How Does Your Garden Grow?

I thought I'd revisit the garden theme in this post and show off a few pics of my ever-growing garden. The tomatoes are outta control! They aren't ripe yet but coming along with flowers and some fruit. I've also got blueberries on the bush and have now eaten a total of 2 ripe raspberries... very tasty ones, I might say.

I was taking care of John and Eileen's garden and harvesting (and eating) the sugar snap peas and became addicted... so I've got seeds started and am going to build a structure for them to climb so they can give me lots of peas! No fruit on the fruit trees but I am not expecting any this first year. The squash has numerous baby squashes on it and I'm afraid I will miss the first harvest as I leave on a 2 week trip to the San Juans this Tuesday. Hopefully the kids will eat them.

We've enjoyed the lettuces and some spinach but I did have to deal with a nasty little pest, the leaf miner, and I've noticed aphids on my broccoli! Still, I think I am ahead in having a pretty successful first garden. Even the corn is beginning to grow. More in a couple of weeks when I return from kayaking with the orcas, my favorite thing to do each solstice.

birthday presents

the night before my birthday, i was treating my two chinchillas to some craisins, their favorite treat. they've gotten in the habit of reaching out and grabbing my fingers to pull close to them, the better to reach the craisins. while they were happily eating from my hand, i saw out of the corner of my eye little gray things and immediately thought mice had gotten into their cage. but no, we had chinchilla babies!!! okay, i knew it was a possibility being that i was housing a male with a female, but the female is older and has never shown much interest in the male.
apparently, she did at some point.

anyway, they are the cutest things ever. we had 3 but lost one. the two little ones are doing well and, as they get bigger, are hopping all over. there's nothing quite as cute as a baby animal!

Life at 50

Okay... well, I won't be 50 until next week, the very thought makes me tremble a little. It's not like one week matters but it's really difficult to think of myself in an age group I've always considered old. I know. I know. 50 is the new 40, but tell that to the body! I know. I know. It's only a number. Your age is in your mind, spirit, soul, but again, I kind of wish it was in the body too!

Still, how can I complain? I may not be the same person I was 20 years ago, but I am happy and grateful for all that I've gotten to do in this life. I have four amazing kids. I have the best friends and family anyone could wish for. I kayak with orcas every year. I live in one of the best towns in the U.S. (Sebastopol) in a house with a huge yard to garden (not to mention redwood trees and oak trees). I go to UC Berkeley and travel to Argentina every year to do fieldwork. I'm getting my first chapter published this year... woo hoo! (see pic below)

And before I turn 51, I will get my PhD. The first half of my 50th year will be spent feverishly finishing my thesis and the second half will be spent begging for work (so I can keep the house, garden and the ability to go kayaking!).

I've had a good ride... certainly with some serious rocky moments, but overall, life at 50 is, indeed, pretty spectacular. Here's to the next 50, um... make that 30+ or so!

p.s. yes, that's me with a kayak paddle, a hoe and a hand shovel in the top picture, showing off my garden with my favorite tools (though I only use the paddle in the ocean).

Kayak Zen

For the last few weeks, I've wimped out on my Sunday morning paddle... for several reasons. One, it's been rather cold in the morning. It's hard to pull on all the gear in 40 degree weather. But mostly, the tug of spring gardening has tempted me to stay and play in my own backyard. I've loved it, but I realized, especially after today's paddle, that it's not the same as taking those two hours to lose myself on the sea. It truly is my meditation, my re-centering, my zen... as Sebastopolian hippy as that sounds.

Today was no different as the day started at a cool 39 degrees but quickly the temp began to rise and I knew that I needed to get out to the ocean. The sea was nearing the end of its flood and ready to pull out again. The water was ripply, not choppy, and the swells were just right, lifting and dropping, lifting and dropping. Out near sea lion rock, the waves came in sets of huge breakers between small splashes. I coasted between it and Bodega Head, enjoying the feel of the moving sea beneath me. Sea foam was everywhere. Sea foam results from kelp being broken up. The "goo" inside makes a soap, which foams up in wave action. I love paddling through it, especially with the sun shining on it. While I was looking out at the great expanse, I suddenly saw two spouts, very distinctive plumes rising much higher than the splashing of waves. "Gray whales", I shouted aloud, though no one was around to hear it. I was so excited! Two whales were cruising around the Head on their journey north to Alaska where they will feed all summer after having bred down in the warm winter waters off the coast of Mexico. I am always grateful to paddle where whales are near.

Finally, I turned to head back in though the jetty to the harbor where I started. Gulls, cormorants, willets, surf birds, oyster catchers, and black turnstones were hanging about, warming in the sun's rays. A sea lion was headed out with the tide, probably to join his buddies at the rock. I love taking people kayaking, but these Sunday mornings are special spent alone. My thoughts have had a chance to follow their path until nothing is left but the pure pleasure of being. How fortunate I am to be able to do this. I'll try not to forget what it means to me the next chilly Sunday morning.

