Musings of a barefoot traveller

Okay, so I'm blogging my posts in a seemingly random fashion. What happened to the posts from Charlotte , Singapore and Berkeley you say (don't even mention East Africa )? That's what you get when I can only blog in between rotavapping sponge extracts. So last month, shortly after Spring Break, my lab headed to Atlanta , Georgia for the 36th Benthic Ecology Meeting. I was pretty excited as it was my first national conference, plus imagine meeting a whole bunch of scientists who are psyched about various spineless creatures! Try telling a dolphin researcher why you find boring sponges so interesting! I jest, dolphin researchers are actually very nice people :). We managed to loan a vehicle from UNCW to drive to Atlanta , and I picked Steve up early in the morning to go pick up the MPV. When we got to the holding area, lo and behold, someone had snuck in at 6am and taken our vehicle! Fortunately, there was another MPV available and we didn't have to squeeze in a se...

What could possess a right thnking person to leave the warm comforts of a bed at 5.30am on a cold and windy Sunday morning to venture outdoors? So I ruefully left my warm abode to join Adriane and pals on a bird banding trip. Yup, you heard right. Despite my numerous jibes at twitche..urm...birders all this time, some feathered fiends were actually depriving me of much needed sleep, and driving me into the merciless chill. This is the fiend in question. One of the three species of marsh sparrows Adriane was studying for her MS thesis. This one was the seaside sparrow, characterized by yellow bands on the head. Tiny creatures- they only weighed around 13g. Something I haven't seen for a long time- an actual sunrise, haha BTW, the water looks deceptively calm and inviting doesn't it? Well, it was BLOODY cold!! It was -2 degC in Wilmington, and that's not counting the wind chill as we zipped along the intracoastal waterway in an unsheltered boat. I thought it was spring alrea...

Spring is here! Finally went out in shorts today into the brilliant sunshine. Nice to see the abundance of pink blossoms upon my return to Wilmington as well.

For some reason, I suddenly had a craving for delicate, trembly steamed egg. Made a batch to go with a bak kut teh dinner I had at Marianne's house a couple of weeks ago, but it turned out too fluffy- not the clear, unblemished surface I wanted, so tried again at home, this time using my bowl in a saucepan of hot water! Still not as flat as I would have liked, and the mushrooms refused to sink down to the bottom of the bowl, but not bad! It was just barely cooked, and still nice and trembly! Next up was baked pasta with spinach. The cooked pasta was mixed with tomato-based sauce, half a bottle of creamy alfredo, and half a packet of mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle more cheese on top and bake till everything sets together! Good for freezing! Then I went and bought myself a big bag of dried black eyed peas...I tried some canned ones before and they were really delicious! Made some minestrone with them (ate it all before I took photos! haha), but I still had 3/4 of the bag left. So some w...

The joys of spring weather in the middle of winter :) This is pretty. I wonder what flower it is? With a busy visitor Comes in this pretty shade too. Meanwhile, next to Westside Hall, two trees are a-blooming... Who needs sakura viewing in Japan? ;)

As promised, here's the first in the series (hopefully) of the squirrel diaries! This individual was captured (on CCD) outside my apartment one winter day in all its full fatty glory...