Greenspace & The Environment

As I sat sipping my tea, contemplating the wine I would soon be having with my dinner… I reflected on the pandemic and what it has meant to me so far. I intentionally self-isolated because I could easily do that.   It would be one less person potentially passing a virus around the community.  Now as we move out of lock down and begin a new way to open our doors, I am wondering where my place is?  What have I learned?  What am I going to do next and do differently?  Good thing I was nearly ready for wine as it does help with contemplation.

Those of you who know me, know that I am passionate about the environment.  We have a green roof, research green initiatives that we can incorporate into the building.

From grey water recycling to solar power, concrete floors to hold the heat in winter as well as numerous smaller initiatives that reduce our footprint and make a difference.

We reuse old t-shirts and towels for cleaning rags, locally knitted dish cloths for wipes and spills, cloth napkins instead of one time use disposable ones.   At London Born you won’t see single use plastic bottles and straws in sight.

However, as much as I try, I cannot mandate staff to not use disposable coffee cups which they buy on their way to work or dictate that shouldn’t make unnecessary trips to the grocery store for sandwiches that are over packaged in plastic. Just as I can no more dictate that people around me should stay home and isolate. It’s a personal lifestyle choice and a matter of economic circumstances.

I can look at how I live on the earth and be conscious of what I use personally. I have a wooden toothbrush, silk dental floss. In lock down I used up all the odds and ends of shampoo and conditioners. I’ m sure like me, you have a bunch of cute mini hotel soaps and shampoos. I don’t want to take them, I don’t need them, I don’t like the plastic bottles and yet some how they end up in my luggage every time. I have begun to use shampoo soap bars with natural ingredients that come in a paper bag from our local heath store.

I think often and hard about the imprint I leave. I searched for products that can reduce my footprint and be kinder to the land.

I bought tru earth laundry detergent recently. They are small unpackaged strips of eco detergent that arrived in cardboard packets.

No more large jugs of plastic bottles laying around.  Although they are Canadian, they ship from across Canada. I decided I wanted to carry the product and bought a line that could be ethically and environmentally sourced to sell to those who visit the winery. I got excited! I do get excited in a big way and we all know when the laundry is piling up, best to grab a glass of wine with the eco strips!

I also get excited about coffee and we have Birch Bark coffee for sale. If you haven’t tried it or heard about Birch Bark, they have a wonderful story and commitment to indigenous lands and water.

You can come into the wine retail store and buy ethically sourced coffee and laundry detergent. And a set of non-disposable cutlery. When you get takeout you can refuse the plastic spoon or use them on airlines.  They describe it as a Luxury Eco Sustainable on the go Cutlery Brand. It comes with a great entrepreneurial story. I promise to keep adding more products as I find them! I hope you will come and join us as we reopen our doors in a new era. Conscious of health and safety measures and providing a warm, welcoming experience.

Onto camping, when I started to write the blog it was about our recent camping adventure.  I get easily distracted with my happy dancing. Most of our camping equipment comes from Outdoor Pursuits, as well as sailing and hiking gear & even a camping stove we brought with us from England when the kids were small.  Admittedly, it’s old equipment but it all still works and when we use it we have a lot of good memories to talk about.

We did find a local company that makes tents to fit on the back of vans and cars like a pop up.  We used our Postman Pat style delivery van named after an English children’s story book and tv program. But I digress from our glamping!   After the pop-up car tent it was time to research our loo needs to ensure we were self-sufficient and ready to go.  Where could we go as nothing was open? You don’t have to go far to find adventure so we camped in the back garden between the vines and the helicopter landing strip. We cooked outside and as we ate we sat looking across the cab franc and baco vines still in bud.   We talked around the campfire, enjoyed our wine and food and two friends brought their lawn chairs over and social distanced for a bit. Our glamping expedition worked seamlessly, other than the toilet tent blowing over although the makeshift loo itself was remarkably efficient. I could expand on my toilet glamping though that is best saved for another story.

Our glamping ended with an amazing discovery! I found out that a neighbour of mine is a Bruce Trail monitor and we can walk to one of the entrances. They have a wonderful web site and trail books with maps and information and badges.  I really want a badge. You are welcome to visit us & go for a hike along the Bruce Trail, enjoy the local loop and come back and share your adventure.

What staycation plans do you have for summer? How are you living kindly with the earth? If you have any ideas on how we at LBWco can improve please let us know!

Stay home, join us at the winery or on the Bruce Trail!  Stay safe and eat cake – well not too much of it.

Annette