Thankful for Boobies and Blood

I spent an abnormal amount of time in middle school praying not to get my period or breasts.  You can say I was “change adverse”.

Twenty-five years later, I have my first child and the ability to feed said child.

Today, I am thankful for unanswered prayers.  : )

(Amoung many, many, many other things)

Happy Thanksgiving!  : )

Happy National Fig Week!

Today is the last day of National Fig Week! (Hat Tip @treeplanting). We had a pretty hearty fig tree in our front yard in Elizabeth City. It was the only planted tree that could survive the routine Hunter Street floodings.

Our Fig Tree in a Flood (Lower Left Hand)

I knew that fig tree was quite the survivor and I sure loved snacking on its handiwork whenever I let the dogs do their business. But until last week I had no idea the intricacies involved with how that species propagated itself and thrived.

Recently I was reading The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge. I’ve found it absolutely fascinating and filled with delightful tidbits of tree trivia. For example, I learned that figs are pollinated by fig wasps and that each species of fig has its very own brand of fig wasp.

“There were a lot of wasps around that tree,” Ryan noted when I told him. I had been completely oblivious. Some naturalist I am!

It gets better though! Those delicious figs I had been munching on– They were the final resting spots of female wasps who got trapped inside! All this time, I had been defiling wasp tombs! How fitting that National Fig Week is adjacent to Halloween!

Future Wasp Coffins! Nom Nom Nom (Photo by epicuriosa)

There is no cause for disgust though– the fig breaks down the wasp’s corpse and digests it. By the time I got to it, the dead wasp was long gone.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole relationship between the Fig and the Fig Wasp is quite amazing (including how the newly hatched males wasps’ only purpose in life is to fertilize the young females and then dig tunnels for them to escape). For further reading (assuming you don’t have Colin Tudge’s book handy), check out How Stuff Works – Are Figs Really Full of Baby Wasps?

An Evening with Ira Glass: Coverage on ideonexus

Gosh dang it, that Ryan Somma is a more efficient blogger than I am. It only took him two days to get his Ira Glass post published.

Sunday October 23rd, Ryan and I went our on second date since Sagan was born! Our first was to see Jane Goodall (which Ryan promptly blogged about as well). This date took us to the Chrysler Hall in Norfolk Virginia to listen to Ira Glass of This American Life speak. We very much enjoyed the event. You can read Ryan’s recap on ideonexus.com.

Ryan’s Post