Welcome to Bluedot Los Angeles! Every other Sunday, we share stories about local changemakers, sustainable homes and yards, the nature all around us along with planet-friendly recipes, and advice from Dear Dot. Please email us with story ideas at laeditor@bluedotliving.com. Together, we can make a difference for the blue dot we call home.
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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Solar panels on the roof and a battery bank on the garage. A gray-water system and an underground 10,000-gallon rainwater cistern to irrigate the yard. Tile with post-consumer recycled content and quartz countertops. And those are just a few of the green features in actor Ed Begley Jr.’s Los Angeles home. Ed and his wife, Rachelle, recently gave Bluedot editor Jim Miller a tour of their LEED Platinum-certified house, which they built from the ground up from 2013 to 2016. “It’s super, super efficient,” Ed says. “So she gets all her stuff that she wants, French Mediterranean design, she gets all of that. And I
get to have all the stuff hidden in the walls that nobody ever sees.”
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Quick Links
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Skip scrolling! Here’s what you’ll find in today’s Bluedot Los Angeles Newsletter:
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Thanks to an enterprising 12-year-old, California now has a state bat: the pallid bat. San Fernando Valley resident Naomi D’Allessio convinced State Senator Caroline Menjivar to
introduce the bill that gave the tiny insect-eater its official status. “I hope highlighting the pallid bat that lives in so many diverse habitats across the state will help awaken everyone to their beauty and value,” Naomi says. Arroyo Hondo, 782 acres along Santa Barbara’s Gaviota Coast, offers a glimpse of what the area was like when the only residents were the Chumash. Owned and managed by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, its rich biodiversity provides an ideal habitat for numerous plant and animal species, including endangered ones. Hiking trails and picnic areas are open to the public on the first and third full weekend of each month. “Everybody’s always happy when they come here,” says John Warner, who co-manages the property with his wife, Jennifer Dunn.
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Dear Dot: What Are My Eco-Options for Valentine’s Day Flowers?
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–Illustration by Elissa Turnbull
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Dear Dot,
With Valentine's Day coming up, I have to wonder: Is there such a thing as sustainable floral delivery?
—Liza
Dearest Liza,
When my first child was born, a friend sent me an enormous bouquet of white lilies. Throughout the following days and nights of nursing, crying (mostly mine), exhaustion, and late-night soothing, those flowers never failed to make me marvel. Their simplicity. Their beauty. Their scent.
I have never forgotten the power those flowers had to lift my flagging spirits at a time when I felt inadequate to the task at hand. Mr. Dot favors living plants as gifts, which, sure. Okay. Plants have their place in my life and my home. But for occasions? Give me glorious, fabulous flowers. And the single biggest occasion for flowers is — you guessed it, Liza! — Valentine’s Day.
But can those glorious, fabulous flowers symbolizing boundless love extend that passion to Mother Earth?
Read the rest of Dot’s answer.
Got a question for Dot? Write her at deardot@bluedotliving.com.
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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER:
Cleaning Up Your Laundry Routine
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The Bluedot Marketplace includes affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of our links, we may earn a commission, essentially a small digital finder’s fee.
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We were delighted to see that Wirecutter recently added Bluedot fave Dirty Labs to its list of top five laundry detergents. This week, you’ll get discounts on Dirty Labs — and two other BuyBetter clean laundry essentials — with code BLUEDOT.
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Great Detergent
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Wirecutter writes that “this hyper-concentrated liquid detergent is an effective stain remover, with cleaning power that rivals our top picks.” We love this plastic-free brand, which comes in sophisticated scents, as well as a fragrance-free option. Save 15% with code BLUEDOT.
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Buy now or
read our review.
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Darling Dryer Balls
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Friendsheep has elevated dryer balls to an art with its beautiful colors and patterns. Colorful dryer balls also serve a practical purpose: They’re much easier to find when you’re folding! Check out the cute décor and pet toys, too. Save 10% with code BLUEDOT.
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Buy now or
read our review.
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Microplastic Minimizer
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Buy the Cora Ball once and leave it in your washing machine. It will capture almost a third of the microplastics your clothes shed during each cycle and prevent them from being released into the water. Amazing, right? Save 15% with code BLUEDOT.
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Buy now or
read our review.
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Bluedot Kitchen: Super Soups
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When it’s cold and rainy outside, there’s nothing better than a bowl of warm, nourishing soup. These two recipes use plenty of veggies and spices and are quick and simple to make.
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When Notes From the Home Front columnist Krista Halverson bought her historic home (of course, in California, that means anything that’s been standing for more than 100 years), she
knew she wouldn’t be able to replace the fragile single-paned windows. But she didn’t really think about the lead paint covering the sills around those windows until she moved in. What happened next was a lesson in patience, compromise and conservation.
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Here at Bluedot, we love a good documentary, and we’re buzzing about the new four-part Netflix show You Are What You Eat. The filmmakers follow four sets of twins as they
participate in an eight-week experiment designed to measure the effects of healthy eating and exercise. The twist is that one of the twins in each group eats a vegan diet, and the other a healthy omnivore diet. In between footage of the twins, the series features interviews with famous politicians, restaurateurs, scientists, activists, doctors, farmers, and businesspeople discussing the faults in our current food system and the ways we can change it for the better. The documentary has been labeled “vegan propaganda,” but the filmmakers make a strong argument that following a plant-based diet is one of the best things you can do for your health and the planet. It’s worth a watch.
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A Love Supreme
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Valentine’s Day is just a few days away, and while many eco-conscious folks avoid traditional (and environmentally fraught) gifts like flowers and chocolates, there are companies working to make roses and truffles greener. Here at Bluedot, we suggest Bloomsy Box, which partners with Rainforest Alliance Certified farms that protect both land and workers and offers a number of American-grown bouquets and plants. We also love andSons Chocolatiers and Chuao Chocolatier, two Southern California-based companies that use ethically sourced cacao and create chocolates that are not only delicious, but also gorgeous.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back in two weeks!
–Robin Jones
Do you have a special Los Angeles photo or story to share?
Email laeditor@bluedotliving.com.
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Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She currently lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long
Beach, where she advises the award-winning student magazine, DIG MAG. She loves road-tripping across California, especially when the itinerary includes stops in Arcata and Trinidad.
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