There are no little things.

Inspired by a comment on my last post that "there are no little things," I found a site dedicated to that principle, and added it to my sidebar. Check it out and pledge to become a "carbon conscious consumer." The site poses a carbon-saving challenge each month, and provides support for meeting the challenge.


This month's challenge is to reduce your junk mail. Here's the short list of why you would want to do that (read more here):

Save trees: More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail. 42% of timber harvested nationwide becomes pulpwood for paper.
Reduce global warming: The energy used to produce and dispose of junk mail exceeds 2.8 million cars.
Save water: About 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk each year.
Save time. You waste about 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail.

Last April, I signed up with a service that makes it easy to get off of mailing lists. I used Green Dimes. Another service is 41pounds. Both services make it easy to get your names off the lists. Green Dimes cancels catalogs too. It was my impression that these services also monitor the mailing lists and keep your name off of them, but ... I'm checking into that...stay tuned.

Who uses styrofoam anymore?

In the midst of the rebirth of environmental consciousness, in the progressive San Francisco Bay Area, MY KIDS' SCHOOLS use styrofoam plates at their family picnics.

That's about 1000 styrofoam plates that will never ever become fertilizer. Actually, make that 996 -- because I convinced 3 out of 4 kids (and myself) to take reusable plates from home. As Blue Gal says, "Be the change, baby."

Save the Bay

Aaahhh.There is something about this scene that relaxes me.

I took this on a school field trip led by the "Save the Bay" organization. The group works to protect and restore the unique wetland habitats of the San Francisco Bay. They also educate the public about the importance of the remaining 10% of wetlands that still exist in the San Francisco Bay. There are two endangered species who live in the wetlands: the California Clapper Rail, and the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse. No, I don't think the birds above are Clapper Rails.

I chaperoned twenty-some 5th graders as they learned and observed bay life. After lunch, we all worked in the nursery to transplant almost 500 Marsh Gum Plant native plant seedlings! When they grow up, our tiny transplanted seedlings will be planted in the marsh, and become habitat for the endangered Harvest Mouse. Hopefully when our 5th graders grow up, they will treasure and care for our planet.

Anyone can volunteer for Save the Bay restoration projects; not just school groups.

Marsh Gumplant in its native habitat.

Two of the Marsh Gumplant seedlings we transplanted on our field trip.

For anyone who ever holds back their true self...

I heard this poem today, and it really spoke to me. Especially the first paragraph, which I think stands on its own (although the rest is good too).

Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille in
"Dance to the Piper"

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening
that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you
in all of time
this expression is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist
through any other medium,
and be lost.
The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine
how good it is, nor how valuable,
nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours
clearly and directly,
to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself
or your work.
You have to keep open and aware
directly to the urges that motivate you.

Keep the channel open.

More from the Alps

Another picture by 10yo...

I'm not dead yet...

...I'm just digging out of coordinating 5 different school calendars (four kids and a teacher-hubby) with my own complicated schedule. It hasn't left much time for taking and posting nature shots.

Plus, we've had some wild fires in California recently, which have made the air really yucky-looking. So here's a picture 10yo took this summer in the Italian Alps, of a very un-yucky sky.

Saw these flowers along the Pacific Crest Trail

I couldn't decide which view I liked better

Looking up, I like the composition...
Looking down I like the colors...

Pacific Crest Trail

Here is a view from the Pacific Crest Trail near Sonora Pass.

The Pacific Crest Trail goes from Mexico to Canada. Some people try to hike the trail in one year, which is tricky because if you time it wrong, or the weather doesn't cooperate, you can get stuck in too much snow, or suffer heat stroke from the desert heat.

Me? I just think my feet would get sore waaaay before I'd run into either of those problems.

First Video Posting, third attempt

OK, I'm NOT going to edit this one until I figure this out.

First Video Posting, second attempt

Let's try this again.

Damn again. Just opening up the post makes the video disappear.

First Video posting

I haven't felt driven to figure out how to post videos to my blog yet, but this video was apparently important enough for me to take on the challenge (which, of course, turned out to very simple).

This took up several minutes of my family's time, even though it was a beautiful day outside and we were at the beach.

Damn. The video was there, until I edited the post to add italics and color to the text. OK, maybe not so simple after all.

Just a leaf...

This poor Aspen leaf fell early. The trees were full of green leaves, whispering in the wind the way Aspens do. I liked the way this one looked against the gray dirt.

Powell Lake

Not Lake Powell on the Arizona/Utah border. Powell Lake, in Immigrant Wilderness, California. The Three Chimneys are in the distance.

Three Chimneys

Kinda looks like Monument Valley, California. But it's actually the Emmigrant Wilderness, in Stanislaus National Forest. The three peaks on the right are called "The Three Chimneys."

Kinda funny to do this, but...

Yesterday, BAC posted a great retrospective of her first two years of blogging. I enjoyed every link, although some of them got me teary-eyed.

It's kind of funny to link to BAC from here, since I think she is one of a handful of people who read this (Hi, BAC), but...you never know...if you're not already a friend of BAC, check out this sample of her first two years.

Twisty Tree

I love they way some trees grow twisty like this:The haze in the background is from a far-away forest fire. We called the ranger to find out if it was safe to go on our hike; they said it was, and sure enough, by afternoon the sky had cleared up.

Granite Vistas

I spent last week at the UC Berkeley family camp: Lair of the Golden Bear. Located in Pinecrest, California, they provide a tent-cabin per family, three meals a day, and age-group activities for kids. Hiking trails abound in the surrounding area, so off I went.

This view was from a hike from Gianelli Cabin trailhead to Chewing Gum Lake.

Chewing Gum lake is not sticky; it was quite refreshing. Here it is:

Other lakes in the area are also creatively named: Mud Lake, and my personal favorite, Toe Jam Lake....like, yeah, I want to hike 8 miles to swim in that!

Balmy Alley Murals

Back in June, we spent a Beautiful Day in San Francisco, and at the end of it we spent some time in the Mission District, to see the murals. The best murals are the ones painted by the residents of Balmy Alley; they are more personal than the commissioned murals in the rest of the neighborhood.

Two days after we visited the murals, a teenage boy died in front of the Taqueria where we got fresh strawberry juice, the victim of a drive-by shooting at the corner nearest to Balmy Alley.

Dang, that made me sad.

More so because I’d just been there, enjoying the murals. The murals are so beautiful, so complicated, so personal. You want to get to know the people who created them. You want to know more about their life, their struggles, their triumphs, joys and sorrows. I guess you assume that the murals reflect on past struggles; I mean, they are painted by residents of San Franciso, California! Then you hear about the shooting and you remember that the struggles and sorrows occur every day.

On this mural, the letter the woman is holding is legible from up close, and it is written to her husband, who is "up north." She has not heard from him, she misses him and she is worried. If I remember correctly, she tells him about his child who he has never met. Poignant.

This one is a tribute to Frida Khalo. I love the gas meter flamingo!

Here are just a few more...only a small sample of what's there.

I'm off for one more summer romp. Enjoy the murals while I'm gone.

Fun with the Moon

Because I want to be envied...

After that last post, Cunning Runt renounced his envy of my trip to the Sierra Buttes. So, in an effort to earn back his envy...

This one is for you, CR, because it has rocks in it.