Superb Sunsets

I was reminded of the sun the other day. Which may sound strange - but it struck me that, in the words of Pumbaa from the Lion King; its a ball of gas burning billions of miles away.

So I looked up some sun facts (makes a change from ice, right!), and here goes. Actually, it was relevant to thesis amendments - the sun shines wavelengths of light down upon the earth, the petals on the flowers reflect the wavelengths into the centre of the flower, and all the sexy stuff happens quickly and efficiently, just as it should. I believe there is a bit more detail here and there, but that is the gist of it all. Thesis in a nutshell!!

Back to the sun. The sun is almost perfectly spherical according to some sources - my own observations at sunset are in keeping with this. Light from this ball of burning gas (mostly hydrogen if www.sciencekids.co.nz is correct) reaches the earth in approximately 8 minutes.

Spherical ball of burning gas at the center of our solar system

The sun produces 'solar winds' which contains charged particles - and don't quote me on this, but I believe that these particles have some role to play in the Aurora... Because whenever there is a solar storm, the aurora is far more active than when there isnt a storm.

The Midnight Sun has been a common feature in my polar endeavours. One night I hiked up to the Plateau above Longyearbyen in Svalbard, and watched the sun sink down, and down, until it brushed across the tops of the jagged mountains across the fjord... before rising again to take its place in the sky! This was the final circuit around the sky without setting for that season - 22 August.

Last of the Midnight Sun in Longyearbyen

The sun is same at the other end of the world (same sun so it makes sense). A memorable sunset on Campbell Island occurred around 2230 hrs, with a skua gliding around my head checking out what these crazy botanists were doing out at that time of night. All sorts of moths were flitting about, and after having read numerous accounts of shipwreck survivors being 'seen' wandering the peat bogs... It was eerie, the wind had dropped and the skua was hovering about and it would have been the perfect moment for a historical ghost to spring out of the Dracophyllym and shout "Yah!!".

Needless to say, there was no ghost. Just the sun quietly sinking below the horizon.

Over 26 different types of Ice...

And I fondly remember carving penguins out of packed snow/ice in the Antarctic.

"Sleepy Penguin"(by yours truly) with ice shot glass (that was made by a friend)

My first ice carving experiment was actually in Christchurch before we left for the Antarctic. It was in a workshop, with a very talented man, with a lot of big tubs full of ice.



He shared some basic techniques, and I got pretty damn excited about it all - especially the idea of a vodka luge (more on that later). I went to Mitre10 and got myself a serrated knife, packed it carefully into my bag and waited to head south.




The most interesting thing I came across when considering carving things out of ice was that in this amazing, hyperbole-filled place, I had no ideas of anything to create. Nothing. No inspiration at all. I had seen loads of 'polar inspired' artwork, but down on the ice, nothing was jumping to my mind! Perhaps it was that it was a scientific expedition, but I think it was the absence of everything - look to the right, great nothingness of white snow-covered ice until the horizon where it turned into blank blue sky. To the left, Mt Erebus just puffing quietly away. No sense of scale, or distance.

But, the first chunks of hard-packed snow that came out of our hand-dug snow pit looked promising. The first chunk I got stuck into with my knife seemed to suggest 'Penguin'. The slope of the head and the back arose quite quickly, then it was straight-forward to shape out a head, beak and wings. Shaping the block sounded like polystyrene being cut, my gloves got soaked from firmly stroking the penguin to get just the right shape. My bum went a bit numb from sitting. I put a piece that I cut off in my mouth, it was crunchy and cold!

And after a short hour or so of concentrated effort, I had a sleepy looking penguin for my troubles. He went on to adorn our kitchen area, and was joined by two others ( I tried to do different species, but it was not easily idenitfied).

Supposedly Emperor Penguin next in line after the sleepy one (Photo Chris Dolder)

Macaroni Penguin, Sleepy and Emperor (Photo Chris Dolder)

Watching them melt was fascinating, as they were carved at different times, I had used blocks of hard snow/ice from different snow pit layers:

Remnant Macaroni Penguin with three distinct ice layers

After three penguins, I was tired of making them. I wanted to carve still and searching for inspiration, ended up with the shape of my pounamu that I was wearing at the time. I carved it in 3D and shaped it out of a snow layer with ice behind it.

