My GREEN Life & Real Estate

East Hampton's historic village center is being put on the map again...the map of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Connecticut, that is. Congratulations to our little town for: 1. Participating in the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge 2. Earning enough points/community rewards to get us a FREE EV (electric vehicle) charging station 3. Reviving the Clean Energy Task Force The Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) Energy Challenge has 14 towns in CT participating and has been going on for about 3 years.  The goal is to get the residents to reduce their energy usage by 20%.  One of the ways people started getting involved was through Home Energy Solutions energy audits, like the one my family did in 2009.  (You can read about my energy audit  here .) By the way, on the leaderboard for participating towns, East Hampton ranks #7 out of 14!  Not too shabby. Yesterday, July 26th, at 11am, I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Electric Vehicle charging station in the

I'm a HUGE fan of shopping Farmer's Markets during the season for all of the things that I don't grow in my garden, and for some of the special things like freshly baked breads and artisanal cheeses.  Like you, I have favorites markets to visit, but I'm always open to trying out new ones. This is a short video I really liked called How To Shop at a Farmer's Market and it was filmed here in CT at the Westport Farmer's Market.  Check out how creative their produce signs are! How do you find the farmer's markets?  The State of Connecticut Department of Agriculture's 2013 brochure lists this year's "certified" Farmer's Markets, but there are many more that pop up without being on the list, as well as several special market events, like one of my favorites in the entire state, part of Old Lyme's Midsummer Festival , the Market En Plein Air .  (This year's festival is July 26 & 27.) I've blogged about Farmer'

We're in for loads of rain the next few days as Tropical Storm Andrea hits the South (stay safe my friends!) but that doesn't stop me from going out to show properties in the rain!  This is what I wore to go show a condominium this morning in the pouring rain: This is what I should have worn: Photo from Northern Safety & Industrial  The place was beyond disgusting.  I'm still too traumatized to talk about it.  I had to go home to take a Benadryl and a shower afterwards.  The sellers had 2 full days notice that we were coming, but couldn't be bothered to pick up the the dirty laundry we had to step over to go up the stairs, or the cat poop on the floor.  I can't even tell you how bad it was.  2nd filthiest place I've ever shown.

This weekend, for No Child Left Inside's Great Park Pursuit, combined with CT Trails Day , my family ventured down to New Haven to the Common Ground High School, Urban Farm and Environmental Education Center.  Until last week, we had no idea there was a charter high school hidden in the woods in New Haven, or that New Haven even had any woods! We were not disappointed with our choice of places to visit.   Common Ground was pretty amazing, and a school I would choose to attend if I had the choice.  Or maybe attend as a summer program. Which, by the way, they do offer.  They also have vacation camps, open farm Saturdays, and host special events such as birthday parties. We enjoyed touring the gardens, hiking the trail to the summit of West Rock Ridge, visiting the chickens, turkey, ducks, goat & sheep, the greenhouses, peeking into the school building, and making our way up to Judges Cave. I found the hike to be challenging because it was fairly steep, but there