Did you know... "rest" is more than just sleeping or lying on the couch!

"Are you getting enough rest?"

"You need to rest more."

"Why don't you stop and rest?"

Have you heard any of those lines? Or said any of those lines? What does "rest" mean to you? If you're like me, "rest" means things like getting enough sleep (feeling well-rested), having a nap or stopping whatever it is I'm doing, getting off my feet and sitting on the couch Which usually then involves scrolling through my phone. At least I'm resting! Right?

Nope. Not entirely. You see... when we say "rest", we often mean physical rest. But how many of us, get our 7-9 hours of sleep every night and yet still wake up feeling exhausted. What gives? We're sleeping... shouldn't we feel rested?  Maybe we should sleep more? Like 10-12 hours? Nope... still not feeling well-rested. In fact, this tendency to equate sleep with rest can lead down a slippery slope to chronic fatigue and burnout.

As it turns out that there are seven (yup, 7!) different types of rest that we need. And Physical Rest is just one of those... Go figure... 

1. Physical Rest

There are two types of physical rest - active and passive. Passive rest is what we generally think of when we here the word "rest", things like sleeping, napping and getting off our feet. Active rest is things like yoga, stretching and massage. We are actually doing something, but it's something that rejuvenates our body, takes care of our body. 

2. Mental Rest

Have you ever lain in bed at night, desperately trying to fall asleep but with a gazillion thoughts scampering through your head? This is me... I have a heck of a time turning off my brain at night. I'm not getting a lot of mental rest. This might explain why I feel overwhelmed a lot during the day. I start to go faster and faster and my brain is whizzing around like a dervish. The trick here is to stop (just stop) and take breaks. And not smart phone breaks. Go for a little walk out in nature or putter around the garden for a bit. Because scrolling through the phone really doesn't give me a "mental" break... it just pokes the already spinning brain with more stuff. Another trick, for bedtime, is to keep a note pad on the nightstand and write down the ideas and thoughts that come and that I want to capture. I try to head this off at the pass by doing some journaling before bed, to do a brain dump and let go of all the stuff that is clogging my head.

3. Sensory Rest

 We live in a world with a LOT of sensory stimuli - televisions, computer screens, smart phones, tablets, dings and notifications, Zoom calls. All of it can lead to sensory overload. One way to deal with this is to close our eyes for a minute or so at various points during the day. Another way is to turn off all the screens a few hours before bedtime, to give your system time to decompress. This is one reason why a television in the bedroom is not the best option. Watching television in the evenings can leave us feeling exhausted and tired but it's not a type of tired that is going to be cured by sleep. What we really need is sensory rest. Interestingly, being out in nature, or in the garden, does not overload our senses but actually undoes the overload from all of our technological marvels.

4. Creative Rest

For people who produce creative work or need to solve problems and create new ideas (anything from writers to artists to computer designers to managers), we need to take time away from that and recharge our creative juices. Go to a museum or an art gallery, take a walk in a park, watch a sunset. Anything that is a source of inspiration. Personally, I like to have several books on the go at the same time and let those different ideas cross pollinate. This explains too, why we can get stuck, feel uninspired and unable to come up with bright ideas or solve problems. We need some creative rest. I already know this... when I get stuck with writing, what I really need to do is get out into nature or read a good book. I need to rest from the writing... but, man, do I ever resist that!

5. Emotional Rest 

"How are doing?" .... "Great! I'm just great!" Ever had one of those days? When you really feel like crap and yet... you put on a good front, maintain a stiff upper lift and keep your chin up. When really, inside... you're wanting to burst into tears or just scream with frustration. What we need then is emotional rest. A chance to be honest and authentic with our feelings. Maybe it's finding a friend with whom we can be honest, or perhaps we want to go and talk to a therapist. Emotional rest is also necessary for those of us who tend to say "yes" (to please someone else) when we really want to say "no". This is, honestly, a hard one for women, because we are so well-conditioned to take care of others at the expense of ourselves. No wonder we are so exhausted! We don't necessarily just need more sleep... we need emotional rest. One trick is this... when you get asked to do something, respond with "I need to think about it" or "I need to check my calendar" or "I need to check with my partner".

