makielb

A few sketches

This is from January, 2001. It must have been a weekend or during the summer. We were sitting across the street at State and Liberty. Neither of these business exist any more. Minneapolis in the summer of 2001. Alexis was sitting and writing as I sketched. A viceroy crysallis. A beetle that I collected inContinue reading “A few sketches”

Traveling with watercolors

I have a small traveling watercolor kit that I traveled with in the 1980s and 1990s. Recently I started doing it again, but haven’t done much. This are a few watercolors from the distant past. Attempting to paint ruby-throated Hummingbirds in nature was a challenge. however there was an perch near where we put upContinue reading “Traveling with watercolors”

Some pen sketches

I haven’t posted any of my pen drawings for quite awhile. So, here are a few from last year. Sunrise on the Halifax River in Florida. We were staying with our friends Patsy and Ken and I would get up quite early and sit on the porch drinking coffee watching the sun come up andContinue reading “Some pen sketches”

Interesting plants

The other day when we were heading south to Ann Arbor we stopped at Point LaBarbe in Mackinac County. We were looking for some interesting late summer plants. And we actually found everything that we were looking for. Fen grass-of-parnassus on the left, lesser fringed gentian on the right. The mixed cobble and sand nearContinue reading “Interesting plants”

What was in the garden last night

Our garden, which is mostly edible plants also attracts a great variety of insects, both during the day and at night. Tomato hornworm caterpillar that’s been parasitized and covered in small coccoons. It’s still alive and munching on tomato leaves. Female Chinese mantis that laid eggs in the kale. This non-native species has apparently fedContinue reading “What was in the garden last night”

Diseases, past, present, and future

Sometimes I get lost in thinking about diseases. Since the early 2000s I’ve read the monthly issue of Emerging Infectious Disease. This is a journal put out by the CDC on disease outbreaks. At the time I first learned about this journal I was teaching both genetics and evolution and influenza was a hot topic.Continue reading “Diseases, past, present, and future”

Back in the garden

After the rain stopped I got back out and finished picking jalapeños. There are still abunch of green ones so I am envisioning more pickled jalapeños in the future. I also picked the roma tomtoes which will also be canned. Last time I got 23 pounds. This times I got 24 and there’s still aContinue reading “Back in the garden”

What’s in the garden?

Being away for ten days means that there was a lot to get from the garden. This is about ten meals worth of green beans. Wow! The zucchini really grew while we were gone. Susan will be making zucchini bread. There are also a bunch of jalapeños, cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes and roma’s. But theContinue reading “What’s in the garden?”

An ineteresting butterfly

Yesterday afternoon I went for a short walk looking for birds and not expecting to find anything of interest. Then on my way to the point I found what I believe was a new butterfly for me, a checkered white. Not the best photo but the butterfly was quite active feeding at the (gasp) spottedContinue reading “An ineteresting butterfly”

Something’s missing

Susan has been working on the habitat restoration site at the parking lot of Whitefish Point for over three years. A lot of time and effort has gone into moving plants and lichens as well as driftwood and small logs. Recently, somebody removed, as in took one of the nicest pieces of driftwood that wasContinue reading “Something’s missing”