A great example of when the right answer isn’t. Also, it’s funny. :)

Really. I swear. Under all of this salty snow, a whole world of green is waiting to burst into life. The first sign of the impending thaw is Seedy Saturday - happening this weekend.

Before you head over to the Shameless party in the afternoon, pop in to Seedy Saturday to trade your seeds with other gardeners, discover amazing food, get information about green gardening and so much more!

Best. Saturday. Ever.
(more inside…)

About Goods 4 Girls:

“You may have seen the commercials… the ones describing how girls in South Africa miss school when they have their period and how buying Tampax tampons will help them. There’s also a commercial for Always pads, with a similar message.
…
But what are the potential problems with donating disposable feminine hygiene products?
…
What would be a good alternative to help out these girls but without the environmental impact?
…
I started Goods 4 Girls to provide the link for women wanting to donate hand-sewn menstrual pads to agencies who could provide the means to identify areas of need as well as provide the distribution to the women and girls needing the pads.”

There’s a link to this initiative over at Green as a Thistle, and it was also mentioned in the comments on Stacey May’s article on the Always Africa Campaign. But if Always can buy time on tv, the least I can do is give this excellent alternative its own post.

Why is Goods 4 Girls using pads and not cups? What about the water requirements? What organizations are they donating to? Answers all here.

Everything in order? Donate one of three ways: 1) Send cash; 2) Make and send pads; 3) Buy pads for donation online.

That’s what I’m going to do… riiiiight… now.

I’d wager my winnings from Hot Flash that we’ll all agree this video is creepy. Yes, it has the dreaded “breast-bared-but-nipple-censored” thing going on, but exactly how and why it’s so disturbing may be up for debate.

From Treehugger:

“This send-up of the new greenwashing trend in advertising will give you a good belly-laugh, if you don’t pause to consider the tragic fact that even human milk is not free from chemical contamination.”

First I thought it was clever. Then it offended me. Now I’m just confused. What do you think?

Adria Vasil’s always eco-practical column over at NOW magazine really spoke to me today. As I sit here in my two pairs of socks, two hoodies, long-johns and sweatpants — beside my completely cranked baseboard heater.

Most Toronto rentals I’ve been in have baseboard heaters. So, on this chilly snowy day, here are Adria’s tips on how to get your baseboard heaters to work with you, not against you (and your wallet).

Q My apartment has baseboard heaters that don’t warm things up no matter how high I crank them. What should I do?

A Like rain on your wedding day, Alanis Morissette should be crooning about the ironies of electric baseboard heaters. Namely, that they’re so damn cheap to install but so bloody pricey to run
(not to mention useless).

Their rock-bottom price tag makes them extra-appealing to landlords, especially those who make you pay for your own heating bills. But what ends up happening in most homes with baseboard heaters is just what you’re suffering through: you can crank the bleep out those babies and still shiver till you’re blue in the face.

Adria’s solutions…

If you read this website at all regularly, you’ve probably heard me moan about how marginalised groups fighting for their rights rarely seem to recognise their commonality. Whether it’s feminists having trouble reconciling with anti-racists, or green anarchists distancing themselves from anti-ableism activists, the whole thing gives me the weepies. Wouldn’t things go much faster if we all recognised how ultimately linked all of our causes - like feminism, queer rights, indigenous rights, racial equity, anti-poverty efforts, ability activism - are linked, and then work together? Instead, what seems to happen more often than not is a competition to see who has it worse. I tell you, it’s enough to tire a girl out.

One thing in particular that’s always stuck in my craw is the green movement’s tendency towards racism (or at least racial obliviousness) and classism. While feminism and environmentalism have managed to make the happy marriage of ecofeminism, anti-racism movements and environmental movements haven’t always gotten along.

That’s why I was thrilled to find out about Black.Brown.Green., “a web portal of resources and information that integrate people of color and our needs and issues with the movement for environmental sustainability.” As they say most eloquently:

We hope to spread the understanding that all things are connected and that we are stronger when working together than we are when we are tearing each other apart.

