Dunbar Memorial Garden

Updating the blog was put on hold (or rather, I got caught up in a game of "FarmVille" as well as cleaning computer components for Mindtriggerz) but we'll back space and get caught up!

Last Saturday we convened on Ms. Eller's art room to help bring to fruition a project her art club began but was unable to complete. One of the original "Horsemania" horses had been donated to the school and students collaborated on a design and decided to use broken tiles to decorate it. With assistance from SEVERAL Beta Club students along with their wondermous sponsor teacher Ms. Davis as well as our regular "crew", we pretty much saddled that pony (sorry, couldn't resist). Having completely forgotten my camera, Rachel thankfully shared a few of hers. It was a great day of great collaboration among caulk guns filled with glue, hammer meisters who broke the tiles, and some of us (ME) as an observer. We pounded and adhered away and left with dusty fingers and a horse making great strides to finding a spot in the garden soon! We'll continue working over the winter on this project - a million thanks to Ms. Eller and all our "artistes" (even the ones who didn't pose for the camera!).

So this week we moved back out into fresh air and sunshine to prune and sweep (thank you, Serena!) and throw bamboo stake javelins (Chris and James, thank you very much). We had a small crowd including the aforementioned as well as Katelyn's younger sister Lindsay who brought another future Dunbar student, her Beaumont Middle classmate, Kirby. They are now officially known as "the pruner twins" - they did a remarkable job on some sunflowers, beardtongue and random stray dead branches. After Gracie's major/minor issue was resolved with a little help from her friends, Chris fetched some extra pruners from his house and we all set out dead heading - this time being careful to collect the seed heads from the oxeye sunflower so they potentially won't sprout all over the garden next spring. Oh, and Gracie cleaned all the picnic tables and did a little romping in the water while she was at it. :)

On several fronts today I was reminded how very important our connecshuns are - not only in this space but in each others' lives. I am thankful to these young people who are my family. I would do anything for each one of them.

A special shout-out to Serena's mom who showed up at the end of the day with some homemade hummus and Baba Ganoush for yours truly. I appreciate every chance I get to nurture and feed these young ones, what an incredible bonus to have that returned!

Chris promises a few pics from today to add later - Jesse's dad has my camera tonight since while he and Jaz delivered THREE MINDTRIGGERZ COMPUTERS this afternoon, they forgot to bring it back. Rather, Jerome did. Boo!

Peace and love and flowers. <3
Jesse's Mom