The end of May. The summer season is upon us!
Garden Update/Resources/Events
In this newsletter, we have an update from the garden and an array of resources for you.
Here’s the update from Isabel:
Hello Lovely Community Members,
It is my favorite time of year! The first reason for this is that we have started to plant in our garden! During our volunteer day this Saturday we had twenty people show up to get seedlings in the ground and build arches for our plants. It was a beautiful day with lots of our young volunteers learning how to gently care for seedlings and how to get them tucked in the ground with water. The second thing that makes this my favorite time of year are the lupines that have begun to flower.
If you are from the New England area, you have probably grown up seeing the lupine on the sides of the highway, on back roads, and along stone walls. The lupine is a beautiful plant with one variety being native and local to this region. But what makes this plant especially important to me, is the book I have read my whole life that uses it as a metaphor for making the world a better and more beautiful place. The book I am referring to is Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (my favorite book)! For those that are not familiar with this book, it follows the life of a woman who has been given three goals by her grandfather - one: to travel the world - two: to grow old by the sea - and three: to make the world a more beautiful place. In the book, we follow Miss Rumphius through beautifully illustrated pages as she travels and then settles down by the sea in Maine. One day, she sees the beautiful lupines growing and she decides she wants to share this gift with her community. She becomes infamous for spreading lupine seeds all through her town and for the beauty she shared with everyone.
There are so many things that we all do to make the world a more beautiful place. I think this book is a good reminder of our possibility to make positive change by small actions and by creating lasting impacts in our community. This community garden we are planting may not be very large but it has lots of potential. It has the potential to bring people together, to educate, provide beauty, produce food, and act as inspiration for others. This is a step in our community in a positive direction and I want to thank you for being a part of it!
I hope you all enjoy the sunshine and have a great rest of your day!
Isabel
Resources from Sara Jolena
What’s at stake for the environment in Mexico’s upcoming elections?
Uzbekistan plants a forest where a sea once lay - Sonam Lama Hyolmo
The Key to better climate outcomes? Respecting Indigenous Rights and Sovereignty - This article summarizes a larger study by One Earth pointing to these dynamics.
So you’ve been publicly shamed, by Jon Ronson. This book is abrdiged for BBC audio sounds, making it highly accessible and easy to listen to. It’s a fabulous insight into the online dimensions of public shaming.
From War Machine to Supermarket Staple: a history of the plastic bag - we know how much plastic bags harm the environment… and how hard they are to get rid of. But it wasn’t that long ago that no one used them. How did we get here? This article shows how.
A Year full of Veg: a harvest for all seasons by Sarah Raven - a beautiful book by a gardener with 30 years of experience
Cultural Burning: a podcast on california indigenous practices of burning as part of tending to the watershed
Multisolving: Creating Systems Change in a Fractured World by Elizabeth Sawin (
Troubled Waters by Mary Annaïse Heglar
The Lucky Ones: A Memoir - Zara Chowdhary
Events: