Earth Day 2015

Every year Terry and I try to do a little more to conserve and limit our impact on the Earth.

We do the typical easy stuff.  Cloth bags at the grocery store.  Recycle all those other plastic bags that some how creep into our home.  Tote all of the inevitable by-products from life to the local recycling center.  

We’ve done an excellent job of eliminating paper napkins.  

Same with paper plates and plastic water bottles.  Almost entirely gone.   

And then there’s those ideas that sounded really great at the time.

For instance, the compost bin that I JUST HAD TO HAVE back when I started gardening. It’s a very cool idea.  Just put some shredded leaves and grass and all of our vegetable scraps and egg shells in this bin that I just spin every few days.  The hot hot hot sun is supposed to turn this into compost that I can spread on the garden.  No more purchasing fertilizer or garden soil!

In reality, it takes me a few months to get it full.  Then several more months to compost. And the egg shells never do dissolve.  And I end up with a couple buckets of lumpy compost.

But I continue to use it.  Hey, I bought it.  What else am I going to do with it?

And then there’s my four rain barrels.  Something else I really needed.  Terry installed the first one on one of the garage’s downspout. My idea was to put a soaker hose on it and water the roses.  Didn’t work.  Not enough pressure to push the water through the soaker hose. Some brilliant person advised me to put it higher and there would be water pressure.

Okay, so then I had Terry put a rain barrel on the shed. Well, first he had to put gutters on the shed and a downspout.  I already had a deck on the side of the shed with a potting bench so that’s where we put the rain barrel–about two feet above ground level.  Still didn’t work with a soaker hose.

But I don’t give up.  Terry built a four foot high platform for the next two rain barrels that I wanted installed on the detached garage.   And the downspouts were the wrong size for the rain barrels so I had a handyman that was working on something else change out the downspouts. (Ka-ching) And it STILL didn’t run a soaker hose!  

So I did some research and bought a solar water pump. 

And it still doesn’t run the soaker hose! 

But I do use the solar water pump on a hose that I use to hand water the flowers plus I use all of the other rain barrels to fill the watering cans. 

And I just keep trying.  

Here’s some flamingos….

2013_02_19flamingos

(Which has nothing to do with Earth Day but I like the idea)

Happy Earth Day!

Florida Artist’s Gallery “Arts for All” Event

Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event

Our second stop on Saturday was at the Florida Artists Gallery in Floral City for the family event “Arts for All”. 

Anyone that is from this area knows that the drive from Crystal River (where we stopped first and I posted about yesterday) to Floral City is about 45 minutes. 

But, anytime that the Florida Artists Gallery is having an event, it is worth the trip.

Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event

I received an email from the Florida Gallery on the 8th (Wednesday).  Here’s an excerpt from that email:

“Please join us on Saturday (April 11th) for our first major outdoor family event “Arts for all“. At least 14 of our artists will be demonstrating their art forms, be it wood carving, painting eggs, making jewelry or painting paintings in various mediums. Food will be available, and there will be  flow arts – family yoga and hula hoops, wine tasting and live music throughout the day, culminating with the Citrus County Drum Circle starting at 4.30pm. From 1-2pm Vanessa Fuller-Brown will hold a free painting workshop for children.”

Floral City is a small town in Citrus County with big ideas.  I love visiting there. 
Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event

Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event
John Bliven, carving a bowl out of a piece of wood.
 
Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event
Art created from a gourd.
Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event
Wine tasting. Blueberry Wine. From Whispering Oaks Winery.
Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event
We tried the dry. It was REALLY good. So we bought one!
Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event
A musician for entertaining

Artisans were located throughout the grounds demonstrating their craft.  Kids were discovering the arts through hands on demos.  

The gallery was wonderful as usual.

And there were a lot of people there. 

An auto-harp demonstration was scheduled for later in the afternoon but we weren’t able to stick around for that.  And we didn’t have enough time to check out the other shops in Floral City or the heritage museum.  

There’s just so much going on in this little town.  Such a difference from our visit to Heritage Village in Crystal River.

 

Friday Meanderings

Okay.

It’s Friday.

My favorite day of the week.  

I’m sure it’s ingrained from all those years of working those jobs where Friday meant HAPPY HOUR! (or sometimes happy lunch that just continued into the happy evening)

Let’s talk about how great the weather has been!  This is the weather that makes our northern visitors move here.  Or just stay all year round.

Fortunately that’s balanced with the heat and humidity and hurricanes of the summer.  I’m calling them the 3H. Which scares the rest of the visitors away. I’ll take the 3H over the snow that the northeast has experienced this year.  

Speaking of hurricanes.  We have sirens here in Citrus County.  They were originally put in to alert us about possible nuclear disasters.  Yes, here on the NATURE COAST we had a nuclear power plant.  But it’s being brought DOWN.  Oh, wait, the official term is decommissioned.  

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office sent out an announcement on Facebook that they are no longer using the sirens and are removing them.  What? I’m pretty sure those were also used when we had possible hurricanes.  (And there’s also a fire engine that goes around and announces really loud that YOU NEED TO EVACUATE)

and how will I know that it’s noon on Friday without our official alert announcement?

Heavy sigh. 

Crystal River Power Plant

Here’s some flowers and a bee….

Bush Daisy and a bee
Just a reminder that it’s the perfect time to stick some flowers in the ground.  I planted these a couple years ago.  Never liked bush daisies but I needed some color in a new piece of landscaping.  We were having a lot of guests (someone got married in our back yard). And these crazy daisies have been beautiful.  I had to cut them all the way to the ground last year when they were looking scraggly.  But they are back and beautiful.  

Thank you bush daisies.  You make it through 27 degree weather.  

Unlike my plumerias.  Almost all passed away after that one night of non-tropical weather. But I have one sturdy one that perservers.

Oh, I’m really meandering this week.

So let’s get to business.

What’s going on this weekend?

A lot.  

Brooksville is having their Blueberry Festival.  Inverness is having a taste of Inverness. Crystal River is having a beer and wine tasting hosted by Burke’s of Ireland.  

But all of those cost money.  

Our plans are to stop in Crystal River for Market Day with Arts and Treasures at Heritage Village.  We have a friend that’s performing at the gazebo. 

Free! 

I think Paula starts playing at 11 am.

And I can do some shopping on Citrus Avenue. And support our local merchants.  (Guess I gotta buy something to do that!)

Fun!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Kathy