Tales from the Microbial Laboratory

~new additions to the garden~

~red buckeye, Aesculus pavia~

Well, in a less than surprising move (after a more than rotten week), I went to Hidden Ponds Nursery this afternoon for a bit of therapy, and there I found some nice additions for the garden.  First, a wonderful little red buckeye, already leafed out with several nicely formed flower buds - I've been eyeing these for awhile, and was happy to see that they had some smaller sized ones.  I have actually never seen the red buckeye in flower - so I'm looking forward to this.

~~~~~

  

~leatherleaf Mahonia, Mahonia bealei~

Second, I've wondered for awhile now why I haven't added a leatherleaf Mahonia to my garden (especially since they like shade in zone 8b) - so ever since I saw their beautiful berries at Hampton Park a few weekends ago, I've thought about adding one this spring.  Again, Hidden Ponds had a nice small one - that is now waiting (patiently) to be planted.

~~~~~

  

~Azalea indica 'Red Formosa'~ 

Then there was the Azalea indica 'Red Formosa' - that I hope will look more purple than pink (please...!) - and it will join the gardenias and other azaleas and hydrangeas and dogwoods in the area under the live oaks.  I got this in lieu of the 'Ray's Rubra' that I've been trying to find (or tried to find in past years) - but have only found at wholesale places on-line (it's a deep red wine color) and I've heard it's atypically difficult to propagate (you know, one of those plant rumors).  I tend to prefer the non-formosa azaleas, the ones with smaller flowers in more muted shades - but I do like the red-purple-lavender-ish formosas. 

~~~~~

  

~Hollywood juniper, Juniperus chinensis 'Torulosa'~

I have slowly been warming up to some of the junipers, ever since I've been learning more about evergreens that thrive in zone 8b.  They are often so over-planted, even mis-planted - that I've decided that they have been given a bum deal.  I have oddly fallen for the hollywood junipers - it's probably a combination of their seuss-ian form and my fascination (as a shamefully poor pruner of plants) of Pearl Fryar's topiary garden, I don't know - but I really like them.  I'm working on the area in front of a wooden fence that borders the road (along one side of the front of my property) - and I want to add some low maintenance plants that will make an interesting (and diverse) border with respect to shape and texture.  I already have two small (one foot) blue italian cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens 'Glauca') to plant along side the wax myrtle and ash that are already there.

~~~~~

All-in-all, the plant therapy was good today.  They had plants that I wanted in small pots (so it was a reasonable purchase) - and I'm excited about these new additions.  If I had been motivated (and wise), I would have gotten them in the ground before the rain arrived - today is predicted to be stormy and by Monday morning, snow is predicted to cover much of the south, with a slight chance of it here along the coast.

I'm definitely ready for spring, after a few months of roller coaster weather - but I'd postpone spring for a few days to see some snow falling down.        

          

~a boring road trip~

~crepe myrtle, Hampton Park~

~~~~~

It's been quite a week.  There is just alot of chaos swirling around in my work world.  There's another chaotic day left in this week - and I feel as if I'm clawing my way to the weekend.  It's not fun. 

~~~~~

But what is fun - is yesterday having a group of NMR spectroscopists join my group's weekly lab meeting.  Our normally spacious conference room was filled with those invited to hear a new scientist in our building present an overview of one of his proposed projects, one that focuses on a virus that infects salmon.  So in this room filled mostly with men who like big and expensive toys, Katherine began our meeting as we always do, with a poem - one about two men going on a road trip together.    

~~~~~

Vermeer Road Trip by Jeffrey Harrison
             for Bob Cording

We left our wives and children and headed south
for Washington, two middle-aged men
who could have gotten ourselves into trouble

had we been looking for adventure
instead of something like its opposite:
the apotheosis of the ordinary,

moments held like a pearl in a balance
or drawn out and poured like a stream of milk
from an earthenware pitcher.

We talked about Vermeer, and about poetry,
though I made us promise never to write poems
about Vermeer--there were already enough of those. . .

a promise which I seem to be breaking now.
But this isn't really about Vermeer,
it's about the trip down and the trip back

when we stopped in New York to see
the handful of Vermeers at the Met and Frick
and have a quick sandwich on Madison.

In the closed-off world of the car, seen through
that camera obscura at high speed,
our own lives seemed as tranquil as Vermeers,

anything that might resemble drudgery
refined to sacrament, everything messy
or violent left outside the frame,

the way Vermeer left out the chaos
of his household, the stink of chamber pots,
the needs and noise of his eleven children.

We talked about our wives as if
they were as young and opalescent
as the "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

or spent whole portions of their days
just standing in the sanctifying light
that slanted through a window's leaded panes--

as though we lived in a world where no one
aged or raised his voice in anger.
We were sentimental, as only men can be,

the boring counterparts of Thelma and Louise,
as happy to be going home
as we'd been happy to leave.

~Sanford's Law of (Self) Destruction~

 

~daffodil, in grayscale~

