Enders State Forest, Granby

For a sense of scale, take a look at the umbrella on top of the falls.  Someone was under it.

I try to take advantage of conferences when they're in my area.  So, when I found out the AASL (American Association for School Librarians) was planning a November conference in Hartford, a mere twenty minutes away, I was delighted and so were my writing friends.  I think I can get by with a one-day, exhibits-only pass.  Excited!!!

The first view of the water.

The Northeast region of the American Chemical Society is also having a conference in New Haven at the end of October.  I will be checking back on that one to see if there is anything of interest.

Walt and Lola look dwarfed by the water.  Here you get a sense for how slippery it was.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Climate Literacy class that I just finished was the world map.  It had numbered pointers that corresponded to other students' written classwork.  The impacts of climate change could be seen from Kiribati to Crete to Croatia, from Bangladesh to Belgium to Bulgaria, from the Southwest to South Carolina to South Africa.  It was an eye-opening global view of how climate change is affecting the planet.  Many students wrote of drought, rising sea level and fires.

It is shameful that while we haggle here in the United States over whether climate change is manmade (it is) or natural (don't be a moron), there are other people on the planet that are suffering the very real consequences of inaction.

Another waterfall

These photographs were taken at Enders State Forest, a place where roaring waterfalls cascaded from the rocks.  The hike was short and more like a walk with an incline.  On a hot humid day, the only rain shower in the state dumped a bucket of precipitation on Enders while we were there.  We were soaked, which made the trek along the edge all that more treacherous.  Since someone had recently slipped at the park, a couple of news teams were in the parking lot.  I practiced my speaking skills by agreeing to be interviewed, dripping as I was.  They aired footage of kids doing flips in the water instead of one soggy hiker pretending she was at Toastmasters.  What a shame!