PROJECT: KEEPING A WEATHER LOG

KEEPER OF THE LIGHT by Caroline Arnold, illustrated by Rachell Sumpter

Juliet Nichols, the lighthouse keeper on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay from 1902 to 1914, is the subject of my book KEEPER OF THE LIGHT (Cameron Kids/Abrams 2022.)

Juliet recorded the weather in her log book twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening.  She also noted activities relevant to running the lighthouse–such as repairs, the delivery of fuel, or a visit of the lighthouse inspector.  She used the information in her log book to write her monthly reports.

Juliet's log for February 1906

You can make your own log to make a record of the weather where you live.

You will need: a large notebook with lined paper, a pencil, outdoor thermometer, graph paper.

Using Juliet’s lighthouse log as a model, write your name, the month, year, and location of your observations in the notebook at the top of the page. Along the left margin, write the numbers, 1-31, one date per line.  Once each day (at about the same time) write down your observations of the sky (clear, partly sunny, overcast, foggy), air temperature (measure with a thermometer), and precipitation (rain, snow, sleet.)    

Sample graph

At the end of each month you can make a simple graph of the daily temperatures.

What was the average temperature for the month? (Hint: Add all the temperatures and divide by the number of days in the month.)

PRESS RELEASE for KEEPER OF THE LIGHT: Juliet Fish Nichols Fights the San Francisco Fog

I am so excited that KEEPER OF THE LIGHT: Juliet Fish Nichols Fights the San Francisco Fog (Cameron Kids, April 15, 2022) is soon to be available. I am beginning to work with the marketing director at Cameron Books to promote the book. Printed books will not be available until April, but a press release with a peek at the book and the beautiful illustrations by Rachell Sumpter is available now. 

Click HERE to go to my Angel Island web page where you can download the press release.

I have visited Angel Island numerous times. I loved learning about Juliet and her lighthouse and about Angel Island. My book is based on historical records and her log, which I read at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Stay tuned for more information about KEEPER OF THE LIGHT!

WRITING A TRAVEL DIARY: Keeping Memory Fresh

Hidden Lake, Glacier National Park

Before email and texting, people wrote letters and diaries to record their thoughts and experiences. While I have never kept a daily diary, from a young age I have always written a diary or log on summer vacations and trips. These early letters and logs are among my first travel writing. Recently, I rediscovered the diary I wrote when my family visited Glacier National Park on a family camping trip in 1961. My entries note both our activities of the day–hikes, swimming, picnics, a flat tire en route to Waterton Park in Canada--and more mundane issues such as the weather and what we ate. (In one entry I describe making peach cobbler over the campfire. In another, I tell how I burned all the lamb chops for dinner!) You can read a selection of my entries at my travel blog The Intrepid Tourist.  For me, my Glacier trip diary is both a memory jog and a reminder of the importance of writing things down when they are fresh. I never know when sometime in the future those words of the moment might inspire a new story.