From Mike McCurry’s “Talk of the Town” column in The Clarendon Courier, March 30, 2017
What is the landscape look like for you this week? A desert, a beach, white powder on a mountain side, a museum or maybe a water park?
Having children in our public schools, I know that it’s spring break for Hinsdale School District 181, and a few of our school friends are on a beach in Florida, some are on the ski slopes in Colorado and Canada. A picture of one of our friends on Facebook showed their family in the Scottsdale desert. Another picture artistically captures a Corona, with lime in the foreground and beach and feet in the background.
Meanwhile – a freight train passed by my office in downtown Clarendon Hills today, and after several minutes the gate finally went up. A pretty typical scenario – except that there were no cars waiting to cross the tracks afterwards. It was like I was in a ghost town with a train just passing through it.
When all those lucky vacationers return to town from their fun in the sun and snow, we will have a few short weeks until our landscapes and yards here in the Midwest explode into spring, and into an uncontrollable jungle. Now is the time to seize the moment, start planning and line up your service partners for your outdoor spring landscaping projects. If you are installing a new patio or deck, or just trimming some of your trees and bushes, we all know that the landscapers get busy all at the same time.
It was a year last October when we moved from our home, just two blocks away from where we currently live. We spent a considerable amount of energy thinking and working through the landscape design of our old residence, so we wanted to give at least a full season before we embarked on any new projects for our new home. We decided to enjoy and live in the home for at least a year, and to see how we used it before changing anything. For us, entertaining guest is important, and because the home came complete with a pool, there was a lot to think about as far as a landscape design.
And because I love anything to do with landscape design – especially the progress that comes with it -, we hired a talented and artistic landscape architect to present ideas that we could implement in time. We are now in the middle of that planning, and are almost ready to move forward with some projects. We can’t do it all on our own, and because I know that my service partners are going to be busy, I’m getting on their schedule now – and so should you!
Speaking of planning – The village of Clarendon Hills has been planning the groundbreaking celebration for the Richmond Education Gardens and Apiary, which will be held at 10 am to noon on Saturday, April 22.
Located just West of the police station and public works facility is a space owned by the villages of Westmont and Clarendon Hills. The gardens are designed to educate our community about our environment and natural and organic gardening. There will be rain gardens, native vegetables, wildflowers, a butterfly garden — and even a collection of beehives. This is an exciting project that will benefit our schools and our community. At the celebration, activities will include tours of the garden and apiary, story reading by The Birches, and the Clarendon Hills Public Library will supply animal balloons. To learn more about the project, go to www.richmond gardens.org
You might need to divide your time on April 22: The Park District of Clarendon Hills is also hosting its Earth Day event at Prospect Park Pavilion. Residents will enjoy a fun morning making crafts from recycled items, building birdhouses, planting flowers, playing some games and getting their faces painted by our friendly Park District friends!
Welcome home!
We were that family that got away for a few days at the water-park, and now it’s time to start planning, and to start digging in the dirt.
Mike is a Clarendon Hills resident; husband; Indian Princess; Indian Guide Dad; a Coach; an “old” football player and a real estate broker. Mike’s columns are usually crafted about the buzz in and around the area. It sometimes has a spin on real estate or cultural information, highlight a new business or announce school happenings. He might include a “get-to-know” about some of our interesting residents and even a little about history. Whatever it is, it is sure to be about the “Talk of the Town”.