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JP Green House

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    The fight to save childhood

    Boys will be boys … online or off.School started this week. We have two fourth-graders and a second-grader. Ken has the misfortune to be driving a carpool that involves four boys and two schools and takes about an hour round-trip. I am biking to work every day now, because we’re cutting back to just the […]

    Andrée Collier Culture

  • Blood, sweat, and vision: The JP Green House in its ugly duckling phase

    Innovation in progress. Excuse our dust. For more images from the JP Green House, visit Leise Jones Photography.I was bringing two new friends down the street for a tour of the JP Green House last week. “Now prepare yourselves,” I warned, as I always do, “it’s not bright shiny green yet. You’ll need to use […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • Puppies and bunnies and carnivorous eco-curmudgeons

    Carl M via flickrThose of you following our last post (Should Kuba Have a Puppy?) can see that both votes and comments on this question are running 9 to 1 in favor of the gratification of pet ownership. This is even though eco-curmudgeon Ken has made the point, with hard statistics, that keeping domestic animals […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • Should Kuba have a puppy?

    Who could say no to this face?Ken WardKuba, 10, has waged a brilliant campaign. Unfortunately, I’m the target. Who can say no to a puppy? It’s … Grinch-like. My parents managed the trick, but that’s because my Dad was raised on a farm and Grandpa Ken, on my Mom’s side, trained hunting dogs — so […]

    Ken Ward Culture

  • The amazing promise and many challenges of passivhaus construction

    I’m in decent shape for 52, but it took everything I had to carry a hefty piece of welded steel plate out of the backyard — and I didn’t place it any too gently on the curb when I got it there. So I was impressed when John from Blue Scrap & Recycling casually flipped […]

    Ken Ward Cities

  • Love in a time of cataclysm

    Wanted: Experienced couples therapist, preferably also with degrees in theology and law, for fractious, passionate pair riddled with apocalyptic anxiety, burdened with love for their children (all of them), acutely conscious of the finitude of time and resources, and fearful that the world has gone mad. Must take insurance. Everyone told us that building a […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • You and me and a billion tiny spores

    The older man with the Coke-bottle lenses at the Boston GreenFest had a simple table — just a poster with a few pictures taped to it, and a sprig of something green. He looked grim and earnest, and although all the other booths were more alluring, full of enticing pamphlets about new green nonprofits, I […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • Fourth of July musings on symbols, patriotism, and identity

    Sketches of ideas for the JP Green House exterior all include banners, signs, and flags at our request. This reflects our plan to unearth the former corner store that used to be housed in the “flatiron” triangular building. It’s also a means of advertising our demonstration project and a good fit with our civic purpose, […]

    Ken Ward Cities

  • Getting to know the neighborhood — through its trash

    Left behind.coldcolours via flickrIt’s Sunday on Bourne Street. I am weeding at the JP Green House, furious at the reappearance of the Dog Strangling Vine that we battled hard last summer. A pernicious creeping vine, it takes over any neglected area around here: East Coast kudzu. An abandoned house is not really vacant, but inhabited […]

    Andrée Collier Cities