Koru, symbol of new growth and renewal (Photo Shannon Fowler)

Koru on ice

I find ice and the shapes it creates fascinating - just like with snowflakes.

Over 26 different types of Ice...

But snowflakes are my favourite!

I love snow. Watching it fall, softly hushing on the ground. Getting big, fat fluffs of it in my face, stuck in my hat and melting wetly down neck! But my absolute favourite thing is seeing snowflakes gently whisking through the air, spiraling around and down to join the messy clusters on the ground.

Snowflake photos by Kenneth G. Libbrecht

I am not sure quite what it is that I find so wonderful about them. The symmetry perhaps, or the notion that every snowflake is unique. Maybe its that they just fall, quietly out of the sky, sparkling and perfectly beautiful.

I first saw snowflakes during a reindeer hunting expedition. It was cold, it was light, it was the middle of the night - and there were loads of these fantastic shapes sprinkled all over my jacket and backpack. And here was I thinking this kind of thing only happened in the movies!!

Snowflakes on my jacket (excellent jacket from EarthSeaSky)

Now, according to this handy snowflake guide (Snowflake Guide), the snowflakes on my jacket belong to the type known as 'Stellar Dendrites' and 'Fern-like Stellar Dendrites'. There are even places  where, just like you can go to watch birds, you can visit to watch and observe snowflakes. I spent a lot of time watching them during winter in Svalbard, just outside the UNIS building in Longyearbyen. The lights were up high, and lit up the snowflakes as they fell and there was no wind, just snowflakes falling all around.

Snowflakes are made up of ice, which forms when water vapour freezes. A frozen vapour-droplet then develops the shape of the snowflake but this seems to be a pretty complicated process, involving a lot of physics. At the most simplest, different shapes form depending on air temperature, and the amount of vapour and the shape of the original frozen droplet.

If any science were 'magical' it would be the physics and principles that guide the formation of snowflakes. Disney's 'Frozen' movie certainly calls it magic and sorcery, but perhaps Elsa is simply a physicist in another form.

Creative Non Fiction - #2

Since attending this creative non fiction workshop (see previous post), I have realised that my natural tendency in writing my PhD, was in fact creative non fiction. I wanted to add in little bits about my personal experience, sprinkle anecdotes through, so as to make something readable to everyone.

But lets face it, not everyone is going to want to read about how many poppy seeds I manually counted in 2010 (it was over 22 thousand by the way), the changes in experimental protocol in order to improve collected data, or the justification of use of particular statistical models....

Already I feel myself slipping into the 'science speak'!!

So today's challenge was to take an aspect of my thesis (for example, insect visitation) and to write it in a creative, non fiction form.

Selection of insects in Dryas octopetala flower

Endalen is the warmest valley in the Adventdalen group - likely due to the lack of glacier at the head of the valley in my opinion. I spent many days there, not only basking in the sunshine on the warm tundra, but watching for insects visiting flowers. I observed them (with help of course!) not only basking in the sunshine, but feeding, walking and flying. There are many flowering, thermophilic plants in Endalen, including the 'tallest' tree; a Betula nana specimen that if it were supported vertically would be nearly a meter in height. Endalen is also home to many flying insects. I say flying insects, because these are the most likely to be visiting flowers.

Flying insects can exert a selective pressure upon the floral species they are visiting. If you were a bumblebee who hated the bland, boring view of white flowers, especially in comparison to a deep, welcoming blue, you would visit the blue flower rather than the white. If you continued to do this, time after time, season after season, only the blue flowers would be selected for within the floral population - after a few years you may not have to worry about the awfully plain white flowers coming into your bumblebee field of vision as that colour would have been discontinued!

In Endalen, there is a fly that seems to love the creamy petals and fluffy yellow center of Dryas octopetala. This fly is of the Rhamphomyidae family, and is commonly known as the 'Dancing Fly'. The dancing is in reference to the mating actions of the males, who 'dance' around the females attempting to impregnate her (much like that of the dance floor on a Friday night in some establishments!). I observed many of these flies hanging out in Dryas flowers - basking, feeding, walking and, if I got too close or disturbed them, flying away across the tundra. I always wondered how the flies saw the tundra. Did the patches of creamy, pale Dryas flowers stand out like giant dinner platters? Maybe one day I shall find out...

