The People's Climate March

This weekend I joined 310,000 people for the People's Climate March in New York City.  This march was organized around the UN Climate Change Summit and demanded governments around the world to take notice and take action.  This march was like a big brother to the one I did in Australia 8 years ago.  Too bad not much progress has been made since then...

Climate March in Canberra, AU (November, 2006)

The event was remarkably well organized and hundreds of buses and trains from around the country shuttled people in.  From South Boston, I was dropped off in the crowded streets of Central Park West with a friend from the lab, Alice.

When we got off the bus we were provided with signs that read "I am marching for (fill in the blank)".  It was too overwhelming to think of just one thing.

We also made climate ribbons, on which we wrote one thing we don't want to lose to climate change.  In a similar style to Buddhist prayer ribbons, we were instructed to attach the ribbons to the prayer tree at the end of the march.

Lining up

Even after the march had officially started, there were so many people that the back of the line had a 3 hour wait before it even began moving! 

We took a scenic detour through Central Park

The march was organized into broadly-defined groups.  A moment of silence for the victims of climate change was spent with the scientists.

The children of nerds played with methane molecules as they waited

Stilt walkers

In front of the American Museum of Natural History

The Tapir Specialist Group had a strong showing of all 3 people

Somehow Alice and I were adopted to help hold the giant banner.  It was so massive no one knew what it read (I think it said something like "FRACKING = CLIMATE CHAOS" but that was just a rumor).

The Social Justice group

One of the best aspects of the march was the diversity in support!  It wasn't just young hippies, although there were plenty of those ;o)

Even the anarchists showed their support, in their own special way.

The WWF and Sierra Club had a great showing.  The Mass Sierra Club even sponsored our bus from Boston and made free t-shirts for us :o)

Not sure who these older ladies were...

We got stuck in the bicycle section for a long time.

Bicycle-powered T-Rex

An Earth Vigil at the edge of Central Park

Many people were creative and dressed up in elaborate costumes.  It looked a lot like Salem on Halloween.

Heading down the Avenue of the Americas

The Vegans

 

The Indigenous People enveloped in Time Square

 

We saw this polar bear at the start of the march and now again at the end!

The march ended with a Block Party.  There were more people than were expected and marchers were actually turned away from the "party"!

Tying our climate ribbons, as instructed

Wrapping up the march at the massive block party!

I am so thankful for the amazing turnout and to be involved in such a meaningful, energizing experience.  Hopefully everyone, especially nonbelievers (regular people as well as heads of state) will take heart and take action.  The choir has already been preached to, now it is time for the rest of the world to listen! 

Fungi and Friends: Sharing is caring... usually

The past couple weeks have been sprinkled with friends and littered with a harvest of wild mushrooms.

After our puff ball adventure a couple weeks ago, Seth discovered a fresh hoard of chicken of the woods.  I'd estimate this tree was carrying a good 10 pounds of edible--and delicious--mushrooms!

Chicken of our beloved woods

This pictures shows less than 1/2 of what we cut in total.  We must have cut about 4 pounds over several days.

Compared to last year's chicken of the woods and this year's puff balls, this was certainly the best mushroom yet!  We ended up munching on some of its meaty goodness for dinner and sharing a bite with our braver friends.  The rest found a place in the freezer.  Next year I think we should go into business, foraging for local restaurants.  We could make a tiny fortune ;o)

Last weekend Seth and I found ourselves scoping out a local Burning Man event hosted by one of his old college buddies here in Waltham.  I am still not really sure what the whole thing is supposed to represent but it was quite an experience.  Next year I will be sure to shave my head and get a few tattoos so I don't stick out so much.

A hippie pool with hippie lifeguard tower

Lots of people camped overnight in the yard

A "steam room"...

Tiny art garden--to be burned?

Tiny art garden in front of the big vegetable garden and behind the cemetery

There was actually a really nice feeling of community at this 24 hour party.  It would have been nice to stay longer but we had friends from out of town coming to stay with us.

Angela and Taylor are friends from NC/SC/GA; Angela knew Seth back at UNC.  I hadn't seen them since they got married 9 years ago!!  Unfortunately they could only stay with us for one night. At least during their short stay we fit in an outing to In a Pickle for brunch and a hike up Prospect Hill. 