I love this site. Where else would you find the 12 Principles of Permaculture integrated with Malcolm X? Excellent! Incidentally Black.Brown.Green was started by damali ayo, who also created the hilarious (and useful) I Can Fix It! guides for ending racism.

What do I mean when I say that the environmental movement can be racist or classist? (more inside…)

Tomorrow, Friday November 23rd, is Buy Nothing Day in North America.

What that is: “Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. In 2007, Buy Nothing Day falls on November 23rd in North America and November 24th internationally. It was founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by the Canadian Adbusters magazine.”

Adbusters themselves explained the motivation for Buy Nothing Day concisely in last year’s bulletin: “Recycling, protecting our waterways, driving hybrid cars — all the old environmental imperatives — are great, but it’s becoming obvious that they don’t address the core problem: we have to change our lifestyles, we have to change our culture, and we have to consume smarter and consume less.”

I appreciate the inclusion of the idea that we need to “consume smarter”.
Having observed this day for a few years, I know all about the challenges you get from friends, coworkers and family. From “how am I supposed to get to work if I can’t buy tokens?” to “how are we supposed to eat if we can’t buy groceries for dinner?”. Which, hand to the Sky Bully, are the sort of questions I have been asked. Questions which miss the point. The point of Buy Nothing Day is to, for one 24-hour span a year, make conscious an activity which has become at once unconscious and an end in itself.

(more inside…)

As a proud Canadian, I loves me some snow. Loves it, loves it, loves it. When I wake up in the morning, look out the window and see white rooftops, I squeal with delight. Seriously, squeal. Which can be hard on a sleeping partner (who fortunately finds it “charming”).

And Toronto didn’t mess around this year, our first snowfall is big and fluffy and pretty and yay!

I say boo to the forecasters who get all “it’s another beautiful day” when it is unseasonably warm in Nov/Dec/Jan. Usually accompanied by a not-so-innovative quip about shoveling. It is not a good thing when it’s hot in November.

We’re given many opportunities to ignore the seasons. We can get strawberries and goat’s cheese in the dead of winter. Everything is available all the time, for a price.

So how about a little bit of living in the moment. Instead of moaning about how it’s too wet, too cold, too slushy, we pull up our woolly northern socks and get on with enjoying our four uniquely fantastic seasons.

To facilitate that enjoyment, I’m sharing with y’all my family tradition: Snow Cake. “Snow Cake” is a white cake with white icing that can only be made once a year, because it can only be made on the first day of real snowfall. If you see a few rogue flurries that’s great, but it only means that Snow Cake day is on its way — it’s not time to break out the spatulas just yet. The rule is this: a true Snow Cake can only be made when there is a solid (if skimpy) layer of snow which stays on the ground for at least half a day.

But it’s worth the wait. What makes a Snow Cake what it is the anticipation and the event-ness around making it. How it is linked to the weather and the season. And, of course, the jaunty snowperson you put on top — meticulously applied with chocolate chips in the company of friends, family, pets… and then shared with the same (with the possible exception of pets).

There’s no one special recipe, any basic white cake and icing recipes will do, but if you don’t have any, you can use mine.

(more inside…)

I got my period this morning, and I’m - pardon the pun - over the moon.

Not because I thought I was pregnant (although I am indeed glad not to be pregnant right now). No, my menstrual joy derives from two sources.

One: I’m not on the birth control pill right now. I was on the pill until this past winter, and since coming off it, have had very irregular and sparse periods, which is - although not unusual - a bummer. It’s not nice to feel like your body isn’t working properly, and particularly not nice to feel that an artificial pill you took messed you up good and proper. But I was greeted by a throbbing uterus this morning, and damn, it’s nice to feel my body working like it should. I didn’t realize how much I liked ovulating until I stopped. Now that things are up and running as normal, I can’t help but feel like there’s something pretty magical about my cyclical peaks of progesterone and estrogen - it’s like there’s a little alchemical lab right in my tummy.

And,

Two: Eco-friendly menstrual products. My eagerly anticipated package arrived in the mail last week, with a collection of re-usable cotton panty liners (in a variety of shapes and colours), reusable panties - which have the cotton padding sewn right in, and - that most awesome of menstrual products - a reusable cup.

(more inside…)