Recycle or Repent!

a friend sent me this article. what a great idea! a catholic priest will be sitting in a cofessional at a festival. what is he doing there? hearing people's eco-sins and giving them equally appropriate penance. finally a funny and hopeful story involving the catholic church. i love it!

Roman Catholic Church To Offer Green Confession Booth GroovyGreen.com - Start Today :: Save Tomorrow

Dinner Plate to Climate Change

Finally! an article which just says it how it is. eating meat does in fact contribute to climate change. and pollution of rivers. and deforestation of the rainforest. and spread of disease. oh, wait, the article doesn't talk about those. in fact nothing in the news talks about anything other than climate change. it's become synonymous with environmental anythings. but i digress. i agree actually, almost 100% with this article. that said, as i have mentioned before, diet is a very personal thing. and i wouldn't tell a friend that i think they should become vegetarian. but, i will call all meat eaters out here, now. hello!!? are you just turning a blind eye? i know i've always been a vegetarian and so maybe i don't understand the annoyance of giving something up. i try to drive less. and make my showers shorter. and eat organic and local. and reuse things. i make changes in my personal life too. why can't others take this on? why would it be so hard to start giving up meat? especially beef. i don't know if anyone i know actually reads this...but i hope lots of people read the article. and most of all, become conscientious enough to make a change.

Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change - New York Times

fresh raw tomatoes

this year we're growing 34 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. and garden looks super lush and vibrant, yet the tomatoes just aren't there. well, in as great numbers as regular, more hybridized varities. there are some benefits to hybrids..like great size and abundance. that said, it's more fun searching for tomatoes when they are striped and purple and green and orange and pear-pepper-cherry-or-sausage shaped. much more fun! here's the fruit of last night's Great Tomato Hunt.

imaginary hikes in ireland

Ah, back at work. After a 3-day weekend spent backpackign in the Weimenuche. The sun shone brightly every morning, and disappeared mysteriously behind a veil of clouds and mist and straight down-no-nonsense rain after a few hours every day. We might as well have been in Ireland with the undulating green hills and rocky out-croppings and damp weather and abundant water. But when the clouds parted just enough we could see the jagged and shiny wet peaks around us and we were reminded that we were very much in the heart of my favorite mountains. And I fell in love as I do every time I visit the MFMs (My Favorrite Mountains). I love their cragginess and expanse and clear lakes and basins of wildflowers and softness of the rolling green fields in contrast with the sharp stern mountains. The wildflowers were, amazing. It was as if someone had taken multi colored paint and poured it down from the top of the mountains and the paint had settles in the basins and the valley floors in amazing patterns of pinks and golds, magentas and blues, lavenders and mauves and red, greens and whites and saffrons. The unreplicable (I think I just made up that word) manifestation of some greater good, some greater being, some greater beauty, draped on the hills. And in the evenings the rain would stop and sleep was peaceful and quiet.

And the company was lovely. My friend took tea breaks and moved quickly, and didn’t complain sincerely about the rain, and made delicious meals, and laughed, and we experimented making cheese toast on a camp stove, and we talked about our childhoods and dreams and traveling and relationships and meditation and tax credits and goals and love and herbs and families and all things wonderful.

What, as usual, a beautiful weekend! pictures to be added soon!