A capybara stands under his wooden shelter. Capybara's are the world's largest rodent.

Wordless Wednesday: R.O.U.S.’s do exist

That R.O.U.S (rodent of unusual size) is a Capybara, the world’s largest rodent. We spotted him at the Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose,…

line drawing of several large and small sauropods underwater.

Why does a book from 1999 still show a sauropod living in a swamp?

In the spring, a curiosity blogger’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of dinosaurs. Specifically, the sauropod tracks in Glen Rose, Texas, and whether this will be the summer I get to see them.

Red bush in a California garden in springtime.

Wordless Wednesday: Gardening in a drought-prone state

Amazingly, this is just someone’s front yard. Every time I look at this photo, my brain tries to tell me that there’s a river swooping along the bottom of that tree with the orange leaves. But really it’s just dirt.

Rear View of my daughter dressed as Mothman crossing the street.

Caterpickles Consults the 12-Year-Old: “What is Mothman?”

My daughter came down one morning dressed entirely in black, sporting a pair of gold-tinted sunglasses and a green knit cap with two blue feathers sticking out of it. She was clearly dressed up as some superhero, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out who. “I’m Mothman, Mommyo.” Mothman? Who’s that? Some crappy off-brand Batman?

Rose bush with mostly dark pink flowers, and one or two orange ones.

Wordless Wednesday: Roses

My neighbor’s rose bush blooms in both orange and pink. I’ve never seen anything like it. When I asked, they told me that particular variety of rose was called Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors.

The bird of paradise flower has tall spiky orange petals and a blue poky thing. (Sorry, not a botanist)

Why did the Bird of Paradise flower evolve to look like that?

It’s easy to see how the Bird of Paradise flower got its name. It looks like a crane’s head crafted from flower parts. Now I’m no botanist, but even I know enough about plants to realize that when such a highly specialized and unique structure evolves in nature, there’s generally a reason for it. All of which made me wonder: Why did the Bird of Paradise flower evolve to look the way it does?

Wordless Wednesday: Cherry tree in bloom

I had more or less stopped doing Wordless Wednesday posts last year, but recently my daughter told me that she missed seeing them. I have to admit, I missed them too. Pictures like these are a helpful counterweight to the news. So I’m resurrecting Wordless Wednesday as a regular feature of the blog.

My daughter, then only two, takes her stuffed dog for a walk outside. The dog is hanging from a leash, lifted up just enough to keep from dragging on the ground.

“Why does bug spray smell so icky?”

I don’t know about you, but I have a terrible time convincing anyone in my family to wear bug spray. It just smells so bad. Sadly, that stink is why bug spray works.

Aunt Meg consults Caterpickles: “Do they really still use leeches in modern medicine?”

My sister and I have been talking about medical things more than usual lately, and since she also inherited our family’s wildly roving mind, somehow we got on to the topic of leeches, and whether this medieval practice was still popping up in modern medicine.

Have you heard about the National Park’s free annual pass for fourth graders?

Have you heard about the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Every Kid in a Park program? In a nutshell, the program offers fourth graders (and 10-year-old home-schooled equivalents) a free annual pass to every National Park in the U.S. Between now and August 31, 2019, fourth graders can use their passes to get free admission to any park in the National Park system for themselves and a select number of family and friends.