Oh, it's Valentine's Day too

It's not too late to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count

Platalea ajaja, the Roseate Spoonbill

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual, joint venture between the Audubon Society and Cornell University's Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Every year, the Great Backyard Bird Count asks participants to observe an area for a minimum of 15 minutes, count the number and quantity of bird species he or she sees and then enter their findings on the GBBC website. This year, the GBBC is taking place from the 13-16 of February. While it's true that it started yesterday, there's still plenty of time to set aside some time for watching the birds in your yard.

Passerina cyanea, the Indigo Bunting

The GBBC's website has a page where you can enter your zip code and then you'll be directed to a species checklist that's specific to your part of the world and this time of year. What's really cool is that each of the species listed is also a hot key that will direct you to a fact and identification sheet for a particular bird. Can't tell the difference between a White-eyed Vireo and Blue-headed Vireo? Have no fear, the GBBC's website will dispel that particular mystery. As the four days of the bird count progress, the GBBC's website will update in real time, so that you can see what people in your town are seeing as well as what species people a continent away have seen.

Dryocopus pileatus, the Pileated Woodpecker

The point of this is to take an informal poll of where different bird species are from year to year. In addition to providing some important information about the populations of various species, it also lets the event's organizers get a feel for migratory patterns and how specific birds are responding to this year's winter temperatures and precipitation. The Cornell Lab and the Audubon Society can take this years' information and compare it to previous years.

Egretta thula, the Snowy Egret

Aside from its scientific value, the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great excuse to pay attention to your surroundings, if only for 15 minutes. Even if you don't participate in the count, why not take a break and stare into the backyard this weekend? It does a body good and you may see something unexpected.

Passerina ciris, the Painted Bunting

By the way, I'm peppering this page today with birds I expect to see this weekend.

Porphyrio martinica, the Purple Gallinule

Eudocimus albus, the American White Ibis

Piranga olivacea, the Scarlet Tanager

Lanius ludovicianus, the Loggerhead Shrike

Rynchops niger, the Black Skimmer

I love this bar stool

The women who write Remodelista featured this counter stool yesterday and I think it's my new favorite thing.

Now I read Remodelista religiously. I admire their layout and their approach to blogging. These women are keen of eye and fast to spot something new and interesting. However, they have a tendency to list prices in Euros, despite the fact that they are based entirely in the US. This gets on my nerves. Not nearly as much as the way that the kids on Apartment Therapy (especially the ones based in LA) use British spellings, but it's close. 

Here's what I mean. This lovely counter stool is the Tabouret Tolix avec dossier and it's available for €269 from Loftbutik.com. Ugh. Buying a counter stool from a French website when you're not in the EU is a pain, and an entirely unnecessary one when there's a perfectly fine US-based supplier in awaiting your inquiries in Chicago.

So the easy and approachable low down on this counter stool is this: Tolix is the manufacturer, and tabouret avec dossier means stool with back. It's available in the US for $395 from Antiquaire. Antiquaire also has the tabouret avec dossier in painted finishes for $375. See? Easy.

"Amish" space heaters? Really?

Yesterday's New York Times ran a story about the Heat Surge Roll-n-Glow Fireplaces, the advertising blitz of which is currently clogging the avenues of public discourse. These things are being pretty heavily advertised in Florida from crying out loud, I cannot imagine the onslaught in parts of the country where it actually gets cold.

I'm regularly stunned by the audacity of this particular advertiser's claims. Stunned. But equally if not more stunning is the fact that people fall for this nonsense. This is a space heater that's made in China like just about every other space heater on the market. You plug it into the wall and it warms up a room while using the same amount of juice that every other space heater does. So rather than just letting it be a space heater, this one's disguised as a fake fireplace. Isn't that a bad thing? A fake fireplace? Then the thing's advertised as being sold for free but somehow costs between $350 and $500. Is that not a warning sign for people? I swear, gutting education budgets for 30 years to better churn out unblinking and unthinking consumers seems to have worked.

This same manufacturer of overpriced space heaters then surrounds the whole hot mess with the supposed allure of the Amish. Now, I grew up surrounded by Amish people and Amish farms and they are indeed lovely people. However, they lead an 18th century existence. An existence complete with polio outbreaks, functional illiteracy, child labor, female subservience, poor hygiene and inbreeding. Yeah, that's exactly who I want making my space heater.

Think!

IceStone recycled glass counters... cool!

IceStone is a Brooklyn-based manufacturer of recycled glass and concrete durable surfaces. For most people, a durable surface is another name for a counter. It needn't stop with counters though, IceStone can be used as flooring, shower enclosures, back splash or for any other purpose where there's a need for a durable, water- and stain-resistant surface.

IceStone earned the Cradle to Cradle Gold certification from McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, the organization that grants this certification. To quote from their press release:

New York – IceStone, the NY-based maker of green, durable surfaces used for countertops, bar-tops, bathrooms, flooring and other applications, announced today its achievement as the first and only surface manufacturer to receive the prestigious Gold level, Cradle to Cradle certification. Given by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), this certification shows that IceStone’s company and products have passed stringent manufacturing standards that measure toxic ingredients, emissions levels, water and energy usage, renewable investments, on-going data collection systems and recyclability, as well as a code of corporate ethics and labor standards.

IceStone looks like quartz composite. Actually, quartz composite looks like terrazzo, and terrazzo is exactly what IceStone is. IceStone's use of cement rather than the polymers used in quartz composite is the key to its status as a sustainable product, though their use of 100% recycled glass doesn't hurt either.

IceStone looks pretty cool, I like how it shows and I like the fact that it's a sustainable product. In the market for a durable surface? Take a look at IceStone.