It’s almost Valentine’s Day and what better way to show your love of Austin and Lady Bird Lake than by helping get it all spruced up in time for Valentine’s Day?  Countless romantic walks, first kisses, and even proposals have happened at the lake and nothing says romance like Styrofoam floating on the water.  Well not really, so let’s clean it up before the big day!

Volunteers will have a rewarding morning as they search high and low for every last bit of trash and get to know other lake enthusiasts.  On-the-Water volunteers should be 16 or older and be comfortable around water.

Date: Saturday, February 12th

Time: 9am-11am

Location: all around Lady Bird Lake

Registration: CLICK HERE

Website: www.KeepAustinBeautiful.org/LadyBirdLake

Cleanup Sites Led by: Austin Standup Paddleboarders, Expedition School, Green Feet Fitness, Little Helping Hands, Surfrider Foundation

If you’d like to donate a prize for our fantastic volunteers please email Jessica@KeepAustinBeautiful.org

Last Friday I stopped by Recycled Reads, the bookstore of the City of Austin library, located on Burnet road.  The store is a collection of books donated to the store to help the library raise money, and books that the library is taking out of circulation because they no longer need as many copies of that given book, or because a copy is no longer in good condition.  It’s a great place to look for books that were popular a couple of years ago, as well as classics. For example, for recently published books, there were a lot of copies of “Lovely Bones” and “The Secret Life of Bees” and I expect in a year or so there will be a lot of copies of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” after the hype over that series dies down.  And there were a lot of copies of all the great classics. I was really surprised by how nice the store was because I had assumed it would just be a warehouse with unsorted books. But it was set up very similarly to a library and the books had all been organized into categories (“fiction” “biographies”, “classics”, “religion”, “Texas”, “home and garden”, “science”, “young adult”, “children’s”, “sci-fi”, etc.) and there was also a “collector’s section” that had older books with a description of why the book was valuable (limited edition or signed by the author, for example), and there was a collection of old records as well.  Within each category the books were organized alphabetically by author, again, just like the library, making it very easy to find everything.  And all the hard cover books were $2 and paperbacks were $1, so it was a great deal too.  On my way back from vacation I had purchased “Lovely Bones” at a bookstore for $9, but I could have had my choice of several copies of that book for $1 if I had waited.

I ended up buying four soft cover books. I usually like to check out books from the library, but sometimes depending on what’s going on, I may not be able to finish the book before it’s due back, so this is a nice way to pick up some books to have on hand for an extended period. If I like the books I bought, I’ll keep the copies, but if I’m not crazy about them I’ll donate them back.  The library makes money, I get some cheap books, so everyone wins!

a grassroots, volunteer-run organization dedicated to helping Central Texans in need grow their own organic vegetables. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, GCP installs organic food gardens for elderly, low-income, and disabled community members as well as for elementary schools, community centers, and shelters in underserved areas of Austin. We turn unused land into garden beds that provide food, education, and a sense of accomplishment and pride for all involved in their creation and maintenance.Since 1998 GCP has helped more than 160 gardeners and their families claim—or reclaim—their gardening dreams. Our goal is to create lifelong gardeners, so we actively support our gardeners for two years through four growing seasons. Because we return to refurbish those beds for a total of four seasons, we have actually planted more than 640 seasonal gardens.

GCP has several fall volunteer opportunities that we will update you on once registration opens up – sounds like a very great organization!

If you’ve been feeling a little helpless about the Gulf oil spill and want to do something to help, head on over to the benefit tonight at 6:00 at Hotel San Jose and Jo’s on South Congress to donate some money, eat some delicious food from Perla’s and Lambert’s, listen to Papa Mali and Lost Bayou Ramblers, and get educated about how you can help. The optional $10 cover charge and the $10 per plate shrimp boil proceeds will benefit the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Gulf Restoration Network. Additionally, Texas State Rep. Mark Strama will be speaking about renewable energy policies in Texas, and Brandi Clark of EcoAustin will be discussing local volunteer opportunities and green energy resources in Austin. Sounds like a great time for a very important and timely cause.