Those Amazing Trees

If you thought this summer was hot, sticky and are hoping that next year the weather is just a little more balanced, then you might want to think about one of the most natural air coolants out there:

The tree.

Simply put, if we had more of them left, we would have more opportunities to experience their amazing powers of cooling and shading.

Think I’m exaggerating?  Well here are a few interesting facts about trees that I learned from the David Suzuki Foundation email newsletter this week:

30 x 30 Fun: Week 4

I can’t believe four weeks has gone by already.  Time flies when you’re outside, I guess.  Here is what happened in week 4 of the David Suzuki Foundation’s 30 x 30 Challenge:

Friday

By Friday we were pretty drained of energy.  Little Man started getting sick and was pretty tired of being away from home/in his carseat.  We spent some time Continue reading

30 x 30 Fun: Week 3

Wow.  What a crazy week.  I apologize for the weird order of posts this past week, but I have been pretty busy lately with visits both at home and away.  We are finally back from our travels, so I wanted to fill you in on week 3 of the DSF 30 x 30 Challenge.

Friday

On Friday the Dreamboat started getting ready for his trip down south to Muskoka to help his friend M with a kitchen renovation.  At the same time I was getting ready for M’s girlfriend L to come to our house with her little one LD.  It was a pretty busy day, but Little Man and I managed some time outside in the backyard.

So-called weeds in bloom.

Saturday Continue reading

30 x 30 Fun: Week 2

Finally we are all feeling better at our casa.  We got off to a shaky start during week one of the 30 x 30 challenge, but week two went so much better.  Here is what we’ve been up to lately.

Friday

We all breathed a sigh of relief and welcomed the weekend with open arms.  Little Man and I attempted the beach again.  I was way more prepared for playing in the water, and the sandy finale.  Little Man was a lot more energetic, although this time there were no kids around to play with.  He settled for watching some geese and goslings that were nested nearby (you can’t really see them in the picture below, but I promise they are there).

Continue reading

30 x 30 Fun: Week 1

What a week. I was sick.  Little Man had a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, and general poopiness the rest of the week.  And the Dreamboat had a huge project at work that took up most of his time and finally finished on Thursday.

We are all spread so thin right now I am sure we are translucent.

To fight back on the sick and tired, we tried our best to get outside as much as possible, even if it was only for a short time.  I promised pictures and an update on week one of the David Suzuki Foundation 30 x 30 Challenge.  Here is what happened: Continue reading

Speaking Up for Little Man

Little Man is…well…a little man.  He doesn’t speak the way adults do.  He doesn’t read the way adults do.  Nor does he pay attention to the political issues surrounding him.  He is, after all, only fourteen months old.  But he is going to be caring for the people and environment around him long after a lot of us are gone.  So tomorrow I am doing something to help ensure that he has a clean environment in the future.

On June 4th, I will be participating in an online campaign called “Black Out, Speak Out.”  It was created by several key environmental non-profit organizations in Canada to protest a bill that the government is trying to pass that will significantly weaken laws, and processes put in place for environmental protection.  It is also attacking charities that speak out against environmental destruction.

To protest these changes, people and charities will be posting a “Black Out, Speak Out” picture, link or article on their sites Monday instead of posting as usual.  You can also do this on your Facebook by downloading the “Black Out, Speak Out” profile picture (as seen at the start of this article).  Essentially it is a virtual protest that anyone can participate in.

I know that my posts are generally on the lighter side, optimistically looking at our family’s eco journey, but I think that I need to do my part to speak up for Little Man, who cannot speak for himself.

But that is what’s happening tomorrow.  Here is what is going on in our world today:

Despite the heat that I grumbled about last Sunday Continue reading

The 30 x 30 Challenge

Today I am one of those cartoon people with a heat pack on my head and a thermometer sticking out of my mouth.  I am sick and it seem like a good idea to sleep all day.

So what better time to start the David Suzuki Foundation’s 30×30 Challenge?

I signed up online for the challenge last week.  Basically the goal is Continue reading

Learning to Grow

Happy Earth Day!

At the moment we have remnants of the snow that fell on Friday.  I am still hopeful that it will be completely gone by this afternoon so that we can get outside and enjoy Earth Day in a drier setting.

Yesterday, along with being wet the wind was pretty fierce, so we ended up planting Little Man’s seed paper inside (from Little Man’s copy of the awesome book “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle).

This was LM’s first time planting anything, and it ended up being a huge hit.  I can’t say that he knew what was  going on exactly, but he definitely figured out that dirt is just as fun to play with as to eat. Continue reading