much as I'm trying to be all grown-up about it (since I am a grown-up after all) - I'm homesick for my southern garden.  I'm thankful for my position in northern Virginia, and truly, experiencing a real Autumn was pretty spectacular - I had forgotten how everything changes and, literally, glows.  But it's obvious that my muse for these pages was my garden - and last Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, I looked out into my rental home's yard, and there wasn't a bloom to be found.

How sad is that?

But I have decided that in a small strip of soil, adjacent to a brick wall by the drive, that this spring I will plant flowers (perhaps all from seed) and I will plant, interspersed in the bed, vegetables.  Lettuces, squashes, peppers.

(The deer are one complication - here I find myself, inside the beltway around DC, and there are deer that come out at night and eat just about everything).

But on this unusually warm late November evening, instead of worrying about deer, or missing my garden, or longing for the sweet fragrance of a gardenia, I'll think about a little temporary garden that will feed me in ways that I desperately need.

(And, I think I need to start writing more here too). 

Happy Thanksgiving - to any of you that still happen to drop by.  Hope it was a good one.

GPS-Love

 

This week I purchased a Garmin GPS - and can I just say that it will probably be the best purchase I make while living in northern Virginia?  I purchased it through Amazon, and it was delivered yesterday - and this evening I used it for the first time, when I headed to a small italian restaurant in Arlington, Il Radicchio, to meet a cousin and her husband's family for dinner.  The place was only about 7 miles from my house - but as it so happened, today was 'Clarendon Day' so Clarendon was partially closed for the ocassion - and this whole GPS 'recalculating' thing is just the best.

My new GPS makes me think that I might actually be able to get around up here, and that's a good thing.

~contrasting images~

~a field of sunflowers in Hampstead, MD~

~~~~~

Unfortunately I didn't come across these sunflowers myself while wandering rural Maryland - but instead this is an image that my college roommate took with her iPhone and sent to me.  She is a horticulturalist, and travels quite a bit, networking with growers.  Now that I'm living in northern Virginia for a bit, I'm in her territory so she used my place as 'base camp' for Sunday and Monday night.  It was alot of fun having her visit - and last night we enjoyed one of Washingtonian Magazine's "100 Cheap Eats" - a restaurant called Guajillo Grill where we had yummy chicken enchiladas with an even yummier mole.

I keep thinking that I'll take some pics of my new work world and post them - but it's so different (my office is on the sixth floor of a 12-story building) that I'm not finding a place to even start (this, compared to a coastal estuarine research reserve).  I'm busy - and my days are quite intense - overall I'd say the change has been good (as change often is) although I'm definitely homesick for my garden and salt air.  My first visit back to coastal South Carolina will be around mid-October, and I'll be able to stay for a full week.  I can't wait.

But until then, I have challenging work, and manuscripts from the lab that are rolling along (this week:  proofs, an acceptance pending minor revisions, and a draft of a new manuscript) - yes, you might say that I now have two jobs now, two homes.  Oh, and not to forget:  a paycheck.  I have that now too.

 

~looking into Guajillo Grill~

~Dad's 78th~

~abandoned chicken farm, Greene County, Virginia~

~~~~~

I drove down to my Father's this morning - a short, two-hour drive through beautiful countryside - and I must say that it was a relief to visit him without spending 8 hours, most of which was on I-95.  I left the basement of my rental home with about an inch or more of water - down from the 8 inches that accumulated as a result of the remanants of Lee.  They're saying we had 10-12 inches of rain, and I'd believe it - it felt like it would never stop.  For the past few days there was a narrow band of rain running almost straight through the DC area and Philadelphia - heading north.  So, now I can add flooding to 'earthquake, tropical storm' as my list of hazards since I relocated to the DC area.  Oh yeah, 'terror threat' too.  Can't forget that one.

After I realized that the basement was flooding, I called around - and already every place I called was out of sump pumps.  So after I arrived at Dad's today, and after his healthcare person left - he and I took off and had lunch at a new little italian place, and then stopped by a Lowe's nearby and I purchased a small sump pump.  When I go back tomorrow I'll try and get the rest of the water out, that is - what hasn't drained out.  There is a drain in the basement floor - but if I had to guess, the pipes are long deteriorated, and nothing will drain out until the soil starts to dry out a bit.  Fortunately I didn't have much downstairs - I had my salvaged longleaf pine up pretty high (the bottom board did get wet), and some of the boxes I was saving got wet - plus, I couldn't get to the washer/dryer - hopefully they'll be fine (they came with the house, and thankfully weren't mine).

My experience in Lowe's with my Dad was interesting.  It was probably one of the first times when I was out with him, that I was pretty sure that people we encountered were aware that I was taking someone out shopping who had dementia.  Everyone was quite kind - but often looked at me and smiled a knowing smile - a smile that translated into 'I understand'.  We were heading towards the checkout lanes, only 10 or so feet away, and he would stop whomever walked by and ask them where the checkout lanes were.  He would sometimes be looking straight at them.  I will say that dementia or no - he is as friendly as ever, perhaps even more friendly.  He talked to just about everyone in the store.

