{"id":14929,"date":"2025-04-20T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T10:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/?p=14929"},"modified":"2025-04-19T17:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T21:20:15","slug":"springing-forth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/2025\/04\/20\/springing-forth\/","title":{"rendered":"Springing Forth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things are still terrible politically and economically, but that isn’t stopping the inevitable change of the seasons. We have really enjoyed seeing trees bursting into bloom as we stroll around the neighborhood, power-walk down the greenway, and drive around town.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am particularly lucky to be able to enjoy the lovely surroundings of Reynolda Gardens when I volunteer there one morning on most weeks. While I do actually work pretty hard, there is always time to snap a quick phone pic of some nearby loveliness. See the wheelbarrow parked in the Cherry All\u00e9e in the pic below? That’s incontrovertible proof that I was working and not just enjoying the scenery!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

One week this spring I even managed to find, charge, and actually use<\/em> my “big” camera on a separate, non-volunteer day at Reynolda Gardens. These photos, including the one at the top of the post, are some of my favorites from that visit:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div>
<\/a><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Transitions and New Beginnings<\/h2>\n

My rant in the final paragraph of my last post mentioned our support of higher education as one of our acts of resistance. For the last six years I’ve served on the Board of Visitors (basically, a donor advisory board) for the Z. Smith Reynolds Library<\/a> at Wake Forest, and I am currently the board chair. Serving on this board has been a marvelous, engaging experience, but this year was particularly pivotal because our fabulous dean of 10 years is retiring at the end of the fiscal year (June 30). As board chair, I spent a fair amount of time in recent months investigating suitable retirement gifts, preparing to honor our outgoing dean at his final meeting in the spring 2025 semester, and coordinating the celebration among 25 board members who are located all across the country. Spending time focused on creating a nice appreciation for a person I admire was exactly the balm I needed to find positives in troubled times. Do I get a “Be the Change….” T-shirt for my efforts?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was also very fortunate to serve on the search committee for the new dean, and the committee worked hard in the fall 2024 semester to evaluate and interview a large slate of qualified candidates for the position. I am thrilled with the outcome of the search process, and am really looking forward to helping the next dean succeed in her new role.<\/p>\n

Even More Nice Things<\/h2>\n

In keeping with the seasonal theme of nice things popping up, March and April have been filled with plenty of pleasant events. Our good friends Eric and Laurel (Raven and Chickadee<\/a>) made a 5-day stop in Winston-Salem as they made their way back home after spending the winter in Florida. Their AirBnB was close to our place, and it was a real joy to share some of the delights of our new hometown with them. We also had some long-overdue lunch and breakfast meetups with some of my former faculty advisors who still live in the area and who I am fortunate to count as friends these days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

We have dipped a toe into the world of Community Supported Agriculture by purchasing a small, spring-only CSA share from one of our favorite vendors at nearby Cobblestone Farmers Market<\/a>. For about $13 per week, our pals Jeremy and Angel at Purple Clay Farm<\/a> are presenting us with a bag of 3-4 farm-fresh veggies each Saturday from late March through late May. So far our goodies have included beautiful heads of lettuce and bok choi along with generous bunches of kale, spinach, broccolini, red radishes, round white daikons, and rosemary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I spent several days volunteering at the annual Youth Education Program sponsored by Extension at the Arboretum at Tanglewood Park<\/a>, a large county park. On the days I worked, we hosted about 150 third-graders from local public schools and moved them around the gardens to different instructional stations staffed by master gardeners and\/or extension agents. The lesson topics (seeds, soil, compost, and plant adaption) align with the state’s third grade plant science curriculum requirements. It was extremely rewarding to see the kids get excited about gardening (the carnivorous plants and composting worms were a hit!), and very fun to hear their offbeat comments and questions.<\/p>\n

Next: I head overseas with my mother to celebrate a milestone birthday for her by touring the Scottish Highlands!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things are still terrible politically and economically, but that isn’t stopping the inevitable change of the seasons. We have really enjoyed seeing trees bursting into bloom as we stroll around the neighborhood, power-walk down the greenway, and drive around town.     I am particularly lucky to be able to enjoy the lovely surroundings of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,3],"tags":[165,172,21],"class_list":["post-14929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-built-environment","category-flora-fauna","category-food","tag-colleges","tag-libraries","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15007,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929\/revisions\/15007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamiaventures.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}