Geopalooza

Amazing rocks and fossils also on exhibit at the HMNS.

The Wedding Crinoid (Seirocrinus subangilaris) is 185 million years old. It was found in Holzmaden, Stuttgart, Germany in the Poisdonia Shale.

These sea lillies are extremely well preserved and look like they have fallen in love. The tiny pinnules (arms) that the animal uses to filter food out of the water extend down to about 3x the size of the "flower" (not shown in the picture).

The Green River Turtle is 50 million years old and was found in Kemmerer, Wyoming in the Green River Formation (Eocene). Note the crocodile teeth marks on its carapace.

Natural Sandstone Concretion from Fountainbleau, France. These nodules result from irregular quartz cementation in a cross-bedded sandstone. The loose sand is brushed away and the nodules are left behind. Reminds me of the Michelin Tire boy...

The crystals and size of this amethist are very impressive. It was one of many in display from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Lucy's Legacy

In Ethiopia, 3.2 million years ago Lucy was born. In 1974, she made an incredible appearance again. Over 40% of her skeleton was discovered revealing her 3'6" (1.07 meters) figure. It is one of the most complete Australopithecus afarensis fossils ever found. The teeth are amazing, very very similar to our human teeth today.

For the first time ever outside of Ethiopia, Lucy has made residence in Houston the past year in the exhibit "Lucy's Legacy: the Treasures of Ethiopia" at The Houston Museum of Natural Science. In Amharic, she is called Dinkenesh which means "you are beautiful" .

http://lucyexhibition.com/

What a priviledge to be able to see her in person!

The Department of Anthropology at The University of Texas has a website dedicated to Lucy with resources for teachers and kids. http://www.elucy.org/

"The Eagle has landed!"

Johnson Space Center - NASA

A glimpse of american space history. The shear passion of the men behind the early years of the program is very interesting.

On the moon...

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-350/ch-11-1.html

And the kids had a blast with all the games, interactive stations and exhibits.

Devils Tower

Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming is another very interesting location with columnar basalt in the US.

Devils Tower rises 1267 feet above the Belle Fourche River. Originally below the surface, Devils Tower is now exposed due to erosion of sedimentary rocks that surrounded it millions of years ago. NPS states that the top of Devils Tower is about the size of a football field!

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument in 1906.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower_National_Monument

http://www.nps.gov/deto/

Giant's Causeway

This image from a magazine ad took me back in time this week to Devils Postpile.

This picture was almost certainly taken at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Definitely on my travel wish list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_Causeway

Devils Postpile

A few years back, L and I stumbled into Devil's Postpile National Monument at the end of a vacation day in California. Neither one of us knew what was there - so we went check it out. We found the most amazing natural structures. "Tiles" seemed to have been perfectly laid out on the ground, in the middle of nowhere!

It turns out that those "tiles" were the ends of 60ft high columnar basalts that had been "polished" by glaciers running over them. You can still see the linear streaks of the glacial polish.

Photos and the text below are from the National Park Service website:

"Approximately 100,000 years ago, a lava flow erupted two miles upstream from the location of today's Monument. As it flowed down the Valley, it eventually ran into an obstruction which served as a dam to the lava's path. Pooling up to as deep as 400 feet behind the natural dam, the lava cooled. Conditions were such that the lava--that was incredibly uniform in its mineral composition--cooled at a very slow rate. As it cooled, it contracted and cracked, forming hexagonal columns. 80,000 years later, a glacier flowed through the same valley, overriding the formation and eventually revealing the sides and tops of the columns. Glacial polish can still be seen today at the top of the formation."

http://www.nps.gov/depo/planyourvisit/nearbyattractions.htm

Dragonflies

Bees, dragonflies and butterflies were everywhere on the trail today. A couple of bugs actually collided with me, don't know who...

So many dragonflies were flying about, a dozen or so different ones. Check out the digital dragonfly catalog at http://www.dragonflies.org/

Interesting ones I spotted were
Celithemis eponina -Halloween Pennant (not sure if the colors are matching the catalog, though)
Erythemis collocata - Western Pondhawk

If not these exactly, they were pretty close...

