Living here in suburban Baltimore, it sometimes feels like there’s not much we can do to help the environment, be connected to our neighbors, or much else that Wendell Berry and others seem to promote – and which Nik and I also are realizing more and more is important.  But we are trying.  So on Saturday, we walked (rather than drove) to Home Depot to buy the right kind of bolts to finally put my table together.  We also ended up buying potting soil for my jade (and thankfully, for me, Nik carried that one home!) and also new towel hooks for our bathroom.  We discovered that Home Depot is only about a 10-15 minute walk away and it’s a nice walk, mostly through our park, to get there!

Also, we’re attempting to use cloth bags now instead of plastic at the grocery store.  Today was the first time I managed to remember to take them.  So here is a picture of the inaugural use of our cloth bags!

They are bags that I found at Old Navy a year or so ago for $.99.  I bought a lot, figuring I’d find something to do with them. And now I have!  It actually felt really good to come home and not have all those plastic bags everywhere!  I still came home with a lot of little plastic bags that the vegetables were in.  Any suggestions?  I try to put anything dry just in the cart without a bag but that doesn’t seem so sanitary to do with other things like lettuce or herbs.