Pasadena weekend: October 10-12

Enjoy a celebration or a festival. Garden or bicycle with others, read.


Celebration and cycling. 
On Friday, celebrate the designation of the San Gabriel Mountains as a National Monument in El Monte and join others on a bike ride that ends at the festivities.

More cycling. Women on Wheels is hosting its initiation group ride on Sunday morning. Almost simultaneously, Pasadena Cyclery will hold Gwen's Group Ride and the Sunday Morning Neighborhood StrollFor details see the calendar page of Pasastainable, CA.

Family festival. On Saturday morning Transition Pasadena, the Arroyo Food Co-op, Occupy Democracy Pasadena and the Pasadena Citizen’s Climate Lobby are hosting a Family Green Festival at the food co-op. The activities? Live music, a children’s interactive puppet show, arts and crafts, climate trivia, teen hangout etc. The goal? Help adults and children learn about climate change and environmental stewardship.

The Shed is hosting its Social Space Celebration on Saturday afternoon with workshops and presentations on native plants, woodworking, solar ovens and civilian activism.

Gardening on Sunday morningTransition Pasadena's Throop Learning Garden meets; the Eaton Canyon Nature Center is inviting volunteer gardeners to come and help maintain their gardens and the native vegetation.

Survey. Pasadena Water and Power is conducting a survey on the city's energy future. To participate go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PWP_Energy_Future2014

Exhibition 1. As part of the Pasadena Arts Council's AxS Festival, the Armory presents Karin Apollonia Müller's World’s Edge, a photographic exploration of the intersection between the natural landscape and complex urbanization. Ends next summer.

Exhibition 2. An exhibition at Descanso Gardens in La Canada titled Signs of Life aims to look at water "in all its moods and states." The event is part of this year's AxS Festival, a celebration of the arts and sciences that is held in Pasadena every two years.

Ongoing petition. The Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition has initiated a petition for the City to adopt an ordinance to protect vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders and persons with disabilities.

The Arroyo Food Co-op will be open on Saturday morning for pick-ups and shopping. Orders placed online by Sunday midnight will be available for pick-up next Tuesday and Saturday.

Got kids? On Saturday morning, the Eaton Canyon Nature Center is hosting a family nature walk. Bring your small children, walking shoes, sunscreen, water and a hat. Also on Saturday morning at the Nature Center: the weekly Nature Tails Story Hour which includes stories, nature walks and puppet shows for children ages 3-5.

Random reads. Audubon Magazine recently asked seven environmentalists about their personal strategies for staying optimistic even in the face of distressing news about everything from conservation to climate change. Their responses boiled down to one headline: Keep Calm and Conserve On. Andrew Revkin, the writer behind the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog, turns to music; 350.org-founder Bill McKibben rekindles the fire by looking at pictures of people who are fighting for the environment; others go running or simply spend time in nature. On a similar note, the environmental advocate Kathleen Dean Moore uses despair as the starting point for a short essay in the most recent issue of Orion Magazine titled The Rules of the River. Reflecting on the disruptions in the flow of the Toklat River in Alaska, she says that "our work and the work of every person who loves this world—this one—is to make one small deflection in complacency, a small obstruction to profits, a blockage to business-as-usual, then another, and another, to change the energy of the flood."

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Unless otherwise noted, all events take place in Pasadena. For times, addresses and other details please see the calendar page of Pasastainable, CA or the event owner's webpage.