EARTH DAY IS MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY

Earth Day is my favorite holiday! Each year on this day, show your love for our beautiful planet and honor her with a tree, plant it in your yard or in a pot and one day when this planet needs it most you will have something wonderful to offer. 

Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22. Now in its 45th year, Earth Day is one of the largest observances in the world with 1 billion people participating in activities each year.
To reduce personal consumption is not always an easy task to tackle, but there are a few doable steps you can follow throughout the year to help protect our environment for future generations; you may also save money in the process.

Here are some easy steps to reduce consumption and make every day Earth Day: from the NAdvocate

1. With Spring in full swing, it is time for some Spring cleaning, sorting your cupboards will help you to focus on the things you really need. Donate items you no longer wear to the less privileged. Donations are a form of re-use which will cut your waste while helping people in need.

2. Window-shopping only tempts you to buy the things that you don’t need. Impulsive purchases are often left unused and eventually end up in the dustbin. Rather draw up a shopping list of the things you need beforehand. Try to purchase only what you need and use, this way you won't be adding unnecessary items to our already overburdened planet.

3. When cooking food, try to use the oldest ingredients first before their shelf lives expire. Prepare just enough food for the number of people that will be enjoying the meal. Cooking just enough food will cut your waste and even save electricity.

Make Earth Day a family affair, teach your children! Here are some fun recipes to get the kids in the spirit of the earth, fun and delicious for your celebration.

Talk about the importance of not littering and doing recycling while you make one of the following recipes with your kids this week. No-bake mud cookies can be cooked on the stove by a parent, and easily shaped by small hands. Dirt pudding cups, garnished with gummy worms and perhaps a fresh, edible flower from your yard, will be a great conversation starter.

No Bake Mud cookies

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoon cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1/2cup butter

1/2cup peanut butter

2 cups oatmeal

1 teaspoon. vanilla

Mix sugar and the cocoa together in saucepan. Stir in milk. Add butter and bring to a full boil, stirring frequently. Cook and stir constantly for two minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Scoop by tablespoon onto waxed paper and let cool.

Dirt Pudding Cups

2 cups of cold milk

1 small package chocolate instant pudding

8 oz. container whipped topping, thawed

1 pound package chocolate sandwich cookies

Gummy worms or other gummy creatures

Edible flowers, if desired

Beat pudding mix and milk with whisk in a mixing bowl. Let stand for five minutes. Stir in the whipped topping. Place cookies in a zippered plastic bag and crush with a mallet or hammer until crumbly. Add half the crushed cookies to the pudding and fold in gently. Put a tablespoon of crushed cookies in each of 6-8 clear pudding bowls or plastic cups. Fill cups three quarters full of pudding mix. Top each cup or bowl with remaining cookie crumbles. Garnish with gummy worms or other gummy “critters.” Chill an hour or more. If desired, a washed edible flower (such as a violet, dandelion, calendula, chive or nasturtium blossom) can be added as a garnish before serving.

Be someone important, become a Earth Day Warrior and protect and preserve the planet!

I am both honored and proud of the response on my Earth Day board on Pinterest ~ it gives me hope for the future of our planet Earth.

Check it out and be inspired! 

Earth Day on Pinterest

FOR THE LOVE OF TREES

Image by Layla Morgan Wilde

Enjoy your day!

ARBOR DAY...FOR THE LOVE OF TREES

Trees provide breathable air, timber, fuel, food, shelter, medicine and beauty. Without trees, we could not live. They can help us think better — Plato and Aristotle did their best thinking in the olive groves around Athens, Buddha found enlightenment beneath a Bo tree, and Isaac Newton realized his theory of gravity when an apple fell from the tree under which he was sitting — and they can help us feel better.

 Our pagan ancestors worshiped trees, but for many of us nature has been pushed out of our lives. ‘In the folk tradition of Europe trees were attributed magical healing powers,’ says Cassandra Eason, an expert on earth energies and author of ‘Encyclopaedia Of Magic & Ancient Wisdom’. ‘I’m a busy working mother and whenever I feel stressed, unwell or unloved, I sit against the trunk of a tree, making a connection with the ground and through the bark with the energy flowing upwards from the earth. I put my hands on the ground and press down with my feet, picturing negative feelings as dark light sinking into the earth.’

With Arbor Day here, lets all take a walk among the trees, feel the earth at our feet, feel the healing energy of a mighty tree and find our spirit once again.

For the love of trees ~ Holly

Our Beautiful City By The Lake...Lake Oswego

Our beautiful city by the lake....Lake Oswego, Oregon

City of Lake Oswego Names Newest Park – Sundeleaf Plaza On December 14, Lake Oswego City Council named the new park at 120 State Street “Sundeleaf Plaza.” The park naming process for the former US Bank property was kicked off by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) in October. They received 47 different ideas and, after reviewing citizen’s suggestions, recommended the park be named after Richard Sundeleaf to recognize his contribution to the City’s architectural heritage.Richard Sundeleaf (1900-1987) was a prominent, local architect who did more than any other architect to influence the “village” atmosphere in Lake Oswego. He designed many homes and commercial buildings in Lake Oswego, nine of which are listed on the City’s Landmark Designation List - including his home on Phantom Bluff and the bridge and boathouse to Jantzen Island. He also designed some of the City’s oldest commercial buildings which line State Street. These buildings include the Lakewood Center, Oswego Lake House restaurant, Lake Theatre, Murphy Real Estate building currently leased to Starbucks, and the buildings housing Wan Fu and, previously, Hollywood Video. His design incorporated the Arts and Crafts and Tudor style that created the English Village atmosphere, which is today replicated in several designs in the community including Lakeview Village and Millennium Plaza Park.Richard Sundeleaf graduated from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture in 1923. He was trained in the "Beaux Arts" style of design, and became well-known in the 1920s and 1930s for his imaginative work in industrial architecture. In the late 1940s, he was a leading local proponent of the "Streamline Moderne" style, in which the spirit of the machine age and the concepts of aerodynamics shaped the design of the building.