So, I am now the proud owner of a genuine trucker's tan. :) We have had a couple of beeeeeautiful weekends, working on the yard, cleaning up the dead leaves, tearing down ugly mismatched plastic lattice and broken bamboo fencing that the previous owners had put up around their horrible raspberry bramble patch, making a compost pile, and pruning the trees. Luc has been feverishly trying to make the lawn grow grass, which seems to be a losing battle at our place - we thought it was patchy last year, now it's downright endangered - so our yard is a maze of flourescent pink tape (a futile attempt to keep Tigger and I off the lawn), and we rejoice when we see the microscopic blades of grass almost nearing 1/2 an inch long... ;) It's fun, we're enjoying the yard so much more this year.
We bought a BBQ too, and a patio set, and I hung my solar lanterns up in the trees above the deck. Speaking of trees, we got a great quote from a local guy who will take down our three ugly juniper/cypress trees that are growing up against the house, and also, they'll be 'felling' the huge pine tree in the front, whose top half broke off in the ice storm. (It's hideous). It's sad to me, as it was once such a big, solid tree, and I'll miss having that blocking us from the street. That said, I do plan to do some research into what kind of tree to plant there in its place. I'd LOVE an oak tree, but they're so huge, I'm not sure it'd be a good idea in our relatively small front yard... Maybe a flowering/fruit tree to feed the birds would be a better option.
Anyway, we decided to focus on the back yard this year, and then we'll work on the front yard next year.

So, I was reading the newspaper on Friday (which I never do), and noticed there is an abundance of doom and gloom stories about food shortages on the rise. So much so that Walmarts in the US have imposed rice rationing, as people have begun hording the available rice, in expectation for the price hikes to come. People in BC have started this as well. I wasn't aware of it before, but it seems that all over the world, countries are suffering from severe food shortages, and Luc was telling me that in Haiti, they've resorted to baking cookies out of clay and eating them, in place of any grains or rice. Sad. :( Here, smaller stores have already begun to see the effects. One store in Ottawa says that over the last few weeks, his bags of rice went from $15 to $30, and another merchant says that where she used to sell her rice for $40 a bag, she now has to buy it for $50, so she's trying to take care of her customers by not making any profit off it, and selling it for pretty much exactly what she paid for it.
Then there were various conflicting articles, one stating that global food shortages are a symptom of rising gas prices, as it's costing farmers a lot to produce grain products, and those farmers who use the grain products to feed livestock have similarly been impacted as they now have to pay more to keep their animals. From this persepctive, bio-diesels or other renewable fuel sources seemed to be a possible answer. However, another article was poo-pooing Ontario's recent decision to invest $600,000 into bio-diesel farming, as it entices farmers to divert land from their agricultural production over to the production of crops for bio-diesel. It seems a vicious cycle as you can't lower prices of crops and solve food shortages if the fuel prices are sky-rocketing, but if you have to sacrifice agricultural production in order to lower the price of fuel, you still won't be able to produce as much food. Hmmmm...
Seems either the media is being typical and blowing EVERYTHING out of proportion (along with companies who are inventing new crisis situations in order to benefit from the fear-based consumerism they spark) or, we're truly facing the 'Age of Scarcity' as the paper put it. Even today, I saw another ad on the internet for Go Blue.org, a group focused on conserving Canada's apparently dwindling fresh water supply. So now, in addition to not consuming excess energy, food, products made in environmentally unfriendly ways or with similarly destructive materials, and conserving gas, we are also being told to cut back on water. According to the site, http://www.goblue.org/en/, our fresh water is in limited supply, as it comes from age-old glaciers that are now melting at a rapid rate. If we don't cut down our consumption now, we will apparently be faced with water shortages, as the fresh water doesn't renew itself. Canada is apparently guilty of major over-consumption of its water supply, compared to countries in Europe. That surprised me as we really don't have a huge population.. Maybe we're just as bad as our Southern neighbours afterall.
Hmmm. I'm confused a bit on this one though because doesn't it rain? I mean, I know we've enjoyed a LOT of fresh water, maybe, because of the glaciers, but I mean, the water doesn't go away when we use it, it continually gets released back into the environment, where it falls back onto the Earth, and if it happens to land on ground that filters it (and doesn't contain salt) voila! You have fresh water. Where I'd see a problem is if we're busy polluting any of the fresh water that does recycle itself back into the Earth (and yes, I imagine we most certainly are poisoning the heck out it).Anyway, just to add another layer to the multi-cyclical growing pile of issues, the site states that things such as nuclear energy (touted in one of the articles I read as a wonderful source of renewable, clean energy and another possible remedy to our fuel issue) comes at a cost as it depletes the fresh water supply.
Can we ever win? Apparently not, if it's true that the population is expected to rise between 40 and 50% over the next 50 years... And they hit that little 'annoyance' spark within me by showing a picture of one of the new suburbs that are all going up at an alarming rate. With cookie-cutter (ugly), cheap-material houses, sandwiched together with their postage stamp lawns and row upon row of dismal, blasé paved, treeless streets. Gaaaaghh!
Yet one more reason why I think I need to go find an island where idiots aren't allowed, and furthermore, where we need to slow down on the reproducing - surprising too since the avg family has like 2 kids (so they only replace themselves)... That's one more excuse for me to become a crazy dog/cat lady instead of a 'soccer mom' anyway... :)
S

