Happy Earth Day!!

Do something nice for the earth today.. pick up trash, drive less, commit to using less resources this year.. every little bit helps. Over the past year I've been doing things like: picking up trash in my neighborhood, bringing my own bags to the grocery, switching out my light bulbs for the energy efficient ones, keeping my heating and A/C consumption down as much as I can, and I stopped buying bottled water altogether... those plastic bottles are a complete menace to our earth. I bought a Sigg bottle and I adore it! Check out your local farmers markets.. it's easier on the environment to buy locally, the food is fresher and tastier, and the money you spend is kept local. And besides there are some wonderful small local farmers out there that are fun to talk to and may even save the really good stuff special for you! At my local farmers market last summer I had a couple that knew how much I LOVE heirloom tomatoes and they would save me a huge bag of the best ones every week (AND they were dirt cheap). Nothings better than a lunch of fresh, sliced heirloom tomatoes that were picked less than 24 hours before! Think Global, Act Local!

The pictures are from my weekend in Bennett Spring, Mo. Great state park with some gorgeous trails. Most people who go there go for the fishing, so I had the trails mostly to myself. Saturday was a bit gloomy and chilly, but was a great run anyway, I just ran slow and took lots of pictures, except for the part where I got chased down the trail by an ill-tempered dachshund who was off leash. GRRR. I hate when people let their bad mannered dogs off leash... I have no problem with off leash dogs who have trail manners or owners who grab their dogs when they see someone coming... but this dog was going after my ankles as the owners were yelling "she won't bite". I love dogs, but he was seconds from getting a foot in his mouth when his owner grabbed him. Sunday was amazing sunny, warm weather and there was not a single car in the trailhead parking lot when I started and when I finished... it was a great feeling to have the whole trail system to myself! I was working on doing some meditating while running, but after I missed the trail a few times and had to backtrack, I decided that getting in a deep zen moment on unfamiliar trails probably wasn't the smartest thing. The trails were a great mixture of easy rollers, some single track, some wide open even grassy paths, an awesome old graveyard and a bunch of stream crossings. I would go back and run there again!