Hello and welcome to the Hearth and Soul Link Party! Earth Day last Thursday made me think a lot about caring for our environment. Mother Earth looks after us, providing food, water and a place to live, so it’s up to us to look after her. While the pandemic made 2020 a year to remember for all the wrong reasons, the improvements we saw in our environment definitely made many of us think about how we can support our planet moving forward.
The Hearth and Soul Link Party welcomes blog posts about anything that feeds the soul. Things that feed the soul may include (but are not limited to) recipes, decorating, crafts, family, home, DIY, organization, travel, book reviews, the arts and self improvement.
Caring For Our Environment
I have long been an advocate of avoiding food waste where possible and I’ve shared lots of hints and tips for How To Love Your Leftovers. My husband and I did fly a lot before, so our carbon footprint wasn’t small, but we do contribute to charities and initiatives to help combat the effects of air travel on the planet. However while we will definitely travel in the future, I think we will fly less. So instead of going to a place two or three times a year, we might try to fly once and stay a bit longer.
Have you been thinking about caring for our environment too?
What’s Been Happening
Afternoon Tea Classes
I’ve been really excited to hear from participants how much they enjoyed the British Afternoon Tea Class I offered in early April. One participant, Sarah, wrote, “I meant to message sooner to thank you both very much for your excellent Afternoon Tea Baking Class, but I have been very busy eating cakes and scones! Your class was great fun and thank you for your tips. My kitchen has never been so organised in preparation for the bakes!”
Watch my newsletter and this space for the date of the next class – coming soon!
On the Blog
As well as thinking about caring for our environment, it has been a busy week with more networking meetings and lots of content creation. I’m working on some vintage recipes from my family’s collection to share with you.
The latest is brand new on the blog –
Don’t miss this easy recipe for my late Mom’s Waldorf Salad, a versatile vintage salad recipe featuring crisp apples, crunchy walnuts and a delicious lemon spiked dressing. There are vegan and vegetarian options too!
Thank you all for visiting and sharing your wonderful content! Without further ado, here are this week’s Caring for Our Environment featured posts!
Caring for the Environment Featured Posts
Caring for our environment featured posts (from top left, clockwise):-
Suzan at It’s My Sustainable Life shared lots of Simple Changes You Can Make Today to Help Protect The Environment. Her practical, do-able suggestions have me feeling very inspired!
Celebrating the beauty of nature in our homes can also help us feel inspired when it comes to caring for our environment. Shelley of Calypso in the Country shines a spotlight on Decorating with Orchids, an easy way to bring the beauty of nature into your home.
Jenna from Life of an Earth Muffin writes about her frugal, sustainable shopping adventures in A Collective Haul – My Recent Eco Friendly Bargain Finds.
Bringing nature into our homes as well as enjoying it in our gardens is the focus of Judith at Botanic Bleu’s Spring Gardening with New Flower Pots and Lavender.
On with the party!
The Hearth and Soul Link Party
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Comments & Reviews
Thank you so much for featuring my orchid post along with all these inspiring blogs! So many wonderful ideas here. Enjoy your week and thanks for hosting!
Shelley
It’s a pleasure, and thank you so much, Shelley! I hope you enjoy your week too!
I had never connected food management with caring for the Earth, but I certainly see the connection. This gives me even more motivation to master the transition to cooking for an empty nest!
I’m so glad I could inspire a little, Michele! It sure can be hard adjusting quantities after you have been used to it for so long!
That Waldorf salad looks really yummy! Thanks for hosting. 🙂 I brought by some Caramelized Banana Bread this week – more yum with less butter and sugar. 😉 Hope you enjoy!
Thank you, CJ! I always enjoy a healthy bake so I look forward to your Banana Bread!
The pandemic did reveal just how much human activity impacts the environment. I keep thinking about how capitalism, the way it is practiced now, is based on growth and so is really at odds with sustainability.
Michelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com
We certainly have learned a lot during the pandemic, Michelle! I hope we can find ways for capitalism and sustainability to live side by side – I’m seeing evidence of that happening locally to us and it really encourages me!
A new week = a new round of recipes! Thanks so much for hosting this weekly link-up.
Thank you, Estelle!
Thanks for the intriguing theme for this week’s features. There’s a lot that we can do as individuals that will have a collective impact on the environment. Have a wonderful week!
Thank you, Sandra. We can all make a difference, that is for sure! I hope your week is wonderful too!
Thanks for the reminders on protecting our Earth. I feel like so much is being aware and focused on doing so. Thank you for reminding us! It must be wonderful to get such lovely feedback from your tea event. Last, I appreciate all your features this week.