6. Social Rest

I kind of thought that this one would be right up an introvert's alley... taking a break from socializing! But it's more than that. It's surrounding yourself with positive and uplifting relationships and stepping away from the draining relationships. It's hard to listen to a Negative Nellie every day or to have that friend who talks your ear off but doesn't let you get in a word edgewise. Or who, when they ask you how you're doing, let you get out one sentence before they then hijack the conversation again and redirect it back to them. Yeah... we all have those people. Social rest means taking a break from those relationships that are not nurturing (for us)... and choosing relationships that refuel us.

7. Spiritual Rest

Spiritual rest is all about connecting to something bigger than yourself. This can take place through meditation, formal community spiritual gatherings or altruistic works, like volunteering in your community. It's a chance to connect with something in which we feel a deep sense of belonging, love, acceptance and purpose.

Sooo... what have we learned? Well... for one thing, rest is not about vegging out on the sofa, watching TV for 12 hours, or doing some mindless activity. And... rest doesn't just happen by itself. It requires us to get in tune with ourselves and figure out, where are my rest deficits? What would help me "rest" right now? It is a nap? A walk in the woods? Puttering around in the garden? Some meditation? In order to really replenish ourselves, we need to actually carve out some time in our day to schedule restorative activities... different forms of rest.

Sources

I first came across the concept of Seven Types of Rest from a CBC news article. Some more digging led me to a TED talk by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a physician. She has written a book about the topic called "Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity". The book was published in 2017 but I'm going to see if I can get it from the library. Nope, just checked and they don't have it. Going to have to order it... Done... bought the ebook via Kobo.

Dalton-Smith also has a RestQuiz on her site... and I decided to take the quiz. Here are my results...

My RestQuiz Scores

"Based on your input, the type of rest with the highest score is the one you should focus on. It is the primary type of rest you are missing in your life.

• 0-15: You are getting adequate rest in this area if you score
• 16-25: You are experiencing rest in this area but would thrive with more
• 26-35: You are feeling the effects of your lack of rest and need a change
• >35: Your life is negatively affected by your lack of rest in this area. "

My Category Scores

Sensory Rest Score: 37 - yup - need lots of this...
Emotional Rest Score: 36 - oops... need some of this
Mental Rest Score: 34 - yup, need some of this too...
Creative Rest Score: 34 - and this too
Physical Rest Score: 30 - need some good old fashioned rest - sleeping better would be great
Social Rest Score: 26 - need a change
Spiritual Rest Score: 17 - pretty good

Right then... I need emotional rest (expressing my emotions and saying "no"), sensory rest (less screen time), mental rest (taking a few breaks throughout the day and shutting off my brain at night) and creative rest (walking in nature). Those are all pretty much in a clump from 34-37. Surprisingly, spiritual rest was my best area! And this for a lapsed Catholic who doesn't go to any form of group spiritual event! I must be doing something right...

P.S. I bought the book and the first part, detailing the seven different types of rest is pretty good. The second half is heavy on the Christianity and not quite as useful.

Fighting the Sugar Demon

Coke

Sugar... such an innocuous word. But sooo dangerous.

I've known for a while that sugar is my kryptonite, my nemesis... the thing that is, for me, the hardest to kick to the curb. And whenever I think I've vanquished sugar, it simply shape shifts and morphs into some other form that sneaks in under the radar. Kind of like whack-a-mole.

For years, I drank quite a bit of Coke. I started in university (back in the 80s) and only really overcame that addiction on 7 July 2009, when I drank my last can. Twenty-five years of addiction done! Hooray!!!

Wait... not so fast. Because sugar wasn't done with me yet... my new friend was now Starbucks hot chocolate. I mean... if you're going to go to Starbucks and sit there and use their wifi for hours, you need to buy something, right? And for me, it was hot chocolate... 

Starbucks hot chocolate

That started in the fall of 2009 and continued until the spring of 2019 when I drank my last hot chocolate (from Starbucks or anywhere). Hooray!!

I've now been hot chocolate free for over 850 days. Not that anyone's counting... And the trick, for me, in ending my hot chocolate addiction was to make an agreement with my partner that... if I had a hot chocolate, I would have to pay a $10 penalty to her! Right then... done with hot chocolate!

Wait... not so fast. Last summer, with the pandemic raging and Starbucks closed to visitors... I developed the habit of going for a hike on Saturdays and Sundays (a good thing) and then grabbing a Starbucks Double Fudge Chocolate Brownie to go (warmed up too, please). I'd take it to the park, sit by the pond, and eat it off of my camping plate (and camping fork), which I carried around in my day pack for just such an occasion. It started out as one brownie per weekend and then morphed into two brownies per weekend. And over the winter... it continued... even though I was no longer hiking! My new sugar addiction was born.

