Amsterdam Public Art… what a statement!
From the Wooster Collective of Street Art

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Here is a video from Salon about a Street Market that shares its space with a Train. Check out the post at: Salon, How The World Works

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Last week CNN reported on a story about high chemical levels in kids’ bodies. The testing called, “body-burden” testing reveals industrial chemicals in humans. Some scientists call the 21st century population an “unnatural experiment” meaning they have tested some chemical on labs rats, which have harmed them but since you cannot lab-test on humans the [...]

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The growing season ended last weekend with a party complete with beer-batter fried brussel sprouts, meat cookies, fresh milk and some skeet-shooting. Freedom Farm is a MOFGA certified organic farm located in Freedom, Maine about an hour and a half northeast of Portland. The farm sits atop of beautiful 55 acres where they typically have [...]

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Tomorrow is the grand opening for Fat Baxter’s– our new neighborhood grocery store. I stopped by this evening and picked up a six-pack of Real Ale. It is very very cool.

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Scores of people were standing around with cameras and video cameras, even binoculars, looking at a Bard Owl on Monument Way today– just outside of Longfellow Books. He quickly became the talk of the town. There was even a TV cameraman there filming (he had come to interview Red Sox fans in Monument Square).
The owl [...]

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So many of Portland’s intersections, including this one on Congress near Monument Square, close traffic in all directions at once for pedestrians to walk. But you have to be pretty quick if you need to cross diagonally- unless you do what these women in the photo are doing and walk across directly.
Many cities have crosswalks [...]

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Our good friend Ted Rouse and his friends in Baltimore have created the first biodiesel option in the city. With help from the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA), and the Baltimore BALLE network, the group of social entrepreneurs taught themselves the ins and outs of producing and selling biodiesel. The producing part did not go [...]

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The earth receives more energy from the sun in just ONE HOUR than the world uses in a whole year.

The Solar Decathlon was held last week on the Mall in Washington DC. The decathlon is both a physical and academic competition with 20 teams competing in 10 contests. The goal is to design, build, and [...]

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Today was my first trip to Washington DC since I was probably 10 yeas old. I am in town for a tour of the South West Anacostia Waterfront project and a meeting with One Planet Living. The City has plans for what may become one of the world “greenest” waterfronts, they have almost 80 acres [...]

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Last week Energyworks completed the installation of a Solar Hot Water system at 19 Ridge Road. (19 Ridge Road is Bartlett, New Hampshire’s first Green Building!) The system will provide the house will all its hot water and heating needs. The heat is distributed through the house via radiant tubes in all the [...]

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I already knew that people in Maine grew grapes, and I knew that there were folks making wine as well– but I didn’t know that anyone was making wine from their own Maine-grown grapes. On October 7th, I visited Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery in Union Maine with a group from Slow Food Portland. And [...]

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“The act of putting into your mouth what the earth has grown is perhaps your most direct interaction with the earth.” — Frances Moore Lappé
This is a photo from our recent wedding in Blue Hill, Maine and I thought it was a fitting image for my Blog Action Day post (photo credit goes to Greg [...]

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The Sustainable Portland Taskforce is hosting two public forums this week to get feedback on the final draft of the “Sustainable Portland” report that they’ve been working on. Copies of the report are available online at: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/sustainable.htm
The report is a good start- any start is a good start- and I hope the City uses this [...]

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That’s right the world famous Wall Mart store and their associated crap totals almost 19,000 acres - about 4,000 acres bigger than Manhattan. Click Here To View The Graph.

This graph was published by Good, a media disseminator bringing you ideas, news and information thru print, web and video. They posted the graph this month in [...]

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Here I am with Lettuce, the sow who is lucky enough to live at Savage Oaks Farm in Union Maine. I met Lettuce when we visited the farm last week on a field trip with Slow Food Portland. The reason we were there was actually not to meet Lettuce, but to see their vineyard and [...]

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This human-sized camera obscura was one of the attractions at the RISD Alumni weekend, and I had never seen it before. Once inside the dark box, they opened a small lens, and voila, an upside down vision of the First Baptist Church suddenly came into focus. I am not sure why it was so cool, [...]

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I was in Providence last weekend for the RISD Alumni weekend among other things. I walked over there from Olneyville and was a little surprised to see the old Police and Fire Station reduced to little more than a pile of dust. It was kind of a neat old historic building.

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Homegrown Herb and Tea on Congress Street has it all (but only if it is herb-related). Sara’s apothecary-style tea shop stocks medicinal and culinary herbs of all types, as well as fresh herbs, and now seeds too. Here she is with Peter showing off her newest offering, including seeds for just about any herb I [...]

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As if Sally didn’t have enough hobbies - we can now add Oyster Farming to her list. Part of the excitement was the Oyster Farm Tour we attended last weekend on the Damariscotta River. The Damariscotta River is home to 8 oyster farms and multiple hatcheries, and produces between 1.5 - 2 million oysters a [...]

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