Moonflower Vine Opening

From what I've heard, sitting and watching the grass grow is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Luckily though, sitting and watching a Moonflower vine open is much more exciting!

You can tell when a flower is about to open because it goes from this:

 To this:

 And, finally, to this in about three days' time:

Then you go out to run some errands, come home, and find that it has turned into this: 

So, the next time you see a bud getting ready to open, you sit your happy self down in front of it with a camera and stare at it until it opens up. No pressure. Maybe you have a glass of wine so the flower doesn't feel like it's your only entertainment. Or a beer. I'm just sayin'.

You can see that it starts out all tightly closed at 4:00PM

By 4:12, it's starting to crack open just a tiny bit.

4:35-It's really starting to look like something might be happening.

4:40-Even the aphids are getting excited and moving in for a closer look!

4:43-Ooh! Hello?

4:55PM KA-BAM!

Hey! Wait a minute! What happened between 4:43 and 4:55? Well, from 4:49 to 5:53 I shot video, of course! I trimmed it back so you don't have to watch the whole four minutes (who has that kind of time??) but otherwise, the video hasn't been altered-this is all real-time footage, no time-lapse or anything.

You can see that it was a little bit breezy when I was filming this, but at about 0:12 you can see the flower start to do this sort of waggly dance that lasts about 5-6 seconds before it really begins to unfurl. I have other video (yes, I'm that big of a dork) that shows the same thing happening in other Moonflowers on other days, so I'm pretty sure this is the flower moving on its own, not because of the wind. Cool!

I have either photos or video of seven flowers opening, four on one plant and three on another. The four that opened on the one plant all opened between 4:49PM and 5:27PM (within 38 minutes of each other but on different days)--pretty consistent. The other three opened between 6:20PM and 7:21PM, all on the same day (still within nearly an hour of each other, but much later than the other four and they unfurled more slowly). There are several factors that could have contributed, so I'm not sure why the difference, but here are some possible causes:

• The four early-openers are in a tall, deep container; and the three later-openers are in a low, shallow container.
• The four early-openers opened on fairly sunny days. The three others opened on a cloudier day.
• The late openers also opened more slowly. I don't know if this is because there were three of them opening on one plant at one time, and so more energy was needed to get all three open, or if this had something to do with it being darker when they opened, both because it was a cloudier day and because by the time they opened it was dark.

So, there you have it. Now you all know what a flower nerd I really am...of course, if you made it this far, I'm assuming I'm among friends, so thanks for being nerdy with me!

If you want to see more videos of plants doing what they do, visit Indiana University's Plants-In-Motion, and click on the different Movie Categories on the left-hand side of the screen.

June 2010 Vacation Cont'd: Jacksonville to Yosemite

Now that I have finally updated you on the rest of last year's mainland summer vacation, it's time to start wrapping it up with our trip to Yosemite.  Like me, I'm sure you've seen pictures or video of Yosemite on TV, online, in your friends' vacation photos, etc., but I'm telling you right now, unless you've been there, you have no idea how spectacular it is!

We drove from Jacksonville, OR back to Sacramento, CA, and on the way, we decided to stop through Yosemite--might as well, right? It was a little bit out of the way, but not nearly as out of way as it would be once we got back to Hawaii!  We had a nice view along the way.  Nothing special, nothing special, then, ooh!  Something pretty is coming into view!

Well, hello, Pretty! 

After our scenic drive past Mt. Shasta, we continued on the eastern route, which would take us through Carson City, NV.  Along the way, we went through Lassen Volcanic National Park. I'm sure if we'd had time to stay there and explore it a little bit, we would have loved it, but it was sort of a half-assed decision to go there, and we ended up just staying there the night, camping with 53 of our closest friends, you know, exactly the type of camping I don't like, and by the time we got back on the road the next day, we were both just...grumbly.  We were wondering if maybe we'd made a mistake, tacking on this extra portion of the trip.

At some point, something shifted, and by the time we came around to Honey Lake, we were in a better mood.  This is a dry lake, something I'd never seen before, and it was surprisingly pretty.  It's hard to describe, and it's one of those things that doesn't show up all that well in pictures, but the whole thing had a soft, pretty feel to it that was completely different from everything else we'd been seeing.

A little ways past the lake, dust devils started kicking up like crazy in front of the mountains. 

A little further on, and we were starting to see some interesting cloud action and hints of more mountains on the horizon.  

