Happy 48th Earth Day! Sadly, I think earth day is one of those holidays that are forgotten until you hear it on the news or get to your office and notice a little leaf or planet icon on your calendar. I try to remember and celebrate by planting things, cleaning up trash outside and being eco-conscious all year round. Yesterday, I worked on a 1940's dress, using fabric I recycled from a REALLY ugly vintage dress and luckily, it turned out pretty cute! I also picked up some re-usable shopping bags with funny Anne Taintor-like women on them for our shopping adventures this weekend! We did a little Earth Day celebration early last weekend by planting a new garden!
I love to be outside. Sometimes, I just go out on my patio and sit and it's fabulous, soaking up the sunshine. We live in a townhouse so I don't really have a yard to speak of but I do have a little patio and a large commons area behind my house where bunnies lay in the shade and graze like little cows and hummingbirds and dragonflies dive-bomb your head. We had a little squirrel without a tail who would come and eat all of our bird food. His name is Alonzo but we haven't seen him in a while so he may have moved out of the neighborhood. I have a well-stocked bird feeder too so my patio gets many visits from winged critters, which drives my 3 cats completely insane.


We went to Walmart Sunday morning to pick up some more hair pins and veggie burgers and I stopped in the garden section to see about some cheap, full-sun flowers. My favorite flowers are snapdragons and all they had were about 4 little dried up flats, but I grabbed two of them and promised them that I will bring them home and make them feel better. We also got some mums, columbine, marigolds, bugle weed (good for hummingbirds), begonias and a basil plant for Pj.
While in the garden section, Pj spotted a sweet little grey bellied salamander crawling across the concrete floor! Poor little dude! We gently set him in one of the mums and he crawled down between the roots and side of the plastic container to hide. He was so scared so we rescued him from the perils of Wally World and brought him home with the intention of driving him over to my grandma's neighborhood pond. To quote Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? "He done r-u-n-n-o-f-t!" Oh, well! He's sure to find lots of good little buggies and hidey holes in my neighborhood.


So, I spent Sunday afternoon digging in the dirt and yelling at my ivy to stay on it's own patio and not invade my neighbor's house. We refilled the bird seed and nectar for the hummingbirds and got a visit from a dragonfly, who took one look at me and flew away as fast as he could!
I'm so excited because we plan on expanding our patio with some stepping stones and buying a little bistro set this year so we'll have a great little breakfast nook! There's no better way to start a day than to eat breakfast outside in the garden!
Oh, in case anyone wonders "what does a vintage gal wear while digging in the dirt and weeds?" This was my outfit...New capris I picked up from wally world today for $12 (*yay*), simple blue button-up top and pin curls set under a scarf. Not terribly glamorous but cute, comfy and machine washable!
So, while you're out and about today, pick up a bag of bird seed, grab a trash bag and clean up litter or do something else to show a little appreciation for mother earth. Oh, we had this little visitor in our garden this morning! Bunnies also drive my cats crazy!