I think I was born a naturalist. Some of my earliest memories are of catching toads on Cape Cod when I was 3, turning over rocks in my back yard to look at sow bugs and worms and lying on my back to watch the stars with my dad. I dreamed of being an exotic animal vet or doing wildlife field research when I was a kid, and had and still have a special soft spot for herps. My first job was doing live animal shows with the Philadelphia Zoo as a teenager, bringing snakes, parrots, ferrets & such to schools, camps and nursing homes as well as showing them to zoo visitors. I loved teaching more than research as it happened, and ended up studying biology, ecology and environmental ed in college and grad school. I taught nature preschool at MassAudubon's Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary for 10 years, introducing scores of kids to the joys of ponding, turning over rocks, following tracks and all the stuff I loved when I was a kid. Though I'm not working in the field now (I ended up our town's librarian through serendipity), whether I'm at home in Pelham, Massachusetts or traveling around you can still find me mucking around in the woods, by the edge of every pond and puddle, or down on my knees in the meadow or my garden, checking out the plants & critters, sharing them with my kids, my friends or whoever is nearby who might be interested.