My last post here, ending a run of gaps followed by a gap.
We moved back to the UK six weeks ago now after I resigned from my postdoc there. It's not a decision I took lightly (given that we're now both unemployed and had to move back to UK immediately - that was fun!) and I do miss San Francisco and our friends there, but even after the last month and a bit in Northumberland Heath (exactly), it's not a decision I regret.
Given the changes and to help ease me back into slightly more regular blogging, I'm switching to tumblr here: http://palecomic.tumblr.com/so update your feeds and follow buttons. Tumblr seems a bit nicer and easier from my phone. I'll leave this one up for posterity, but close it to comments so I don't have to keep rejecting the porn spammers.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Friday, August 21, 2009
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Transformations
I haven't updated about the ants in ages, and you deserve to know how they're doing. Prepare yourself for some changes.
You may remember that I was concerned that they were bored (which sounds ridiculous, perhaps I'm no better than the kid with the perpetually runny nose, a stick and a nasty streak on a day at the zoo) and so decided to add some grass seed for them to gather up. I didn't manage to get my hands on a sensible quantity of grass seed so I figured that sesame seeds would substitute. The ants showed some interest and a few made it to the bottom of the tunnels and got tucked away, the remainder were left where they fell. Maybe they're picky and sesame seeds just don't cut the mustard, maybe when they're burrowing through a delicious, sugary gel they don't really need to be bothered with my paltry offering.
However, I wasn't just sowing seeds; along with them came an inoculum of fungi that liked the gel just as much as the ants.
And a fly-by (caution, my videography isn't for the car sick).
Not the nice, space-age blue gel I started out with. The ants didn't mind this at all, in fact they would pull off chunks of the blackened gel and carry it up to the surface of the tunnels to a pile that I started to view as a sort of midden. They would eat the fungus sprouting from individual sesame seeds and add these to the pile on the surface too. Eventually, when the mould became extensive they would feed happily on this large pile of dense, ant-farmed matter.
At any one time there was still a division of labour, with some ants on the surface browsing around and nibbling and the remainder down in the tunnels. Here's Humdiggler napping:
That's change number one, now for change number two and it's a sad one. I can only count eleven ants. Twenty-five went in, one suffered from a bad case of nominative determinism (any pet I have from now on is going to be called Methuselah) and the remaining unlucky thirteen...? I suspect they've gone to the great network of tunnels in the sky. In fact, I managed to catch Minus - Warrior Queen of the Ant People carrying the corpse of Adam and trying to give her a head start on the journey.
It's not unexpected, I've had them for five months now and they're supposed to live between three and six months, but so long Nigella, Splodey, Carlotta, Gertrude, Antoinette, Flip, Tweetspawn, Sickof, Cuddles, Omar and Squash D. Say hi to Squish D for me.
You may remember that I was concerned that they were bored (which sounds ridiculous, perhaps I'm no better than the kid with the perpetually runny nose, a stick and a nasty streak on a day at the zoo) and so decided to add some grass seed for them to gather up. I didn't manage to get my hands on a sensible quantity of grass seed so I figured that sesame seeds would substitute. The ants showed some interest and a few made it to the bottom of the tunnels and got tucked away, the remainder were left where they fell. Maybe they're picky and sesame seeds just don't cut the mustard, maybe when they're burrowing through a delicious, sugary gel they don't really need to be bothered with my paltry offering.
However, I wasn't just sowing seeds; along with them came an inoculum of fungi that liked the gel just as much as the ants.
And a fly-by (caution, my videography isn't for the car sick).
Not the nice, space-age blue gel I started out with. The ants didn't mind this at all, in fact they would pull off chunks of the blackened gel and carry it up to the surface of the tunnels to a pile that I started to view as a sort of midden. They would eat the fungus sprouting from individual sesame seeds and add these to the pile on the surface too. Eventually, when the mould became extensive they would feed happily on this large pile of dense, ant-farmed matter.
At any one time there was still a division of labour, with some ants on the surface browsing around and nibbling and the remainder down in the tunnels. Here's Humdiggler napping:
That's change number one, now for change number two and it's a sad one. I can only count eleven ants. Twenty-five went in, one suffered from a bad case of nominative determinism (any pet I have from now on is going to be called Methuselah) and the remaining unlucky thirteen...? I suspect they've gone to the great network of tunnels in the sky. In fact, I managed to catch Minus - Warrior Queen of the Ant People carrying the corpse of Adam and trying to give her a head start on the journey.
It's not unexpected, I've had them for five months now and they're supposed to live between three and six months, but so long Nigella, Splodey, Carlotta, Gertrude, Antoinette, Flip, Tweetspawn, Sickof, Cuddles, Omar and Squash D. Say hi to Squish D for me.
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