December 11, 2008 

ne of my peppers plants is starting to blossom. The others look like they may be thinking about doing the same. I am hoping to grow out three of each of my 15 varieties of peppers which have endangered status and poor distribution according to Seeds of Diversity in Canada this coming growing season.

It was lovely being able to work on the magazine all day again. I only had to take a friend to work and do a bit of grocery shopping for things such as avocados. To tell you how often I go for fast food, (or lack thereof) I will tell you about our stop for coffee for him this morning.

He told me to tell the faceless voice coming out of the square metal device,  for a extra large black coffee and a bagel. When the faceless voice inquired what kind of bagel, he told me to tell her a 'birdseed' one. So happily I told the woman though the speakerbox, "A birdseed one please". She says, "What?" and I say again, "A birdseed one please".

Silence..... then, "I am sorry miss, we do not have that kind...".. then my friend, whom I always thought had no sense of humor before he had multiple quarts of coffee in the morning, starts laughing his guts out. HE just calls them 'birdseed'.. Tim Horton's (which is a Canadian icon by the way) calls them an 'everything bagel'.

Thankfully he just wanted the plain cream cheese versus their other varieties. As I am waiting in anticipation for him to open up his bagel, I am looking to be awed by this mysterious 'birdseed' bagel and was utterly disappointed as there was very little sprinkling of anything on it. All that hype and anticipation for nuthin'. I make awesome bagels. Maybe I will make them for tomorrow morning.

It is supposed to get rapidly cold this upcoming week. Down to the -20C's/-4F.

Today's Act of Green:

Do Your Laundry In Cold Water

Did you know that up to 90 per cent of the energy used in washing clothes is for heating the water. If you wash four out of every five loads of laundry in cold water each month, you’ll save about 35 kilograms of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. If you wash 80 per cent of your laundry on the cold/cold cycle every year, you’ll save up to $100 or more on your energy bill.

• Most new washing machines are designed to be cold water efficient.
  Look for the Energy Star label.
• Most laundry detergent makers now have cold-water specific products that are less taxing on the environment. Even many natural detergent makers are releasing cold water products.

I have done my laundry in cold water for years and years. It started out as I had no hot water hookup to my washer in 1985 for some reason, and then economically after. Since then I found out that it makes no difference any longer, so the washer is always on cold/cold. Give it a try.