Category: science
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May Bee Update
After a rather slow start this spring, activity has picked up at Jerry Smith Park. Less than a month ago, not only were bees in short supply, but insects of all kinds were scarce. Now the prairie is buzzing, hopping, flying – even being chewed apart! The explosion of life in such a short space…
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Signs of Spring
Friends in the northeast are getting pummeled by one deep freeze after another, but here in the Midwest, spring has made its presence felt. The sun shines bright over warm and breezy days. Daffodils are pushing up through the dirt. Birds defend their territories and build nests, and the grass looks greener every time I…
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Autumn Portfolio
Classes start this week. In other words, we are five blinks away from Christmas! I’ve been blessed with a wonderful summer and am starting the new academic year rested and ready (more-or-less) to go. Two of my favorite courses are in this fall’s line-up: Introduction to Animal Behavior and Women and Science. When I was an undergrad, I…
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Living in A Time of Giants
2016 was a hard year for a lot of people, myself included, but despite the general wailing and gnashing of teeth out there in the interverse, I can’t help but feel that 2016 was, on the whole, no better or worse than 2015. To be fair, 2015 was a pretty bad year for me.…
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On Connections and Castanets
There are several aspects of flamenco that have bedeviled me since I first started studying the dance form a few years back. One of these is contratiempos. The other is the use of the castanets. Last week, I had the opportunity to tackle both in an intensive workshop with the Escuela de Flamenco Paulina Peralta in Costa Rica. Contratiempos is…
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NAPIRE 2014
Me and one of my old friends at Las Cruces. The semester at Avila has ended, and all of the sudden I find myself in Costa Rica preparing for my next NAPIRE summer. Those of you who follow my blog may remember that every other year I return to Las Cruces Biological Station in southern…
K. R. Gastreich, Author 