I have spent more money than I care to admit on gems that are essentially calcium carbonate – the same ingredient antacids and blackboard chalk are made from.

Published in Orion Magazine, 2021

How does an animal sense the world? We can’t access another being’s consciousness, but we’re learning more about how different species touch, hear, taste, smell, and see their worlds. In my essay “Mussel Memory,” published in Orion Magazine, I explore the lives of the pearl mussel in Scottish rivers and culture:

A river runs through the village in western Scotland where I grew up. After heavy rain, it tears under the stone bridge I crossed each day on my way to school, earning its name, the White Cart, on its short journey to the sea. It starts as a burn bubbling its way through the peaty uplands of Eaglesham Moor about ten miles from Glasgow, slipping between heather and cotton grass and pillows of sphagnum moss. Despite its proximity to Scotland’s largest city, the moor is still a wild, waterlogged place, with humps of glacier-scoured volcanic rock protruding from peatland ten meters thick. Wide skies and fleeting weather reflect in the pools, lochans, and reservoirs, turning the moor from air and light into sudden darkness. Learn More