Work party today, 2:00, Greenway

Hi friends,
It's going to be raining all afternoon (and evening and overnight) but let's meet in the Greenway for a quick check-in and see how things are and what needs doing… and check in with each other about the Plant Sale and the EVGT.
If you haven't already voted, don't forget to vote!!
:-)
Cheers,
Penny

Work party in the Greenway tomorrow, Monday, 2:00

Even though it's Easter Monday and many people are away, let's have a brief work party at 2:00 and see how things are doing in the Greenway.

Cheers,

Penny

Penny Street

pennystreet@telus.net

Work party on Monday, 2:00

Hi.

Work party on Monday, 2:00. Rain or shine, but if it's raining and cold we don't have to stay long. We may have a new garbage bin. We have one new long bench, but the City has taken away all our other long benches to refurbish them. Glad we got a temporary replacement for the most-loved long bench that faces the Drive.

See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Penny

First Work Party of the Spring!! Monday, April 31st, 2:00!

Hello and Happy Spring, Brit Neighbours!

Please roll up your sleeves and show up for the first Greenway work party of the spring tomorrow! If you haven't come out to join us before, we'll love to see you.

Apparently, someone recently set the garbage bin on fire. Steve said there was some damage to the rhodo behind it.

Anyway, hope you can make it! See you then.

Penny

Greenway Gatherings!

Hi. The City's "Placemaking" group and Green Streets are partnering with Britannia Neighbours and the Community Centre's Arts & Culture people to animate the Napier Greenway over the winter months. 

Here's a poster for the first one — Saturday, November 30th, from 1:00-2:30. Please check it out!

And let your friends and neighbours know about it!

Thanks,

Penny

Penny Street

pennystreet@telus.net

Work party tomorrow (Monday), 2:00!

 Hope to see you there!

It won't be a super long work party. A bit of tidying up, a bit of weed pulling and raking and sweeping.

Please come if you can.

Fabulous fungus on the North Shore this morning.

Work party today, 2:00

The weather is going to improve over the day and it'll be nice by 2:00.
Please come if you can!

Work party today at 2:00

Work Party in the Greenway, 2:00!
Perfect weather!

Work party tomorrow, Aug 11, 2:00

Howdy, 

I think Victoria and Clae are starting their work on the mural tomorrow. Yippee! 

Because of that, maybe we should concentrate our work on trimming and pulling back the stuff that is planted along that wall so it's easy for them to get to and so that they do as little damage as possible to the plants on the north side that we want to keep. 

Anyway, 2:00. See you then, I hope. 

Penny

Work party Monday at 2:00

Hi.

Susan's away and I'm sorry but I'm not able to make it tomorrow, but if you can make it, there's a work party at 2:00 in the Greenway.

It'll be interesting to hear how things are there — How many residents? How many rats? How are the plants doing in this hot/dry stretch? Please, if you go, let me know!

Thanks and see you all next Monday.

Penny

Work party today, 2:00, weather permitting...

Hi. Unless it's just pouring rain and is unthinkable, let's have a work party today and assess the current situation . Steve reports from his early dog walk that Sam/Max wasn't there this morning but there's lots of his debris in 'his' spot (although he has taken his fancy personal garden furniture away with him…).

Cheers,
Penny

Work party today! (July 22)

Hi folks,
Work party today in the Greenway, 2:00!
See you there.
Nice day!
Penny

Work party tomorrow

Hi Brit Neighbours friends,

The fellow who is living in the Greenway tidied up his surroundings for a few days — maybe someone came around and had a word with him? — but he is now back to his very messy habits. It's really horrible down there today.

We will have a work party in the Greenway tomorrow (Monday) at 2:00. It'll be hot, so I think we should keep in the shade!

Clae is going to water tomorrow morning and they watered everything last Wednesday. It looks like it will be such a hot spell that the whole place will need two waterings a week until things cool down a bit or we have a significant rain.

Cheers,

Penny

Work Party in the Greenway, Holiday Monday!

Happy July 1, everyone!
We'll have a work party at 2:00.
Hope you can make it.
Cheers,
Penny

Work party today! 2:00!

See you there!

Work Party Monday, 2:00

I guess it kind of depends on the weather tomorrow, but if it's halfway decent, let's show up in the Greenway at 2:00 and see how it looks and what we can do.
Cheers,
Penny

Work Party Tomorrow, 2:00

We'll have a work party tomorrow even though it's a stat holiday. Join us if you can.

Cheers,

Penny

Greenway work party today, 2:00!

It'll be a perfect day for it!

See you there.

Penny

Work party today! Tuesday! 2:00!

Hi.

Thunderstorms were forecast for yesterday afternoon. So we postponed the work party until today. Yesterday turned out to be a perfect day. But hey. Today will be good too, so join us if you can.
Napier Greenway. Join us if you can.

I submitted a proposal to Toby, the manager of Choices, and his boss Dawn for the renewal/repair of the mural with Victoria and Clae doing the work.
Choices will be discussing it tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
We need to protect the plants that grow along that wall (cover some, tie some back) as soon as the project is approved because Victoria and Clae are keen to get started ASAP.

Also, happy news: Clae has agreed to do the watering again this summer! 😁

Cheers,
Penny

Work Party... maybe some other day this week?

The CBC is calling for a thunderstorm this afternoon, but the rest of the week is supposed to be warm and sunny. Especially since a few of us were involved with the plant sale just yesterday, how about if we take a Monday off and instead gather for the work party on some other afternoon this week?
I suggest Tuesday, tomorrow. Would that work for most of you?
Cheers,
Penny

Work party today!!

Work party in the Greenway today at 2:00.

Work party Monday, 2:00, Greenway!

Hi. The weather will be splendid and we will have a work party in the Greenway tomorrow (Monday) at 2:00.

NO work party today! Too wet!

Just got home from a pretty long dog walk in the rain and it's no "sprinkle"!
Let's not bother with a work party today.
Sorry for mixed messages!
☔️

Work party in the Greenway today!

I know it's raining. Unless it's a huge deluge, let's meet at 2:00, touch base, check the garden out and tidy up a bit.
:-)

Work party tomorrow (Easter Monday), 2:00

Hi folks,

We'll have a brief work party in the Greenway tomorrow at 2:00. We can tidy up. Susan can Sweep!

Hoping for another nice sunny spring day!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

Penny

4 yards of compost

Yay!
We received our four yards of compost on Monday morning and by 4:30 Monday afternoon it was all distributed!
A huge success. Special thanks to Ann for finding a couple of strong young men (Jeremiah and Luis?) who were a huge help.
And to Eric for doing the incredible grunt work of removing the western-end bollards to the truck could back into the Greenway and dump the compost where we wanted it. And to Catherine and Ann and Eric for a lot of shovelling, wheeling, spreading!
Good going!

Work party March 25, 2:00, to move a mountain of compost!

 We’re getting 4 yards of compost delivered between 9 and 11 tomorrow morning and Ann’s organized for a young man (or maybe two … and we’re going to pay him/them) to come and move compost for us.

Perhaps we can help shovel, but we don’t want any back strains! Bring a wheel barrow if you have one and it’s easy. And shovels. And big buckets. We can top up the Greenway beds and top up the planters down in the Brit courtyard.

I’d say rain or shine, just because the compost will be there either way.

Let me know if questions.

See you at 2:00.

Penny

Britannia Neighbours! Work Party today in the Greenway, 2:00

Hi.
Work Party in the Napier Greenway today, 2:00-3:00 (or possibly 4:00). It'll be a perfect day for it.
Bring tools (broom, rake, secateurs, weeding knife, kneeling pad, whatever) if you have them. I'll take leaf bags.
We'd love to see you. It's a jolly and knowledgeable group!
Penny

No work party today!!

It's raining too hard and it's cold out!!

It should be nice by next Monday, so let's try for then instead for our first spring work party.

Thanks everyone. 

Penny

Penny Street for 

Britannia Neighbours

britneighbours@gmail.com

http://britannianeighbours.blogspot.ca

http://eastsidegardentour.blogspot.com

Hi. First Work Party of the Spring!

