A working Mother's Day

We have spent the weekend carrying Laurie's books, bookcases and display cabinets (for antiques and Laurie's carvings) downstairs and setting them up again. The antiques were already down here, packed in boxes that take up a third of my bedroom. They'll get unpacked gradually, over the next few weeks.

The books: sci-fi, history, science, philosophy, art, classics, poetry ... All read, some re-read. Books come, books go, resold or lent or passed on, but the total stays more or less the same; somewhere around 4000. That's a lot of books! It will take us weeks to get them all unpacked and on their proper shelves.

(Here's a (copyrighted) photo of an art installation using 4000 books. 13 feet by 7 1/2 feet by the height of a book. Some of Laurie's art books and dictionaries were quite a bit bigger.)

We had help; willing kids and grandkids, plus two great grandkids to provide entertainment throughout. I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day gift!

I'll be back to regular blogging tomorrow.

Diez de Mayo

Big day tomorrow. Mother's Day dinner for all the mothers in the family (three generations of us!) I should have been in bed hours ago.


Happy Mother's Day to all, then, and goodnight!

.

Indian paintbrush, everlasting, and dandelion

Mothers' Day. I remember:

1953

2006

My granddaughter, 3, carefully searched out the dandelions that had already lost their little parachuting seeds, and harvested a fistful to take home to Mommy. Arranging them in a glass for her, I realized that they are beautiful, too, with their silky round stems, a neat little creamy cap on the top and a lacy fringe; how long is it since I had really looked at them?

2008

.

Birthday Moth

It's my birthday today.

And I'm getting my teeth done. Fun, eh?

But, here's a consolation prize, delivered a few hours back: a nice brown moth.


It fluttered like crazy at first, until I followed a hint I think I saw on Bev's blog; I put it in the fridge for an hour. Then it sat nicely for its photograph.

Close-up of "hood" markings.

And I've spent half the night trying to ID it, to no avail. I've submitted it to BugGuide; they are always so helpful.

The feathers on its back: a couple of tufts. Brown, with yellowish tips.

*Update: Bob Patterson at BugGuide says it is probably a Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. If so, it's similar, but not identical, to the Yellow Underwings they already have.

Quick work!

Weekly Five: the science links I promised.

I promised: to post a list of five science links, every week.

A problem has arisen. Checking over the posts that I found interesting this week, I filled my address bar with far more than 5. So here I am, at the Express Check-Out with a full cart. Be lenient with me, Mike.

#1. Daily Kos, Marine Life Series: Boring Sponges How something soft and mushy eats its way into something hard. Like a thick oyster shell.I've seen that! But I didn't know what I was seeing. Now I do.

And just last night, I was reading a small reference booklet, "Tidepool & Reef - Marinelife Guide to the Pacific Northwest Coast"; it says, about the Hermit Crab Sponge,

"Grows on shells inhabited by hermit crabs; eventually dissolves the shell. Instead of finding larger shells as the crab grows, it can make the sponge its permanent home." (My emphasis.)

An interesting symbiosis.

Link # 2: Asphalt-Eating Bacteria. "... new branches in the tree of life, ..."

# 3 - 6: Snake steals toxins from toads. The article mentions some frogs, birds and now snakes that are known to collect the toxins they use from their diet. I would add to that the nudibranches, (sea slugs -- what an awful name for such beautiful creatures!). They eat stinging cnidarians, such as sea anenomes and jellyfish, and transport the cnidarian stinging cells to their own cerata. (An example, here.)

# 7: Zombie Snails. Pulsating tentacles!
Staying in the shade. No neon lights. Not a zombie. (Under the chin of a totem pole animal.)

# 8: Something to think about. Metaphors, Science and Cardiology.

# 9. 10: And, since it's Mothers' Day, or was still a few minutes ago, Janet Stemwedel interviews her mother. Why Mom went back to school, and Mom goes to grad school. Having two daughters who did something similar (nursing, as opposed to astronomy, but also in their 30s, and as mothers of small children), I find this heart-warming.

# 11: A moving story by Dr. Charles, Mother's Day.

Oh, and one more: Good Planets is up, at The Gypsy's Caravan. "...abundance and glory...", the Gypsy saith.