— which, in this unusual spring of intermittent rain, was a big gamble, especially last night, when a few drops did fall, and we covered the food for a few minutes.
Actually, I’m getting bored with posting pics after each Thursday Community Dinner. At least as is. Maybe I should spice it up, ask a question when I show a photo, like, “Who is the one person you’ve never seen before at the C.D.?” Because it’s true, there’s always at least one.
Community Dinner, June 6
Last night it was Gillian, who had met Gabrielle and I at the Saturday HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) Blooming Neighborhoods event down at City Hall. Gillian asked if she could come speak to us about invasive species, and we told her sure, come this Thursday. So she did!
Here we are at city hall, tabling, along with other neighborhoods. Georgia, former activist in our Green Acres Neighborhood Association (GANA), joins us for an hour. So good to see her!
And here’s Gillian, after last night’s dinner —
— speaking in an intensely heartfelt manner, about what she loves, our dear Mother Earth, and all her critters, including the insects that depend on the plants they co-evolved with, and, she says, which are noticeably absent around invasive plants. That while the plant came from elsewhere, it didn’t bring with it all the species that depend on it; this invasive planet then, as it takes over an area, crowds out native plants so that the insects that depend on them are out of luck.
To my question, “But won’t the insects evolve to catch up with the new plants?” She answered: “Eucalyptus came here from Australia to the west coast 150 years ago. At this point only one insect has evolved to depend on it.” (However, I read later, that the monarch butterfly loves the eucalyptus, so who knows?)
Gillian pointed us to a book, which housemate Dan has ordered from the library.
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Meanwhile, I discover that Rebecca, our long-time gardener, and who was not present for the talk last night, has a very different perspective on invasive plants, and even says that she heard that Monsanto promoted the movement to eradicate them. Well, this startled me. Enough so that I decided do research and write a post on the various views of the subject. (Possibly tomorrow?) Because, as usual, I’m already realizing: it all depends. Nothing is black and white when we look close-to. And I don’t think any middle is “grey:” either; but widely and deeply multi-colored.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos from last night, when the food was absolutely over-the-top and the company very congenial. We even got to sing our special song twice last night, in honor of Annie’s birthday Tuesday, and Gabby’s birthday today.
May 31 Community Dinner
Let’s see now. what happened last Thursday evening? I should have written a post on it then, rather than waiting. Because though the dinners may look the same — especially two in a row out on the repurposed-basketball-court-into-patio — they do all feel different, fragrant with their own special flavor, given the weather, the precise people present, the food, etc. No two dinners the same. So I guess I’m not bored after all. I just need to bore down (heh heh) into the exact feel of each event.
Actually, last week’s Community Dinner inaugurated a long list of community events, including a regular work day Friday morning, a surprise dessert party for Daisy Saturday evening, and a brunch and pod meeting Sunday morning. Way more community than this somewhat solitary soul is used to. But in any case, here are some pics of the dinner, and perhaps they will spark me to say more:
Neighbor Devin’s wife Sally finally got to join us. (She has choir practice on Thursday evenings.)
Our pianist extraordinaire and newly minted Ph.D. Andreas, here with right arm extended, was not present for our June 6 dinner, but away in L.A., where he texts us saying he wants to meet Brangelina, but actually is sniffing out a possible career move. More on that later.
That evening’s food was good, but light, until, thank our lucky stars, Jim finally arrived, with the very best, thickest, creamiest, gooiest lasagna ever. (BTW: someone said that Beverly was thinking about skipping this dinner, until she heard Jim was bringing lasagna . . .)
Note on the patio: when I was sweeping it off yesterday, I was reminded on how I had wondered and wondered what to do with the huge ugly slab that had accompanied the already taken down basketball pole and basket. Take it all out and do more gardens? Years went by with the question still undecided. Then we built the pond, and rimmed it with pieces from the patio (“urbanite”), which left gaping holes, which Rebecca then turned into gardens. And the rest of it, well, it’s now THE PATIO, where we gather, and gather, and gather.
So sometimes it pays to just wait until a decision becomes obvious.
One more note. See this T-shirt? I want it. Camden, its wearer, will be moving into this house at the end of July: maybe I can persuade him to let me wear it once? P.S., the small print says what?
