Variety Switches

My house has so many funky switches. All different in every room, and none of them plain white, like all the trim in the house. It's going to cost a fortune to do all the switches, so i'm just going to tackle a room at a time. Which room should I do first - the beige, the shiny brass, the faux wood, the faux marble, the ceramic with flowers, or the pewter tulips?

DC

Can't believe tomorrow i'm headed back to Maine - it's been a busy and whirlwind visit - and awesome to see the D's! Yesterday I did a talk at National Geographic about the Chile work - it went okay, but was not one of my more spectacular talks unfortunately, just too nervous all the way through. Maybe they'll invite me back at the end of the project so I can kick ass a little more....:) It wasn't a bad talk, I just didn't relax enough to be able to enjoy it much. I had meetings with folks after though which went well, hopefully some exciting education and outreach things to follow. 

Sunday morning we went to the botanical gardens at the mall. It was a beautiful day - warm and sunny, but without the humidity. 

Davin adjusts the signage on the Voodoo plant - a plant I actually think is pretty so need to look up and see if it grows in Maine. 

My favorites - the orchid house! 

Dahlia filling her watering can in the childrens garden. We all sat here for probably nearly an hour, it was so peaceful as Davin and Dahlia watered and pottered. 

Filling their watering cans. 

The rest of the week has been in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - pulling out corals to sample for a histology project. These beautiful corals are from 500m depth, and collected on the Albatross in 1888! I hope they work for this study! 

Big jars of corals! 

Little delicate corals. 

Stacks and stacks of corals. Kid in a candy store comes to mind, if it wasn't over airconditioned, I could spend many house here. 

In the hallways behind the scenes. If you look closely at the head end you can see why I took this photo. Curators can indeed have fun! 

Headed to DC

Headed to DC for a week. Working in the Invertebrate Collections at the Smithsonian museum, collecting samples for a project looking at West Coast corals. Should be a lot of fun, it's been a long while since i've got to scavenge behind the scenes at a museum! Also doing a talk for National Geographic on wednesday, which i'm really kind of nervous about. Talking about the Chile expedition to all the media folks, to see if there's any bigger story there to be had (which of course I think there is, but what do I know....). Also a different kind of talk than i'm used to - lots of photographs and wow rather than science....

And the best part....i'm staying with the D's all week! Looking forward to seeing Diane, Dan, Dahlia and Davin! 

Some photos from last weekend, staying at a friends cabin up the coast in Port Clyde. Other than Brandon being ill, it was glorious! 

Getting my Barkley ready for a paddle. She hopped right into the kayak, which was awesome, we really haven't been much this summer at all. 

Paddling pup! 

Exploring the ocean! 

Sunset on the deck. Looking out over my friend Dave's boat. 

Brody chilling on the deck. 

As were Brandon and Miss Barkley.

I am saved from the strange stuffed creature!

Happy Birthday Barkley!!

Barkley turned 12 this month, and though there are moments where she is definitely showing her age, sometimes she just surprises me and the puppy comes out. As we got home tonight, I was doing some laundry in the basement. Before I knew it she had gone into the kennel and stolen one of Brody's squeaky toys and was throwing it around the basement. As I came upstairs she charged in front of me and is at this moment dismembering the toy on the living room floor. It's pretty darn cute. 

Happy Birthday Barkley! And this weekend we'll take the canoe out and take you for a paddle to celebrate! 

It's quite tiring this "playing with toys". 

Traveling home.

Back in Puerto Montt (and to decent internet!), traveling home today and tomorrow, should be back by late on Sunday (lets hope for no delays!). It's been a great trip, slightly exhausting, but great! Here's a picture of me at 90ft, looking at my corals! Some AMAZING diving. Going to be hard to jump back into Maine waters, that's for sure!

First blog post is up!

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/author/rwaller/

First blog post for National Geographic is up - and this page should show you blog post #2 when it goes up in a few days (and look out for photos of WALLS of corals!).

Don't forget to check in on the inReach Mapshare - http://share.delorme.com/?MapId=e7b06576f165407b9d4f4843745ab02c

Things have been going well, a little slower than I like, but that is nothing new! It's been wet wet wet, which have meant for some not so spectacular diving conditions, but it's still been great and we're getting science done. Tomorrow we head to Pumalin Park, over in the next fjord. This is a park owned by one of the guys who started the North Face clothing line, and is an area that has been protected for many years. We'll be totally out of touch, but i'll keep the inReach on so you can see where we are!

