When it’s time to remove a tree

...le. The garden feels more lively or, conversely, more peaceful. It’s as if energy which was blocked by that ailing or misplaced plant is now flowing again. It’s an almost physical sensation–like a fresh breeze blowing through your yard. But when a plant, especially a tree, is removed in a thoughtless or untimely way, though, it feels like a wound. The empty space looks haunted. The wrongness is deep, and it takes a long time to fade. There are pla...

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Saturday Tweets: Don’t Fear the Green Reaper

Don’t fear the Green Reaper: The story of the Department of Energy’s dubious mascot https://t.co/IpN5JwiwLU via @muckrock — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 1, 2019 £300,000 Margaret Thatcher statue needs plinth ‘to keep out vandals’ https://t.co/kTiV8Mkw4J — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 1, 2019 1) LED streetlights are one of my pet peeves, ever since they installed some just outside my bedroom window a few years ago and the light relentl...

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Pack Rat Palladio

...ted pitching those columns into a dumpster. Summoning a reserve of foolish energy, I ran over and asked the workers if I could have the columns. I now have four more columns for my collection. Kelly is concerned. Over the years I’ve acquired quite a few columns. I think their abundance has something to do with the Dwell Magazinifiction of our old neighborhood. As poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay put it, “As public sex was embarrassing to the Vi...

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Transition Founder Rob Hopkins in Pasadena

...communities across the country and world are transforming their economic, energy and food systems from the bottom up. Welcome by Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard. At the Fair: Repair Café, Learning Garden tours, potluck lunch, and networking with local sustainability groups and neighboring Transition Initiatives. Throop Unitarian Universalist Church 300 S Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101 Tickets: $10, pre-register for $5 at www.justdoingstuffpasaden...

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LED Light Bulbs

...umens to watts ratio of 34. For more on these issues see the Department of Energy’s FAQ on LEDs. As the DOE notes in the FAQ, it’s not entirely fair to directly compare compact fluorescents to LED lights, since LED bulbs have a more directed light making them perhaps better for applications such as bedside reading lights, where you don’t want to bother a dozing partner. LEDs, due to their exceptionally long life — upwards of 60,000 hours — are als...

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