I did the Wednesday Question on our Facebook page and asked what people knew about Earth Day. Debby Ronan got the date right. Yesterday was the 51^st such celebration, instituted by President Richard Nixon in 1970. I don’t remember hearing much about it before the 80s. Does your community do anything to celebrate this day? Individual neighborhoods usually schedule one of their several clean-up times on this day. Picking up trash is a big deal.

My husband does a trash pick up in our neighborhood every week. Folks throw out their coke and beer cans and their McDonald’s bags with trash in them. I don’t understand that behavior. It seems to me, you could just stash it in your vehicle, and when you get home or to work or wherever you’re going, you could take it out of your car and dispense of it properly. Apparently there are lots of folks who don’t get that concept. My husband separates the recycle stuff from the straight trash and puts it in our bins. Of course, it would be better if we didn’t have trash to pick up in the first place.

Planting stuff is a good thing to do to honor the earth, too. A couple of folks responding to the Wednesday question said they were planting trees and rose bushes. All good. I’m kind of a tree person. I think it comes from spending my formative years in El Paso, Texas with a giant desert in my back yard. I can never have too many green trees. The really tall ones make me stand and stare in awe.

We like to share encouraging words here. I find nature, green trees, flowering plants, even a green pasture to be calming and inspiring at the same time. Fresh flowers whether in the yard, in pots or in cut on your dining room table can lift our moods. And animals can, too. On our lake, we are blessed to see a wide variety of critters.

In my last newsletter, I shared a link to the Farmer Almanac that has great ideas for celebrating Earth Day. Earth Day ideas for tomorrow, Lyrids peaking, aphids! (almanac.com)

If you didn’t do anything special for Earth Day yesterday, I hope this inspires you to look into things you can do over the coming year and look forward to making a statement last year. We’ve got to take care of this planet.

So did you do anything this year? What are your thoughts about this celebration? Does your child (grandchild) have a school garden? Do you live near trees or in a desert? Are you a mountain person or water person (this can be ocean, bay, or lake)? As always, I’d love to hear from you.

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