Mostly family, some travel, but lots from Canyonville and our forest, which was lovely this year. Below is a gallery of 2015 images; click on any image for more info and a slideshow.
Let's start 2015 with family pix: here are Elise and Joy doing sushi in PDX in August, in early celebration of Elise's birthday.
Like mine, their Oregon existence spans rural/urban antipodes. Here they are at the Pioneer Days parade in Canyonville with our longtime friends Terry and Meg, right after someone in the parade handed them these water bottles! (And the day before that sushi photo.)
Joy did a design workshop this Nov in Paris (see joyproctor.com) and brought Elise as her assistant, lucky girl (it all proved quite safe). "Simangele" is Elise's middle name, btw: it roughly means "surprise" in siSwati, because everyone expected her to be born a boy.
Elise in her Lewis & Clark art studio in February; she plans to graduate spring 2016 with an art degree.
Some of Elise's finished work on display in April. Who, might you ask, is her model?...
This should be a clue. (It's not exactly her of course.)
Elise, Joy, and their mom Bongie at Oxbow Regional Park near PDX in May.
Joy and her partner Bongani in (where else?) the PDX Rose Gardens in May.
Bongani and Joy saying hi to me on the train during a brief stop near their home in Santa Barbara en route to a San Diego conference in June.
My sister Mary (front) hosted a number of gatherings at her home in Eugene. Counterclockwise from her are Elise, Bongie, Joy, Bongani, Ryoko, Brooke (Ryoko's parter and Bob & Merrilee's son), Bob, and Merrilee.
My two siblings Mary and Bob getting dessert ready at Mary's...with Bob's grandson (Brooke & Ryoko's son) Kahdo eagerly looking on.
Bob's daughter Lyra and her boyfriend Larry...the newest member of our extended family.
Mary, Bob and I hiked Diamond Peak Wilderness in June...sibling campfire bonding.
Our hiking destination: Happy Lake. It was a very happy lake! Great swimming, peaceful, lovely view.
Our distant cousin Marj from Idaho visited Canyonville in June with Sisters on the Fly. Here she is in front of memorial to Mom next to City Hall.
Mary's son Colin and I hiked Dog Mountain in Nov...cold and windy! Snapped this photo quick before we blew off the side of the hill, and it's quite a hill.
Dog Mountain trail near the summit, overlooking the Columbia River.
One more view down on the Columbia River from Dog Mtn.
Kahdo, the youngest member of our clan, just turned three on Halloween. Here he is at Bob & Merrilee's for Christmas.
Grandpa and Grandma are Kahdo's special pals. He's quite the budding musician himself.
Before we move on from family let's not forget Simon, that dear old member of the Eisen-Proctor clan, who slept happily in the corner on possibly his final Christmas.
Okay, now me and PDX. Here's my place in Feb, all shoveled out for a refinance appraisal...and captured on film before the stuff came back out of the closets.
I've been singing with the UU Chamber Choir again in honor of music director Mark's final year; here we're all doing a circle dance around him at Menucha in Columbia Gorge during our annual fall retreat. Coming soon: Jim sings you a song on podcast!
I just completed 10 happy years at Lewis & Clark. It's a bit of a bubble (as this New Yorker riff suggests), so we do our best in environmental studies to get our students into the world beyond campus.
Here is our enviro studies graduating class of 2015, at colleague Liz's home for a celebratory barbeque.
My admin Nate and I participated in a workshop at George Mason Univ in Aug as part of a web development grant. We've been pushing the web envelope for years: this grant will showcase our students' skills in digital curation.
A few students from my second-year environmental analysis course doing a field lab in September.
Seniors Rebecca and Sam composed and sang a ukelele song for the new second-year enviro studies majors!
Environmental Affairs Symposium this year featured artist Elizabeth Demaray, with lots of student participation.
February general education conference, Kansas City. We're looking forward to some innovative opportunities in GE at Lewis & Clark.
