Think Green Thursday #3

The Pagan Sphinx, otherwise known as my friend, Gina, started Think Green Thursday, and I'm happy to say, it seems to be catching on. Thinking green has gone from "a nice thing to do" right up to being just about a matter of life and death for our planet.

My friend, Lisa, whom I will probably mention frequently because she is full of very good ideas, suggested to me that I sh0uld mention hanging bird feeders and houses in our yards. This should greatly reduce the need for the use of chemical insecticides. The birds are fun to watch, and they eat all sorts of insects in the area they inhabit.


My own thought for the day is that we should be using more environmentally friendly cleaners for household chores and yard work. Not a whole lot of our local super markets carry any or many of them yet. (They will eventually, if we start demanding them.) But some health food stores carry them, and we can easily find them on line. Many may cost more than we are used to paying. (Costs will come down - again - if use increases.) It's worth it. They can be found by Googling - or my choice would be Scroogling. Go to www.scroogle.org to avoid some of the pitfalls of Google.


I am NOT giving my recommendation to any of these products. Most of them I have not tried myself, so I can't do that. But to show you just a small sample of what is available, you will find: Absolute Air Cleaners, Blue Wonder, Citrus Magic, Clean Environment Company, Eco-Me, go-green.biz (They donate 3% to charity), Green Nest, Lily's Garden Herbals, Naturally Good.Net, Simplygoodstuff.com, and there are many, many others.


Some of these products are for infants. Using more natural products for your little ones would certainly be kinder to the babies as well as to the environment.


Why not investigate a few of them? They could help you a great deal, and you will be doing your part to help our planet survive.



The last two photos were from internet ads.



Above are ways to make our world cleaner. How about making our world safer and happier? Please consider joining the Blogblast for Peace this fall.

TRIVIA

When I was in the fifth grade, in about 1943, Miss Henderson distributed books to the class and told us we would be reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline. Miss H. read a few lines in her wavery, dramatic way. I ignored her voice, shut it out, and read on by myself. I was hooked. I took the book home that night, and read the whole poem - all the many pages of it. At that age, I was pretty much over-dramatic myself. What else could I do? I set out to write a similar epic. It was much longer and more romantic than Mr. L.'s poem. It was also a pathetic imitation, but I wallowed in it for a while, as only a ten year old girl can. Eventually, I did realize that mine was rubbish, but I've always remembered Mr. L.'s Prologue, which is lovely. (See yesterday's post.)

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All of this recollection of days gone by started me wondering how accurate my memory is concerning the old neighborhood and school. My childhood friend, Jack, has already corrected me on some things I have mis-remembered of more recent history.

I went to Scroogle. (Scroogle, for those unfamiliar, is Google, without cookies or search-term records, and with access log deleted within 48 hours.)

Aren't computers wonderful? (sometimes) I learned all kinds of things about my school and my old home town:

There's a place there now called Indian Rock Park. I wonder if it's near the woods where Jack and I used to find arrow heads.

There's a Swedish log cabin near Darby Creek, circa 1654, which may be the oldest in North America.

Thomas Garrett, for whom my school was named, was a famed abolitionist who lived there before 1822, and then went on to Wilmington where he was Station Master at the last stop on the Underground Rail Road.

And my old school was built on ground once used for a prison where prisoners had been murdered and buried in unmarked graves. Later there was an orphanage there where another murder occurred. So today, there are tales of hauntings on the property.

What fun! I'll have to explore further.
And all this thanks to Scroogle.

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And one more thing - more in keeping with the Merry Month of May -

This is the annual picture of Isaac, sitting amidst the purple ice plant in
Pacific Grove. It makes a beautiful carpet of flowers every year about
this time.
Kitty may post these pictures too. They are hers, after all. But I don't think she'll mind too much if Grandmom posts them as well.