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Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
It was in 2001 when I first read in the magazine of The Nature Conservancy about the project to replant trees in Brazil's Atlantic Forest to restore it.
With only 7% of the original tropical forest left, it is one of the hottest biodiveristy hotspots on the planet. (Read the website of Conservation International to find out about biodiversity hotspots.)
So, today, I found out about the campaign of The Nature Conservancy to Plant A Billion Trees in The Atlantic Forest of Brazil.
I have made my first contribution today - it is one dollar for one tree - simple - do you want to make your own contribution?
I am putting the "widget" for the campaign here on my blog.
My goal is 1000 for right now - I want a lot of trees planted!!
This planet has had too many trees cut down!!
What can you do???? What do you want to do????
Ruth
Sunday, April 27, 2008
BIODIVERSITY OFFSETS - MAKING CONSERVATION, RESTORATION & PROTECTION OF GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY A STANDARD PART OF BUSINESS PRACTICES
Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
In earlier posts, I have stated about being a forest lover and wanting trees planted.
Well, I have felt this way a long time.
It was in 2001 that I read in the magazine of The Nature Conservancy (July/August 2001 issue)about Forest Trends, a DC-based company that is helping to "promote sustainable forest management and conservation by creating and capturing market values for ecosystem services" as stated in their Mission on their website. I also read about the 2 U.S. companies, General Motors and American Electric Power donating millions of dollars to fund the land purchase and restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest, which is one of the hottest global biodiversity hotspots on the planet - and at that time, had only 7% of the original forest remaining.
I was so excited, I then felt like jumping for joy!!
Mainstream United States businesses were joining our battle to protect the biodiversity of our planet.
Believe you me, it gave me hope for our planet and us!!
And the restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest is still going on as a major project of The Nature Conservancy: http://www.plantabillion.org/. (see my next post in a few minutes!)
Even more gives me hope when I read the website of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program, which has the following statement on their website:
In my opinion, protecting and restoring biodiversity and our forests needs to be a part of every business, so I feel biodiversity offsets should be a standard part of business practice.
I personally do what I can by donating to groups that I feel are making significant contributions to biodversity and telling people about what these groups are doing, such as The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and The Aldo Leopold Foundation.
What can you do?
Ruth
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
In earlier posts, I have stated about being a forest lover and wanting trees planted.
Well, I have felt this way a long time.
It was in 2001 that I read in the magazine of The Nature Conservancy (July/August 2001 issue)about Forest Trends, a DC-based company that is helping to "promote sustainable forest management and conservation by creating and capturing market values for ecosystem services" as stated in their Mission on their website. I also read about the 2 U.S. companies, General Motors and American Electric Power donating millions of dollars to fund the land purchase and restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest, which is one of the hottest global biodiversity hotspots on the planet - and at that time, had only 7% of the original forest remaining.
I was so excited, I then felt like jumping for joy!!
Mainstream United States businesses were joining our battle to protect the biodiversity of our planet.
Believe you me, it gave me hope for our planet and us!!
And the restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest is still going on as a major project of The Nature Conservancy: http://www.plantabillion.org/. (see my next post in a few minutes!)
Even more gives me hope when I read the website of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program, which has the following statement on their website:
"Our vision and expectation is that biodiversity offsets will become a
standard part of business practice for those companies with a significant impact
on biodiversity. The routine mainstreaming of biodiversity offsets into
development practice will result in long-term and globally significant
conservation outcomes.Our vision and expectation is that biodiversity offsets
will become a standard part of business practice for those companies with a
significant impact on biodiversity. The routine mainstreaming of biodiversity
offsets into development practice will result in long-term and globally
significant conservation outcomes."
In my opinion, protecting and restoring biodiversity and our forests needs to be a part of every business, so I feel biodiversity offsets should be a standard part of business practice.
I personally do what I can by donating to groups that I feel are making significant contributions to biodversity and telling people about what these groups are doing, such as The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and The Aldo Leopold Foundation.
What can you do?
Ruth
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
EARTH DAY IS EVERY DAY #2 - CHANGE YOUR DIET & HELP REDUCE CLIMATE CHANGE
Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
Well, this is a new slant on helping to do something about climate change. I had never read much of anything about it until today - and I guess this was a good day to learn something new about how I could help reduce climate change - it is the offical Earth Day, after all!!
Funny thing about it - it coincides with what I do to eat a healthy diet for me (healthy for my body, I mean, not just the planet).
