Nature Noticings

Sometimes a developing slime mold can make a fun short-term pet. If you collect them early enough, you can watch them change over time. It's a tricky endeavor, as the developing sporangia are incredibly delicate, and squish with the gentlest of touches. Also, I'm rather clumsy. Usually I enlist my coordinated husband to carefully cut a small sample from the rotting log or other substrate. Then, I have to try to carry it through the rest of the hike and home without letting my field bag bob around too much or turn upside down. I've gotten more successful with practice. (Slime mold plasmodia can also make fun, longer-term pets. They are easier to collect, and will sometimes live for months. I haven't had one in a while; when I next bring one home I'll be sure to post about it!) Here's a young  Hemitrichia (maybe H. calyculata ?) that I managed to bring home safely recently. The first photo was taken in the field (Seward Park, Seattle), and the rest were at home....

I'm getting to the age where I kind of want to go on and on about my aches and pains. When I was in my twenties, or even thirties, I'd injure myself, then heal, then done, end of story. Now the injuries sort of heal, but also lurk there under the skin, quiet but ready to start hurting again at some slight provocation. Therefore, I've decided to research installing my own backyard hot spring. Not a hot tub. I want an all-natural, sulfurous, volcanic spring. I recently visited Quinn's Hot Springs in Montana (glorious), and have had the good luck to experience other hot springs in Oregon, British Colombia, Hawaii, and Iceland. I love them all. I want one. So, here's the plan. First, I need to volcanically heat some water. Drilling down to the Earth's mantle is impractical. At its very thinnest, the Earth's crust is still a mile thick. The thinnest places are in the oceanic crust, which as the name suggests is inconveniently located under the ocean. Last year, ...