Dusk in the Garden

It's dusk on a windy cool spring night. It's 69 degrees and I've been wandering under the moon. I'm just getting over a rough bout with influenza. Poor baby Logan is still feeling bad. We get texts from his Mommy updating us on his symptoms. I smelled the orange blossoms and jasmine as walked around the garden, I hung a few more solar string lights and checked on the solar uplights on the crepe myrtle then did my best to capture a photo of the garden at this wonderful hour.

I'm going to enjoy this evening with the doors open and the breeze blowing through my little house.

Our Earth Hour

8:30-9:30 tonight we joined Earth Hour. We shut off the lights, cranked the air conditioning up so we were sure it wouldn't turn on and unplugged what we could. We took time for each other and sat out on our screened porch after looking over the neighborhood to see who else might be enjoying a quiet energy-free hour.

As we sat in the near dark (we couldn't shut off the streetlight that adds some light to our back yard), we looked over the new solar backyard lights and talked about more that we can do with solar. We desperately need a new roof so this is holding us back from adding a solar attic fan that will cost less than $300. We talked about our hopes that we can continue to add green energy and passive solar to our 20 year old house. We'd love solartube lighting for our dark bathrooms, a solar panel for our hot water heater, and we continue to talk about adding more solar lighting that extends to the indoors. We asked ourselves if we're the only middle class 40 something people who dream about these things.

Solar Lighting Comes Indoors

I wish I could remember the blog that I was reading last week as I was researching solar lights. I came across a post about Solig solar lights at Ikea. The handsome Frenchman and I started discussing solar indoor lighting. We live Florida and have a small home with lots of windows. Why not try it? So we debated the larger ($9.99) and smaller ($6.99) in the crowed isle at Ikea and decided on the smaller for this experiment. So excited that I couln't wait, I checked it out on the way home. Once home we sat it near a window and had family over for dinner on the screened porch. That night after eveyone went to bed, I used a velcro tabs to attach the domed ligh under the kitchen cabinet. I fully expected it never to shine again. To my suprise, it has come on at dusk and stayed on well after dawn for 3 days now! The little fixture is barely visable and casts a soft amber light across the counter that is enough light to get a glass of milk without clicking on a light. My only problem, I have a nearly unconrolable erge to shut it off when I go to bed! Looks like I'm taking another trip to Ikea.