Heading into the new fiscal year at work, and heading out of a particularly hectic spring, I wanted to be more intentional about building some good habits around optimizing my time and defending my boundaries. Fortunately I happened upon several great podcast episodes on a recent drive, starting with the best possible way to become more efficient: thinking about what you’re trying to accomplish.
How much do you know about where your plastic goes after you put it in the recycle bin? Statistically, very little of our plastic gets recycled, but that doesn’t stop us from believing that it will. This persistent perception helps keep the plastic industry growing, despite the negative environmental and health consequences related to the production and degradation of their products.
Gardening is a constant teacher. I’ve pulled garlic mustard out of my yard pretty inconsistently over the years, but now I know better. Garlic mustard is an established, invasive weed in Pennsylvania that can seriously disrupt the lifecycles of native plants and animals. With time and diligence – and maybe a little culinary creativity – I may yet be able to banish it from my yard.
Last month I had the pleasure of attending a drag brunch at a local brewery. The event received some backlash from the local community, which created a lot of media buzz. While the threats ultimately amounted to nothing, that is not always the case. While opposition to the LGBTQ community seems to be on the rise, our actions can play a big role in combating bigotry.
My never-ending battle in the garden continues, this time with an opportunistic, invasive weed that is often the first to take over in the absence of established plants: thistle. There are different kinds of thistle, and it is important to know what you’re dealing with before you take action because, like me, you could be doing the wrong thing and making your job harder.
What should you do if you find a baby fawn? Nothing. I recently learned that this bit of guidance is not common knowledge and therefore decided to create this post in order to share life-saving information as well as adorable photos of some uninvited guests. While exceptions and accidents do happen, it’s usually best to trust that moms in nature know what they’re doing.
This spring we had front-row seats to a common but rarely-seen event: a clutch of robin eggs hatching, growing, and fledging. It was only a couple weeks, but the growth and development of these babies – and the tireless efforts of their parents – was amazing to watch. It also served as a reminder that nature is brutal, and it’s usually best not to get involved.
Spring yard cleanup time is here, and I need to find the most effective and responsible way to deal with the weeds and brush that I’m pulling out of my yard. I was discouraged to learn that our municipality sends yard waste to the landfill (despite all the trappings of a closed-loop compost program), so I have to take matters into my own hands.
The slow transformation of my yard continues, with gardening choices occasionally coming into conflict with existing hardscapes. After a young ash tree contributed to the demise of a retaining wall last year, I knew that I needed to consider potential long-term consequences of plants as they grow, especially when deciding what type of native hedge to put on top of a retaining wall.
When I think of mothers, I think of almost ritualistic, uncomplaining sacrifice for their families, often to their own detriment. Something we rarely discuss related to motherhood is the level of agency involved in that decision and how critical it is that people become parents when they’re ready for it. What some call an unsavory topic, I call a necessary component of comprehensive healthcare.