Hola from Patagonia!

Hello from Puerto Montt in the Northern Patagonian fjords! Arrived today after 24+ hrs of travelling, and a few adventures on the way. Right now sleep is the top order, but I wanted to share a few links -

Delorme inReach MapShare - this takes you to a map that shows our location at any time on it. It's a GPS unit that is satellite linked. We can also send messages on there too (click on the blue boxes), and i'll try and post up at least once a day with what is going on in the day.

National Geographic Explorers Journal - We'll be posting 3-4 blogs over on National Geographic - look out for our first one within a couple of days!

Twitter - @OnlineExped - yes, we have twitter. No, I don't really know how to use it.....

Catch Up - A walk in the woods...and a cycle....and a swim...

3. Just got back from Acadia, and a weekend of camping with Brandon, my new someone special, and a day of work diving off Mount Desert Island. It was a fun weekend. One day of sunshine, cycling and a little hiking; one day of rain and a drive and sightseeing and one day of sunshine and diving. Not bad at all! 

4. Picked up my Barkley today from the kennel after the weekend away. The lovely lady there made the innocent comment "she's slowing down isn't she", which had me in tears on the drive out of there. Yes she is slowing down (though hard to tell when she leaps out of the car when we get into work and goes full dash into the dumpster after a chipmunk...). Makes me realise just how much I love having Miss Barkley be a part of my life, and how much i'm going to miss her. Hopefully it'll be a good few years yet. She turns 12 next month. I think a party might be in order. 

5. Gearing up to head to Chile and the Patagonian fjords on Monday. Will be there for a week. Have some interesting websites planned, so stay tuned for how to stay tuned to where I am.....

Jordon Pond and the Bubbles. 

Brandon cycling on the awesome carriage trails. Amazing he put up with the incredibly slow me.....

Granite. 

Bubbles Pond. 

Looking out from Cadillac Mountain. 

Raindrops on some beach roses. Beautiful. 

Seawall

Bass Harbor Lighthouse bell. 

Seal Harbor - the dive site for the graduate student I was helping for the day. 

Getting ready to jump in with graduate student Chris. The project is looking at lobsters settling on artificial moorings. 

Diving in a wetsuit. I tell you now that doesn't happen too often.....which is why i'm layering two on top of eachother....:)

Diving! 

Catch Up - Tek Diving!

Time to catch up. Just in time for me to go away again, but there we go! 

1. Watch out for National Geographic in January. It's been a whirlwind of photographers and interviews, but you might just see yours truly in the 125 years of exploration special issue. I'm still not convinced they'll say "why the hell did we pick her" and take me out, so don't hold your breath if i'm not in there - it should be a cool issue of Nat Geo to own none the less! 

2. I'm now a qualified tek diver! We did two dives to 150ft a few weeks ago off the beautiful island of Monhegan, and completed the training. Can't wait to get back to science! 

Dave helping me not to fall over the side, loaded with gear that weighs 10lbs more than I do! 

Wide load, coming through! 

Loving the flat calm and sunshine! 

Me and one of my awesome interns for the summer, Julia from Smith College! 

Home!

Home to my Barkley. A well fed and loved Barkley while I was gone. I love that I have friends who love her as much as I do. Yet one more reason why Maine rocks...:)

Heading Home....I hope!

Heading out of Churchill, unfortunately delayed so we're having to spend a night in Winnipeg and hoping to get out of there tomorrow, though that is still to be determined! It's been a whirlwind few days, but very informative and a good taster of what I can bring the students to hopefully next year. 

Quadrat!  

Getting ready to get wet! That white bump above Phoebe's head - it's a beluga! 

Getting in at Cape Merry. 

Our faithful bear watchers! 

Thirsty work all this snorkeling. 

A beautiful sunset over the center. 

The Miss Piggy plane crash from the 50's. It is called Miss Piggy because it carried all the sweets and good stuff  to Churchill. 

Inukchuk. 

Signs up all over town. 

The closest we got to a Polar Bear! 

Belugas! 

Belugas! 

More Belugas! 

Even more! 

And More! 

The eskimo museum - very cool! 

And a storm for the last day in Churchill!