I am tired of talking about the falling leaves here and showing pictures of piles of leaves.
Not much is happening in the yard and garden right now except continuing garden mulching, manure spreading and wood stacking. So I thought I might talk of some of my other retirement activities that have been significant for me in the past first year plus of my retirement.
There are two social and community involvements that have brought me much satisfaction and take up a good portion of my non-gardening time and attention:
The
Saco Bay Garden Club and the
Union Church of Biddeford Pool. I joined the Saco Bay Garden Club prior to my retirement but rarely could attend the monthly Thursday evening meetings. Now I am an active member of the club and enjoy the people and activities of it. Each meeting usually brings on 25-30 of the much greater number of dues paying members. Usually there is a speaker making helpful and interesting presentations on everything from growing roses to the most recent incredible presentation of dozens of 3D slides of close up images of flowers, insects and plants, complete with each of us wearing the necessary special glasses in a totally darkened room at the Dyer Library. The presenter was a professor of architecture that developed this incredible hobby to better teach his students of the beauty and space that can result in buildings if you understand what is there in nature. The rose specialist has worked at nearby Moody’s Nursery for ten years and offered loads of helpful advice.
The Saco Bay Garden Club sponsored a “garden walk” last July to view some of the garden club members gardening efforts. My vegetable gardens were included and approximately 40 members showed up. Even though the gardens were looking poorly in my opinion it seems that most viewers were impressed and probably thought I was crazy for tackling such large gardens. This viewing might occur again in the summer of 2010. I certainly hope many improvements as a result of my efforts after another year of work and more importantly, a much different weather summer in 2010 will bring a nice new look for the repeating visitors to see.
The garden club maintains several local public areas such as the flower beds of the Saco and Biddeford libraries and one special to me, the new Saco Island Amtrak train station. I am on a small committee focused on the train station landscaping and even contributed some hydrangea and black eyed Susan plants to a new flowerbed we planted at the station. See below…and also the club’s website at: http://www.sacobaygardenclub.com/
The Union Church of Biddeford Pool was discovered on Easter Sunday in 2008 when Julian, Roxi and I sought a church with “good music” for grandson Cotton’s first Easter. Well, music is a centerpiece of the services at this classic, small New England Church and has an inspiring woman minister in Pastor Jan Hryniewicz. Cotton was baptized there in the fall of 2008 and we all have become members of the church. The church community is very active in local community charitable activities and I am a part of the Mission Committee that leads those efforts. A local food pantry, after school focused program for local kids needing some positive activities and a meals program for the homeless are some of these projects. Also, I have become part of the “Green Team” that is trying to make the church building more energy efficient and to offer church members advice and information about smart home environmental “green” activities. We persuaded 37 people to buy composter for their gardens that I spoke of in the blog last June. The church’s website posts its monthly newsletter and occasionally I have added an article on “green topics”. See: http://www.unionchurchme.com/greening.html