Now we're home - and I just got layers for a yellow cake out of the oven.  This week is Dad's birthday, so I'm making him a birthday cake that we will take to his brother's tomorrow for lunch.  It'll be an early celebration - but I'm glad that I could be here to do this.  I was thinking today about last year at this time - when I stayed with Dad for almost two weeks - and I made him a different cake (a more elaborate one) for his birthday.  While I'm in the kitchen, he is watching westerns on TV, often ones he's seen a dozen or more times already, but each time they are new to him.

When we were driving back from the Lowe's today, we went a back road and I couldn't resist stopping and taking a photo with my Blackberry camera of this abandoned chicken farm.  I put the flashers on and jumped out really quickly.  When I got back in the car, my Dad said that he bet I couldn't remember the last time I went somewhere without taking a photo of something.  He was right.

~~~~~

~the short version~

~my new back (rental) yard~

~~~~~

this is a bit like the end first

the backyard...  tall oaks, a crepe myrtle, azaleas, redbuds, camellias

all covered in vines

now enclosed by a 6' fence to keep the Pointer Sisters in

(black farm/mesh fencing - it disappears nicely)

(still not confident that it will keep THE DAN in)

the place is on about .8 acres (inside the beltway!)

heard foxes last night

hunting out back

~~~~~

 ~~~~~

so, the move

packed up the Airstream, most everything

(I'll be returning frequently though)

packed up (and emptied out) the storage unit

packed up the falling-down house

(mostly large furniture, weird stuff in there)

(image taken through a fogged-up lens... oops)

 ~~~~~

 ~~~~~

the u-haul, backed into the drive

the furniture from the falling-down house was added first

after everything was packed in, two just-delivered mattresses were stufffed in

(and when I say 'everything was packed in', that includes the ~500 board feet of longleaf pine which, during transport, jammed against the door making it difficult to open the back of the u-haul)

(yes, it's stored safely in the basement of the rental house)

thank god for friends

and friends who bring water and gatorade (it was hot) and delicious snacks

(it takes a village)

~~~~~

 ~~~~~

hated saying goodbye, for now, to my garden

especially the side garden, where shaded out perennials had been divided and moved over the past year into the sun

they're just getting started

thankfully there has been more rain in August than we had most of the rest of the summer

weeds are probably taking over

but hopefully, it will manage

anyway... only the strong survive

right?

~~~~~

 ~~~~~

katherine

the lab's poet-laureate in-exile

scientist and humanitarian

was more than gracious and drove the u-haul up to virginia

(she kindly dealt with my cranky and exhausted self)

there are no sufficient words of thanks

(i think, secretly, that she now wants to be a trucker and i think she'd be a good one)

~~~~~

~front of the new place, the morning after the move~

~~~~~

the house was built in 1949

it was the house that belonged to a farm that used to be

the original 'farmhouse' on a large track of land that is now developed

not in great shape

but dog friendly

the grass is now mowed

and my generous and hard-working aunt and uncle from Richmond

have visited several times already

and my aunt attacked the vines covering the holly in the front

(yes, there is a holly under there)

there's now a cinnamon ginger in a large pot on the front porch

(one of the few plants that i brought with me)

and I purchased a few flowers for a narrow bed

(a bed that is along a brick wall alongside the drive)

and yes, they are planted and happy

~~~~~

 

~view from the shuttle bus to the Narita Airport, Tokyo~

~~~~~

and then, a few days after the u-haul was unloaded

i flew to japan

for three days

(pics to come)

it was a work trip

there were two small tremors while i was there

hardly noticeable

that occurred during our meetings

and then i came back to northern virginia

and experienced the 5.9 quake in my new home

(thought it was the washer out of balance in the basement, then thought it was a gas pipeline explosion in my neighborhood, then I thought... until I realized it was an earthquake, as my little home seemed to want to rock off it's foundation and walk away)

when it was over, i walked outside

and the neighbor across the street had his hands up in the air

and he shouted 'WTF'

a few days later Irene strolled by the south carolina coast

(keeping her distance)

and i felt relieved that the airstream and the lab and my friends were safe

and then tropical storm warnings popped up for my new place

and there was rain and wind and the electricity went off

and my neighbor across the street turned on a crazy-loud generator

but, thankfully, only for a few hours

(i was okay with the electricity being off, but the generator noise was driving me crazy)

~~~~~

my new job starts tomorrow

~~~~~

~the dolphin is flying once again~

~~~~~

The flying dolphin moved to the new lab, although for months now it's been sitting on top of boxes, looking rather dejected.  Today (my last day at the lab for a few months) I decided that the last thing I would do was to get help (aka a tall person) to help me hang up the dolphin.  Of course I haven't filed everything away yet, there is much I haven't done - but the dolphin is flying, and that feels good.

I also packed up file folders with some articles that I would need in order to work on a few manuscripts, and I transferred files onto an external hard drive.

(And yes, this is the dolphin that starred in the lab's first film short... definitely a must see!)