Okay, it’s confession time. I’m directionally challenged, but I’m getting out my maps of the world. Will you be my witness and travel companion? From Georgia to Gallup, Greece to Gibraltar, I’m determined to go to my grave without taking another wrong turn.
Winnie Nielsen says: How fun it would be to have this car restored to it’s original beauty! Love those white wall tires.
Winnie Nielsen says: I love these old fashion looking numbers on the clock. They style seems to be 1930s?
Winnie Nielsen says: These icicles are amazing in their formation and shape. The science lab is open everyday this winter with incredible lessons on the tiniest branches.
Oooh, I just stumbled upon a neat project! i sea change?
photo by Paolo Costa Baldi. License: GFDL/CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
icey change?
It’s called the iSeeChange Almanac, and besides having a lovely website, it’s also a revolutionary undertaking.
Instead of trying to explain it to you, take three short minutes to watch this video:
Imagine the power of collaboration between citizens and scientists …
People like you and me watch the weather roll through our local landscapes, we soak up the sensations of seasons shifting, and we notice subtle changes in the environments we call home.
Photo by Florida Memory via Wikimedia Commons
“People know their own backyards,” Julia Kumari Drapkin, the lead producer of iSeeChange, told Treehugger.
So, who better to speak up and record the odd dry creek, an unusual bird flock, or a grove of suddenly ailing trees?
Photo by Walter Baxter via Wikimedia Commons
If the climate is changing on a grand scale, WE are the ones who recognize the minute clues beneath our noses.
The earth around us is like a second skin.
This is what the iSeeChange Almanac is all about. Unlike its charming predecessor, the long-loved Old Farmer’s Almanac, this evolving collective is meant to be continuously crafted by farmers, birdwatchers, gardeners, hikers, cyclists, ranchers, fishers, and casual observers of nature. It is interactive.
And scientists are paying attention.
“My greatest moment is when NASA sent a climate scientist to a rancher,” Drapkin says.
Something is happening here, and we should all be a part.
Log in, pipe up, and keep the conversation going.
Winnie Nielsen says: I listened to the conversation about the NASA scientist at breakfast with the Colorado rancher and found it very illuminating about how the intersection of science and experience. If one goes on anecdotal experience only, then change is not needed because repeat problems form the explanation. But when science brings forth data, the patterns of change, and the forces the questions of connection to human activity, I believe we have to be open to what is being put forth. If we really say we are the stewards of this earth, then we must look at the possibilities of what we are doing in our current activities and ask ourselves, would it be better if we changed? If change is the answer then don’t we want to seriously look at what we need to do to make things better? Isn’t it scarier to not at least try new things? What if they do make a difference and are the answers? Wouldn’t we just kick ourselves for being stick in the muds and let opportunity for better pass us by because we are stubborn in our own perspective in the face of new information? For me, as scary as change can be, I would rather try well thought out new approaches based on science data. Because, what if I am wrong in my own beliefs and influence others to believe like me and miss out hearing what is important just because it is new and means thinking differently? I don’t want the responsibility that my digging in was part of the bigger movement to dismiss what NASA and others are asking us to consider. We need everyone at the table for solutions so that change has the best possibility of success and preservation of both what we love and what we must have to live.
MaryJane says: Awesome way to start my day. Thank you Winnie. I love knowing you.
Winnie Nielsen says: Thank-you Mary Jane for bringing us so many important ideas and fun to your raisinjane blog. I LOVE starting my day reading raisinjane with hot cup of coffee in hand! Knowing you has forever changed my life in countless wonderful ways!!
MaryJane says: Aw shucks girlfren …
Islands are flooding, people are being evacuated, polar caps are melting….yes, things have changed. We can only look to the one who created all things to put things back to the way it was before man altered the balance in nature. While, we wait for God to reverse the effects of global warming, we can do our part to not make it worse!
A very worthy cause and thanks MaryJane for sharing this . Just signed up to be a weekly poster on their website, and left this week’s observations. Hoping this will help.
Winnie, you post was inspirational! Thanks for your insights. I’m all for any change that can help our poor belegered Earth. We are all in this together and every single positive action towards stewardship does truly matter. That is why I’m saving rare and endangered seeds and trying to get others to grow them. Seeds are alive and need to be kept alive by growing them. This is my small step to help.
Deborah McKissic says: When God created the earth, the bible says he placed man in the garden to “tend and keep it” The first job.. that of gardener…now, this responsibility belongs to all of us..keepers of this earth and everything in it…everything we do has an effect..the trickle down effect…yes, Marsha, I agree..we all need to do our part…thanks, Mary Jane for bringing this sight to our attention….my niece had her home in Colorado severely damaged from a wildfire last summer..four neighbors of hers lost their homes…my brother in law is a protection services ranger and goes out to fight those fires…..I think we all need to be aware of the global warming effects…the storms that set off fires…I remember in the 1970’s when everyone thought people who were worried about all this were too worried…hmm..what are we now?
Winnie Nielsen says: This photo reminds me of that unsettled look of late winter when the weather is on the move again.