'Dancing Fly' in Dryas octopetala outside UNIS building in Longyearbyen

Creative Non Fiction

On the weekend, I attended a workshop given by Rae Roadley. She is the author of "Love at the end of the road", which refers to a house down at Batley on the Kaipara Harbour (you can see it from Otamatea marae). It was part of the NorthWrite Conference/workshop series run in part by the New Zealand Society of Authors
NorthWrite Website

Before I went, I had no idea what 'creative non fiction' was, and even since I am not totally sure... I can say that it is a merging of fact and fiction, where facts become friendly to the reader.

Now, since having written a PhD thesis, I found this thought slightly bemusing - facts cant become friendly, they are simply facts. You put them all together, use them as evidence, back up your arguments - there is nothing creative as such about that!

But we did an exercise, where the instructions were to imagine a place/building/outdoor space that is important or special to you. Describe the physical aspects, history, why I like/dislike it and so on. Then put yourself in that space, and write 1 - 2 paragraphs about emotions it evokes, how you feel about it and why, plus some facts (eg age, colour, etc). I found this exercise fascinating - first, because it was not after seriously researching some aspect of flower colour. Second, because the facts simply 'fit' in after some emotional creations!

Here is my short paragraph:

As I walked up the edge of the small, rocky beach onto the narrow neck that connects Bicayahuken to the mainland, the late afternoon angle of the sun hit me right in the face. A glacier, shining blue-white was edging down into the bay. The bay itself looked like something from the east coast of New Zealand. I felt like an early explorer, on my own heroic adventure despite being part of a student group. Biscayahuken is a small point of land in the north of Spitsbergen. It is named after the Biscay Whalers that were present in Svalbard during the 17th and 18th Centuries and has experienced human inhabitation. There were few remnants of human occupation these days. The rocky outline of a small hut with permafrost-churned grave sites nearby. Maybe they died from illness, perhaps old age. Noone in the group knew, and that seemed a poor legacy to have left behind. Rusted nails, broken glass and odd pieces of wire and such were strewn about, in between the small clumps of Saxifraga caespitosa. I could see that nature was simply going on, as it had done even when the occupants of the graves had been standing where I was.

Hut remnants at Biscayahuken, 2010

Thats as far as I got in the last half hour of the workshop. Interesting process, and definitely something I shall pursue! Rae Roadley was very adamant that one should be a kind narrator.

The view of the glacier

Some things are best left unsaid, and one persons recollection of a 'fact' may well be very different from anothers! The one saying of note that struck me was this, in the words of Micheal King (perhaps similar to W.B. Yeats?):
                                                 "Tread softly for you tread on my life"

Saxifraga cespitosa

How cool? Ice Cold!

In every sense of the word, the information and interactions on the following link are 'cool'!!

Summer On Ice

So just a short post today - go check it out. It follows a few of the scientists who worked in the Antarctic over summer. Scott Base is now all set up for the winter season and I for one am looking forward to IceFest this year, which celebrates the opening of the new Antarctic Summer season and the first flight down since the beginning of March! For more info on that, check out this link:

NZ IceFest 2014

And an antartic picture to honour all this icey goodness

An upright icicle outside Scott Base, Ross Island in Antarctica, 2008

One Year To The Day

Just last week on the 7th March 2014 it was exactly one year to the day since I last stood in Svalbard.

The day after, 8th March 2014, I was a guest at my first wedding at Otamatea Marae (my ancestral marae, I have relatives buried in the cemetery!).

The wedding was excellent, good food, some dancing, and plenty of wonderful stories and traditions. But after being out under the hot, burny sun for an afternoon - which I enjoyed, dont get me wrong, my jandal tanline is under improvement - I was reminded of this time last year, when the sun that I had seen definitely had not felt at all warm, but was welcome none the less.

I spent something like 72 days without seeing the sun. It made me realise that our bodies are certainly linked in some way to sunrises and sunsets, the circadian rhythm running through our lives. But I dont want this post to be too reflective... Despite the sunshine reflecting off the ocean just outside, the cicadas singing their hearts out, and the smell of warm soil and plants growing...

