Celebrate, celebrate!

Our annual celebration of the permit to occupy at Pacific Gardens took place September 21 as the summer turned into fall on the Equinox.

We hoped the weather would hold so we could all gather around our newly-built fire pit to cook hotdogs and marshmallows, and the skies blessed us with no rain on this auspicious day.

This was a great party with many people from our cohousing showing up, including our newly-arrived family from Alberta, so we all had a chance to eat, drink and be merry with shared food, good conversation, games and a cake with all the candles blown out by the kids as we sang our Happy Anniversary Song.

Here are some comments made by our Pacific Gardens communitarians:

Maria -  “The party really felt like it was a family party where parents were really engaging with their kids, cooking food with them, talking with them and I got a real sense of parent/child togetherness.”

Ron - “It was a great place to have conversations and exchanges of ideas about ways to support the Green movement to make a better world community.”

Mia - “Those kids had so much fun playing Throw the Flag...we are all puffed out including the parents who played and I of all people couldn’t even find my flag, and I taught the game!”

Tara - “My new roommate was completely blissed out by the multigenerational game playing. He thought it was fantastic to see adults and kids alike playing together.”

Roz - “I am so glad Myriam helped me decorate our anniversary cake and Michael and I served it and Mia got the plates out to serve it on, because we shared it at the fire pit. This cake was a four-person operation. Community, eh!”

And last but not least, our gratitude theme this year is about being grateful that we live in this country without war, and particularly, living on our piece of the rock called Pacific Gardens Cohousing, and we are thankful for the bountiful harvest to share from our greater neighbourhood.

It really felt like all people around the fire were happy to be there, sharing their stories and getting to know each other better. It was a really lovely way to have an anniversary celebration, and we send greetings and well-wishes to all of the folks who have lived and celebrated with us in years gone by...you are in our hearts.

Thanks everybody and Happy Anniversary to us at Pacific Gardens!

Roz

Happy Harvest Festival!

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of hosting a table for Pacific Gardens at Nanaimo's second annual Harvest Festival held on Wesley Street in the Old City Quarter.

I'm usually not a fan of these events, and when asked to volunteer to person a table at them, try to find ways to be otherwise occupied.  But this was fun! And having a zombie flash mob during the proceedings certainly added to that :-)

It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day - lots of sunshine, a fresh breeze (not so fresh as to blow down our display, or scatter our flyers and rack cards, thankfully) and pleasantly warm.

There was great music, lots of interesting booths with like-minded, friendly people, as well as excellent food provided by local restaurants, and best of all, money raised went to Nanaimo Foodshare.

Pacific Gardens hasn't been to public events like this for quite a few years now, as we've been busy focusing on getting our community established and building up our organic gardens.

I noticed a big change in attitudes since then.  When we talked to the members of the public at the Harvest Festival about cohousing, the question was not, "What is it?", but, "Is your building completed now?"

People understood the concept of creating a building that fosters community, and, contrary to what developers seem to think the 55-and-overs want, were delighted with the multigenerational aspect of Pacific Gardens.

They were pleased that we are focused on growing our food, and that everyone who lives here, whether owner or renter, is entitled to their own garden plot. They knew why that was important.

After five hours or more of talking about what intentional community means, I was a bit hoarse - but also very happy to realize how much the ideas that had seemed so avant-garde a short while ago were now part of the mainstream.

Kathryn