The jet-set puppy: buying a puppy via the Internet

Last Friday I was lying on my bed, trying to calm my throbbing head and resting my feet against Rosie. Then it occurred to me that it was 25 February. Two years to the day that Rosie had landed – quite literally – in our lives. And I thought about how it all began, and  […]

Podcast: Alan Rabinowitz – Man & Beast

After recommending a science-related podcast yesterday, I decided to recommend something that would be for everyone. The Moth is a storytelling podcast which I’ve been listening to for years now. Some readers in the United States might have already come across their radio hours, or even been to their live events. The organization holds storytelling […]

Podcast: How blogs are changing science

One of my favourite podcasts to listen to is The Guardian‘s Science Weekly podcast. They recently (well, last month . . . I’m a little behind in my listening!) had a podcast titled How blogs are changing science. Their introduction to the podcast  . . . In a special podcast from North Carolina, Alok Jha […]

Witsand I (via Notes from Africa | photoblog)

Check out this post on my photoblog for some interesting photos of Witsand, a small town on the Southern Cape coast. Part I is about the Breede River and the beach area. Willie spent this past weekend fishing at a small coastal town called Witsand (translation: White Sands). Situated east of the De Hoop Nature […]

Hadeda Valentines

There was a strange orange glow in the sky at sunset on Valentine’s Day. Our neighbour’s house which is painted a grey-beige colour, looked a much warmer shade. These three Hadedas were sitting on the jungle-gym, and I just liked the silhouette they made. As I was taking photos the two on the right started […]

Stung by a wasp update

I thought that the wasp in the first Stung by a wasp installment, had already been killed but the truth is far, far worse. It’s like something out of a horror movie! According to Wikipedia: Spider wasps are long-legged, solitary wasps that use a single spider as a host for feeding their larvae. They paralyze […]

Stung by a wasp

No, thankfully not me, but the unfortunate rain spider below. My roving reporter a.k.a. Willie, came across this when he was out mountain biking on a nearby forestry road the other day. By the time he saw it, the wasp had already killed the spider and was dragging it off. [The photo was taken with […]

A correction and a question

Initially Joan Failo (from The Spider Club) had identified the spider skin in my previous posts Spider Skeleton I and Spider Skeleton II as being that of a female rain spider. On inspection of the close-up photos I took yesterday, she now thinks it may be a male rain spider skin. Which brings me to […]

Spider skeleton II

Yes folks, today we continue the exciting saga of the spider skeleton . . . If you missed episode one you can read it here. Clouded Marble left a comment on the last installment asking whether it was maybe a “real” dead spider and not just the skin left behind after moulting. Being a scientist, […]

Spider skeleton I

On Saturday morning I was coming back from a walk with the dog, when I noticed something interesting near our driveway. Of course, I just had to go inside and get a camera! As I stood there leaning over the flowerbed, apparently taking a photograph of a brick wall, a car stopped close by. I […]