Starbucks brownie

On top of that... as this long gloomy winter of pandemic restrictions dragged on, my partner and I went down Junk Food Alley and started consuming copious amounts of chips and chocolate... with the occasional bag of Cheezies thrown in. My weight began to rise and I knew it was not a good idea... but when sugar has its teeth and claws into you... it's a bit of a beast.

Enter my new diagnosis of hypothyroidism... due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis... which is an auto-immune condition that attacks the thyroid. Charming. The auto-immune bit is the tricky part... trying to get a handle on that. There are a whole host of things that contribute to it... let's start with alcohol, caffeine, sugar and gluten. Just to name the Big 4.

Sigh... that includes beer... coffee... (and hot chocolate)... all yummy sugary treats and... things like bread, pizza dough, and... da-da-daaaaa... brownies. Actually... chocolate brownies tick three of those boxes. All I'd need was to add some rum extract to the brownie and it would hit all four.

Starbucks Gold Card

Sooo... caffeine is easy... don't drink coffee. Not really a tea drinker either so... check that one off the list. Done!

Alcohol... I do like a beer on the weekends... but I stopped three weekends ago and haven't looked back. Done!

Sugar... bugger. It's one thing to know, intellectually that sugar causes inflammation in the body and is NOT good for Hashimoto's sufferers... but putting that into practice has been a bit of a problem.

Here's what I've come up with, my latest Go Big or Go Home strategy... I've removed the Starbucks app from my phone so I can't use it to pay for brownies. And... I've given my partner my Starbucks rewards card so I can't get any rewards (or use them) if I pass by a Starbucks. It's kind of a variation on the "put your credit card in ice if you're dealing with credit card debt". Cause the thing is... you get rewards for buying things at Starbucks and I'm such a cheapskate that I won't stop there if I can't use the app or my card. Sooo... we'll see how this goes. So far, so good... as of this writing, I am two days brownie free. Sigh... a long road ahead but I'm hoping that eliminating this form of sugar... and being wary of all other forms... will help me get a handle on this auto immune nightmare.

Wish me luck!

Breakthrough in Electric Vehicles

Right, so... we've had our Toyota 4-Runner for 25 years (anniversary date of 19 June). It's been a very good vehicle for a quarter of a century. It's been well-maintained and is only a 4 cylinder, so not ridiculous on gas. I had this idea that, after we reached 25 years, we'd maybe sell the thing and get a new/newer/less old vehicle. Good plan, no?

A few weeks ago, I had to take the 4-Runner into the shop because the "check engine" light had come on. After some diagnostics, the problem was identified as an oxygen sensor. I made an appointment to get that replaced and figured all would be good. Except... the mechanic who worked on replacing the O2 sensor also reported that the frame/undercarriage was being eaten by rust... to the point that it was getting holes in it. It was, theoretically, not really safe to drive anymore. His recommendation was that we retire the vehicle and definitely don't throw more money at it, trying to keep the thing alive.

Noooo... 

I have to admit, I shed a few tears over poor Clifford (The Big Red Truck). Other than my parents and sibling, he's been my longest relationship. Even longer than the previous cats (16 years). I bought Clifford new from Toyota and we've been through a lot together. Lots of adventures and misadventures... But now... the end is in sight.

Clifford's insurance is up for renewal on 22 August so that is now our firm deadline. We aren't going to be renewing the insurance after that. But what to do now? We can't sell the 4-Runner, obviously... but we could trade it in with BC's Scrap-It program... which will give you $6000 if you deliver your old vehicle to the Scrap-It junkyard and then buy a new e-vehicle, or $3000 if you buy a used e-vehicle or $1000 towards an e-bike.

I've been on a bit of a roller coaster trying to figure out what to get... new vehicle vs. used vehicle? Electric vehicle vs. hybrid vehicle vs. gas vehicle? Vehicle at all??? I had done a post a few months back about the possibility of going car-less... So many options and permutations. Part of the hesitation with an e-vehicle is... they are damn expensive ($45,000+) and the batteries only last 6-8 years, at which point you need to buy a new battery ($5000+). Plus... there are some concerns about how the batteries will be recycled/retired. Not the most eco-friendly options apparently.

