Like I said, the day wasn't all about the cherry blossoms. I crossed off another item on my bucket list... By far the best picnic I have ever been on! We brought some french bread, salami, capocolla, goat cheese, fontina, grapes and strawberries. We felt very "european" with our rustic baguette sandwiches, (minus the pepsi). Just prepping for Barcelona in July! :o) After the sandwiches, we just laid on the blanket under the cherry blossoms digesting the delicious meal. It was so much fun and something that I will remember for a long time. I enjoyed the picnic so much, I want to keep it on my list and do more!! Let's see how many I can have this year!
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Its getting to be that time again. A new month is upon us, and I have to check off a few of the monthly things I am suppose to do. There are a few that I am failing miserably at (aka Volunteering Once a Month) and I think it is because I don't start thinking about doing these things until it is too late! So, new goal, plan ahead for the next month the month before. "Spend a Day in Nature" isn't doing as bad as some of the other goals, but I am counting something I did this past weekend (April 3rd) as my day for March. I promise, I will do another day this month for April. So that being said, my day in nature for March was...... The Cherry Blossom Festival in DC! The day started off a bit chilly, but the sun was out and it warmed up as the afternoon went on. We (Jake and I) walked along the tidal basin where the majority of the trees are planted. They were a gift from Japan in 1912. Fun fact about the trees, the first batch that was sent over was actually infested with many foreign insects and had to be burned. Not wanting to hurt the Japanese, the US told them there had been an accident and the trees had been lost. A new batch was sent over that were planted around the basin by First Lady Helen Taft. There were a ton of people down there too. The past few days have been iffy weather-wise, so the sun brought everyone out to see the blossoms! Lots of kids being dressed up in various outfits and being forced to climb into the blossom trees for that perfect shot...man do I remember those days. Kites were flying, food was cooking and people were smiling and laughing. It was actually kind of nice. It was great to see so many people out and about enjoying the outdoors and each other. The day was really amazing... but it wasn't all about the cherry trees....
So I have totally failed at this item on my bucket list.... I have no excuse. With that in mind, April is being dedicated to 4 volunteer projects! YAY!!! One for each month I have missed! And it started this weekend with Project Stream Clean. Basically, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay puts on an event every year with numerous clean up sites along Chesapeake Bay tributaries. So at 9 am I went out and joined a crew working in a stream along one of our highways. I wasn't sure what to expect, maybe a few bottles and plastic bags here and there, but I know I wasn't expecting this: Holy tires. There was easily over 200 tires in that stream bed. Along with a large assortment of other trash: *Kristin steps on soap box* When I saw the amount of garbage that was in the stream, I was literally in shock. I stood there for a good minute just looking at the destruction and almost felt ashamed. Even though I had nothing to do with what had occurred in this spot, I felt ashamed that I was part of the species that made this happen. That might sound a little extreme, but I can't explain it any other way. I didn't want to be associated with the group that had caused this... at all. The second thought in my head was, "How could people do this?" Who thought that this was Ok? Obviously they knew it wasn't Ok, but where was their sense of responsibility? Stewardship? Much of what we had found had been there for a long time, but there was trash that was pretty recent too. Like the license plate from 2002. After helping to dig through the heap of tires, I helped pick up bottles and cans that could be recycled. Once we started doing that, we realized we were going to need a bag for trash as well. We found ice skates, Christmas tree stands, christmas lights, mugs, hats, gloves, lamps, dolls, fertilizer can sprayers, tarp, CD's, tapes... the list goes on and on. There were even bags filled with cans for that were meant for recycling. It was never ending too. Layer after layer of trash. A few times I stood up and just wanted to throw in the towel because the trash just seemed to reappear. I felt like an archeologist, digging up the remnants of a person's past, which was actually kind of neat. Until I thought about how archeologists uncover artifacts from civilizations of the past, that died off. If we keep doing this to the environment, we won't be here either. I doubt everyone will read this blog and suddenly feel compelled to do anything to change what is in these pictures, I am not that optimistic. But I do have hope that maybe a few might suddenly get the urge to go out and do an event like this. I didn't know anyone I was working with, but I made new friends. I got in a great workout with squatting down, and pulling and carrying heavy objects. I got a free lunch from Whole Foods. I did something positive for the environment. If you do feel compelled to do something, Earth Day is coming up. Google your local watershed organization and you will find a list of events you can attend. Or visit Earthday.org for projects in your area. *Kristin steps off soap box*
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