Journal archives for January 2021

31 January, 2021

A Sad Good Bye to our friend Greg Lasley

I looked back to all the pictures of my visit from Greg back on May 14th and 15th of 2013. It fills me with conflicting emotions, sadness that it will never happen again and gratitude that it happened at all. He came up from Austin to go out with me to Village Creek Drying Beds in Arlington, Texas, and my local park, Arcadia Trail Park, in Fort Worth, Texas. He was so dedicated to teaching and encouraging others to become observers of the natural world around them and to document it here. He was especially knowledgeable when it came to birds and dragonflies/damselflies though no slouch with identifying many other species. He joked that after so many years as exclusively a birder, he was now "a birder gone bad".
I tried to figure out if I could connect some of the pictures from that visit here but it was too long ago to make that an easy process. He really got something started with his encouragement. All these years later I hardly ever have many days when my camera isn't trying to capture elements of my environment, anything flying, crawling, growing. It keeps me learning and trying to contribute to other people's projects to expand our knowledge of what is going on with nature wherever we are. I know he has impacted so many other people of all ages and backgrounds. He was generous with his time and knowledge, never making others feel "less than" because he knew more.
Greg and his wife Cheryl welcomed a group of us to their house near Austin many years ago. I wore my iNaturalist t shirt from that day until it was pretty worn out but I till have it. I have new ones now to celebrate iNaturalist and what it has become. My heart goes out to Cheryl and all of us who loved Greg. He was a special person, humble and honest. In gratitude, I say good bye to my friend

Posted on 31 January, 2021 21:27 by taogirl taogirl | 2 comments | Leave a comment