Smell or Stink…Your Choice

The new routines are starting to set in. We go to breakfast in the dining hall, on the other side of the suspension bridge, a short, 5 minute walk across the well-tended grounds of the La Selva Biological Station. It is a short walk with a specific purpose, from the house to the hall and then back across the bridge, making a left on the trail, and heading around the clearing to the old lab where my new office is. Birds call from within the trees, fleeting blurs of movement and color, the scarlet streak of the red-rumped tanager; the yellow shimmer of an unidentified little warbler; the iridescent flash of a hummingbird.

Dancing with Beautiful Women

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche The music is on, a fifteen-musician ensemble, professional and loud.  The beat pulses through the air in steady waves and hits...

Sucker Punched

One-Two, right under the belt.  Yesterday was Linda Jo, a friendly face I ran often on the streets of Avalon.  A familiar presence at Rotary events, one of my ‘fans’ who enjoyed my wacky presentations about animals, plants or whatever fancy topic I choose...

CAT-IKEA and other Feline Friendly Furnishings

  Watching and caring for our four house-bound cats is one of those never-ending sources of amusement or stress (depending on our moods and the moods of the cats too).  Two large cats and two small cats make for a substantial amount of litter, hair, hairballs and...

My Dog and His Mom

My first dog was a boxer named Pucho.  He came to our house on a cool November afternoon, a few weeks before Christmas.  He was really tiny and cute, a face flat as a miniature pancake with a black stubby nose sticking out in front.  He came in a cardboard box wrapped...