Howdy and happy Daylight Savings Time! And if you can make it tomorrow, it'll be our first work party of the not-quite-spring. 2:00, Napier Greenway!

If you have tools (gloves, secateurs, trowel, kneeling pad, room, rake, etc.), do bring them along.

Cheers,

Penny

Penny Street for 

Britannia Neighbours

britneighbours@gmail.com

http://britannianeighbours.blogspot.ca

http://eastsidegardentour.blogspot.com

Atmospheric River!

No work party on Monday! It'll be a deluge. Even if there's a break in the rain, the leaves will be sodden.
Unless anyone objects, I'd suggest we not have another work party until March. We usually begin again around March 15th.
Okay?

Work party, Greenway, tomorrow, 2:00!

Howdy,

If you're free, join us for a work party tomorrow, Monday, 2:00, just for an hour or so. With any luck, it will still be nice and dry and we can gather up some more oak leaves.

See you then.

(There is a sad fellow with mental-health issues who has gathered together a huge stack of trash, really actually trash, not his personal belongings so much, but I talked to him today and he said he would definitely have them all removed by tomorrow… I'm not sure that's possible for him, but his intentions are good. And I don't think he's at all dangerous.)

Cheers,

Penny

Work party in the Greenway, 2:00

Hi folks,
Work party in the Greenway today at 2:00. I'm not sure if I can make it myself, but the weather promises to be really nice. Perfect for oak-leaf raking.
:-)
Penny

Work party today at 2:00

Looks like it'll be a nice day. The leaves will be wet, but the sun'll be shining.

Work party tomorrow, Monday, 2:00, Greenway!

Leaves!

See you there!

These are maple. We've got oak, but you get the idea…

Penny

Work party Monday, 2:00

Howdy Brit Neighbours,
Looks like we'll have good dry sunny cold weather again tomorrow, so let's rake for an hour or so on Monday afternoon.
See you at 2:00.
I'll bring a few leaf bags (although I am getting low on them again… I'll stock up after tomorrow…)
Cheers,
Penny

Work party tomorrow, Monday, 2:00

Hi.

I think the weather's supposed to be okay tomorrow, and we need to scoop up more of those acorns before they get buried by the thousands of oak leaves that are still in the trees.

Eric can't make it tomorrow, but today he went down to the Greenway and raked up 2 bags of leaves and he took a wheelbarrow load of acorns HOME with him to put into his green bin! Wow, Eric. Thank you. It's definitely a banner year for acorns!

So tomorrow is more of the same, plus checking in on the few things that Janet planted on Thursday.

• A free boxwood next to the one under the honeysuckle. 
• A free male dwarf Skimmia on the Sweet Cherubim side where that hole keeps appearing.
• A Mahonia x Media 'Winter Sun' which is about to flower, under the large Pine tree.
• The Mahonia may be in the wrong place but can be moved later.

Thank you so much, Janet, and enjoy your holiday!

Cheers,

Penny

Work party tomorrow, 2:00!

Weather permitting. Lots of acorns!!

The remains of the "bonfire"!

Work party tomorrow, 2:00

We're having a bunch of people for dinner tomorrow, so I won't be available, but if anyone wants to, there could be a work party tomorrow.
It's mostly cleaning up acorns these days.
Yesterday there was evidence that someone had set a little bonfire at the bench on the Drive by Sweet Cherubim. Otherwise, things look okay.
I can put some bags on my porch if they're needed.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!
Cheers,
Penny

Work party tomorrow, 2:00, Napier Greenway

(Weather permitting, of course)

Work party tomorrow, Monday, 2:00

We'll have a work party tomorrow if it's not too stormy and wet.

No work party this Monday!

:-)

Work party tomorrow, 2:00

Hi.
We'll have a short work party tomorrow at 2:00. Hope you can make it. Is it a holiday?
Cheers,
Penny

Work party Monday, July 24th,2:00!

Well, I hope the weather forecast is right and it's just bucketing down rain tomorrow afternoon, but just in case it isn't, we'll have a work party at 2:00.

Hope it's just so wet that no one wants to venture out.
But let's just watch.
Maybe see you there!
Cheers,
Penny

Work party in the Greenway tomorrow -- new time, 2:00

A few of us decided we'd try 2:00 instead of 3:00 for a while and see if it's better.