And, we didn't realize it at the time, but we were getting our first glimpses of Yosemite

A little further on, we'd passed through Stanislaus National Forest (OMG, longest URL ever!), and after a few more bends in the road, the mountains were getting closer and now we had a beautiful view of Mono (rhymes with "oh no") Lake as well.  Mono Lake is a saline lake (roughly three times as salty as the ocean), and, among other things, it is home to about eight hundred bazillion alkali flies.  When I first heard about this, it sounded disgusting, but now that I've read a little bit about them, I have to admit, I'm kind of intrigued.   

For some much more stunning photography that probably was not shot out of a rental car window, please check out the two short promotional films that have been put together to promote this beautiful area. 

We knew that Yosemite would probably be amazing, but we had no idea that our drive there would be so spectacular.  Every place that we drove through had a beauty all its own.  If you're thinking about a road trip, you could do worse than this. 

View Larger Map

Tomorrow:  Yosemite!

Sunset and Moonrise

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago when my dad was out here visiting.  We spent the day in  Honolulu and then caught the sunset from Magic Island.  As we drove home, we were graced with a  beautiful moonrise and pulled over to get some more pictures.     

The pictures above were taken from Kualoa Beach Park.  I love that the moon is so bright that you can see not only Chinaman's Hat in the foreground but also the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in the background (the part that kind of looks like a turtle).   

This last picture was taken just a little bit past Kahana Bay Beach Park.

Saying Goodbye

Some of you know that Buster's been on a downhill slide lately, and we finally had to put him down on Tuesday night.  He's only been gone a day, but I miss him so much.  He's been a part of my life for 13 years, and I can't believe that he's not here anymore.  I know we did the right thing-it was time-but that doesn't make the house any less empty.  I've been trying to keep busy all day, but then the distraction ends, and the memories come, and I know I'll never look out to see him rummaging around in the flower beds or rearranging my rock garden-his aesthetic never did quite line up with mine-or curled up in a ball, sleeping soundly, happy to be anywhere his people were.

Albuquerque-1998/99(?)-In his favorite spot: the couch.

Colorado Springs-1997/98/99(?)-His other favorite spot:  a lap. Nobody ever said anything about a weight limit.  

Omaha-1999-Hello, Warden?

Hawaii-2004-Walk tall and carry a big stick.

Hawaii-2005-Really?  What'd we go and get a dog for? I didn't agree to this.

Hawaii-2005-Helping me with a birthday message on the beach.

Hawaii-2006-You're starting to show your age, but you're still a handsome boy.

Hawaii-2006-Seriously.  I did not agree to this.

Hawaii-2008-Riding in the car.

Hawaii-2008-Hanging out in the front yard.

Hawaii-2008-Action shot!

Hawaii-2008-Examining the new plants.

Hawaii-2009-Hello?

Hawaii-2009-Action shot at the beach.

Hawaii-2010-Final days.  "Walking" around the neighborhood with his nose. 

I love you so much, buddy.  Thank you for the love and the joy you brought into our lives.  I will always miss you and love you.

This has been a rough month in the blogosphere.  Florinda and Nymeth also lost pets recently-ladies, my heart goes out to you.  I'm so sorry for your losses-it doesn't seem to get any easier with time and practice, does it?  For those of you who still have them, hold your pets tight and let them know you love them.          

Tying Up Loose Ends

Well, here it is, the end of the year, heck, the end of the decade. What? I know! How did that happen? Wouldn't it be ironic if all of our computers conked out when they rolled over to 2010?

Anyway, I have a few things that I've thought about blogging over the course of the year that I never quite got to, so this will sort of be a wrap-up post of miscellaneous stuff to close out the year.

Miscellaneous Thing #1:

This might be my favorite picture of the year. In May I flew home to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. My sister picked me up at the airport in Denver, and we drove down to my dad's house. My sister's friend, Big A, came along with us and brought her son, Little A, who is four. Like many four-year-olds, Little A has his security blanket, and he keeps a pretty tight leash on it. We got in late that night, and my dad's party was the next evening. Before the party, Dad decided to take a nap in his chair. Little A decided that my Dad might be cold, so he went to his bed, got his blanket, and covered up my dad. Then he went downstairs where there are various stuffed animals and brought several of them upstairs for my dad to sleep with. After this picture was taken, he topped it all off with a Hacky Sack on my dad's chest. 'Cause you never know when you might wake up and need a Hacky Sack.

