Wow... Someone nominated me for a FL Keys GLEE Award. I am very surprised and feel honored. Thank you. :-)It's definitely totally unexpected as my efforts & interests are for the good of the environment (as a whole) that we live in. :-)
Happy 2010!! I wish you all a new year filled with lots of surprises, happiness, prosperity, green living... and peace!At my new place of business, I've been fortunate to start a recycling program right in the store! I mentioned the idea of recycling in-store to my co-worker and she volunteered to take the weekly plastics/glass/cans collected home with her to be recycled. I would have done it, however, there isn't any recycling where I live... I'm working on changing that! '-DWe found an unused wire basket, approx. 2-1/2 to 3' tall, and placed it near the checkout area. We've been adding our items to the basket daily (although it's been so cold, we haven't drunk as much tea in cans lately), and the guys who work during the day have even contributed to the basket! We even have customers adding to it now as well! '-) SUCCESS!!I've found that these kinds of things/changes take time with my Supervisor. I even took an "imaginary" photo of him (with my fingers not the actual camera) cleaning out his bottle and tossing it into the recycling basket!! This was a MONUMENTAL thing to have happened!! I was SO happy when I saw that!Pretty soon... I'll suggest larger containers outside... for the guys who hang out in "Boys Club" as well as the guests in the timeshare/rentals. I just have to locate a place to put them that is accessible to both, but not unsightly! Then at some point... perhaps the Marina will become a "green" one! '-D Wish me luck!
Being an organic food lover, it's difficult at times to find a place to eat with healthy food choices... and make choices amongst the many non-organic food items. Living here in the Keys though tends to open up some of the food choices because of the wealthy abundance of fresh fish! Just yesterday one of the fishing charters (where I work) came in with a Swordfish!! It weighed 228 lbs.! I've never seen a swordfish, so it was a delightful treat to actually see one in person... it was a bit shorter than I thought it would be, with a small tail but a rather long sword. I've been told that they're THE BEST fish to eat... maybe the charter boat captain left us some samples! :-DBut besides the fish... we do have a few places in the Upper & Middle Keys for organic/vegan eating choices, although some are far & few between. One great place in Key Largo is Eco Eats. They create really delicious wraps full of chicken, fish, veggies that are large but not overly filling. I enjoy going to this small restaurant whenever I'm up in that area. I believe they're opening another (smaller) location at Froggy's, the local gym, in Tavernier.On Big Pine Key, there's the Good Food Conspiracy! Wish we had one of these up in the Upper Keys! They combine health & organic food, organic products, good-for-you products, and a snack bar with awesome smoothies and cookies made by Deer Run (a Green Lodging B&B nearby-link is to the right). This is a definite stop on your way to Key West, and be sure to make time to visit The Crystal Loft next door for beautiful crystal gifts for yourself! :-DThere's a new health food store in Marathon, Food for Thought... I'll touch on this at a later date (after I've had a chance to visit & sample)! Sure wish a health food store w/organic snack bar would open in Islamorada! It would make eating so much easier & healthful!! :-DIf you're looking for a location somewhere else in the U.S., a great online source of vegan/organic restaurants is Happy Cow. I've tried some of the restaurants recommended while travelling and it's been an enjoyable eating experience!
I just ordered some soap from Jackie, and she has a *new* scent: Pomegranate Mango!! I am definitely looking forward to trying that! She's also made some new guest & bar soaps for the Christmas holidays... I decided to try the guest soaps. My order is sitting at the post office presently... I'll pick it up tomorrow, and let you know how wonderful the *new* scents are!! '-DI forgot that she also has a new Chocolate soap available also. I can't imagine using a "chocolate" soap, but if you love chocolate... you'll probably love this soap too!
See: Handcrafted by Jackie TurbotNote: The Pomegranate Mango is absolutely delightfully sparkling! :-D It gives a wonderful lift to your morning shower! The Christmas Memories soap is also very nice... I'm looking forward to receiving the larger bars for the holidays this month!
My friend, Jeanne, and I had a HUGE BLAST in Key West this past weekend! It felt so wonderful not to worry about what time we had to get somewhere on Friday! We left in the morning, stopped for mail p/u, then wandered down to Key West. We stopped in Marathon for lunch at Keys Fisheries... GREAT place to take a vegan friend! :-D We enjoyed grilled mahi-mahi sandwiches... then drove on to Big Pine Key where by sheer chance at the Visitor's Center (on the oceanside) we saw a Key Deer! I turned right around, drove in, and she got some awesome pics of this lone male deer.