~~~~~

I know, I know - spring is just around the corner, and here I ago, washing the color out of a cheerful daffodil.  It's just been one of those weeks.  Or several of those weeks...or month, year...

~~~~~

So this post over at Kittens on the Keyboard, a local lowcountry blog, cracked me up tonight.  (Better yet:  check out her novel in progress over at Once Upon a Time on Pierpont Avenue).  Yeah, the crazy cat lady is on Henry Brown's 'Most Wanted' list!  Anyway, since she is refraining from being snarky about Governor Sanford, I guess I'll do my part - plus, ironically, a former neighbor who moved up past the Mason-Dixon line sent me the following Sanford quote today, from a 2006 interview: 

Well I think that it’s just, and science is more and more documenting this, is that there are real “chinks” in the armor of evolution being the only way we came about. The idea of there being a, you know, a little mud hole and two mosquitoes get together and the next thing you know you have a human being... is completely at odds with, you know, one of the laws of thermodynamics which is the law of, of ... in essence, destruction.

Where does one even begin with a quote like this?

Well, first...over at Pharyngula I was led to a post at ThinkProgress titled "Sanford Offers Unemployed South Carolina Resident 'Prayers' Instead Of Stimulus Funds".  Read the post - and next, how good is this?  You can listen to our Governor below:

We are so fortunate.  Governor Sanford will pray for us if we lose our job.  That's swell.  Can't you just feel the South Carolina love?  I feel so much better now.

(And my thanks to Pharyngula for mentioning his very own Minnesota Governor in his post.  For only bad reasons, it makes me, and the academic 'us', feel less alone).

~~~~~

The Law of Destruction?

Help us.

(If a South Carolinian screams in his/her own state, will anyone in the rest of the country hear him/her?)

~signs~

  

~signs of spring...just need to remember to stop and look~ 

~miscellany~

Of Note:  Evidently typepad doesn't like this post.  It won't save about a third of it (which means I ranted more than you will see, dammit.  I can't figure out the problem.  So - just to warn you - some of this won't make sense now, and I'm too tired to care).  Fits the day, doesn't it?

~~~~~

~a branch on a windy day~

~~~~~

I've been tired today, worn out really - and slowed down enough to think about some things, read a bit, think some more, and spoil the dogs.  (The dogs didn't mind).

So I thought I'd share some of the things I read and thought about...

~~~~~

This piece over at The Digitel led me to a Garden & Gun piece on 100 Southern Foods You Positively Must Try Before You Die.  There's a great map on the Garden & Gun website - that tells you where to go.  Charleston is mentioned a few times - I think that Fig's Chicken Liver Pate made the list - something I've never tried there (and doubt if I will), mainly because I haven't grown tired yet of their roasted cauliflower and beets (to die for) and because - well, it's liver.  Enough said.

~~~~~

And while I'm on the topic of lists, I couldn't resist at the grocery store today purchasing February's Charleston Magazine, with it's article on 101 Defining Moment's that Shaped our City...it was the first time that I'd heard about this event in our history:

59. Red Summer Begins, 1919
A fight between two white sailors and a black Charlestonian escalates on May 10 after the local man is killed. For more than a day, whites assault blacks throughout the city, leaving three dead and 17 seriously injured. The incident sparks nationwide race riots, leaving 43 black men lynched and eight burned at the stake, but it also witnesses the first modern-day instance in which African Americans organize to resist oppression.

 You can read more about Red Summer here.

I'm not sure how I feel yet about many of these defining moments.  I've lived in Charleston for 14 years now, and I love it here - but I also know that I'm still not a Charlestonian.  I mean, Charleston is a special place, don't you think?   As for me, I grew up in the shadow of America 1.0, so perhaps it isn't surprising that I end up in a city that might be considered Charleston 0.1.....interesting post Xarker (when is your time up?).  (And yes, I have a job but I thank you for the much needed distraction from another grant and taxes).

~~~~~

Great.  Just great.  So a part of my dear University, due to a number of factors, is in the hole $19M last year.  And yes - I'm in a state that ranked 50th with respect to cuts to institutes of higher education.  At least student's across the state are finally speaking out - and well, I was at a dinner party last night with a few faculty, and there was a wonderful discussion around the table that hinted of rebellion...and haven't most much-needed rebellions been initiated over a fine dinner of curry and apple-blackberry cobbler and glasses of wine?

So it looks like budget cuts will be restored with the stimulus package...that is if our governor accepts them.  Which begs the question:  will my dear University go through with the furloughs, lay-offs, program closings, and planned re-structuring of their Basic Sciences programs...? 

(This week I'm guessing that the chaos will continue. Oh happiness.  It's very conducive to getting work done.)

