I didn't try to make the patterns match; it's a very long repeat and I didn't want to risk running short of yarn.
Honestly, I've actually been wearing my socks a little bit these days despite it being summer - there is an airconditioning vent right under where my feet are when I work at my desk, and my feet get chilly, but turning the air conditioning to a hotter temperature means it's too warm otherwise. So I just put on a pair of socks with whatever dress or skirt I am wearing. It might look odd, but....it doesn't matter, does it?
I might work on these more tonight.
***
I spent the day both writing from-scratch a lab on "animal presence/behavior vs. environmental conditions" (which could be done distantly, with students watching pollinators in their gardens, or birds, or squirrels, or even observing cattle behavior (if they are a ranch kid, like a lot of my students are) where they will observe over the span of ten days or so for a short period each day (or over fewer days for multiple times per day, if they are interested in looking at "time of day vs. activity") and try to correlate behavioral patterns with temperature or windspeed or presence of competitors/predators, or air pressure, or whatever they think of. (And if someone is stuck in a tiny apartment with little access to the outside world, I'll find webcams, like that fishing-bear webcam that's out there, and suggest they use that, that would work okay). Not the GREATEST lab in the world but....if we're stuck at home, it's still a lab, and it's a lab that's not doing clicky clicky buttons on the computer.
I also totally overhauled my cemetery demography lab and included everything (including a link to a set of .pdf files of data) that would be needed to do it, so that's another one that could be totally distantly.
I'm now up to five labs more or less ready to go, and there's one more I can pretty easily adjust to be doable alone at home.
That would leave between four and six more to find; if we do wind up opening in person there are a couple things I could do on campus. (But I also want to have a full slate of "distanced" labs if I can figure out enough, just in case. I may also consider writing up my "process" for some journal or other, even though I suspect every other prof in the nation is going to do similar)
***
A few bad days recently. Caseloads are going up; Texas is apparently either slowing down its reopen or maybe re-closing some things, this tells me I need to stay strictly home (except for groceries) for as much longer as possible.
The sad thing is, a couple weeks ago, when it looked like cases were going down, I began to think, "Gee, maybe I could consider going to JoAnn's or Ulta some time, just to get out of the house" but nope. I have all the craft stuff I need, and Ulta does mail order (I have a few things on the way to me. I don't wear much make up these days - I did put on lipstick today just because, even though no one saw me - but I do use more shower stuff now because I am doing more yardwork and on really hot days I may shower twice). Also they sell masks so I bought a few in the most recent order - if we do reopen in person I will need a bunch, and the reusable/washable ones seem more environmentally friendly BUT my colleague the MD warned us that (a) we will need to wash them after a day of wearing them and (b) we will want a spare or two in the office in case the mask gets damp, because damp masks don't filter as well.
But anyway. I've been using a little "tactile therapy," which does seem to help - sitting hugging this ridiculous thing:
I was casting about for a name for her but couldn't find one I liked - and was going to ask for ideas but then I realized I was thinking of her as Strawberry Dog and that seems good enough, some how.
(I also have a Squishy Dog - the Yeast Ken stuffed dog I bought last summer and that came, actually, shortly before I had to make that trip up home at the end of July, and he was kind of my companion during that and I admit he's absorbed his share of tears in the past year).
So Strawberry Dog it is.
even though I think she's actually supposed to be a fox.
***
I grabbed a couple photos on the way home after the funeral on Monday - I hadn't seen many butterflies recently (other than a few of the small skippers, the "little brown jobs*" of the butterfly world)
(*Or "LBJ" - a term used for sparrows and some warblers that move fast enough and are similar enough in appearance to other species that you have a hard time identifying them. And now I'm wondering if the term is "problematic" now)
But this was a swallowtail (I am pretty sure it's a black swallowtail). I've seen this one and a smaller one and I wonder if one is male and the other female; sometimes in insects there is a bit of size dimorphism between the sexes
And the underside of the wings:
That's an Abelia bush. It's not native* but it doesn't spread (unlike Nandina, which I absolutely LOATHE because it is kind of invasive) and it's hugely attractive to pollinators - right now it's mostly bumblebees but earlier it was the big carpenter bees. I also see honeybees and wasps and some of the small native bees on it as well.
It's in the honeysuckle family, it blooms almost all summer long. It has a faint scent but not a strong one - but it is very attractive to a lot of pollinators (I have even seen hummingbirds try it). It's a species I would recommend for the South, especially if you like pollinator watching. It's also kind of evergreen - it looks pretty manky in January and February and drops a number of its leaves, but then it comes back....right now, mine is very full.
My only complaint about it is that you have to trim it CONSTANTLY - I'm cutting out leggy leaders about every three weeks now. Usually these leaders have no blooms so I don't feel bad about cuttin gthem off so I can see out my front window.
Huh, it's now put in the genus Linnea, which....I thought of as something different but I guess I was wrong about it.
(*Or maybe it kind of is? Some species are native to Mexico but I don't know where the grandiflora ones - the most common cultivated ones and I think the one I have - come from)
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