I don't think we stopped again until we got to our B&B, Courtney's Place, in KW. What a wonderful B&B... GREAT breakfasts -- in fact, I think they had the most incredibly large continental breakfast I've ever seen! All kinds of wonderful & spoiling danish (time to go back on my diet!), cereals-hot & cold, french toast/waffles, bagels/rolls/bread, h-b eggs, yogurt... Wow! I LOVE breakfasts... as if you couldn't tell! '-D LOL
The room we were in was fabulous... two queen size beds side by side (hard to find in KW)... and VERY VERY thick!! I know we both slept deeply on those beds! They also had bikes to rent at 1/2 the price of the rental bike companies. On Saturday, we biked & saw as much as we could on those bicycles... and they didn't have any gears either, so you can bet that all the walking up the stairs I've been doing (to/from my new apt.) has helped my legs be in shape for THAT bike!! :-D LOL
On Friday night we decided to do the Ghost Tour! I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and finally got the chance! I haven't checked my phone camera yet to see if there are any ghost sitings on the pics. On Saturday, we started out at the Hemingway House, then... Lighthouse Museum, Southernmost Point (got a pic of Jeanne during a major downpour that lasted a good 20 min!), lunch at Camille's on Simonton St. (we were definitely very WET rats when we got there! LOL) which was really very delicious, West Martello Fort which is now the Key West Garden Club, Higgs Beach, Butterfly & Nature Conservatory... THEN we went back to the room thinking we were going for a swim before we went to see the cloudy sunset @ Mallory's dock (I wonder who Mallory was... do you know?). No swim... no time! Showers and new clothes then back on the bikes to Mallory's dock... as I mentioned it was quite cloudy, so we didn't get to see a good sunset. Oh well... then on to Turtle Kraals at the Seaport for dinner. They have THE MOST WONDERFUL Pork platter dinner! If you LOVE Pork as I do, you'll love eating it there... with a choice of 5 different sauces! YUM!
We rode our bikes back up Duval... it was wonderful, I had a dress on... it was so much fun to ride a bike with a dress on! :-D I felt so happy & free!! LOL Anyway, I wanted to buy a few things at Fresh Produce but they appeared to be closed early, rather unusual for a Saturday night we thought. But had to stop at Mattheson's for a choc. chip cookie & an oatmeal cookie, treating Jeanne to a choc. chip macadamia cookie as well! This is a tradition for me (buying the 2 cookies). :-) Then back on our bicycles to the B&B... it was so nice & cool & windy after the rain storms in the afternoon. Our cold front finally arrived... it lasted only about 2 days. Hope it's a preview of what's to come in January! :-D
As I mentioned... we slept VERY WELL with all the activities we participated in on Friday & Saturday! We left early (about 9:30a) on Sunday... I had to work that afternoon. It took us longer than I anticipated... almost 2 hours to get back home; there wasn't much traffic, so I don't know why it took so long! But of course we had to stop on Big Pine Key again and get some Key Lime Pie on a Stick... EVIL, EVIL, EVIL!! :-D And then I drove down Long Beach Road to see some more Key Deer... mostly females.
What a wonderful weekend it was with her!! We're already planning to go away together on our 55th birthdays... maybe Europe, maybe So. America! :-DSee: Keys Fisheries, Key Deer, Courtney's Place B&B, Ghost Tour, Hemingway House, Lighthouse Museum, Southernmost Point, Camille's, West Martello/Key West Garden Club, Butterfly & Nature Conservancy, Mallory's Dock, Turtle Kraals, Matheson's.
...for a mini-vacation!! :-D This weekend my oldest friend will be coming down from the cool North to visit & celebrate our "milestone" birthdays... 29 & holding!! :-D LOL We met when we were 12... at YMCA Camp! She lived on the other side of the state, but in NJ that's only about 45 min. away. On weekends, we would have sleepovers. Her father was a psychologist in a nearby school district, so on Fridays I'd drive back home with him. Then my parents came down & picked me up on Saturdays. :-) We have a lot of nice memories together!! :-D She's an Art Historian... I would just LOVE to go to Europe with her (some day...) and learn about all the historic buildings & paintings!!
We're planning to spend the weekend in Key West... snorkeling, discovering, museuming, eating, walking, catching up, celebrating (that should really be first!), etc.! She's visited me just about everywhere I lived (except for Atlanta), and she's never been down here to the Keys, time to show it off! :-D
We're staying in a B&B I've never stayed at, but then again there's A LOT of B&B's I haven't stayed at in KW yet! I would have liked to stay near the Seaport, but it wasn't meant to be. This time we'll be in the vicinity of Hemingway's House. Something different... '-) There's a wonderful restaurant on that side of town called "7 Fish"!! It has WONDERFUL food! The last meal I had there was absolutely exquisite... and it's not fancy nor crowded. It's small & intimate. I definitely recommend it! '-D
Well, wish us LOTS of Fun this weekend!! :-D
Guess I've been on a "litter pick-up" mission for the last several months! My new job is at a marina... and I find it odd that they're not a "green" or "clean marina". But after eating my lunch under the little Tiki before I go to work, I can understand why they're not. There's all sorts of litter strewn on the beach plus a HUGE black tarp that washed ashore!! I can't imagine that huge tarp being out on the water... I suppose it would be a GREAT place for dolphin (mahi-mahi) to hide, but otherwise it could be very deadly for the sea life! :-/ Last week, before going to work I brought a garbage bag with me and cleaned up a good portion of the beach... probably the southern portion, and ended up filling up that entire bag! I still have more to do one day this week. I can't believe all the garbage that rolled up... and I noticed today that there's MORE that came ashore in the past week!Then I was thinking that with all the beer cans that are purchased & emptied there, we could fill a huge can (if not more) with all these wonderful recyclable items! I have to work on this with the boss! '-)So many places could be clean & green if we would all pitch in & pick up the garbage!! :-DI don't have much to report about any new products... I'm still using Shakleen cleaning products as well as the Green Works line (by Clorox) for other cleaning; I like these two product lines the best. :-D
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