~~~~~

Speaking of our governor...  

The State's Quote of the Week:

“I think our governor would make an interesting college professor. I think he’s psyched himself out that he’s Mr. Intellectual. ... He don’t understand that he represents one of the poorest states, and neediest states, in the union.”

— Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, quoted in a Los Angeles Times story about Gov. Mark Sanford’s refusal to commit to taking federal stimulus money. Sanford did another round of national TV and newspaper interviews last week affirming his opposition to the stimulus package.

  Again, from The Digitel, this post led me to this article at The American Spectator: 

 

Here’s the thing. Yes, in a folk hero sort of way, it would be great fun to see Republican governors refuse to accept the money. But on a practical level, I don’t see how it makes any sense. The battle is over. The forces who want to spend more taxpayer money won. If every Republican governor refused to accept the stimulus money, it’s not like Congress would go back and reduce the cost of the stimulus package by that amount. Taxpayers in South Carolina will be partially subsidizing all of the stimulus spending no matter whether they like it or not. So, they may as well get what they can out of the stimulus package, and try their best to spend the money as productively as possible.

You see, I'm from a state with a governor who opposes the stimulus package, but will most likely take the money.  The Digitel also sent me to this cartoon at the Post & Courier website.

What a nutcase. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the stimulus package, but I've got my fingers crossed that it helps folks.  It definitely makes me cringe that we're bailing out bankers that made bad decisions - and I'd like to think that this will all help people - real people that need assistance.  But did anyone catch this article in the NYTimes?   So - you've got six states thinking about rejecting the stimulus funds, and most of them are states with abyssmal records in education, etc.  So these governors think they're being what...noble?  Wise?  Or are they just selling out their constituency?

Our governor owns a home on Sullivan's Island and his kids go to privacy school.  Who does he think he represents?  Has he driven around his own state?  Does he know the statistics?

~~~~~

So while I was in this frustrated mood today, I wandered over to the Island of Doubt.  There I read this post about George Will and this Washington Post piece - which lead me to this post at Climate Progress titled Is George Will the most ignorant national columnist? where you'll get a very thorough response to Will's piece.  Which led me to this post over at Climate Progress (a site I hadn't seen before, but really like) about flawed reporting and the California drought which reminded me that I wanted to see the recently updated (17 Feb 2009) US Drought Monitor map...which you can find here.

 To get a better view of where my state (yes, the one that ranks 1st in statewide budget cuts to education and where we have a governor that is grumbling about accepting the stimulus funds), here's a close-up of South Carolina.

So a corner of the state is experiencing extreme drought conditions, and all of the state is at least considered abnormally dry.

Yeah, I'd consider my garden abnormally dry - and today's wind didn't help much.  And you Texas gardeners - you're having a tough time!  It has to be hard.

I fear that this drought is with us.

~~~~~

And just so you won't think that I'm in a terrible mood (which in fact I am - so perhaps just to lighten the air a bit...) - I did see something rather nice today in the garden:  a strawberry plant in flower.  Now that was a nice thing to see.

  

~~~~~

But unfortunately tomorrow is Monday.  I'm not terribly thrilled about the week ahead.

There really needs to be a rebellion.   

An Afternoon in Mid-February (in zone 8B)

 

~blue sky, on an afternoon in late February (you can't tell from the image, but the wind is really blowing here)~

~~~~~

They say that a photograph needs an interesting subject - but the sky, all on it's own, was so beautiful yesterday, as well as today, that it stands alone quite well.  We've had a streak of dreary weather - warm and dreary, cold and dreary - and finally on Thursday an uncompromised sun came out.  It was preceded by a night-time thunderstorm and about two inches of rain - so the sun, along with washing the dust off the leaves, made Thursday morning quite beautiful.

~~~~~

I'm late for posting for Carol's May Dreams Gardens Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - the week has been busy, and I'm tired.  My grant got successfully submitted, but I'm already working on another one, with a 2nd of March deadline.  In 'grant-days', that's tomorrow morning.  I have alot of people hoping that I can bring in their salaries, and I have alot of people that I really want to support. 

A little pressure?  For sure.

