Colors of Winter

Here in the South, winter does not have the same palette of colors as I remember from the North. Rather than a thousand shades of gray and white, sprinkled with browns, blacks and the occasional pop of color, we have a wide variety of colors down here. 

All the green is a particularly surprising change from what I grew up with- not a bad thing, but very different.

And this time of year, I'm sure there are this many acorns on the ground back home... but they are normally covered under a layer of snow and ice. I do enjoy getting to peek at these little seeds!

I have a faithful pumpkin companion who has hung around since Thanksgiving, and her lovely colors are also part of my winter. This one is a fairytale pumpkin, so there is a lovely purple/blue/white sheen to the orange.\

And, since there isn't any snow to keep them down, the weeds grow quite robustly here. It rained a lot recently, so I pulled out the weeding gloves and ripped a trash can full out of the Earth. Before I did that, though, I couldn't resist getting a macro of this water perched on a thistle leaf.

Blog Action Day 2009

We've only got one Earth, and it seems like every year some horrible new thing crops up (or old thing disappears). This year, Blog Action Day is devoted to raising awareness about Global Climate Change. We've all heard about this issue, and like many of you, I used to think 'But I'm one person, what can changing my habits matter?'. But thinking like that doesn't take into account that the average American produces 1460 pounds of garbage and 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. A few small adjustments to your lifestyle can drastically decrease those numbers, and if even 100 people did that, think of how much we could improve the environment.

Mr. Pony and I are trying to take a few steps towards being more 'green', like biking to work/school, decreasing use of paper household goods and participating in our city's recycling program, and even those small steps can make a big difference. What steps have you taken to reduce your carbon footprint? I love ideas- we're always looking for more ways to help the planet out!

Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
~Alan M. Eddison

Carbon Footprint: Reduced

Mr. P and I made a big purchase today.In purchasing our new home, we are moving waaayyyy off any bus route, and since we are sharing a car (a trusty Honda Civic that gets wonderful mpgs), we decided that we'd become bike commuters. In the next week or 2 I'll be riding to work every day to get myself ready for the 7 mile (each way) hike to and from work that I'll have after the big move. Con- its really hot where we live. Pro- who needs to work out again after you've biked 14 miles? Con- people here appear to see targets on the backs of bikers. Pro- we are now even more environmentally friendly! We'll see how it goes- don't worry, you'll get updates!

The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine. - John Howard

*photo by me