The Risks and Responsibilities of Writing about the Outdoors
My post on Wednesday was originally intended to provide information about long distance trails - specifically the Appalachian Trail and Mountains-to-Sea Trail - as an introduction for those unfamiliar to long-distance hiking, but a post just vomiting facts and metrics is no fun. Hence, the post on Wednesday turned into a passionate romanticization of long-distance trails. But as much as I wax poetic about the outdoors, I also feel a bit of guilt: I wonder if romanticizing the outdoors does it a disservice - that I am dismissing the dangers of the wilderness, downplaying the difficulty of the trail, or even encouraging others to find these beautiful spaces and disrespect or even defile them - intentionally or not - with cairns, graffiti, trash, or even just a proliferation of tourists with selfie sticks. An influx of people chasing selfies in exotic places for the sake of social media likes frequently brings up the debate regarding sharing the location of scenic spots - do you share the secret and risk it being overrun, or do you risk being a snob and keep your favorite places hidden?
Reusing old egg cartons to start seeds
When I was a little girl I grew up in the countryside outside Atlanta (yeah, decades ago that still existed) and my family had a huge fruit and vegetable garden. Now that McCrae and I are in our own house and spring is tantalizing me with its options I'm itching to add to the garden that is already established on my little half acre. But I have a confession: when it comes to gardens my strategy is more "plant it" than "plan it." I like to experiment in the garden and prefer plants that flourish on their own, and my latest experiment is growing plants from seeds!
My slightly fanatical tendencies towards eco-friendly crunchy/granola habits
Last summer my friend (another Emily than the one I went backpacking with) and I were packing up her family’s beach house so it could be empty for a couple months, and I made sure the discarded food containers were recycled. I didn’t think anything about this until months later when Emily told me that this experience had reminded her how much we waste when we don’t recycle and that she’d started recycling more items on a regular basis. Once I realized I was a little fanatical in my recycling habits, friends pointed out other habits of mine that I didn’t realize were that unusual. After a while these eccentricities piled up and I realized I could write a whole blog series on green options, so today I'm introducing the "Good & Green" series!
Anyone who knows me knows I have a not-so-secret obsession with tiny houses. And no, I don't mean "small, quaint cottage in the rolling English countryside" kinda tiny but I mean tiny houses! Like 200 square foot kinda tiny. Think tiny like "just enough room for McCrae, Ryder and me to pack together like sardines with my running/backpacking/hiking/soccer/climbing/yoga/biking/photography equipment and barely be able to turn around" kinda tiny. Possibly even unreasonably tiny. I have my reasons for my love of tiny houses, and I even explored one form of tiny house living in Charleston!
