W

W is for Williston. :)

W is for Wal Mart. : (

W is for wait. : - \

W is for what. ????

W is for wind. : ()

W is for WoW. !! : ) !!

According to an article published by USA Today, Wal-Mart will announce Monday plans to almost double the number of its stores that use solar power to generate energy, with a next-generation solar technology! Click here to read the entire article and to learn what other green initiatives, such as installing wind turbines on top of parking lot lights, are being taken by the retailer giant and a few other big corporations.

I applaud the initiatives to purse sustainable actions. But I also think about the fact that they are looking into the company's ability to make big profits before painting one wall green. Nothing against making money, just remembering that when one has a lot, there are lots who have none (or very little). I do not buy that but I am glad that the environment is being considered at last (or should I said at least?).

802

When you see these three numbers, you know.

8 0 2.

Yes! You feel pretty much the same as when you read, hear the name, or connect with someone from, the most beautiful state in the country, the state I live in, the state we much love:

V E R M O N T!

By Glenn Russell for the Free Press, with his permission

If you think of 802 as a significant number, one that triggers good old - and current - memories, and one that you would love to see printed even on your clothes, check the website of UVM grads, designers and founders of TophDaddy Designs.

These two young ladies, Becky and Melissa, have created an cool company and a great line of clothing inspired by the idea of area codes as numbers that automatically make you think about a place. Or maybe about the many phone conversations you made to someone special over there.

Their designs are about connecting and going to the basics of picking up the phone or conversing face to face with people, stopping spontaneously someone on the street and asking why she or he is wearing an 802 shirt. Or a 212, or a 671 one, depending on what is wearing whoever you stop on the street. The whole world does not live in Vermont, Mariana.

When I interviewed these women for a business story printed today in the Burlington Free Press, they inspired me, they comforted me with the idea that no matter where you are or where you go, you can always connect with someone who has shared something in common with you.

I did not ask them if they buy organic, fair-traded cotton or if they manufacture their tees locally because the story was not about that, but the concept behind their company really made me want to spend my money on their products. I would totally buy that.

Courtesy of TophDaddy

Eat Local

did you check this week the Eat Local Week blog?

If not, do so!

There are fun stories on how individuals and families are trying to eat 100 percent local for one week and ideas on what to buy and how to prepare a local meal!

here: http://www.eatlocalvt.com/

And here some photos of the food festival in Shelburne!

Place

“We all want places to have identity and meaning built in. Vermont has a really strong sense of place. The landscape is such a presence. Life and work is oriented toward the landscape. It’s hugely unusual. You start to think Vermont is normal, and then you’re out there, and things are different. Really different.”

by Vermont author Rowan Jacobsen, as quoted in today's Burlington Free Press story by Sally Pollack "A Taste of Terroir." Click here to read the entire note.

So much to tell

There was so much I wanted to tell you about.

I wanted to tell you about my adventures Saturday trying to have a safety check performed in my bike before I start taking my daughter to her school, 1.3 miles away from home, twice a week. Remember I mentioned this idea when I wrote about how i did NOT buy my bike? Oh boy, what an ordeal!

I wanted to tell you about the radio show I've heard on my way to the garden this weekend on how happiness has to do more with the way we spend our money and not so much with how much of it we have. Interesting theory.

I also wanted to tell you about the story I published Sunday on the Williston resident who built himself a solar-powered pool heater and was swimming during Labor Day, the day the summer

was unofficially supposed to end.

I wanted to tell you as well about the story I published today on the ninth annual Vermont Small Farms Food Festival which took place yesterday in Shelburne Orchards. It was all about local, nutritious and simple food and fun, two essential ingredients of an uncomplicated life. I even have some unedited photos to show you.

I also wanted to give you the heads up on what I am working on this week: stories on the Eat Local Week, the new UVM store on Church Street and the new line of clothes featuring our state area code - 802- as art. Pretty cool stuff!

But I will remain somehow silent for just a few days. You'll understand later why, so come back to read if you want to know.

In the meantime, see some of the photos from Matt Wood's swimming pool heater. If you are a do-it-yourself, handy person, don't miss the story in the Green Mountain Edition of Sunday's Free Press (link above). You can contact him with questions, too.

'i do NOT buy' list - to be updated

• gold jewelry
• famous, expensive brands (except if it's second hand or if there's no other option)
• in big, chain stores (except when can't find small, local, reasonably-priced alternative or when out of town visitors drag me there)
• electronic gadgets
• in big supermarkets (except when we run out of milk late at night)
• clothes to exercise (I use old clothes or hand-me downs)
• most politicians speeches

This list will be updated. Now I need to hear from you. What's on your 'i do NOT buy list'?

P.s: The fact that I do NOT buy these things does not mean you do or should do the same. First rule of a simple life: don't judge others.

simple encounters

Today I was thinking I need to tell you about Williston. This is quite a town and it isn't actually that SIMPLE to explain. Depending on where you are from, you will have a different concept of Williston.

• If you are from out of this country you might not think anything except where the heck is that. Ok, Williston is a town in Vermont, a state of the United States of America, about 35 minutes away from the Canadian border. North baby north.
• If you are from this country, you might think Williston is just one one more rural and bucolic Vermont town. You are right, in part.
• If you are from Vermont, you might think Williston is the town of the big boxes and chain stores. You are right, in part, too.
• If you are from Williston you should know the truth: Williston is that rural and picturesque Vermont town AND the commercial hub people know so well. Indeed, Williston has about 80 percent of its land categorized as rural and about 20 percent categorized as commercial/industrial.

Williston is where I've lived for the past three years. This morning, as I drove home after covering a story for the newspaper and getting veggies from the garden, I decided to stop in one of my favorite spots in town to take photos for you, for this blog. I wanted to get a nice shot of the white steeple of the Williston Federated Church, which in the summer is all surrounded by green. And it was then that I had one of those simple encounters that make you think about the complex things.

I was coming down Oak Hill Road as if returning from Lake Iroquois to the village and I stopped the car on the side of the intersection with South St. It's a pretty hight point and the views of the Green Mountains in the back and the Interstate to the southeast are amazing. See:

Suddenly, I've heard a bike approaching so I quickly moved to the side realizing I was kind of in the middle of the street. "Hey girl," the biker said slowing down. It was Amy! You know those persons you don't befriend directly but you know through other friends? Well, that's Amy for me. I always bump into her in different times and places, God only knows why. She's so cool.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Last time I've seen Amy, a few months ago in a park, she was very pregnant and there she was today, her perfectly back-in-shape and healthy being on her bike hitting the roads of Williston (she lives in Essex). First thing we talked about was of course her baby, who was 8 weeks old, she said, and then continued talking about the two babies our friends in common had over the summer. I told her I had not been in touch with them since before they had their babies because I was waiting to tell them some sad news. My dad had passed away in between the births of the babies of our friends.

I explained to Amy that my dad passing had been very special for me, not only because we got closer during the last 6 months of his life but also because he died on the day of my birthday, July 7. Her eyes got suddenly big. That was the day her boy had born. I got the chills. I knew then why we keep on bumping into each other.

Amy is a devoted believer and she belongs to a church. I am one of those 'undecided voters,' as I believe in God but not that much in churches or organized religion. But we both agreed that her baby and my dad crossed paths and that they were part of a perfect equilibrium. All of a sudden I felt it was time to tell my friends the news. Life and death are happenings of an instant and parts of an eternity that we are unable to comprehend but of which somehow, through simple encounters, we feel some piece.

Here is Amy, continuing her bike ride after our brief encounter