This blog post is sponsored by TD but as always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands and companies that support my blog.
Living in Halifax, we are fortunate enough to enjoy lots of green spaces and I, for one, find spending just a few minutes outside amongst the trees instantly calming. When I was on maternity leave with Mía and we lived in a condo downtown, I can recall spending most of our days walking the trails in Point Pleasant Park so that she could nap... because she would only nap if we were on the move. That first year of motherhood for me four years ago was tough and lonely and on those especially hard days we would spend it outside in the park, letting nature hug us and calm us both down.
One of the most important things you can teach your child as a parent (in my opinion) is the importance of conserving our environment so that future generations will have clean air and beautiful oceans. One Saturday, September 21, Mía and I had the pleasure of joining a local TD Tree Days event here in Halifax for a morning of tree planting along a busy (and somewhat bare) section of road downtown. The TD Tree Days program has planted over 390,000 trees through communities across Canada since it started in 2010. Now that’s a lot of added urban green canopies for our country if you ask me! Not only is the program making an impact on our urban green spaces,they are bringing people together to help build a healthy and vibrant community for everyone to enjoy.
To help make sure we understood how to plant and where the best spots to plant would be, the Clean Foundation was on-site to give us a quick lesson in tree planting 101 and lend a helping hand with any heavy digging that was required. I loved seeing how involved and passionate our local TD bunch were. As they came out with their friends and family, we could feel the excitement the moment we walked into the meeting spot. My favourite moment of the day was watching Mía carry her little trees to the planting spot and seeing her so excited to give them a forever home. As the thoughtful soul she is, she let me know straight away which ones were planted for her younger sister Aría and our dog Lily. Cue the mama tears and pass me some Kleenex!
Throughout September and October volunteers will help plant 38,000 trees in 100 sites across Canada. If you are interested in learning more about this program and their goal of planting 1 million trees by 2030, click HERE. Oh, and if you plan on bringing little hands to help you plant trees then be sure to stop by a local dollar store and grab a pair of kid sized gardening gloves!