prickly pears

Extremely abundant,


extremely pink,


We decided to make...


prickly pear syrup!

This looks a bit repetitive when placed above the previous post. I made the black and gray skirt and am quite proud of it.


One of various patterns...


Skeleton man.

Playing the saw

I decided that a musical saw would be a fine addition to our band, so I bought a $14 model at Ace Hardware. Playing the saw is actually trickier than I expected, but it's fun.

We adopted another cat. A friend found it in her neighborhood, and we agreed to take it in.


We named him Steve. Here, Steve is settling in to his new home.


Steve is a very sweet cat. For a long time, we thought Steve was a girl. Even the vet wasn't sure at first. It must be all that eyeliner.

Steve and Toby are getting along well, considering. Hopefully they will become friends.

And now... the Pink Wonder is fitted, greased, adjusted, restrung, and ready for action! Amazingly it sounded better than it was before painting, even before I added the Dominant strings. It's not half bad.

The Pink Wonder

The Pink Wonder- a crummy pink violin found in the free bin by one of our band members. (Did I mention that I play in a band?) Despite its poor construction and thick pink coating, this violin actually sounds half-decent, especially when hooked up to the amp.


The violin Andrew's father gave to me condescends to pose beside it here.

Although it's not exactly mine, I hope to play this beast a lot in the future. It would be especially good for venues that might be dangerous for my finer instruments. But... Aaaagh the pink!! It clearly needed a face-lift.


I started by sanding it, to remove the glossy finish. Then, I added designs with my high-tec design-making tool [sharpie].
Next, I applied several coatings of semi-transparent acrylic.


Finally, the Pink Wonder is painted and ready to be re-strung! (My other fiddle has kindly posed next to it again.)


A detail of the finished Pink Wonder, sans tailpiece and chin-rest. Once I fix the pegs, fit the bridge, and re-string it with Dominants I can see how it sounds.

Southern Sonora

I spent the last week in a very remote part of southern Sonora, Mexico, near the town of Alamos, doing biologist stuff. Here are some pictures, with minimal text.

5AM: Alamos. There are about five roosters per person in this town.




Hibiscus.


The lower ranch house, in the tropical deciduous forest.


Part of the kitchen.


The rest of the kitchen.


This mare was purchased for $600 that morning, for the purpose of breeding mules.


Walking to one of the insect trap sites on a neighboring ranch.


Typical wildlife on the ranches. Note the giant fig in the background.


This is what the tropical deciduous forest looks like.


The pool at the mouth of the slot canyon, where we swam.


The slot canyon from above.


A spider the size of my hand looks for fish.


An ant trail carries my fluorescent-dyed cookie crumbs up a tree.


An attempt at night photography: the moon rises over the hill.


Setting out the next day for the upper ranch.


The upper ranch house.


We examine barrel cacti on a rock.


In fact, these cacti only grow on rocks.


If you look closely at this vertical cliff you will see about 20 barrel cacti.


Ephebomyrmex(?) visits a cactus nectary.


A very exciting Cephalotes ant shows up as well.


Another attempt at night photography at the upper house.


Moonlight on the neighboring ranch house.


Hiking through an oak and pine forest.


Agave.


Coral Bean Tree.


Remote canyon.


Me, holding a gigantic oak leaf.


Blacklighting for insects.










Lobo (a.k.a. Bozo) the dog.


The ride down.