living in an architectural rendering

maybe you're not familiar with what i mean when i say "architectural rendering." they are drawings that architects make to allow the general public, or clients who need to be sold on an idea, to imagine the future new building, or urban public space, and how it might be used. sometimes they are straight up drawings, or water colors. they include trees, and landscaping, and people inhabiting and interacting with the space.

this is actually one of the renderings for the b-line trail.

when i was in school, we would make slick hybrid drawings, using photos of the existing site, insert a drawing or computer rendering of our designed intervention, and then we'd stick in some scaled figures (referred to, lovingly, as scalies) which were usually cut out of magazines, scanned, and then reduced to the scale of the drawing.

from a project i did with bill rankin-- in nice, france

we would choose figures in action poses-- skateboarding, riding a bike, pushing a stroller, jogging--or a group of youth, gossiping on park benches. sometimes we'd pose people in the studio, doing specific actions related to our project, and use photos of our own for scaled figures.

in any case, the drawings are always idealized notions of what this thing is going to be, who will be using it, and in what manner. well, this week i had the bizarre experience of riding down bloomington's b-line trail, from city hall/showers plaza, to where it ends on second street, near kroger, and seeing an architectural rendering of the B-line trail, turned into 3D, real-time, lived space. and, i was IN IT.

this was taken on another day, but you can see what i mean

there were people jogging with ipods, pushing baby carriages, skateboarding, bike riding, studying historical markers. youth were gathered on park benches, smoking cigarettes, and texting. some guys were playing hackey-sack, dogs were being walked, couples were stolling, holding hands, or talking intimately on a bench, under a shade tree. i saw a guy carrying four kroger bags, full of groceries. the trail was being used for actual transportation, as well as recreation, leisure and fitness.

the weather was perfect, and i was capping off a rather idyllic day of community involvement. i'd started the day meeting with the project manager for the middle way house's new wings project-- discussing how i'm going to get the cubbies for the child care area built this summer. then i went off to one of mother hubbard's cupboard's community gardens, and put in a couple of hours there, thinning lettuce and radish seedlings, and talking compost with other volunteers. after a lovely salad of micro-green thinnings, plus some spinach, arugula and violet blossoms from my own garden (topped with the last of the easter eggs), i jumped on the bike and headed down to city hall, for the first annual meeting of the bloomington community orchard. at the meeting i saw the inspiring orchard design sketches, stunning photos of the many varieties of fruit trees being researched and chosen for the orchard, and we voted in the by-laws for the brand new organization.

riding home, through that picture-perfect urban trail scene, i couldn't help but believe, at least for that moment, that what we imagine and hope for, really can come true. sometimes.

a place for everything (and everyone)

i may have mentioned that cosmo likes to put things where they belong. i wouldn't say he is obsessive about it (yet) but he seems to find great satisfaction in knowing where an item lives, and returning it to its home. i like that too. every time i move into a new place (which i have done a LOT of in my 40+ years) i have a renewed fantasy of finally having a place for everything. i know i could manage all the stuff i drag around, if i could just get it organized. and, i must say, over the years, and moves, i have made great strides. my art supplies, for instance, are compartmentalized. i have a bin labeled "glue and glue guns" one called "small paints and ink" a bin dedicated to "tape," i have a drawer with only small boxes, to be decorated, or otherwise crafted into something wonderful. so, it is not all fantasy.



recently, i have found an activity for cosmo and i that puts these "everything in its place" skills to use. we have been going to mother hubbard's cupboard one afternoon each week, to help stock the pantry shelves. MHC's food pantry is a wonderful place. the premise is to offer food to people in need, in a grocery store-like environment, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. the criteria for shopping there is simple: you can shop if you don't have enough money to eat, and it operates mostly on an honor system. they serve an average of 1,878 people per week.



they also offer workshops on nutrition, gardening, and food preservation, and host an in-store lending library and resource shelf. many customers are also volunteers, and the result is an inclusive, close-knit, supportive community.



i wasn't sure, at first, if cosmo would enjoy it or not. i should have guessed that he would quickly get into the groove of taking items out of boxes, and placing them neatly on the shelves, in perfect rows, with the labels facing out. sometimes he likes to create elaborate systems of handing things up to me (if the shelf is too high) which may not be as "helpful," but it is cooperative, and engaging for both of us. he also likes to sort the recycling, and help tidy up before the shoppers arrive.



i thought he might get distracted by the food, and only want to taste things. this is often what happens when he "helps" me cook. but he understood early on, that we are just organizing the food, for other people, and he's fine with that. i also worried his interest would wane after a half hour or so, but he really likes being there, never wants to leave early, and cries if we can't make it to our shift. i am not sure if he gets the concept of "helping people," i think he just likes the idea of working, and of being needed, in a setting that is not his home. the staff are so welcoming, we both felt like part of the family right away.

it has been great for me too. i'm forming new friendships, and i had the chance to share my passion for local food preservation, by co-teaching their canning and jamming workshops last week. we've also passed on some of our excess produce from the garden, as part of the plant a row for the hungry program. i am grateful to live in such a vibrant community, and to have the opportunity to contribute.