There seem to be three men living in the Greenway now. We do have the neighbourhood police constable on alert. And Vitoria Oginski who painted the mural on the side of Choices is considering taking on the restoration of it, which would be fantastic.

Otherwise, same-old same-old.

See you at 2:00 tomorrow, July 17th.

:-)

Penny Street for 

Britannia Neighbours

britneighbours@gmail.com

http://britannianeighbours.blogspot.ca

http://eastsidegardentour.blogspot.com

Work party tomorrow, July 10th, in the Greenway, 2:00!

2:00!
Can you make it an hour earlier?
Hope so!
One of the people whose garden was on the Garden Tour this year would like to visit the Greenway with his daughter, and he has asked to come at 2:15.
Janet isn't able to be there tomorrow, so she asked me to host his visit.
I thought it would be good if we were all there working away.
Cheers and hope to see you at 2:00 tomorrow!!
Penny

Work Party today! Whee! 3:00!

Hope to see you at 3:00. 

:-)

Work party today at 3:00!

Hi folks,
Nice weather! Clae watered the Greenway yesterday and the planters on Saturday, so we shouldn't need to water. The long-range forecast doesn't call for rain. Should be hot and dry. Hope there's no heat dome or draught.
:-(
See you at 3:00.
Cheers,
Penny

Work party tomorrow, Monday, Greenway

Hi. The weather should be pretty nice. And we had that nice huge rain the other day, so things should have been watered sufficiently.

Hope to see you at 3:00. Monday June 12.

:-)

 

Work party in the Greenway this afternoon, 3:00

Another gorgeous but dry day! Clae's been keeping up with the watering. See you today at 3:00.
And don't forget the GWAC meeting at 7:00 tonight either in person or on Zoom. Emergency preparedness. Link at gwac.ca.
Cheers,
Penny

Work party Monday in the Greenway!

Monday at 3:00 as usual. I'm sending the notice early because I will be away.
Hope it's good! I'll leave a couple of leaf bags on my front porch in case you need them.
Cheers,
Penny

Hello!

I realize tomorrow is a holiday, but we'll have a work party nonetheless!
3:00 in the Greenway. See you there!

Work party in the Greenway tomorrow, Monday, 3:00!

It's going to be very hot, so I suggest we just putter and catch up and not do anything too strenuous.
Toby, the manager at Choices, is going to a Choices Managers meeting tomorrow and will raise the issue of the graffiti on the mural and report back to us at our work party. If they are keen to pay to have it repaired, I will approach Victoria (the artist) again and see if she will be willing to do the work (again).
See you!
Penny

Work party today, 3:00!

Hope to see you for a work party in the Greenway this afternoon at 3:00.
Come if you can!
Fantastic Grandview Garden Club Plant Sale yesterday!
:-)
Cheers,
Penny

Work Party today, May Day!, weather permitting...

Howdy,

It might rain this afternoon. Let's just play it by ear, weather-wise, but if it's just sprinkling or halfway decent, let's go ahead.

3:00,  bring your rake, broom, secateurs, etc. I'll bring a couple of leaf bags.

Cheers,

Penny

Grandview Garden Club's Plant Sale, May 7th!

 

Work party Monday, 3:00

Hi Brit Neighbours,
It certainly doesn't look like it right now, but it's supposed to be pretty nice on Monday afternoon, so let's plan on a work party — weather permitting, as usual!
We can talk a bit about promoting our plant sale, too.
:-)
Cheers,
Penny

Work party, 3:00

Hi devoted Brit Neighbours,
It seems okay outside right now (11:00 a.m.) but it might rain later today. Let's just play it by ear. If it's nice enough to come out at 3:00 for a work party, please do! If it's cold or even cold-and-rainy and you want to stay home this afternoon, that's okay too!
If you come, bring secateurs, rake, trowel, leaf bags?, kneeling pad, weeding tools, whatever!
Cheers,
Penny

Work party tomorrow, April 10th!

Howdy,

Let's have a work party in the Greenway tomorrow, 3:00, if the weather's halfway decent. It's Easter Monday, so some people might be out of town, but I think it's supposed to be nice.

