Fall is my favorite season. We (friends in and attached to the graduate program) have regular potlucks, and one of them this fall had a theme centering around the "unappreciated art of stuffed food" as well as turning thirty, which several friends did...quite well, I might add. Squashed filled with stuffing, mushrooms full of cheese, desserts crammed with more desserty things. You get the idea. It was delicious. It was also how the last few months of the year felt, hence the dearth of blog updates. I loved the classes I took, delving deeper into topics and crafts that I was already interested in and familiar with but had not the time nor expertise to jump deeper into and explore on my own, practicing skills within the presence of experienced and dedicated thinkers, writers, and doers. I also found great joy in teaching my own freshman composition class once all was said and done and it was clear that we all learned a lot throughout the semester. Not to mention neat school trips, which I will mention below, and celebrating my partners-for-life status with a small cadre of friends and family. Jam-packed. Like chocolate stuffed pastries.
So let's reach back all the way to mid-October when I joined a handful of other classmates on a trip to central Montana, where we met with ranchers, miners, and other hardworking people we would not otherwise usually have access to in the heart of big sky country:
The weekend before, I was in Minnesota reading in cousin Amy's wedding, where I had the chance to briefly see much of my family for the first time since moving out to Montana, one of whom has since left us and another who is having trouble staying with us:
The following weekend, I was at the
AERO Conference in Helena, where most discussions surrounded the subject of the conference's title "Perennial Roots: Reimagining Our Energy & Agricultural Future" and I heard Wes Jackson speak for the second time in as many months:
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