Park blooms are here and more are on the way

Rec and Park sent out word that the tulips at the Queen Wilhelmina tulip garden will bloom soon. It's a good time of year to visit the park to find plants in bloom...


...like these redwood sorrel at the Strybing Botanical Garden...

...and this flowering bush in the Panhandle next to the south path near Lyon Street.  

Pictures from February Workday

At our Saturday work day on Feb 11, volunteers from the community worked on some projects at the east end of the park. We spread some healthy composted soil around the redwoods at the southeast corner of the park, we removed weeds and soil from the pathway along Baker Street, and we raked a bunch of leaves from beneath the huge eucalyptus trees on the north side of the park.  

While raking up the leaves, the first graders found some wriggly worms. 

Some of our regular repeat volunteers took on the job of clearing the path along Baker Street

Snacktime happened on the back side of the McKinley Monument

Playground re-opening tomorrow

After some maintenance work this week, the Panhandle Playground re-opens tomorrow, just in time for the long weekend. If you visit, please share your impressions, either here (publicly) or send me an email. 

Pictures from January workday

Today's Panhandle workday involved repeat volunteers and the families of the second grade class at San Francisco Day School. Here are a few photos from our day and one of our special guest.

Sweeping in the memorial circle


Clearing the Shrader cross-path of mud and debris

Dale Danley (L) with Megan Bierman by the sign that honors her mother, Sue Bierman

Someone gets a ride in a wheelbarrow pretty much every month

Besides what you see in the pictures, there was also a lot of leaf-raking, soil spreading, and shrub clipping. We were a large group and I think we all felt amazed by the amount of work we got done. Megan Bierman joined us in the work and expressed her appreciation for making the Sue Bierman Glade, installed in 2001, a more welcoming spot. To help us understand some of her mother's work in the struggle to keep the Panhandle park from being turned into an elevated freeway, she led us in singing The Cement Octopus, written by San Francisco song-writer Malvina Reynolds about the freeway revolt.