Plants in the spring...

We love plants at our house...

 Aloe and mint and oxalis are all growing, and it seems a fair fight... The aloe is tough and spiky, the mint grows fast in the cool weather but then dies back later in the summer and the oxalis (with edible flowers) grows in between and is hard to kill but beautiful in its own way.  Below, we see one of the figs coming on nicely...

 Here at the edge of the lawn, cilantro has self seeded, with more oxalis growing through the monkey grass.  Go ahead and eat the lawn... (I actually pulled one whole cilantro plant and chopped it into a nice salsa...)  Below we see some "construction" (or destruction?)  which we hope solves some drainage issues without destroying the live oak or other plants across the street...

 And here is what you can make with what you grow... Some lovely homegrown lettuce and greens and some eggs from the chickens.  The kiwi are imported...  but maybe this year?  and below we have some lovely roses growing from our friend's grandmother's container.  Thanks!  Enjoy.

Flying

You have seen a bit of our professional work, always involving some kind of engineering (a device, structure or process...) and some kind of biology (human, plants, animals, microbes...) put together to help solve some problem or make life better.  Here is another angle... a stable, lightweight helicopter with multiple rotors.  Just a glimpse of how this flies, adn lots of testing and ideas moving forward...  Enjoy

The life of J

 Well, sometimes we have a theme that surrounds a particular person. This week we are featuring this artistic, lively boy, whom we will call J.

 He loves Richard Scarry, much as we did as children.  Some of these books are as old as I am, but they have a somewhat timeless quality and are always fun to share.  We are also enjoying the little "plaza" we constructed, and the plants growing nearby include mint, aloe, roses, oxalis, lettuce, peas, wisteria and camellia...  I love the color of the mint in early spring...

 Hard to catch everyone at the same moment, but here is an attempt:  lunch on the patio/plaza is just lovely...  we also had fun at the Bluebonnet Swamp, walking the boardwalk.  Amazingly enough, this is adjacent to the library, so tune in later for more...  who knew books and swamps went together?  Keep smiling, and keep exploring!

Walking after the rain

Lots of fun walking in the rain after a massive downpour last night.  We have not yet found any lightning-spiked trees but we think there must be something that got hit last night as it was a tremendous storm...  still, this morning, it was pleasant, cool, damp and the birds were singing...

 ... and the children were having fun and enjoying the company.  It is nice to be cool enough to want to hold hands or hug each other...

 Walking on the brick at the neighbor's house is always a fun diversion... but it is nice to get home to our own place.  There is no place like home and it sure is green right now!

Out back, the plants are enjoying the rain, but we have to dry a few things...  The plants are happy and the air is clear...

Teatime with princesses

An early morning teatime with the princesses (and friends!)...

 Great Grandma's frog is still in service.  The frog was Uncle D's when we were kids... pouring milk is fun with the frog or monkey (below).  The table cloth was Tia M's from Nigeria...

 The tearoom is a lot of fun for tea; and can also be converted for table tennis...

 The implements are fun, with lots of special spoons from many locations; and a "spoon" shaped like a Dutch 'klompen' shoe...  The teapots are gifts from special people too...

 More fun at our teaparty...  And last but not least, Daddy's "monkey" milk pourer (messier than you think, but still working!)  Come join us for a teaparty sometime!  Have a great day :-)

Caterpillar Season!

Caterpillars have arrived as usual.  We have a large variety, but the most common are the tent caterpillar and the most feared are the black "spiky" variety that can leave a serious sting...

 Many more are the tent caterpillars as shown above and below.  A few years ago these were so numerous they ate all the leaves off several of our gum trees.  As you can see they come in great numbers.  We try to discourage them a bit, but are not too worried.  They "trim" the gum trees (we are not in love with these trees anyway) and the oak trees (we like these more), but generally the trees can grow back their leaves.  They also mark the season and they are about on time...

 We prefer they not harm our "desirable" plants like this wisteria or the lettuce in the garden.  They often keep climbing to the trees.  One more sign of the season of spring.

Coastal Adventures

These structures look similar but are many miles apart.  They are also in different ecosystems; different salinities; different wave energies...  The upper one is in Vermilion Bay, central Louisiana, low to moderate energy location, with relatively modest volume of emplacement. The lower photo shows a high energy emplacement, higher salinity, off the coast of Louisiana in SW LA near Rockefeller Refuge...

 

 A beautiful day at the Gulf Coast near Rockefeller, western Louisiana near the Texas border...

Becoming one with the life of the coast...

This video gives some idea of both the dynamic nature of the physics removing wave energy; and the dynamic and growing nature of the biology...  It is exciting to see these structures literally grow, getting stronger, better at dissipating energy, providing habitat and protecting the coast.