It is early on a Friday morning, 5:18 a.m. to be exact, and I am sitting here at my laptop wondering why no one else is up. None of my Patch colleagues, that is. 

Ah, there’s Carrie Jacobson. The little icon beside her name in our email just turned green, meaning she is up and on the case.  We Patch editors are like farmers. At least we rise early, well before dawn. We put on some coffee and start right in.

I have thought of farming often during the past year and a half. It’s easy to think about farming in Ledyard, which is not my hometown, but has become one of my favorite places on Earth.

In the fall of 2010, with a lot of help from my boss, Elissa Bass, and so many of you, we launched Ledyard Patch. It was an odd name, but oddly appropriate for Ledyard. It was green and it spoke of growing things.

At the time, almost no one had heard of Patch. There were no Patches in this part of the world. So I got to be the first to tell people that this, or something like it, is how many of us will be getting our community news and information in the future. 

I still meet people who ask, “What is Patch?” But not so many anymore. By now most people have found us, and have been watching us evolve – a growth spurt here, a little pruning there, another growth spurt…

Beginning with the Ledyard Patch, we have watched new Patches spring up in neighboring towns. As each Patch has taken root, under the careful tending of so many wonderful editors, we have seen this common theme grow into unique and beautiful reflections of each host town.

Like any new venture, Patch is still finding its way, trying new things, always adapting, always growing, always changing.

The biggest change has been a sort of transfer of ownership from me to you. We are still sorting that out, but what we are beginning to see increasingly are residents posting announcements, photos, comments and blogs.

People are embracing Patch not just as readers, but also as owners, partners, participants and fellow messengers to the community. Instead of one or two people, suddenly there are many hundreds of people keeping watch over the town, over their neighborhoods, and reporting the news of their schools and churches and places of business. 

This also is a wave of the future, and it has been very exciting to watch, and very gratifying to have been a part of it.

I am writing today to say goodbye. I have taken a new job and will be leaving on Feb. 1. For now I am leaving you in the capable hands of Jessie King. Call her – 860 501-4797 – or send her an email with any Patch business you would have brought to me.

You will like Jessie. You’ll see.

It has been my great privilege and good fortune to run Ledyard Patch for the past 17 months. As a much younger reporter, nearly 30 years ago, Ledyard was my first daily beat. I loved the town then, and I was eager to return to see if it was still the same old place.

I am pleased to report that Ledyard is still the great town I remembered. I could not have been more warmly welcomed or enthusiastically embraced.  

For this I will always be grateful. I will miss you. I wish you all the best.