crocheted coral reef

The crochet coral reef project is the brain-child of Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim at the Institute for Figuring. They started the project in 2005 as a way to bring awareness to the issues facing coral reefs around the world. Their project has been displayed around the word and is growing in size. I saw the reef displayed at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., in 2011 and was really impressed with the craftsmanship and influence of the display.
The traveling reef exhibit has now landed at the University of California Santa Cruz! In addition to the four month display here, the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab will have a satellite reef by May. There are nearly forty satellite reefs around the world. These satellite reefs are citizen-science and art projects that bring people together to create a crocheted reef for their city.

The exhibit in Santa Cruz (details here) is smaller than the Smithsonian display, but still amazing. Some of the reefs are crocheted with yarn, while others are created exclusively from plastic bags and other pieces of plastic trash. These are a reminder of the challenges facing reefs around the world. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story. If you live near Santa Cruz or are going to be traveling through the area, you should definitely check it out!

plastic bag and ziptie reef

 close-up of the plastic coral

"After the revolution, who's going to pick up the garbage?"

~ Mierle Laderman Ukeles

I cannot wait to see the finished satellite reef at the Seymour Center!

Mama Foley's annual "before the snow" trip

We try to get Mama Foley out to California in the late fall every year to give her one more big dose of sunshine and vitamin d before she settles into winter in Minnesota. In 2015 our travel schedules were too crazy to make the trip happen, but we managed to make it work in 2016. She has been here enough times that she has some favorite spots that we visit every year. Her visit often coincides with the peak of the monarch butterfly migration into Santa Cruz and the beach and redwood forests are always a must. 

a cluster of monarchs at Natural Bridges State Park

monarchs warming themselves in the sun

barefoot on the beach

one of the many redwood giants in Henry
Cowell State Park near our house

tiny mushrooms sprouting on a downed tree

We ventured into some new territory this year too. I usually visit the UCSC arboretum in the spring but knew my mom would enjoy it any time of year. There was the additional draw of the possibility to see a colorless hummingbird. We didn't see the white hummingbird, but we did see lots of colorful ones and many plants in bloom. The arboretum was also hosting a sculpture exhibit, which was a fun addition to the gardens.

South African protea in bloom

Australian banksia with an Anna's hummingbird

bright, beautiful male Anna's hummingbird

hummingbird guarding his patch of grevellia

My mom loves kayaking on her lake when it isn't covered in ice, so I thought she might enjoy kayaking with some different critters at Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing. They don't have these critters in Minnesota...

a raft of sea otters

Brandt's cormorants

harbor seals

brown pelicans

Mama Foley leading the charge

We also toured the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, a local-ish attraction that Pete has wanted to see since he was a kid. It was the house of Sarah Winchester, wife of gun-toting William Winchester. Sarah moved west after the death of her husband at the urging of her psychic to distance herself from the bad karma associated with all the killing her husband's family business had caused. The other part of the psychic's advice was to build a house and keep adding to it until the end of her days. She was making serious money as a shareholder in the Winchester company so this was not beyond her means. She started building in 1884 and continued until her death in 1922. She was the primary architect throughout, which made everything well suited to her short stature. But eventually things got weird. There are stairways that lead to ceilings, doors that open onto walls, and secret passages for very small people. There are doors that were never used and rooms never finished. It is definitely reminiscent of Hearst Castle a couple hundred miles to the south, which we visited in 2012. 

front of the Winchester mansion. Sadly, no
photos inside are allowed.

Thanks for visiting, Mama Foley! Until next fall...

Iron-Sarah and cactuses

I flew to Phoenix in November to meet up with sister Sarah and niece Madeline. Sarah was competing in her fifth ironman triathlon, and Madeline and I are her official cheering team. We've been practicing for a long time...our first cheering gig was in 2004! The ironman is 140 miles of craziness - 2 miles swimming, 112 biking, and 26 running - and it takes a good chunk of the day for most people to complete the whole thing. We planned on Sarah taking around 12 to 13 hours to complete the race so we needed to have some activities while she wasn't near a place we could cheer her on. 

swimming start at 0:dark:30

Sarah getting in the water (second pink cap from the top)

a gazillion bikes in the transition area

about 10 miles into the run

200 feet from the finish (note the bloody knee -
she crashed her bike on some loose gravel
but finished the entire 26 mile run despite the pain)

finish line!
and then straight to the medical tent for some first aid!

While the race was underway, Maddy and I had a few ideas for things we could do to pass the time. We both have a bit of a photography "problem," so we were great company for each other. She was enrolled in a photography class at her school and needed to build her portfolio for the week, so we had a legitimate excuse for seeking good photo opportunities around Phoenix. Our first stop was the botanic garden. 

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I visit botanic gardens in most cities I travel to if possible, and that I am a flora junky, in general. Turns out that I might have an obsession with cactuses and succulents. I've known this for a while, but this was the first desert botanic garden I have been to in a long time and I was completely nerding out. But just look at all of these different varieties...

team photography (if you look closely there are
three cameras between us and another
one taking the photo. Problem? Nah!)

saguaro cactus

saguaro growing a new top

crested saguaro cactus

(scientists think the crested morphology
is caused by a genetic mutation)

crested whortleberry cactus

star cactus

old-man cactus

prickly pear cactus with fruit

prickly pear cactus

paper spine cactus

 rebutia cactus

barrel cactus and a sun dial

ocotillo version #1

ocotillo version #2

barrel cactus and mockingbird

organ pipe

starfish cactus

crested cactus

Cactuses evolved in dry, often times but not necessarily hot, climates. They have specific adaptations that allow them to persist for months at a time with little water. The spines are akin to leaves that provide protection from grazers and lose much less water than a standard leaf, and their stem is modified to be able to store a lot of water. But as it turns out, cactuses, which are only native to North and South America, are not the only plants that developed these adaptations. Succulents are found the world over and independently evolved many of the same characteristics, a phenomenon called convergent evolution. Essentially that means those adaptations are so good in dry, harsh conditions that species completely physically separated from one another developed those adaptations independently, and individuals with those characteristics survived and reproduced better than plants without those characteristics generation after generation. 

looks like a cactus...but it is a succulent (Euphorbia)!

Our second stop on race day was lunch with my great aunt Nola. She spends much of the year in Sun City and invited us over for lunch. We ate lunch at a restaurant that overlooks a couple of exhibits at a private zoo. We were seated in front of the giant aquarium inside because it was raining, but we had to go visit the flamingoes outside before we left. We saw a cool sight at the flamingo exhibit...a juvenile getting fed by an adult. It appeared to be liquid rather than whole critters, but we were not close enough to tell for sure. The feeding process took over ten minutes!

adult flamingo feeding a juvenile

The day after the triathlon, Sarah wanted to do some hiking to keep her muscles from seizing and Madeline wanted to find some wild horses. We got up early and headed east of Phoenix to the Tonto National Forest. We didn't find any horses, but we did get to see some lovely scenery.

Sarah and Madeline among the mesquite trees

Salt River reflections

Least sandpiper looking for breakfast

Saguaro Lake

Our next hike was going to be up Camelback Mountain, but just as we arrived at the trailhead it started lightning and then down pouring. Mountain tops and lightning do not go well together, so we opted for an early lunch that also doubled as a chance to dry out a bit. By the time lunch was over, the sun was trying to come back out so we hiked up and around Hole in the Rock. Sarah and Maddy were able to go back to Camelback after I left, so all the hikes got checked off the list. 

Hole in the Rock

Soaking up the sunshine

Madeline and I decided that Sarah needs to do one more ironman so we can cheer her on in style (we forgot our cow bell). I'm not sure if she is going to go along with that, but if she does we will be there!