Dr. Amber Visit

---

Our friend, Dr. Amber Soja, up and coming NASA scientist, visited us last weekend on her return from setting fires in Siberia. She and the Russian scientists are studying the boreal forests in the area of the world that has the highest concentration of carbon. Amber told me of her passionate interest in environmental science back in the late 80s when she was a computer technician for Wang in Germany. She is quite accomplished, having earned her masters and Ph.D. at University of Virginia, been published in scientific journals, presented papers at global warming conferences and was interviewed recently for the national radio program, "Earth and Sky."

We've traveled together over the years through Germany, France, Crete and England and have always had fun. She has visited me every place I've lived since my return to the States in 1996. When she visited in Fort Worth, Texas she looked around and pronounced the trees "stunted." Of course, we wouldn't let this Virginian off the hook for this old Confederacy snub to the newer South. When Amber visited Basingstoke, her eyes shone with delight at the site of the pinus (pronounced "peenus) sylvestris, popularly known as the Scots pine. She said that the only place the pinus sylvestris grows straight and tall is in Siberia. It is crooked elsewhere (see the photo of one in Basingstoke).

We went to see Spamalot in London on Saturday and toured Basingstoke on Sunday. On Monday we went to the Vidal Sassoon Academy in London for a little pampering and a great haircut (more on this in a future entry). That evening, we toasted our friendship at the Cafe Rouge, a French Cuisine restaurant in Basingstoke. She left Tuesday morning to give a paper at a conference in New Orleans. Such is the life of a busy scientist.

---

Photos

Dr. Amber Soja
the young scientist on the train from Basingstoke to London-Waterloo

Pinus Sylvestris
this one is on Bounty Rd near our flat

Pinus Sylvestris
a better view of the same tree

Kite Flying
While walking in the park in Basingstoke we saw a woman and two small children

Park Canopy
Lichen on a park building

My view plaque in park
during our stroll in Basingstoke we found a series of plaques embedded in the park paths