15 October 2005

Dig Day

In the upper right hand corner of this page is a picture of Washington Park's formal gardens. They don't look like that today, however. Today is the day that they dig up the gardens for the winter. A couple of dozen volunteers, a garbage truck, and a few city trucks are assembled there now, pulling up plants while preserving the soil.

Meanwhile, over at the boat house, an accordian player is filling the air with music that on some occassions could just as easily have been heard on the boulevards of Paris, and on others, in the pubs of Dublin.

Both of these efforts illustrate one of the joys of living in the city. It is full of beauty, which, often, others provide for free as part of a general civic mindedness. Of course, you are expected to do your own part as well, by planting your own garden, or putting up art in your yard, or volunteering yourself. But, as every bit of beauty on display enriches the days of hundreds or thousands of other people as they pass by, the circle is virtuous indeed.

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