Today is a double "holiday" here in the US.  Well, maybe not holiday, but "day of note".  First, it's Earth Day.  Sometime in the 1970's some people decided we should have a day to celebrate the Earth.  I think of it as the ultimate Mother's Day.  (I think of the Earth as a warm, nuturing female.  It would never occur to me that Earth might be male)  When the girls were little, we celebrated Earth day each year by taking the day off.  The five of us would make a lunch that used no disposable products.  All food was packed in reusable containers and cloth napkins were used.  We took a picnic in the woods and picked up trash.  We would drive our favorite trails and pick up bags and bags of trash.  We told the girls that the woods weren't really free and this was the price for enjoying them all the rest of the year.  Some years we picked up 4 or 5 large trash bags full in a short time.  It felt good to be doing something for a place we loved.

My girls are far from little and everyone has busy lives and those days seem so innocent and far away.  The memory of them is sweet and I like to think that we started a small seed of concern for their environment.

Today is also Take Your Child to Work Day.  I'm not sure if this is something that is practiced worldwide but it's popular here in the US.  I believe it was started as a way for our daughters to see what kind of work their mothers and fathers did all day.  It was to encourage girls to strive toward jobs in the business world.  (Originally it was Take Your Daughter to Work).  My girls have all come to work with me at one time or another.  They usually enjoyed it and learned a lot.  I haven't had any children to come to work with me for a few years and I didn't notice any bulletins from the hospital about it this year.  In years past, they had all kinds of activities aimed at introducing children to careers in the health care field.

We remembered it this morning as we sat on the train and saw children.  Now, we see kids on the train in the summer. Philadelphia is a popular tourist destination and the train saves parking.  There are not usually children in the morning during rush hour.  There was a father with his two sons who were watching out the windows and exclaiming over the world going by in a quiet way.  There was a mother with her two daughters who were brimming with enthusiasm about everything.  I had to smile as we listened to "Are we there, yet?  Which stop is ours?  Will we get another train?  We have to WALK?  What will we eat for lunch?  What time will we come  home" and so on and so on.  Mom was patient and explained (for what was probably not the first time, nor the second) what the day would entail.  It brought back fond memories of taking my own daughters out into my work world.

Kate and I went to knit night last night.  There were a lot of people there.  It's kinda cool that it's an amorphous group.  I was working on some wash cloths (with cotton which is not my favorite thing to knit with.  I knit tight so it's hard to k2tog with cotton, let alone p2tog tbl).  Kate re-cast on for her Evenstar shawl and got it well started.  I have to admire her stick-to-it-iveness.  She's had to restart several times and this last time is because of accidental "frogging by dog".  Her dog got a hold of it and ran around the room with it in his mouth.   I finished clue 5 last night and put in a secure lifeline and now am waiting for clue 6 to be released tomorrow afternoon.  I know my clue 5 looks a little wonky in one part and I can't figure out what I did but I think some of the yo's are just bigger than others and hopefully they'll block out and look more even.  All in all, I'm pleased with it.

We learned that a semi-local (it's about an hour and a half away) yarn store has a monthly 'spin in' and this Sunday is the day.  We're thinking about going.  Pk is going up to the same area for a tool auction on Saturday and sarcastically said we could go up for the auction and then stay overnight and then go to the spin-in the next day.  It actually sounds like a decent plan.  The yarn store is in New Hope, PA and it's a touristy town.  Expensive and crowded on nice weekends.  It's artsy in what I think of as a self conscious way.  The only problem is that Kate works Saturday  night and wouldn't be able to come.  Since she really wants to go, too, I wouldn't feel right going up on Saturday without her.  We can file this away as a possible future trip or the two of us could just go up on Sunday morning with wheels in tow.  Decisions, decisions.  If that's the hardest thing I have to decide, then I'm doing alright.