monday july 26

it's still me -- Colin is doing something with a field guide and a notebook. Today was laundry, shopping, etc. day, plus back to kirstenbosch for some sampling of specimens there, which I did not witness, because I went and had tea in the tea shop, then read my nook.

tomorrow early a.m. we are heading to the hills, literally. I am not looking forward to this. Although it has been cold here, we've had electricity, light, good plumbing and a kitchen (and an electric tea pot to heat up the water for the hot water bottles each night), none of which we will have in Anysberg. Plus I suspect that it is going to be really REALLY cold up in the mts. Plus once the ipod and nook run down, I may not be able to solarcharge them to use them - plus we think it is going to be pretty wet, and I'm not likely to be using them in the pouring rain (while I stand and do nothing) anyway. I hope that Colin appreciates this.... (Plus, there are leopards, which I hope will keep their distance more than the baboons have.) Anyway, we will be back in Capetown on Aug. 1, and will try to check in then before we leave for AZ on Aug. 2. Think good thoughts towards us!

Jessica

p.s. Colin says he would like it known that the hyrax yesterday charged him, but it really didn't charge so much as decide suddenly that it wanted to be standing where Colin was, which caused it to move rapidly in that direction. Easily sidestepped, in any case. Very cute, even with its fairly ratty (buggy) fur.

more Sunday photos

we also saw a bunch more ostriches, but we've stopped taking photos of them....

sunday, july 25

This is Jessica again; Colin is working on analyzing some data he collected today.

Today the team worked all day down on the cape again -- technically, this is part of Table Mt. National Park, and the team has a permit, but since they are working in two groups, we keep getting stopped by officials, without our permit, leading to lengthy discussions. Apparently, Carl told Colin, who was working on his knees in the brush, to "stay down," so that his appearance would not cause questions -- I missed this interchange.

Mostly what I did today was stood and listened to the ipod, since there was a dearth of rocks at today's sites on which to sit, and the brush was thick, deep and full of busy ant hills. At the first site, a small but attractive frog was caught, but my photo of it is not as attractive as the frog was, so I'll wait for Colin's photo, which is better. Then we lunched at the shore (rocky) of the actual Cape of GH -- on Friday, we were at the cape point; if you look at a good map of Africa, you will see that they are slightly different places, though I think the point extends slightly more south than the cape does. I took a group shot (see photo) and we also saw a lovely hyrax, which is related to an elephant, though looks much more like a woodchuck or marmet. We also saw several eland (which we also saw on Friday), but I've not been able to get a good photo, as they are always far off.

I was trying to take a photo of an orchid when we suddenly left our second work site in a hurry because another large troop (swarm) of baboons was trekking up the path. They stopped traffic coming up from the cape entirely, with one of them lounging in the road on his back. Several of the adults were carrying small babies. (see photo) Then we went to a couple of other sites, which were pretty (along the Indian Ocean), but it would take too long to post photos of everything.

On the way home, we went the "long way" round along the Atlantic, vs. the Indian Ocean. It was very cliffy and swervy and I closed my eyes. We stopped for photos a couple of times, and the sunset was nice, though Colin's photos came out much nicer than mine -- we'll try to get his up on the blog later. (My nikon washes everything out; his handles color much better.)

We are leaving this locale on Tuesday morning (Monday night for Dear Readers) to head up into the cold, cold mountains, and we will have no electricity for the next week after, so if you want to say something to us, say it now!

more kirstenbosch

here are more birds @ kirstenbosch...

july 24 - kirstenbosch

today the team worked at base all morning, processing plant specimens. John Silander joined the group, so there were more baboon jokes. In the afternoon, we went to Kirstenbosch, which is a truly fabulous botanical gardens. The girls bought more jerky (just general "game" jerky) to replace that stolen by the baboons. We have many gorgeous botanical photos from today (pelergoniums, protias, ericas), but will post just a few, mostly that have birds in them. You *really* need to click on them to see the birds. Both plants and birds were very pretty.

more baboon photos

click on the photos to see them properly...the tail is my shot of the baboon on the top of the van, after he'd checked out all the windows and mirrors - presumably looking for a way back in

the baboons, july 23

hi, this is Jessica. Colin is working on research tonight, so I will try to get the blog up to date -- it is extremely slow going, with this silly slow netbook.

