For our most recent Good Girls project, we signed up to help out at the historic Lummis House off the 110 freeway in the Arroyo Seco neighborhood of Los Angeles. Once a month, volunteers come to help the house's official gardeners keep up the grounds (which feature drought-tolerant native plants). Here we are, leaving my house on a Saturday morning, our trowels poised to dig! (Clockwise from top left: Merete, Audrey, Rachel & Mirabai)


The Good Girls had a really great time on this project. When we arrived, we were given a tour of the house, which is really amazing. It was built by Charles Lummis, who was one of those fascinating characters from the early 1900s who made his way in the world using his own wits and ambition. The extremely nice tour guide/volunteer coordinator gave us a quick summary of his colorful life and showed us all the interesting and innovative details of the house. I would definitely recommend the Lummis House as a place to bring out of town guests. It's one of those great hidden gems of L.A.

After our tour, we were put to work weeding a large section of ground behind the guest houses on the property. There were a LOT of weeds, but we managed to pull them all--with the help of a professional gardener and a couple other volunteers. We were lucky that it had just rained, so the ground was soft and the weeds came out quite easily.

When we finished weeding, we were served homemade tamales donated by a neighbor of the Lummis House. They were delicious! Overall, I'd give this volunteer project a big thumbs up. We all had a great time and everyone who we met at the Lummis House was very nice and fun to talk to. I think we'll definitely do the project again.

2 comments

1. Anonymous on 3/20/2006 04:26:00 PM

   We need an ID on the members of the GG Club. First names are fine!

    
2. Audrey on 3/20/2006 04:46:00 PM

   As requested, I have updated to include the names of the Good Girls in the photo. This is about half our group.