After chatting with staff about the spa’s commitment to the environment, I took the opportunity to check out what the facility had to offer first hand. Sorry, I’ve got no pictures for you as (I should have known, of course) the spa has strict rules against phones and cameras on site.

I was quite impressed! While the spa lost a few points for handing out bottled water to guests and two clean towels each, I was very impressed by their floor to ceiling windows for all natural lighting during the day and their dim indoor lighting and bright outdoor solar lighting at night.

Their brochures were all packed to the brim with informatiton on recycled paper, the toilets were all low flush and used greywater, and all of the steam rooms and saunas were run on timers as to not unnecessarily waste energy and electricity.

Everywhere you looked their were bins seperated into waste, paper, plastic, and food (for composting) — all done in very tasteful ways to incorporate it into the theme of the spa.

A lot of the spa was outdoors using nature instead of building facilites — like the hammocks and chair swings — all of which were tethered to trees instead of having a separate building for those who wish to lounge.

An outdoor fireplace stood in the middle of the outdoor pool area instead of a wasteful electric fireplace like I’ve seen in so many other public buildings.

And to top off everything, there were rainwater collection barrels scattered throughout the lot — a great use of all that space! They use the rainwater that’s collected to water the plants. Perfect.

Before this experiment I would have never noticed any of these things, I’m sure — but I’m glad I did. I’m definitely becoming more eco-concious and am certainly aware now that in a facility like that, if there’s no attempt at sustainable development and operation, it could easily be a hugely wasteful place! I was glad to see Le Nordik make such a great effort to not only be as eco-friendly as possible, but to make sure that their clients aware of these efforts, too.

Kudos, Le Nordik!

On a personal note, I highly recommend spending a day at this place — it’s beautiful! And there’s nothing like a steam bath and then a jump in a 4 degree (celcius) water fall to make you feel… alive (and so, socold)!

Today while in Chelsea, Quebec on a top secret mission, I’m scheduled to visit the nice folks at Le Nordik Nature Spa and sit down and chat about their promise to act responsibly towards the environment through ‘eco-friendly actions’.

Here are some of their eco commitments:

• Recuperation of all recyclable material for reuse
• Recycling of paper, plastic and other materials
• Recycling of waste water to be reused in flushing systems
• Energy and electricity management with timers and software systems
• Recuperation of rain water to be used for watering the plants
• Printing on recycled paper for certain documents
• Use of renewable energy

And soon they’ve promised that they will be composting of plant and natural based waste and using geothermy throughout each of their buildings.

I’m hoping to talk to them about what motivated them to make this commitment to the environment and sustainable development as well as, of course, checking out what their facilities look like! I’ve never been there and I’m glad that’s about to change. And maybe we’ll become great friends! I could really use some good friends with a spa, heh. I’m looking forward to meeting you and chatting about your top notch eco-friendly spa, Le Nordik!

I’ll be trying out mobile blogging on location again so stay tuned for pictures and tidbits from my sit down with Le Nordik!

Remember way back in April when I wrote about the city of Ottawa’s TREE Program? Well, my delivery day is fast approaching!

I received a letter today explaining to me that my tree would be delivered to me sometime between September 22nd and October 2nd and will include everything I need to plant this tree right away: a sapling, some soil, a pot, some soil nutrients and compost.

I wonder what kind of tree it will be? They make no promises that you’ll get a tree of your choosing (you choose 3 options on your application) but they do say that they try their very best to get you one of your choices. I chose, in order:

1. Japanese lilac
2. Hackberry
3. Crabapple

I’ll be taking the tree up to my parent’s house to plant on their farm. My mom is very excited to see what we get and has a place picked out for it already. What a better way to show my commitment to going green than to plant a tree! I’ll be sure to post some pictures/video when the tree comes. I’m so excited!

What are you waiting for, Ottawa residents? The next tree delivery season is May/June so be sure to fill out your application now! Don’t have anywhere to put a tree? You can also fill in a form recommending a spot for the city to plant a tree for you.

Sure, I don’t know how practical it is to live in such a teeny tiny cramped space — but it’s awfully neat!

This man pulls his home behind his bicycle. Might I add that this home is not only portable, it’s powered by solar and wind energy and can stand winds of 60mph and temperatures as high as 100 degrees farenheit!

I personally love the nomadic lifestyle — and with your house attached to the back of your bicycle, you could live anywhere that your bicycle can take you! And all without emitting a single gram of carbon into the atmosphere. Fantastic.

Check out TinyHouseDesign for some cool pictures of this cool mobile home!

Well, folks, I’m on vacation!

Yesterday was spent traveling (for many, many hours) from here to here — to visit my grandparents and other members of my dad’s side of the family in Haileybury, Ontario. Let me tell you, the scenery here is breathtaking.

