Category Archives: environment

Farmer Friday: Spring Garden

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in basil, california, environment, farmer fridays, flowers, garden, gardening, landscape, nature, picture, pictures, pumpkin, squirrel, weather, wildlife

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Remember that time I had a huge ol’ post about planting watermelon, two kinds of pumpkins, and cucumbers grown from an egg carton? By now they would be lookin’ pretty good, right!? Yup. If the squirrels (or some other critter) hadn’t pulled them out/ eaten them/ etc. I’d show you pictures but it would just be mulch. I’m pretty devastated but I think I have time to start another round and try again then perhaps protect them with netting.

Instead, allow me to show off what IS coming to life after now that we’re into about a month of spring weather in Northern California!

My husband and I planted our lime tree almost exactly a year ago and while we’ve had plenty of little flowers and what looks like the beginning of a lime, we’ve never had any develop into full fruits. I water regularly and fertilize with an organic fertilizer. Any ideas?

This is the yukon potato plant I showed you I was planting here. Hopefully it’s not another mystery weed I’m saving only to find no potatoes.

The two grape vines that were planted over the summer and went dormant all winter are now letting their leaves open up to get ready to climb the arbor.

The sweet peas are blossoming.

What used to be a rosemary Christmas tree (the Christmas before last) is now finally becoming a rosemary bush. You can actually still see some of the old growth in Christmas tree form in there.

My cinder block edging/ herb garden is filling up with cilantro. I’m hoping the parsley also makes an appearance soon but I’m not holding my breath for the basil I also planted here.

The mix of nasturtiums are taking off around the small garden I have and I love to see them as they open. They’re technically edible but I enjoy looking at them so much I’m not sure that I would serve one up!

You can see a bright reddish orange one on the left, a beautiful yellow and orange one in the middle (that if you like the thismodernwife.com Facebook page you would see up close!) and the light yellow one from above.

Does anyone want to submit a link to show what’s growing in their garden!? Or how about just share what’s going on outside!

Backyard Salamanders!

10 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in california, environment, garden, landscape, local, photos, picture, pictures

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Growing up in suburban Southern California we didn’t have very many cool creatures in our backyard. Birds were pretty limited to pigeons, crows and sparrows. We had opossums that would show up. Once we had a horny toad show up, that was a big deal. We had a small assortment of bugs but the cool ones were Chinese beetles that were black and iridescent and brown flying June bugs both of which showed up in summer.

In suburban Northern California we have a much cooler assortment of wildlife. Here is one of the biggest surprise ones for me which we discovered live in our backyard when we first moved in and started clearing weeds:
We also have raccoons, blue scrub jays, tons of squirrels (I would trade squirrels for opossums!), and some of the same birds and bugs as Southern California. Once I found a small frog! That was the most exciting. Hands down, the salamanders (aka newts) are my favorite. They are good for the garden eating slugs and snails. They don’t get very big– I found this little one when I uncovered a damp area under our trash cans.

See? A tiny little guy. Since I had my iPhone out I thought I would pull up the fake grass cover that is in this area that covers cement for what used to be our dog area and see if I could find another little salamander to show everyone.

Sure enough this much, much bigger guy was curled up under cover. They look different but I believe they are the same species in different phases. How much bigger is bigger?

I can’t be the only one who is fascinated by these critters. When our neighbor’s house burned down I was worried that a bunch of the salamanders got fried because they live on the side of our yard where the fire was but they made it!

After taking pictures of these guys I made sure they were safely covered again so that they can go eat some slugs and snails!

What kind of creatures and critters do you come across in your area? Do you live in a rural area and contend with deer and gophers? Or do you live in an apartment and have super scary spiders hanging out?

Yosemite Valley

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in california, environment, husband, nature, photos, picture, pictures, pinterest

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Last week was a whirlwind and the husband and I decided to treat ourselves to a mini-vacation with a night in Yosemite. Neither of us had ever been to this national park so it was time to take the four hour drive and see what we had been missing.
Totally. Worth. It. This is just a quick picture I got on the way out of the park (through the North gate) after demanding my husband pull over.

My computer situation has been mostly resolved so I’m going to start sorting and editing pictures as soon as I can to make it through my backlog. It will be good timing as we FINALLY have rain in the forecast in the Bay Area. For the next week. Guess my rain dances have paid off!

