Progress in the hood

We were pleased to see a family setting up a portable swimming pool yesterday afternoon on our "adopted" lot and kids having a ball on what was once a weed-choked lot carpeted by litter and broken bottles. Residents in the row houses on Eutaw Place no longer dump their bags of garbage along the alley that runs by the lot. I think landlords are doing a better job providing enough garbage cans for their tenants and the city inspectors are doing a good job enforcing the ordinances. All around a good thing for the neighborhood. If I get bold enough, I might start a little garden on the lot and see how the neighbors take to that.

Speaking of garden, the RHHP garden is beginning to yield its bounty. We have been dining on freshly-picked lettuce, basil and Swiss chard this week. The tomatoes will ripen in earnest soon. I have already promised some to Gene, our elderly neighbor to the north of us. Here is a snapshot of Ellen with a head of romaine from the garden. I love Maryland weather. It lets me grow veggies here the way I could not in Seattle.