Igrew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet; tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table. having studied, my mother is a marine biologist. our household might have been described as uncooperative. our meals weren’t always served in the expected order of breakfast, lunch, and supper. everything was subservient to the disposal of the tides. when the tide was low, mom could be found down on the mudflats. when the tide was high, she would be standing on the inlet bridge with her plankton net.