It’s the season of sugar plums, pine needles, and Yule logs. Here’s a gathering of logs I think Yule love (I know, the wit is almost unbearable). Embrace the log (Yule or not) and invite these little lovelies into your home.

Acquire this rustic Wooden Cake Plate ($35) and have a handsome place to rest all those fruit cakes. The natural bark will pair beautifully with the contrast of almond bark or peppermint bark. (Click here for a resource of visually stunning and savory recipes).

If baking isn’t your thing, soak up the texture of nature with these log confections and cross-sections. There’s nothing like twenty million years of history to add a little charisma to your home. Hickory cross-sections finished with mineral oil are a lovely place to cradle your eggnog. A doormat of wooden coins brings graphic charm to the floor (indoor and/or outdoor). And finally, spice up your dinner table (and your food) with salt and pepper logs.

Clockwise from top center:

1. Tree Ring Placemats – VivaTerra, $59 (Set of 4)
2. Petrified Wood Trays – Jayson Home & Garden, $65 – $148
3. Hickory Coaster Set – Terrain, $20
4. Timber Doormat (Dark) – Chiasso, $48
5. Salt & Pepper Logs – Terrain, $16

If you prefer your branches whole, check out this wildly creative (and entirely natural) artwork.

In just a few short weeks, the kids will head back to school, leaves will begin to change colors, and summer will fade to a blissful memory. Embrace a new season with a little scene change inspired by fall’s most iconic image.

1. Log Bowls from Loyal Loot (pictured above, price not listed)
The juxtaposition of reclaimed wood and bold shades of acrylic paint appeals to our artsy side. An assortment of these in differing sizes and colors arranged on a counter or side table would make an instantly fab focal point.

2. Birch Accent Pillow from Loop Organic ($100)
Available in green or chocolate, this pillow features the beautiful image of a birch branch silhouetted against white organic hemp. The effect is simple, yet supremely stylish.

3. Timber Doormat from Chia’sso ($48)
Made up of sustainable wooden “coins,” this timber doormat creates a Little House on the Prairie meets modern loft vibe. We love how the earthy colors and unpredictable pattern goes with almost any décor.

4. Small Disc Chimes S/4 from PigeonToeCeramics ($28)
Dress up your favorite tree with a set of porcelain windchimes and watch as they gently dance in the breeze. These are available with your choice of cord, but our personal fave is the natural jute twine.

5. Teak Trunks from VivaTerra ($139-275)
Whether you use these teak trunks as stools, end tables, or something else is entirely up to you. However you incorporate these versatile pieces into your space,  they’re sure to add a certain rustic charm.

Any of these pieces speak to you? Which one(s) are on your wish list?

Maybe it’s time for a tech break? A day-hike, maybe? Perhaps even an overnight in the woods, out in nature with no TV, no computers, no emails or phone calls. Ah, yes, leave that iWhatever behind, break out those boots (could it be they’ve never once been used? Not once?) and hit the trail. Shouldn’t you do this more often? You know, get more familiar with the local flora and fauna and – wait, isn’t there an app for that?! Ugh. Yes. Of course there is.

To help you with what probably should come naturally, MyNature has just launched its MyNature Tree Guide which helps you identify trees by answering a series of 15 questions (as many as you can, anyway). The app will match your answers against its database of 200 North American trees to find the one that most closely resembles what you’re encountering “in the field.” Once identified, you can see photos, range maps and profiles to learn more about the tree in question. For the drill-drown, you can access images of leaves, needles, fruit and bark, as well. There’s also a “MyNature Journal,” in which you can record the trees you’ve found, along with the location, weather conditions and whatever other musings you want to jot down to remember that not-quite-tech-free day when you encountered that killer oak.

