Apparently, I am a Landlord

I have a new tenant. She is the nicest one I have had so far.

There is a bird's next in the shrub by the front corner of my house. It has been there for about 8 years. Each winter it degrades a bit, but then a new mommy bird spruces it up and sets up her spot to sit on her eggs for the spring. Usually it is a red-breasted robin.

I love that the nest is inhabited annually. The fact that we haven't completely pushed nature out by our noise and pollution encourages me.

When I have peeked in on the progress of the nest in previous Springs, the mommy robin has dive bombed me, squawking and flapping, thinking I am a threat to her babes. But not this year.

The mom in the nest this year—a beautiful mourning dove, I think—is so sweet and trusting it makes my heart ache. Look at her sweet face. I love the tiny rim of light blue that rings her eyes. I can't wait to meet her babes.

Beachcombing

Our 7th annual April beach day at Hammonasset was wonderful. Nearly 25 of us hung out, played and enjoyed the crisp ocean breezes all afternoon. I bribed the kids to leave the beach with a promise of a stop at DQ! I always look forward to combing the beach in search of nature's treasures. This year was no exception. However, my finds broke my heart.

After walking less than half a mile down the beach, our trash bag was more than half full. I wanted to shout, "Really? We're not beyond littering? People really still do that?!!!" But nobody would have heard me as the waves rolled on and on.

Once my emotionalism had passed, I started to itemize what was in the trash bag. In addition to a month-old half-rotten flip flop (and this is on a state beach that gets routinely groomed) and more cigarette butts than I could count, the predominant items found on the beach were pieces of Dunkin Donuts coffee cups. Soooooo depressing to me. As we head into Earth Day, consider bringing your re-usable coffee cup when you buy your coffee at your favorite local coffee house. And if you do purchase coffee in a disposable container, I implore you to recycle the cardboard wrappers and iced coffee cups (most are 1s).

Single Stream Recycling

I am having a deep and satisfying relationship with my new single stream recycling bin. A little odd perhaps, but totally true. I have spent the last two years developing systems for sorting different categories of recyclables and schlepping various items to myriad locations. Our previous garbage company (Nu Life) would only do curbside recycling for certain plastics (1s and 2s), metal cans, corrugated cardboard, and newspaper. Other junk mail had to be sorted separately and hand delivered to the recycling center. Hard plastics (3s-7s) don't have an in-town alternative. I would sort all my 5s on their own as I knew that Whole Foods, there's one near my office, had a free service for recycling 5s that returns the material into tooth brush handles.

Well, the super-dee-duper good news is that All Waste bought out our old company and they offer single stream recycling for everything. It has made my life so much better...I have less sorting to do and less is going in the trash can. My word of advice for today: it really matters who you hire to be your garbage company.

My Relationship with Water

Of late, this is what is taking up brain space. How much water is mine to use? Of my imagined allotment, what are my best uses for it? I will skip over the obvious uses like drinking water...having already given up bottled water years ago. In fact, if you purchase and drink bottled water, I encourage you to make the switch to your tap; it's better for the earth and it puts money back in your pocket!

Actually, my latest preoccupation is washing dishes. What is more ecological and economical, hand washing or a dishwasher? We own a new "Energy Saver" dishwasher that is supposedly more in line with the 21st-century's sustainability standards. Unfortunately, it doesn't do as good a job as my old dishwasher did, which means not filling it as full and we're running it more frequently. And don't even get me started on whether or not the environmentally-friendly dishwashing machine detergents actually work.

So we consider the hand washing option. The liquid dish soaps that meet the "green" standards seem to work pretty well, but leaving the tap running while you're washing or filling two dishpans also seems to use a lot of water.

Of course, it seems obvious that just using paper plates is an even worse option (though it sounds like heaven to this mom who has already loaded, unloaded and put away two loads from the dishwasher since 7 am this morning). And while my husband and two boys often insist they don't need plates—my proper New England upbringing just can't reconcile that approach.

So as of this post, I am thinking that hand washing dishes once you have enough dishes to make filling a dishpan worthwhile makes the most sense. But, what of my time and my sanity? Should that play a part in this equation?

These are the dilemmas that keep me up at night. Are they worth losing sleep over? Perhaps I should just pop an Ambien before heading to bed. What are your thoughts? I'd love to know.