Patricia Hanlon presenting her book, “Swimming to the Top of the Tide.”
Last Saturday April 23, volunteers and members of Save Essex Landscape celebrated Earth Day by cleaning-up the grounds and marshland surrounding Essex County Greenbelt's headquarters, the Cox Reservation, in Essex. Perfect weather encouraged many people to come and help. Clean-up resulted in two-hundred pounds of trash collected: plastic bottles, cans and rusty metal, nurdles (microplastics), and other stuff.
Afterwards everyone enjoyed refreshments; then gathered in the old barn for an interesting presentation by Patricia Hanlon of her book, Swimming to the Top of the Tide, which she wrote after 40 years of swimming, with her husband—year round!—up and down Ebben Creek in Essex and Walker Creek in Gloucester. Patty read excerpts from her book and talked about the importance of marshland as a carbon sink and as protection against rising tides. After answering listeners' questions, Patty told everyone that she is currently working on a sequel. Where does Ebben Creek begin? What about Walker Creek? As Patty's questions arose, she began to explore various topics about land and sea, which she will bring out in her next book.