As for the fauna, MyNature has you covered there, too, with its tried-and-true MyNature Animal Tracks application. This guy has a searchable database with track sizes and shapes in seven easy-to-place-what-you-see search categories. Like the Tree Guide, Animal Tracks features a ton of pics and drawings – even sound (.wav) files of animal “vocalizations” – that’ll help you figure out what’s what. You can check out a demo vid over at Treehugger or at the MyNature Site.

So add these apps to EcoSalon’s top 10 green things you can do with your iPhone and 10 green apps. Both are iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad ready and require iOS 3.0 or later (Animal Tracks is also available for Android). At $6.99 they’re not cheap, but c’mon, what is it worth to have access to the knowledge you need when you finally go for that tech-free day out in nature?

Just you, the fresh air, the birds and your smartphone. Mmmm.

E-readers are spineless compared with hardcover books, lacking the soulful carbon fingerprints of readers past. You cannot fold the pages of the wafer-thin gadgets, or make your mark with splotches of food or wine. And the idea of clutching the casing to your chest after reading the final line of a novel just leaves me cold. As one book club friend of mine waxes, “There’s just something about the smell of a book.”

Still, we all can smell and see the writing is on the screen when it comes to these devices outsourcing print media, sparing trees and saving money. According to ID TechEx, the total market size in 2010 is a whopping $131 million, and is expected to soar to $1.7 billion by 2014. Much of that growth is attributed to huge success of Kindles and other portable e-readers. “In 2020, the market value will reach $7.45 billion thanks to the availability of flexible, color displays and faster refresh rates,” the market analysts predict.

Why do users find them so friendly?

“I bought one for my wife for her birthday and enlarged the fonts so she can read the words on the screen without squinting or wearing reading glasses,” says Steve Montoya, a Bay Area IT consultant. “She’s an avid reader. Recently, she read a series she couldn’t get in e-print, and couldn’t wait to finish it and get back to her Kindle.”

While you can’t download all desirable titles now, the Amazon library and others are growing every day.

“You can get books, magazines, newspapers, even audio books to listen to with headphones,” Montoya says.

The graphite feature also is a huge power saver, he finds, noting you can get several days of reading on one charge. And since it works on a cellular network, it also makes it easy to instantaneously order books and have them appear on your library. Plus, the e-readers never seem to lose connection.

“My brother-in-law is in Afghanistan and his iPhone doesn’t work, but his Kindle does,” says Montoya.

If the prequel of our paperless future is the tragic death of magazines and newspapers, will the sequel be the disappearance of paperback and hardcover reads? Are there upsides to this plot? Here are some of the pros and cons of e-reading devices:

Cost

Pro: If you are a voracious reader without a library card, you probably will save money on an e-reader. If you are a voracious reader with a library card, you probably will save on late fees.

Con: You have to spend a lot for the cheapest iPad, which is wifi-only, holds 16GB of storage and sells for nearly $500. The Que is $649 and has a 4GB of data storage. The 3G wireless Amazon Kindle is more affordable at $250.

Storage

Pro: When the Kindle was introduced in 2007, travelers loved the benefits of of storing up to 1,500 books on a device the size of a small paperback read. And the library of available books to download keeps expanding (the first chapter of any book is free). Let’s face it, we are a storage-challenged human race with too much junk and not enough apartment and home space. This eliminates the need for shelving.

Con: Our private libraries are important for sharing with our friends and children and passing down treasured collections – classics and complementary fiction that rocked our world. Plus, it’s a lot easier to lose a gadget than an entire dusty collection.

Green

Pro: Many green publications, including Inhabitat, sing the praises of e-readers because they ultimately aid the environment by requiring no deforestation to manufacture, compared to the traditional paper publishing industry. This doesn’t even include the energy, materials, dyes and carbon from shipping that shames the print industry. According to a study by Cleantech, the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of  a Kindle, for example, is fully offset after the first year. And more earth-friendly models are on the move, like LG’s Solar ebook introduced last year, boasting a thin photovoltaic cell which keeps the juice pumping so your novel won’t go kaput during the climax.

