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Fine Day in the Garden
Yesterday I went out into the garden first thing and fed and deadheaded and trimmed and harvested and pulled seedlings and rearranged and swept for several hours. One of the most delightful things about planting decoratively with herbs and greens is that trimming and pulling things back transforms directly into meals and gifts for neighbors and friends. My visitor to the garden walked away with bunches of oregano, lemon balm, and mint and lemon balm with roots to plant in her own garden. We drank a cool lemon-mint infusion (mixture of spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, and lemon verbena) and ate a few strawberries (some from the garden, some from the farmers’ market). Later in the day, my lunch included a salad with lettuce, radishes, baby spinach and chard, spring onions, and various herbs. For dinner, I used chard, beets, and green onions to make a stew of chickpeas and greens.
With today’s rain, everything will keep flourishing, and I’ll be out there doing the same later in the week. My morning visitor and I agreed that one of the great delights of gardening is that the garden always welcomes more attention. The garden never asks to be left alone; it drinks in whatever attention and nourishment we are able to offer and returns it with grace. There are few things that both are comfortable with steady attention and fully nurture us the more attention we give. I find that meditation, too, always gives and receives graciously steady attention, which is one of its great gifts and joys.
Good News for Solar In DC
I received this email last night that I wanted to share. If you own a house in the District and haven’t gone solar, think about it. If you rent, write your landlord. If you live in another jurisdiction, work with like-minded citizens and work for alternative sources of energy. FYI, since my solar panels were active, my highest electricity bill was $20 (and for the past two months, the meter has run backwards).
Here’s the full text of the email (with a link on how to get involved at the bottom):
Today, thanks to your hard work the Distributed Generation Act of 2011 (19-10) passed the DC Council. The vote was unanimous!!! We only await the Mayor’s signature for the bill to become law. Although, there may be a lag of up to a year for SREC prices on the spot market to recover–we expect the bill to create a strong vibrant solar market in DC for the next DECADE!! In response to the expected improvement in market conditions SOLSYSTEMS announced today the availability of an upfront SREC payment through its installer partners of $1,200/kw installed. This means for example, that you could get $4,800 up front for a 4kw system!
Many many people worked on the bill! Many of you showed up to testify! More than a thousand of you signed the petition in support of the legislation. http://signon.org/sign/build-dc-solar-dont-let?source=s.em.cr&r_by=118605 Many of you sent emails or made phone calls. Many of you showed up to deliver our petition to each of the Council Member’s offices. Many of you turned out to create a field of sunflowers–in the Council Chamber during the first reading of the bill! A special shout out to MDVSEIA that worked hand and hand with us throughout the process!
It is important that the DC Council understand that this bill has very strong, and broad support from across the city. We want them to feel good about passing this bill and feel good about passing similar legislation in the future. This bill will create the market mechanism to allow homeowners, churches, community organizations, businesses and government buildings to go solar! While there is much left to do to make solar affordable and accessible to every DC resident—this bill is a very important step.
PLEASE write to the DC council today and THANK them for their support! dccouncil@dccouncil.us A quick email, a quick thanks! Thank them for leading DC toward a solar future.
Anya Schoolman
President
DC Solar United NeighborhoodsThinking of Going Solar? Want to Get More Involved ? Become a DC Sun Member– Join the Discussion at
April News (web version of e-newsletter)
Dear Friends,
The end of March is all sunshine and flowers after a turbulent month. I’m hoping for some April showers along with the sunshine, so that my garden greens will flourish. The pulsation between rainy and sunny, cool and warm, is a great reminder of the essential vibration of being!
There will be lots of great yoga opportunities to pulse with the shiva-shakti vibration in the next several weeks:
As always, William Penn House Tuesday classes are on a drop in basis with special pricing to make yoga affordable for public interest workers, students, seniors, and those in between employment. Invite your friends. Special for April, bring a friend new to the class and when your friend comes back for a second class, you or your friend get a class for free.
There are two more Saturdays of the winter session at Willow Street. Registration has already started for Willow Street’s Spring Session. My Spring session classes start on Saturday May 1st — Level 2 @ 8:30; Gentle/Therapeutics @ noon. We love it if you register for the whole session, but drop ins are always made welcome. While you’re visiting the Willow Street web site, check out the article I’ve written for the Spring Newsletter’s “Teacher Feature.”
This Sunday, April 4th, from 3-4:30, come celebrate the uprising of flowering energy at a special $10 community class at Capitol Hill Yoga. 100% of the proceeds benefit City Blossoms.
April’s Serenity Saturday — on April 17th — is certain to be a great way to foster growth of mind, body, and spirit, whether we are getting April showers or summery sunshine. Visit Capitol Hill Yoga to register.
Mark your calendars for May: on Saturday May 8th, when I’ll be leading an all-levels workshop on standing balances — Stand Steady in Your Light — as Willow Street’s Takoma Park’s studio.
Finally, a great thanks to all who come to classes regularly and support the monthly giving. Yoga for Gardeners attendees had a great time and enabled contributions of over $200 for the Youth Garden at the National Arboretum. The March and April classes will also support the Youth Garden.
Wishing a great blossoming to all. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Peace and light,
Elizabeth
In Honor of Tzaddik RGB
Although, having been raised as a Quaker and continued to practice as such in adulthood, I do not observe most of the Jewish rituals and holidays. This year I was certain that I at least wanted to bake something traditional for Rosh Hashanah, and I felt engaged with wanting some part of ritual observance.
Thus in recognition of RGB leaving this embodiment into that of a tzaddik, I have a honey-glazed, sourdough, apple challah–baked round for the cycle and fullness of the year.
