It has been 21 months since I posted to this blog. Partly that can be attributed to laziness; partly to not having anything new to say (at least about Earth and environmental sciences and geography) that I did not have another outlet for. I'm not sure anyone really noticed the blog was gone, but now it is back. 

Much of that no-blog time was spent writing a book, to be published by Elsevier, on landscape evolution. This will integrate geomorphological, pedological, ecological, and hydrological theories on the evolution of landscapes, ecosystems, and other Earth surface systems. It is grounded in an approach based on the inseparability of landform, soil, and ecosystem development, vs. the traditional semi-independent treatment of geomorphic, ecological, pedological, and hydrological phenomena. Key themes are the coevolution of biotic and abiotic components of the environment; selection whereby more efficient and/or durable structures, forms, & patterns are preferentially formed and preserved; and the interconnected role of laws, place factors, and history. 

It will be awhile before it actually get published--I have finished a first draft, and there will be revisions and corrections and all that other stuff that has to be done before a book can be published. 

But in the process, I have discovered new things to say. Some I had thought to put in the book, but as it turns out they just didn't fit. Others came to mind as offshoots or diversions as I wrote the book. Some of them, no doubt, deserve obscurity and will get it. Others are potentially useful and interesting, but not quite fleshed out enough to justify an article (and besides, my retirement looms, and my reward for publishing articles will be even less than it is now). So I will use this blog to share these ideas in hopes that someone may find them helpful--or even follow up on them!

More to come . . . really.