Then, of course, there is the question of... does one get a charging station installed at home. Yes, you can plug an e-vehicle into a regular wall outlet, but then charging takes 10-12 hours. Even at a super-fast charging station (like the PetroCanada stations), a full charge can take upwards of 30 minutes. It's not quite the same as Gas 'n' Go... it's more like Charge Slow.

I'd also heard stories that anyone thinking of buying an e-vehicle should wait three years because battery technology was going to get waaaayyyyy better. Yeah, right. Except... it's true. And it's almost here... almost.

Batteries of the Future

Today's e-vehicle batteries are Lithium-ion. They are heavy. They are expensive. And they are slow to charge. On top of that, they have a short lifespan (6-8 years) and you can't go very far on a single charge (300-600 km). They are not ideal. For years, battery manufacturers have been chasing the holy grail of batteries... a solid-state Lithium-metal battery. Such a battery charges way faster, holds more energy in a comparable charge, has a longer range, is lighter and cheaper. But... they haven't been stable.

Recently however, the news (if you're a techie) has been touting a breakthrough. Researchers have finally found a way to make a solid state battery that is stable, can be charged upwards of 10,000 times (lifespan of 10-15 years - more in line with gas vehicles) and could fully charge in... 10-20 minutes! Sounds amazing!

Schematic of a conventional Li-ion battery with liquid electrolyte solution
and solid-state Lithium battery with a solid electrolyte
(From ResearchGate)

Now... there are still some logistical challenges... scaling this up to commercial production for one. But... researchers believe that these challenges can be overcome. Basically, we aren't going to be seeing any vehicles with solid-state batteries until the mid to late 2020s.

Sooo... I don't think we'll be buying an e-vehicle anytime soon. Maybe a hybrid. Maybe not. Maybe just a 10 year old gas vehicle that can tide us through until the new future of e-vehicles dawns in a few years.

In the meantime... I think of what these advances in solid-state batteries could mean for things like laptops and smartphones, all of which run on lithium-ion batteries. Maybe we'd get laptops that weigh a a fraction of what they do today. Exciting times!

When the Option of Eating a Healthy Diet becomes a Necessity

Thyroid - Mayo Clinic

Well, it's official. Getting old sucks! Sigh.

I went to get some routine lab work done in March and my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) levels were a bit high but my T3 and T4 levels were still good. Some follow-up tests revealed that my Thyroperoxidase Ab levels are elevated. All of that basically means that I am likely heading for hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) due to an auto-immune disorder called Hashimoto's Disease. 

Bugger.

This is not all that surprising. My mother has Grave's Disease (an auto immune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism - an overactive thyroid). I have two first cousins who have Hashimoto's Disease (both on my maternal side). My grandmother and one of her sisters also had thyroid issues. So, I've been getting my TSH levels checked regularly for several years and they've always been good. But no more.

Hypothyroidism symptoms can include: loss of appetite, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping, reduced motivation, mood swings, a short temper, depression and excessive stress. And yes, I'm ticking a bunch of those boxes already. I was putting it down to the pandemic but... perhaps there is more going on than just the pandemic blues and blahs.

My doctor wanted to put me on synthetic thyroid meds but I wanted to hold off and see a naturopath first. She's already got me eating two Brazil nuts a day (Selenium), making sure I get enough iodine (iodized table salt or seaweed nibbles), Omega 3 oils (algae oil) and a few other things. I'm sure that there's more that the naturopath is going to recommend, now that we've got the Thyroperoxidase Ab results...

In the meantime, I'm going to be picking the brains of my cousins as to what I can do to slow the progression. And... doing a tonne of research on the internet.

As it turns out, diet plays a huge role in controlling Hashimoto flare-ups. Things like gluten, sugar, dairy and processed/refined foods should be eliminated. That includes chocolate.

***crickets chirping***

Noooo... not chocolate! Yup, chocolate... sigh. I know that my cousins are on a pretty strict diet - no gluten and no dairy. But I missed the memo on sugar. And processed/refined foods.

Luckily, our mostly whole food, plant based diet aligns quite nicely with what dietitians recommend for Hashimoto sufferers... Still... some people go for a gluten free diet (no wheat, rye, barley). Others go for a grain free diet (no oats or buckwheat or amaranth or millet). Some go dairy free. Some go sugar free. Some go Paleo.

