Be the one! I just signed this petition:
I’m glad to see that there are so many people supporting this and trying to get politicians to be proactive about the issue.
Archive for conservation
Spread Joy: Clean Up
Yesterday munchkin and I went on what I hope will be one of many of our “daily walks” which we haven’t done since we’ve all been sick in our household. We decided to go on the walk quite suddenly yesterday morning before we had lunch, and as we were leaving I remembered how much trash we usually see on the road as we go, and remembering my pledge to the Gods to help clean up our local environment I grabbed a plastic grocery bag that was on the table and took it with us to pick up some of the odds and sods that we might find.
The munchkin was very willing to help pick up the things I couldn’t duck under and reach.
He was also very agreeable that any time we go on a walk we fill another plastic bag to throw out until we’re done. I then might start tackling some of the underbrush that’s choking the other trees and plants.
It wasn’t an entirely gross experience except for the cup you can see at the top of the bag which I thought was full of leaves but turned out to be full of tobacco leavings. I didn’t realize that until I started to tip it out.
It saddens me that so many of my neighbors apparently just throw things out of their car windows as they’re driving down the road. Especially given their houses are not that far away, they could just throw it into the trash once they get home or get to work, but no, we found soda cans, beer cans, certificates, receipts, fast food containers and I’m sure there are more joys to find, but it makes me very happy that we’re fixing this for our local environment and that I can teach the munchkin respect for nature.
Conservation Efforts
The munchkin and I went on a walk this morning, instead of our normal route up the road towards my Mum’s place he wanted to go down the “rocky path” which leads around the side of our house and goes into the woods that are behind our house.
I said “sure” figuring that we could scope out the place for broken branches to restock our wood pile for and we were able to do that but we also wound up “picking up litter” that has been in and around the woods for who knows how long.
The sad thing about that is that in some cases it’s pure laziness. There are only two houses on the path and clearly some of the trash which was McDonald’s soda cups had just been dumped out of their truck window on the short drive rather than taking it the extra 20 yards to their house and putting it in their own trash can.
We picked up a broken beach ball, two soda cans, 2 Styrofoam cups and a plastic cup as well as bits of a bag one of which said “recycle please” on it very plainly despite it being sun-faded. There are still more items there and about but we ran out of hands, so my plan is to go on the walk tomorrow with a trash bag in tow and better shoes so that I can get further back where I could see some beer cans and bottles and shreds of paper towel and hopefully we can get things cleared up.
I know whenever we’re clearing out the dead branches from our own yard I keep finding old beer bottles and cans from the previous owners, and some of these items have definitely been there a while, but others like the McDonald’s cup were very fresh, which is just ridiculous.
I was very glad to be able to not only clean up our area a little bit but also teach the munchkin about the importance of doing so as well.
Environmentally Friendly Graffiti?
Yes! It is actually possible. I was reading a friend’s blog and I ran across a link to this article: DIY Green Graffiti: Making Moss Murals.
It talks about tagging with moss instead of aerosol sprays. I was surprised but also gratified that people have been coming up with better solutions than just “don’t do it” redirecting the behavior instead of banishing it all together. It still gives those artists the opportunity to express themselves creatively but in a less damaging way.
Partridge?
Well, we have no partridges but our pear tree seems to be doing really well despite that.
Since Kore cleared the branches a lot of new growth has sprouted, which is the first time I’ve seen the tree active since we moved in; before that hubbie and I thought it was dead and it was another on our long list of “things to remove once we had money”; but now I think the tree will be fine. It’s not just leafy growth either, we have blossoms as well.
Of course once the blossoms are done is when we’ll find out if we’re right about it being a pear tree or not–it could still be an apple tree. It seems like everything Kore touches springs into life, our herb garden is going crazy. I’ll post pictures of that in a little while. In the mean time it’s back to the grindstone for me. I’ve been trying to catch up on a lot of things on my three days off this week. It’s not as though I’ve been slacking off at the Riviera hotel but I wish I could have. There’s been shopping that needed to be done and various doctors appointments, all which had to be crammed into the last two days. I’m hoping I’ll be better able to plan things in future weeks as I get used to what’s going on.
