Easing out of June

Last week was the Summer Solstice and we went to a neighborhood party in the company of about 200 other folks.  I think a lot of the people must have come from some other neighborhood, though.  Roast beef, pig, turkey, probably a swan or two and maybe a venison, though I didn't see any of the latter two.

A potluck dinner provided by 200+ people makes it very hard to know what to do with your plate when you get to it.  Are you supposed to take a half-teaspoon of each of the 45-50 salads at the salad table? at the dessert table?  etc.  Or what.  It's a hard party for people who have trouble making choices, which may just be people.  There weren't very many kids there, which was probably to the good because my kids, if they are typical, were never very good at making choices between more than 3 things.  But now that the world offers us so many choices, maybe people have gotten better at it, but I haven't.  The party proved that.

In any case, it was a memorable event of people, food, cars parked everywhere, music and general and constant movement, including cow-sculpture rides and trips on the motorized couch.  And a generous gesture on the part of the hosts.

Weather Vagueries

Last Saturday was the first day of the Community Market and it was a reasonable start.  Here in Point Roberts, we tend to start slow and improve over the course of the run of whatever it is.  So we've got about 12 weeks or so to populate both the vendors and the shoppers at the Saturday Market.

However, this morning was the 2nd week of the Saturday Market.  It is 10:30 now and the sun is shining brightly, but I am not at the market looking out for the New Library's interests, but am sitting at this computer, looking out the window, and wondering why I'm here and not there.

This is another of the problems of Point Roberts events: it frequently looks like it might rain very soon, and somebody has to decide whether to go with an outdoor event or not.  This morning, the Market Organizer called the day for rain at about 8 am, sending all the vendors a notice that it was cancelled.  And it seemed not a bad call.  But by 10, the sun was shining brightly and the sky was clear of clouds (at least at my centrally located house), and obviously the Market should be on, except that all the vendors were presumably at home and not at the Market.

Grrrr!  So frustrating.  But, a decision needed to be made, and the Market Organizer is the person to make that decision, and she made it on the best information she had.  But, I hope people will try us out again next week, assuming that it isn't raining, or looking and feeling like rain, not to mention the weather reports that all said 'high probability of rain in Point Roberts beginning at 10 am."

Two Things

The first is that the Fire District meeting reported that the volunteers had turned up 6 unauthorized yard burns in May.  People!  Be apprised that you need a burn permit when burning yard waste and that it costs all of about $3.00 and it's good for a couple of days.  And act accordingly.  As one who has twice been visited by firemen when doing burns WITH a burn permit, I'm pretty confident in saying you probably don't want to have them drop by when you DON'T have a burn permit.

And some very good news!  The Community Advisory Committee is setting up to appoint a sub-committee to revise the P.R. Character Plan, which is the puzzling document that apparently aims at making Point Roberts most resemble a small town with all the aesthetic charms of 1918, not a period that particularly lives in memory as a stunningly creative architectual moment, I think.  E.g., when we get a new library, it's supposed to have a gable roof, because that's what we would probably have had in 1918.  Ah, the death of rationality in a single document.  Of course, I suppose they could revise it to require that all outdoor signs on businesses use incandescent light bulbs.  Assuming anyone has one any more...a sign or an incandescent light bulb.  Take your choice.

The First Lily Blooms

and very much brightens our life.  A friend tells me that lilies are referred to as 'the queen of the garden,' which I didn't know, probably because I'd never grown lilies before.  (Well, they pretty much grow themselves, although I do feed them as advised by B&D Lilies, which is my bulb provider.)  I have somehow found myself responsible for about 4 dozen of these plants which do multiply over the years.  And some of them don't make it through the winter because my landscape is pretty wet.  But over about four years, I've netted 4 dozen, anyway.  And the stalks with the most buds (16-18, the most efflorescent--and I've never thought to use that word in relation to flowers but surely that is where it had its birth) are the ones that bloom in June-July.  So we are headed for some lily abundance.

Spinach!

This week, the International Marketplace had fresh spinach in a bunch (not in a sealed plastic bag).  I've lived here 20 years and I don't remember ever seeing fresh, bunch spinach for sale there.  I thought maybe it didn't exist except in home gardens and plastic bags any more.  And now, here it is.  Another reason to believe that hope should spring eternal.

The end of May and exceeding summerish.  Our rhododendrons are growing AND blooming furiously.  The one outside the fence which gets almost no care, steady exhaust fumes,  and only such water as nature provides, is now almost 10-12 feet tall and covered with bright pink blossoms.  I have lilies covered with buds whose stalks are taller than I am.  Some spring!

Our Community

A funny thing happened earlier this month.  I was at the Park and Rec Board monthly meeting where they were discussing a current problem.  Puget Sound Energy needed to have an enclosure with a container where they could store equipment they needed to have readily available in case of power outages.  (We need them to have that, certainly.)  They build such an enclosure and provided such a container on land that belongs to Park and Rec.  After they built it, they agreed to plant some trees to do some screening of said enclosure.

That's good all round, right?  But, there is no water faucet belonging to Park and Rec near the site of the three, newly planted trees.  And the trees need to be watered regularly for the first year or so.  What to do?  Well, about 20 feet away from the Park and Rec site is the Fire District's main building.  And the building has a hose bib.  So maybe they could put a hose from the Fire District's hose bib to the trees?  So, they decided to ask the Fire District whether that could be done.

Then later that week, I was at the Fire District meeting and the issue of the hose and the trees came up.  There was considerable concern on the part of two of the Commissioners that Park and Rec was inappropriately (and perhaps illegally) expecting that the Fire District should pay for water for the Park and Rec's three trees.  This was not thought to be acceptable.  But then the Chairman pointed out that he had checked with the Water District's Dan Bourks and Bourks had offered to put a special meter on the Fire District's hose bib so that Park and Rec could use the water for its trees without the Fire District being charged for the water. And somehow, the Water District would arrange for the bill to be sent to Park and Rec.  And that was the resolution that was approved.

But I was thinking...Park and Rec helped out Puget Sound Energy with a space because the community needs to have power outages promptly restored.  PSE helped out the community by planting the trees.  The Fire District helped out the community by letting their hose bib provide water for the trees.  And the Water District helped out the community by installing a special hose bib meter.  All this stuff was for the community.

Surely the simplest solution was for the fire district to allow a hose to be attached to its hose bib and for the water to just water the trees.  But, somehow, this got translated into Park and Rec's trees and the Fire District's water bill.  But all of it is for us.  If we'd had an election, I'm guessing everybody would have voted to have the Fire District do that and skip the special meter installation, which may cost more than water does.  But, instead we get a complex solution.  Which is the way we live now, I guess.

Everybody's Library

Apparently there is some confusion about public access to the Maple Beach Park, which is, I believe, owned by the Maple Beach Owners' Association.  This is where the new Little Library has been erected.  The Little Library is owned and operated by the Friends of the Point Roberts Library ( that's the group that is generally devoted to helping the library provide additional services as well as devoted to raising funds for a new library: anyone can join, and I urge you to do so if you care about the community's having a thriving library).  And the Little Library is there for the use of anyone who comes by and wants to read one of the books in the library.  You're Welcome, of course!  And enjoy!