Our long day of international travel began with Jim's Russian friend and coworker, Dmitri, driving us to the airport. He assured us that a ten-hour flight was hardly anything, at least we weren't flying to Russia! It was hard to keep that in mind as we squirmed in our seats 8 hours in. We…
Chasing the Night
The Great American Eclipse
In the movie "The Dark Crystal," there is an event that occurs every 999 years ("The Great Conjunction") in which the three suns converge and create a powerful beam of light. The light tore a rift in the earth, revealing the Dark Crystal. It also allowed the creation of the evil Skekses and burned up one of…
Water, Water, Everywhere
This week, Seattle has become a caricature of itself, and I a willing participant. I sit at my dining room table, squinting to see what I'm writing in a gloom that would rival Gollum's cave. It's 11 am and I refuse to have the lights on at such a time. It's been pouring rain all…
Beezley Hills
I wrote (and photographed) this for the Washington chapter of the Nature Conservancy last year. This event is coming up again soon, and we need it more than ever. The proposed federal budget for 2018 cuts billions in funding for conservation, climate, and scientific study in general. This sort of program - generating bipartisan, urban-rural, hunter-conservationist engagement…
Enchanted
There is nothing that delights me like a dewy web against the damp green forest. Enchanted when its diminutive architects make the beads of glass dance in the pale winter sun - may they take comfort that in lieu of food, they have captured the stars in their nets.
Letters from Ecuador 10.26.2006
Ten years ago this fall, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny…
Letters from Ecuador 10.14.2006
Ten years ago this fall, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny…
A Taste of Ecuador
Ten years ago this fall, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny…
Letters from Ecuador: 10.3.2006
Ten years ago this fall, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny…
Letters from Ecuador: 9.26.2006
Ten years ago this month, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny…