Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! This is how I spent mine:

On my way to the Fort Mason Friends of the Library Book Sale, I stopped and got my FREE coffee from Starbucks. To celebrate Earth Day, free coffee and tea was given to those who brought their own reusable mug... sweet!

I made my way to the book sale and arrived when they opened at 10am. I was stoked to see I pretty much had the cooking section to myself.

I spent about 2 hours looking through this beautiful mess of books before Brian joined me after his French class. We then spent another 2 hours looking through the rest of the tables (they give you a map and a shopping cart when you enter the building... seriously intense book scavenging!!).

We then made our way over for our free Blue Bottle Coffee (with a book purchase) and enjoyed a freshly brewed cup of joe and some treats from the case (we needed a major pick-me-up at that point). We then met some friends for gelato in North Beach (not sure I have actually had any REAL food today) then made our way home. Here is the loot that I scored today:

I think I am most stoked about my first edition of The Journal of Gastronomy with a forward by Julia Child and an article from M.F.K. Fisher.

I also got (for $1) Tara Road (Maeve Binchy) and The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis) on audio CD, as well as a gift for my nephew's birthday, A Box (set) of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket... should be fun reading for a 7 year old! Brian devoured the European History section and found some really great books as well... not as good as mine, though ;)

BP Oil Spill: 1 year later

Images from the BP Oil spill 1 year ago today are sickening to look at. Regardless, it is important to see the horrific impact of negligence, greed, and power. Nothing could be more urgently motivating to move away from oil production/consumption towards green, renewable, and clean energy. Here are some more references regarding this disaster:

Interactive Timeline of BP disaster

BP Oil Spill information

Chic Farming

I love this modern, chic interpretation of a chicken coop. I could see this on an urban rooftop or suburban backyard.

image from {bb-blog}, found via {a cup of jo}

The world is changing…

Or is it? Is this just a reoccurring cycle in life's history?

I have been absent from the scene lately (family in town, work overload, etc), even missing a number of posts on my favorite blogs, only finding time to visit 1 or 2. Regardless, I have been thinking a lot about blogging and posts I want to share, but have also been contemplating the state of our world. There have been so many crazy, horrible, sad, destructive, and devastating things happening recently that it feels as if we are headed for H-E-double.hockey.stick in a hand basket. It’s difficult to not despair with catastrophic natural events in Japan killing thousands or the man-made disaster of a nuclear meltdown and toxic radiation spewing into the environment. How will we survive? What can we do? Is it hopeless?

I began to wonder if these feelings were nothing new and have been felt before during Chernobyl, 3-Mile Island, Hurricane Katrina, Tsunami in Southeast Asia, atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki… so many reasons for people to give up, crawl into a hole and wait to succumb to the devastation. However, we have seen some of the most dedicated environmentalist, human rights activists, movers-and-shakers, and compassionate do-gooders birth from the rubble of destruction and fight for change. Sometimes it seems to take a disaster to open people's eyes and motivate ideas for creating a better world. The biggest tool for change is education and awareness. I have really been encouraged and informed by Dr. Helen Caldicott at Nuclear Free Planet.org. I appreciate her passion for change and her honest assessment of nuclear situations and radiation risks around the globe.

Ultimately the take-away point seems to be “never give up, never surrender”, “where there is a will, there is a way” and “run the race, keep the faith”. Yes, we as a species are currently destroying the earth, period. But to do nothing about it means we are complicit in the devastation. Hang in there everyone and nature just may find a way to forgive us :)