I finished this "Eurasian Jay" Forest Quilt Along Block over the week-end, and thought it'd be the perfect block to share on Earth Day! I've never seen a Eurasian Jay, but the pictures of them are so beautiful.
I decided to modify / disguise my bird and try to make a Western Tanager. It's probably the most beautiful bird that I have ever encountered in the forest. When I worked in wildlife biology surveying for the Spotted Owls in SW Oregon, I'd see these timid birds from time to time in the forest. The males are so incredibly beautiful, and as you can see from this page in my "Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds", he's definitely a male.
I though I'd put in a picture of our solar panels. We were so lucky to be able to be involved in the local city program that helped us buy these. Due to the weak economy and budget cuts, the program has not been able to continue, sadly.
These 12 panels supply all of the electricity we use in our house, including my sewing machine and iron, for all but about 3-4 months out of the year. It fluctuates, depending on how hot the summer is (and how much we use the AC), and how cloudy our winter is (short cloudy days are not good for solar electricity production).
We are so happy with these! We also drive a hybrid car, which we bought used about 6 years ago. Our next plan is to replace our not-very-efficient heat system and hot water system, both of which are natural gas. We try to do as much as we can to "lower our carbon footprint", but there's always room for improvement... One very small thing I'll do today is to head off to our local recycling center. We have no curb side recycling here (booo), so I take a load every month or so. I'd love to hear about any other Earth Day activities you are doing today and every day, because, as the saying goes... Every day is Earth Day.
I'm a composter (most of the year) and recycler (we have pretty good service for dropping off plastic, paper, tin, cardboard and glass) and use energy-efficient bulbs. My home is too old for much restructuring, but I keep it cool (even in winter) and watch my water consumption. Up here there are people with solar panels, and there are more and more wind turbines for wind power (we have more wind than sun, it seems, sometimes!) Every little bid helps. :-)
ReplyDeleteWOW - look at the pieces & wings! oh Becky that is soooo awesome! : )
ReplyDeletehappy Earth day to you too
~Monika
Beautiful bird, Becky. That's going to be a gorgeous quilt. I'm quite envious of your solar panels. In a country where sun could provide 90% of our needs, we can only get solar panels for water heating. This should be a priority with governments--it's a scandal.
ReplyDeletebest, nadia