Saltwater Purls

On the road again

I've just spent the last few days here...in a very nice town...any guesses?

A freshly minted Dr AJ

Silence on the blog represents travel. The most recent being a trip down to Cincy for my baby brothers graduation....he was one of ~500 newly minted PhDs.

We spent one day at the Cincy Zoo as well, where a young lad had to be carried literally screaming from one exciting activity to another.

The favourite activity hands down, however, was the zoo train (try and explain queueing to a very hot, tired 2 year old). 'More, more train...more, more train...'. Here are the polar bears who were amazing everyone.

A Summary of Visiting Bristol

1. 'The Lip';  2. Bird at Bristol Zoo;  3. Artichoke at 'The Lost Gardens of Hellegan';  4. Robin Redbreast 'The Lost Gardens of Hellegan';  5. Gargoyle at St Mary of Redgrave;  6. Noahs Ark at St Mary of Redgrave;  7. Cleeve Abby;  8. Building tile in Bristol;  9. The Circus in Bath.

The margarita's on me...

Back from Acapulco and perhaps in the nick of time...seems a possible hurricane is forming in a region very close to another of my research 'sites'...the Gulf of Tehuantepec (the bend in the coastline NE of the storm)...and is heading to Acapulco. Tropical storm Barbara is the second storm in the Eastern Tropical Pacifics storm season. We heard from hurricane researchers at the conference that storms in the  region are on the rise...and two this early in the season is unusual.

I have to say that thanks to the 'Fly America' Act, getting to Acapulco was expensive and not fun. The flight there was supposed to be easy but severe weather over Houston shut down the airport so that my plane had to circle for an hour (I guess we were lucky it had fuel and wasn't diverted) and then I waited 5 hours for my next flight as that plane was in Lafayette and the crew in Arkansas or something to that effect. The flight home involved a 5 hour layover in Phoenix and a 3 hour red eye home...yuck!

I have no pictures of Acapulco to show you as I forgot to return the recharged battery to my camera before leaving. The conference was small and laid back...the most exciting science was my old advisors latest obsession. As I had 10 minutes worth of data to present that I don't really understand I gave a reasonable talk. A space physicist on my flight home complimented my talk saying it was one of the few ones in my session she understood...I guess while some people who hung out in the pool between their sessions, she attended sessions outside her field. Although this was a good conference for my Eastern Tropical Pacific research, I mostly attended so I could spend time with my Mexican collaborators. I had hoped to get the first draft of a paper written, but instead we planned the paper...things move slowly in Mexico.

In terms of knitting I finished the back of the Ogee Tunic and got 10 inches up the sleeves. Unfortunately as I was mostly separated from the pattern (in flight and in sessions) I missed 2 lines of instructions which create the bell shape of the sleeve so most of that knitting will be wasted.Yesterday I cut off 8 inches and picked up the sleeves where I missed the shaping. I may graft the 8 inches on later...we'll see.

Monterey

We added two more missions to my checklist of missions (I'm up to 10 of the 21). On the left is Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, and on the right is Finlay enjoying the sun at Mission San Juan Bautista. Any history or photographer buffs lookng for a California adventure...I highly recomend the mission tour (basically drive  the 101...a long stretch of which was  El Camino Real).

Next stop...Monterey Bay Aquarium. Lots of things for kids to do and a really great aquarium. Finlay had loads of fun...

For those who like either sunfish or babies, here is a little video for you...Finlay is talking to the fish but not in french ;p

Back at Cannery Row Asilomar. I was at a workshop/conference on Pacific Climate with a rapid climate change theme.

The Hamilton Gardens

...or what to do with a landfill...
Everytime I go home (about every 2 years) they have created a new garden room in the Hamilton Gardens. The Italian garden was brand new when I visited to say goodbye to my grandmother. Now it looks like its been there forever...there was even a bride posing in the garden (bare arms on a chilly wet winter day....ugh).
This time the new garden room was the Indian Garden. Apparently in summer it is a riot of colours. Still not bad for winter.
Of course the older gardens like the English and Japanese look like they've been there forever, not just 15 years...but the Waikato is perhaps the most fertile place in New Zealand.

St Kilda

The last day in Melbourne we went out to St Kilda (a seaside suburb) to look in their food shops on Acland St and walk along the promenade and their Sunday art fair. I'm sorry I didn't tell anyone I was going to Melbourne ahead of time...it would have been fun to meet up with Serendipity and Sue...but I wasn't lonely with my mum babysitting Finn and my sister also attending the same conference (we're science geeks together and shes a great knitter). I didn't even get to any Melbourne yarn shops...but that okay because I did enough damage in New Zealand buying some NZ specialty yarns...possum, possum, possum....
P.S. Lookie I used the same technique of photography as they did in the most recent Rowan Magazine...

The Grampians

Well I did get a couple of days off in Australia. We rented a car and drove out to Grampian National Park. It was a 2.5 hr drive from Melbourne so we pretty much drove out, visited a few look outs and a waterfall and drove home. But the scenery was beautiful and it was worth it to get out into the Australian outdoors briefly. The Grampians burned in a massive bush fire last year, so we saw lots of 'fuzzy' gum trees and Xanthorrhoea in flower.

Melbourne Moments

...Well I have been in Melbourne for almost a week now and I have only left the conference and hotel area twice during daylight hours. Its a real shame because this is one cool city. Finn on the other hand has been out every day...to the aquarium, to the Picasso exhibit, to parks and museums.
Today I went shopping for a present for hubby and walked into a shopping atrium where cages of live singing canaries were suspended from the ceiling (okay part of me went ... oh cool ... and the other part felt bad for the caged birds....).

Snow and lambs...in August

I must be in the Southern Hemisphere!
We went to Wellington for a few days and got trapped by bad weather on the way back. They closed the Desert Road around Tongariro National Park through the central North Island and so we had to travel up the west coast via New Plymouth. Lambs gambol on marine terraces so the snow was almost to sea level south of Wanganui...

But never mind I got to see the Tasman Sea and stand on the sand I spent my summer holidays lying on.  Black sand...not like Hawaiian black sand...no this sand comes from andesitic rock not basaltic and is made of the mineral magnetite... which is an iron ore so this is magnetic sand (and very heavy).