What happened with the baboons was this:

the team was cataloging plants (or whatever it is they are doing) on a hill at one of the sites at the national park on the cape of good hope. I was hanging out in the van, as I had already done the hanging out outside thing. It was getting hot, so I opened one of the windows part way -- I did not know that Emily had left some carrots, sprouts and springbuck jerky on the seat under the window. A large troop (20+) of baboons (who saw the window/smelled the food) came flying down the hill, past the team, and one of the males jumped through the window and began to snack rapidly. Carl and Cory came running down the hill and started yelling at the baboon, who did not want to leave. I had jumped into the way-back, since the baboon was between me and the side doors. Carl opened the door (but not my door, which could only be opened from tThe baboon did try to read the field guide, but was disuaded by more yelling. Eventually he or a compatriot climbed on top of the van, where he ate carrots and eventually lay down. No one was hurt except the sprouts, carrots and jerky, but there have been many, many jokes. I will post the photos in stages -- as always, click on them to see them bigger.

ostriches

here are photos of male and female ostriches, from yesterday

friday july 23

Today we went south to the cape of good hope to do some specimen collecting. we also saw two tortoises, several ostriches (male and female) and other birds, and a large troop of baboons. One of the van while my mother was still in it, and Carl and Cory scared it out again, although it was very aggressive. I have had quite a bit of trouble with posting tonight, so I will post photos tomorrow, if the blog will let me.

Night Grilling

Y'ain't lived none till ya grill by the light of a headlamp.

Funky Fruit

OK, I have a lot to blog about, but I did promise I'd blog about this, so I guess here goes. We found in our pantry an unusual something called "Funky Fruit," which isn't that scary until you realize the following things:
1. it's an amazing 60% real fruit!!
2. It comes in eccentric flavors: fig, apricot, peach and pear
3. Pear is red and fig is green
It also tastes like glazed, carmelized boots. As an added bonus it comes with a "Frudoku" that would have been completeable had we not labeled our fruit already with those stickers. So you can all see I'm not making this bizzare oddity up.
Now, t0 blog about more important things: night grilling, cranky tortoises and marauding baboons. One more thing, though, while I'm blogging on the subject of food - had a local kind of sausage last night, and it was amazing; and today, I -being an adventurous sort-had some springbok jerky (it's a kind of antelope). On one hand, I feel guilty, as I try to avoid eating beef or related things. On the other, it tastes absolutely awesome. Then the baboons ate it, but that's another post.... and I promise it will be an intriguing one, involving marauding baboons, a car, and my mother.
OK, I have a lot to blog about, but I did promise I'd blog about this, so I guess here goes. We found in our pantry an unusual something called "Funky Fruit," which isn't that scary until you realize the following things:
1. it's an amazing 60% real fruit!!
2. It comes in eccentric flavors: fig, apricot, peach and pear
3. Pear is red and fig is green
It also tastes like glazed, carmelized boots. As an added bonus it comes with a "Frudoku" that would have been completeable had we not labeled our fruit already with those stickers. So you can all see I'm not making this bizzare oddity up.
Now, t0 blog about more important things: night grilling, cranky tortoises and marauding baboons. One more thing, though, while I'm blogging on the subject of food - had a local kind of sausage last night, and it was amazing; and today, I -being an adventurous sort-had some springbok jerky (it's a kind of antelope). On one hand, I feel guilty, as I try to avoid eating beef or related things. On the other, it tastes absolutely awesome. Then the baboons ate it, but that's another post.... and I promise it will be an intriguing one, involving marauding baboons, a car, and my mother.

'Down Time"

Occasionally, people ask me, what do I do in my free time? Instead of answering that question, let's take a look at what everyone else does for fun... aside from everything else we do around the clock.

Robert found some stickers in the Funky Fruit box (another post to follow; here's a preview shot - and the flavor, surprisingly, is PEAR, despite the fact it is red - but as I said, just a teaser, as there's a lot more disturbing stuff to be said aabout this "Funky Fruit"), and - is it a consequence of jet lag, perhaps? - decided he would label the fruit with fruit stickers. We can now rest safely knowing that, if we forget that what we have in our hands is an orange, banana, pineapple (which, due to its large surface area, is at least triply-labeled to ensure we do see a label when we pick it up) or apple, we will be able to identify them to species level without any question, a privilege we rarely have as botanists. Definitely going to sleep better at night knowing that! :-)

On the other hand, this means my greatest fear is to wake up in the morning with an avocado in my hand (no sticker for those) with no idea of what it is or how it got there..... Wish me all luck.

