Jan 16
KITCHEN ORCHID
© Laura Quick
This orchid has been blooming in the kitchen window since before Thanksgiving. The light was pretty this afternoon when I walked by.
Jan 16
AFTERNOON DUST BATH
Colinus virginianus
© Laura Quick
Nothing makes our resident quail happier than the delivery of a big bucket of dirt. They spread it around with their feet, then roll around in it for awhile before napping - with estatic smiles on their little birdie faces
Jan 16 Reblogged
I like to think that scientists giggle when they come up with names like this one…
BONE EATING SNOT FLOWER
Osedax mucofloris
©NHM / Nature OnlineTranslated from the mixed Greek and Latin used in scientific names, “Osedax mucofloris” literally means “bone-eating snot-flower” which is an unattractive name for any species, even a sea worm that feasts on dead whales. These deep-sea siboglinid polychaete worms, are alo called boneworms, zombie worms, or bone-eating worms.
Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute using the submarine ROV Tiburon first discovered the genus in Monterey Bay, California, in February 2002. The worms were found living on the bones of a decaying gray whale in the Monterey Canyon, at a depth of 2,893 m (9,491 ft).
Lacking stomach and mouth, Osedax rely on symbiotic species of bacteria to digest whale fat and oils and to release the nutrients in a form that they can absorb. Osedax have colorful feathery plumes that act as gills and unusual root-like structures that absorb nutrients.
Male Osedax are microscopic dwarfs that live as “harems” inside the lumen of the gelatinous tube that surrounds each female. An individual female can house hundreds of these males in her tube. Source
Other posts:
Jan 14 Reblogged
Beautiful birds!
ROSE-RINGED PARAKEET or RINGNECKED PARAKEET
Psittacula krameri
©Anirban BrahmaThe Rose-ringed Parakeet is a gregarious tropical Afro-Asian parakeet species that has an extremely large range. Since the trend of the population appears to be increasing, the species has been evaluated as Least Concern by IUCN in 2009.
Rose-ringed parakeets are popular as pets. Both males and females have the ability to mimic human speech.
This non-migrating bird is one of the few parrot species that have successfully adapted to living in ‘disturbed habitats’,allowing them to withstand the onslaught of urbanization and deforestation. Source
Other Photos you may enjoy:
Jan 14 Reblogged
Love the color!
ROSITA’S BUNTING or ROSE-BELLIED BUNTING
Passerina rositae
©Greg R. Homel / Natural ElementsThe Rose-bellied Bunting is a species of bird in the Cardinalidae family. It is also known as Rosita’s Bunting. It is endemic to a tiny strip of hills along the Pacific slope of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, where it occurs in arid to semiarid thornforest and gallery woodlands. It is threatened by habitat loss. Source
Other Posts:
Jan 09 Reblogged
OUR WORD FOR THE DAY
orchidometer or·chi·dom·e·ter (ôr’kĭ-dŏm’ĭ-tər):
a medical instrument used to measure the volume of the testicles to track testicular development in children
I visited the wonderful Brooklyn Flea yesterday and came across this orchidometer from the 1960s. The one we used back in my pediatric training was wood. It even came with a handy leather carrying case! So, of course I had to add it to my growing collection of medical antiquities.
Jan 08
Welcome Back @singulus
Jan 08
Oh I forgot…
We were down at the garage and our new cleaning lady Veronica (a neighbor), came walking by with her sister Olga. Before Christmas Veronica asked if we had any old clothes that we wanted to donate to her church. Since Kev’s mom buys him clothes both for his Nov. Bday and for Cmas, and since I don’t fit into any of my old clothes, I was able to pull together a couple of trash bags of stuff to give away. It was cathartic to get it out of the house.
I had to laugh this afternoon as Veronica was wearing one of my old shirts - something I’d never worn, and it looked GREAT on her! She initially thought that I thought that she’d stolen it, and she was trying to explain when she realized I wasn’t mad. We had a good laugh, and she fessed up that she’d kept a lot of the stuff for her family. I’m COMPLETELY okay with this, but it was funny.
Jan 08
This and That on a Sunday
- Kevin had surgery on his arm on Wednesday - he has badly developed veins and periodically they have to go in and block off areas and reroute blood. They use a tourniquet and in the past injected alcohol to “scar” the veins shut. This time they used a black “epoxy” type substance called Onyx. Historically, the recovery requires many weeks, with lots of pain even with tons of drugs. This time, not so much. He;s going to go back to work this week.
- During Kev’s surgery three different clients emailed me asking me to make changes on their jobs - “since I know you are not doing anything.” This, added to the client who sent me changes on Christmas Eve Day and wanted them by Christmas afternoon, have me drawing boundaries and digging in to protect myself from 24/7/365 total burnout.
- We have been giving our diabetic dog too much insulin, for those in the know, we have been balancing N & R ourselves for the past 4 years on our insulin dependent dog instead of doing a straight 70/30 mix. But somehow the past day or two she zigged and we zagged. Eek! She was off the charts low 15 minutes ago but is bouncing back now after a glucose tab.
- We are on day two of installing a perch in the chicken coop…this is akin to installing a clothes rod in your closet, however with a physicist, (a one-armed physicist at that), things while accurate, are not speedy.
- Last night we went out to dinner. We returned home about 11:30 and I was dead on my feet. I shuffled out to lock up the chickens for the night and realized that they had gotten open the little coturnix quail cage. They peck at the dopey heart-shaped plastic closure and have gotten good at getting it open. When the door opens it creates a handy ramp for the quail to escape and the chickens climb in and eat their food.Win-win, right?
So for 45 minutes I’m climbing around on hands and knees trying to sort the 6 docile coturnix, from the 13 not so friendly bobwhites. FYI, they look remarkably similar in the dark. And of course, all 13 chickens have to join in the fun. They love to chase the quail making the rescue attempt a keystone-cop-esque event. Wide awake after that we were up until 2AM watching old episodes of “Bones” - I returned to the gym this week. It feels good to be this sore. I’ve been working out with my Dietitian, she’s like a zen, slow-loris, but it keeps me mindful of the speed with which I work out and to take my time and make every rep count.
Jan 08 Reblogged
Huron Embroidered Hide Moccasins from the John Painter Collection of American Indian Art. Wow, look at the gorgeous embroidery!
1800, thread-sewn black-tanned hide with extraordinarily fine floral moosehair embroidery on vamps and cuffs using colors of blue, red, pink, yellow, and white; cuffs edged in purple satin ribbon, length 9”.
Huron (Quebec), Shoes, moosehair/silk/leather, c. 1800.
