Hiking Alone . . .

Today I hiked alone in the rain . . . it was heavenly. My husband drove me to the beach and read the newspaper in the car while I geared up and took to the trail in the rain. It's not all that often I care to hike  alone anymore but I enjoyed having the trail all to myself today. With a panoramic view of the ocean and nothing to distract my thoughts, I took it all in and loved every bit of time to myself. I wasn't completely alone though, there were two egrets and a great blue heron watching my every move. I also had the tiny beach to myself where I gathered a few treasures. The two green 'beads' are from an air soft gun. At the height of the air soft gun frenzy the beaches were covered with these tiny plastic pellets. I found these scattered all over the parking lot today.

it’s what I can do . . .

It makes my stomach hurt when I see blue plastic dog poop bags flying around at the beach. What’s worse is to find a bag full of poop lying in the sand. I know that if I don’t pick it up it will most likely be snatched by the next high tide and taken out to sea to eventually join the rest of the plastic soup. So hesitantly, I pick it up.

Following the lead of my mentor, Beth Terry, from her blog, ‘My Plastic Free Life’, http://myplasticfreelife.com. I contacted Sonoma County Regional Park Service and began an email conversation with ‘James’. At first, 'James' politely gave me the brush-off with all sorts of facts about why they used the little blue plastic bags and that these bags are ‘biodegradable,’ and “thank you for your concern”, and have a nice day, leave me alone . . . that sort of email conversation.

But ‘James’ doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know that I’ve taken these blue plastic bags on as a personal mission. He doesn’t know that I walk the beach where I live several times a week and that I’ve developed a sort-of ‘ownership’ about this beach. He doesn’t know that it was not only my livelihood but my passion that had me doing years of research, writing, and educating about environmental destruction and animal welfare. He doesn’t know that I set up a ‘Rethinking Plastics’ table for CoastWalk, http://www.coastwalk.org/index.htm during Coastal Cleanup Day at one of our local beaches last September, and it was a huge success because people care about our beaches. He didn’t know all this but I think he’s getting it.

After my third or fourth email reply to ‘James’ his last response was enthusiastic and encouraging. He sees the possibility for change and I am thrilled!

another day at the beach . . .

Took a sunset walk with my husband. There were more people on the beach than on an average evening because of the three day weekend.













My husband picked up most of the trash with his handy 'grabbers' . . . take note of the blue plastic 'doggie waste bag' . . . Sonoma County Regional Park Service hands these little numbers out to dog owners for free. I almost always find at least one (often times 'filled') on my beach walks.
















My husband also found most of this beach glass . . . he truly can find a needle in a haystack . . . I should hire him out . . .












Came home after our breezy walk and heated up my vegan chili for dinner. Perfect close to another beautiful day at the beach . . .