Herpetology and Herpes

I have herpes. Herpes zoster, that is--the one in the top middle. I guess most of us have it. But mine is active again. My immune system got too stressed. (From what? I don't know! Moving into a new house with my parents and mothering two small boys? Nah, couldn't be!) The herpes reactivated.

In my quest to heal I researched herpes viruses and found out that the root word for herpes, herpein, is Greek for creeping. Herpetology, therefore, must be the science of creeping creatures!

Anyway, to add insult to injury I have been infected with a stomach virus, possibly roto or noro. The nausea comes over me in violent waves, not unlike labor. It almost feels as if the virus is affecting my brain's nausea response versus the lining of my stomach (or maybe it is both). Nonetheless, there is an emotional effect from this stomach virus. The herpes virus mostly just affects my skin, but I can also feel stabbing pain shooting along that spinal nerve. Aaaaahhh!!!

Happy Birthday, my love!

Happy 40th Birthday to my best friend! I love you!

Spring arrives

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Spring has arrived in Tucson. Sure, it still gets bone-chillingly cold at night. But the days are very gentle, inviting us to stay outside just a little longer. Most of Erik's native garden still looks brown and dormant, with a few exceptions. The bees are very thankful for my collard greens blooming. Thank God for Brassica! A bright spot and tasty food in an otherwise sea of less useful plants!

Another sign of Spring is that it is planting time. Plant your summer garden now. Plant your tomatoes and your peppers. My garden has evolved in just the short year and a half that it has existed. I believe I have completed one full year of gardening. Yea me! The garden was wonderful while I was pregnant. Pick-axing the bermuda thatch and shoveling the hard-packed desert ground provided just the right amount of physical exertion when I needed it.

At first I planted the seeds in rows with troughs between them, the way I assume is the "standard" way of gardening. Standard don't work too good in the desert! So I dug out square shaped depressions and filled those with a mixture of compost, manure, dirt, and straw. Then I just randomly planted the seeds or seedlings. That's how I successfully grew the beautiful patch of collards that I use to feed my Corucia!

I also grew a patch of radishes, but found the radishes were too plentiful in supply (that's a good thing!) and they ended up getting very bloated and hollow. Fortunately, that variety, French Breakfast (I love that name, because of the image it conjures) doesn't get too spicy or bitter when it gets old. I sliced some of them up into thin strips and poured a little oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper on them and it was darn good!

Once the patch had been de-radished it made the perfect spot for the Indian onions given to my husband by his co-worker. These little bulbs are pretty much full size, but with a little luck they will form dense mats of tiny, tasty onions.

Argentine ants

Ants have invaded my reptile cage, the tropical humid one, to be more specific. Ants are in Berman's cage. Berman is a Solomon Islands Prehensile-tailed Skink, also known as a monkey tail skink, Corucia zebrata. He shares his cage with a Solomon Islands ground skink, Eugongylus albofasciolatus. Their tropical climate ecosystem that they call home is like an oasis in the Sahara desert for the Argentine ants. You know which ant I'm talking about. The one that gets in your kitchen trash, especially if there is something wet and sweet in it. The ones that invaded the trash cans in your junior high school. Pretty much the only ant you've ever seen unless you go camping and notice the bugs. Why are they so ubiquitous? Who are they?

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile, formerly Iridomyrmex humilis) do indeed come from Argentina. They have invaded fairly the whole world, probably with the help of people. Wherever they go they tend to displace native ants, which can affect plants that depend on native ants for pollination and lizards that specialize in native ants, such as the coastal horned lizard. But surprisingly, the ants don't pillage and plunder the native ant colonies as they sweep across the praries. All they need... is love.

Argentine ants are so successful because neighboring colonies do not fight with each other, like most ants do. Individuals roam freely among unrelated colonies and help each other with their work. They take each others' food without need for repayment. In this way they form supercolonies that can rapidly spread. Queens intermingle as well, often foraging with their workers. Argentine ants tend to upset the balance of native ants who form more tightly knit colonies that are constantly at war with the other tightly knit colonies. The Argentine ants can outcompete the native ants in searching for food and colony location. And if a battle should break out, unrelated colonies will defend each other. Their sheer numbers coupled with already heavily disrupted ecosystems, such as those along the California coast, create a recipe for disaster, with respect to native ant populations.

When I visited Biosphere II about 15 years ago, the experimental space station built near Tucson, the "scientists" had been out for at least a few years. As a budding biologist, I was fascinated with the idea of living in there, like living in one of my reptile cages! I thought the rain forest was beautiful and the grasslands looked lovely. I imagined how the scientists woke up every day and tended to their chickens and pigs and then took data on the plants and fish. As we toured around the outside of the Biosphere (no one was allowed in) and peeked into the windows, we couldn't help but notice the double row of busyness marching all along the entire base of the space capsule. Someone asked the guide about it and she said that was a recent problem and they hadn't worked out all the kinks yet. Apparently not, as it was one of the few animals to breech the security gate.

What can we learn from the Argentine ant? Give peace a chance and we can conquer the world? Perhaps, and yet... if all the peaceful people succeeded in ridding the world of war, would it be a better world? Maybe we need some warring people to keep us awake. A little bit of yang in the yin! Therefore, enjoy your battles because they may be your last! You might be overrun with boring peaceful people who want to share food and support each other!

A quote from Longfellow

"That's what I always say; if you wish a thing to be well done,
You must do it yourself, you must not leave it to others!"
-from The Courtship of Miles Standish

I read this story to Noah a few times over the past month during evening story time. The book we read out of is called The Book of Knowledge and it was printed around 1915. This quote kept popping into my head today, thinking of President Obama's "A day to act" quote.

Christmas Cookie Cut-outs

These cookies have been waiting to be made for several years now. I found the cookie cutters--a snowflake and an angel--in an alley by our apartment in Ocean Beach. It was a regular custom for people to put good, usable stuff in their alley and other people would find it and take it home. Walking the alleys of OB with Noah in the Baby Bjorn was how I discovered how much of a packrat I am. I also further validated my love of nature. The alleys seemed more semi-wild than the sidewalks. Wooden fences that sagged and bowed under their own weight, darkened with age, covered in one vine or another that managed to find its way to San Diego, where the weather supports growth of almost any plant imaginable. I harvested and tasted my first passion fruit from an OB alley. The flavor of which is something that must be experienced to understand. I also harvested dill, which lasted us until just this year. And observed the insolent, disobedient flock of cherry-headed conures that fly like a cloud of insects, circling and swooping over the rooftops until they find a suitable tree for foraging or preening.

Every year since then, at Christmas time, the cookie cutters make themselves known in my imagination. This year, they finally got put to their intended use. And the results are delightful.

Almost Christmas in Tucson

The weather is presenting us with postcard images of Tucson at Christmas.