Dead. Tired.

Got in free to the Outside Lands festival in exchange for some tabling time, for both work and for the Garden. I'm over the big festival scenes, but it was really fun to be there for free and people watch. 

Most epic moment: a walk from one of my favorites, Bon Iver, to another, Andrew Bird and for a moment thier songs blended together and it was beautiful. 

One day I might just be a river rat

All day whitewater rafting trip down the South Fork of the American River. Epic. Time for beer and bed. 

Trying to find my direction.

Hiking in Tennessee Valley -- Part II

From the Coastal Trail to the fog blanketed beach...





Later on that afternoon, looking for a spot to do a u-turn, we stumbled upon the Green Gulch Zen Center and took a quiet walk through the farm. I left my camera in the car...fortunately or unfortunately, sometimes it's more important to experience the moment than to document it. Green Gulch farm is absolutely magical--lush green valley, ocean on the horizon, greens and vegetables with an unparalleled vibrancy.

Hiking in Tennessee Valley -- Part I

Once City Car Share check out & a 20minute drive later, and we're hiking the Coastal Trail at Tennessee Valley (If we kept going, Oregon would've been just over 600 miles away! Damn, that would be awesome to walk all the way to Oregon!)

The hiking trails in Marin are magical---fog kisses green topped cliffs overlooking the Pacific. Another definite stop when hosting visitors.

Sutro tower barely visible in the distance.

The fabulous J & P straight from Kensington hood in Brooklyn---we were able to show the ultimate NY tour guides a few good things in SF. Both incredibly fun people who made me realize that I'm not actually tone deaf (as I've thought all my life) and that being grown up can be whatever you want it to be.

Change is easier than it's ever been before.

A new hero of mine is Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved. A recent article of his opens with a description of the skyrocketing market in mud cakes as food in Haiti. Yes, that's a cake made of clay, salt, oil and water.

Why? Because people are too poor to buy food, in some cases the very same food they grow and sell to others. Because the food crisis is real, it is now, and it is devastating. And until everyone knows something about it, until everyone starts thinking about the implications of the food they buy and the food they eat, it's going to get worse. But we can change. Start that change by reading his article here.

"It's not a lack of food that is causing this crisis - it's a lack of political will."

Grow food. Compost. Skip the meat. Share a home cooked meal. Learn how to cook a vegetable you've never eaten before. Shop at the locally owned market in your neighborhood. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Change is easier that it's ever been before.

Verdancy

I keep thinking that one day, one day I'll be able to stop taking photos of beautiful plants. But I can't. Plants are my inspiration. Plants as food, as place, are how I tell my story, how I relate to the world.

From the Garden! Summer squash--the first veggies from the container garden make-over (a six month project I should've been documenting here--something for a future post). Aren't they just beautiful?

One of my favorite tours for visiting family begins at Garden for the Environment, stops at Arizmendi for delicious pastries or pizza, then goes through the botanical gardens, where something is always blooming.

It's been too long....

Visiting family left Wednesday night--so I'm officially back to blogging.

Compost is now.

In the midst of battling to make sure my office building has compost, this blazed across the front pages of the Chron: Mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash. While I may not agree that people should be fined for leaving some food scraps in the garden, I do think that we as a country need to start thinking about our waste and our consumption in a serious way. As San Franciscan's, we're really lucky to be one of the few cities that has access to municipal compost, -we should be championing it, we should all be compost devotees. Among other things, it saves you money and prevents the build up of more methane, one of the worst greenhouse gases that exists.

But of course the Mayor's proposal has caused some serious outrage--it is an invasion of privacy. It is government trying to dictate our lives. But as our landfills overflow and continue to belch out methane, and as acres of garbage swirl in the Pacific, I'm glad that my city is looking for new solutions to our trash problem that's not going anywhere anytime soon.

A Week In Photos...

Is it better to narrate? To give context or just let them conjour what they will?

1. Taken right before it took me 1hour to get home from Duboce and Noe--normally a 10 minute ride on the N-Judah. Don't. Even. Ask. Commute by bike is looking better and better everyday....
2. Oaktown wandering--pre-congestion pricing public outreach meeting.
3 & 4. Discoveries, half-awake as I stumbled to my hand therapy session on Friday morning. I walk by these things at least twice a week, but I had never seen them in this way before. Great news--my hand is feeling better and better everyday. I hope it keeps going this way...

Summer is officially here!

The first thing you smell when you walk in the house is basil and tomatoes. Heaven.

My beautiful CSA share: tomatillos, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, yukon gold potatoes, strawberries, corn (the first this year!), a bouquet of basil, summer squash, peaches, plums, lemon verbena, sweet peppers and melon. MMMMMM.

Eeek! Corn worm!