Con: What is being offered is a new thing to buy, to keep you busy on the subway. High tech by nature is incompatible with green with exceptions such as solar panels, which also require an investment in energy to make. Green means a return to what your grandparents did, a return to simplicity: Walk a few blocks to school and work. Open a book on your front porch and snooze. That’s 18th Century technology. Also, the effectiveness of reducing emissions by popularizing these gadgets is dependent upon the publishing industry standardizing its adoption of the technology while committing to cutting down the production of physical books and other print media. Is this likely to happen anytime soon, other than by default?

Convenience

Pro: Toss the paper thin, lightweight, wireless device in your bag and you’re good to go. The new generation of Kindles is lighter than a paperback at 6″ and 10.2 oz. and you can hold it with one hand, which aids those carpal tunnel issues. This is why so many e-readers are the new companions of commuters. Hopefully, driving laws will keep users from biting into New Moon while behind the wheel. If you thought texting was was a dangerous distraction while driving…

Con: The tactile experience of gripping a book, magazine or Sunday paper can outweigh the fact it might be heavier to lug. It is this experience that is woven into our cultural wiring. No matter how hard technology tries, the tendency for consumers to prefer print over e-readers will endure for many years to come. With regard to our cultural connection to books, a graduate student at the University of Toronto wrote that his first experiences with a reader felt like “a courageous betrayal of every word written from the moment papyrus gave way to paper.”

Connection

Pro: We are a society that needs to stay connected now more than ever. In terms of signal range, e-readers never seem to drop out.

Con: Losing connection might be easier on the eyes. Having your head in a book just isn’t the same as having your peepers fixed on a screen for hours of pleasure reading. Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) cases are rising in people looking for relief from fatigue, strain and irritation caused by focusing on worlds and images on a surface without well-defined edges contrasted against backgrounds. Eyes simply respond better to most printed text of bold black letters on a bright, white background.

Images: E-readers

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but the excess fruit from a neighbor’s yard can make your diet richer and it won’t cost a dime. Shouldn’t we share the wealth?

That’s the thinking of Neighborhood Fruit, created by San Francisco urban farmers to reduce the tragic waste of fruit, which is forbidden in their vision of sustainability. Their website lets subscribers find and share fruit locally both in backyards and on public lands.

Since planting the seed in June, they’ve attracted between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors a month and located a total of 10,000 trees nationwide and growing.

Much of the fruit the nation consumes is grown in water-intensive orchards far from our homes and shipped at the high cost of fuel. Instead, co-founder Kaytea Petro sees a future where the bulk of seasonal backyard fruit is utilized and shared between neighbors for snacking, baking, putting up organic preserves, even setting up a lemonade stand – any good uses you might have for the bounty.

“I first thought of the idea when I lived on Bernal Hill and my neighbor had an apple tree with a lot of excess fruit that she would never share,” says Petro, who decided to refine the fruit network notion for her graduate thesis at the Presidio School of Management, where she received an MBA in sustainable business.

“We’re a nationwide tool that helps people connect locally,” says Petro. “The typical user is someone with a plum tree who knows what a pain it is when the fruit comes in because it all comes in at once. Those seeking the fruit are into making pies and jams or to show their city kids where food comes from.”

The mechanics of connecting are simple. I register my lemons and oranges and when the fruit arrives, I put out the word on the site. “Come and get it!” I decide if I want to pick it myself or have interested takers come over with their bushels to help pick what they want.

It seems to be attracting those who don’t want to go through the red tape of becoming a registered producer who sells at the farmers’ market, the only way to sell fruit legally.

“It can be a lot of paperwork,” observes Petro, who adds that 25% of her users are people with fruit trees. And for obvious reasons, those with trees in L.A., Miami and Austin see more of a year-round yield than those in Boston and Seattle.