Others opt instead to focus on eating as healthy and nutrient dense of a diet as possible:

• leafy greens, such as kale and spinach
• fatty fish, including salmon
• a variety of coloured vegetables, such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, beets, and red, yellow, and orange peppers
• fruits, including berries, apples, and bananas
• healthful fats, including avocado and walnuts
• lean proteins, including tofu, eggs, nuts, beans, and fish
• fibrous foods, including beans and legumes
  

Healthy vegetables
(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)

We're holding to that pretty closely, except for the fish and eggs. We also eat a variety of whole grains sooo.. .time will tell if I get to keep those in my diet or not. Right now, I'm more concerned about the sugar. We've been on a bit of a junk food kick lately (chocolate and chips and cookies) which (a) has not done much for my waistline reduction project and (b) does not adhere to our "whole foods" plan. But maybe this thyroid stuff is just the sort of thing that will encourage me to kick refined sugars and processed foods to the curb for good.

Avoiding Toxic Store Receipts

You've likely heard about BPA - Bisphenol A. It's a type of plastic that has been (and sometimes is still being) used in canned food, baby bottles, plastic water bottles and store receipts (those thermal paper ones).

BPA is incredibly bad for humans and is a known endocrine disruptor. Research indicates that BPA is linked to an increased risk of breast and prostate cancers, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive and brain development abnormalities. New studies even suggest it may be connected to autism spectrum disorder.

Pretty much everyone agrees that BPA is Bad News!

So what can we do about it? One option is to only buy plastic consumer goods that are labelled BPA-Free... although that is no guarantee that the item is actually free of BPA. Another option is to use glass and metal containers instead of plastic containers... good-bye vintage Tupperware. And definitely never ever microwave food in plastic containers... ever. BPA leaches out of plastic even faster when it's heated up... one of the reasons why plastic water bottles should not be left in the sun.

These are all good options but... one scientist noted that the really bad culprit is... thermal paper receipts. Apparently, “there's more BPA in a single thermal paper receipt than the total amount that would leach out from a polycarbonate water bottle used for many years" (see 2014 Consumer Reports).

This is bad news for store cashiers but also anyone who needs to handle receipts for accounting purposes. And it's not just store receipts. Thermal paper receipts are used for:

• airline boarding passes
• airline luggage tags
• train tickets
  
• movie tickets
• sporting event tickets
• amusement park tickets
• prescription bottle labels
• packaged supermarket items such as deli meats and cheeses
• fax paper
• lottery tickets

Yikes! So what is the solution? Well... there are a few options:

1. Wear those blue nitrile gloves when handling receipts.
2. Decline paper receipts wherever you have the option of getting an emailed receipt.
3. Don't carry receipts loose in your wallet, where the BPA can rub off on other things. Store them in a plastic bag.
4. Wash your hands (with soap and water) as soon as possible after touching receipts.
5. Don't use alcohol-based sanitizers before or after handling receipts since that just increases the skin's ability to absorb BPA! Well... that's fun in the age of Covid when we are all using hand sanitizers like mad.
6. Don't handle thermal paper if you are pregnant... and keep it away from kids too. Prenatal and early life exposure to BPA poses the greatest potential health risks.
   

This sudden interest in BPA was triggered for me by a receipt that I received from a local grocery store.

The backside of the receipt is not typical of other receipts. See... it's made by EcoChit and states that the paper is (a) sustainably sourced, (b) 100% BPA and BPS free and (c) One tree planted for every case of paper used.

Loud kudos to Country Grocer for going this route! I had a look at a stack of other receipts on my desk...

• Lowes
• Superstore
• Mobil Gas Bar
• Shopper's Drug Mart
• Winners
• Home Depot
• various credit card machine receipts

Out of all of those, only Winners has a note on the back of their receipt saying it is BPA-Free. Home Depot has an FSC notice - that the paper is from responsible sources, but nothing about BPA.

There is a call to ban toxic thermal paper receipts in Canada, particularly from the UCFW union. I did find news that Loblaws (Superstore & Shopper's Drug Mart) plans to ban all Bisphenols (BPA, BPS and others) from their receipts by the end of 2021. So that is good news. But isn't it about time that this went Canada-wide...

Canada banned BPA from baby bottles in 2010, declaring it a toxic substance. But Canada did not ban it from all food and consumer products. Due to consumer concern, however, many companies did voluntarily remove BPA from their products. Home Depot receipts. for example, have been BPA free for over 10 years. So is all of this just a moot point?

