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Happy un-Earth Day
Earth Day! It’s been. It’s gone. Did you celebrate? How did you celebrate? LOML and I were prepared for a day of picking up litter on our road along with the safe disposal of hazardous waste and, maybe, a bit of yard-tidying. We loaded the hatch of the Rolls-Can-Hardly with our modest collection of hazardous waste and headed out to the Sandy Hook Yard. It was no surprise there was a lineup. We got into the line of similarlyminded folks and waited. And waited as we inched forward. And waited a bit more while we inched forward. And we waited just a bit more as we inched forward. It was a good time to chit-chat with LOML about upcoming camping adventures and travelling to the last province on our hit-list and yapping about books being read and music being enjoyed. It was a good time to take notice of places along Sandy Hook that we’d never really had time to notice before. It wasn’t a terrible ninety minutes. Yep, ninety minutes. No worries, we’ve had worse times doing things we thought we would have enjoyed. It took ninety minutes to dispose of five cans of almost used up paint, an arthritic printer and seven containers of sludgy windshield fluid. We didn’t know our 25- year-old shop vac and 3- year-old food processor weren’t hazardous waste, so they just came along for the drive. It was the right thing to do. Right? Take the vac and the processor for a drive? No, I mean taking our hazardous waste to a proper disposal site. Could we have hidden those items in the regular garbage? I suppose we could have done it. I imagine there are people who do. The person two cars ahead of us had a fairly large cardboard box full of nail polish! Good for her! I suppose I learned something about hazardous waste, didn’t I? That’s not exactly how I’ve been getting rid of nail polish, but now I know better. And then?
Well, and then after we disposed of our hazardous leftovers we were hungry and went out to lunch. Sitting in a car for ninety minutes yapping and laughing works up a fierce appetite, I’ll tell ya. And, who doesn’t need a treat after doing the eco-warrior thing? We certainly did. By the time we got home the sky was overcast, the air was chillier and the rain had barely started to fall. We decided our plans for a little bit of yard clean-up should be “called due to weather”. I suppose we could have done yard stuff in the wind and rain, but we had an excuse and we were going to use it. Besides it really is a bit too early to rake the property. Another excuse? Of course another excuse, with No Mow May just around the corner we agreed to let our so called “lawn” to grow a bit longer. In doing so the violets, dandelions and other spring “flowers” get to occupy the space and our lawn then provides nectar and pollen for the insects. The insects will be eaten by the birds and the little brown bats from our barn. We’re thinking about calling our overgrown yard “The Diverse Wildlife Pollination Area”. Well, that’s what I want to call it. LOML might not agree with me. However, this year we will leave a large section of the backyard un-mowed and wildflower sowed! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not dodging yard work by leaving the patch-at-back un-mowed. Besides, I don’t usually mow the lawn. One of our grandfriends does the lawn for us. He’ll be happy to get the No Mow May break, I think. Honestly, LOML and I are not all about the lush green carpet of grass many folks enjoy. In years gone by we did have someone come by and spray the lawn with something to kill the “weeds” and something to make the grass pretty. We’re much smarter people now.
Actually, to suggest LOML and I have a lawn is a bit of a misnomer. We have a yard that, from a distance, could pass as a lawn—if you squidge your eyes up tight and tilt your head back while you’re giving it a look-see. There’s a green space between the trees and garden you could mistake for a “lawn”. Over the years we’ve talked about letting it all go wild—the Bylaw Officer might have something to say about that. We’ve also laughed about paving it all green or covering it with pea gravel. I think we’ll settle on almost lawn, punctuated with spaces that could be referred to as garden beds, dotted with a lot of trees and a spot that the littlest kid digs in when he’s visiting.
Happy Belated Earth Day. Go on. Go all hippy on your back forty. Let those wildflowers have a space to spread. Welcome the birds and the bees to your space. “Nurture the Nature”.
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