Its seeds vs. cats.
As you can see from the photos, we have two very cute kitties. But please don’t be fooled by the sleepy pose they happen to be captured in. They are juvenile delinquents. I mean it. No piece of furniture is too tall to be considered a climbing post. And when they chase each other through the house, it sounds like a herd of elephants (baby elephants but still) romping across our hard wood floors. I cannot even talk about my dining room chairs & little kitten claws, ugh. So you get the cat part of the face off.
Now onto the seeds. As I delve deeper into gardening, I have truly enjoyed all the experiments. One such trial I was planning for this winter was grow lights to coax my baby seeds out of the soil a bit earlier & perhaps, be a bit more robust than last spring’s attempts. I even had a whole plan of attack mapped out & a supply list compiled.
Then it dawned on me. Surely, a tray of wet soil & curious, climbing cats was not going to work in my favor. I have envisioned different scenarios from my first….all had the same ending. A tray of wet, dirty hard work crashing down onto the floor.
As of now, I am working on plan B. I’ll keep you posted. I don’t think it’s going to be the beautiful greenhouse I saw in the back of Fine Gardening. A girl can dream though.

"dirt" under the snow

Reluctantly I trucked out my back door, through the snow, to check on my neglected compost. I have to be honest; I only pulled on my boots because of Treehugger.com & Sun Chips (yup, the snack). But we need to go back about seven months to this past spring & all the excitement of my new found green pursuits to get a grip on why I needed a peek under the lid.
My kids love sweets & treats. So you can imagine, I avoid taking them to the grocery store at all costs. This time, however, could not be avoided. We spilled out of the car & into the store for what I hoped would be a quick hit. Then the requests, demands & general surliness started. “No” was the answer aisle by aisle, until we came upon a “field” of green. There stood a big tower of SunChips in a new green bag, which proclaimed to the world…100%compostable. Ok, fun, coveted snack for the kids & science experiment of the eco-nature for me. Win-win. Throw ‘em in the cart, junior!
Fast forward to the middle of winter, no can do. The bag in our composter is 100% intact. It seems Consumer Reports (December 2010 issue) did a bit of investigation into the claim & had about the same results I did. In the meantime, SunChips have pulled the products with the groundbreaking packaging under a veil of consumer complaints due to the excessive loud crinkling the bag made. Kinda makes sense, can’t be a couch potato with a bag of crinkly chips disturbing your reality show. It may, however, be consumer complaints of non compost-ability (I suspect, anyway)! We shall never know.
But one thing is for certain. If at first you don’t succeed, etc, etc. I do hope companies like SunChips & others keep working on innovative packaging & practices to help minimize the enormous amount of trash we throw away every day. Because let’s face it, chips aren’t going anywhere, so the packaging needs to.

almost famous

I'm going to admit it right off the bat here. It feels pretty good to have your name up in lights. A local website reporting on all things haddonfield posted a story about me & my little blog. Very cool. Just saying.

http://haddonfield.patch.com/articles/new-years-resolution-2-more-green-t

sustain...to support, hold up, endure without yielding, provide food, drink or other necessities of life, provide funds or aid or approval. Such a powerful word with so many meanings. And if you caught the New York Times week in review today, they worked 'em all in. Covering topics you would normally think of in relation to the eco-movement, like turning our diets away from the 99 cent burger to Asian Carp or kudzu (both invasive pests). They also spoke of eating invasive weeds...look out micro greens. Or the two year consumption cycle of virtually all our electronics, mostly phones but also cameras & GPS units. The reporters also covered cash & budgets, as well as happy marriages. And I have vacillated all day between being charmed to annoyed. I always enjoy a chance to learn something new about this path I am wandering down. The annoyed part could be my aversion to talk about budgets or diets. But I think in a way I was looking forward to really delving into one of my favorite topics & felt the sustainability headline a bit misleading.

In the end, I will leave it up to you. Charmed or annoyed?

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/weekinreview/index.html

happy new year

We did it! No, we did not stay up til 12 o'clock to ring 2011. All were fast asleep over here snug in our beds. But, the kids had a blast re-trimming our tree earlier in the day. A few short strands of cheerios even made it together by small hands. There was a lot of laughing & snacking though, especially by the little pipsqueak among us. And as with all family projects, you can guess who was still at the counter toiling away peanut by peanut.
A great rush of excitement came, however, when it was time for the actual trimming. On with boots & hats & out the door they went. And as the sun was setting on an old year, my loves danced around in the snow jockeying for the perfect spot to put another circle of cranberries for our feathered friends on our old dried out tree.

