Wyoming celebrates Earth Day and Arbor Day combined into one happy mish-mash of events. Yesterday my mother went to the celebration downtown and got an armful of free plants: mock orange, lilac, crab apple, and more. She also got a pocketful of Walla Walla onions for Jeff and I, as the trailer is on someone else's land and trees or shrubs are greedily claimed by the landlords.
My mother said it was heartening to see so many people at The Commons to claim free trees and shrubs; our friend Kate was there, walking out with a double armload of lilacs to make a windbreak on her property. She also observed many people asking about drought-friendly gardening. There were several free booklets about how to plant and water most effectively for Wyoming's harsh environment. With both desert drought and extreme winters, plants need to have roots of iron to thrive here.
With people becoming more enviornmentally conscious and the economy being what it is, many in town are cutting down on lawns and erecting drought or vegetable gardens instead. Rather amusing, as some of the hardcore Republicans, who were once against such conservation as a radical liberal idea, are merrily making gardens of their own.
I am at a loss for the Right's attitude against conservatism at times. Are not Republicans for conservative measures in all walks of life? I'm more surprised that they are not the original tree huggers, if they believe in saving money and resources.
(By the by, if anyone is curious, I consider myself a liberal Republican or a conservative Liberal. Riddle me that!)
Now we have a garden ready for chilis, pasta sauces, and baking. I cannot wait for the plants to become a little more strong and for the warmth of spring to return.
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Hee hee. I had to laugh. Hubby works with an ultra right-wing conservative (afraid of technology type and sends his troubled kids to Christian school where they promptly get into more trouble) and he told this man about how a family of ducks adopted our swimming pool and the man said, "I have a pellet gun if you want to pick them off." My husband blinked and stared at him like he was insane. "I don't want to kill them--jeez, you're all pro-life but fine with killing a duck family?" Yup. I never understand the mentality of right-wingers. I'm a total earth-friendly kind of gal and I'm proud of it. I recycle everything and shop my own home to redo and remake things and reuse things. I'm so proud of that. I even save seeds from the veggie garden for the next planting. If everyone did that, I can't even imagine what a utopia the world would be.
ReplyDeleteMy family is largely Republican, but the old-fashioned type, rather than these neo-Republicans who seem to want to blast endangered animals and combine the Church and State. Very conservative with resources, practice saving money and objects. Like you, they would often shop their homes to make things new again, buying from second-hand shops and garage sales or traded kid clothing. Most of them survived the Depression, so they knew the value or reuse! I kept that same classic Republican approach for money and environment, and added the more forward thinking of accepting good people for who they are. It's a lovely combination.
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