Being Green isn’t easy.

Just ask a Blanchard’s Cricket frog and I’ll bet if he could talk, he’d tell you that whether it’s a habitat for frogs or for us humans, trying to be green and then staying green isn’t easy.

New Homes - Can a new homeowner even plan to “go green” and keep a yard healthy when they landscape it or is it too much?  Sadly a house is more than just the TV, some furniture and a place to plugin your cell phone.  In my opinion you may as well have a condo if you really don’t want the yard.

Existing Homes – Rehabilitate the yard, no concentrated fertilizers or pesticides and use locally produced organic compost or more natural chemicals. The argument that they both achieve the same results with similar chemical means is understood but that’s why you read the label. Also being prepared that sometimes seeing smaller yields from our gardens with a few bugs is totally acceptable.

Mulching - We are mulching more, a properly prepared yard prevents run off into the city sewers and can stop erosion around a house. Best of all no one needs grass to do that. So year by year, we are landscaping to reduce lawn grass in favour of perennial plants, bushes, trees and the mulch. [There's a great link about  mulching at Trees Are Good that I refer to often]

Drought - We are experimenting with drip irrigation and hope to install a rainwater collector to use for the some of our plants rather than using city water and of course this assumes we have rain this year. Sometimes the grass goes brown simply because it needs to be dormant. We use our small garden to supplement fresh vegetables and use containers for other plants that need more care.

Trees - It’s always a hard call but maybe for us trees are more about aesthetics and sound than to cool and again stop erosion. Our house is very close to the street so a tree in our front yard is necessary. Unfortunately the tree that came with the house is a river birch which means water, water, water. The year before was particularly tough for it so we ended up having to top it due to die back. I’d take it out completely but it still has use and a new tree costs money.

Being Green outdoors can be easy if you think it through for your needs although I’m afraid we may be too late for the tiny Blanchard’s Cricket frog here in Canada.

When you are sick what do you do? Do you go to a doctor before or after googling the symptoms? Do you want  to be prepared to match up your symptoms yourself or simply let the doctor decide?  Do you read about home remedies or only take traditional medications or both?

There is so much information about wellness and what it means out there in the cloud that no one person could possibly take all the advice of good eating and exercise (and have the right genes if you’re really lucky) and put it all into practice.  That would be sainthood and still no guarantee you’d live a pain-free life until you’re a 120.

Anytime I consider the web for information on illnesses though I use some common sense, like I don’t even look at the ads promising a cure if you send in cash (well maybe just to see how silly they are), and I wouldn’t do anything really strange and weird or beyond safety. But right now I’m looking for just a little bit weird since I’m just a little sick and tired of being sick and tired.

The past few weeks have been a bit of hell as I try to overcome a cough that, at times,  has been so bad I’ve almost blacked out.  Even now after four weeks I still cough a little bit when I talk and move around too much. So to say that it is causing me grief would be an understatement.

I googled the symptoms and I may have what is commonly called by the health profession when they’re pretty sure it’s not caused by allergies is non-allergic rhinitis.

It’s still part of the multi-billion dollar industry for all those OTC things that can possibly be considered to relieve the symptoms. Over the past couple of months I’ve contributed to that total quite well. Yeah, I had this in October too.

So where does the “wellness” come into this?

Let see what have I tried and in no particular order or time frame: a various assortment of OTC drugs and syrups, sleep, vitamins natural and supplemental, walks for a breath of fresh air, a neti pot, mentholated rubs, baths, hugging my dogs, light treadmill use, meditation, juice, water, tea, etc. etc. etc. I’m getting just a little bit frayed about all of it and on top of it all I feel guilty about missing work, missing my course classes (two out of 12) and missing a job interview. I know I can work through this and I will eventually get better but  in the meantime I am truly feeling miserable.

So what to do about it other than gripe about it?

From the website: ” Avoiding the irritant triggers which cause the symptoms is the best way to treat non-allergic rhinitis, but not always possible.” Okay so it’s not possible to move to Hawaii but I’m pretty sure my problem would go away.

There’s also trying to beat this thing but until they have a cure the best I can do is try to prevent it (okay if I’m moving  I’m leaving Alberta; Quebec or BC)

That leaves me with trying some more unusual home remedies that people swear by and again no cure but perhaps some relief for awhile.

Up first for yet another suggestion is Tomato Tea I’ll let you know how it works out and add it to my list of things to drink. I wonder what it’s like with vodka and a celery stick?

Next up, uh, oil pulling. Okay it’s doable but you’ll have to read about it to understand it.

Update 03/07/2010: The warm tomato juice did nothing for me

The oil pulling was just weird.  I used the sunflower oil as suggested and it made my teeth feel cleaner which is okay but nothing else. Also it took too long even if I was dedicated and that’s twenty minutes of morning time that is far too precious.

I’m still just using Flonase or whatever it’s called.

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photo credit: craigCloutier

Although I’m more of a black tea drinker and prefer the bulk green teas this one was at least a start for now on my quest for other green teas.

I picked up this organic tea the other day and I’ve been slowly making my way through the sachets of tea bags. Its from Namasthe from Whister, BC and  unfortunately they don’t have much of a website just yet it doesn’t really matter for now, it’s the tea not the web.

It’s nice when someone gives you a hint on what to expect but in this case it probably went out the door with the box the pouches came in.

The aroma of the un-steeped tea is to die for. I could sit and smell the tea this way all day long. It has a delicate hint of jasmine as expected but has a richer scent rather than just floral; it somehow reminds me of candy floss but not that sickly sweet smell just a hint again.

I brewed it as suggested for about 6 minutes; once steeped the jasmine scent was quickly absorbed into the water. As usual there was the slight bitterness of green tea there but the subtle flavours began to return as the tea cooled.

I usually use a stoneware cup to allow the water to cool evenly but this time I used a plastic tea container I recently bought at my local grocer. Now I know plastic and hot liquids don’t sound to great, but it has a built in strainer and the ubiquitous sippy cup spout so I can keep it from getting cool while it sits on my desk at work.

Anyway, this is about the tea and it’s great. I thoroughly recommend it and for now I’ll leave the rating as:

4/5