Today is Earth day....

And in celebration of such a glorious day as well as Arbor day this Friday I present the following picture from the "Sarah and William crazy picture archive"

Note, our faces are turned away from the camera so it would not appear like this was a publicity stunt. Today and Friday are days in which we should be celebrating nature and we wanted our true feelings for both Earth and Arbor day to be conveyed through the power of the photography without a distraction which might arise from seeing our smiling visages.....

Ok enough of that gobbledygook! (yes it's a real word) Since it seems spring is upon us, how about some helpful advice on avoiding potentially painful experiences which can arise between now and the fall.

So it is getting warmer, the sun is shinning, the flowers are starting to bloom, bees are flying from flower to said flower, though none of them are mine since my hives died, the pollen is turning my car a nasty yellowish green, and people are starting to wear shorts. If you happen to not believe in wearing shorts, let me be the first of the season to tell you that you are a smart person, though probably a very hot one as the weather continues to heat up. Why are you a very smart person for not wearing shorts? For the simple reason that by wearing shorts you present the lower half of your legs to serious injury.

Case in point:

As you can see, exposed legs seem to attract hard pointy objects as well as possess a strange, almost magnetic pull towards any hard surface, especially that of concrete. Yes shorts are MUCH cooler in warm weather, but are they worth it? I leave it up to the readership to decide for themselves.

Something even worse and much more serious than injuries to the lower extremities comes from our always shining source of light, the sun. I am talking about sunburn! Now maybe some people don't have this problem, count yourself blessed if you don't, but the sun really likes shining it's bright rays onto my skin and toasting it a nice shade of reddish orange. Maybe toast is too light a word, fry would probably be more like it. The times I have had to deal with skin peeling off in quarter sized pieces is sadly too numerous to count.

Fortunately there is a solution to both injuries to your legs and sunburn, stay indoors! :D (This is not a very feasible option however) A better approach is to wear sunblock to prevent sunburn, yes, it is a slight pain to put on but you are saving your skin. As to bloody injuies on your knees and legs, if you can't wear long pants, at least always have band-aids handy to keep the blood at bay and maybe Neosporin to prevent infection.....Oh and avoid mulch piles in the dark ;)