If you’ve followed me here from my old blog, you know that I no longer live “Somewhere in NJ” but instead reside in Atlanta, GA.  You also know how much NJ, most especially its beaches, means to me. Set me in some other landscape, one of rolling hills or towering evergreen woodlands, or amid busy city streets like here in ATL , and I’m reeling and disoriented, wondering from which direction the scent of salt water will come.

The Jersey Shore is the land in my bones.  Its sand and tides, marshes and maritime forests, tall hollies, bayberries and beach plums are all a part of me. The cordgrass along its creek margins, its seaside goldenrod and its groundsel trees all inform my writing here, as do its piping plovers, osprey, winter ducks and short-eared owls.