In addition to making connections, Petro and co-founder, Oriana Sarac, manage a monthly newsletter, The Grapevine, featuring the voices of gardeners, bee keepers and other experts in the field, as well as a blog for sharing timely articles, recipes and success stories.

They call their neighbor fruit sharing network Fruitfillment. Anyone who believes in this vision for making use of our abundance knows the ripe concept is fulfilling a mission, indeed.

Images: DieselDemon, Seph Swain, Neighborhood Fruit

Kaiser Permanente is prescribing big doses of sustainability in the sixth season of its $50 million Thrive ad campaign.

Two new ads – Emerald Cities and Connected – reinforce the health care provider’s commitment to the planet by dramatically reducing paper use – no small task for an industry long married to countless charts and forms. For most of us, being ordered to “Fill this out” is as rote as, “Hop on the scale,” and just as painful.

The Emerald pitch describes how Kaiser is allowing patients access to their own medical data via Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, the world’s largest civilian electronic health record.

Not just a handy core tool for patients, the online system is apparently saving thousands of trees annually. And, as of September 2009, Kaiser estimates its members completed six million doctor’s visits without using one gallon of gasoline. Guess they got the help they were seeking by going online.

“We will be entirely paperless by 2010 and these ads illustrate how we are doing our part in some way to help the environment,” I’m told by Lisa Ryan, Director of National Advertising at Kaiser. “Having a healthy environment creates a healthy community that helps individuals thrive.”

In these appealing ads, actress Allison Janney, the KP spokeswoman since 2004, drives home the point in her now familiar, smooth-as-a-surgical-glove delivery:

“By putting an end to paper medical records, we have ushered health into the digital age.”

To paraphrase the tagline: I think that I shall never see, a 62-page medical report as lovely as a tree.

“Our ode to trees talks to the fact that when you have online capabilities and a way to connect, it  does eliminate the need to drive to a facility or to an office visit,” says Ryan.

The Connected spot highlights the convenience of securely e-mailing your doctor, checking your medical records, reviewing test results and booking appointments online. This spares not just trees but the stress of being forced to listen to bad “music” after being placed on hold the second your doctor’s receptionist answer the line.

Kaiser clinicians are digitally connected to each other, which ultimately helps them stay connected to  members. The closing line of the ad summarizes, “At Kaiser Permanente, we believe that if knowledge is power, shared knowledge is even more powerful.”

Personally, I have struggled to attain the elusive power of shared knowledge while advocating for loved ones at hospitals where overworked, impatient doctors seemed agitated when pressed for too much info. Getting them to return phone calls was even harder. Then again, my family doesn’t use Kaiser. Maybe their doctors are more generous.

“Our primary care physicians are at center of who we are and we have great accessibility in person, on the phone and email,” says Ryan. “Ive had great experience with my own doc whom I have spoken to on the phone and through email. All of our new alternative ways to reach out and stay connected really help.”

I was glad to see the green connection extends to its Thrive website, which give readers tips on being “thriving communities” by buying locally-grown food, using fewer shopping bags, making their own cleaning supplies and avoiding exposure to chemicals in the home.

Ryan told me all of this effort, including the ad campaign, has been an extension of proven sustainability practices at Kaiser’s newly-built facilities, such as centers in Modesto and Santa Clara, using solar panels, pavement treatments to recycle run off water and friendly denim material in the walls as green insulation.

“The advertising is a great bridge between the sustainability message and the innovation of who we are,” Ryan  says. “It was a huge undertaking to go digital and to retrain the care staff, but it all speaks to our overall concern with the health of individuals and the community. ”

Prior to the green thrust, Kaiser treated us to daily ads on prevention, reminding our unhealthy nation that the more we exercise, eat well and get screened for diseases, the less we will have to spend on health care.

I think the ads resonate with the radio-listening masses facing poor health along with a poor health care system that has yet to be reformed.

With $50 million invested in the message, let’s hope Kaiser proves to be one of the needed cures.

