Where did the birds go?

March 14, 1015

I started to put this in my http://xraycrystallographer.blogspot.com/
blog and realized that it has nothing to do with gardening, so I decided that it fit here!  I have been quite remiss in non-garden posts, so this is hopefully a new start.  

After seeing (and hearing) hundreds of Sandhill Cranes fly over the house earlier in the week we decided to take a quick trip to Goose Pond to see if we could see them or the pelicans.  What I didn't check on was how much rain we had on Thursday/Friday (actually we only had 1.5", but I found out later that Linton had over 3").  When we got there the only roads that were passable were the state highway and one county road that went away from the marsh!  After slip-sliding on the gravel (mostly mud) roads, we decided it was not worth getting stuck and headed back for Bloomington.

There are actually a few birds in the photo above, but the only large groups we saw were Coots. It was a pleasant drive in any case!

My other blogs

I suddenly realized that I have not added anything to my "Retired Xray Crystallographer" blog for nearly two years.  This does not mean that I have quit blogging, only that I jump from one blog to another!  If you want to see what I am doing, you might try:

My Garden Blog  (which I mainly use to keep track of when and what I plant and how it is doing).

I also have a blog I work on occasionally which shows some of the "research" I have done on the history of the Huffman family in Indiana.  To find out a bit about my family, check out the Huffman Mill Indiana blog.

If you are looking for my tutorials (mostly photography stuff), check out Just Stuff.

Comments are always welcome (either through the blog or to xraycrystallographer@gmail.com)

It is still cold in 3D.

I realized I have not had a 3D image on my blog for some time.  I shot a few of the snow this morning, so I decided to go ahead and post one.  You have to have red/green glasses for this to work. (Click on the image to enlarge!)

Last snow? (I hope!)

Last night it was "Saturn" (for those of you who like to know the NWS winter storm names).  It was one of those fast traveling wet snows that left about three inches of fresh snow everywhere.  I love the way a wet snow will stick to anything.  The image below was taken of my patiently waiting tomato cages in the garden.

I would go sit on the garden bench, but it too looks a bit chilly....

Why my coriander won't germinate....

My wife loves cilantro (coriander, Chinese parsley).  I gathered as many seeds as I could last year, but absolutely none would germinate.  I decided to cut one apart to see if it looked ok internally, but when I put the seed (approximately 1/8" in diameter) under the microscope I found out why they don't grow.  A large percentage (well over 60%) had holes 0.025" in diameter "drilled" into the shell.  I don't know what the bug looked like, but it was certainly small!

Scanner photography

It's rather amazing how much junk I carry around in my pocket all the time!

Does it count?

"Scanner  Photography" is kind of fun.  If you place an object on your scanner with the lid open and scan in a slightly darkened room you get an amazingly good image.  I have been playing with the technique recently scanning various items and came up with the following.  The image consists of a single layer of coins (all US, pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters) placed in a hoop on the scanner.  How many coins are there, and what is the total amount of money present?