I love my melting pot
No I didn't get new kitchenware - I couldn't have used it anyway because the entire contents of our kitchen including things like, oh, the diswasher, are curently scattered all over the living room and hallway and will remin so until the new floor and cabinetry is complete. Which should be today. I hope.

Anyway, the melting pot I am so in love with is this grand city. I had a run in with some xenophobia recently which has left me super sensitive and especially appreciative of my block.  On my block are lots of people from Central and South America mainly Mexicans, Indians and Pakistanis, many Muslim people both from the Middle East and apparently Eastern Europe, African Americans and Africans, plus a handful of European-decended caucasians. On a nice day all the kids are out in the street plaving together.  There's a football game that has been runnig for days and all the smaller kids get out their scooters and bicycles.  On Saturday and Sunday their activity of choice?  Gardening.

I had decided to clean up the front stoop.  The previous tenants had a pickle and olive barrel garden.  Productive, yes, but it looked like a pile of garbage, especially since nothing has been growing in the pots since last fall.  I cleaned it up, discovered the garden bed that had been cut into the cement, and proceeeded to build a raised bed and another planter to go across the front.  Jacob kept me company and was plenty busy with the seed starting tray and the packets of seeds we had picked out earlier.

We drew a crowd.  Buy dinner time I had nine neighborhood kids from 4-13 years old and of nearly every ethnicity imaginable gathered around wanting to learn about seeds.  They all went home with a handful.  Then on Sunday Jacob and I were back out to do more planting.  In the meantime I have found a bunch of empty pots in the backyard and brought them out, knowing that many of the kids who wanted seeds had nowhere to put them.  Again, I had a crowd.  By the end of the day all the plants were in place, all the seeds had been planted in labeled pots, the half barrel that had been full of mud was cleaned out - we're putting in a fish pond!  My stoop was clean and the sidewalk was swept.  7 happy and slightly grubby kids went home at dinner time.  They all wanted to keep their pots on my stoop, so while I had originally wanted a clean , well designed and planted stoop area, it's back to being a jumble of pots, but an exeuberant happy jumble.

In between planting and slopping mud, we played a few rousing games of Red Light Green Light.  Jacob went to bed happier than I have seen in ages knowing that he has friends on his block.

And by the way, the parents, nowhere to be seen.  These kids are allowed to play on this end of the block, with the older kids keeping an eye on the younger ones.  That is refreshing freedom in this day and age when everyone is so worried (paranoid?) about crime.  

As for my own evil plans:  I have two three of them, so far, more to come I'm sure:  
1. Towards the south end of  the block there is a large planting bed in front of a parking lot.  The previous tenants cleaned it out and planted things like sunflowers and zinnias.  It's pretty trashy agI'm wondering if the neighborhood kids want to adopt it?  
2. We have tons of pots with moonflowers and morning glories planted, thanks to my weekend helpers.  If I can get a cheap source for planters, or find a cheap way to build lots of them, wouldn't it be lovely if lots of the houses on the block had vines growing up their stoops?  3. Finally, there's a house on the corner of the block that is vacant.  There is a 60' planting strip that now is filled with all manner of refuse.  While I don't want to clean out that nastiness, perhaps some morning glories and moonflowers can hide the worst of it so it stops being an eyesore.

I love warm weather!  I love gardening!  I love infecting others with the desire to grow stuff!