"Picnic in the Park" at the Greenhouse

The greenhouse has a new ongoing event called "Picnic in the Park." The Galley (or in this case, Emily) makes you a sack lunch, or you can get your own food from and take it up to the greenhouse. Recreation even coordinated shuttles to drive people up so we can all maximize our time amongst the plants.

I signed up for Friday and had picnic lunch with Larry, Joseph, Gareth, Kyle and Emily. It was delightful.

Tomatoes...

lovely tomatoes.

Emily, this year's green house technician.

A jalapeño flower!

Face toward the light, smile on.

Nasturtium leaves - nice and peppery.

The Lunch Bunch: Gareth, Kyle and Larry.

The underside of nasturtiums.

Emily bags the harvest.

Grow plants grow!

Sprouting herbs!

Corn flowers!

Kyle certainly enjoys the greenhouse!

BIG beautiful green leaves!

Cucumber!

A cucumber flower!

Kyle relaxes in the comfy chair.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Fried green tomatoes.

Jalapeños!

Larry lounges in the hammock.

As does Joseph.

Emily harvests some leaves.

Green, leafy heaven.

Kale.

Flowering Bok Choy.

I feel like this sometimes...dried up and barren.

Ahhh...88ºF!

Emily makes me smile.

Let There Be Light

As we muddle through the dark winter months, light therapy is an important part of self-care here at McMurdo. Previously the Green House was the sole source of mood enhancing, good-for-your-soul light, and while it is also nice and humid there, it's somewhat out of the way of my regular comings and goings around town. This year, however, the Light Room has been set up in room 101 of 155, which happens to be just around the corner and down the hall from my winter room.

When it was first set up and opened to the community, the room was dingy and sterile, as are the dorm rooms here. I helped Shandra and Sean clean and organize the room. Shandra brought some tapestries and I made a few pillows out of skua fabric. With those few upgrades, the Light Room is rather enjoyable.

Skua fabric pillows.

One for this chair...

and one for the couch.

Light, comfort...

color, leisure...

tranquility and greenery.
What a nice place to spend some time reading and relaxing!

Rockin' the Rock

When given the opportunity to rock out to LIVE bands in Antarctica, it's wise to go all out. To show my full support and undying love for music and live bands, I chose to dress the part.

What a punk!

Party People!

Gallaghers!

Tears For Piers!

Rockin' the mic and those Pink Floyd pants!

Best song of the night: "We Care A Lot"!!!

Brian serves the fans!

Grrrrrrr!

Z-money aka Zachary!

Hangin' with Kelli!

Chillin' with Kenny!

Gracie is just about as punk as I am.

This is our angry face! Well Emily looks angry at least!

And I rocked my socks off. All the way baby!

Swimmers Ear, without the Swimming

Antarctica likes to destroy my sinuses and ear canals. I'm currently battling the dry version of "swimmers ear" which HURTS! And I've had a fever for three-days! A mild one, 99.7, yet still not fun. What was really nice though, was this beautiful get well gift bag that my friends left outside my door...

Thanks friends!

A Dancing Penguin from Skua

After adding some new batteries to this little guy, I had a Dancing Penguin. He starts up pressing his nose and listens to my music while dancing and flapping his wings (quite cute). Periodically, his belly will light up with various patterns that indicate his "mood" which includes: hungry for more music, happy, sad, and sick (in need of more music). I can also press his nose again as any of these moods are displayed and he will reply with various chirps, songs and dance moves. And this, my friends, is how winterovers stay entertained.

Luckily, the instruction booklet was still taped to his foot, otherwise rather
than cute and entertaining, he might have been annoying and maddening.

Belly lights!

Dance penguin dance!

Who's That Knocking at my Door?

Well, in the event of an after-hours emergency or MCI (Mass Causality Incident), it would be the Doorknockers knocking on my door. As part of the EOC, we recruit volunteers to be Doorknockers - who, through a very simple and overly complicated system, knock on each door in the dorms to notify people of an emergency.

With three dorms open during winter (208, 209 and 155), that is a lot of doors to knock on. Which is why, Doorknockers get to have their very own little wooden handles to knock on all the doors. Because the knockers from previous years have gone missing, it was my assignment to coordinate the creation of new knockers!

With the help of old broom handles from Mike at the Firehouse and the clever and accommodating Kevin of the Carp Shop, we now have 18 new Doorknocker knockers.

Ta Da! Aren't they spiffy?

Humidity?

Despite the usual it's-so-dry-my-nose-is-bleeding-again climate of Antarctica, the open water has brought moisture to McMurdo. Such moisture is often a welcome change in a desert, however, here it makes for slippery surfaces, deeper more bitter cold and some really interesting ice formations on just about everything.








In lieu of the treachery, the ice is shockingly beautiful. Everything is covered, even the sides of buildings, the dirt, the doors, everything. It reminds me of the movie, "The Ice Storm" and when the wind is calm, I walk softly so as not to disturb the silence and sparkling gorgeousness of a peaceful moment.