Nope... you see, many companies just phased out BPA and used BPS or other Bisphenols instead. Sigh. All of which are just as toxic as BPA. Seriously...

So, I went and had a look at the EcoChit site which produces the Country Grocer receipts. Those receipts are completely phenol free but do use a chemical called Pergafast instead of the phenols... What is this stuff?

Well, Pergafast is also a chemical but... it would appear that it is much less easily absorbed into the skin than BPA and BPS... at least according to a 2015 study.

All of this does make me wonder why Canada doesn't just ban all phenol products... In the meantime, maybe it's time to praise the likes of Country Grocer and Loblaws and start poking at places like Home Depot...

The Misunderstood Rule of the Woods - Leave No Trace

Sooo... we had a gorgeous warm, sunny weekend a few weeks ago Folks were out in the woods and parks in full force.

Actually, I didn't see them there... I just came across their remains. Well, not "their" remains... but the stuff that they left behind.

There's a rocky bluff up by the local lake and it's a popular hangout  for the younger crowd in the warmer months, particularly on the weekends. Last summer, I made it a regular weekend stop because there always seemed to be remains...

On that sunny weekend, I decided to walk through the woods to the bluff on Sunday morning because it is a beautiful spot, overlooking the lake with the mountain in the background. I can get some gorgeous photographs there...

As I came to the top of the bluff, I had a sense of what I would find down by the shore. Off to the side of the trail, down the slope was a spilled bag of beer and cooler cans. I decided to pick them up on my way out...

And... sure enough... once I got closer to the water... scads of garbage - towels, chip bags, drink cups, pizza boxes and various miscellaneous crap. Clearly, the younger folk had a good time here Saturday evening. They just neglected to clean up after themselves.

There were a couple of early fishermen down by the water, and one of them called out that he had cleaned up a similar mess on Saturday morning. And yet, here was more. Sad. Disgusted.

I didn't have a large garbage bag in my pack, just a regular plastic bag. I debated my options. It was a good 15 minutes back to the truck... And there was a lot of stuff there...

In the end, I used one of the towels as a make-shift tote and gathered everything together. It was bulky, unwieldy and moderately heavy... damp towels aren't lightweight. But... I made it back to the trail head and shoved everything into the garbage can there.

I had several debates with myself during this process:

Tossing the Towels

Should I have taken the towels home, washed them and then donated them to the SPCA? That would seem to be the most eco-friendly thing to do and yet... we are living in the time of Covid and I didn't really want to bring this pile of damp towels back to our home. I took the route of least resistance and just dumped them... but I felt bad doing that.

Not My Monkeys, Not My Circus

Should I have just left the mess there for the "kids" to come back and clean up on their own? Am I just enabling this sort of mess-making by cleaning up after them? After all, it's not my mess... not my job to clean up after slovenly youth!

I decided "No"... if these kids were raised right by their parents... they'd already know that they should clean up after themselves. This isn't so much about the youth... it's about the parents...

Some people excuse this sort of behaviour by saying that it's hard to clean up after a party in the dark, particularly when the scoundrels are drunk as skunks. Perhaps... but the bigger question then is... if they are too drunk to clean up after themselves... who's driving everyone home? And who had the common sense to pack all the cans into a bag? Admittedly, a bag that got dropped down a slope and left for someone else to clean up...

Trash Begets Trash

But here's the thing... they've done studies on trash and litter. If it starts to accumulate somewhere... say along the side of the road or at a park, guess what? People apparently feel it's OK to toss their own litter and trash there. This is why graffiti gets painted over quickly... if it stays up, it tells other graffiti-ers that it's OK to add their own creations to that building or bridge. Cities have to stay on top of graffiti... and it's the same with trash. And there is no way cities can stay on top of the amount of trash that gets routinely tossed along roadways and trails... It's up to civic-minded citizens to step up... that's you and me folks...

If you go out into the woods or a city park or the beach... there are some rules of the trail that you might have heard of...

Pack it In, Pack It Out

There is a pretty well-known rule of the hiker crowd... if you pack it in, you pack it back out. This applies equally well to the folks walking in city parks and local woodlands. What it means is this...

If you bring a granola bar to eat on your walk... you pack out your granola bar wrapper. You don't just drop it on the trail. This is why seamstresses gave us pockets! 

