I am a poet, currently illustrating (in ink and watercolor) a picturebook about bacteria that I wrote in verse. My partner Caleb is also a poet, and songwriter. Caleb and I are avid birders, and we travel exploring new sewer ponds and wildernesses to see and hear birds and contribute our data to ebird.org, the international database of avian citizen science. We both love native plants, and I enjoy watercolor sketching flora and sometimes landscapes. We both have a daily meditation practice, mine for ~ 15 years, alongside my 11-year hot yoga practice. I attend local Insight Meditation group, and several years of NVC/Nonviolent/Compassionate Communication practice. I am gentle and honest, trustworthy, and highly value compassion and playfulness. I love cats and children. [Note: I don’t travel with my cats, and I don’t have kids.] Nonsmoker.
At home in Bend, I rent out rooms in my house, I love living with housemates.

Interests

• birds
• poetry
• sketching
• meditation
• opera
• science
• art
• microbiology
• watercolor
• botany
• birding
• birdwatching
• bikram yoga

Music, Movies, and Books

I love The Metropolitan Opera live radio and cinema broadcasts! I love great epic poetry. Shakespeare is a favorite writer. My cats, Pierre and Tatyana, are names for characters in Tolstoy’s ‘War & Peace’ and Pushkin’s ‘Eugene Onegin’, two favorite books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In 2015 I did a Motorless Big Year on bicycle and found 220 bird species in Central Oregon.
In 2019 Caleb and I both saw over 350 bird species in Oregon.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Birds! Caleb and I are excellent birders and we can help teach some of your yard birds to you, incl their calls/songs. I am happy to share re meditation or NVC. Caleb plays guitar.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, Palau, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States