Working and Playing

Working for a living and volunteering in the neighborhood has kept me busy lately, with job-related evening meetings and sitting in front of computer at night to line up volunteers for our upcoming Highland BLOOMS garden tour of seven neighborhood gardens.  This is no ordinary garden tour--we have jazz bands at two large garden sites; an old fashioned lemonade stand with homemade cookies and lemonade served from the gazebo in one lovely shade garden; artist vendors selling their wares; a raffle of a lovely water feature that I truly covet; a red tag sale of vintage garden items; a tasting table of local treats; cold drinks at most locations; free passalong plants to first 200 patrons--all included in the basic admission fare for the tour.  Wow!  No wonder all the committee members are on overload.

Fountain being raffled off (photo by Sarah as fountain
now appears temporarily at home in her garden)

Yesterday another group of neighborhood volunteers and I picked up any litter in the vicinity of our tour gardens, then we hit other litter challenged areas.  Unfortunately, in this central city neighborhood, we have people with no eyes to see and appreciate the beauty around them and these few trash our historic neighborhood.  It's heartbreaking, but you can't let it bring you down. 

I love early morning trash clean-ups, I know that's weird to say, but there are few folks out early on Saturday morning.  It's quiet and peaceful.  Though we stick to sidewalks mainly in our litter removal efforts (and what we can reach with our grabbers), I see and hear the birds that I'm too busy or insulated in my car or house to notice on normal mornings, I notice tiny flowers that I would ordinarily fail to note or appreciate, and the unusual cool mornings we've had this week have been heavenly--yesterday was no exception. 

On one major thoroughfare, I found the most delicate tiny violets growing in the shade of a concrete wall next to the sidewalk.  I noticed the hearty, vividly colored flowers  shown here when I stopped to clean a parking lot near some popular eateries.  I have grown to love the discovery of unexpected beauty in the midst of sometimes harsh surroundings.



Tiny flowers growing in concrete next to litter of parking lot

After the trash clean-up, I connected with friends for a group birthday lunch and general happy get-together.  We have been trying to meet, literally, for months to celebrate some February birthdays and an April one.  One friend had out-of-town guests she wanted us to meet, so finally we gathered for lunch at Lilah's, a local cafe and bakery, to celebrate all of the above--birthdays and an appreciation of new and old friends.


Artist hanging her pictures for art show in Lilah's,
which the restaurant periodically does (though none was
featured yesterday)



My friend Beth with her childhood friends who were visiting.




Since I was one of the February birthday gals, I had to show you one gift I received from my friend, Kathy--a garden shed to display in my exercise/mud room until I am ready to share it with the birds.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day and a beautiful week.