"Low-carb" has an additional meaning these days.
"Low-carb" for years has meant eating a diet with carbohydrate grams of what you eat being below a certain level.
Well, this "low-carb" diet has a new meaning for "carb" - in this meaning "carb" means carbon and a Low Carbon Diet means a diet low or lower in contributing to carbon emissions. When the food production, transportation of the food and disposal of any of the food (and how) is calculated, foods have different carbon levels - there are are low carbon foods, or lower carbon foods and higher carbon foods.
Apparently meat - such as beef - and cheese - and some fish or seafood - are higher carbon foods, while poultry is a lower carbon food than livestock meat - and locally grown vegetables and fruits are really lower carbon foods. Locally grown fruits, vegetable - or locally grown anything - is lower carbon because there will either be no transportation - or very little.
Fruits and vegetable generally are a low carbon food, but those Dutch red peppers from The Netherlands are much higher carbon because of all the transportation from The Netherlands, which causes a lot of carbon emissions. Those Dutch red peppers (the sweet variety that I like so much) and that I have seen in some produce sections look gorgeous and delicious, but both the price and the fact that they came from overseas put me off right away and I wouldn't buy them.
On the other hand, going to the local orchard where you can pick the fruit you want off the tree yourself and put them in your own boxes or bags that you are re-using - and that taste many times better than the same kinds of fruit in the grocery store that came by 18-wheel refrigerator trucks - will really have a lower carbon level, because:
1) locally grown (no carbon emissions from 18-wheel refrigerator trucks!!!!)
2) hand-picked
3) no packaging because you pick it and can put it in your own recyclable, reusable container
4)very little waste because it tastes so delicious and you eat it ALL!!
My home grown fresh herbs are really low carbon - I grow them in my front yard in containers organically and when I want them, I just step outside and cut a few pieces off to put in whatever I am cooking. Locally grown, hand-picked as needed, no packaging and no waste at all!!
Check out this link for a "Low Carbon Diet Pocket Guide" by Bon Appetit Management Company: http://www.circleofresponsibility.com/uploads/documents/low_carbon_diet/8-1740_lcd_pocket_guide-final.pdf.
If you want, use their Low Carbon Diet Calculator at http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/.
Like I said, reading about the Low Carbon Diet - it coincides to some degree with my own personalized diet - lots of fresh vegetables and a moderate amount of fresh fruit - poultry, which is my main animal protein, is definitely preferred over any livestock meat like beef. The only real difference is that a doctor recommended wild alaskan salmon, which I understand is a fairly high carbon emission food because of how it is caught and transported, but I only eat a small amount of that.
So do two things - eat healthier for you and eat more low carbon for the planet.
Every day is really Earth Day!!
To a healthy environment for all of us --
Ruth
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
Well, this is a new slant on helping to do something about climate change. I had never read much of anything about it until today - and I guess this was a good day to learn something new about how I could help reduce climate change - it is the offical Earth Day, after all!!
Funny thing about it - it coincides with what I do to eat a healthy diet for me (healthy for my body, I mean, not just the planet).
"Low-carb" has an additional meaning these days.
"Low-carb" for years has meant eating a diet with carbohydrate grams of what you eat being below a certain level.
Well, this "low-carb" diet has a new meaning for "carb" - in this meaning "carb" means carbon and a Low Carbon Diet means a diet low or lower in contributing to carbon emissions. When the food production, transportation of the food and disposal of any of the food (and how) is calculated, foods have different carbon levels - there are are low carbon foods, or lower carbon foods and higher carbon foods.
Apparently meat - such as beef - and cheese - and some fish or seafood - are higher carbon foods, while poultry is a lower carbon food than livestock meat - and locally grown vegetables and fruits are really lower carbon foods. Locally grown fruits, vegetable - or locally grown anything - is lower carbon because there will either be no transportation - or very little.
Fruits and vegetable generally are a low carbon food, but those Dutch red peppers from The Netherlands are much higher carbon because of all the transportation from The Netherlands, which causes a lot of carbon emissions. Those Dutch red peppers (the sweet variety that I like so much) and that I have seen in some produce sections look gorgeous and delicious, but both the price and the fact that they came from overseas put me off right away and I wouldn't buy them.
On the other hand, going to the local orchard where you can pick the fruit you want off the tree yourself and put them in your own boxes or bags that you are re-using - and that taste many times better than the same kinds of fruit in the grocery store that came by 18-wheel refrigerator trucks - will really have a lower carbon level, because:
1) locally grown (no carbon emissions from 18-wheel refrigerator trucks!!!!)
