This has been a really good week. I put in a good amount of time working on my Gap Year Guide book, worked with the CPA to get the taxes and other required nonprofit forms done for the last fiscal year, made some art and got out on quite a few fun outings.
My sister, Chrissy, and I tried to go kayaking on Tuesday afternoon. Though it was a bit overcast, there wasn’t much wind, that is until we got our kayaks in the water and all of a sudden the fog rolled in and the wind picked up! We paddled around for a bit and at times it became calmer, but just when we thought we would be fine, the wind would pick up again. We struggled against it but after about 15 minutes decided it was better just to go back, we didn’t want to worry about getting blown over to Tiburon! Might have to wait till the spring to get back to kayaking.
I got out for a hike at Fernwood Cemetery, a place I have walked and driven by probably thousands of times, but have never once gone into. I just walked around one area as it’s on a hillside, so quite steep. It was a really lovely place and I look forward to exploring it more in the future.
I went to see a movie about Robert Reich called The Last Class, filmed over his final semester teaching his Wealth and Poverty class at UC Berkeley. I was so impressed with how much care he put into designing the class which he has taught for many years. It would be really easy for him to just show up and repeat what he has said to earlier classes, but he really wanted to make sure that the students understood what he was talking about and could connect it to their own lives. He has had quite an impressive career, and I’m grateful that he decided to devote a lot of that time to educating students at a public university.
I attended a book launch event at Book Passage, a local bookstore that puts on lots of author talks and other events. This one was put together by the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), and it featured four cheesemakers from West Marin, one of whom who had just released a cookbook. They talked about how they got into making cheese, the history of their land (some lived on land that had been in their family for generations) and how MALT has supported them as well as some background about the sustainability processes they use (like robot milkers and methane ponds for generating electricity!). It was a really cool panel. The event was made even better by the cheese tasting that we had before the panel presentation! I got to try cheeses from Tomales Farmstead Creamery, Toluma Farms, Cowgirl Creamery, Nicasio Valley Cheese Co and Point Reyes Farmstead cheese.
