6 Months later

From the street you can see the garden, the steps, the fences and the bare trees. This is much different than the dense greenery which I trampled through everyday while working in the Danny Woo Community Garden.  Monday Grold 65 was deposited in Seattle's International District, specifically in the Danny Woo Garden.  This was so all teammembers could gather before departure and have a set pick up location. I practically sprinted up the steps to see the chickens and the garden. So many memories came flooding back. There was trash, used condomns and syringes (all the things we moved everymorning) but at the top of the stairs was a brightly colored sign and rainbows and poultry palace.  There were chickens! Our chickens! It turns out Tracy was in fact a rooster and is no longer living in the palace...I'd like to think (s)he's off on a farm somewhere with lots of pretty hens...unfortunately I doubt this. Mary Tyler Moore was no where in sight but Pigeon Chicken, Scarlet, Barack, BB, Evian, etc were pecking around. They rushed to the gate when I walked up and I wished I had the key. I obviously bored the CMs who were with me with Danny Woo facts. Most of the plant identification signs were still up, our rainbows were still snugly in the dirt, the pieces wood and rocks the kids painted were still there. I swear if I just closed my eyes the weather would have transformed from hazy to sunny; Minna would run up to me holding Pocky: I could hear Yasha sharpening the Machetes, Stephen building the compost sifter (which is still there), Sara and JFB running around with the kids and the chickens, Eric and Sophie digging holes and Iman just insisted on painting the rocks. I sat nostaligically on the worm bin for a few minutes and caught all sorts of subtle hints of my existence in this garden. There was a long piece of mulch which had been dipped in bright green paint (a mixing stick), there was a rock with a blue brush stroke and a green stripe (which I stole and took home) and lots of love.

Earlier that day, due to van reasons (see a lesson in flexibility) Katie and I had to travel into Burien. Where I lived fourth round! I cried like a baby all the way there. I knew how to guide her there without the GPS, and then suddently there I was...sitting at KCs eating a club and using their wifi, walking to the apt, walking down the alley, tripping over shopping carts and staring at flapjacks. There is aboslutely no signal that a rove of nine gypsies made Cascade Vista their home. If it wasn't for the burning images and memories in my head....it would be like it never happened.