Grassroots Graton by Heather Granahan - April 2017
Miss Hallberg aka Butterfly Lady
It was just in February that we toasted the 100th birthday of Graton’s beloved
She leaves a legacy that few achieve and many can continue to enjoy and learn from for years to come. It is one thing to hear about butterfly habitats being threatened and the potential loss of species critical to pollination and the food chain; it is another to visit and see the various types hatching and feeding, and to learn about what you may be able to plant in your own garden to provide food and nesting refuges for them. Louise’s mother Della started the whole adventure in the 1920s by planting Dutchmen’s Pipe vine, the only plant Pipevine Swallowtails will nest on. Louise was off getting a degree in political science and pursuing a long career as a meticulous registrar at the Santa Rosa Junior College.
Upon retirement, our amazing Butterfly Lady started expanding the now 9-acre garden and her studies that elevated it to a California treasure. Much is due to the exacting record-keeping she did for years, including daily butterfly counts and raising chrysalises in her own home. Imagine the focus and careful tracking of those tasks alone. Today you can still visit and internalize the vital lessons by just making an appointment.
This summer is the 20th anniversary of the Hallberg Butterfly Garden and they are holding an Open Gardens Celebration on Sunday, June 25th from 10am-4pm. Come visit the Purplish Copper, the Painted Lady, West Coast Lady, Grey Hairstreak, Skipper, Mourning Cloak, Anise Swallowtail and other poetic powdered-wings. As is customary, there will be children’s activities, a wildflower display, walking tours, and bird and butterfly sightings. Check out the plant, book, and craft sale. No reservations needed, just show up.
Spring Show of Flowers
Speaking of the crucial role flowers play in our lives, from feeding our winged allies to salving our winter-ravaged souls, the Graton Community Club is once again holding the Spring Flower Show and Sale. Friday and Saturday April 28-29 the Community Club doors downtown will be open to show off impressive table top arrangements and tableaus, serve a tasty homemade lunch and treats, and offer up a porch sale and a fantastic plant sale. You can find ornamentals, annual and perennial food plants in the greenhouse along the right side of the Clubhouse. Don’t miss a glass of wine and conversations with knowledgeable local gardeners and flower experts with some live music on the side. Doors are open 9-4 each day.
The whole shindig is no ordinary club fundraiser; for years they have had a tradition of annually awarding scholarships to graduates from West County high schools and Santa Rosa Junior College who are continuing onward to complete a four-year education. Hope some study botany & butterfly science!
Village Mind
I can’t help but ruminate about the role little hamlets/villages play in cataclysmic political policies like those grinding at our country these days. Villages are somewhat larger than hamlets and historically clustered around a central point, estate or business center, with agriculture surrounding it. Hamlets were small dots of imported humanity without a central focus pe se, just yeast spores in the dominating wildness around them.
Earliest settler’s villages were formed around ideas and values that they had emigrated here to practice freely. At the same time they protected those ways, they were defensive of them and critical of others values. We come from strangely pluralistic and yet exclusionary roots, starting at village level. I see this in our own wee townlet, with overflowing neighborly support alongside suspicion about those danged new ADA sidewalks. Building a bridge to understand our fellow citizens must include understanding our early roots. Trying to imagine life - or at least getting the mail - in someone else’s wheels would help too.
Please get your events to me before the 15th of the month prior: heatagran@sonic.net.
