There is Halloween in the woods. Limbs and leaves fall. Decomposers invade. The trees take on a different beauty in death, with fungi threading through its tissue, splitting its bark open. Beautiful rot, as it becomes part of the forest floor. Orange fungi. Black muck.
A taxidermied Bufo marinus that’s been made into a change purse is a permanent resident of my office at my day job. Animals skulls and insects preserved in jars keep it company. My coworkers have different bones and dead things at their desks. So it is with field biologists: we love critters so much, we bring them back … Continue reading Halloween at Work – 25 Days until Halloween
A lively group of teachers in a coffee shop where I write some nights, and an imagined discussion about their lesson plans PROBABILITY by Victoria Nations “So you’re saying we're going to use poker chips and a Crown Royal bag. In the science room. With the kids.” “Right. The kids will love it.” “The science room at … Continue reading Probability
Where would you sleep? The museum has a vaulted ceiling and columns reaching so high they look hazy from the bottom floor. Everything seems to be made of stone, despite accents of polished wood and glass. Arched windows are stacked in rows along the uppermost walls. Their lines are delicate, but you know they would … Continue reading Friday Writing – Where Would You Sleep?
How could you not love a tiny fly called a punkie? Especially if it's the reason cacao trees produce fruit, which becomes the mouthwatering chocolate so many of us are indulging in today? And punkies are adorable, if you find hunched over little vampires adorable like I do. Ceratopogonid midges have a large, humped thorax and their … Continue reading Love Bites and Chocolate
My pencil holder has a lot more than pencils in it. Pencils are for math and field notebooks with waterproof paper. I use pens and markers for coloring in figures and drawing arrows and clouds around diagrams. I have other tools. The handle of the magnifying glass is wood. Most of the paint was worn away … Continue reading Tools
When I studied biology in college, then graduate school, I took "hard" science classes in zoology, human biology, ecology and evolution. I took electives in the "soft" sciences and the arts, my favorites being psychology and (one glorious semester) Elements of Horror Fiction. The courses were very different. The arts and sciences were separate. But … Continue reading Arts and Sciences
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