Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Recycling Flowers, Cars and Everything


Portulaca is Mr. B's favorite flower, so I plant some every summer. Being sure we would be moving in the spring, I only planted a few pots using last year's dirt (recycling). I planted impatience and begonias in the railing planter on the boardwalk. (This is the one the raccoon dug up twice!) And what should come up as a reminder from last summer but one sprig of portulaca. This is the third flower on that stalk. I'm letting the seeds mature and then being sure they fall in the dirt. Maybe we will have an encore next summer.





All the impatience which I have blooming now I carried over the winter. I'm really proud of that. This hanging coral impatience spent the winter in the dining room window where it bloomed profusely. After a trim (all put in water to root) and going back to its hanger on the porch, its blooms are feeding two hummingbirds.



We recycle everything we can. Granted we are limited here to Numbers 1 & 2 on recycling plastic, but we can now recycle cardboard and junk paper. This means a trip every week to the recycling station. Of course, recycling is not mandatory and not likely to be in the foreseeable future in Virginia.

Being believers in recycling, it is only natural that we buy used cars. Worried that our 1995 Toyota Avalon needs to take it easy at 285,000 miles, we bought a young 2008, Kia Rondo with only 34,000 miles. And it is not beige! Hopefully, this car will be a little easier to find in a crowded lot. It doesn't have an antenna to tie a plastic flower to, but has one of those little magic twangers with a button to push that makes the lights blink and the horn honk. That should do the job!


13 comments:

Pondside said...

Recycling is a very good thing! Up here nearly all plastics are recycled and beginning in the new year we won't be permitted to put into the garbage anything that can be composted. It should be interesting - it is an expensive proposition in the short term, but will pay off environmentally, as an enormous amount of landfill is given over to material that should be composted.
Nice new car!

http://jackieinsurrey.blogspot.co.uk/ said...

Morning Nancy, your bizzie Lizzies (Impatiens) look lovely. I have some in the garden and they have done very well. We have recycling collections here every week for paper and card, glass, plastic and tins and food. Alternate weeks we have garden waste one week and other household items that are not included in the others mentioned the other week.There are also lots of recycling centres where you can take larger items.

There are a lot of Kia's in the UK, seem a popular family car, enjoy, Jackie.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Good job recycling - I can't believe there is a place that still doesn't have mandatory recycling. If there is too much recyclable in someone's garbage there is a fine here - but the question is - who gets to go through the garbage? I hope they pay them a lot of money for that job!!!

Nice car - we are currently looking for our "new" car - we think a 2008 Impala - not sure yet.

Nancy said...

I don't believe there is a state in the south that has mandatory recycling. There was a newspaper article where people in Virginia were interviewed on their thoughts about recycling and while some thought it was a good idea and did it occasionally, not a single one of them wanted it to be mandatory.
Nancy

GardenOfDaisies said...

Yay! Recycling is good! We have recycled glass, plastic, paper and cardboard for 20 years! Both of our kids have grown up thinking that, reducing, reusing and recycling/composting are normal things to do.
It is not mandatory here, but a LOT OF people in our neighborhood do. Sometime in the next year new garbage rules will go into effect that will make recycling much more appealing to the wallets. (that is what it takes for some people.)

deb said...

the community I live in recycles everything, and it is theoretically mandatory, but since they did away with the clear bags for rubbish I don't know how honest people are about it. We compost too, and the green neighbors and I compete to see who can throw away the least amount of rubbish each week! Thanks for stopping by my blog, and if you ever want to visit Chautauqua we have spare rooms :)

Friko said...

Hello Porch Days (I am sure you have another name),
What a very pretty blog this is.

recycling is a way of life for me, we are not quite as well-served as most European mainland countries but he UK is trying hard. Bottles and cans, cloth, newspapers, cardboard and all green waste are re-used, re-cycled and composted. I am also a very keen gardener, but what is Portulaca?
A new one on me!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Janet said...

Thanks for becoming a follower and I look forward to having you in New England. What part of Connecticut are you moving to? Hopefully you will be here in time for Autumn and all that it holds as I am sure you remember!

I would think that recycling would be easier here too. We do all plastics except those pesky plant pots, but no styrofoam in my community.

Janet

Terra said...

Hi, glad to meet you here. Yes, portulacas are pretty, and my family members are recyclers too.

Sweet Bee Cottage said...

Your flowers are beautiful. We recycle automatically here. Luckily our recyclers allow us to turn in everything except things that have food on them that won't come off (like pizza boxes). My 9 year old is always asking, "Can this be recycled?" Love that!

diane b said...

Well done on your recycling. We have recycling bins but its not compulsory.Like your "new" car.

Jayme Goffin, The Coop Keeper said...

My husband's favorite flower is also the portulaca! I plant some in the crack in the back steps so he can see it everyday as he comes and goes. Can I just tell you I love your profile? Makes me feel all relaxed and cozy, just reading. Fo sho.

Ali said...

Recycling is a very good thing!your flowers are beautiful and too much attractive.
Plastic Card