May 2022
May 1 Still, still morning at the pond. May 2 Went to the Arboretum to check out the lilacs - they're coming on, not quite yet in full bloom. One of my neighbours has a stunning azalea. May 3 Ned Friedman, the Director of the Arboretum, is running a symposium today with speakers who have used the arboretum's collections in their research. He asked me to speak, as I had used the bamboo collection for a project on structural bamboo products - things like bamboo oriented strand board and laminated bamboo beams, similar to structural wood products. I brought along some samples: The oriented strand board was made by our colleagues Greg Smith and his students at the University of British Columbia; the laminated bamboo was given to me by our colleague Mike Ramage at the University of Cambridge. The audience was especially tickled with the 3D printed bamboo parenchyma cells that my student, Patrick Dixon, made as part of his work modelling the mechanical prope...