P’lovers the Environmental Store (Port Perry)

Finding that elusive balance between personal, family, and professional priorities is an ongoing challenge for me; especially at this time of year - summer time!

For the next 9 weeks my two high-energy eco-kids are out of school and will be looking for lots of fun things to pass the time.

When I opened P’lovers in 2002, both kids were quite young and have grown up knowing that Daddy works from home, sometimes rather long and unusual hours.

My daughter, in particular, being the younger of the two, has spent a lot of time with me in the business. She spent very little time in daycare, instead joining me in the store, on visits to suppliers, the lawyer, accountant, and has made many trips to the bank.

Both kids are quite used to my schedule and understand when I have to take a phone call in the middle of lunch or run to the computer to send a quick email before heading out the door or that late in the evening “dash to the store”. They have learned to be patient with me and are not what I would call high-maintenance children.

There are many pay-offs for all of us. During the school year, we walk to school everyday and I pick them up afterwards. I rarely miss a school assembly or special event and am one of the few (usually only) fathers to volunteer in the classroom and have done so with both kids since kindergarten.

And then there is summer vacation - the most fun, yet the biggest juggling act of all!

Every morning starts shortly after 5:00, with me, coffee in hand, heading to work in my home office. It’s a wonderfully quiet and incredibly productive time before the kiddies wake up to handle administration, ordering new products, writing this blog, queuing up projects for staff, digging in the garden, anything that needs to be done.

After 9:00, the rest of my day (until my wife gets home at 5:00), for the most part, belongs to the kids. Swimming at Birdeye pool, trips to every park in town, riding bikes around the neighbourhood, digging in the garden, hanging out with the grandparents in Oshawa, day trips to Toronto Zoo - these are just a few of the ways they will keep me busy this summer.

The final piece of my juggling act is the sensational staff at P’lovers who, in my absence, make sure the store looks great and the focus continues to the stay on our customers. Without Catherine, Jude, Lisa, Natalie, and Susan, the summer months would be WAY more stressful!

-Steve

We, here at P’lovers, have started a new venture. We all feel it is important to buy locally, to keep our money close to home. There is a bakery (Hank’s Pastries) and a butcher (Herrington’s) on the main street that we frequent and now we can happily tell you we are purchasing our produce from local farmers. And guess what? They deliver!

There are a total of 7 families here at Queen Street Commons taking part in this exciting community supported agriculture (CSA) project.  For 20 weeks throughout the summer and fall, Coopers Farm in Uxbridge delivers us our farm fresh produce every Thursday morning.

We are in week number 2 and so far we have been enjoying an abundance of lettuces, spinach, strawberries, rhubarb, green onions and garlic and are looking forward to much more. The bushel baskets arrive smelling and tasting like the great outdoors and all we have to do is cart it to our homes and refrigerate.

To arrive home after a full day and throw a salad together that we know has come from our community farmers just makes it taste better.

The baskets are filled with whatever produce is plentiful at that time of the season. We are happy to know we are getting the season’s best, freshest goodies.

-Jude

• Find an Ontario CSA near you.

You’d think that someone with 15+ years of experience in marketing and communications wouldn’t drop the marketing ball when things got too busy! Yet that is exactly what’s happened over the past couple of months.

Life just happens sometimes and occasionally, as you can appreciate, it happens with a little more enthusiasm.

The months of April and May, despite the cold, wet, lousy weather, were the crazy busiest in P’lovers six year history. On the personal front, dozens of hours were spent stage managing High School Musical with our fabulous youth theatre group in Port Perry. And the obligatory, much, much more..

As a result, all those things I absolutely love to do — blogging, creating our Healthy Planet Newsflash email bulletin, web design, special marketing projects — all the good stuff was on a little hiatus. Until now, that is.

I’m back; hiatus over; giddy up!

-Steve

I asked my daughter what she wanted to do for the hour that my wife and son were in karate class.  Expecting to read books, play in the yard, or ride bikes, I was surprised when she said “Let’s go to the waterfront and pick-up garbage, Daddy.”

So that’s exactly what we did!  Armed with gardening gloves and a large (recycled plastic) garbage bag, we dropped the ‘karate kids’ off at their class and headed for Joe Fowler Park, on the shore of Lake Scugog.  Since this lovely, naturalized shoreline trail and park was established several years ago, the kids and I have spent dozens of hours enjoying nature in the heart of our bustling little community. 

One this day, however, our little oasis in Port Perry was anything but.  In fact, with the amount of garbage thoughtlessly strewn everywhere, it looked more vandalized than naturalized.  It took Elora and I exactly 34 minutes to completely fill our garbage bag to overflowing and I would estimate we didn’t have to walk more than 50 feet from our car to do it!

A rather unscientific garbage audit revealed that the vast majority of the garbage came from the three fast food restaurants within close proximity to the park — Tim Horton’s, Wendy’s, and Dairy Queen — with loads of water bottles, beer bottles (several broken), and cigarette packs thrown in for good measure. 

While I was silently appalled at the mentality of the person who would toss their refuse amidst the bushes and perennials, my 6-year old was a shade more vocal in her opinion.  “These people are slobs!” perfectly captured the essence of the moment.

This, unfortunately, is only the tip of the proverbial ‘garbage iceberg’ that is threatening to overwhelm our society.  It did get me thinking a little more about Extended Product Responsibility, the fancy term for requiring garbage-makers to be financially and/or physically responsible for the products and packaging they produce. 

If the immense and very real cost of dealing with the garbage generated were actually factored into the cost of that blizzard, take-out coffee, or cheeseburger, would consumers take an extra moment to re-think their purchasing choices?  Would producers use their immense purchasing power and invest in more sustainable, biodegradable packaging options that will ultimately benefit everyone? 