Winnie Nielsen says: Love the brilliance of that yellow!
Winnie Nielsen says: These look like cattails that grow here around pond areas. Yours are beautiful all dressed for winter!
A little bit o’ trivia …
January 20 is Penguin Awareness Day
(not to be confused with World Penguin Day, which will come around on April 25).
Photo of King penguins by Ben Tubby via Wikimedia Commons
Were you unaware?
I must admit, I was too.
While there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to Penguin Awareness day (unlike World Penguin Day, which coincides with the annual northward migration of penguins around about the South Pole), it’s an official day of sorts—even the Huffington Post says so.
And why not celebrate these funny flippered birds that manage to charm us from their remote, icy realm at the bottom of the globe?
If the 2005 movie March of the Penguins wasn’t enough to pique your passion for penguins, I dare you to resist the charm of Lala, the late king penguin who would go shopping for his family at a Japanese fish market wearing a penguin-shaped backpack:
I know!
There’s just something about these birds.
On a more serious note, penguin species are in various stages of peril as a result of climate change and ocean pollution, so in addition to watching penguin movies in a tuxedo, you might consider celebrating Penguin Awareness Day by supporting the efforts of the International Penguin Conservation Work Group.
A fun way to contribute is by “adopting” a penguin. While you don’t actually get a penguin in the mail, it’s the next best thing. You donate $55 for a year’s claim to a particular Magellanic penguin in the Falkland Islands.
Photo of a Magellanic penguin by David via Wikimedia Commons
Other conservation organizations simply send you a stuffed toy and a generic adoption certificate, but the Penguin Conservation Work Group actually places a special marker near your penguin’s burrow with the name you choose for your penguin. They follow the progress of your penguin and send you news and pictures of the bird, its home, some of its friends, and its chicks when they hatch.
Learn more about the group’s work in this video:
Winnie Nielsen says: I love that video of Lala going shopping!! What an amazing pet experience and one that will be forever remembered by everyone.
As always MaryJane, you made my day! What a sweet video of LaLa the penguin. My half sister, a marine biologist, was stationed in Antarctica with NOAA for over a year. So our family is especially fond of penguins, it’s like our mascot.
Oh yeah, I forgot. I got to meet many types of penguins ( but not the king penguins) up close and personal on the island of Tierra Del Fuego , a province of Argentina. They have no fear of humans at all. They are amazing and comical creatures. So clumsy on land , so graceful in the water. It was the time of year of 22 hours of daylight but still very cold.
By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the fact that CSA means Community Supported Agriculture.
Check?
Okay, moving on …
Now, what about CSG?
Any ideas?
A CSG is a “community solar garden,” which can be installed in urban garden plots alongside the peas and potatoes. It’s all green!
Photo by Rolf1981 via Wikimedia Commons
As explained by Katie Marks on Networx, “Individual members of the community invest in the solar garden and receive a return in the form of a rebate on their electrical bills, reflecting the energy generated in the solar garden installed and managed by community electricians.”
A CSG is an economical option for people who can’t invest in their own solar panels or who are restricted by property regulations, and it’s a small, yet hopeful, step in the direction of energy independence.
“The solar garden represents an indirect method of alternative energy generation, in that people aren’t powering their homes with solar power using their own panels, but it does reduce the demand for electricity in a given town by feeding solar power through the grid,” continues Marks. “Power companies, in turn, provide rebates to the solar garden just like they would individual consumers, and these rebates are distributed amongst those who are partnering in the initiative.”
Photo by Mathieudu68 via Wikimedia Commons
Colorado is a prominent (and sunny) leader of the solar garden movement, with cities like Fort Collins already on board.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Westminster-based Solar Gardens Community Power is helping organize communities to pool their resources and go solar, developing workshops and certification programs for solar panel ownership, and advocating community-based energy development through legislation in several states. Founder Joy Hughes has said, “Now everyone can go solar. For the first time, low-income homeowners and renters will be able to go solar. Solar gardens are sprouting up everywhere!”
Check out Solar Gardens’ nationwide map to see if there is already a garden near you and find out how you can get connected.
Winnie Nielsen says: We have solar panels on our roof and they provide our hot water. They were installed in 1985 when we bought the house and have been upgraded several times. With the abundant Florida sunshine, we have had free hot water over the years and the utility company even offered a financial incentive at the beginning to help install the set which made it so easy to get started. Our monthly utility bills have been much lower over the years and the panels rarely require any service calls. The new solar gardens are a great idea and I wonder if there are some developing here in the land of sunshine?
Karlyne says: Brilliant!
That is such a great idea! Even better that those who have invested in the solar garden get to see some financial benefit from it, too. It’s a good way to mitigate costs for those who can’t yet have a rooftop installation.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
I can’t tell it this is a late fall photo because the trees are sort of orange color in the distance, or early Spring fields and the trees are sort of orange with the new sprouting foliage. I am thinking early Spring and the new crop is just now starting to show little green rows?
This makes me feel nostalgic for what is to come! Gorgeous picture!