On the first day of Spring '09, I posted a blog about strange coincidences on the equinox ...not the global equinox, but the actual day when Portland experiences equal parts light and dark. For the arrival of Autumn '10, that day fell on September 25th - a bright, warm & sunny Saturday capping off a solid two weeks of off-and-on rain.
The morning started with the kids on a bikequest to retrieve Lilly's hoodie - left behind the night before at Chapman Elementary School where we witnessed the annual migration of Vaux swifts tornado through Portland. Lilly has blossomed into a superstar bicyclist and rode 10 miles of bike boulevards across town with only one request: a chocolate eclair from St. Honore French Bakery. Compared to the typical American donuclair, their version is 4x smaller, 4x more expensive and 10x tastier. She savored every bite.
I note this start to our journey only because Lilly's eclair-adventure perfectly timed our arrival to the morning's destination: Under the Autumn Moon Festival at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. As we pulled up on bikes, Lilly's sweet, half-Chinese friend Aria strolled up beside us for an impromptu playdate.
The girls were entranced by dancing dragons while I chased a rambunctious River through random passages. The design of this enchanting garden was inspired by seven ancient gardens in Portland's sister city, Suzchou, Jiangsu Province.
In the world of urban sustainable development, Jiangsu is much like Portland: a national and global leader for pioneering climate protection and green building policies while simultaneously raising quality of life. Last Thursday, I presented Portland's Climate Action Plan to 25 Chinese Mayors, including one from Jiangsu. The American press loves to paint China as this mega-polluter of the 21st century, but in many ways, they are ahead of us on the sustainability curve, plus they can tap their 10,000-yr+ heritage of living in balance with the Earth.
Thoroughly inspired by all things Chinese, I handed the kids off to Bunny in the afternoon and rode out to work our annual BIG! (Build-It-Green!) tour of homes. Many connections with community were crossed over the course of touring 40 miles and 8 homes in 4 hours. I was most impressed by five houses seeking near-zero energy use. If successful, these residents will meet their electricity needs with photovaltaics and heat their homes with waste heat from appliances and their own bodies!
My tour ended at the liquor store to pick up a fifth of single-malt Scotch for my buddy Craig's birthday party later that night. Strangely, through the rows of bottles, I ran into Ruth, who was also celebrating her birthday, and then Jordan, who was also on the BIG! tour. Jordan works for the State Department of Environment Quality researching the environmental impacts of the stuff we buy and recently completed a study on the lifecycle carbon emissions from various home sizes. I hardly know him, but we recently connected to arrange a couple presentations of his research to folks at my bureau.
The coincidences continued as we randomly ran into Jordan and his family at Director's Park yesterday and played in the fountain. As it turns out his wife knows Bunny through admiration of the flower shop. To bring it all full circle, I took the kids out to dinner at Habibi: besides being my favorite Lebanese restaurant in Portland, Habibi is also the title of Craig's five-years-in-the-creating graphic novel. Under the Autumn Moon, we celebrated his 35 years and crowning achievement.
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