Bring your gloves, rake, secateurs, etc. I'll bring leaf bags.

See you there!

Work party tomorrow in the Greenway

Unless it's raining (or hailing or snowing like it was this afternoon), we'll have a work party tomorrow (April 3) in the Greenway at 3:00.
See you there I hope!

Work Party tomorrow (Monday, March 27) in the Greenway, 3:00

Howdy Brit Neighbours!
Please join us tomorrow at 3:00 for a work party in the Greenway. It should be clear and chilly. We can admire all the crocuses and the tete-a-tete daffodills.
Bring tools if you have them. I'll bring a couple of leaf bags and a couple of rakes.
They've fixed the big leak in the pavement near the library entrance, so we should be able to get down as far as our ginkgo tree. I'll sprinkle some red poppy seeds around that!
Think about whether we want to deal with a load of city compost and if so, how much.
:-)
Penny

Work Party, March 27, 3:00!

 Hi. We're back in the swing for spring! Please come and join us if you can. Bring your own tools if you have them -- rake, pruners, leaf blower?, trowel, weeding tools. We always have a few extras, so if you don't have tools but want to work with us, we can accommodate you. Napier Greenway between Choices and Sweet Cherubim on the Drive.

Work Party, Monday March 20, 3:00, Napier Greenway

 Hello Britannia Neighbours,

We’ll have our second Work Party of the season in the Greenway tomorrow, March 20th, at 3:00!

Bring your gloves, secateurs, rake, etc. I’ll bring some leaf bags.

See you then!

Cheers, Penny

The Story of the Napier Greenway and Britannia Neighbours

What was once a rather grim half block of Napier Street just to the west of Commercial Drive (between the Drive and Britannia Community Centre) is now a Neighbourhood Greenway, arguably one of the busiest “parks” in the City of Vancouver. Although it’s not technically a “park”…

The group Britannia Neighbours in Action worked with the City’s Green Streets Branch to design and create Napier Greenway. It took about a year and a half from conception in 2000 to the Grand Opening ceremony, which happened May 4, 2002.

 

Oct 18, 2001 City Council approved $140,000 funding to develop the Greenway; it also approved a $5000 yearly maintenance budget.

 

The deal with the City was, essentially, “The City will work with you to put this Greenway in, provided you folks will look after it — forever!” And that’s pretty much what we agreed to.

 

At the outset there were six “Britannia Neighbours” community members actively working on the project (Pat Davitt, Karen Martin, Alan Ross, Mark Johnston, Margaret Jones, and me) plus someone assigned to work with us from the City (Karyn Thompson); soon thereafter there were two artists involved as well (Glen Anderson, who did the mosaic workshops and installation, and Pat Beaton, who designed the art posts workshops and installation).

 

I’m the only one of those six still actively involved with the Greenway from that original group, although Britannia Neighbours had already been in existence for quite a few years having put on the East Van Garden Tour since 1993 and having already worked with the Park Board to install Mosaic Creek Park.

 

We currently have a dedicated community work crew of about twelve — a few of whom are Master Gardeners and a few of whom are big and strong — and we also have a list of about 40 longtime supporters who hear about all our work parties and occasionally show up.

 

The garden is quite mature now. We have learned which plants work well and which don’t work in our very high-traffic area.

 

In order to keep the Greenway well tended and tidy and to keep the plants alive and looking their best, we need money. To that end Britannia Neighbours puts on the East Vancouver Garden Tour, now in its 25^thyear, to raise money to pay for:

• Garden tools, hoses, hose carts, nozzles, leaf bags
• Plants and trees as needed
• A person that we hire through the Kettle Friendship Society who picks up litter in the Greenway just about every day
• A person to water the garden through the warm/dry months (plus 12 cement planters in the Britannia courtyard, just to the west of the Greenway plus two garden beds

As well, Britannia Neighbours provided a seed grant to help start up the Grandview Garden Club, which meets once a month at Britannia Centre (or, when in pandemic mode, on Zoom).
 
