Monthly Archives: April 2015

Boys of Spring

Osprey in the OutfieldThis Winter was a bit much even for the seasoned New Englander. It wasn’t just the record snow. We’ve seen a lot of snow before. It was the snow never went away, not even a little bit. It was too damn cold. The temperature refused to rise above 32 degrees for any sustained amount of time. So the next storm just piled on top of last like a Dagwood sandwich of snow.

Winter 2015 sailed right past it’s March 21st expiration date while a blanket of white continued to cover my yard.

At this point of despair I started to look to signs of Spring beyond the view of my lawn.

The two most sure signs that Spring has returned to Cape Cod are nesting Osprey and youth baseball.

Baseball came first with an email with the subject header, “Pirates”. Right away you know that’s going to be a good email. It was from my son’s coach alerting us to his first (indoor since the ball field was also blanketed with snow) practice.

The next was a Facebook post a couple weeks later from Cape Cod Museum of Natural History letting us know that the Osprey were back.

These two events made me very happy. They gave me hope.

And then this week I had the real proof of Spring. I was at my son’s baseball game on a sunny enough day that I wasn’t wearing my knit hat or quilted jacket. I was already satisfied with this beautiful day. Over head I heard and then saw a beautiful pair of Osprey flying over the boy’s ball game.

Spring had sprung.

 

Head Cook and Bottle Washer

I made this poster for my sister-in-law, Bricken. For part of her master’s degree program she is doing a project called, “The Great Tap Water Challenge”.

The idea is quite simple, stop using plastic, disposable bottles or cups to hold your beverages.

reusable poster

My family has a case of bottled water that sits on our back porch that can be grabbed on the way out the door for sports, road trips and dance class. It is very convenient when we don’t have time to find, clean or fill the reusable water bottles.

This winter, when Bricken told me about the Great Tap Water Challenge, that case of water was frozen solid with a couple of inches of snow on it. This was perfect timing for our family to make the switch. We decided to leave the frozen bottles alone and make a new habit to switch to reusable.

What seemed like a big inconvenience has been no big deal at all. We all have easy to wash and handle containers that suit our styles and activities. My husband has a large stainless steel one that is perfect for a construction job site. Mine is made of glass since I use it mostly in the art studio or car. My daughter has a fashionable, lightweight bottle which fits nicely into her dance bag. My son has a sturdy one with a handle that matches his bat bag.

And if we do forget our bottle we look for a bubbler (drinking fountain) or a vendor that will give us a paper cup of tap water. So far, no one has gone thirsty.

If you want to join in, you can go to the Facebook event page.

https://www.facebook.com/events/779844532109918/

…or you can just do it on your own. Do it for a month. See how it goes.

And if you don’t think you can give up your bottled water, please recycle.

seagull