BUILDER magazine Features NorthWest Crossing

We were so pleased to be featured in a recent issue of BUILDER magazine, a national trade publication that provides information to the home building industry. The article, entitled “Tree-Lined Green: NorthWest Crossing in Bend, Ore. Takes sustainability beyond building green”, covered many of the features of the place we call home such as retention of mature trees, community design and more.

BUILDER magazine is a monthly magazine published by Hanley Wood Business Media. It was launched in 1979. It reports on construction industry related technologies, economics, management, business opportunities, architectural design, and sales and marketing. It mainly focuses on builders, contractors and more. www.builderonline.com

One heck of a Hullabaloo!

Hullabaloo week at NorthWest Crossing was fabulous! It started with the neighborhood summer concert series "Twilight Tunes" at Compass Park, then the USA Cycling Junior Road National Crit races, and ended with a rockin' concert by Jonatha Brooke. The NorthWest Crossing residents really provided a warm welcome and rolled out the red carpet for the Junior racers and their families, in addition to 1000s of visitors who descended upon NorthWest Crossing Drive for the third annual street festival that is now an official kick off to summer! Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the sunshine, the warm weather, the summer season and the community!

USA Cycling Road Nationals at NorthWest Crossing

It has been so much fun to watch the cyclists ride through NorthWest Crossing practicing for their road races and the crit this week. I stopped by the starting line this afternoon and was lucky enough to see the Women's 15-16 yr age group take off on their race from Summit High and through Tetherow. WOW - it is really spectacular to have USA Cycling here in Bend, and here in NorthWest Crossing. I encourage all of you to step outside tomorrow to watch the juniors whiz through the neighborhood. Come cheer them on....they are our future USA riders that we could be watching in France in a few years! Not bad.

sun and sprouts

Well, Mother Nature has decided to join the summer party and shed some sunlight! Thank you, Mother Nature - we so much appreciate you. The combination of my proscrastination and the cooler weather over the last 6 weeks has not been kind to my community garden plot. But to our surprise, we do have SPROUTS! I feel kinda maternal about it. In fact, I am so proud I took a photo. Not quite as cute as my four month old nephew, but cute in a vegetable type of way.

Food and the good life

Part of Saturday's events included the Food Fight Documentary at Summit High School. It was educational and another good reminder that we have the ability to make a difference with the choices we make when we buy food, plant food, and eat food. I left appreciating Alice Waters and Will Allen, and many others, for their commitment to good, healthy whole foods!

On Sunday I finally ventured over to our plot in the NorthWst Crossing Community Garden. As intimidated as I feel, it was time to just bust out and get those seeds planted! I can't keep complaining about the rain and cool weather, and I can't continue to think that plants will miraculously sprout up in our plot without someone actually planting them there. I have got to say, "GO GARDENERS!" The community garden looks great. I had more fun strolling through the garden peeping and peering into my neighbors' plots to see what is coming up. I am inspired by the commitment of my peer gardeners, and I am impressed by the creativity and pure enjoyment I am witnessing there. I am confident the food that will be produced from the garden bounty will be awesome!

After the gardening adventure, we sauntered over to portello winecafe to toast a break in the clouds and ring in another wonderful week in our cool community. Ah...the good life.

Food Fight Documentary - Revolution Never Tasted So Good!

Saturday, June 5th at Summit High - don't miss this documentary about food in the schools. Showtimes at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.! Visit www.bendeventco.com

NorthWest Crossing Community Garden Grand Opening May 8th!

After months of planning and hard work, the NorthWest Crossing Community Garden Opens tomorrow, May 8, 2010.

The community garden was built by the developer of NorthWest Crossing and is being managed by the OSU Extension Service Master Gardener program. The garden features cedar, raised beds with drip irrigation and is enclosed by an eight-foot tall wire fence. Generous donations and in-kind services from local companies, like Miller Lumber, Botanical Developments, Taylor NW, Ginger’s Kitchen and the NWX Builders’ Guild builders have made the garden possible.

“This is so exciting for our community to create a complete circle of sustenance within blocks of home – plant, grow, eat, compost, grow, eat,” said Romy Mortensen, resident of NorthWest Crossing and vice president of marketing at Brooks Resources Corporation, part of the team developing the garden. “It’s something we always had as part of our plan for NorthWest Crossing as it fits perfectly with our goals of sustainability, environmentally sound practices and creating a sense of community. We are looking forward to seeing this project unfold in 2010.”

Here's some great photos of volunteers helping to build garden boxes and more for this wonderful project.