One New Thing Every Day hopes to make it easy and fun for you to get to know your home a little better. The blog's name was inspired by a collection of 100-year-old publications I found at a book sale at the Natural History Museum at Roger Williams Park.
The Mentor Association published a series of pamphlets that aimed to convey "in an interesting and attractive way, the information in various fields of knowledge that everybody wants and ought to have... Walking in the woods or fields, the pleasure most of us take is far less keen than it might be if we knew the names of the wild flowers and something about their history." The motto of the Mentor Association: "Learn one thing every day."
So, this blog really is simply about enhancing your pleasure in living in this part of our incredibly diverse and interesting world by learning one new thing about it every day. If there is a deeper motive, it might be that by deepening that sense of connection to the natural world, we create advocates who will help to ensure that beautiful places and wild things are protected for the future.
"Placiness" refers to the uniqueness of this state, which is like no other place on Earth. It has a certain provenance, a terroir, that is found only here, and appreciating the placiness of our home can enrich our lives.
Your blogger, Mary Grady, a native Rhode Islander, is a geographer by training, a writer by profession, a traveler by design, an explorer by nature.
"Make the spare moment count."