Today I’m going hiking at Devil’s Rock Trail (see photo). Devil’s Rock is a granite escarpment dated to be 2,200 million years old! It’s face is 600 feet, rising 300 feet above Lake Temiskaming.

Apparently this beautiful cliff has some terrible scars from the early 20th century when minning tunnels were blasted into the sides of the cliff during the silver rush era. Since then the rock has been preserved as a historical landmark and is a popular site for tourists, rock climbers, and… Hardy Boys enthusiasts!

Though it’s not an especially eco point of interest, I’d definitely say it’s a point of interest: Leslie McFarlane, who was a Canadian journalist and ghostwriter for many of the Hardy Boys books under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon — was born and raised in this small town. The Devil’s Rock is featured in many of the Hardy Boys books. Maybe that’s what it takes to keep this beautiful landmark standing.

I’ll report back later with some on-the-spot pictures of the Devil’s Rock and its plant and wildlife from up close and personal!

I stumbled on to pictures of cob houses on TreeHugger this morning and now I can’t stop reading up on them!

I’ve decided now that someday I will have one of these. Imagine that — from not-so-green to wanting to live in a cob house in no time at all. Now that’s progress.

Cob houses, for those who don’t know, have nothing to do with corn. Sure, you might have known that, but when I first started reading about them I figured there had to be some corn cobs in there somewhere. Where else have you heard the word cob? Cob is actually a building material made from clay, sand, straw, water, and earth — very similar to adobe. It’s fireproof, resistant to seismic activity and – best of all – quite inexpensive. This one here, for example (see photo) was build for under $3000!

The houses I’ve found online are absolutely beautiful! (Check out my favourites here, here, and here.)

I’m definitely becoming a fan of sustainable, natural development. Not just because it looks beautiful, but because I really admire the hard work, time, and enthusiasm one needs to use the environment around them to build something so worthwhile!

I’m trying out blogging on the go — on my mobile!

I was thinking that bringing you pictures, audio, and video on the road would be a neat way to show you the green things that inspire me in the moment!

Stay tuned for interesting stores around town? Neat products I see, and anything else ecoIfriendly that really catches me eye!

Alright, story time: My cookbook has a lemon section, can you tell? This cookbook was part of my inheritance from my grandmother who loved to cook. She and I spent a lot of time cooking together and everything I know about cooking I owe to her. Sadly, it’s in rough shape — there are Reader’s Digest clippings Scotch taped in and newspaper clippings attached to pencil-written recipes. My grandmother couldn’t read much past a 4th grade level but loved the pictures from recipe books and worked very hard to make her cooking adventures result in these professionally done picturesque Good Housekeeping entries.

This was my favourite and, hilariously enough, it was her most hated. She wasn’t a fan of melon of any kind. And turning to this page, I’ve noticed a note with an asterix: “*This is the one bambi lickes”

It’s true. I do. So hey, if you make some and love it, thank my grandmother.

Ingredients

• 4 cups cubed ripe cantaloupes
• 1 lemon, juice and rind of
• 3 cups sugar

Method

1. Place the cantaloupe in a bowl and add the lemon juice and rind.
2. Pour the sugar over the top (make sure it’s good and saturated!) and let stand overnight.
3. Transfer to a large kettle and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until thick.
4. Let cool to room temperature, then stir to keep the fruits evenly distributed.
5. Pour in hot sterilized glass jars and seal.

Makes about 4-5 cups.

I love robots. There’s no secret there — I’ve always been a huge fan. I subscribe to Google Alerts for ‘robots’ cause I want to keep tabs on how soon I can have one of my very own to do housework, cooking, take pets for walks, and hey, maybe play chess or Monopoly with.

Well, the Nature Conservancy is having a pretty cool contest right now. Their new ROV (remotely operated vehicle) needs a name. That’s right! They have a neato little underwater robot — albeit for more altruistic reasons than I.

This ROV will be swimming along the seafloor to study the effects of trawl fishing off California’s Central Coast. It will take pictures and video which researchers will use to help pioneer environmentally and economically sustainable fishing techniques. Cool!

Alright, so I feel bad wanting a robot slave to do my bidding now that I’ve read this. So here, I’ll help name the ROV.

You have the choice between 5 options:
Beagle — Darwin’s famous ship.
Petrale Patrol — Fishy!
Rachel Carson — An environmental legend and an inspiration.
Rock Lobster — What is a sea robin, exactly?
Nemo — In honor of their latest underwater adventure.

Oh! Ooh! Rock Lobster. Definitely. *sings* Everybody had matching towels!

Your turn. Head to the website and enter. I just did!

As promised, here is a slideshow of pictures from my trip to Topia Greenstop on Wednesday.

I’m going to go back again next week and check out their frozen treats — I’m told they have organic soft serve going in on Monday. Mmmm soft serve.