Well hi! I am not sure where January and February went, but this year is cruising along fast (does that just happen when you get older or am I seeing things)! I have been busy scheming up new ideas for this year and getting my client projects all finished up to make room for my own. I am also training on the bike a bunch for our trip which is only 7 weeks away, so between work and cycling my days are getting filled pretty quick!
After many years, I have reluctantly decided not to renew my membership to 1% For The Planet. It was a really tough decision as I respect the organization and what they are doing, however their membership fees have just kept climbing and I was finding that at the end of the day my 1% was primarily going to their administration fees rather than to local businesses HERE who can be impacted more through direct donations, volunteering, or participation in fundraising events. I can understand the benefit for larger companies with massive annual revenues, but not so much smaller ones like me. I’d love to donate more, but I have to be realistic too… you only can do what you can do. So that being said, I will be saving that membership fee and still participate and donate locally as I have in the past. Although I found the brand use of 1% For The Planet valuable for its accountability and recognition, you will just have to trust that moving forward I will continue to support smaller organizations and do my part. Just note some of my copyrighted 2022 and earlier cards still have the logo, and I am still honouring that pledge. I just didn't feel right recycling a stack of cards and prints... that would just be environmentally wasteful and somewhat defeats the purpose.
And now moving on to my monthly free colouring page. This months colouring page is inspired by the somewhat noisy and impatient Stellar and California sea lions who are waiting for the annual Herring spawn on the west coast. Sea lions and herring are two important species that can be found in British Columbia's coastal waters. Pacific herring are small, oily fish that form a crucial part of the marine food chain, serving as a primary food source for a variety of larger predatory species, including sea lions. Millions of Herring roe cover the BC shoreline in the late winter, bringing everyone out from winter hiding. Sea lions are a type of pinniped (weighing over 1000 lbs) are opportunistic predators and have been known to prey on herring during the winter months when the herring spawn in large numbers. Both sea lions and herring play important roles in BC's coastal ecosystem, and their interactions are an important area of study for scientists and conservationists alike. I do miss my sea lion neighbours on the Tofino Docks… it did keep life entertaining!
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For those who are new to my site, each month I offer free west coast inspired colouring pages that are published and distributed in Tofino Time Magazine. They are also available for download as a high resolution PDF here (scroll down to the button below). If you would like them to come straight to your inbox when I occasionally send out a newsletter, please sign up for my mailing list (yeah, that annoying pop up). Personally I hate getting a bunch of spamming emails, so I promise to keep it to a maximum of once a month (more like once every 4 haha)! Please feel free to download them for personal use. If you are a restaurant, school, organization or business that wants to print them for your clients, customers (or to keep their kids happy) or students then I am totally fine with that too. All I ask is you leave my contact info at the bottom of the page please. Enjoy!
