Ten Days?!?

How is it possible to go ten days of a sabbatical without posting anything? These have been busy days since my marshland wanderings, so there is no shortage of material about which to write. The newest editions of the Norton Anthologies of both English and American literature arrived (and just WHY is there a need to update a book in which the last author died in 1840?), an online course for the spring semester has been updated and is ready to launch, two other courses are coming along nicely, I've been studying the evolution of the idea of wilderness, and the fall has been GLORIOUS! (This is probably why I haven't posted--too much wandering around parks.) Maybe it's because there is less time left than there was a few decades ago, but my experience of fall grows more headily delightful every year.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the week was discovering an almost-pure stand of sugar maples in Swan Creek Metropark. It was a Sunday afternoon, the light was streaming through the gold-orange leaves of dozens of  forest giants, and the effect was like walking through a haze of dispersed gold. And when you think about it, sunshine is perhaps our most valuable commodity.