When I grow up...

When I was a kid, I really thought that I wanted to be a doctor, actually a pediatric heart surgeon. This is crazy, for those of you who have known me for a while as the "painter girl". But, before I decided to go headlong into the visual arts, much to the chagrin of many in my family, I was pretty obsessed with science. 

It has been many years since school and my adventures in the world of science, but the world of science has always been fascinating to me. The other day I had the opportunity to tag along on the job with my beautiful sister, who works in soil and water conservation. I got to head into the field to learn to take water samples. Pretty much a lovely day of playing scientist in the creek (from my perspective, anyhow, but I don't have to take water samples in the winter!). We had a beautiful day and I learned a lot of words that I did not know before, like turbidity, which is a science-type word having to do with the sediment that has run into the water creating a murkiness.  

Learning proper 'dipping of the water bottles into the creek' technique.

Yes, if you recognize that bridge, it is the French Broad River.

Success! A crate full of water samples!

A sign along our journey that I found hilarious.

I may never be an actual scientist in real life, but it was incredibly fun to spend the day learning how it goes out in the field. Much of it was just recording your observations, for which we had a pretty amazing scientific clipboard! I also learned that Nalgene makes the water sample bottles, which is amazing because I have been carrying around a Nalgene bottle for drinking water for many years. 

I think what was so interesting was just gaining a new perspective on the ecosystems that we live in and among. Even though I have learned just a little, it is still just enough to completely change my perspective and I will never look at creeks the same.