Stuck 500 'Prestige' Red Poinsettia cuttings fresh in from Guatemala today. Students will manage them throughout the fall in Greenhouse Operations and then there will be a sale just after Thanksgiving. I actually got to spend time in the greenhouse today :-) ..........don't tell anyone I was having fun.
Christine has a couple of tomato plants out back and recently, over a couple of days, the plants became about 30% defoliated. The culprit was Manduca quinquemaculata or the Tomato Hornworm. Ultimately it makes a beautiful Hawk moth, but it takes a lot of Solanaceous leaves to accomplish that goal. If you have never had the pleasure of seeing one of these things...they have mass. This one was about 4 inches long and maybe an inch around.
Look at those little appendages designed for shredding tomato leaves :-)
It was pretty funny and the Mocha tasted fine....no big deal.
OK, every time I travel to a "big city" I feel a bit out of sorts. Lots of bright shiny things (like this sculpture suspended from the lobby ceiling) and lots of dingy, dark, dirty corners. I am not cheap, but even I complain about how much everything costs.
This was the view out the window of my departing flight today. I have a thing about appearances. I just think at the airport this should not be the last thing folks see before they leave our area. Western North Carolina is truly a beautiful place to live and I think our airport should reflect that. I am sure it is a budget thing...but this sign has been in disrepair for over a year now.
Now on a more intersting note, I am reading a book by Victoria Finlay entitled Color: A Natural History of the Palette. Some of you know I am a graphic design enthusiast...no real skill to speak of, but I love the stuff. This book was reviewed in a magazine and I was intrigued and I have not been disappointed.
I got to play 'caveman' for a student orientation skit today. It took the makeup artist about two hours to fix me up. She said I was easy because I had many Neanderthal features already and wouldn't require much in the way of prosthetics, but I would need lots of hair :-)
Christine took this picture of Seamus sitting up on his own today. He can manage the balancing act for about a minute and a half at a time.
Christine took this picture off the back deck. I know sometimes I mention how nice my bicycle commute into work is, but this gives you a better taste for how magical it can be.
...and what would a blog post be without Seamus :-) Christine took this picture to. That bear and handkerchief size attached blanket is just about his favorite toy/comforter in the world.
My buddy Dr. Jim looks longingly at an Agave in bloom on the NCSU campus.
The gym we belong to requires everyone in the family to have a photo ID card. Seamus had his sun glasses on when they took the picture and it just cracks me up. He gets rocked to sleep while Christine works out. I am at once envious of both of them :-)
Sedums in a garden I visited while on a business trip to Raleigh, NC.
This pepper flower is fairly typical of Solanaceae species, but the blue anthers on this one are impressive.
David and Goliath in the Greenhouse.
In case you couldn't see David in the first picture. Not really sure if an aphid would set off a venus fly trap or not, but he just seemed to be a bold little fellow. Update: I called this aphid a fellow, but it is almost certainly a female.
Pistils and stamens of a cactus flower. I thought the carpels looked like little hands.
Flies ?
Leaf morphology. Escargo Begonia.
Before I was a twinkle in my Daddy's eye. (Vietnam, 1966)
Dad, Me, and Mom (1969)
Me and Dad and some Pony back on the Farm (1970)
Shenanigans (1978)
Va. Tech Graduation 1X (1990)
Dad turned granddad for 6th time. (2007)
