Comes a Time

There was a time when I lived in Seattle, Washington. There I met a woman who would become my closest and nearest friend way out there in the Pacific Northwest. We met at "the office" and for our mid-morning coffee breaks we would head over to this little coffee shop where we would order this thing called a latte. We would order a single, short, 2% latte. When I headed back East for Christmas I remember bringing back the same gift for all of my relatives: coffee made by this company called Starbucks. No one had ever heard of it.

I write about this friend today because we have recently reconnected, as they say. I moved to the East Coast, she moved to Italy to become an au pair. We lost touch as people do. Perhaps it was my fault - perhaps it was no ones.

I began thinking about her more and more after I started writing for Gift of Green. I think it was because, other than my parents, she was the first person I'd ever met who really dug the natural world What did I learn from her? Nothing actually. What do I mean by that? I didn't learn how to do all of the things that she did: hiking in the midst of bears, bird-banding, downhill skiing, recognizing bird calls, camping, owning gators. But what I did learn from her is that these things exist. Weird, huh? That you might not even realize that these things are in the realm of possibilities? It's like when we say the scary thing about being a new nurse is not not knowing, but not even knowing that you don't know.

The world of blogging has opened up a lot of these windows into worlds I've known nothing about. There are so many talented women writers who are just so interesting you want to have them all over for coffee. And there is so much to learn.

But getting back to my friend from Seattle. Of course over five years now since we first lost touch I did what any reasonable, slightly obsessive person would do: I googled her. Thankfully her name popped up. No longer in Seattle, but oh, I hit gold: her email address. I cautiously wrote her a note and sent it out into the ethernet. And waited. Her reply came the same day and was basically, "How the hell did you track me down? So where were we?"

My friend once made me a tape (remember those days?) that included that Neil Young song that goes "Comes a time when you're drifting, comes a time when you settle down." I drifted. I've settled down. But in many ways this green adventure, while mostly via armchair, has let me drift in a whole new way. A nice way.

Thank you, AB, for helping me know what I didn't know about the gift of green.

Green Musings

Jinkies, we have a lot of catching up to do!

It just seems that with the coming of spring the opportunities for getting into the green of things are endless!

April 1st is right around the corner and that means I will be turning over a new leaf (for two months, anyway). I will be joining Mamas on the Compact where I pledge to eliminate the purchase of new items. Gulp. Anyone care to join me?

Have you heard the buzzzzzzzzz about "The Great Sunflower Project" out of San Francisco State University? My good friend Lakshmi alerted me to this site where participants can help researchers achieve their goal of increasing our understanding of where bees are doing poorly and how the pollination of our garden and wild plants are being affected.

Say project leaders: "We're hoping you will join us by planting sunflowers in your garden. Community, demonstration, and school gardens are invited to participate. We'll send you some free native sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seed and twice a month, we'd like you to time how long it takes for 5 bees to visit one flower on that sunflower. This information will give us an index of pollination that we can compare across the United States."

Win some gardening goodies from the National Gardening Association when you enter their When You Garden You Grow giveaway.

I have two great bloggy book give-aways coming up! Stay tuned for a chance to win a copy of the Holistic Moms Network's cookbook "Growing Healthy Families" and, just in time for Spring (or a little late), Leslie Evan's beautifully illustrated Spring acrostic book.

And finally, I am super excited to say that as my good friend Sue toils over my blog button, I am gearing up to give you details on "Gift of Green's Clothesline Challenge 2008"!! The challenge will begin May 1st and I hope you'll sign on for the summer! More details coming up soon!