2) hand-picked
3) no packaging because you pick it and can put it in your own recyclable, reusable container
4)very little waste because it tastes so delicious and you eat it ALL!!
My home grown fresh herbs are really low carbon - I grow them in my front yard in containers organically and when I want them, I just step outside and cut a few pieces off to put in whatever I am cooking. Locally grown, hand-picked as needed, no packaging and no waste at all!!
Check out this link for a "Low Carbon Diet Pocket Guide" by Bon Appetit Management Company: http://www.circleofresponsibility.com/uploads/documents/low_carbon_diet/8-1740_lcd_pocket_guide-final.pdf.
If you want, use their Low Carbon Diet Calculator at http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/.
Like I said, reading about the Low Carbon Diet - it coincides to some degree with my own personalized diet - lots of fresh vegetables and a moderate amount of fresh fruit - poultry, which is my main animal protein, is definitely preferred over any livestock meat like beef. The only real difference is that a doctor recommended wild alaskan salmon, which I understand is a fairly high carbon emission food because of how it is caught and transported, but I only eat a small amount of that.
So do two things - eat healthier for you and eat more low carbon for the planet.
Every day is really Earth Day!!
To a healthy environment for all of us --
Ruth
Monday, April 21, 2008
SPRING HAS SPRUNG - WARMER DAYS - TIME FOR A REFRESHING SALAD!!
Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
A constant part of all of our lives is what we eat.
For a variety of reasons, I have watched my diet and what I eat most of my life - I have keen memories of this part of my life going back to when I was 8 years old.
For some reason, I eat differently at different times of the year. In the colder months, I eat a lot of warmer foods - especially soups and stews - made with fresh ingredients.
But in the warmer months, it is salads.
Not your normal everyday lettuce and tomato salad - oh that is way too boring for me - and besides it is not the best for me.
What I do in the warmer months is to try an keep a dish of some kind of chopped up salad in the refrigerator.
It varies - sometimes it is hotter, like a salsa, with mainly onions, tomatos, hot peppers (usually either jalapenos or serranos) and fresh garlic. But very often I have a dish of just the greener/non-fruit/non-carb vegetables chopped up - it is great to grab a few spoonfuls in a hurry for a snack or it goes great with just about anything - chicken, fish, a dish of organic brown rice and veggies, a rice cracker - but what ever it is with, it is refreshing.
For me the basic ingredients that are always in it are:
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
A constant part of all of our lives is what we eat.
For a variety of reasons, I have watched my diet and what I eat most of my life - I have keen memories of this part of my life going back to when I was 8 years old.
For some reason, I eat differently at different times of the year. In the colder months, I eat a lot of warmer foods - especially soups and stews - made with fresh ingredients.
But in the warmer months, it is salads.
Not your normal everyday lettuce and tomato salad - oh that is way too boring for me - and besides it is not the best for me.
What I do in the warmer months is to try an keep a dish of some kind of chopped up salad in the refrigerator.
It varies - sometimes it is hotter, like a salsa, with mainly onions, tomatos, hot peppers (usually either jalapenos or serranos) and fresh garlic. But very often I have a dish of just the greener/non-fruit/non-carb vegetables chopped up - it is great to grab a few spoonfuls in a hurry for a snack or it goes great with just about anything - chicken, fish, a dish of organic brown rice and veggies, a rice cracker - but what ever it is with, it is refreshing.
For me the basic ingredients that are always in it are:
- fresh garlic
- fresh onion (either red or yellow or white or scalllions - what ever I have/prefer)
- fresh hot pepper (either jalapenos or serranos - but if I use serranos, I use less as they are HOT in anything even in small amounts)
But with these three ingredients (which are also very often the basis for a fresh salsa), you need other green veggies to offset their strong flavors (and, oh, keep the toothpaste and toothbrush close by!). Since I am making a green/non-carb veggie salad, the other ingredients, which vary depending on what I have and what I feel like, are:
- cucumber
- celery
- fresh broccoli
- fresh red, green, orange or yellow peppers (not the hot ones - the so-called "sweet" ones)
- tomatillos (rarely, but occasionally)
- cabbage (either red or green)
- radishes
Then come the fresh herbs - again depending on what I am growing (I grow fresh herbs in containers in my yard) - which really add some great flavor to the veggies:
- rosemary
- basil
- tarragon
- chives
- dill
- mint
- oregano
Then mix it all up (sometimes with some black pepper, too) - and put in the refrigerator, covered (I use covered glass dishes that I have collected over the years - I think it tastes better in a glass dish) - for a while -- and then you have a tasty snack/side dish availabe at any time -- until it is all gone.
