A change in the weather

Interurban trail and walkers

Last night, I woke to the sound of rain gently falling outside my window. It's been a long, long time since we've had any, and although you know I'll be complaining about it before the winter is over, for now it was more than welcome. I was even willing to walk in the rain with the ladies, if that was to be.

But no, the rain stopped early and is expected to start up again in the afternoon, but right now it's just overcast and very enjoyable, perfect for our hard walk up Taylor Street and down the stairs. We then walked on some new (to me) trails south of our usual return trip, with our leader Cindy trying to find some new places for us to enjoy. By the time I took the above picture, we were back in our normal walking areas.

Canadian house's new home

Cindy pointed out to us this rather unremarkable house, but it has a good backstory. It was relocated here in Bellingham after having been uprooted from its previous home in Vancouver, BC, in order to keep it from being destroyed in its old neighborhood. It was shipped by barge and painstakingly transferred here by Nickel Bros. Company. After everything is hooked up and made ready for occupancy, it cannot be a cheap alternative, but rather than having to tear down a home and then build anew, you too can have a recycled home.
:-)

Front porch flower garden

Some of my front porch flowers

I've gotten a pretty good start on my front porch flowers, although I've got quite a bit of work to do. My pretty tulips in the foreground are just about done, and I enjoyed them tremendously for a couple of weeks, but now the pot will go to other flowers.

I also purchased some new outdoor carpets for the front porch, which are supposed to be easily cleaned (very cheap at Costco), so I threw out the old ones that were stained from years of damp conditions during the winter months. These should do better, at least I hope so. They are made of recycled plastic bottles, which makes me very happy.

These days I'm making some efforts to reduce my plastic usage, and I bought some really cool Bee's Wrap alternative packaging instead of sandwich bags. Recently I learned that we in the US use over 2 million plastic sandwich bags each day, mostly for a single use. Here's some information on this product:

SUSTAINABLE, NATURAL ALTERNATIVE to plastic wrap. Wrap up cheese, fruit, vegetables, and bread. Cover a bowl, or pack a snack for your next adventure. Use as a place mat, or bundle up hiking and backpacking tools, utensils, and toiletries for zero waste camping. Also makes a great earth friendly kitchen gift!

I've used the smaller of these wraps to carry my nut snacks on a couple of hikes, and it's easy to use: the warmth of my hands makes it stick to itself, and when I put it back into my pocket, it stays nice and snug. I clean it off and hang it to dry after use. If you have some tricks to reduce your plastic usage, I'd love to hear about it.

:-)