Photo of the Month – Botany Bay

Hi Folks:

I still remember when I was visiting my aunt in Prince Rupert, BC back in 1983 that she directed me to a nearby marshy area where the poor growing conditions led to many of the trees adopting a natural ‘bonsai’ – stunted growth and twisted forms that would give a forester nightmares.  I’ve seen similar growth in other places in Canada as well – when I was working in eastern Ontario in 1979 we encountered a cedar swamp where the trees averaged 160-180 years old but were barely the diameter of the average human wrist. Continue Reading →

My Lightroom Workflow

Hi Folks:

There are a number of different tutorials and videos available regarding Lightroom workflow; I’ve learned from several of them and have incorporated them into my own way of doing things.  You can find some of these tutorials through our ‘Lightroom Links‘ post.  Many people seem to ‘focus’ (pun intended) on Lightroom’s ability to render RAW files into usable digital images, but of course it does much more than that.  At its heart, Lightroom is a database, a way of cataloguing and organizing one’s digital library.  Used well, Lightroom makes it easy to discover, sort and group one’s images in a meaningful way.  You can read more on that in our ‘Should I Get Lightroom or Photoshop or…?‘ post.

Before I begin discussing my workflow, I wanted to mention a few personal preferences: Continue Reading →

Being Green: Interconnection

Hi Folks:

A week has come and gone and it’s time for this week’s ‘Being Green’ post.  It’s going to be a short post this week; the afternoon sunshine is calling me outside!

The biggest items on the news of late is the after-effects of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A list of some of the relief agencies involved may be found here: Help Survivors of Japan Quake & Tsunami.  There’s been so much in all of the media channels discussing what has happened and speculating about what is happening or may happen I have no wish to add to that.  It does occur to me, however, that for much of the world this latest event in Japan has eclipsed the recent earthquake in New Zealand, the one in Haiti, the one in Chile, the BP oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico last year… people in New Orleans are still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina for that matter, and that was nearly six years ago.  The Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Ukraine was 20 years ago.

This being a blog post about ‘being green’ it would certainly be possible to use these and other global events as a platform to speak out against nuclear power, about the continued effects of global warming and the like, but I don’t want to go there.  Our blog posts tend to get divided between those dealing with spiritual understandings and those dealing with more ‘practical’ issues like green building, environmental and social issues and photography and I don’t often cross those boundaries, but for me life isn’t about one or the other.  Every day is a blend of both, the two becoming one.  I would never suggest to anyone else that they have to follow a certain spiritual Way of being, but I think that no matter what your beliefs – whether they are from a religious tradition, grounded firmly in scientific understanding or some combination that is uniquely yours, one thing we can all agree on is that this little ball we call earth, the one that we all share, is pretty unique.  We are, all of us, interconnected.  In the spirit of that idea, I wanted to pass on something written by a friend of ours, Reverend Karin Wilson.  Karin is with the Center for Spiritual Living in Kelowna, BC, and this piece comes from their March 2011 newsletter.  If you like what she has to say, Karin also has her own blog site: One Mind One Spirit | Northern Light from a Spiritual Seeker:

Let there be Peace

As I’m writing this, my thoughts are with Japan.

It’s so hard to not get caught up in what is unmistakeably one of the most significant dramas to unfold in my living memory.

But I also know that what is taking place there – from the tsumanis to explosions – is a divine idea in the mind of Spirit, even if my human mind has difficulty seeing exactly what that divine idea might be. Whenever I try and think about what it could be, I realize, that like the Tao, I am by turns limiting that One Great Consciousness.

What I do know is that every scientific talent that has anything to offer is offering it to Japan right now. That every person working on restoring the country – from its electricity to water to transportation – is able to so do with a peaceful mind that is focused on its intention, and loving in its delivery. I know that every country opens its doors to the Japanese people with compassion, and I know too that the right people stay behind to rebuild the country in a way that serves everyone.

And yet, I know too that as I say all these things, my treatment in mind is for that and so much more.

The limitless power that we know as God is present right here and right now. As we turn away from what appears to be, we open our eyes to the infinite possibility of what is.

My thoughts are with you Japan. Your sun is rising.

Peace and blessings.

Rev. Karin Wilson

Wherever you are on this little blue marble of ours, I wish you peace.

Okay, the links for this week include:

Okay, that’s it for now.   Have a great week!

Hugs,
Mike.

P.S. Want to learn green building terms? ED+C Teams Up With Renowned Crossword Puzzle Author to Construct Interactive Green Building Crosswords

Being Green – The Future of Education

Hi Folks:

Saturday once again, and time for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  It’s usually posted on Fridays, but not always… 😉

Anyway, while my blog posts are, by definition, my thoughts and ideas, this week I’m going to dust off the old soap box on a topic that I think is very important: education.  In this society we have a somewhat limited and very rigid view of what ‘education’ means; if you ask them, I believe most people would likely give an answer related to schools, classrooms and the like.  Personally, I invested some 18 years of my life in various classrooms… and then they had the nerve to tell me I had to go to high school!  I told them to forget it.  Continue Reading →

Being Green: Turning Back the Clock

Hi Folks:

Friday once again, and time for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  Before I get to that, however, I wanted to add in the following link: How to say “peace” in 100 languages.  Always a good idea…

Much of the cosmetics industry seems to revolve around the idea of being able to turn back the aging process a few years… I’m getting a little grayer around the muzzle myself (I’m the wolf part of wolfnowl.com) but I’m rather proud of those white hairs – and not just because it makes me look like Santa Claus.  However, that’s not what this blog post is about.

My mind often works in a ‘ping-pong’ fashion (some might call it ‘cascade failure’  instead 😉 ) and while I was fishing around for an idea for this week’s ‘green’ post I found myself thinking about the webinar with Dr. Jennifer Languell I watched last week.  One of the things she mentioned was our (over)reliance on technology such as air conditioning systems when we could choose instead to incorporate passive systems that require no energy generation.  That got me thinking about an episode I’d seen on television once about a house that had incorporated waterways and gardens within the main floor of the house; one that essentially required intensive airflow modification to keep the temperature and humidity in check.  It was an engineering marvel that worked very well… as long as the electricity to run the system wasn’t lost.  That got me thinking about different technologies, including methods used by ancient cultures, that don’t rely on such elaborate mechanical systems.  Many people tend to see ancient and especially aboriginal cultures as being ‘primitive’, but in many cases their technology and their Ways of being equalled or surpassed our own.  For example, the Hopi people of the American southwest have been growing corn in a desert for millenia. Continue Reading →