The UC Davis Arboretum is the setting this month for three events celebrating the union of nature and the arts: music, crafts, and the written and spoken word.

May 4 -- The first Celia M. Hastings Art-Science Education Day: Birds of Song and Clay. People of all ages are invited to listen to MudLark, a local folk trio performing music "exploring our relationship to nature and the environment."

Then, "roll up your shirt sleeves and create native birds of California from clay." The birds will be included in a ceramic mural of the state of California, for display in the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, whose district includes Yolo County.

Leading the craft project will be entomology professor Diane Ullman, co-director of the UC Davis Art-Science Fusion Program, which has created other ceramic murals focusing on nature.

The Hastings Art-Science Education Day, free and open to the public as part of the Arboretum Adventure series of family nature programs, is made possible by donations from Hastings' son, Professor Alan Hastings of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, and his wife, Elaine Fingerett, the arboretum's youth and family outreach coordinator; and Celia Hastings' husband, Julius Hastings.

By establishing this yearly arboretum event, they are honoring the memory of their mother and wife, described by her family as a lifelong environmentalist who was active in Audubon and wildflower societies in New York.

A pioneering educator, Hastings taught visually handicapped children in the early days of mainstreaming these children into regular classes in public schools. Also, she served as the elected president of the board of trustees of the public library in Patchogue, N.Y., for more than 25 years until very shortly before her death in 2002.

The Hastings Art-Science Education Day is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. on the Wyatt Deck, adjacent to the redwood grove. Because the event is on a Sunday, parking is free. The best option is Lot 5, Old Davis Road and A Street.

May 6 -- The arboretum's Writers in the Garden series, featuring local writers, returns for spring quarter with Karen Joy Fowler, the novelist and short story writer from Davis. She will read from her work and talk about the importance of the natural world in her writing. She is the author of Sarah Canary and The Jane Austen Book Club. Free., 7 p.m., Wyatt Deck; people are invited to come early with picnic dinners. Parking $6 in Lot 5, Old Davis Road and A Street.

May 20 -- Another Writers in the Garden program, this one featuring Davis writer Matt Biers-Ariel, author of books on Judaism and the environment, including The Seven Species, Solomon and the Trees, Spirit in Nature and The Triumph of Eve and Other Subversive Bible Tales. Free. 7 p.m. (with earlier picnicking invited), Wyatt Deck. Parking $6 in Lot 5, Old Davis Road and A Street.