I usually make a pretty good sized dish, so it lasts me at least a couple of days!!
And, if it is all gone - and I want a veggie to grab, there is always a stalk of celery or a few radishes or some slices of cucumber or pieces of fresh broccoli.
And sometimes, it all tastes the greatest when I mash up a rather ripe avocado and mix in some of the veggies with some red or black pepper and sea salt (small amount).
Maybe you would like to try it!!
I am going out all day tomorrow, so I am chopping up some of my favorite fresh veggies to make one of these chopped salads to take with me - and some stalks of celery, some radishes - and a fresh orange or two - along with some meat I cooked up today. Easy to take along and much better than just anything I could grab while I am going around.
EAT FRESH FOODS!! AND THESE SALADS ARE REALLY REFRESHING!!
KEEPING A BOWL OF CHOPPED UP SALAD IN YOUR FRIDGE, IT WILL BE EASY TO GRAB!!!
IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT, FOR SOME NATURAL SWEETNESS, YOU CAN TAKE A FEW SPOONFULS AND CHOP UP SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE FRUITS (MINE TO EAT WITH SALADS ARE WATERMELON OR STRAWBERRIES OR APPLES OR ORANGE OR GRAPEFRUIT - OR A VARIETY OF BERRIES!!).
DIG IN!!
Ruth
Monday, April 14, 2008
NEW SPRING DOILY ON EBAY - PROCEEDS OF SALE WILL BE DONATED TO THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Thread
Every once in a while I'll do an auction/buy-it-now listing of my crochet on eBay.
I've been selling my doilies for years there now and have some customers who are use to finding my crochet there. So, in addition to my shops on etsy.com, I will also be putting some of my crochet on eBay.
This one is an "eBay Giving Works" listing - 100% of the selling price will be donated by me through "eBay Giving Works" for a donation to The Nature Conservancy. I have been doing these "eBay Giving Works" listings periodically since about this time last year and all of the ones that have sold have been for The Nature Conservancy.
Check out where The Nature Conservancy works for preserving the diversity of life on earth:
And right now Mission Fish and eBay have a "Spotlight on the Environment": http://www.missionfish.org/About/mfnews/mfn_031808.jsp !! It will be going on for all of April and May 2008.
As a customer, maybe you will find something special for sale in their "Spotlight on the Environment" pages -- as a seller - maybe you want to join in!!
Ruth
SPRING HAS ARRIVED IN THE ANTELOPE VALLEY, CA
Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Threads
Spring has truly arrived - it gets really warm now in the afternoons - and my miniature rose bush has buds that are starting to open!
Here - take a look!!
This picture shows sub buds opening up with bright dark pink roses - and if you look closely, you can see some buds that are still closed on these branches.
Actually there are lots and lots of buds - in a week or two, the bush will be full of miniature red roses.
It is getting close to 7 years since I moved in here - a previous tenant planted this little miniature rose bush out in front - well since I have been here it has grown and grown - and there are a couple of smaller bushes next to it now -- and at various times of the year I have a bush full of roses!
I have learned to prune it regularly, because then I have more blooms!!
As my little front yard garden develops over the spring, summer and fall months, I'll periodically post pictures of the different plants.
When my rose bush is in full bloom - I'll show it here on my blog!!
Ruth
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Crochet Thread Plus - Internet Shop of Crochet Threads
Spring has truly arrived - it gets really warm now in the afternoons - and my miniature rose bush has buds that are starting to open!
Here - take a look!!
This picture shows sub buds opening up with bright dark pink roses - and if you look closely, you can see some buds that are still closed on these branches.
Actually there are lots and lots of buds - in a week or two, the bush will be full of miniature red roses.
It is getting close to 7 years since I moved in here - a previous tenant planted this little miniature rose bush out in front - well since I have been here it has grown and grown - and there are a couple of smaller bushes next to it now -- and at various times of the year I have a bush full of roses!
I have learned to prune it regularly, because then I have more blooms!!
As my little front yard garden develops over the spring, summer and fall months, I'll periodically post pictures of the different plants.
When my rose bush is in full bloom - I'll show it here on my blog!!
Ruth
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