Georgie and I have trekked twice to Western Mass. recently to check out green buildings (though the first time, we had the added incentive of attending our niece's 7th birthday party.

Via Re-Nest and the Hartford Courant (a former employer) comes the Tiny House, a one-off production of Elizabeth Turnbull, with help from friends and neighbors.

Photo by Rolf Oeser for the New York Times

I wrote in June about the German city of Marburg, whose mayor and council voted to require every building to have solar panels. At the time I applauded it, though as is so often true, there is more to it than I grasped at first.

I've long been a fan of Technology Review, MIT's magazine, but it is really hitting another stride recently. I just caught up on a couple of past issues I picked up at the Clean Tech conference and found a gem of a story you should read if you want to be able to converse about biofuels with authority.

This is the link. Among its points:

Beth Daley, the Globe's environmental writer, has a terrifically informative story today whose headline encapsulates it well: "Not as green as they claim to be." 

I'm still a green neophyte, so I can't wax eloquent about Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, who has popped up on my radar a couple of times in short order. But E.O. Wilson, whose imprimatur I'll accept on any topic, says this...

According to my WordPress blog stats counter, this is my 21st post touching on some sort of green topic, but it's the first that features my byline. This story ran in the Sunday Globe this morning. I got onto the idea by meeting a fellow at Boston Green Drinks, which I'm fairly sure I mentioned in one of the 20 green posts. I'm looking for more story ideas, and ideally, more publications to place them. Share your thoughts in comments, please...

Seth Godin is always interesting, but doesn't often tread into green-tinted areas, so this post adds even greater value to what he usually brings. He starts off wondering why a Poland Spring bottle weighs half of what a Gatorade bottle does, and winds up, via input from a friend/reader, explaining some of the factors that govern which bottle type a manufacturer uses into it while offering perspective on how packaging affects sales.

About 15 years ago, I sent an omnibus, holiday-timed update letter to family and friends, mostly back in Connecticut, chronicling my first year in Boston. I thought it was a fair portrayal, neither positive nor negative, but the feedback I got was that things weren't that great and I was depressed. This is, in effect, one of those letters, but I doubt I'll get the same feedback. This has been, I think, the best year I've ever had. Here are some of the reasons:

While trumpeting its own audio presentation, Treehugger this week pointed to The Green Room, where the iTunes Music Store has aggregated 23 green-topic podcasts. That is, 23 shows, all of which offer multiple episodes.