Community and Sustainability – A Powerful Combination
by Elizabeth Sawin
— May 1, 2003 —
Some years ago, I was part of a group that set out to create a community where we could experiment with sustainable living. One of our first steps was to write down a list of guiding principles. At the top of our list were Community and Sustainability. (The others, if you are curious, were [...]
Moving In
by Elizabeth Sawin
— August 1, 2002 —
At 9:30 at night the phone rings. It is my neighbor Lorie. “Would you mind stepping out onto your porch for a minute?” I think I know what this is about. Up the hill on Tom and Lorie’s porch there are candles burning on tables covered with the scattered remains of dinner. Children are [...]
Dear Folks: December 25, 2000
Dear Folks,
Mid Christmas Day, ten degrees outside with a wicked wind swirling the powdery snow up into sparkly, painful blasts. The sparkles are slightly muted because an eclipse is going on, detectable only by the fact that the sunlight is kind of thin and even more unwarming than usual, at this lowest-sun, longest-night time of year.
Well, the good news is [...]
Dear Folks: November 26, 2000
Hi, Dear Folks!
Sunday after Thanksgiving, all is quiet. Stephen and Kerry are at the dining room table reading the Sunday paper and petting their cats. Baroque music is playing on the radio. Marsha is not back yet from her holiday visit to her mother in New York. Jan is in San Diego with Ellen. Sourdough bread is rising in the [...]
Dear Folks: October 29, 2000
Dear Folks,
Such a huge difference around here, from the end of September to the end of October! When I last wrote, everything was green, the gardens were full of flowers, we ran outdoors without putting on a jacket, I was complaining because it was light for only 12 hours a day.
Now as I write this there’s a light covering of [...]