Admittedly, with trees to climb, a small “forest” to explore, and birds to watch (four male red-wing blackbirds were putting on a stunning display as they competed for the attention of a lone female), I decided solving our society’s garbage problem will have to wait for another day.

Happy Earth Day!

-Steve 

Woot!  Spring makes me wanna pppAArty. Brings out the ol’ college girl in me I think. Makes one lust for lazy sunny days on a patio, sunning in the backyard or strolling the shops. Port Perry is definitely bustling the past few days of sun and warmth.

We’ve propped the door at P’lovers. In wafts the customer from the street…..as well as the smoke.
BLECH.

And so sadly, with Spring comes the stink…of cigarettes.

And the butts.

Speaking of butts….there’s a certain restaurant gracing our lovely Port Perry waterfront. Whilst out for our evening walk the other night, I saw a sight that made me want to vomit. Seriously!

The ground on the other side of the patio ‘fence’ was COVERED, I mean INCHES COVERED in stanky butts. INCHES.  As though the sky had fallen and brought down a hellfire of wiggly little cigarettes worms.  It is truly repulsing…and borderline fascinating….perhaps we can make it a tourist attraction…..cause it’s definitely a sight to behold..

As the smoker tosses their butt to the ground, I IMPLORE them: SEE that you are littering.

Contrary to unfounded beliefs of the littering smoker or the marketing cig companies: cigarette filters ARE not biodegradable. It is hypothesized that it will take 12 years for a butt to break down.

So where are they going then? How are we not swimming in a sea of butts as we wade the sidewalks? (except for the exceptional ‘feast’ for the eyes outside our local watering hole)

They get swept up, they roll down the hill and into the lake. They blow in the wind to the grassy patches.

Where subsequently, my young child playing for his first summer in the park, thinks it’s something fun to either nibble upon or roll in his fingers.

Or if having landed in the lake, the fishes (what fishes are alive in our beloved lake) think it’s the edible kind of yummy worm to nibble upon.

Or all of the toxins that the smoker made the conscious decision to introduce into their body, as the hopefully informed adult they are: letches into the ground, into the water…affecting the rest of us, who have made the educated and conscious decision to not include cigarettes in our lives and family.

Smoke responsibly, take control of your litter.

-Colleen 

Some resources:

ButtsOut Canada

CigaretteLitter.org

A Personal Reflection

My family moved to Port from Toronto  in June ‘07.  We had visited enough that we knew much of the community, but until we moved here, we did not truly understand what Downtown Port Perry is all about.

I am really pleased with our decision to build our family here. I feel safe here. We know pretty much everyone: and in a good way.

In raising children, I firmly believe in the concept ‘it takes a village’.  I love that when we walk the main street, I can give a nod to the old boys, the ladies say “oh, he’s getting so big”! The younger folk, squeal at the baby and make him laugh. And if I’m really needing help and insight into motherhood, theres always someone who I can chat with and get some input.

In my darkest (or lightest) hours of being a mother, when I encourage myself to take our daily walk, I lurch to Queen Beans Coffee House in Queen Street Commons and poofffff, all my troubles melt away. We joke that its turning into baby central here. Looking around though, I see persons of all ages, dynamic and what have you. We are all welcome and unite here at the Queen Street Commons. 

-Colleen

How to Build Community
By the Syracuse Cultural Workers

Turn off your TV*Leave your house
Know your neighbours
Look up when you are walking
Greet people*Sit on your stoop
Plant Flowers
Use your library*Play together
Buy from local merchants
Share what you have
Help a lost dog
Take children to the park
Garden Together
Support Neighborhood Schools
Fix it even if you didn’t break it
Have Pot Lucks*Honour Elders
Pick Up Litter* Read Stories Aloud
Dance in the Street
Talk to the Mail Carrier
Listen to the Birds* Put up a Swing
Help Carry Something Heavy
Barter For Your Goods
Start A Tradition*Ask A Question
Hire Young People for Odd Jobs
Organize a Block Party
Bake Extra and Share
Ask For Help When You Need It
Open Your Shades*Sing Together
Share Your Skills
Take Back the Night
Turn Up The Music
Turn Down The Music
Listen Before You react with Anger
Mediate A Conflict
Seek To Understand
Learn From New And
Uncomfortable Angles
Know That No One is Silent
Though Many Are Not Heard
Work To Change This

I love walking; I walk to work, to the post office, to the drug store, and sometimes I walk just to walk. It is not a new activity for me, I have always been known to use shank’s mare more than most, alone or with company.

But lately I find there is a little more to it, I choose not to use the car every time I have to run an errand because I care about the environment and I don’t want to be dependent on a vehicle. I also want to set a good example, and I sincerely enjoy the exercise along with the solitude that benefits my soul. It just makes sense to me.

-Jude

I admit it. I am guilty of visiting one of Port Perry’s few fast food joints, about once a week. One of the so-called ‘healthier’ choices. Somehow that saves me? 

My husband and I both order the same thing every week and sit to eat. 

Every week I say to the clerk of the day, ‘we’ll be staying to eat.’

Meaning ‘No need to bag my food, thankyou’

As I see them reaching for the bag, I say swiftly and more directly, ‘I don’t need a bag please’

Even still, into the bag it goes…..

Today, I stared down the clerk I had never seen before.  It was just my husband, me, the baby, and the two clerks.  As my food was jammed into the flimsy plastic bag, I state firmly, ‘I.Do.Not.Want.A.Bag’ 

She removes my meager portion of food from its entrapment. 

Slightly bemused, I grab my food and sat down. My husband sits down a few seconds later…

His food was put in a whole new bag….

We exchange the silent flick of eye contact that only a life partner can decode. 

And he tells me….they threw the one that held my food away…  

-Colleen