Any one else taking weekend trips? I’m gearing up to show you all what I did for Young House Love’s Pinterest Challenge on Wednesday.

Is anyone else participating and getting a project done that they’ve had pinned on Pinterest for months? Can you take a guess at what I’m going to be doing from Pinterest?

Is it easier to shoot macrophotography?

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in environment, nature, Photography, photos, picture, pictures

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My husband and I took advantage of a beautiful, warm Saturday this past weekend and went on a hike at a nearby county park. Once up high enough you can overlook a small town on the coast and out to the Pacific Ocean. While on our hike we were able to practice some of the things we have been learning in our Canon camera photography class. Up until lately I’ve been of the “take a million pictures and hope one turns out” mindset. Lately I can get away with two or three.

I shoot with a (now rather banged up) Canon Rebel EOS 350D which has seen better days (I used to do concert photography). In taking the hike, I was able to practice some landscape shots, some of my husband in front of a landscape and some portrait-type shots. No matter what, my favorite thing to do is still to get in nice and close for some macrophotography.
It’s probably just a stylistic thing that I prefer the close ups. It’s probably why I also enjoy taking (and looking at) beautiful pictures of food. But look at that picture above, you can see the spider webs between the tiny thorn covered branch. The sunlight is highlighting all the fine little hairs on those leaves. This is good stuff. Not that the landscape wasn’t good stuff, maybe I just have a harder time getting a good picture of it?

Even with some Pioneer Woman Action Set help this picture still doesn’t get me. The haze combined with the sun was really picked up in this picture and the sky is totally blown out. It could have been overcast for all the viewer can tell. What happened to my blue sky?

I’m just drawn to the fine textures in nature and think they make a much more interesting subject. How about you? Could you also look at pictures of food all day but only when they’re beautifully lit and colorful? Do you prefer to see a nice landscape and the bigger picture? Can you tell me where I’m going wrong with my landscape shots?

Seedlings for Spring

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in california, environment, flowers, garden, gardening, grass, house, husband, landscape, nature, picture, pictures, pumpkin, vegetables

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The first day of Spring is March 20th. I’m getting a jump of plantings this year because remember when this happened to my pumpkin who was planted too late in the season? I’m trying out this egg carton method of starting seedlings and I just wrote what they are on the carton as well so I don’t forget. The little guys on the left are one French pumpkin, two baby bam pumpkins and then on the right are two little cucumber sprouts. The watermelons and peppers haven’t  sprouted yet. Those pumpkins look like they might be a little overly ambitious.

As for where I’ll be planting my squash this year, I asked my husband if I could give them a nice sunny home in an area with no plants currently. It just happens to be a prime location that I’m not even convinced I like. Here’s a shot from this post about our house on Google Maps:See that mulch on the right side of our grass? See how barren it is? This was before I tried two gardenias, some hostas and a few other plants in there that didn’t get enough water and died. I want to plant my squash plants in that area because it gets plenty of sun and it’s pretty barren, but would it be ugly to have squash plants over there? Or do the benefits outweigh having vegetables in my front yard?

In other news, in Northern California we are seriously short on rain this winter. Any one else doing a rain dance? If no rain during winter means lots of rain in spring (“In like a lamb out like a lion?”) then that’s good for the plants! Any one else out there starting seedlings already?

Orchid Seeds

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in environment, flowers, garden, nature, Photography, photos, picture, pictures, wildlife

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Did you know orchids can grow seed pods? I didn’t. Then again I nearly kill orchids before taking them home to my grandma for rescue.
This orchid was one that was sent home with me for a sure death and ended up blooming. Like two months ago. And it still has flowers. But then it started growing weird poddy things. I finally asked my grandma about it and she said they are seed pods. If they aren’t removed she said they would eventually break open on their own and judging by the fact that mine were looking pretty plump and had been on the plant for at least a month, I was getting pretty close. Oops.
Inside they have a million billion itty bitty seeds. Without referencing wikipedia, I assume these are able to blow through the wind. Have you ever been to a rainforest area and seen wild orchids growing in the trees? It makes sense that they might get high up in the trees through this method.