Spring is finally attempting to push its way into our region, however futile the effort.. We still have two feet of snow on the ground, huge snowbanks, and slushy roads, but there are pockets of warm air that carry a faint scent of fresh ground, that every now and again surprise you as you battle your way through the gusts of wind and icy rain. Sounds marvellous doesn't it? I realized just how desperate I was for some sign of an end to this winter when I caught myself getting excited that the air no longer freezes my nose, despite the wind rushing at me with enough force to blow my hair around and flip my umbrella inside out.
Inside, I have started my first wave of seeds (this year, despite not having any dirt for the gardens and still being unsure as to how I'll get dirt since I own a cavalier, not a truck, I've decided to plant seeds for a variety of annuals, perrenials (and grasses too!) and veggies). It's exciting to see the little baby green plants all poking up from beneath the earth in the sunny basement window, but I'm starting to wonder where I'll keep them all as they grow, considering the ground won't be ready for another month and a half. Hmmm... I might have to break down and buy some grow lights for my 'babies' as our house doesn't have a ton of windows that offer strong natural sunlight (note to self: must ensure the next house we buy is not facing NORTH)...

So lately I've found myself drawn more and more into this 'eco' thing going on in the world. I first discovered it, not all that long ago, as something that Earth-friendly Pagan circles and new-age psychologists were constantly talking about on the web and in books - this whole return to a simpler life, consuming only what you need, living 'green', as a means to reconnect with the Earth in both a practical and spiritual sense. For me, it started as a spiritual thing - trying to simplify my lifestyle so I could appreciate more the things I have and free up time for things that matter, like the people in my life. Now everywhere I look I see more and more 'green' furniture (that costs twice the price but hey, it's made with bamboo), organic clothing, eco friendly cars, 'straw bale' houses, organic foods and a major push to properly label and hopefully market local produce. It's confusing - I'm having a hard time differentiating between keeping things simple and environmentally friendly and being lured back into the consumerism game with products that claim they're 'green' but are actually laden with toxins and were actually produced in a smoke-belching factory where a forest once stood.

Then there's the 'serious' side to the issue - where I am seeing numerous books, tv shows, and even college courses, that address the future and the economic and social impacts we're bound to face when we finally do run out of non-renewable energy sources. Someone recently said 'it's the end of the 'Age of Oil'' and it really hit me - you read about that stuff in history books, where one era ends abruptly and out of the ashes comes another, even more revolutionary era that changes the way society as a whole thinks and functions. I'm fascinated to know what's next. Apparently 'renewable energy' and small-scale living is the key to long-term success in the future. Just hearing that kind of freaks me out because so many people out there can't do anything for themselves anymore - they've become so reliant on paying someone to do everything for them, from producing and preparing the food they eat to cleaning their houses to getting them to work, to telling them what choices to make.

Of course with all the 'hype' that has been generating over the environment, people are starting to climb aboard the "treading lightly" movement, and with the people comes the booming commercial industry. The same organizations who tell you that you 'need' to buy their products in order to be 'happy', are now telling you to 'live lighter, buy green' - then putting pretty signs filled with crisp green foliage and bright blue sky around their toxic chemical-laden products and jacking up the price (whether this is to make more money or to drive you to the cheaper non-eco friendly stuff is something that I still haven't figured out). In one jewellery store (Claire's) they had done this with wooden jewellery - setting it up on a big fancy 'fresh' looking display in the middle of the store that had a sign about 'going green'. I'd love to see where exactly that wooden jewellery was produced, and where the wood came from. To me, cutting down a tree so I can put a wooden bangle around my wrist seems counter-intuitive to the whole 'green movement', no? In my opinion, people who are eating this up (and okay, I admit they do a great job of making it look so damn pretty!) are going against the entire idea of living a self-sustainable lifestyle, where you consume only what you need, and make conscious choices around the products that you buy. I am starting to wonder if people are still going to miss the point as they are once again flooded with a barrage of 'eco-friendly' garbage from the oh so savvy commercial world. It might be 'biodegradable' but did a factory mow down trees and belch out polution in order produce this product? Do you even NEED this product?

On a different note, I found this book recently and think it will be a fascinating read (if and when I ever get around to joining the library): Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care). It's stuff like this that really gets my goat. People are people, and many of them just don't care. It's the rest of us (who aren't raking in the profits) who have to live with the consequences. And yet, while I'm ranting away, I do have to admit that I am being just a wee bit hypocritcal as I too am still a slave to the idea of 'quick and easy' - if it is too much of an effort, I still take the non-eco friendly option.

On a positive note, I can't wait for the Ottawa Farmers Market to open in May - they even have local produce, baking, beef, pork and chicken there, so you really don't need to look outside the region to find what you need. And as for the rest of it, I'm taking small steps - to me, it comes from everyone making those small changes in their daily lifestyle, coupled with a 'paradigm shift' toward local, simplistic living, that matters. This weekend I'm going to try cleaning my mirrors and windows with 1/2 vinegar to 4 cups water and a squeegie. (As opposed to using harsh chemicals) and I'm hoping to replace more of my lightbulbs with energy saving ones.

Ta ta for now.