This is going to be the story about my trip to see the sun return. I have blogged about this earlier (see Trip to See the Sun Shine)

To see the sun return in Svalbard, it requires hiking up a mountain, Trollstein (so named due to the large rock sitting atop it, kind of like a troll) on a particular day in February. I was to ski up, on borrowed cross country skis. Now, I was certainly still a beginner skier. I still am. It doesnt come naturally to me at all (Perhaps because my ancestors all kept their feet firmly planted either on the ground or deck of their wakas/ships).

The top of the mountain is in sight, with foggy cloud approaching...

But I made it most of the way, on my skis, without falling over. I took them off when I was close to the top as they started sliding backwards, and I didnt want to be skiing backwards down this mountainside!! Remember, I can barely ski forwards...

Taking them off and walking the last bit was great. Most of the town were also heading up the mountain to see the sun peek over the distant horizon and it was quite a communal occasion. At the top however, it was cold. Bitterly cold, that seeped through my gloves and I had to keep jumping about to keep warm! Further, it was cloudy.

That should have been a bit of a let down, getting to the top and seeing nought but clouds, but it wasnt. I had climbed a mountain (mostly in skis), which is certainly an achievement. And walking down, seeing the moody grey colour of the fjord surrounded by white snow, that was certainly something.

The view down Longyeardalen on the way back to town

This story doesnt have such a happy ending, no skiing off into the sunset or anything like that. I ended up incredibly sick with the flu, two days after, and spent my final two weeks either in bed, or trying to write my PhD.

However, it has meant that on a day such as this, with the sun beating down and vitamin D coursing through my veins, my PhD written and submitted, no skis in sight, I feel invincible!!

As for Writing Boot Camp though.... Eep I fell off the wagon! Ah well, better climb back on...

Being Concise

Lesson #3. Be concise. Make every word tell. Make your point well and once. Then Shut Up.

Okay, writing boot camp is getting hard. I would say I have ‘hit the wall’ like they do in marathons, but its only my third day so I cant have hit the wall. Yet. I want to write about that feeling at a later date, so cannot have it too soon! Today the lesson is about being concise. The first draft of this piece was not very concise. The second draft was a bit better. The third going over though, that really narrowed it down. However it meant that I had to write MUCH more than the 250/250 words each time! 

This task was quite difficult. One: I am very chatty, and no one can tell me to be quiet while I type (Actually I often get told to not hit the key board so hard. Cant they see I am furiously trying to concisely share my points!!). Two: I am not sure what point I am trying to get across.

And this is not ideal when trying to be concise.

Is there a better way to write that I wonder…

This is not ideal when being concise.

There, that took it from ten words to seven! Right now, I am not convinced that this post is going to meet the Lesson #3 objective however, as I am yet to come round to making a good point. How about this: Sometimes, writing is hard.

You write what you read - Boot Camp Day 2

Lesson #2 of writing boot camp states that "You become a better writer by reading. You become a better reader by writing" (http://ajjuliani.com/10-lessons-improve-your-writing/).

I was once told that what you read tells something about yourself. If anyone was to check through my library lending history they would be confused as to what was going on! Since handing in my thesis, I have been gorging on books. Books of all sorts! Particularly books on how to grow gardens, improve soil structure, companion planting, and no-dig gardens. But not only that - fantasy fiction. I am endeavouring to catch up on the latest popular stories, Game of Thrones, Divergent, and so on.

I find a real joy in reading. During my thesis I was very much not in the habit of reading though - all my efforts went into reading published scientific papers about flower colour, plant reproduction and floral pigments. But since handing in, there is this real freedom to read whatever I want! I have been reading classics (Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence at the moment), various romance novels, fictional novels and lastly, cook books.

Oh how I love to read cook books!! The current cook book is "The Art of French Cooking" by Ginette Mathiot. And looking at the pictures, dreaming about making my very own brioche and petit fours is enough to entertain me for an entire afternoon! I was surprised actually, as the techniques that are explained in the beginning of the book are reasonably straight forward - French cooking so far seems to be just a series of steps, like all other cooking. And the end result looks so beautiful! (in the pictures of course, I havent tried any of the recipes yet). Next on the pile is 'A Taste of Persia'.