Images: Kaiser Permanente, Wiki

In this era of voice mail, email and messages limited to 140 characters telling friends and family how and what you’re doing, a genuine hand written message is a true gift.

Of course, there’s no wrong way to tell someone you care. As long as you’re speaking from the heart, the sentiment will surely be appreciated. But a handwritten note expressing encouragement to a friend or relative who may be going through a difficult time is more personal. A real letter dropped in the snail mail will brighten someone’s day, and now it’s possible to do without killing trees or contributing to the clear-cutting our forests.

Tree free paper is a reality and seems to be a viable replacement for traditional paper, with options including Banana Paper, Coffee Paper, Mango Paper, Lemon Paper and Cigar Paper. The base fibers are composted with paper that’s already been used in some way; this is most likely office paper, tetra pack containers, magazines and newspapers collected and sent to the mill to later be mixed with agricultural fibers.

A surprisingly attractive product that is environmentally friendly and of very good quality, tree free paper isn’t mainstream yet, but you can find more information about it and purchase the products online at EcoPaper and GreenfieldPaper.

Send the kids off to school this year with a fun, great looking banana paper notebook. Jot down your thoughts, travels, recipes and experiences in a tree free banana paper journal, or send a personal note card on lemon paper (top image) with a drop of your favorite scented essential oil.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lori Hernandez, who operates DealHippie, a site dedicated to finding greener choices for stuff we use everyday and affordable solutions for an eco-friendly lifestyle. Thanks for the great tips, Lori!

Image: EcoPaper

Art is an intensely personal experience. What whets your appetite might leave me longing for something slightly different. Or the piece I prize and display in my home could inspire in you nothing more than a really bad headache.

But something tells me that Tracy Melton’s Tree Ring Paintings will strike almost anyone’s fancy.

I like how the raw and natural elements sync perfectly with the modern and graphic in these little treasures. The colors are bold while the imperfect contours of the wood retain the earthy and natural.

Tracy Melton, a nature buff and full time artist from Knoxville Tennessee, creates his Tree Ring Paintings using reclaimed wood from dead Elm trees. He cuts pieces ranging from 3 to 8 inches in diameter and approximately 2 to 3 inches thick, then sands down and clear coats each piece, finishing with colorful acrylic paint.

The backs are hollowed out for hanging – group three or four together or cover an entire wall. Any set of 3 paintings, each measuring 5 inches or less in diameter, is $32.99. Sizes up to 8 inches in diameter run $52.99 for a set of 3.

Something about these paintings should strike your fancy, but see for yourself at Melton’s website and Etsy store.

A couple of days ago I revisited my childhood and caught up with my old friends Dr. Seuss and the Lorax. It was the least I could do, seeing that it was Dr. Suess’s 105th birthday. Of course, he is no longer with us, but The Lorax lives on and should be required reading for anyone aged from 1 to 101 or more.

You do remember the Lorax, don’t you? If not, let me remind you about this character created by Dr. Seuss in 1971. A strange gopher-like creature with a fluffy blond mustache and a sheepish smile, the Lorax battles a greedy businessman named Once-ler who arrives in the forest, builds a huge factory and then fells all the Trufulla trees to create a new product he thinks everyone needs.

He chops and he chops til there are no trees left, despite the Lorax’s warnings that without the Truffula trees, the forest will disappear. And disappear it did, for Once-ler would not stop and in the end the wildlife and the Lorax just had to leave.

The Lorax was ahead of its time with its story of environmental destruction and deforestation. It certainly is now considered a green classic – for kids and adults, too.

Last year, The Lorax was re-released on Earth Day, complete with a special environmental message and printed on recycled paper. The Lorax Project, a child-friendly interactive web site designed to raise awareness of green issues and inspire everyone to be more earth-friendly, was also launched.

Having re-introduced you to the Lorax, it’s only fair you hear what he says in the end…

“Unless
someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.”