It's been exactly ten years since we "moved upstate" from a suburb of Philadelphia to the rural area around Bloomsburg, PA.

I'm sitting here and I'm realizing that this subject and all it entails, psychologically and financially and spiritually, could fill a large volume. I could write and write and write. But I don't want to be boring. I want people to be able to read my stuff without taxing their time or their brains.

When we moved to Media, PA in 1977 it was more like a country town than a suburb of a big city. Lots of green spaces, few chain stores, its State Street was lined mostly with individually run small businesses. The Media Trolley, one of the means of transportation that connected Media with Philadelphia, ran up and down State Street. The route led in part through forests; in the spring you could look down from your window on the trolley and see may apples. The combination of the natural world and the business-like trolley reminded me of Pittsburgh.

What happened to Media wasn't suffered by the town alone. It was and is still going on everywhere. Quiet green spaces and dignified stands of trees were mowed down by bulldozers
and ultra-expensive houses were going up. It happened literally right across the street from us, then at the end of our street.

I never knew how much I valued the earth and nature until I saw it being raped each day, as I drove to work and back. I knew within that I was powerless; these "development" companies are monsters, and they have all the money. I went numb; I was wakened and I will write about that tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of my new neighbors. Yes, I really have seen baby bear cubs with their mother on "our mountain" as well as redtailed hawks.