The seeds are very small and it was neat checking out this seed pod. Don’t worry, Grandma, I got rid of it so we should be all set now! But I may or may not have “accidentally” let some blow about just in case any want to grow in my trees.

You are probably an energy hog

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in environment, home

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Around or before winter each year I get an email from our local electricity and natural gas provider, PG&E, telling me that if we save some set amount of energy (15%?) we will get a kick back. Last year I think they sent one of those Visa giftcards and I immediately reapplied it toward my next bill since it was only $25 or so but I was surprised that we got it without even trying.

Recently they introduced new tools to monitor your energy consumption (or started emailing me about it so much I couldn’t ignore it) and of course this winter I got the email stating that if you save 10% energy compared to past winter’s gas usage you get a 20% bill credit. Now, I already knew that our teeny house with two people uses less everything than the average house so I wasn’t expecting much and there’s no way I’m not going to use my  our new heater so when I got an email telling me to check my progress I thought this was pretty awesome:

Apparently we’re kicking ass and taking names in saving natural gas which seems crazy to me seeing as how we were using our fireplace to heat the house, have been using the new heater, cooking and baking using natural gas and even our clothes dryer and water heater uses natural gas to run. Is this really compared to last year or just every body else? I mean, I care about the environment and I compost, recycle and turn off lights but it’s not like we are being crazy hippies and reading by candle light. So I checked out how we compare, first in electricity.

That blue line is us, the gray is “other similar homes” and the green line is “efficient similar homes.” We are rocking the pants off the “efficient” homes and I’m pretty sure we aren’t anywhere near an energy efficient home (okay, we have mostly new appliances in the kitchen and a new washer but everything else is a little older) and we even run a dehumidifier all day sometimes. Plus an electric blanket. Plus whatever things we charge. Plus our “not efficient” but new plasma TV. Or is it LCD? I don’t know. It’s 3D but we don’t have the glasses for it. I know, not on track.

Next I checked on natural gas usage. You know, when I was in elementary school I was assigned a report on energy and had to do natural gas and when I went to the library (before there was Wikipedia) and asked the librarian where the natural gas books were she laughed. In. My. Face. I then had to explain I meant natural gas, the energy resource. Sheesh.

Okay, gas usage (the energy resource):

Apparently our usage is pretty darn similar to an “efficient” home on this one, which again, I don’t consider us. It’s not like we have a tankless water heater or take cold showers. You can bet the heater was on this morning before I left the house. But we’re still doing way better than the average home in usage. And just for fun, one last cool graph showing our usage in terms of the temperature outside:

The conclusion I drew from this was that the longer we endure slightly chilly temperatures, the more inclined we are to use natural gas to heat out home. Just look at the difference between October and November, though, how you can tell that’s the month we start getting a chill.

My whole point in sharing this all is that you are probably an energy hog based on these graphs. But if you’re not, and you’re below the average similar home in usage and/or live in an “efficient” home, then kudos to you. The environment thanks you. Maybe making sure that we turn off unused lights, using energy efficient light bulbs and minding our energy usage can get the line for usage a little lower for all homes.

Box of Surprises!

11 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in deals, environment, food, photos, picture, pictures

≈ 2 Comments

This arrived in the mail the other day. It may look familiar if you saw the post about the organic boxes (where you can get your first box free if you sign up!). Well I signed up and just received my first box which I knew was going to be tea and snacks– all of which would be natural, sustainable and organic– but I wasn’t 100% sure what would be in the box. A nice surprise!
The box is filled with about $45 worth of products that I got for $19. If you pay for shipping it’s an additional $3 but that still means I got fancy tea and snacks for half off. I chose this box because I needed to restock on tea soon anyways, but even the husband was excited to see chocolate covered espresso beans and chocolate.

The image on the left was the back of an “aromatherapy chart” but it made me wish there was Coconut Chai Black Tea in my box. What a tease! The husband was interested in the packing material and/ or perhaps slightly bummed there was no bubble wrap to pop. See him digging in?

You can go to BlissmoBox to sign up to get a monthly box of good-for-the-planet products shipped directly to you. They will give you a few category choices each month and all you have to do is choose and then wait for the box to arrive.

Farmer Friday: Happy Fall!