After sharing some chicken of the woods with Dr Hayes, he got inspired to start foraging for mushrooms himself.  While in New Hampshire he found himself a mother-load of birch polypore and decided to return the favor, sharing a bit with me.  Edible? Yes.  Plentiful? Yes.  Delicious?  Oh no, no, no :o(  Morel of the story: Just because something is nontoxic and can't kill you doesn't automatically mean one should eat it. This one went into the garbage, not the freezer.

Post-graduation life and the RD Exam

Things have been coming together since returning from my summer travels.  Last month I resumed a job (different position) at the Brandeis "Smart Balance" lab, working for Dr. Hayes again.  After so many years, this is my first full-time job!  Better late than never!  

It was strange at first being back in the cramped little lab after a 4 year separation, but I have been able to jump back in fairly smoothly.  Unfortunately I don't think the job will last more than a year or two, but for now it is fun being involved in nutrition research again.  So far I love the people I work with and I love spending the day on a college campus, especially one that is less than a mile down the road.  I can walk there in 15 minutes, allowing me time in the morning to exercise, and letting the car rest in our driveway all week long.  Also, I feel relieved to not have to spend evenings and weekends picking away at assignments, and the work I do during the day actually provides a paycheck.  People say the working world is not as fun as being a student, but for the moment I am enjoying this lifestyle improvement!!      

Other big news is that yesterday I finally took the RD Exam.  It was a bit harder than I was expecting but I passed!  It feels WONDERFUL to have that behind me and to have the RD credential after 4 years of work.  Now I just have to worry about paying dues and earning the required continuing education credits.  Could be worse ;o)

Puffballs, fresh from the forest

It looks like it is going to be another great year for mushrooms in Prospect Hill!  Seth and I already noticed an early bird Chicken of the Woods a couple weeks ago but unfortunately it dried up before we decided to cut it and enjoy its meaty goodness.  Luckily,  however, Seth spotted other potentially edible mushrooms called puffballs.  Despite the very cute name, young puffballs may be mistaken for two deadly mushrooms, the first called the destroying angel and the other the death cap.  You don't want to make a rookie forager mistake! 

Puffballs!!  They look like someone left white grapefruits in the woods, don't they?

Cutting open the mushroom helps to confirm the identity.

Puffballs indeed are light and puffy, like styrofoam.

 

A little scary but we survived!  Puffballs have a surprisingly pungent, earthy, mushroomy flavor.  Similar to chicken of the woods, they are kinda delicious and kinda gross at the same time.

One last morning in the "Land of Entrapment"

I can see why MG visited NM and decided to move here!  It is unique and beautiful, and has nice (though too sunny) weather, friendly people, awesome geology, and fabulous food.  Before my mid-day flight back to reality (aka Boston), we managed to fit in one last mini trip, this time to the outskirts of ABQ to see the Petroglyphs.

Chiles hanging outside the visitor center

One of the trails to view the petroglyphs.  These are rock carvings made by the indigenous Puebloans beginning around 1300 AD.  When the Spanish arrived in the 1540s they, too, contributed to the carvings.  Although the meanings of these geometric shapes, animals, and faces remain a mystery, I did notice several crosses (Spanish). 

The trails were just outside of town.  This trail in fact was located behind a parking lot!  It would be so much fun to live in one of these houses and go walking every day amongst the petroglyphs.

The carvings were made on this dark, volcanic stone called basalt. 

There were so many carvings!  Can you spot some of them?

High 5?

 

 

Thanks for a fun time, MG!!

Sunday, a day of rest

After a couple exciting day trips, Monica and I recouped by spending a day in Albuquerque.

More early morning hot air balloons!

Another angle off Mark's balcony

In the morning Mark took MG and me to his Presbyterian church (kinda like my Lutheran church, but not really...) then we had lunch together at a New Mexican restaurant.  I really can't get enough of blue corn enchiladas with red AND green chile sauce!  Oh yes, and there are sopapillas, too!  Why can't Waltham have these foods? :o(

Poor Mark had a sore back and couldn't join us at one of his favorite places, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 

 

Due to indulging in all the heavy New Mexican meals, we decided to have dinner at home.  Monica and I made up a batch of extra light spring rolls with tofudebeast.