Community

Little Girls in a small community!

The Alley of Dreams is a dream of community. How many of us crave this dream? I grew up in a rural community in Virginia on my grandparent's farm. We knew everyone up and down the road. If we needed something there was always someone there to help. My sister , Susan, use to go to the neighbors house when she didn't like what my grandmother made for dinner and Mrs. Ruby Fernow (what a name, right?) would always pull out a chicken leg and fry it for her. Recently Susan and I were discussing this and she marveled that she always had a chicken leg ready for the fryer. Some of my best memories were created there in that community.

Okay, Time to Howl?

Today I am thoughtful that I, just like Ruby Fernow (not as cool a name, I know) am making memories with the children in our little Alley of Dreams community. Ella, Lucy, Ansen, Asher...they are all the laughs, the joy, the tears, the fabric of our continuity of love and communion that begins with our coming together in the communal space we call the Alley of Dreams. One day I hope they will remember us all in our little alley somewhere in Bellingham, Washington and the times we all took to come together to laugh, share food, play games, make music, dance, hula hoop, watch chickens, catch butterflies, and occasionally howl at the moon. Okay, that was Dylan...

Alley JOY!

Most recent Alley memory was Friday night  when we all met for Happy Hour and it rolled in to dinner time. We were all talking about what to make when it turned in to an impromptu Alley dinner party. Since we all have access to a giant zucchini plant (sorry, Steven, it overtook the garden, and Dylan stop bringing it up! that's another story) Amber's Dad who is visiting  said he would grill some, Dylan offered to make his famous zucchini fries and the zoodle being the official alley noodle, I offered a peanut sauce and zoodle dish! Ella helped me, just her and I in my kitchen sharing thoughts about who she would marry and why...because he is kind to her. Melt my heart!

I love my that these people are in my life. I call them my tribe. What is community.. dictionary says...a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and have a common cultural and historical heritage. A tribe is defined as..a social group comprised of numerous families, clans, or generations who share a common ancestry and culture. We are a community and a tribe. We share a common, human need to connect with others, we share a neighborhood, a love of family, good food, good times, and above all in the words of Ella...we are kind to one another. You are all MY KIND! Take note world..

Cheers to Community! 

Zucchini Zoodles

Alley of Dreams has a LOT of ZUKES right now !  What to do make Zoodles!

Zoodles RAW!

zoodles with pesto sauce/yellow cherry tomatoes from alley of dreams garden! YUM! 

Ellas birthday in the Alley of Dreams

I realize it is July, but I am posting a party from April, but better late then never, right?! It was just such a good party and I don't want anyone to miss out on how I pulled it off.

This was for Ella's 5th birthday. Normally, I tie her birthday in with Easter, but I felt like 5 was such a special number, I decided to throw her a big bash. So she asked for a "fox or deer theme" and I turned it into "Woodland Creatures". I spent lots of time planning, delegating, and scanning Pinterest but there were 3 big things that made this happen and thats what I want to share with you:

1. Community. It takes a village to pull off such a big party (If you try to pull this off alone, you are either superhuman or crazy). Amber made the cute little puff balls, Steve made the table, mowed the lawn and cleaned up the alley (man, that guy is the best). Dylan and Andy put up tarps (that Ken let us borrow) "in case" it rained (it didn't but probably would have if we didn't have the tarps up). Donna helped with up-keep in the alley and let me borrow every missing ingredient I needed for everything I cooked (which was a lot). Uncle Jamie brought (and made) everything you need to make the biggest most AMAZING bubbles ever. Literally, best ever.

2. You need to cut corners where you can, imperfection is key. I used a box cake mix (Trader Joes vanilla cake mix is the bomb). I super glued everything from the mushroom chair tops, the flags, table cards; you name it... I superglued it. That trusty ol' sewing machine stayed tucked away the whole time.

I also was using items we had around the house to decorate, like their treehouse, little animal toys, logs from the recently cut down tree, you name it, I found it somewhere on our property (a few exceptions from Micheal's ).

3.  You need food and friends! That is key to making the party. Ella got to invite 5 (maybe 6) of her closest friends and then all their siblings. When you then add in all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors, it becomes quite the party. Telling your friends to dress up makes it that much more festive!

I kept the food simple. I planned the party after lunch time but before dinner and then just had out snack food. We did ants on a log, pretzels, berries, ladybugs (tomatoes on cream cheese on crackers), veggies, kettle corn, and little tea sandwiches. I probably could have had more food but I think everyone survived and had a good time anyway. 

I forgot one more reason why this all worked, because ELLA was born! 

Alley Food: Bruschetta Caprese with Peaches

This is basically the most delicious thing ever.
It’s a mash-up of bruschetta and caprese but with peaches instead of tomatoes.

 

 

It's like summer in your mouth.

Ingredients are simple: extra ripe peaches, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and sliced French or Italian bread.

How I did it: I took some ripe peaches, chopped them up, added some fresh mozzarella, fresh basil from the alley of dreams, drizzled it all with olive oil, red wine vinegar, sprinkled salt and pepper and let it sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then, I brushed French bread slices with olive oil and baked them until they just started to brown and harden. Topped those puppies with a healthy spoonful of Bruschetta Surprise and – done! I got rave reviews on this one so I’ll definitely be making it again.



Donna's herb garden



 

Dream on,

Amber

 

It's officialy a blog about a community alley experiment...

It's official - we have a blog! The alley of dreams has come a long way from an idea we had to make a space where our children could access the yards between city blocks. What it's become is a safe haven for us - a place to have happy hour on a sunny day, pizza night on a Friday, a party location for birthdays and celebrations and an incredibly well maintained herb garden!

Here are some fun photos to catch you up on what we've been up to so you can join us in our experiment in community alley making: