How Will We Top This Next Year?

Our fourth anniversary party was a huge success!  We had more than 35 people turn out for the house concert by new Zealand singer/songwriter Anna Van Riel.

What a wonderful treat that was.  Anna has a voice more beautiful than Joan Baez, accompanied by a Kiwi sense of humour and an amazing ability to sing in just about genre and any accent.

And she did this all while her two-year-old daughter, Matilda, was determined to steal the show, along with all our other singing, dancing toddlers at Pacific Gardens!

Then came the potluck, attended by more than 50 - or maybe it was 60.  I lost count.  I do know we almost ran out of plates and cutlery, which is saying something.

And what a feast.  We crowned it off with Myriam's beautiful, scrumptious cake, plus loads of yummy desserts, with everything from fresh raspberries and whipped cream to apple crumble.

We had speeches from founders, residents, and friends, including Chuck Durrett, the architect who brought cohousing to North America from Denmark, and who's working on cohousing projects in Vancouver and on the island.

I have only one worry, though - how will we top this for our fifth anniversary next year?

Kathryn

Pacific Gardeners Like to Partay!

Wow! September has come and it's as if the folks at Pacific Gardens have woken from a long summertime slumber. There are so many events, work bees and what our irrepressible Roz calls "partays" that I can hardly keep track of them all.

We've already had one work bee last Saturday, where PGCCers tackled dust and dirt and weeds and windows with a vengeance, and were rewarded with a delicious lunch prepared by one of our newest residents, Carla.

Tomorrow night we're having an outdoor barbecue potluck - most likely the last of the season, alas - followed by an all-ages games night with Scrabble, Encore, and the big favourites, Catan and Magic the Gathering.

Saturday John and I will be at the Harvest Festival. Pacific Gardens will be joining other community groups promoting local food, permaculture, organic gardening, and sustainability.

There'll be great food and music, loads of displays, a petting zoo for the kids, a farmer's market, and hundreds of people attending the festival, which is held on Wesley Street in Nanaimo's Old City Quarter.

The biggest event of the month is our fourth anniversary party on Sept. 21st, with a concert by New Zealand folk singer Anna Van Riel, a special anniversary cake by our Myriam, and a visit by cohousing guru Chuck Durrett.

The following Monday night we're having a Mexican-themed potluck party to welcome our students.  Raul, one of our Mexican students, will play the piano and sing, and we'll definitely have salsa, if not tequila!

But we're not done yet.  On Sept. 25th, Chad and Susana will give a presentation on their tour this spring of cohousing communities on the west coast, and Bill and Sharon will do one on their visit to Prairie Sky, a Calgary cohousing community.

Finally, on Saturday, Sept. 28th, we'll have another work bee, this one starting with a hearty potluck breakfast to give us fuel for all those indoor and outdoor chores.

You never have to worry about having a social life when you're living at Pacific Gardens!

Kathryn

Community and Non-Community in Vancouver

I was in Vancouver (or the Big Mango, as I like to call it) for a Cohousing Fair held Monday night to an over-flow crowd in the Heritage Hall on Main Street.

Cohousing groups, both developed and forming, came from the lower mainland and Vancouver Island to set out their stalls and hear architect and cohousing guru Chuck Durrett give a presentation.

Each group had a table with displays, brochures, pictures, and enthusiastic cohousers eager to talk about their own communities and cohousing in general. The response was fantastic!

The organizers, members of the newest cohousing group in Vancouver, Cedar Cottage Cohousing, had to open the doors early because people were lined up outside in the cold, waiting to get in.

A crowd of 250 or more, including several families with children, listened attentively as Chuck explained the principles of community living and while each group made a short presentation about their own cohousing community.

It was an amazing event to be part of, and it certainly left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling about what we have accomplished here at Pacific Gardens. It lifted up my heart when I heard the emcee say, "What we're trying to do here is change the world!"

And then I left the hall and went out into the world of Vancouver.  What a contrast! People talking on their cell-phones, but not to each other.  People standing grim-faced on the bus.

People glaring at a mother with a cranky baby on the bus, or avoiding the glazed eyes of people begging on the street (and there were lots of those, sadly). People so focused on getting where they wanted to go that they practically knocked you over.

And everywhere, cars, and noise, and somebody selling something in a thousand-and-one stores and on a thousand-and-one signs.  I was so glad to get back to the relative peace-and-quiet of Nanaimo!

And I was especially glad to be back at Pacific Gardens, where our community nurtures and supports us, and a smile or hello is more important than a text on a cell-phone.

Kathryn