Back from Hog Island

White Pine cones on the cross-island trail,
Hog Island.

On Thursday I stepped through my own front door after a spectacular sojourn off the coast of Maine. It was hot and dry when I arrived, as it was when I left, and I admit to being a bit depressed about it after experiencing a week of cool(er) and green. Of course there were plenty of moments on the trip when I thought I would collapse from the humidity. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs.

The purpose of the visit was Educator's Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp, where I was fortunate to have been invited as an instructor. Good fortune also smiled on our weather (no rain, not too hot, and a mere fraction of the mosquitos we had to contend with last year) and our campers, who were not only a hugely inspiring group of dedicated educators but also side-splittingly funny. Can you imagine... all 56 of them flash-mobbed the staff at the end of camp, and another large contingent created a water ballet in the cold, cold waters of Muscongus Bay. Thank you all for a great, great week.

Airport and in-flight sketches.

I took remarkably few photos this trip but I did manage to work a little in my journal, which almost never happens with a schedule like the one we keep at camp. Here are a few "beauty moments," though.

Farewell to campers, headed back to the mainland.
But who are those three in black on the dock?

They're puffins, of course.

Double rainbow over Hog Island.