Spring-Like Inspirations

Yesterday, I journeyed up to Sacramento to visit a friend, who actually was my invert zoology teacher when I was still an undergrad at Berkeley. Marlene is a great teacher, but she's also a fantastic friend, who I don't see enough of. I call her my laughing friend, because there's no one who I laugh with as much as I do when I'm with her. That's actually saying a lot... because I laugh with a lot of you! Anyway, our day together turned out to be, not only full of laughter, but inspiration for gardening this spring. I've been talking about turning my backyard into a "food basket" by growing lots of vegies and herbs and maybe a few fruit trees. When I saw that Marlene had put 22 fruit trees into her backyard, one that's half as big as mine, I was astounded! Plus, she still grows herbs and vegies and flowers too.

She took me to her favorite nursery and with the help of some very knowledgeable nursery guys, I purchased 3 fruit trees, some raspberry canes, and a few flowers. This morning I woke up to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and an eagerness to plant. I only got the fruit trees in but will hopefully get the rest in sometime during the week. Meanwhile, Jack, the dog, took a great interest in all my digging... and I'm afraid I will have to watch him closely so that he doesn't undo my hard work.

The goal is to eventually have enough fruit trees so that I am picking something ripe and ready every season of the year. Do you think it's possible? The nursery guy said it was!


Above is a picture of Beth, playing the role of Vanna White, pointing out the Peach, the Pluot, and the Plum trees... oh and Jack, the dog, wistfully wanting to dig!

Class Field Trip to Pt. Reyes National Seashore

One of my favorite things to do is to lead a class on an outdoor field trip. If I could get paid for any job in the world, that would be the job, that or being the next David Attenborough! Today, even though I didn't get paid and I'm not even an official GSI (graduate student instructor), I did get to co-lead the Behavioral Ecology class at Berkeley on a field trip to Point Reyes National Seashore, one of the most beautiful pieces of land here in northern California.

The class is learning about how biologists study animal behavior, in class, in lab and in the field. My advisor, Eileen Lacey, is the professor, and together with the two GSI's, we took them to a place called Chimney Rock, famous for the elephant seal haul out where male seals establish territories in order to watch over their harem. The students got a chance to observe males duking it out for access to the females who had finished nursing their pups and were going into estrous.




Elephant seals are amazing marine mammals. They can dive to depths of 2000 feet and hold their breath for half an hour. Some have surpassed even that. Their physiology is the subject of many studies and scientists are continually intrigued by how they are able to withstand the tremendous pressures of the deep sea. Elephant seals haul out for a period of time twice a year, in the winter for breeding and in the summer for molting. The rest of the time, they are out to sea feeding. The males head off toward the Aleutians while the females feed in the open Pacific or Hawaii. These animals were once hunted to near extinction but after given official protection, have rebounded to substantial population numbers and are still growing.

The purpose of today's field trip was to give the students a chance to observe elephant seal behavior, to construct an ethogram by naming and defining behaviors, and then to ask a question and develop hypotheses about interactions between males and females, males and males, females and females. Next, they were to choose one of 3 data collecting techniques they had learned about earlier in order to answer their question. Finally, they were to collect the data, which we would analyze later. Designing a research project is pretty difficult, even for those of us who do it regularly. For many of these students, it was the first time. However, they did great and I think they learned a lot. The seals did great, too, and gave us a lot of behaviors to watch. We saw some serious fighting. We saw some serious mating. We heard some crazy vocalizations. And we had a great time. On top of that, the sun came out! What a way to spend a Saturday in the middle of February!

Hyenas

So, I'm diverting a bit from Argentina to go to Africa... ok, not really. Believe it or not, we have hyenas in Berkeley! Today, our sophomore seminar class went to visit them at the field station in the hills behind campus. These are some of the most amazing beasts I have ever seen, and though I've been privileged to get to visit them fairly often with class field trips, it never ceases to amaze me how cool these guys are, especially for those of us who study hormones and behavior.

The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is native to Kenya but for the past 25 years, there's been a colony housed in a large facility above campus. One of their big claims to fame is the high levels of androgens that are present in females, causing masculinization of the genitalia. In other words, the girls don't look much different than the boys! Hyenas live in a female dominated society where the higher you are in rank, the better access to food and other resources you have. Males disperse from their natal colony to seek matings with females from other colonies. The lucky ones get the higher ranked females, whose offspring will inherit the rank of their mom.

The benefits of this abundance of androgens is that females are large and powerful but there are costs too. Birthing cubs is extremely difficult and often, the first cub to be born dies. If more than one cub is born, they come out fighting, sometimes to the death ... having been bathed in utero in this hormone that seems to be associated with aggression. Much of this research has been done using the hyena colony at Berkeley, and in fact, it is the only one of its kind in the world.

Hyenas are fascinating and as much as I would love to pet one, their massive jaws warn me off, especially after watching a demonstration of their ability to crush huge cow bones. Still, the Berkeley hyenas seem to have a playfulness that I can enjoy behind the fence. Their whooping and laughing and chasing one another are fun to watch on any day in Berkeley... as it was today.