Photo Contest Winners

Now that classes are winding down we can finally start giving out our prizes. Tough deciding on the photo contest! We had trees in all kinds of different environments and at many different times of day. Our first prize is a $25 gift card to Trader Joe's, which we hope gets used for things like fair trade or organic goods, but the winner can spend it on whatever she likes and our second prize is
a triple chocolate bar set from Taza Chocolate -- direct trade chocolate (yum!). Because the judging was so difficult, we decided to award two more photos an additional Equal Exchange fair trade chocolate bar each. Thanks to all who entered.

Here's the first place photo, which we liked for its overall composition -- trees framing trees:
a classic picture of New England in the Fall by Yue Huang -- congratulations Yue!













Our second place photo is by Valerie Belding, a spooky black and white shot from Undara, Australia -- congratulations Valerie!


















Our third place photo is a placid, calming scene, very close to home at Walden Pond from Silpa Sadhujan -- congratulations Silpa!



















And our fourth place photo is a colorful impressionistic shot that seems to be from the middle of a forest by Danielle Chudolij -- congratulations Danielle!

Thanks to all who entered -- it was a tight race right to the end!

Ecolympics, Day 5

Here we are at Ecolympics Day 5 already! I'm still thinking about what we should do for the opening ceremonies! How are your events going?

I don't know about you, but I'm having an easy time with Power Shower -- the one event that makes people around the office groan when I mention it. I lost a few points when I had to have an extra shower last night to relieve a migraine, but I've been at the two minute mark for the past three mornings.

My office is on the ground floor, so I don't usually need to worry about taking the stairs, but I did have to go to the 4th floor of the biology building on Monday and yes, I bypassed the elevator
for the stairs. I would like to know how much a single elevator ride costs in terms of power and carbon dioxide emission -- it should be easy to calculate.

I've got to step up my game and start identifying more species though. Thanks to my Arboretum tour on the weekend, I'm keeping an eye out for the soon to be blooming magnolias on Comm. Ave.

We have our recycle bins ready to go in the Core office, CAS 119, so if you have old cell phones, ear buds, or printer cartridges please bring them by.

I unplugged my home printer on the weekend and I've been good about turning the lights out since last year's Ecolympics. For TV-Free, I don't have a TV, but I resolved to turn off my laptop more often in the evenings... there are books to read after all.

Tonight I was treated by my sweetie to a local meal at The Hungry Mother in Cambridge. They specialize in seasonal and local ingredients and they definitely know what they are doing. Friendly service and great food from start to finish. I suppose I have to admit that I had the steak, but only because all of the other mains had gluten or something else I couldn't eat on account of migraine triggers. The beef was from Pineland Farms, and though it was high on the food chain, the waiter told us it was grass fed and from a quality, small sustainable operation.

(Nevertheless, if I'm going to claim points for Meat Less, I'm going to have to have a bunch of vegetarian or vegan meals to make up for this steak, delicious as it was.)

We started with the up-the-coast PEI mussels, and finished with a terrific Taza chocolate and hazelnut tart. Taza is one of our sponsors and it was great to have their rich chocolate showcased so well in the hazelnut crust. The taste and consistency of the chocolate was truly memorable.

We'd love to hear how you're doing with your challenges. Drop a comment below.