Today is no biggee here. It's pretty much samo-samo. The compost piles are full and steaming in the chilly morning. The recycle bins in the garage are fed regularly with plastic and glass, cardboard and cans. The perennials are pushing through their winter mulch of last Fall's leaves, looking forward to their upcoming side-dressing of organic fertilizer. (Flowers page)
The low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators keep my indoor well-water use to a minimum while outside the recycled 55-gallon drums (newly acquired from the local Habitat for Humanity depot) await plumbing to collect rainwater.(Garden Projects page)
The basement is currently filled with plants (veg, perennials & annuals) started under low-wattage, high yield 4' florescent lights.(Propagation page) Throughout the rest of the house all lamps & fixtures sport low-wattage florescent 'swirly' bulbs.
My 11-year old VW Golf sits patiently in the garage for those days when it gets to run errands. But since I was 'downsized' 5 years ago it doesn't need to go out much, and when it does, there's an itinerary, a game plan. Nice thing is it doesn't drink much gas anymore, the tires don't wear and tear, and my insurance costs less due to reduced annual mileage. When I grocery shop I'm doing a lot better at 'buying local', thus saving fuel and transportation and roadways. I'm learning that I can live without grapes from Chile or strawberries from California during the winter. I've found that if everything is available everyday (shipped in from somewhere), nothing is special. I'm doing more seasonal shopping, enjoying brief spurts of local April rhubarb, May asparagus, June strawberries, etc. And the flavors? Outrageous. For truly fresh and fabulous, I grow a lot of my own! :-D (Vegetables page)
Spring is late in arriving this year so the gardens (along with yard work and bed building) are lagging. The neighbors are chagrined at this delay because I regularly take in their bounty of (chemical free) grass clippings when they feel the need to bag. I also deal with one particular lawn service who mows regularly next door. I'm happy for the bio-mass and he's happy not to pay a dump fee somewhere.
Oh dear, I could ramble on all day like this and that would just be tiresome. Besides, like I said, there's nothing really special about today. It's EARTH DAY everyday as far as I'm concerned. Yep, just another glorious life-affirming responsibility-filled reward-generating day-in-the-life kind of thing. What a rush!
Okay, I'm off my soapbox. (I need to re-purpose it for a plant stand anyway! *heh*). Can't sit here at the keyboard all day.
There's a whole circle of life going on and I'm part of it. As Native American philosophy points out, creation is an on-going process and we all have our parts to play. How exciting is that? Feeling left out? Just listen for the music, relearn those lost, ancient steps when we were of a whole, take a deep breath - and dance!
* * *
(Use links on top of sidebar to view my other garden pages.) 
I admit that I could probably be a little more Earth friendly. We do recycle all of our paper, cans, bottles, etc. We have one small bag of 'legitimate' garbage a week. Most appliances and other home devices seem to just come 'green' nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI was watching a depressing documentary about the oceans yesterday, and how much plastic garbage has because trapped in them. Disgusting. And then another on a dude that drives across country in a Winnebago that runs on used fast food cooking oil. That guy was a little weird. Earth-friendly, but weird.
Like you, we live each day pretty much as if it were Earth Day.
ReplyDeleteMore of us will be doing that if the gas gets to the $6 price. I heard that on the news last evening!
Here is what I keep telling myself:
My Grandparents (born ca 1899), were not buying out of season foods, in fact very little food at all. They did not have to buy $100's of dollars worth of things to garden either! I am sometimes amazed at what people are putting into there gardens when all we really need are seeds or plants.
This day is a good reminder for us though.