Butterfly Valentine's

Slightly overcast skies made for an as close-to-perfect as it gets day for Houston lunchtime running weather in August. Plants and bugs were quite happy with yesterday's soaking rains. There was an actual breeze and no blazing sun! I thought I was just going for a pleasant run outside, but I was in for a surprise from my butterfly friends.

Bees, dragonflies and butterflies were everywhere. A couple of them actually collided with me today.

About a third of the way into my run I spot a couple of beautiful orange gulf fritillary butterflies playing around. I stop to watch for a bit as one of them hugs a tall grass and jut sits there. The other one continues to flutter around it, like a mating dance some birds will do. It flutters seemingly with no response by his friend in the grass stem, or so I thought. I wait to see how things would end up and then the most amazing thing happened.

The courting butterfly comes down and gives her friend a tender "kiss" that lasts a couple of seconds or so. And they go their separate ways. But for those two seconds, the couple becomes one. They almost perfectly mirror each other producing an image as you'd see in a child's drawing of a butterfly with it's wings wide open and full of color. Incredibly beautiful.

And then again, another unbelievable scene happened as I was finishing the run. I see a pair of black tiger swallow tails also in a courting dance. One is black with strong yellow spots and the other has an additional blue tint to the top of its wings. They are different just enough to characterize male/female.

I stop to watch them flirting and fluttering around each other. They fly across the path, down to the bottom of the levee, still playing around one another. Then they start flying higher and higher and higher. They must have caught a pretty good draft. I keep watching and eventually loose sight of them in the bright sky overhead. I don't remember ever seeing butterflies fly that high up! I guess they do! Learning something new...




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swallowtail

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/bfly/tiger_swallowtail.htm (Black form)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Fritillary

An unschedued stay-at-home day

Many schools and businesses were closed today in anticipation of Tropical Storm Edouard making landfall near Galveston, TX. Luckily, Edouard did not deliver the super strong winds and rain as feared by many.

It was nice to spend the day at home with the kids.

NOAA Satellite image - August 04, 2008

Too yummy...

K's conversation with her Mickey Mouse lollipop this evening:

"Mickey Mouse, where are you? (pause) Ooops, I ate you all!"

You, just had to be there to witness this. It was hillarious. The timing between the "Mickey Mouse, where are you?" and the pause as she pulled Mickey out of her mouth and realized "Ooops, I ate you all!" was just perfect.

Mommy and me

K was quietly drawing on the floor behind my chair early this evening.

After a while she says, "Mommy, this is you and me when I was inside your tummy." I look down and she has the most beautiful drawing of a very wide me with hair sticking up and all, and a little K inside my belly.

I definitely have to keep this one for the gallery!

The lonely berry

The lot next door

What is that on the lot next door? Flowers? Yes. I had to check them out.

I'm glad I took a few shots last Sunday for they were there for only a few days.

The Cat is back

I spoke too soon! I guess it was my wishful thinking...

The cat was back on Saturday afternoon for her milk and fish! D is always the first to spot the 'ki-ee' outside.

I just hope L cleans up after her, too.

It's "mind"

K's mind is very active. Her level of comprehension and vocabulary are quite advance and extensive for her age. But one thing we were not able to correct, and stopped really trying at this stage - so it now sounds almost normal to me, is her "It's mind" statement, meaning "It's mine!".

Sharing experiences with other Moms running this morning I heard that K is not alone. KS's son also has a variation of "mine" in his repertoir - something like "It's myns". KS has stopped correcting as well. As she said, it sounds kind of cute and they'll eventually grow out of it...

"Our" Cat

A scrawny cat sits sits quietly under the chair in the back yard. He must've known L was going out with the kids to the pool... They spot the kitty right away. L seeing how skinny and hungry it looks comes back in the house for a bowl of milk. A very grateful cat laps it up. The next day the same bowl of milk routine, but this time he also got a can of salmon. Thank you, L! I guess the fish gave him the energy he needed to continue on. Yesterday L checked and it didn't show up for dinner.

That's my big-heart L. "No creature shoud starve to death", L says and he always goes out of his way to feed an animal he perceives is in need.
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