In March I traveled to St Peter, MN to help conduct a program review. Guess it was my year of cold destinations!
In June I returned to the Breakthrough Dialogue in Sausalito prior to heading to San Diego for our Association for Environmental Studies & Sciences annual meeting (this was the aforementioned train trip).
We were asked prior to the Dialogue to submit visions of a "Good Anthropocene." Mine was a piece of art mentioned by Bruno Latour, Space TIme Foam (of which the image is a bit of embellishment). Latour himself was there, gently chiding Breakthrough in his thoughtful way.
Menucha Center in August, overlooking the smoky Columbia Gorge (2015 had a huge summer of forest fires!). Nope, didn't visit to take a swim...
Ten years ago, when I arrived at Lewis & Clark, I convened a retreat here to plan our curriculum. Now, ten years later, it was time for our faculty to meet again and help chart our future for environmental studies...and to enjoy time together away from classes and committee meetings.
Now, a quick update on Kojosho, a soft karate style I've practiced for a long time. Made it to spring camp at Apple Valley in New Mexico; was good to get back and work out with fellow Kojosho practitioners (many of who live in NM).
The new news in 2015 is: John and I are teaching again! Our first (small) class at Lewis & Clark, with a bigger class coming in spring.
Mike (who taught with me in Berkeley), John, and me at a fall workout in Forest Park, PDX.
Finally, a bunch of photos from Canyonville, which occupied much of my time this last year. Meet the new/old resident on our land! We've needed a tractor for a long time.
Longtime Canyonville residents and close family friends Sue and Gloria with Elise and Joy in Canyonville in August.
Also in August (same day, same restaurant...there aren't that many down there), our good Cville friends Bub and Phil.
Alder Creek Community Forest, the nonprofit we founded on our land in 2002, got an education grant this year from the Gray Family Foundation, and hired two school coordinators, Rich and Jessica, here pictured with Cville teacher "Mr. J." at right.
ACCF has new caretakers too: Jackie and her son Rich.
ACCF board members Phil and Larry after working on the ACCF pavilion fireplace...we're all a bit worse for wear after that job.
We spiffed up the place quite a bit last spring, thanks to many hands.
We also installed a number of trail and plant signs...but some got a bit too much wildlife love.
Volunteers at an ACCF work day in November focusing on the Alder Creek riparian area (and of course that fireplace, finally ready for action).
In our current grant, ACCF and local schools build on the GLOBE K-12 earth system science initiative. Potential connenctions are worldwide! Here are participants in the annual GLOBE conference in July.
Teachers participating in the GLOBE conference learn a new soil moisture testing protocol, to be administered when they return to their schools throughout the world.
A few area teachers at Fern Draw bridge; they were participating in an August ACCF workshop.
One popular student activity this fall has been to adopt a tree on our site. Totals for fall 2015: over 650 student visits to ACCF from over a dozen classes, totaling over 2000 student learning hours.
We're building a family vacation compound on our land as well...it's inching along...in 30 years it'll be done!
But there has been progress in the forest, incuding fuels reduction designed to lessen fire risk.
Looking up toward Canyon Mountain from our front field; I'd look up at (and climb) that oxymoronic mountain often as a child.
White oaks in winter toward the top of Front Ridge trail, with Canyon Mountain in the background.
At times, things were lush on our forest! This one's from early January.
We transplanted tree seedlings late last year in the riparian area near Alder Creek. Things went pretty well until the summer drought...we'll be planting again soon!
We call this part of the forest Fern Draw for a reason.
July and August brought sustained drought and huge wildfires to the region. This photo peers over Canyon Mountain toward the smoke coming from Stouts Creek Fire.
Then by Nov and Dec it was wetter than ever! We are taking hydrological measurements on Alder Creek year-round, and comparing with the meterological data we're collecting from our weather station.
I'll close with this quick photo from late Dec, again looking up from our land at Canyon Mountain. Wishing you insight and satisfaction from all the resolutions you have made for 2016!