Green Gal

What an incredible year 2015 has been! There have been so many new adventures in my life, such as moving to a new city and having fun living with Green Guy, gardening and eating vegetables I've grown myself, learning new recipes in the kitchen, meeting awesome new people in my community who advocate for better bicycling opportunities, and so much more. To celebrate and reflect on the last twelve months, here are (more than) twelve photos from 2015: On January, Green Guy and I hiked to the top of Buzzard's Roost in Big Basin State Park.     In January, we also went on the Light Up the Night Bike Party ride in Santa Cruz. In February, I tabled for the Sierra Club at an event at UC Santa Cruz. Throughout 2014 and 2015, I did a lot of tabling for the Santa Cruz Group and worked with many awesome interns who helped support the Sierra Club mission to explore, enjoy, and protect our planet.    In February on Valentine's Day, my sister and I participat...

We've been getting delightful rain lately, and it's led to a really lush green garden out back! Here are some photos from yesterday morning: Those tall sunflowers have gotten droopy! Their vibrant petals surround an enormous sunflower face.  So much green!  Nasturtiums have really taken over!  The younger sunflower finally bloomed.  Broccoli   Kale, green onion, and chard. The worms have also been doing well, eating through apple cores and other food waste slowly as the weather has gotten colder. I'm looking forward to January, when I can begin planting some new seeds again. Right now, I've just been tending what we have growing. The arugula on the living room window is super bitter, but I hope to mix it with other lettuce from the store sometime soon for a salad, or add it to pasta. A new project that Green Guy and I will be tackling in the new year is beer making! In celebration of our three year anniversary, I got us a beer ...

National Novel Writing Month is officially half-way through, which means I should be at 25,000 words... Sadly, I'm not, but I am doing pretty well at 18,354 words! It's definitely more words of fiction than I've written in the last two years combined! So now you might be able to guess why I've been absent from the blog since November began, and likely between now and December 1, I'll be spending all of my non-work typing time trying to crank out enough words to reach 50,000 before the month ends. You can learn more about NaNoWriMo here and read my author page on the site here . Despite knowing that I should be typing words on my novel right now, I wanted to share a quick story about how I've been able to go more than a week without turning on the tap specifically for watering the garden. I also want to share some photos of the garden. It rained last Sunday, giving my plants a happy dose of water straight from the natural source. It's only rained a few ...

Our sunflowers are almost blocking our back mailbox, which is where our landlord collects energy and water bill checks from us. We might have to figure out how to divert its growth to one side or the other... but hopefully, he likes sunflowers! The other day, I planted a number of seeds, including some kale in an old soy yogurt container. I set the container inside an old Earth Balance butter container so I can water it from the bottom. I also moved a tomato plant from inside to the backyard, and put one of my aloe plants from the front porch into the back because I think it needs more sunlight. Tomatoes, basil, jalapeños, cactus, aloe, and some pots that haven't sprouted yet but contain pea seeds (I think!). I moved the little hippopotatomus to this side of the garden. Some more new seed plantings, including broccoli, kale, and arugula. The broccoli from this summer is still alive but has been devoured by caterpillars (I think). The nasturtium on the side yard is gr...