Im not sure how reading cook books will impact positively (or otherwise) upon my writing style. I do enjoy them regardless, and anyway, all reading must have some beneficial effects. Even if it shows what 'not to do'. Right?? Classic novels must be part of a good reading diet, however and the local library has a section of them so you know what they are.

Thinking of Classics, I found my copy of Wuthering Heights yesterday when I was unpacking some books. I have read it many times, but I enjoy it every time I turn the page! Something about the tortured love between Catherine and Heathcliff, out on the moors of old England... The Bronte sisters are excellent for moody, pained love that inspires thoughts of grey-purple, brooding romances. Love it. Lady Chatterly's Lover was quite different, likely due to being composed during quite a different time in societal history. I am definitely a fan of romance, but it took some time to understand what was meant by 'pressing up against each other till they reached a crisis'. Perhaps due to my upbringing in a different time of history and language, I read 'crisis' as something going quite wrong...


Now, boot camp states that I should be writing 250 words morning and evening, every day for ten days. I wonder if writing 500 words all at once is considered good form, or cheating the habit... 

Writing Boot Camp Day 1 - Telling a good story

Lesson #1 - Telling a good story.

This may be cheating - there wasnt any mention of it in the Boot Camp write up - but I am already stuck for ideas to write about so I thought I would write about this photograph.

I took this picture in March of 2012 during a trip up the Maungatua Mountains (just inland from Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand). It is the delicately veined, pale white petal, dark blue anthers and lime green stigma of Gentiana bellidifolia (it may be a different gentian species, but this is my best guess). A day in the life of this flower consists of waiting for the sun to come, bright rays pouring over the edge of the mountain, sparkling off the nearby tarn and slowly heating the closed flower. At a certain temperature (not sure what it is, but I watched a gentian open on the Remarkables near Queenstown after a night of snow) the petals unfurl, and the sun can shine in and gently heat the anthers and stigma. Insects will visit this flower, small flying ones, that cluster in the base either drinking nectar or basking in the warm sunshine. Maybe other crawling beasties will visit - and nibble away at the petals, something I imagine would taste like soft pancakes.

As the sun gets higher, then lower, the whole cycle of floral opening begins, but in reverse. The insects leave, the flower is sucked dry, and the petals begin to slowly furl up till closing time. In the night, little things scurry around, up and over the flower, ignoring the ripening seeds inside the closed petals. During the previous day, one, maybe two or three of the small flying insects brushed against the receptive stigma leaving a few grains of pollen stuck to the surface. That began the process of plant reproduction, and within a few days the ovary below the stigma will be dark purple and swollen with brand, new seeds.

I dont know if that is a good story. I like it but I have spent a large part of my life immersed in the study of plant sex, flower colour and reproduction!! It takes all types =)

Day One of Boot Camp - successfully completed. Feeling positive and optimistic about developing a writing habit!

Writing in my own style

Today I came across this blog thanks to the Thesis Whisperer (http://thesiswhisperer.com/)

http://ajjuliani.com/10-lessons-improve-your-writing/

And when I got to Lesson #6, I realised that one's own unique writing style comes about through practice. So, I have decided to begin my own 'Writer's Boot Camp'. I have often toyed with the idea of being a writer, thanks to the enjoyment I received from reading my own creative stories written in high school. But in the real world, writing requires a LOT of dedication (I should have realised this before flippantly beginning my PhD journey) and Step One of the 'Writer's Boot Camp' involves writing 250 words, morning and night, every day for ten days.

Right now, including those links I am at 112 words. And I am stuck already!! I am dying to check Facebook (the time thief), write an email (I havent written it thus far, why the need now??), and make sure I am up to date on all current events (in truth, I want to do the daily NZ Herald Quiz). I know that what I really should be doing is looking at the first draft of a scientific paper I want to publish in Polar Biology... But its a Saturday and I did work on it last night... Maybe one more look at those images, then I wont be torturing myself by writing words...

Lets face it, after three and a half years of 'writing' my thesis, I know all the tricks to avoid putting pen to paper! Or, in this day and age, fingers to keyboard.

There. I made it. That wasnt so hard...