Give My Regards To Rona

I was flipping through flyers (a favourite pastime of mine!) and I noticed the current one from Rona (for those of you elsewhere - this is a home improvement centre here in Canada) and they have a great flyer this time around. They are quite heavily promoting their ECO choices.

From power tool accessories, to push mowers, low VOC paints and natural choices for your home cleaning and lawn care, this flyer is filled with them. It's very nice to see. The best notice of all in the flyer was that as of July 1, 2009 Rona will no longer be selling synthetic pesticides for cosmetic use in all it's stores across Canada. After all - as I see it - a lawn is a green space to enjoy, not to cover in chemicals. Same goes for the flower beds.

Now speaking of gardening - I have to choose how to spend my $50 that I got as a gift. I'm torn between so many things and how to get the most bang for my buck! Right now I'm looking at a composter which I can buy from the city for $35 and maybe some little solar lights for the yard (the ones on a stake) that Home Depot has for 1.99. I could get a half dozen of those to mark the walkway in the front yard, which would be nice. And I might even be able to sneak in a packet of seeds for my veggie garden while I'm at it! I still haven't decided and if I can scrounge a composter from someone, I'll be able to stretch my gift even further for something else for my garden or home to help 'green' it. Yippee! (and as for gifts - I asked on my FullCircles group - formerly freecycle - to try to find a patio table and we've been gifted one that I will pick up this weekend. I just love sharing this way. If you aren't on a FullCircle or a Freecycle list - what are you waiting for? It's a great way to gift others and find things useful to yourself as well)

Earth Hour report

I am happy to say that even though we were away from home, we were still able to participate in Earth Hour this past Saturday. We were celebrating a special occasion and had dinner at the Cannery Sea Food Restaurant. They turned off all the lights they could and during that time we got to enjoy our dinner by candlelight. It did make menu reading interesting, but the staff had little flashlights to help out, lol.

We were in Vancouver, BC and from our table we could see (or should I say not see) the Lion's Gate Bridge as they turned off the lights there, too. It seems that Earth Hour is catching on. We didn't see a huge change in the light across the water in North Vancouver or downtown (we could see both from our table) but there was a difference. Maybe one day we'll see it all power down for a while.

Now something to consider - why not have your own Earth Hour every month - perhaps the last Saturday of each. It could be a romantic dinner, a fun time for the kids, a chance to sleep a little earlier (with a baby I really do have a one track mind)

In the summer you can sit outside and watch the sunset, use your solar lights or candles or just relax under the stars. In the winter, how about a fire to warm your toes, flashlight stories with the kids, or indoor 'camping' for them. The ways you can spend an hour without lights on are endless!