Containing, as it does, both Earth & Arbor days, April is the month when we look to the soil and the earth for inspiration. Earlier this month, I created a new Urb Garden, which is so far doing quite well. My cucumbers are happily strangling my tomatoes and the strawberries & mint are locked in a death-match-for-world-domination. All is right with the universe.

Earth Day

Today is earth day. A good day to take stock of where you are in the arena of recycling, biking, growing-your-own-stuff, and so forth. I like to take extra time to do yoga (I try to do it every day, ’cause it’s better than caffeine in the morning) and include a prithivi namaskar (earth salutation…I just like saying “namaskar”), although the closest I’ve gotten is this awesomely illustrated Earth & Sun Salute Variation. The pose on either side of the bottom pose is child’s pose. As I like including a mantra with my yoga, my earth salutation mantra is “We dance joyfully upon your face, we are your children.” Which I always think puts me in the right mood bike to work, snip fresh herbs for an omelet, and just generally go about my day.

My earth day resolutions include figuring out what kind of bug has infested the strawberries (more to get it out of my kitchen than to save the berries), to eat vegetarian more often, and to bike to work for one full week (hopefully this will extend, but the flesh, as they say, is weak). Also to do my yoga more consistently.

Lets take these one at a time:

I’m so happy to have my Urb Garden back, although it currently contains few herbs. Just checking on it and watering it daily relaxes me and makes me feel like I’m doing something. I’ve got a strawberry, a mint, a chive, a rosemary, a cucumber, a tomato, and a hot pepper. Except for the herbs, which don’t need to flower to produce fruit, none of these have proved especially *ahem* fruitful. But recently, itty bitty bugs have been noted hiding under the broad leaves of the strawberry plant. They flit, flea like, around when I water and I don’t really want them migrating across the kitchen to fruit or anywhere else in the house, really.

As usual, I think I should eat less meat. And I feel healthier when I keep it to a once a week thing. I’m all for dairy and for eggs, so it’s really just a chicken-fish-and-beef thing (lamb, pork, and what-have-you are of course included). I’ve even got vegetarian cookbooks that leave me absolutely no excuse not to eat more healthily.

Gas has officially hit $4/G here in the “great” state of California and this galls me. That said, I think we need to strongly increase taxes on gas so that the incentive to compensate for self-perceived physical inadequacies buy Hummers is lessened. Last week I resolved, after filling my tank, to bike to work! Every day! And I did so once. In observation of Earth Day, however, I shall renew my efforts & see if I can convince my husband to keep me on track with it.

The yoga goes hand-in-hand with the biking: it’s a great way to warm up my muscles to trek off to work. And since it makes me feel more grounded, it’s a great way to celebrate Earth Day, me thinks

Arbor Day
I got confused about when Arbor Day was and wrote some of this post on Kentucky’s Arbor day…apparently, most states have a different arbor day, a day when they celebrate their particular arbor of choice (in Kentucky’s case, the Tulip Poplar). So, although National Arbor Day is not until the 25th, I’m combining posts here. Since my Earth Day post is so late, the earliness of the Arbor Day post will hopefully even things out.

I’ve been looking for a Vriksha Namaskar (tree salutation) with which to properly greet Arbor Day but have, as yet, been unsuccessful. Here is, however, the tree pose which I can only do with one of my knees, and is very very fun because it requires so much concentration to not topple over. If anyone has any ideas for a tree mantra or such a namaskar, please do let me know

For Arbor Day, I have but one resolution: there are few ways for me to incorporate trees into my life, although this is an option for some people. So my resolution does not have to do with trees so much as it does flowers. I resolve to make and use seed bombs.

Before Homeland Security shuts down this website, seed bombs are a form of guerilla gardening which involves tossing ready-made clumps of sod and seed into fallow land to make it less…fallow. Learn how: text, vid. And if you have the attention span for it (just over 4 minutes and worth every second), I highly recommend the vid, it’s got some awesome interviews & war paint. For seed, I plan to use bee-friendly plants, as bees are on a sharp decline & can use all the help they can get. And California Poppies because I think they’re beautiful. I’m announcing this one early so that I can prepare for it. With luck, I can keep a supply of seed bombs on my bike & toss them appropriately as I ride.

How have/will you celebrate?