On the first day of
February, 2007, I Googled "Euplotidium." One of the top hits was Small
Things Considered: Ciliate 007. One click and I landed on Elio's blog. I
never left.
I knew immediately
that we shared an appreciation for The Small Things. I wanted to help spread
that message. Beginning with his first e-mail, Elio has graciously welcomed me
and allowed me to make myself useful to the blog in increasingly varied and
challenging ways. I still marvel at my good fortune. Seldom does one have the
pleasure of such a nourishing work relationship.
I was educated as a research biologist, taught college briefly, then spent thirty-some years in
other worlds. During those decades, I created and ran a natural foods
restaurant, then a bookstore. I worked as an editor, as a desktop-publisher,
and as a technical writer preparing software manuals. A few years ago, I
returned to my first love, biology—especially the microbes in all their
creative diversity.
The Big Island of
Hawaii has been home for me since 1984. I live in a small, owner-built house in
a lava field at 4000' on Mauna Loa, off grid, with broadband Internet, two
cats, a woodstove, and a year-round vegetable garden. The days are too short.
Reading. Writing. Free-lance biological editing work. Gardening. House
construction. Rock relocation. The daily chores that keep my footprint small.
And, the most important—learning to speak, Lorax-like, for The Small Things.
I can be reached at merry@rainbowrockhawaii.com