Miscellaneous Thing #2:

We went to Oregon this summer for more tree climbing lessons, and I kind of surprised myself by not blogging about it; although I did post a couple of random pictures from our trip. I won't give you as much detail as I did about last year's lessons, but I did want to at least put in one or two pictures! I know, you're thinking, How much can there be to learn about tree climbing? Well, last year, we just learned the basics; this year we learned how to facilitate other people up into the trees and how to do rescues. We also got to play with saws in the trees, learning proper pruning techniques. I'll tell you what, there's nothing like hanging from a rope with a sharp cutting device in your hand to make you pay really close attention to where all your gear is at any given time! Here is a tree all set up for facilitation:

The rescues were hard work, and I really impressed myself by being able to get a line into a tree, get my rope up and tied, get my gear on, climb up, get over to my "victim," attach myself to my victim and get him lowered to the ground and unattached from me in under 17 minutes. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that, but I do have a picture of me relaxing in a tree boat, which was a lot nicer!

I'm not much of a morning person, but see how smiley I am? That's because this was the first time in about a week that I had gotten a decent night's sleep. Seriously. Hotel room=slept like crap. Tree boat=Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

After our class was over, our instructor took my husband climbing in a big Douglas fir. He would have taken me too, but I chickened out. Since it was such a high climb (about 200-250 feet) they were climbing single rope which involves a lot of gear compared to double rope, which is how I am more comfortable climbing. I hadn't done much single rope work, and the few times I had, I always had trouble switching over from ascending to descending devices, and I didn't want to get stuck 200-feet up, so I stayed on the ground and acted like I wasn't bummed about missing out on this climb. That's OK though, tree climbing really gives you a new appreciation for listening to your instincts, and my instincts were telling me not to go that day. So, some other day. Hubby had a great time though-here's a picture of him on the way up.

Miscellaneous Thing #3:

Missing book reviews-I've read a few books that I never got around to reviewing here, so I will do some quick summaries so that they're not hanging over my head come the new year.

The Gardella Vampire Chronicles by Colleen Gleason-I believe it was Chris's review of When Twilight Burns, the fourth book in the Gardella Vampire Chrinocles that piqued my interest in this series. I picked up the first one, The Rest Falls Away, and, if my Kindle history is anything to go by, quickly devoured the next three books in the series. That's the problem with the Kindle, when you get to the end of one book in a series it's so easy to just click, click and get the next book! It's not that the writing is that great, in fact I remember some of the dialogue being pretty bad, but it is quick fun reading with some fairly steamy love scenes, and I just might have to pick up a copy of the last book in the series, As Shadows Fade, now that I'm thinking about it.

Children of God by Mary Doria Russell-I finished reading this a few weeks ago, and I hate to admit it, but I didn't like it as much as The Sparrow. I knew this was a risk-The Sparrow is a hard act to follow. I've been agonizing over reviewing it because I'm actually thinking I might need to read it again to give it a fair review. For right now, I'll leave it at that, but I will come back and do a full review later...so much for tying up loose ends!

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman-This is the first Gaiman book that I have read and finished (couldn't make it through American Gods) and I really liked it. I'm not normally a short-story gal, but I did enjoy most of the stories in here. There were a couple I didn't really care for and one that I didn't even finish because I just had no idea what was going on. A lot of short stories leave me feeling like the author didn't quite have it in him to write a whole novel, so he just sort of wrote down the ideas that he had for a story and then left it to the reader to fill in the missing parts; but with Gaiman I (mostly) felt like his stories were fully-realized stories, crafted with the end reader in mind. Be sure to read the Introduction, which itself includes a story as well as some background on the rest of the stories.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy-It was stark and desolate and depressing and beautiful and concise and I think I hated the ending. I'm not sure; I can't decide. I do think McCarthy did a wonderful job of capturing the minimal survivalist relationship between father and son-there's never much said, but there wouldn't be, would there, if you've been wandering a burned out planet for months? years? It's not like there's much to talk about other than how to stay alive for another day. And you know how much love is there and your heart breaks for the man who's trying to save his son and for the boy who has to live in this world and see the things that he sees. I haven't seen the movie, but I think Viggo Mortensen might be perfect in this role, and the fact that Robert Duvall is in it makes me want to cry! I love Robert Duvall!

The Gunslinger (Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King-I read this on the plane on the way home from my Dad's house, and it was good enough to keep me interested, but not great. It's sort of a western/alternate world/good vs. evil/horror, so I was curious to see where everything was going. I started reading book #2 in the series, The Drawing of the Three, but I just never really got into it. It was taking place more in this world than in the gunslinger world, and I just didn't really care. I feel bad about this because this is one of my husband's favorite series ever, and I'm sure it probably gets better as it goes, but for right now, I'm not ready to delve back in.