It’s National Zucchini Bread Day so I’ve linked up two of the gluten-free zucchini bread recipes on my site. Both are favorites of ours. 🙂
Have a good week, April!
I really do feel like there is more of a focus on protecting the earth, Shirley, and it really encourages me 🙂 I look forward to your zucchini bread recipes. I hope you have a lovely week!
Hi April,
We are organic gardeners and every mindful of our constant stewardship of the earth and what she gives us and what we can give back. I have been in my garden earlier today and am bringing spring harvest already, it is a wonderful gift. Thanks so much for the party and have a lovely week!
Miz Helen
Hi Miz Helen, I always follow your gardening adventures with great interest – and I’m excited to learn you are reaping a harvest already this year! That is wonderful news. It’s so lovely you are able to be organic in the way you garden. Have a wonderful week!
Hi April
I do try to leave a smaller carbon footprint these days. We never waste food if we can help it, we grow flowers for bees and butterflies, we hope to buy an electric car in a few years, and we conserve and recycle as much as possible. If everyone does a little it adds up to a lot, doesn’t it?
I love Waldorf salad! Your dressing sounds very good!
Pat
This is so true, Pat! If we all do a little, we can accomplish a lot! Thank you so much for the compliment on my Mom’s Waldorf Salad. I hope you are having a lovely week.
Sadly recycling still has a long way to go. Linking in with your tea class, I’d like to make the point that although it’s said that tea bags are mostly biodegradable they do not breakdown with home composting. Although we do our best we’re not perfect recyclers but we do set ourselves the ‘lovely’ job each morning of splitting open yesterday’s tea bags before the contents go into the compost bin. For a nation of tea lovers this is really not on.
Love the way you inter-mix the cuisins of the US and UK, and the waldorf salad is a gem. Thank you April.
It really does, Pamela. In our area, we cannot recycle any plastic that is not “bottle shaped”. This is immensely frustrating!!
I am a huge fan of loose leaf tea for flavour as well as sustainability, but we definitely use tea bags as well. As you say, many brands are not plastic free. I did find an article about the UK brands which are but it was full of advertisements so I will not link to it here. It seems TeaPigs tea bags are fully recyclable now, and I understand that Pukka teabags and PG Tips are too. I suppose it is a start but we have a long way to go.
Thank you so much for the compliment. I am so glad you enjoy my recipes! Have a lovely week!
Thanks for hosting again this week 🙂
I think you are right and we all need to think a lot more about what we do that affects the planet.
I come from a family of recyclers and upcyclers so that is second nature to me – my nan was the queen of using leftovers, a hangover from cooking for her family at a time of rationing I think.
I do (in normal times) enjoy a holiday abroad though, which involves a plane. I like your idea of cutting back on that instead of cutting out. If we all do that it will surely make a difference. The actions of each person may be small, but millions of people’s actions add together.
Thank you, Julie! I totally agree. If we all make small steps where we can it will make a difference. Have a wonderful week!
Thank you, April, for hosting such a great party every week AND for the shoutout to my post on changes we can all make to help the environmental cause. Have a safe and beautiful week!
It’s a pleasure, Suzan! I hope you have a safe and beautiful week too!
Hi April, Thanks for hosting. LOVE your theme this time. In fact, one of my posts is about tips to conserve water. I have three shares this week (#5,6,7). Hope you and your readers will visit, Warm regards, Nancy Andres at Colors 4 Health.
Thank you so much, Nancy! I really appreciate your support of Hearth and Soul. Warm regards x
Thank you for hosting April! Happy belated Earth Day!
Thank you, Maya!
So much needs to be done to reduce carbon footprints all around the world. We try our best, by recycling, composting, using containers rather than zip top bags, reusable water bottles etc.
Thank you so much for hosting and I hope you have a wonderful week, April!
I agree, Cindy. And, all those “little things” we do add up to big results. 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful week too!
That Waldorf salad looks delicious!
Thank you so much, Joanne!
Thanks for the update!
Have a great week, Lauren!
That salad looks so good. Thanks for hosting and I hope that you have a wonderful week.
Thank you, Patrick! I hope you are having a wonderful week as well!
I think I’m a little late to the party, but I just stumbled upon this link party and your caring for the environment theme had me feeling right at home!
I’m in the process of launching my blog store where I sell baby and children’s items made from repurposed and salvaged items. You are reducing food waste and I am reducing textile waste!
Thanks for hosting this party!
Hi Johanna, Welcome! Your business sounds fabulous – it’s so wonderful to be able to repurpose things. I chose my features based on different themes each week, but caring for the environment is always close to my heart. Thank you for visiting and sharing. Very best wishes on your launch!