A hiking group and a lifeline This newsletter may be called “Mostly Water”, but it’s not all water all the time. This week’s essay is merely water-adjacent. It’s the latest in what has now become a series of essays celebrating community. It was a year or two after coming to the island that a neighbor persuaded me to join the local mens’ hiking group, the Sons of the Beach, or SOBs for short. There’s a story behind the name of course. There had been for a while a group called Ladies of the Beach, who would walk the beaches and … Continue reading SOBs

An exploration of water and community ***Updated on Sunday, July 23 to include the local triathlon and a couple of other things. In the second of what may yet become a series on community and recreation on and in the water, this week’s post is about kayaking. You can read part one, about working to build a community pool, right here. Here’s my first “kayak”, in quotes because in North America that would be a canoe. Here I’m paddling in Kimmeridge Cove, Dorset. To stiffen it, my dad made a wooden floor from the cabinet of an old console TV. … Continue reading From paddling my own canoe to kayaking into community

The first of what may be a series of posts about community and water. After recent posts on drinking water and groundwater, we’re going to focus on recreation in and on the water, and celebrate the communities around it. At a time when civil society and public infrastructure are under threat from the privatization of everything, where we’re pushed to be consumers rather than citizens, it’s important to look for lessons in areas where community is working. Last Saturday I spent a few hours with these amazing volunteers who are trying to get a community swimming pool built for the … Continue reading Putting the community in community pool

The first of July is the 38th anniversary of my arrival in the US. This newsletter is mostly water, but not all water all the time. Here’s something different for your fourth of July weekend. It still has a sea, an ocean, a river, and a lake in it. See if you can spot them all! The first of July is the anniversary of my arrival in the US, and this year it’s the 38th. Back in 1985, I flew in over the ocean from Amsterdam into the international arrival terminal at JFK. I was here on an L-1 visa1. … Continue reading Across the Sea