Get out there and breathe

For Christmas, I got a Nikon camera and have finally worked up the courage to start learning how to use the camera. Today’s camera adventure was to my local conservatory. …

Book Review: The Coming Plague

Book Review: The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett.   While I’ve been reassessing my approach to this blog and making a list of topics or ideas I wish to address …

Remember “Silent Spring”

Environmental Issues back to the beginning…. Climate change and environmental issues have been grabbing a lot of headlines of late and rightfully. I think much like vaccines, we have forgotten …

A woman of science

It’s safe to say that the first year of my foray into blogging fell rather flat. I think a lot of that stems from me wanting to always have a …

Veggie Idea

I love this idea! Veggie Scraps! Really need to get the boyfriend to put up my kitchen shelves. My mint, lemon balm, and rosemary that I brought in after the summer …

Apples Galore

So early this spring my uncle happened to find a bunch of apple trees on his property. Which we quickly dubbed them the “mini” orchard. Well, we have patiently waited …

Gardening

Well, this is embarrassing! I had huge plans of posting weekly and life definitely got in the way of that! I suppose better late than not at all.

Part of my delay in posting has been the boyfriend and I are moving into one of the properties he owns while we ponder the future once I am done school this fall. We knew since March/April that we would be moving over the summer and my ability to plant a full garden would be non-existent 😦

So I decided to try some Pinterest suggests and dig into a gardening book I picked up at a used book sale and do everything in mobile pots. The process began with me scouring all the second-hand stores around town looking for large outdoor pots for my project. After many trips, I managed to track down about 10 pots to begin my process. By this time I learned that none of my seedlings took as someone forgot to look in on them while I way for a couple weeks. So I ended up purchasing all my plants this year from a local greenhouse. This trip ended up okay as I spoiled myself and picked up some lilies and a lavender.

 

Well, my little planter garden has been a success! My strawberries are on their second round of fruit bearing, the tomatoes and peppers are full of little baby veggies and my onions are huge this year! I have more basil and lemon balm then I can handle and my mint has taken over the front porch stairs. It’s looking to be a great haul for us. I am thinking I will do a combination of planted and pots next year. I quite like how I have been able to place them around our porch giving it a lovely look and feel to our home.

Phthalates

Most people have heard about phthalates and that they should be avoided but do not actually know what they are. Phthalates are plasticizers used to increase the flexibility of plastic …

Being Informed

I am a rather prolific reader and love having a good book on hand at all times. So much that my bookshelves are all currently well over carrying capacity (or K for all ecology nerds out there hehe). I’ll be moving in a few months and my boyfriend has already told me I am on  my own with all those books and shakes his head after each return from a used book sale. Just can’t help myself, but after all these years in University hauling books around the key is an army of rolling suitcases to make the book moving flow. Anyway, the point of me bringing up books was that I splurged and picked up a new one the other day, The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us by Diane Ackerman. Which got me thinking I have a list of great environmental books that inspired me and I want to share them. so here comes the list!

• Fire in the Turtle House by Osha Gray Davidson, recommended by a Geology professor during my 2nd yr undergrad and this is when I never looked back hehe. I switched from pre-vet to environmental with this book.
• Enchanted Braid by Osha Gray Davidson, possibly one of my ALL TIME FAVS!
• Tuna: A Love Story by Richard Ellis
• Bottomfeeder: Taras Grescoe
• Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn
• David Quammen- Monster of God, Spillover, The Song of the Dodo, Wild Thoughts from Wild Place, Natural Acts, The flight of the Iguana
• Where the Wild Things Were by William Stolzenburg
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson this book is what got me interested in toxicology
• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel
• The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky
• The Future of Life by E.O Wilson
• Four Fish by Paul Greenberg
• The Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock
• The Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey……I have a deep love and respect for sharks.
• The Coming Plaque by Laurie Garrett..This book is massive and rather technical in parts also a bit dated but a fantastic read when it comes to human health and how our current agencies came to be and how even then the US government was denying and hiding evidence that was clear as day.

Also, a great documentary easily viewed on Netflix is Mission Blue. I absolutely have the greatest and utmost respect Dr. Sylvia Earle and all of her work. Others would be Resistance and Plastic: A toxic love story and really anything Planet Earth or Life (David Attenborough is another favourite of mine). Recently Racing Extinction was also fantastic, I really liked how they showed the uncomfortable images people really need to see to know us scientists aren’t just running our mouths for fun. There are very serious concerns that we need to address and now.

Well, that’s my short list of favs hehe. Feel free to pass along any of your favourites or comments!

 

Soap Making

So my comprehensive exam is finally done, well at least the written part of it. So now that every moment isn’t spent prepping for the exam, my weekends are free …