Exploring Marine Ecosystems and Native Plants: Insights from Coral Reefs to Backyard Gardens
This collection of Butterflyfish make up the second installation of my fish coloring book. My plan for this coloring book is to represent either fish that my niece would be most likely to see when snorkeling or fish that would be fun to color. While I'm not sure we'll be so lucky as to get to see butterfly fish while snorkeling (fingers crossed), I think Butterfly fish are really beautiful and definitely meet the second criteria!
This small collection of drawings of fish from the Snapper Family marks the first installation of my fish coloring book. I chose yellowtail snapper and Schoolmaster to start my fish coloring book project because I wanted to make this a collection of fish that my niece would be most likely to see when snorkeling (or fish that would be fun to color). I don't think I've ever been out diving or snorkeling in the Keys without seeing a Yellow tail snapper or a Schoolmaster.
My six-year-old niece is coming to visit and we are going snorkeling! I'm very excited! Not only because she's a fun kid to hang out with, but also because she shares my love of fish and learning about the ocean. So, I've been thinking about all the things we could do together and how I might need to adapt them a bit for a tiny person.
Learning about hydroponics was my COVID project. It was something I had wanted to learn for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity. I decided early on that a grow light would be my primary (and biggest) investment. Since then, I have experimented and explored all kinds of different growing methods and systems and I still think choosing a grow light carefully is the most important step. This post is the result of my own deep-dive into grow lights and my explanation of how to best use artificial light sources for autotrophic (self-feeding - aka photosynthetic) organisms.
We visited the Sunken gardens recently. This is an and utterly beautiful botanical garden. The highlight for me was when I sat down on a stone ledge and looked over to see who was sitting next to me. It was this guy who I had to look up later to know is a green heron.
Erica Lauer Vose 