Thursday, April 22, 2010

It has been a long time since I blogged here on my green iota and I would like to send you my warmest greetings and wishes for a most Happy Earth Day! I will be blogging on his site pretty regularly from now on and look forward to sharing my little bits of green wisdom with you and hope that you will share back. Have a most excellent day and I'll see you soon!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

zone dragging...

Gardeners are not naive about climate change, anyone who gardens sees it occurring right in their own backyard. I, as a gardener, was in zone denial for many years. Insisting upon trying to overwinter Rosemary in my zone 6 garden. Most Rosemary plants are hardy in zone 9 and even though my zone has been reclassified from 6 to 7 in recent years, I now have a rosemary plant that is 3 years old living in a bed at the side of my home. The plants know it and anyone who really knows the plants knows it, our globe is definitely warming. The frosts are later and not as deep and I can, with a fair amount of confidence, put seedlings out in the garden in late April instead of the second week in May. The zone hardiness map has changed quite a bit since 1990, and is likely to keep changing.

Allogenic succession of plants and community change redistribution of wildlife and native species due to habitat depletion/fragmentation and global warming is already happening. We need to make the changes necessary to stabilize our ecosystem. Get active, get aware and let's all get moving towards a greener future! Please join us in celebrating this big BAD day on Change.org.

Monday, September 7, 2009

choose your eggs, very carefully...

A Rooster ought to get to be, what he was meant to be, if only for a little while...

The recent undercover expose about life and death in America's large Chicken hatcheries is mind boggling, disturbing and oh so sad. Especially for those of us who really know and love Chickens.

A disturbing piece of footage depicting newly hatched male chicks being culled out and flung, fluffy and full of life, into an oversize macerating meat grinder. These are the kinds of things that go on every single day in the commercial meat farming industry. Business as usual. We need to be aware that someone suffers and loses when we buy meat, eggs and dairy from a cooler in the supermarket. I am not necessarily suggesting that we all become vegans--although that would be great--but we need to become more aware and respectful of the sacrifice that is made by the animals we eat. We need to support ethical farming practices and be willing to do without sometimes. Voting with our dollars is the clearest message that we can send. Big industry follows where we lead, lets get informed and change the way businesses is done. There just has to be a better way!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Looking in, for number one...


It began slowly for me, looking inward for number one. The person with a voice, the person with a vote, the person who, despite what I was always lead to believe, really can make a difference.

My husband and I had begun to watch less and less TV before the lightning strike that fried our television for good. We would declare media free nights where we would hang out, talk and just enjoy being together. When we bought our new TV, we decided to unhook our cable and only watch rental movies. We listen to music a lot more now and have re-discovered the joy of University sponsored radio and podcasts and of reading our favorite newspaper online.

I am quiet a lot more now. Quiet at first, was an uncomfortable place to be; worry, fear and anxiety were busily looking for places to sit as I pulled more chairs away from the table of procrastination and inertia. Add more silence...and worry, fear and inertia began to transform into ideas and doing. I feel like I am waking up, having my own thoughts; commercial jingles and tag-lines no longer roam my brain like crowded sheep.

I am beginning to hear more deeply into my very own world now; birds, dogs, children playing, the music of people in the street, the beautiful and raucous sound of life happening all around me.

I like being me, I like having a choice, I like being awake. I am happily, a work-in-progress, who is making more art, writing, cooking, doing and looking in for number one...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

finding the 'green lining'...

It has been a crazy couple of weeks around my home, it all began with the crash of my Mac hard-drive. My hard-drive crashed taking with it about 15,000 images--of course they were not backed up--and loads of other info. Something in my beautiful Sony DSLR ground to a high-pitched whining halt--still undiagnosed--this was the beginning of our two week techno-slide. No camera, no Mac.

After picking up My Mac from my local Apple-certified repair guy I was feeling a bit better, still so sad about those irreplaceable images though. A few days later we had a bad storm during which lightning struck the giant Walnut tree in our yard--poor baby has a lightning scar from top to bottom--traveled along the roots of the tree towards the house. The lightning tripped a few breakers, frying our television set and internet hook-up in the process. So I had my brand spanking new hard-drive and no internet and no TV. I was prepared to have a good cry! And I did.

The point of this story is that all of these disruptions served me in many ways. I learned the hard way to always back up my data, that was a no-brainer. I learned that I am a TV junkie, not by volume but by necessity of habit. Having no hope of seeing my 'usual shows' gave me--I reluctantly admit--the shakes. I now know the double meaning of the term internet hook-up, it is not only a physical link with the internet but an emotional link with all that I love about being in the flow of information.

This serious down time gave me an opportunity to be quiet, really quiet, old fashioned quiet. No more stealing away to the couch to eat lunch in front of the TV. I started sitting alone at the kitchen table to eat (it is a very sweet table!). No more watching Jeopardy while eating dinner with my hubby, we started sitting at the dining-room table again (another very nice table!). I have rekindled my romance with all things slow; like listening to the music of the world around me, tablecloths, cloth napkins, place-mats, silence and my very own thoughts while gazing out the window as I eat.

After researching new televisions we went to a local, very nicely run chain-store and bought a beautiful Energy Star rated TV from a nice man named Doug. Doug treated us with respect and did not pressure us--although he did try to sell us the extended warranty but that's his job after all--it was a great experience. We recycled our 6 year-old TV at the chain-store--they laughed when my husband pulled it out of the car in its original box--and got a $50 gift card for doing so.

The really nice thing is that we are watching almost no TV, we are discontinuing our cable service and will be renting movies for entertainment. We eat all of our meals at table now. We are getting more done around the house in the evenings and are talking and laughing more. I am, after all is said and done, a very happy camper. BTW my dear sister loaned me her spare camera so I am back in business!

I am feeling so much leaner and greener. Have an ever-so beautiful day and don't forget to unplug from time to time. Have yourselves a green moment, a Green Hour and a very green day!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sustainability...


Solving the puzzle…

The box with the beautiful picture on top is the Earth, the pieces inside, are us and everything we love and rely upon. Sustainability involves keeping track of the pieces in such a way that unfolds the image in its entirety, complete and interlocked.

The challenge is, keeping the pieces from getting lost. To ignore sustainability issues is to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. It is a practice that has and will continue to come back to bite us if we do not endeavor to solve it.

I believe that sustainability begins with me, the individual. If I choose products and services which support and embrace sustainability, I exert the most compelling kind of power possible in our consumer driven society. The power for change is a transformational tool that each of us possesses in its fullness. The kind of bottom-up change that I am talking about, builds like a wave and sweeps away obstacles in its path without effort.

Change is occurring all around us as people become more aware, band together in community, rely upon each other, interlock their borders and move forward. When this happens the puzzle becomes more whole and the overall strength of it will carry and sustain the areas where pieces have been lost or misplaced.

It is so important for each of us to shoulder our piece. We must resist the temptations of cynicism and inaction, take up our power and vote, not only in the marketplace and government but in our own lives with the people and causes that matter to us. This is not a heavy burden, it is a joyful one full of hope and new beginnings that builds itself organically, with action and resolve in a most thoughtful and beautiful way.

Have an ever so beautiful, sustainable day!

Please remember to think Globally and act Locally!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

the first Monarch of the season...

The first Monarch of the season set my heart at ease...