http://www.redstateupdate.com/video/ted-kennedy-the-health-care

So my late class just started today and I'm already swamped with work. I'm teaching three classes this semester - Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology and Evolution, and Intro to Archaeology. Of course I'm also taking a couple of night classes in plant ID and Design as well as trying to get my two houses painted and repaired before winter. Then there are the landscaping accounts that must be dealt with each and every week and the three roof jobs that are looming on the horizon. The first roof job starts on Friday. Oh yes, I've also just discovered Terry Pratchet, so I must spend some time reading for pleasure as well. I wish I weren't so bored.

I came across this cartoon a week or so ago and shared it with the Phys Anth class. Cute, eh?

An ant hurries along a threshing floor
with its wheat grain, moving between huge sacks
of wheat, not knowing the abundance
all around. It thinks its one grain
is all there is to love.

So we choose a tiny seed to be devoted to.
This body, one path or one teacher.
Look wider and farther.

The essence of every human being can see,
and what the essence-eye takes in,
the being becomes. Saturn. Solomon!

The ocean pours through a jar,
and you might say it swims inside
the fish. This mystery gives peace to
your longing and makes the road home home.

---This poem is by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks in Rumi: the Book of Love.

Dear St. Louis gardeners...

...this is what a rhododenron looks like in its native environment, so please stop whining to me about why your little rhody is sick. These shrubs demand the acid soil, temperatures, humidity, moisture and soil conditions that are endimic to the Blue Ridge Mountains and other similar areas of the country. If we would stop trying to force our landscapes to conform with our ideas and instead explore ways to work with mother nature I think we could be much happier with the outcomes.The diversity of plant life here is astonishing. We found this little spot just a few feet from an overlook parking area. Morgan is sitting amongst rhododendrons, laurels, blueberries, lichens, mosses, club mosses, and numerous herbaceous wildflowers. There were many plants I do not know or could only identify to the family level.

Morgan was fascinated with the lillies. I'm not sure if they are endimic, but they certainly were happy here, growing over entire ridges under and around the edges of a thin tree canopy.

I love to explore road cuts and in the Blue Ridge Parkway the opportunities for this activity are practically endless. I found tiny bonsaied rhododendrons and laurels growing in the cracks of vertical rock walls. Other plants I (tentatively) identified in rock crevasses include tiarella, asarum, and a red-leafed member of Crassulaceae. Very cool.

We happened on Graveyard Fields by chance. If I had not been looking out over a valley at the right moment I would have missed seeing an impressive water fall. We decided to explore further. After a short walk down through a thicket of large rhodedendrons we came to this huge area of exposed granite with water falls. It was the highlight of my trip, no doubt. The place was very beautiful, the water was clear and cold and it was just the best. We spent about an hour there.

This place left all my senses bursting. I would love to camp there sometime.

Asheville Bele Cher festival

Saw Nikki Talley this afternoon at the Bele Cher festival - local bluegrassy-rock singer, guitar player. Incredible!
Her cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene blew me away. It was even more intense and guitar-saturated than the youtube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRVahEYoSYY
On the other hand, the online take of Maggie May http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg8UBVw_7ng is really great. She closed the show with it today, but it was a bit more of an instrumental version with less vocal work.

Here is proof that Morgan has visited a drinking establishment: caught dead to rights in the Green Man Brewery, downtown Asheville.

We had a blast on the beach Friday - Outer Banks fun! Actual photos from the beach are not allowed by royal command but I don't mind showing my skin obviously.

The coffee shop at Manteo, NC is an important pre-beach ritual that must be observed each year!

Finally, this is what crepe myrtles look like when they are on their home turf. They do get so much bigger than the crepe twigs in St. Louis.

l.p.'s the bomb

I just got over my obsession with lady gaga.
Now my new obsession is L.P. You can hear a killer song by her called "Kill the Pain" on my myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/182978123
or at youtube (poor audio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLkTxPooIus
If you're on myspace she has a page at http://www.myspace.com/lprock

My lazy day lends itself to a bit of blogging

Ok here's what's been up around here lately - lots of work, some really good food, critter patrol at all hours. Some of this is documented in the photos posted here. Enjoy.

Critters: the chickens are keeping me quite busy what with their constant needs for food & water, pooping out the eggs, needing free-range time, putting them back in at dark, etc. I love it though.
Dudley - master of the barn yard and only about 7" tall! Isn't he beautiful? If he had a brain to match that attitude we'd all be his servants.

And then there's the duck and that goofy Polish hen! Don't get me started on them.

The aquarium has accumulted a diverse collection of greenery this summer - both plant life and glass decorations. I also added some neon tetras - my favorite fish. It is really hard to photograph an aquarium full of fish.

My garden is going gang-busters. I turned my back for two weeks and the heirloom zucchini sprouted several leg sized fruits. I'm waiting for the tomatoes with great anticipation - Black Cherry and Cherokee Black. I've gotten fascinated with carniverous plants over the past year or so and my most recent aquisitions are a pair of Venus fly traps that surprised me last month with beautiful delicate white blossoms. A recent realization - fly traps love to eat earthworm segments but the worm parts keep wriggling long after the trap closes so they end up half digested in the trap and half dried outside of the trap. That's a little gross come to think of it.
That ornery dog of mine brought a tick into the house last night. I found it climbing the wall beside the bed! Today he got a dose of Advantage and I got a hair cut. I think his next hair cut is coming up soon too.

Is it really that cold, or are you just a weenie?

...uhh, yes on both counts.

So here is my fantastic Saturday (after working):
collecting eggs,

checking and photographing chickens and pigeons,

and going to the orchid show at MoBot. This is a new Dendrobium for me - D. epidendropsis.

This one I have seen in books, but I can't remember seeing it at this show before - D. amethystaglossum.

A beautiful tiny yellow orchid.

Rhy... can't remember this one, but it's beautiful!

Who loves ya baby?