Wishing you all a lovely, fuitful 2011!

get that christmas tree outta here

Good morning on the eve of a new year! Wasn't sure how my family & I were going to mark the occasion. We have several great options, including a First Night celebration in our quaint little town. Or invites to hang with friends. But as I settled in at the breakfast table eating a fabulous omelet my husband made, an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer caught my eye. The gist of the story was to use your dried out Christmas tree to feed the birds. Not the actual tree, mind you. This is where those little people running around your house complaining, "I'm bored!" come in. I promise not to get sidetracked with all the toys they could be playing with or the thank you notes which aren't going to write themselves. Round 'em up the best you can, including any stragglers hiding in front of Wii & start 'em stringing cheerios, cranberries & peanuts in the shell. If you are feeling especially ambitious, pine cones can be dipped in melted suet & rolled in black oil sunflower seeds.
Off I go to gather my supplies & rally my troops. Wish me luck on re-trimming our tree!

If you are feeling moved to action as well, here's a link to the article....

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20101231_A_new_way_to_recycle_your_Christmas_tree__and_other_ways_to_help_backyard_animals.html

action

Okay, fess up. You may not be obsessed, like half the country, with Kate Gosselin & all her kids, but unless you live under a rock, you have seen a picture or two of her bad weave. I have no idea if any other nation is as celebrity centric as the US, but standing in line at the grocery store it seems like all we do is gawk at one star or another.
I am somewhere in the middle of the celebrity overload. I know who the “Situation” is but don’t really care to watch how badly he & his crew wreck Seaside Heights or New Jersey’s image (hmmm, that may have already been wrecked). Lindsay Lohan….nothing to say, really, nothing. And on & on it goes. Everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame, right?
Alright, enough cynicism. My point of this particular tangent is celebrities who use their power of fame & pretty faces to do good. And for our purposes here, green good. So, hang onto your hat, what follows is a refreshing list of good deeds by an eclectic group of famous folks (and handsome!).

1. Ed Norton. Remember him in “Fight Club”? Well, after running the NY marathon to raise $ for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust in 2009, (a bit of a side note here…”60 minutes” just aired a story on this area & the Great Migration of Wildebeest 2 days ago. It was truly a compelling story, I promise.) Edward decided to create a website CrowdRise, which allows users to create a profile & raise cash for organizations that are important to them. One tagline… answering the call to service, raising money for charity, and having the most fun in the world while doing it. Worth a look-see!
2. Leo. The Titanic hunk, not the lion. But funny you should mention lions. Ok, it’s really tigers but let’s not get technical. Mr. Dicaprio just pledged $1 million to the World Wildlife Fund for this year’s Save the Tigers Now campaign. The goal is to double the number of endangered tigers in the wild by 2022. He is quoted as saying, “By saving tigers, we can also protect some of our last remaining ancient forest and improve the lives of indigenous communities”. Not just a pretty face!
3. Pearl Jam. These guys have been around the block, no joke. The whole Seattle grunge movement may have started with Nirvana but Pearl Jam quickly outsold them. All those years ago, they famously boycotted Ticketmaster for its monopoly on ticket sales and these days they speak out on homelessness, pro-choice and environmental issues to name a few. This year to offset the carbon footprint of their 32 date tour 33 acres of trees were planted in the Pacific Northwest, where they hail from.
4. Ryan Reynolds. Seriously, what is not to like?? Before I get all sidetracked with the “sexiest Man” thing, let’s focus on his mind. He produced a documentary about Luna, the killer whale, which follows a whale as he comes in contact with humans and the consequences incurred. Reynolds also narrated a clean energy public service announcement for the Natural Resources Defense Council to highlight the true cost of a gallon of gas. He was driven to become involved after flying over the Gulf of Mexico during the BP fiasco and even worked to maintain eco-friendly initiatives on the set of the “Green Lantern”. All this & he married Scarlett Johansson, smart man!
5. Kevin Costner. Of “Field of Dreams” & “Tin Cup” fame, the actor has also had his share of
failures. “Waterworld” & “The Postman”, ring a bell? Yikes. Well, he has a lot to be proud of these days though. BP has purchased 32 centrifuges from Costner’s company Ocean Therapy Solutions to help with the gulf oil spill. The machine is supposed to separate 97% of oil from water. Maybe there was more to that water movie than just bad wardrobe. Hmmm.


So, I don’t know about you but these guys are inspiring me. I can’t think of a better way to start the New Year than reflecting on all the great ways people are thinking outside the box & paying attention to the world. I am sure you know someone right in your backyard working in big & small ways to make a change. What will you do?