Earth Day isn’t one of those splashy holidays. It is nationally recognized, as an observance. The movement has also grown to include over 192 countries. It’s listed on all calendars, including the electronic one on your cell phone. Since I’ve retired from the classroom, I no longer celebrate with the children in school. There was always some personal joy to the excitement a teacher could create with little ones. Earth Day was one time to be sure to be outside planting and inside creating beautiful artwork, a fun day loaded with learning. Now it is a time when I try to reconnect with the outdoors, and make a personal plan to change something in my efforts to protect our planet.
Personally, today I recycled paper, aluminum cans, plastic containers, and press board. I collected trash on my walk with Lui. Although it wasn’t an easy challenge, I completed the challenge to remove 40 items from my closet and give them to the Salvation Army for reuse. I remembered and reduced my use of plastic bags by having enough reusable bags with me at the grocery store. Today I also planted 10 tree saplings, of varieties native to the area, hoping someday to transplant nice young trees to final homes around my family’s properties. 
Here at the inn we try to have a green side to hosting guests. We use as many non-incandescent light bulbs as possible, many CFL’s and now switching over to LED. (On a side note: we are lucky to be able to recycle those CFL’s at our local library.) Heat and hot water tanks are turned off or turned down when guests are not using them. Vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds and egg shells are all composted. We provide containers and encourage guests to recycle, and have subscribed to single stream recycling. Our appliances and furnaces have been replaced with energy efficient units. We are proud to tell our guests that $2 of their stay is donated through the Green Lodging Program to the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, helping to protect the wild and scenic Delaware River and Bald Eagle Habitat. This year our plan to improve our footprint as an inn, is to encourage our guests to use our alternative sources for fresh water, rather than small plastic bottles.
All that reflecting on a personal goal to observe Earth Day, as I think we all should, improving and reducing our private impact on the earth. Still, the most interesting event that I participated in happened last night. The library director and I organized a new program meeting at the library, “The Greater Wayne Herb Guild”. We had a nice turn out of interested people who have the common interest to increase our knowledge in the growing, harvesting, cooking and using herbs. It was fun to create and bake the snack of Lemon Lavender Muffins and mint tea. Hopefully, when you visit the inn soon, you will be enjoying some savory new recipe!