23 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in bees, broccoli, dreaming, environment, farmer fridays, flowers, garden, gardening, grass, greens, landscape, nature, Photography, photos, picture, pictures, pumpkin, roses, summer, sunflowers, tomatoes, vegetables, wildlife

≈ 3 Comments

Today is the first official day of Autumn.

That means that the garden is transitioning. Annuals aren’t looking so great and it’s impossible to keep up with flowering herbs and vegetables.

The lovely fall light on this broccoli is making me happy that it makes for pretty flowers. Do you see the bumble bee in the lower left of this?

Is it spider season for anyone else? We have the most gigantic spiders lately. It’s as if when the weather isn’t too hot or too cold they go while. See the guy hiding in the bottom of this unbloomed sunflower? This looks like an artichoke heart to me.

The pumpkin still has flowers bu no sign of growing a pumpkin yet. Seems like maybe there won’t be any in time for Halloween but maybe I’ll get some for Thanksgiving pumpkin pies!

This orchid on my front porch bloomed then grew a leaf and root from the stalk that bloomed and is now transplanting itself into the pot on the left, apparently. I may have missed the window of transplanting it myself? More importantly, how did it know there was a pot there?

The giant sunflowers on the side yard (which are safe from squirrels so far) are almost bumping against the eaves.

Despite my yellow cherry tomato plant doing its darndest to take over the yard the rose bush it’s currently covering is still doing just fine.

Goodbye summer, I’ll miss you.

$3 Deal: Organic and Eco-Friendly Product Box!

23 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in alannaface, deals, environment, food, health, home, organic

≈ 2 Comments

Today I had the opportunity to stop by the offices of a Bay Area start-up that promotes deals of up to 70% off organic and eco-friendly products called Blissmo. They recently started a new service called BlissmoBox which offers consumers a hand-selected box of certified organic and eco-friendly products once a month. Subscribers have the choice between three or more boxes which might be snacks, home cleaning products or even intimate goods. While there I got my hands on their June offering of a “Food & Beverage” box.

As you all know, I’m a sucker for a good deal and enjoy knowing how good of a deal a got so it’s great that each box comes with an insert that describes each product and it’s retail value. Normally Blissmo sells these boxes for $19 each (plus $3 shipping).

This box included Kaia Foods Granola ($6.99), Kaia Foods Fruit Leather ($1.89), Clif Bar ($2.78), La Yapa Quinoa ($6.09), Alter Eco Cane Sugar ($4.99), Numi Organic Tea ($6.99), Sambazon Energy Drink ($2.49) and a Pu-erh tea sample. The grand total is a $32.22 retail value that you can get shipped to you for $22 (unless you sign up for 3 or 6 months and then you get free shipping). And some boxes you save even more. But what if you could get all of this for only $3?

I think you know the answer to that question from the title of this post. If you go to http://www.blissmobox.com/friend/ and sign up using my email address (alannaface at gmail.com) you will get your first box for only the price of shipping which is a whopping $3. They change the offerings each month but currently the options for your first box are a Blissful Beauty box, a Teas and Tastes box (this is the one I got!) and a Night Lovin’ box. The last one includes vegan condoms. Yeah. I didn’t know they made those either. It also includes a candle that melts at body temperature and so it’s basically massage oil. Ask yourself, would you pay $3 for a box of tea? If so, it’s worth it.

In other months they’ve offered boxes like the one above with home care products that are all eco-friendly or organic. Also, if you decide you don’t like any of the choices in a given month you can ask them to stall your delivery and either get two choices the following month or push your box deliveries out by a month.

They also had the above “Afternoon Fuel” box which included a selection of organic and eco-friendly snack foods. Would you be willing to pay $3 for that? You would be crazy not to.

These boxes can also be sent as gifts to loved ones or friends (know a bachelor or bachelorette for that Night Lovin’ box?) and you can cancel the service at any time. Christmas is about 90 days away and I hear they’ve got some Christmas cheer up their sleeves at Blissmo. So go. Sign up and use alannaface at gmail.com as your referral email. $3. What are you waiting for? Let me know if you sign up and what you think!

 

I’m writing about these boxes because I think they’re pretty fantastic and I signed up for the service but in the interest of full disclosure that June box was free to myself and a friend to split.

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