My GREEN Life & Real Estate

Mark your calendars - May 10th is National Public Gardens Day !  It's the Friday before Mother's Day, and it's a chance to visit North American public gardens free of admission.  If you go to the website you can download & print a voucher for free admission.  I remember as a teenager, going to a public rose garden with my mom for Mother's Day.  Somewhere there are photos of us posing among the flowers, drunk on warm sunshine after a cold Spring. I love a good botanical garden, and the munchkins love them too.  We've made a point of seeking them out on every trip, from Seattle & Vancouver, up & down the Eastern seaboard, to New Orleans to Italy, especially enjoying the children's activities like the flora & fauna scavenger hunt in North Carolina pictured here: We also enjoy a good arboretum, like the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington DC that we visited in 2012!  Not sure where the nearest public gardens are to you?  Better Hom

Happy Earth Day! After what I would consider a successful Mobilize the Earth campaign last year, complete with the Billion Acts of Green call to action, this year's Earth Day theme is The Face of Climate Change . My understanding of it is for citizens around the world to make the connection that climate change is affecting real people, animals, and ecosystems.  The idea is to create a digital mosaic to put faces to the people affected, for whom climate change is a very real threat, and to the people committed to doing something about it. Climate change.  I think it's a far better term than global warming or cooling. I know there are still people (& politicians) arguing against it as a phenomenon, but haven't we seen the effects?  Extreme weather and super storms (as well as the resulting week-long power outages!) have certainly scared me.    After seeing the devastating effects of these storms on waterfront communities, I've changed my mind about owning a

Notice anything different?  I had to change the name of the blog and my URL.  It wasn't by choice though.  Another Realtor complained to our state association that my use of the term TheGREENCTRealtor was in violation of the trademark Realtor® - specifically that I can't attach a state to it.  Maybe he/she was afraid I was getting all the CT real estate business?  Ha!  (For the record, I AM a REALTOR® in good standing with the National Association of Realtors, CT Association of Realtors, the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors, and the GREEN REsource Council.) At any rate, I'm not going to pour energy into a negative situation or dwell on it.  I'm zen like that. So, after 5 years as The GREEN CT Realtor, I'm re-christening the blog... My GREEN Life & Real Estate I'll continue to write, share, and post about my adventures in GREEN living, real estate ( GREEN & otherwise,) gardening, travel, design, food and family.  I may freshen up or t