Friday, August 11, 2006

It's Winter in Australia

Here's another site I've been following for awhile: an adventure in sustainable building. The Cockburn/Wittmer family will be building in Tasmania. (How many of you flash on that whirling Looney Tunes character whenever you hear that word?) In the July post there is a graphic of their house plan.

LindaCockburn has written a book Living the Good Life, detailing the her family's experiences with suburban sustainability. Many people think you have to have 40 acres to live sustainably-not true. We can all do things to decrease our ecological footprint, it just takes a little planning. One family has practised this on a city lot in, of all places, Pasadena, California (flash on Rose Bowl parade-I am a visual person) since the mid-80s. Check out The Path to Freedom, but take your time, there is a lot to learn in those pages.

A Reading

Last night we attended Borderlands: A Reading of Prose and Poetry at our local coffee house, Javalinas. The authors who read both live in Civano. Simmons Buntin, is the author of Riverfall a book of poetry and Scott Calhoun wrote A Yard Full of Sun which details his family's experiences building and gardening in the desert Southwest. (check the Riverfall link to the left). It made for an enjoyable evening-what was truly great was seeing the wide range of ages who came out to enjoy the reading.