Miscellaneous Thing #4

Molokai Day 3-See, I told you I could give you a whole month of Molokai! This is another one that I will have to follow-up on in the new year. For now, suffice it to say that we had a glorious day hiking in the Kamakou Preserve with our guide, Bill, from The Nature Conservancy.

If you can think of any other miscellaneous things for me, let me know. I know 2009 was rough for a lot of people, and if you're one of those people, I hope 2010 is better. If you had a great 2009, well, I still hope 2010 is better for you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Unexpected Gifts and Other Happy Things

Unexpected Gift: Remember when I told you about my awesome Secret Santa gift? Well, I thought that was the end of my Secret Santa surprises for the year and was perfectly content to go on my way. Then, a few days ago a mysterious package arrived from an address I didn't recognize. I opened it up and found these cute Dr. Seuss bookmarks and these lovely little magnets.




I thought, Huh. I wonder if I accidentally got TWO Secret Santas...cool! Turns out, I did not get two Secret Santas, just one really great Secret Santa. Also, I can finally reveal to you who my Secret Santa is! It's Jennie from Biblio File! I don't know how she knew that my bookmark collection consisted of used envelopes and old sticky notes and library receipts showing that I paid my latest late fees or that I just threw away a bunch of magnets because they had faded, rusted, or in some other way lost their magnet-y appeal; but whatever she's doing to figure out what gifts to send, it's working. Thanks, Jennie!

Unexpected Gift #2: Today I've been married for 14 years, and Hubby came home with four (4!) dozen red roses! Awwwww! Thanks, Babe, I love you!

Happy Thing #1: Waaaay back in October, Kari at Five Borroughs Book Review posted a review and giveaway for Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish. I don't enter many giveaways, but this one sounded fun, so I entered. And I won! Unfortunately, I wasn't paying good enough attention, and I missed the "please respond by" deadline. I responded anyway, but I knew it was fair game if she'd moved on to someone else (and, indeed, I thought she had. My name's crossed off the winner list and everything!). Well, whaddaya know? A couple...(few?) weeks ago I went to the mailbox and pulled out a mysterious package from an unknown address. And do you know what was inside? A copy of Sex, Drugs, and Gefilte Fish! Yay! Thanks, Kari! Also, I am a big loser because this is the first time that Kari is hearing about my receiving of the book.

Happy Thing #2: You know who is NOT a loser? Jaedin of Jaedin's Projects. I heard about Jaedin on the Cake Wrecks blog. A couple weeks ago, Jen and John decided that they were going to spend two weeks helping to raise money for charity (and this ties in to Happy Thing #3). For two weeks, along with their regularly-scheduled hilarity, they would feature a different charity each day. All they asked was that their readers consider giving $1 to each of the charities. In an effort to find 14 deserving charities, they asked for recommendations from their readers, and boy did they get an earful! Let me just say, I love me some comments, but I don't think I ever want to have to wade through 1500+ comments on a single post! Anyway, one of the people who commented was Jaedin's mom, Timber. As any good mom would do, she was nominating her son, Jaedin, who was trying to raise money to put together kits for newborn babies in Ecuador. Jaedin didn't make the Cake Wrecks final cut, but I visited his blog and was impressed with what he was doing so I donated a few dollars. A couple days ago, I received a hand-written thank-you note from Jaedin! Isn't that cool? I am happy to report that Jaedin exceeded his goal of $100 and was able to put together 15 newborn kits for the babies in Ecuador. Keep up the good work, Jaedin!

Happy Thing #3: As I mentioned above, John and Jen of Cake Wrecks fame decided that if they got all their readers behind them and asked them all to do just a little bit, they could make a big difference, and were they ever right! As of yesterday, they had raised over $50,000 for their charities. I saw another figure that had it as high as $70,000+. Tracking is inconsistent depending on the method of donation, so I went conservative, but either way, Wow! That last statement makes it sound like they're doing some sketchy accounting, but that's not it-visit their charity roundup page, and you'll see what I mean.

Happy Thing #4: Waaaay back in November, Wendy awarded me the Honest Scrap award. I've been meaning to publicly thank her for a while now, but, well, you see how I am with timely thank yous. I love Wendy's blog, Greenish Thumb, because she has a way of putting into words all the things that I've thought but never thought about trying to put into words, like why some of us who seem like the worst candidates for gardening ever often end up being the ones who love it most. I love her explanation!

Any happy surprises for you this holiday season?