…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.