Every Day is Earth Day

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” – From the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

There has been so much press about Earth Day and hype about green living recently in the news. All I can say is it’s about time! My passion and commitment to protecting our planet began in nursery school when I declared that I no longer wanted to eat meat and has grown exponentially since then. I’ve been waiting over twenty years for an eco-conscious identity to develop here in America and I really hope that day is upon us.

Today is Earth Day. Because David and I feel that honoring and caring for the earth is important every day–not just on Earth Day–we decided to begin, rather than end, our Earth Week today. This week we shall present you with practical tips designed to show that being eco-conscious is really easy. As far as we are concerned, there is no excuse for not looking forward…

Here comes the basil

I’ve been so busy this week with our daily 4-mile runs, volunteering at Luther Burbank’s house, doing homework for my Japanese ceramics class, and rereading several of my favorite Anne McCaffrey books, that I’ve had little time to hop on the net. It’s actually been a very nice break. I love filling my time with plants, books, and art.


Look! Our basil seeds are sprouting! We’ve got a couple more days until the cilantro and mint surface. A couple more weeks and then it will be transplant time. Look at the overcrowding that is already beginning! I am in biology heaven.

It’s almost Earth Day so stay tuned for our eco-conscious Earth Week coverage starting on Sunday…

Ducklings & spices all in a row

Yesterday David and I saw a mother duck lead her 10-15 ducklings across a very busy street at a crosswalk by the park. Luckily traffic stopped and the ducks made it across safely. The mother duck then led her babies right by us (we were about three feet away!). The little ducklings were darling — yellow and brown, and they walked as pairs in a column behind their mother. Cute little ducklings all in a row. I immediately thought of my father (we used to love reading those baby animals themed children’s books together) and, of course, wished I had my camera. It was a heart-stopping, wonderful moment. Yes, I am ever the biologist, but who wouldn’t fawn over baby ducks?!

After that cute story, the rest of my post — about organizing our kitchen — seams trivial, but here goes… I’ve been doing some spring cleaning and organizing around here. One of my recent projects is transferring our bulk spices into something other than little ziplock baggies and identifying them with computer printed labels. So, each time we go through another jar of jam from Trader Joe’s, I set up another spice. Don’t they look pretty and organized?!

When I took the picture on the left I realized that the colors of the cayenne, cinnamon, mustard, and allspice perfectly matched the onion and pineapple gluten-free pizza that I had just pulled from the oven (photo on the right). I didn’t even plan it!

Bye bye sunglasses


Left: Road trip to Moab, Utah, in August of 2002. Right: October 2006 trip to the California coast.

My beloved sunglasses are officially broken beyond repair. The plastic rim has snapped and the superglue that resurrected them numerous times before no longer works.

A gift from my parents in 2002, they have traveled with me from New Jersey to Arizona for grad school, across the country a year later for graduation in New York (and another cross country trip for my family to meet David), back to New Mexico, then up to Colorado for three years, and finally all the way here to California. They even traveled with us to Mexico for our honeymoon!

I have worn them nearly every single day for the past five years (our five year anniversary would have been next month). I really, really love these babies and I am so sad that they are broken. I guess it’s time to start saving up for a new pair…

Oh, and try to get rid of my raccoon-eyed tan in the meantime!
(It is so bad.)