We’ve had lots of warm weather this Fall, but no question that Winter is on its way — the leaves are pretty much gone off the trees, and the sun sets by 4:15. The consolation for me is that with the leaves off, I have a wider view of the ducks and geese swimming in the Cove across the street, and with the sun setting more to the south, those deep winter sunset colors — yellow and violet and red — gleam through the big south-facing window across from my winter workspace. And I try to adjust my schedule so I get some time outside during mid-day, to ward off the winter gloom.
My class at RIC is over already, it went by ultra-fast. The students were great (as usual!). They worked hard and I believe they learned a lot. We had some excellent guest speakers, including solar expert Bob Chew and a pair of hardworking young farmers from Cranston, and one class we spent at Save The Bay, where the students spent time with Baykeeper John Torgan. Hopefully the students now have some better ideas about the place where they live, how they relate to it, and how they can do their part to take care of it. I still have lots of papers to grade, though — that seems to never end!
I also wrote up a proposal for a new field course about Narragansett Bay for next summer. It’s scheduled to be highlighted in the summer catalog, so I hope we’ll get enough students enrolled, so we can run it.
Since my last post, I’ve finished a couple of stories for Robb Report to go in the print magazine, but they haven’t come out yet. And I’ve got a couple of ideas in the works with my editor at Rhode Island Monthly, that I think will start to gel soon.
I spent a day in October at Project Oceanology in Groton, Conn., learning about lots of cool ideas for ocean education, including how kids can build their own remotely operated submersible vehicles for research. This is useful for some of the plans we’re working on for the Oliver Hazard Perry tall ship (I’m on their education committee). Another fun trip was to Norwood, Mass., for an afternoon, to be a guest on a local public access show about aviation, produced by a couple of nice guys who are flight instructors there.
My pet project for the Fall has been the Great South Coast Saunter. This involves walking all the beaches along the south shore of Rhode Island, from Point Judith to Watch Hill. So far I’ve made it nearly halfway. It might take me into the spring to complete the Saunter, but it’s been beautiful so far, and I’ve explored lots of places I hadn’t visited before. I’ve been writing about it on a blog (not public yet). My goal is that the Saunter should be on the life list of every Rhode Islander, along with hiking the North-South Trail, visiting Jerimoth Hill, and lots more!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be finishing up my to-do lists, writing a grant proposal, grading those papers, reporting the AVweb news, and making travel plans for Christmas. A busy 2012 looms, just around the corner. I know I’m lucky to have steady work and great clients to work with. Here’s hoping for a merry New Year for all!
