Tag Archives: Ojai

Plant Love This Valentines Day.

I’m coming to you with an idea for Valentine’s Day …what about helping to make a garden grow? Rather than spending your dollars on a single-use item, why not share the love of earthly knowledge with the children of Ojai? While you may not live in Ojai — you will reap the reward of PACT organic cotton clothing immediately and perhaps eat the reward years from now, when these children grow up to have orange and avocado farms of their own!

The children of Topa Topa Elementary School have a great community garden and through the help of Ojai based, Food For Thought, every Thursday the children get to dig, plant, weed, rake, water and pick in the garden. There is a small green house on site that is used for starting seeds for a few other Ojai based gardens. Food grown in the Topa Topa garden is shared not only with the Thursday garden club, but also with the school cafeteria to ensure fresh veggies are eaten by all. Heck these kids get to eat kale tacos and they actually love them!

So why am I asking for money? Because I don’t want this garden to stop growing. I don’t want this type of hands-on education to cease. I see that obesity in children is the current #1 health risk, and I know that if diets change for a few children …it will soon be a trickle effect throughout the whole nation.

If you feel so inclined to donate, here is the link: Topa Topa Urban Garden. I highly recommend watching the first video, at the very least. If nothing else, will you consider sharing this campaign with your network? If you have already donated …thank you, thank you, thank you!

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A Kick in the Face from Grace.

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My perspective was rocked tonight. Actually, that’s an understatement. My perspective was blown-up, left to simmer on a stove of hard survival and returned to me delicately wrapped in a box with a message reading: “You have so much to be grateful for.”

A few friends and I decided to go see “Beasts of the Southern Wild” at the local theater in Ojai. Having seen the trailer at least 6 months ago, I was foggy on the details of the movie, but had a feeling that it was one that I needed to experience.

The characters portray a life that I have never led. They survive on tough love, alcohol, catfish, river bottom dwellers and not much else. The theater was sold out well before the movie began and as I scanned the crowds, I saw that we were a middle to upper class, primarily white audience drawn to this story. WHY?

I can’t answer WHY for anyone else, but for me, I needed that kick in the face from grace. I left that movie humbled. I have so much to be grateful for and as cliched as that statement can sound. I dare you to watch this movie and not feel the exact same way.

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Wishing for a Matilija Dam KaBoom.

Snakes in Ojai.

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Even the cartoon snake, creeps me out.

Even typing the word in the title, gives me the willies. Snakes, eeeewwww. While writing a few posts for a client this morning on Facebook, I saw this post from the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy:

Ojai Valley Land Conservancy SNAKES! Watch at your own risk. Seriously this might disturb you. We have refrained from posting this event that happened outside of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy office for weeks, but today we are feeling bold.

Share this link if you dare. — in Ojai.

Since the warmer weather has graced the Ojai valley with higher temperatures and hotter rays of sunshine, I was aware that it was only a matter of time until I saw my first alive snake. I say ‘alive’ because I’ve already ridden past a few flatten snakes while climbing the road to the trails, shaking in my spandex, both times. I’ve even seen a baby rattler already, but he or she was also dead, beheaded by the hand of a farmer, I’m guessing.

On a completely new topic, I’ve been known to drop my pants quickly, when the pee urge hits. It’s not like I’m peeing on random corners of a city block, but when out on a long ride or run, I have no problem finding a tree (or not) and marking my territory. A few years back, I was on a ride with a good friend and the pee urge hit, so we stopped and I ran to the nearest tree that protected Duey from going blind at the sight of my rather white, Irish rump. I was in such a hurry to release my liquids that I didn’t check the area, until I was mid-stream – at which point, I looked down only to notice that I was peeing on a dead snake. Needless to say that to this day, Duey still reminds me of this story with laughter brimming over his lips as he acts out my ‘gross, I peed on a dead snake’ dance.

So, I am proud to announce that when I ran past my first alive snake on the trail, today during lunch, I didn’t shake, cringe, sprint away or even get the full body tingles that I normally do …I merely peed my pants a little and kept running. I’d call that progress!