AusPens:  The Right Write Stuff

A couple of weeks ago, I found the perfect teacher gift at the San Francisco Green Festival:  A set of eco-friendly white board markers.  Not only are they non-toxic - which is better for all the big and little people in a classroom, but they can also be refilled multiple times.  [...]

[Read more →]

Community Supported Agriculture
The universe - or someone in it - answered my prayers late this summer.  For years, friends and trusted publications had been extolling the virtues of Community Supported Agriculture - aka CSAs - and every now and again, I’d check out the Local Harvest website to see if any had come to [...]

[Read more →]

Can Public Art Propel Us Toward Action?

The subtitle of Elizabeth Kolbert’s piece in the latest NRDC magazine, OnEarth, says it all:  “When it comes to climate, it’s five past midnight. Time for the Big Fix.”  She quotes noted scientists saying that the experts - the people who study climate and “do the ice cores” [...]

[Read more →]

What is the best way to educate, entertain and exhaust your kids, hang with your girlfriends, get exercise and contribute to the betterment of our Planet all at the same time?

[Read more →]

Stress-Free Holiday Shopping at the World’s Largest Eco-Friendly Gift Show

Imagine this:  Taking care of all your holiday shopping in one place, selecting gifts from a range of unique, organic and fair trade items.  And when shoppers’ fatigue sets in, you take a break by snacking on scrumptious healthy food and sipping a beverage sure not [...]

[Read more →]

Like my cousin Annie Barnes, I am a firm believer that getting your kids out in Nature is key to their intellectual, emotional and physical development. In addition it fosters an appreciation of the great outdoors and an understanding of why it needs to be preserved.
Last week, my daughter Samara and I attended a birthday [...]

[Read more →]

Not long after my daughter Samara’s birth, her toys seemed to lay siege to our small house. It wasn’t the clutter that drove me crazy, but the incessant noise that some of these things made. Push a button, make the pig “oink,” push another and hear a “moo.” What happened to using your imagination? In [...]

[Read more →]

“It’s a phenomenon you’ve created!”
These were the opening words in my e-mail to Edwin Datschefski.
It is called “Green Drinks.” Imagine a happy hour for the environmentally conscious. This informal, self-organizing network typically convenes monthly at a set date, time and venue. Breaking in is easy: simply approach someone and ask “Are you green?” and you [...]

[Read more →]

Shocking how kids grow, isn’t it? I remember going to Baby Gap after my daughter, Averill, was born, and telling the saleswoman that I needed to return a newborn baby gift as it was too big. The woman, a mother of three, laughed and told me that in a week or two my newborn would [...]

[Read more →]

I am always glad to get the email invite from an earnest collection of friends in Malibu, who cast out a call to a group of us online about weekly nature hikes, full moon picnics and midnight meteor shower gatherings. “Yes!” I cheer to myself. “THIS is why I left the whirlwind life of New [...]

[Read more →]