Honk Campaign

Today is Friday the 13th so watch out for cats and ladders. :-)

Leah is finishing her camp today. She had a grand time; they did a Dirt Exploration Day, a Swamp Romp, and today was Beach and Bay day. They did a ton of nature walks, seining the river, art every day (her teacher for this camp was one of my favorite naturalists) -- and her fish print came out really well! I was totally impressed. Mine are always smudgy. I haven't done a lick of school with the other two children, frankly. We've just been running errands and playing outside, going to the beach and the playground, making recipes, coloring and so on. Nothing theme-y. I talked to Steve about not really wanting to do school during the summer, since the weather just calls you to be outside hanging out and he said, I thought just being kids was what a Waldorf preschool was and I said yes, but I thought you wanted me doing projects every day so you had something to look at when you came home... so we got that sorted out and I have more freedom than I thought I did (which is good) and we can continue to bum around and pick vegetables and enjoy the great outdoors. However, I will write up some Oceans "plans" for the next few weeks just for fun and see if we can get some of it done.

The Bay Weekly (a regional publication with a very environmental bent) did a very good article about the litter problem around the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Basically, the idea is that we should stop putting so much money into funding clean-up efforts and tackle the prevention end instead (which, according to the Smith Alumnae Quarterly, is also the direction people are heading in re. breast cancer, which makes me very happy). To that end, they are considering bottle deposits, which are very successful in other states, banning plastic bags (which, I understand, Ireland did cold turkey and it's been a great success AND, co-oincidentally, brought back their handmade basket trade), and other measures. Personally, I believe we need a honk campaign. If every time you saw someone chuck a piece of trash out of their car, you honked at them, that might add up to something. It's cheap and easy, and gets folks where it hurts ("What will other people say?"). Right now it's basically, no one will even notice if I throw this out the window. But a chorus of HONKs might change that. Anything to make people think twice before they litter is a good thing. At first I was worried that maybe it's against the law to honk at someone, but then I remembered all the bumper stickers that say things like "honk if you love jogging" so perhaps it is not illegal to promote honking for political reasons. And I think it would work!!!!