Welcome to Birds, Books, and Biogeochemistry! I'll be using this space to talk about, well, birds, books, and biogeochemistry. Expect stories from the Arctic, tales from Texas, and thoughts about whatever I have read most recently.

A little about me: I'm a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin, only I don't live in Austin. I'm at the Marine Science Institute, about 200 miles away, in Port Aransas, TX. The South Texas Riviera.

No, really, sometimes it's called that.

I work primarily in the Arctic on river chemistry. There will probably be lots of talk about Arctic climate change in this. I'm in the last year (hopefully) of my graduate work, and I figure writing regularly - of any sort - will be good practice as I gear up towards writing that dissertation.

My friends, back in high school, accused me of being an old lady at 16. This was all too correct. I like to cook, and read. I have a cat. I drink copious amounts of tea. I go birding. I knit and crochet. I want a rocking chair for my porch, to sit in the sun and drink mint juleps. Mint that I grew, because I like gardening. I don't understand Snapchat.

On the other hand, I'll go on a road trip at the drop of a hat. I love traveling, be it to northeast Russia or just to get a couple hours away from Port A. One of my life-goals is to spend at least a month in the Arctic of each arctic country - USA (check; Alaska), Canada (check; NWT); Russia (check; NE Siberia), Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark/Greenland. Iceland would be great, too, although it's below the Arctic Circle.

Well, I believe that's enough directionless ramblings about myself. Next post, whenever I get to it, will be more substantive!