If you bring your cup of Timmies along for the walk... you carry that cup the whole length of your walk. You don't just toss it in the woods. Drink cups are lined with a thin film of plastic and that stuff never ever decays. Trust me... I've seen the various stages of disintegration of a Timmies cup... the plastic liner is still lying in the woods months after you tossed your Timmies cup there. Or Starbucks cup... or McDonald's cup.

If you scoop your dog's poop while on the trail, good for you!!! Excellent... but that's only the first step. You have now committed to carrying that poop bag the entire way back to your vehicle... or the nearest garbage can, whichever comes first...  And no, a hollow stump is NOT a garbage can. I can't tell you how many poopy bags I've found in the woods, tossed off the trail by some half-assed "responsible" dog owner.

Leave No Trace

This is another well-known rule of the woods, particularly the back-packing crowd. It includes the "pack it in, pack it out" rule along with a few others. But here's the thing... it's not just about me or you leaving no trace... it's about taking it a step farther and leaving a negative trace.

Great that you tuck your granola bar wrapper into your backpack or pocket. But now... here's the question... what do you do when you see a granola bar wrapper on the trail? It's not your wrapper... not your monkeys... not your circus. What do you do?

Leave it for the owner to come back and clean up?? Come on... that ain't never gonna happen! Maybe they dropped it on purpose... maybe it fell out of their pocket by accident... Doesn't matter, they ain' coming back for it.

Leave it for the park patrol to clean up? There ain't no park patrol!

Actually there is... you are the park patrol. You saw the wrapper on the ground... now it's up to you to leave no trace. Just pretend it's your granola bar wrapper that fell out of your pocket accidentally on your last walk. Pick it up and put it in your pocket or pack or perhaps... the plastic bag that you could start carrying to collect trash along the trail...

Leave it Better than You Found It

Which leads me to the last rule of the trail... leave it better than you found it. Yes, you can be responsible for your own trash but... we are all citizens of a larger community, a larger world. We are all caretakers of the Earth... of our forests and trails and waterways. Someone said I could have just left the garbage for the "kids" to clean up. Maybe... but in that time, the wind might have blown some of it into the lake where it would drift around, perhaps harming fish or birds in the process. We all know that six-pack rings are NOT eco-friendly.

Sooo... even though these aren't my monkeys or my circus... I can see that I will need to be stocking my pockets and pack with plastic grocery bags. And if you see a person on the trail carrying a bag of garbage or cans... give them a smile and a thank you! And... consider carrying our own stash of bags...

Post-Script

Soooo... I did a pass through of the bluff on my Monday morning walk and found a good two dozen cans and bottles littering the rocks. Not much actual garbage though. I was prepared with a number of bags and came out of the woods with a half-bag of garbage and a bag and a half of cans...

Cooking with Kitchen Scraps

We hate to waste food and yet, somehow, it always seems to happen. This feels a bit like a repeat of last week's blog post and yet... it's not. You see, we have a compost bin and so, can convince ourselves that our food waste isn't the worst thing in the world... after all, the wilted celery will go into the compost bin and then fertilize our garden, right? And the dead cooked stuff will end up in the city recycle bin where it too will be turned into compost. Good, yes?

Well, yes and no... I can hear my mother now... and maybe your mother too... back when we were kids. "Some starving family in Africa would love to eat that...". And it's true... we toss away an enormous amount of food. Apparently the Canadian kitchen is on of the worst places for food waste.

 Which brings me to... IKEA. Strange leap, I know but... they just published (and it's available for FREE) The ScrapsBook - a cookbook for your kitchen scraps. Sayyyyyy whaaaat???

Yes... it's true... all of those things that we righteously toss into the compost bin could actually be used to cook something delicious... And not just soup broth... See the scraps below? Bruised apple cores and skins, carrot ends (including the green bits), old black beans, overripe beets and leftover ginger... all of that can be turned into...

 

This... a scrumptious veggie burger... out of kitchen scraps... crazy!

Apparently all of this is part of IKEA's wider pledge to become a circular, climate-positive business by 2030. Their head of marketing (Johanna Andren) said that "Seeing how much waste is created in one of the most important rooms in the home, we set out to inspire Canadians by giving food scraps another look and offering new, creative ways to reduce food waste at home”.

I've downloaded the pdf version of their cookbook and we might just have to try some of these - like maybe Corn Cob Soup... or Pesto made from kale stems... whoa... 

Some cool ideas and a great way to eek every bit of nourishment out of our produce (and there are meat recipes too) before it hits the compost or green bin...