I started my new job as Editor of the National Wetlands Newsletter at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in Washington, D.C. earlier this month. It’s exciting. I’m busy setting up my new home office, getting technical things sorted out and underway with the summer issue. My trip to the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington was a treat. The cherry blossoms had already bloomed and dropped but it was still very pretty, though the air was thick with pollen. I developed crazy allergies that I had never before experienced.  Still, it was great to visit D.C. and get to know my new colleagues…and attend the event at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the evening of the new moon eclipse in Taurus (5/9).  ELI hosted its annual National Wetlands Awards ceremony at the Garden in its beautiful conservatory. The Hawaii exhibit was my favorite.

The National Wetlands Awards program, created nearly 25 years ago, recognizes professionals and landowners alike in wetlands conservation, protection and restoration. The stories are quite moving. When the new website for the NWA program is up and running, and I’ll have a little to do with that, since I will be the new manager of the wetlands awards program, I will post a link. In the meantime, there’s information on the existing webpage here about the program in general. The 2013 award winners’ photos and stories will be posted next week. May is American Wetlands Month, so there are a number of events happening all over the country. For ideas and to learn more, go here. 

Tonight I cooked a fiddlehead pizza.  The fiddleheads are local (from somewhere here in the Sebago Lakes Region, Maine) and the pizza has spinach, pesto, feta, kalamata olive and tomatos topping it. IMG_1818