community garden..

i love my neighborhood. it earns that

title, neighborhood. most of the houses are

turn of the century to 30's. the houses

wear porches wide enough to be considered a

room. large enough to gather unexpectedly

when you spy neighbors with their coffee

in the morning or wine in the evening.

windows and transoms that can grab a fall

breeze and pull it inside like deep, slow

breath, whipping curtains around like batting eyelashes.

it only makes sense that a neighborhood

filled with homes built back when mother nature

set the thermostat would be

filled with folks of a like mind.

throwing open windows, dining on lawns,

napping on sleeping porches.

even though i have raised beds (i worry

about lead in the soil from 100 years

of paint scraping and sanding)in the back

yard, i decided to be a part of our

community garden. i grew up on a farm

where we grew a lot of what we ate

and it felt really new and novel to me

to ride our bikes to a city lot to grow

broccoli! the kids were more entranced

than they are here at our home garden.

i like looking around at other families

working their plot. i love feeling a part

of something..especially something that

helps make my neighborhood a community and

my community a part of my family.