Category: Environment

Sugar Snow

Environment, Going Outside

There is beauty in a woods after a snow, when the branches are draped in white. The snow absorbs sound most effectively, so that the soft crush of snowshoes disappears as if into a void. The smallest audio gestures are lost immediately and the louder have no echo. I keep the dog close knowing she will not hear me should she stray too far.

It is said the Inuit have many words for snow, each one differentiating frozen particles of bi-hydrogen oxide based upon its type and quality. In Vermont we simply add adjectives to snow – wet, dry, fluffy, etc. Sugar snow stands alone as a distinct phenomenon. It takes its name because it typically occurs during sugaring season – the cold nights and warm days that makes the maple sap run in the spring.

Sugar snow comes down thick and fast, when the temperature is near freezing, hauling down in large flakes that saturate the air. It is high in moisture, so that it sticks to everything it lands upon. The result is a winter wonderland with everything covered in in a white mantle.

Last night came a sugar snow and the morning walk up the hill was through a quiet beauty. A light breeze came up, causing occasional clumps to fall through the branches creating small cascades. Sugar snow breathes the beauty of winter and the promise of spring in the same breath. It deserves to have its own name.

Little Bits of Plastic

Environment, Home Ownership

Contemplating the abusive use of single use plastic, Gizzo says it must end. Gizzo supports legislation limiting its use. Gizzo is disgusted so many people thoughtlessly use and dispose of plastic. It is everywhere.

Seriously, plastic is made from petroleum, one of the major causes of war. People suffer and die so we may wrap our food in plastic. Money is diverted from use for the common good in order to keep the world safe for oil.

Plastic is a huge environmental catastrophe – harvestng the oil, transporting it, and then turning it to plastic for what – a convenient shopping experience? Plastic clogs our oceans, fills our landfills,and is breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces entering, the food chain. We must stop this madness.

At home we reduce its use as much as possible. Just don’t use it, don’t take it, don’t buy it. We reuse the vegetable bags at the grocery until they are contaminated or wearing out, then they see final service as a “doggy bag” when the canine does her duty. Our garbage bags are the plastic bags that food comes packaged in. Recycle? Reuse? Hell, yes.

Gizzo has long been bothered by the little bits of plastic, the stuff under two inches in any two dimensions, which cannot be recycled. What to do with that?

My solution is to use a milk carton or some other useless container as a collection point for the little bits of plastic otherwise headed for the trash. Once the carton is filled, I’ll seal it up and trash it, sequestering the small bits so they cannot roam free in the environment. (Full disclosure: In Vermont we can avoid milk cartons by buying milk in returnable bottles, but sometimes revert to the carton out of expediency. No one is perfect)

It is a small thing, but if we all do the small things it will help – and we need all the help we can get. Gizzo does not care that masses of people are stupidly unconcerned about single-use plastic. Gizzo does not care that huge corporations like Amazon waste it shipping things in too-big boxes.

Gizzo does what Gizzo thinks is right.