seasonal reality check

On a random whim I decided it would be fabulous to ride back to Eugene for the weekend for various reasons. Basically I can sum up the trip with this short description: one newish kia compact car, 5 oimb kids a radio transmitter for a very eclectic ipod. It was epic.

I feel that this summer I will not get my traditional summer experience once again. Last summer it was phyiscs hell and this summer it's just Charleston "summer" weather. I generally stop wearing jeans after spring term ends and never ever wear shoes unless I am going on a run. I've maintained the shoe rule except now I wear xtratufs for fieldtrips. At this point we still wear sweatshirts at 2 in the afternoon and wool socks out in the field. I was craving soup. However I cannot really complain as it is sunny, but it's the wind that kills it.
Eugene is having some rather warm weather. I am glad to be getting it in at least a little bit before going back to the boots. Plus I finally finished sewing some stuff over the break. I bought some knit way back when it was on joanns clearance in December. I just found the perfect pattern for a couple of tops. I've got the feel now for knits, gathers and making tops. I'll post pictures soon enough. This warm weather is allowing me to wear them as well. Soon enough I'll be back to long pants, but happy to not be sweating so much.

laminaria

For our last field trip of invert we made our way out to lighthouse beach to cross the channel to get to the island. It was rather epic as I saw all of these very different intertidal communities based on where they were located and how intense of surf they see. We even saw a harbor seal pup stranded in a pool. I'm sure he was okay once the tide came back up.

There was an imense amount of diversity and color out there today, but what really did it for me was the kelp. yes yes I know kelp. But bull kelp is cool stuff and it usually is growing far off shore not in the intertidal. This kelp seems to be misplaced as some was growing in a corkscrew fashion. Either way I attempted at some photos with a lot of bad shots, and a few good ones. I've realized on a wet gray dark day you just have to go with blurry.

robot soup

So today was our last scheduled day of environmental education for the term. Even though today's low tide was amazingly low, we helped out at South Slough. I love it there! You get to see distinct habitats including the upland forest, riparian areas, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, tidal flats and the open water channel of the estuary.

Most of their programs include a hike down to the observation deck and outdoor classrooms. I have led about 5 of these in the last term and each time I learn something new. I remember back to my first hike being excited but nervous that I would say something stupid or that the kids would rebel against my nerdy ways. Today, we were scheduled to lead two hikes right in a row going all the way down then directly back up. This hike is a fairly big walk down (especially for 9 year olds and sore/tired college students).

I made these hikes the best ever. Why you may ask? Well I got these kids excited about moss, ferns and fungus! I taught them all of the cool plants like thimbleberry aka toilet paper plant and about salmon berry butterfly leaves. The teacher who was with us caught on to my points and helped me to emphasize them. The best part is that I talked about the importance of dead stuff like old stumps and fallen trees. The kids were so excited to take a look at what was growing and living in them. Of course I used my excellent inquiry technique of asking lots of good question and having them identify this concept or that. Inquiry is the best! This is stuff that a lot of their parents know nothing about, but they were so excited to take them out there during the summer and teach them about the different habitats and give them a fun experience as well. And to top it off, it was actually sunny and warm today!

anywho, just had to gloat for a bit :)

peonies, chitons and cliffs

Things that define week 10:

Peonies on my window sillHooded carnivorous chitons that trap live prey when they crawl into the hood to hide.
They are found at the bottom of this trail, on this vertical cliff, at 6:30 in the morning....
when it's windy and raining.