The class of 2019 shared a final evening together in mid-December, with excellent food and lively conversations. Each class member presented their own project that grew out of new learning from class and their own weekly personal explorations using a science journal. This is the first of four posts that will feature each person’s creation. This first set of stories all center around the theme of an individual’s growing “Sense of Place.”

In her photo book titled “My Adventures,” Monica Maxwell exuberantly arrayed the biodiversity of wildlife and plants that she encountered behind the wheel of her trusty jeep as she explored the lesser-traveled backroads of Douglas, Grant, Okanogan, and Chelan Counties.

Wendy Sharp moved to Wenatchee from the Midwest just a few weeks before starting the course. Her interests turned to exploring lichens. She encountered an old-growth western larch growing in the Mission Ridge basin that had limbs covered in bright green wolf lichen (Letharia sp.). Wendy researched this species and learned it can be used as a fabric dye. Wendy cooked up a lichen sample and dyed a cotton tee-shirt.

Lois Eulberg recently moved to our area from the Westside, and she took the class, hoping to learn about local geology. Her dual passions are photography and rocks.

Lois shared images of rock formations she’s observed while journaling and rock samples she’s collected.  She read aloud Tim McNulty’s lyrical overview of Wenatchee watershed’s geologic history from the Watershed Art project booklet.

Jill Nolan has long been a local rock-hound and explorer in Washington. She showed our class a subset of her rock and gem collection, highlighting agates, fossils, and an unknown tooth that she’s collected in our region.