Duncan Golicher’s weblog

Pastures now are very green, although the new seasons growth has not yet covered up the dry dead stems left from the dry season.

The forest is now in full leaf 

Blue oxalis 

Red flowered legume 

Alalypha species (Euphorbiaceaea). Common in light to deep shade. 

Blue flower (needs checking) 

Scarlet pimpernel 

Yellow monocot 

Oenethera 

Lily 

I will check the scientific names of the plants shown and update the pages soon. For the moment the idea is to document the species flowering today. I will also try to improve the poorly focussed pictures.

A large yellow composite which is very common in moist meadows. 

Although there have been odd showers since the end of April it is only in the last two weeks that the surface layers of the soil have reached field capacity. The result of constant water availability has been a sudden spurt of growth. Many herbs have come into flower. In general grasses are not yet flowering, although some sedges (Cyperaceae) and small rushes (Juncus) are now in flower.

Pastures now look very green, but the seasonal streams have not yet begun to run. It will be several weeks yet until the ground water begind to recharge.

I aplogise for the fact that the web log has had no postings for a while. I have been very busy teaching. The good news is that Adriana had a scan 0n the 9 May. It showed that the baby is developing normally. The doctor was particularly pleased by the rapid growth rate, as one of the potential problems could have been limited nutrient suppply.

Mickey decided to persue his potential career as a Jedi by joining the Tai Kwon Do classes. They are very good exercise for him, and the teacher is very good with small children. There are some in the class as young as three, but they all do their best. Mickey has now mastered the “chiquibola” which is a flying somersault. He is looking forward to the exam in a few weeks time which will give him “advanced white belt”. His friend Fabian, who started two years ago is already a green belt, so he has a lot of catching up to do.

We went to see Star Wars three yesterday, which was much scarier for me than for Mickey. It is quite a dark film, but Mickey liked it. As usual he started shuffling around on his seat after ten minutes which means he needed a wee, but he refused to move until it was all over. By the end of the film he could have irrigated a couple of hectares of milpa.

The ninja’s apprentice. Mickey was about as agile as turtle at the beginning of his classes, but has improved quite a bit in the last two weeks. 

That one went a bit wrong. 

Mickey practising his moves.