Gardener, blogger, and now...

Since Friday afternoon, there had been much speculation over whether or not the early summer Minton Stable Garden potluck barbecue should take place on Saturday as scheduled. Early yesterday afternoon, the gardeners were notified by a single email that the event was on. They were probably unaware of what I experienced as a newly-elected member of the Steering Committee--an inbox flooded with messages assessing the weather as well as confirming the date of our next meeting.

It really did appear that the weather could go either way, but the sun began to make longer cameo appearances and the National Weather Service pushed back the estimated arrival of more rain to after midnight. We made the right call; despite the ever-present dark clouds the conditions remained dry, although a little chilly for the weekend of the summer solstice. Though the turnout was smaller most people lingered for several hours, eating, drinking, and conversing, and a couple of gardeners took turns providing some acoustic guitar music.
As you may be able to see in this photo of John and Todd, we were identified by name tags that Jennifer had written up ahead of time. Someone joked that it would make us easier targets for complaints, but what I received instead was a few thank yous from other gardeners for making the two-year commitment. In addition to the monthly meetings, members take turns supervising work days, and take on tasks in other areas such as treasury, communications, and record-keeping of work hours, just to name a few. They also work together to make decisions about how to develop the common areas and determine by-laws. On Wednesday Roxane, Asa (whose name I am getting closer to spelling correctly, as soon as I learn the HTML for that circular mark above the first letter), and I will join current members John, Todd, Jennifer, and Terry and get a fuller picture, as we try fill the enormous shoes of the outgoing members Allan, Julianna, and Nancie, whom I'd like to thank for all of their hard work and dedication.

The responsibilities seem so great that I almost considered not running. But, as I explained to the other gardeners in my bio, I've been blogging about how wonderful the place is and that relatively speaking, at this point in my life, I can put in my time for helping ensure that it stays that way. I didn't choose to run to serve my blog, and the blog will not be a record of the committee's activities. The committee is dedicated to transparency and open communication with the gardeners and neighbors, which it is hoping to achieve through meetings, emails, and the Yahoo group that was established last year. However, there may be some times that I might share a little of my experience, sometime when I'm not reporting on my harvest, fussing over my tomatoes that don't seem to be growing as quickly as everyone else's, or harassing my fellow gardeners to let me write about them. We'll see.

Back to harvests in my next post. As you can see, many plants have taken off, and there are peas dangling all over the place.