Also, here's a photo of G + C (one of the many C's) being infinitely more productive knitting than Robert-the-Fruit-Labeler, or, for that matter, Colin-the-Bloggomaniac.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make is, we have lots of fun here. There's still definitely a lot more for me to post, and I'll do it tomorrow - I have to get up either at 7:30 or 9:20 (it doesn't seem to be clear which yet). -C

Garden Shots and a Dirty Skink

Christina stares at the as-of-yet unidentified flower. Botany at work.

I know everyone out there has the same question on their minds about this photo: is that tree that looks like a fern really a fern? ;-)
The answer, unbelievably, is yes - this is a tree fern, which is a special kind of fern that has a tree morphology, that is to say, looks like a tree. Biologists like big words. ;-)

The flowers here are amazing... there are even more exotic ones, but my photos aren't as nice, so I'll leave you all imagining what they look like until I get some nice shots in the field.

And finally, a member of the Scincidae, bio-speak for "It's a skink."

Update: a second phone number is available now for emergencies:

+27-076-577-9273

Big Robert, Small Cup

It's funnier if you're jet lagged, wake up at one PM and ca actnually see just how small the cup is.

Not a Full Box of Chocolates

Cape Town I

We’re staying at a little place called Ascot Gardens in Cape Town, which is quite beautiful (I’ll post garden pics later) but has a few cute little eccentricities. The first is an emergency panic button, accompanied by an arrow that supposedly points to said button but doesn’t (thus making it useless in emergencies if you want the button). You can see that photo in this post.

The other eccentricity is Gary, commemorated by this wonderful sign. I’ll let you read it yourself. Lolz.

So, I’ll post some photos in a minute, but a note for all biologists following this: I want to see some ID’s at least to genus (species for the skink, hopefully - ) by the next time I read this blog!
One last thing… current cup of coffee tally is 2.

Amsterdam Airport

So, here's a nice shot of the airport in Amsterdam of Emily being exhausted from a long flight. Then, for contrast, let's look at how I felt trying to handle this rather-annoyingly-small computer....

Jet lag must not have much of an effect on me.

Toddlers and Tulips: Boston to Cape Town

So, I’m in Africa, folks. I made it. Unfortunately I’ve been having some wi-fi-finding trouble as of late, so this is a bit overdue. Lets see…from the beginning, here’s the story: we went as a group in a van to Boston, flew to Amsterdam, got in at what should have been about 2 AM and felt to my body like 2 AM but which my brain and the natural environment insisted was really 8 AM, despite all circadian evidence to the contrary. So here’s the thing about the airport in Amsterdam: there are tulips everywhere. It’s not just that every other store in the airport sells the bulbs: every wall is painted with tulips or has tulips growing. It’s kind of crazy!

Anyhow, the next flight was MUCH longer than the first (11 as opposed to 7 hours) - and had an 18-month-old toddler wandering the aisles without parental supervision. I mean, I suppose it’s a contained area, but still, there are so many things a small child could run headlong into. Sigh. Anyhow, that’s the trip over here. Exhausting, tiring, and very very disorienting. I did want to say, though - the first thing that hits you about Cape Town is the lights - at night, it’s beautiful, like some kind of glittery sequin-covered glittery thing with sequins that glitter. (I’m not feeling very articulate right now.) It’s beautiful. Anyway - we got in about midnight last night to our little guest house in Cape Town. Imagine our surprise waking up at one in the afternoon.

Hey, all, I’m here - South Africa! I’m going to post more after this post, telling you about the trip here and where I am now, but first I think I should explain who are group is: we have one professor with us now and one more showing up later - they are, respectively, Carl and John. The grads are Robert, Emily, Cory and Adam; the other two undergrads are Christina and Georgia. For emergencies, one of our phone numbers is +27-076-897-3316.

Leaving today....

Gulp. Here goes - the adventure of a lifetime starts today! All I can say is, I'm getting the feeling I'm gonna be needing a lot of coffee over the next few weeks.

More to come next time I have wi-fi and my head is within a couple time-zones of my body,
-Colin

One week to go!

The countdown begins... one week to departure! Lo, The Packing Commenceth.

-Colin (+ Jess)