~~~~~

 

~Magnolia stellata~

The spring-flowering magnolias have started to bloom, although it's not a great year for the earlier flowering ones, since just prior to opening, we had a few really cold nights.  The Magnolia stellata flowers have been damaged, although a few flowers opened this week (like the one above) that were undamaged.

~~~~~

  

~Magnolia 'Jane'~

~~~~~

  

The daffodils are beginning to bloom, some - the early bloomers - are in full bloom.  I meant last fall to get some new varieties, but I never got around to it.  Can one ever have too many daffodils?  I can't imagine how. 

~~~~~

     

~~~~~

~...canvas bags...~

My thanks to a friend and colleague who emailed me this afternoon and suggested that I head over to Deep Sea News to take a look at the videos in this post...I couldn't resist posting one of them here - it's pretty hilarious (and much needed after a long week).

~~~~~

~a daffodil~

~~~~~

Over the years, my Mother gave me daffodil bulbs from her garden - bulbs for me to plant in my own garden.  One is blooming today, a day that would have been - that is - her 75th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

~~~~~

The grant got submitted today.  I'm tired, but also thinking about the next one.  I'm glad that I had the grant to distract me today from thinking about my Father going to the cemetery all alone and putting a dozen red roses on her grave.  I wish I could have been there to do it with him.  He was okay though, and I'm proud of him.  He is such a kind man.

~living with Annabelle Lee~

~Annabelle Lee~

~~~~~

I've had this nutty new old girl for a bit over three months now.  What's she like?  Well, she curls up into a little ball when she sleeps.  She's mostly bones and all legs, even though she gobbles all of her food up and loves her treats.  She wags her tail so hard that it gets raw, and sometimes it bleeds and results in red streaks along her sides.  I end up bandaging the tip of her tail often.  She loves to fetch balls, and if she gets distracted (bird alert!) and runs somewhere with the ball and drops it - when she returns I can hold up my hands, showing her that they are empty, and she'll get a look (duh!) and go back and find the ball.  I don't think she has lived inside before.  She does okay in her kennel when I'm gone.  I'm struggling with housebreaking her.  She chews things.  She growls and snaps at the other dogs if they get near me at night, which is something we're working on (it isn't acceptable).  Sometimes she just stands and barks at the cat (and barks and barks...) and the cat just stares back at her like she's a big nut.  While she's fine with females, her entire personality seems to change when there's a man around.  She cowers and slinks until she feels safe.  She's horrible in the mornings, when the minute she discovers I'm awake, she jumps all over me, not allowing me to wake up just a bit first.

I'm glad that she is with us. 

~MB~

~~~~~

I've returned from the land of miniature golf, gift shops and breakfast buffets after walking a half marathon (of which only the last two miles had rain, thankfully) and spending the weekend with a good friend from graduate school.  The official results say that we averaged 17.48 minute miles over the 13.1 mile course - which I felt pretty good about, considering how little I trained. 

~~~~~

 

~~~~~

Myrtle Beach has never been my favorite place - but I say that without the proper amount of honest experience.  When I think of it, I think of unbearable traffic and tacky stores and golfers (with nothing against golfers, mind you, I lettered in golf in high school).  Perhaps it's an in-state bias:  I live in Charleston (enough said).  But for a winter's weekend, a chilly South Carolina-style winter's weekend - it was quite enjoyable.  The hotel we stayed in was nice (I wish it had been warm - the outdoor pool was beautiful) - and how can one resist classic tackiness?  Honestly, my favorite was the three dolphins atop the Gay Dolphin Gift Cove sign on Ocean Boulevard - wouldn't those dolphins look just perfect on the top of the Airstream?  Plus, their lovely blue color made me laugh, and frustratingly remember a grant review where the review kept referring to the blue-nosed dolphin instead of the bottle-nose dolphin (suggesting to me that the reviewer was perhaps not so appropriate for the subject at hand). 

(Now, a quick google search would inform you that the blue-nose dolphin was on sale and is now out of stock...damn!  The bottle-nose dolphin, on the other hand, is still swimming around the coastal Atlantic - even off the coast of Myrtle Beach).

~~~~~

 

So I guess what I realized is that Myrtle Beach is kind of okay on a winter weekend - when the traffic is more than bearable, when there isn't a line at a decent mexican restaurant, and when there's a sale on coral at the Gay Dolphin Gift Cove.  Now I didn't go to the Tommy the Giant Crab restaurant - but yeah, I couldn't resist photographing it.  (And no, I didn't play miniature golf).  The lettuce wrap appetizers with tofu at PF Changs were yummy - and there's nothing like a cold beer at 10:30 am after a long walk.

~~~~~

  

~view from the 15th floor~

~~~~~

Now, I've got an NIH grant to get submitted.  Help.