So Gov. Jerry Brown is warning that, with 70% of the state in severe drought, we are facing a megadrought in California this summer.  The signs have been with us some time: wells drying up in Marin County, drastically reduced snowfalls, this beautiful but crazy winter sunshine.
The Marin Water dept sent out its newsletter today asking us to reduce water usage by 25% before rationing needs to be introduced.  I know from our Australian experience what this means: short sub-4 minute showers, turn off the tap while you brush teeth and suds up hair, lose any garden sprinklers and if, if you really mean business, if its  yellow just let it mellow!
At Rainwater HOG I am working on a series of smart DIY boxed solutions under a new Water Savvy label: a Laundry to Garden water connection, and an A/C to Garden connection.  Those are the nuts and bolts everyday solutions.  Here are some other non-rain-dependent water savers that are a bit more radical!

So stay tuned for my Get Water Savvy! Product launch at the end of February...and Californians,  get used to those shorter showers!

Well, all 48 students turned up for Week 1 plus a couple of extras - a seriously full class for the sort of hands-on stuff I have planned over the next few weeks!  Its super exciting to have such a diverse mix of backgrounds and people.  Week 1 was based on the consideration of Negative Space in expanding perspective and clarifying the extent of a problem.  The candle puzzle (old skool but still a good one) was solved efficiently by all groups, and we had some terrific interpretive dancing too.  A highlight was Dan Markovitz speaking about the negative space he assesses when advising companies on efficient work practices.  Another highlight for me was finding Stephen Buetow PhD's paper on negative space in clinical environments, where he identifies not only negative physical space but also negative communicative space (i.e. what DOESNT get said) and negative longitudinal space, which is the length of pause.  Check the paper out here.  It was two hours of great energy - Im prepping now for this week's "Thinking Sideways" class....everything from 18th century Siberian bear armour to the execution of ice hotels....stay tuned!