I am a writer and publisher who lives and works in Rochester, New York.  I haven’t quite decided what I am going to write about, but I am interested in how we relate to each other and the environment in this place that I love, even though it often makes me sad.

The name “beautiful valley” comes from meaning of the word Genesee in Seneca, the language of the people who were here when Europeans arrived. Rochester is in the Genesee Valley, on the banks of the Genesee River, which flows north from the mountains of Pennsylvania into Lake Ontario.

My city is in Monroe County, in New York State, in the United States, on the Lake Ontario plain, west of the Appalachian cordillera, east of the Mississippi,  in the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem, in North America, on Earth.

Culturally and politically, we are somewhere west of New England, east of the Midwest, north of the Mid-Atlantic, and south of Canada. I believe our lack of a vivid identity, of a sense of place beyond “not this, not that,” makes it harder for us to appreciate, nurture, and protect the good things about our community and environment. Exploring the unique nature of this place is part of what I want to do with this blog.