Green Gal

"I stood for a while at the lookout, taking in the state of California. For a moment, it all made sense. No wonder Muir stayed here. No wonder he came up with a powerful and personal philosophy about conservation. He walked the state. More than once. He knew the details, from rock to plant to person and up to mountain top. He attached a significance to the story of the land itself that few others could. He inserted himself into that story bodily, intellectually, and spiritually, beginning in his second day in the state." -- Alex McInturff, California Transect , 2009 Do you walk often? How does walking influence your understanding of the landscape, cityscape, or neighborhood around you? How is walking different from driving, biking, or taking a bus? What can it teach us about patience, progression, life?

Going to the woods is going home. ― John Muir Living at UCSC, this is certainly true. I'm unfortunately spending my day indoors today, writing a paper, but I just have to look out a window to remind myself that I'm in a forest. Perhaps later, I'll walk down to the Knoll to enjoy the sun and the view of the bay. Happy Sunday!

Imagine the San Francisco Bay Area during the most recent Ice Age at the end of the Pleistocene epoch: a lush, green valley that San Francisco Bay now fills; coasts that extend 12 feet farther into the sea than they currently do; abundant wildlife and megafaunal mammals, like mastodons, short-faced bears, camels, llamas, saber-tooth cats, and mammoths; new human inhabitants who are fortunate enough to happen upon this eden of life, but unfortunate enough to have to deal with the fierce short-faced bears and cats that are larger-than-life and deadly. I just watched an 11-minute segment from KQED Quest about the Bay Area during the Ice Age. It centered on these unique "rubbing rocks" along the Sonoma Coast. These boulders, the narrator says, tell an "ancient story." There is some polish on these rocks that was not created by wind, water or other geologic causes, and some of the polish is found 10-12 feet above the ground, indicating that it was made by something large...

On Thursday, I celebrated my 18th birthday as well as the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1970. My mom took me hiking in the morning since school didn't start until 10:40 (thank you STAR testing!). At lunch, my Environmental Club had an Earth Day party and we ate leftover popcorn and had cookies from the night before when we'd shown the film FLOW to the public--at least 100 students attended (most for extra credit) and the event was a huge success. Thursday evening, my family went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then at 7:00, we all attended a lecture titled "Sustainability: Then and Now." The City Naturalist Eric Nicholas spoke about how sustainbility was a necessary aspect of life for the Ohlone people who once lived in this abundant valley we now call home. (For more information about the event, see this article: Pleasanton Take Steps toward Sustainability .) After the event, we went home for vegan, gluten-free cake and some prese...

As Spring really takes hold, with rainy days (like today) and then hot, sunny days that feel like summer, I'm getting excited for the end of the school year and for my post-high school adventures. Spring is always a rapid season in the school year, with testing and finals in classes speeding things along and then before you know it, the year's over. I realized this morning that it is the birthday of John Muir, the famous naturalist writer, among other things he was. I don't know if this was done on purpose, but I find it perfect that his birthday is the day before Earth Day. I also think it's something like fate that my birthday is tomorrow, on Earth Day. I didn't really even realize this fact consciously until I started becoming something of an environmentalist and nature-enthusiast myself. My good friend Blue was the first person to tell me "Happy B-Earth Day." I'm glad he was the first to do so, because he's one of the people I was close friends...

Today I spoke with a woman from the admissions department at Prescott College in Arizona. She informed me that I've been accepted to the school, and that I'm being given some scholarships! I would love to go to Prescott, but it is the first place I've heard from so for now I can't say whether or not I'll end up actually going there. It is an expensive school and it's far away, but I am so glad to know I got in! I'd like to share with you the essay I applied with: Before I could even speak, my dad read to me—poems, stories, T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare. After much practice, I had the “To be or not to be” soliloquy mostly memorized by age seven. In the community college English class my dad teaches, he shows a tape of seven-year-old me donning a black turtleneck, sitting in a rocking chair, and reciting Hamlet’s famous lines about contemplating “that sleep of death.” My dad says it’s his favorite film version of the scene. Years later, my dream job was to be an E...

The past few days, I've been thinking about what my goals are for greening my lifestyle. I scrolled through countless posts on The Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op blog , found awesome recipes for making my own soap and deodorant , and learned that you don't really need shampoo . And I've compiled a list of things that I'd like to try out in the coming month. Here is what I've come up with. Please feel free to figure out what works for you from my list and apply it to your life. It always feels rejuvenating to make goals and stick with them. Around the house: - Change my light bulbs to CFL/LED - Hang more laundry to dry outside since the weather has been so warm - Attempt making my own deodorant, soap, lip balm , and cleaning products - Go no 'poo--shampoo that is - Boycott paper towels and use old rags instead--and remind my mom and sister to do so, as well - Finally get a bucket to put under the faucet for the shower water while it heats up - Turn the TV off more ...

I pulled the dark green book from its place in the closet and placed it beside Tolstoy, Hesse, and a Sierra Nevada natural history book in my orange backpack. The engraving on the spine is gold and reads My First Summer in the Sierra -- John Muir. In another bag, socks and shorts, long-sleeved shirts and sweatshirts were crammed together like many individual shoots in a carpet of moss. A camera bag nearby held my Canon Rebel XS, my lovely digital SLR. Boots and a sleeping bag and a CamelBak pack filled with water sat nearby, yearning for the cool mountain air, almost as much as I was. We left home and didn't stop until we reached a little town called Escalon. We bought diet Cokes and a container of fries, knowing the fries would be burned off the next day. Yosemite was still about 100 miles away, but home was far behind us and our destination lay ahead. At the forefront of our minds was the 17 mile hike to Half Dome we would be taking tomorrow--a 12 hour hike that would bring fort...