The Green Streets department at the City provides support for us when we need something that is beyond our ability/scope. About once a year they provide us with a load of City compost so we can amend our soil. About fifteen years ago we asked them to install a water tap in the Greenway so we could water during the dry months, and they did. We’re lobbying now in hopes of having an automatic sprinkler system installed to reduce our costs and the immense effort of watering in the summer.
 
The keys to our success:

• We have work parties at a regular/predictable time — Monday afternoons 3:00–5:00. This generally means that people who work regular business hours cannot show up. We had tried meeting on Sunday afternoons for a couple of years, but we find Mondays work better for our regular volunteers, most of whom are retired.
• We are a really happy and congenial group and we look forward to working together for a couple of hours every week.
• We have people to pick up litter and to do our watering so we don’t have to do that work at our work parties and can concentrate on improving the garden.
• We have two e-mail mailing lists — one for what we call our “core group”, about twelve people who always show up and whom we consult when any decisions are being made — and one called “work party announcements”, about 40 people who are interested and want to know what we’re up to.
• Since 2005 we’ve had a website, which is mostly used as notification of work parties for anyone who’s not on our e-mail list.
• We have an account at Vancity and a volunteer who writes cheques and keeps track of our finances.
• We also have a sandwich board that we sometimes put up in the Greenway when we're working that tells passers-by who we are and what we’re doing — that we’re a volunteer group and they’re welcome to join us. It has a little rack for brochures/business cards. People often stop to chat with us as we’re working in the Greenway … and some even say they’d like to volunteer. And sometimes they give us their e-mail addresses and I add them to the “work party announcements” e-mail list. It’s always good to recruit new blood!

Work Parties in the Napier Greenway

 During Spring, Summer, and Fall we have work parties in the Napier Greenway just about every Monday afternoon from 3:00-4:00 p.m. (or sometimes 5:00). We don't garden in the winter.

We'd love it if you'd come and join us. It's a good way to learn some gardening skills and to get to know some of your neighbours.

Happy New Year! Come talk about Commercial Drive on Monday, January 9th at 7PM

Hi.

There's a GWAC meeting this coming Monday (Jan 9th) — all about our beloved Drive! Please join us on Zoom. See below.

Also, you may want to read or even subscribe to Jak King's blog and the section he calls "Changes on the Drive", which he updates (with Steve's and my help) on the first of every month.

https://jaksview3.wordpress.com/2023/01/02/changes-on-the-drive-128/

Cheers,

Penny

Penny Street

pennystreet@telus.net

Begin forwarded message:

From: Grandview Woodland Area Council <info@gwac.ca>

Subject: Happy New Year! Come talk about Commercial Drive on Monday, January 9th at 7PM

Date: January 2, 2023 at 10:07:49 PM PST

To: Penny <pennystreet@telus.net>

Reply-To: Grandview Woodland Area Council <info@gwac.ca>

Commercial Drive As a Pedestrian-First High Street Monday, Jan 9th at 7PM GWAC will be joined by Paul Storer and Lon Laclaire Two of the City's Big Wheels on Transportation for a discussion of Council's Motion "Prioritizing Commercial Drive as a Pedestrian-First High Street" What changes are coming to The Drive? Come hear about their plans and share your thoughts about the best street in Vancouver! Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81025178894?pwd=R1p6NFhtV3RKV3o1TTE1T0dLRldkdz09 Meeting ID: 810 2517 8894, Passcode: 378569 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcRlZVxebZ Full Motion: https://council.vancouver.ca/20210519/documents/pspc20210519min.pdf (see page 18) Copyright © 2023 Grandview Woodland Area Council, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest in receiving email correspondence from the Grandview Woodland Area Council (GWAC), this may have been expressed online, or in person either through a board member, or a sign in sheet at one of our public meetings. Our mailing address is: Grandview Woodland Area Council 1661 Napier Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada Vancouver, BC V5L 4X4 Canada Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Britannia-GWAC City Council Candidates Public Forum, Monday, Sept 26th

Hi.

There's a City Council Candidates Public Forum, Monday, Sept 26th.

It's jointly sponsored by Grandview-Woodland Area Council and Britannia Community Centre.

Hope you can make it. Tell your friends/neighbours!