Palm trees and lichens and O-chem, oh my!

Perhaps you have noticed I have been absent from the internet world. That’s because a new school term started, and I have been very disciplined with my time to make sure I have enough space to work, study, and still do the stasia-self-care things that include running, biking, and making space for friends. In this world, things like blogs and other mostly-superfluous internet (or non-internet things) kind of fall away to make space for…

1. Lichens! My world has been full of lichens these days, since I’m taking a class called Lichenology, which involves not only finding lichens everywhere but doing fun labs that include putting chemicals on them to see what happens. Lichens have some super cool chemistry because they are full of defensive compounds that react in some pretty crazy ways. That is also why most lichens are toxic if you eat them (so, don’t;). I could tell you all sort of rad shit about lichens right now.

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(like this Lobaria species will turn yellow or even orange in the middle depending on what other chemicals it’s exposed to. And other fun things:)

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2. Organic chemistry! I’ve been kind of nervous about the point in my schooling where I finally take organic chemistry (isn’t o-chem the class that people say dissuaded them from pursuing whatever they were pursuing, be it medicine or nutrition or biology or whatever else?). But I ultimately decided it was going to be a fun challenge, and it’s been alright so far although it takes a lot of time. But I do like the challenge of it, even though it is frequently frustrating. It’s good for me to have to work hard at something, ha.

So, those two things have been taking up a lot of my world these days:)

3. That being said, James and I also went for a sweet Palm Tree Ride led by Shawn over at Urban Adventure League the other weekend, and it was great. It was my second Palm Tree Ride, and as promised was full of Portland palm trees as well as other wintery delights like monkey puzzle, eucalyptus, magnolia, and myrtle trees.

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(are those not the most beautiful Eucalyptus trunks you’ve ever seen?:)

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So, there you go. It will probably take me another two months to write anything else, but in the meantime I’m still running about 3 times and biking 100 miles per week, so all the car-free magic continues even when I’m not here in the blogging world.

5 Comments:

  1. Thanks for coming along on my ride, Stasia!
    But you forgot to mention the witch hazel that led you astray afterwards… ;-)

    • Ha! I thought about it because I do like that picture a lot and any excuse to put fun plants on my blog and all, but I figured I’d already put it elsewhere on the internet so it had already gotten its air time;)

      You have the best rides:) Thanks again for organizing!

  2. Pingback: A quick ride report: Palm Tree Ride 2023 – Urban Adventure League

  3. C’est quelle distance, ces périples à vélo? Je devrais planifier ma prochaine visite à Portland pour coincider….?

    • They’re not super far, with lots of breaks:) I think it’d be hard to plan around since it’s not like a set schedule or anything, but it’d definitely be fun if there were something similar sometime when you were here! <3

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