Green Acres: A grassroots movement focused on locally grown, organic food and advocacy for the planet is taking hold in a small pocket of downtown Orlando. A group of community activists centered around the Dandelion Communitea Cafe on North Thornton Avenue are working to bring “green” awareness to residents. Through a series of community initiatives, they’re building interest in sustainable practices. As an emblem of their goodwill, they’ve dubbed the City Beautiful “Ourlando.” At the center of this movement are Julie Norris and Chris Blanc, owners of Dandelion. The once nondescript corridor is anchored by the duo’s electric green cafe, which has become the hub for eco-activism and has prompted other businesses with sustainability on their agenda to move onto the block. It’s home to an organic food co-op, The Little Green Spa, a yoga center and the Florida School for Holistic Living. Norris helps spread the word about Orlando’s emerging green culture on The Front Porch Radio program on WPRK-FM 91.5 on Wednesdays at noon.

Mulligan time: Golf balls going every which way but straight return to Dubsdread Golf Course beginning July 11, when the city’s only muni reopens with a new routing and rebuilt greens. Closed since March 2007 for an extensive renovation, Dubs was to open a few months ago but the new turf took longer than expected to grow in. The city spent $3.3 million on the renovation, which was long overdue for the 1920s-era course.

Body language: Why do we get “ice cream headaches”? What’s a scab? These are just two of the many questions entertainingly answered in the newest feature on Nemours’ KidsHealth website, “How the Body Works.” There, all the main organ systems of the body are explained at a kid’s level—in English and Spanish—with colorful graphics, animated movies, activities, quizzes and more. The site is cleverly designed to capture a kid’s attention and works as a resource for learning. To view the site, go to kidshealth.org and click on “How the Body Works.”

We’ll help you pack

Glad it’s over: Words truly can’t describe the 2008 legislative session, but we’ll give it a try anyway. “Train wreck” comes to mind, but since we don’t have a train (and for that we have Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and her new found constituents, the trial lawyers, to thank) we’ll just have to call it a “wreck.” To be fair, Dockery was far from the only legislator who put the interests of a few over the common good of many. Earlier in the session her Republican colleagues pushed through the so-called “take your guns to work” law to appease the NRA, and once again red-light camera legislation went nowhere. But legislators did come through with a budget that actually reduced spending, a rare feat in the state Capitol. Of course, they had to cut the 2009 budget because of a revenue shortfall.