…reptile, amphibian, dinosaur, and bug toys. Here are most of the toys I’ve collected since I was a little kid. Second from the bottom on the left an orange octopus and black-and-white manta ray are sitting with the frogs.

Some of my dinosaurs. I am thinking of telling my friends and family that when they want to give me a gift, please make it a toy dinosaur.

This T-Rex guards the corner of my desk.

I found these in the toy section at the supermarket.

Here are some of my Christmas ornaments:

I love to spend a rainy day sitting on the floor with stacks of nature magazines, scissors, and glue, and make collages. When I want to tell a long story I cut open a cardboard box and lay it flat and play around with the pictures and glue them in place when I like the collage.

I love to embroider, but don’t have time. Maybe I will pick it up again one day. Here is my jacket from high school, when I absolutely had to wear lizards and frogs and snakes all over myself.

I love to take photos of bugs and flowers when I am at work.

I love going with lizard scientists to places where lizards live. I went with the International Iguana Society to Utila island in Honduras to see the critically endangered iguanas called Ctenosaura bakerii and meet the people who are working to save them.

In 2019 I returned to Honduras for an Iguana Specialist Group conference. We went to Utila island to see the iguanas and give support to the ongoing conservation work. The iguana program has grown a lot since the first time I visited. Now, school children are learning about their iguanas in educational programs that continue to grow. I would love to write a book about the Utila iguanas.

In Belize with a juvenile Morelet’s crocodile. My heart nearly broke from his cries of fear when Joe caught him. Joe said the good thing was that no one would ever be able to catch him again. I hope Joe was right –Joe knows crocs and gators, so I’m sure he was.

You can find a lot of super-cool photos of iguanas on the International Iguana Foundation’s website and see some of the conservation work the IIF supports around the world. https://www.iguanafoundation.org/

My last day in Roatan. The salty smell of the Caribbean Sea made me homesick for all the times I spent on Grand Bahama island with my grandparents since I was six years old, snorkeling and finding octopuses in tide pools and lizards in the scrub forest.

I love to bake. As soon as I could hold a mixing spoon and crack an egg into a bowl, I started baking. Growing up, I spent rainy days in the kitchen by myself, measuring and mixing and decorating my cakes. There were failures! That’s how I learned, of course! I made cookies, brownies, cakes, eclairs, and chocolate mousse –the French kind, where egg whites make it fluffy and whipped cream is the garnish. My recipe uses eggs, cognac, strong coffee, bittersweet chocolate, and butter.

Hanging out in the kitchen with my lizards and baking cookies is the best way to spend a rainy or snowy day.

One of my favorite things to make is chocolate leaves to decorate fancy cakes. I get hibiscus leaves and “paint” melted chocolate on the back of each leaf, put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes and then peel off the hibiscus leaves.

Here is my favorite recipe for peanut butter cookies, from the New York Times. They are like peanut butter shortbreads. I cut the recipe in half, since this makes a TON of cookies:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup/228 grams/2 sticks unsalted butter, preferably cultured, softened at room temperature (I use any European butter, like Plugra or Kerrygold.)
• ¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar
• ¾ cup (packed)/170 grams light brown sugar (I use ½ cup of awesome super-dark brown sugar from Paraguay I get at the health food store, plus a half cup of organic white sugar for a recipe TOTAL of 1 cup sugar.)
• 1 heaping teaspoon/6 grams kosher salt (or pink salt)
• 2 cups/510 grams unsweetened peanut butter, creamy or chunky
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups/250 grams all-purpose flour
•  Flaky sea salt (like Maldon, or Celtic course grind) and coarse sugar for sprinkling (or use kosher salt and granulated sugar)

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick liners. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until smooth and fluffy, at least 3 minutes. Add the peanut butter and eggs, and mix. Add the flour and salt and mix just until well combined, with no white flour showing.
2. Using a small cookie scoop (about 2 teaspoons capacity), scoop dough onto prepared pans. The tops will be rounded but craggy. The cookies will not spread much or change shape when they bake, so they can be placed quite close together, but leave room for air circulation so they can brown. (I don’t have a “cookie scoop” so I use a regular spoon and shape the balls with my fingers, then press the tops gently with fork tines once to hold the sprinkled salt and sugar.)
3. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 tablespoon salt. Sprinkle each cookie lightly with sugar-salt mixture, getting it into the crags and crannies. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are set and golden-brown. Carefully lift or slide off baking sheets and cool on racks. Store in layers separated by parchment paper, in airtight containers.

I love glittering reptile stickers.