regular gardening workdays
1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month @2pm
coming up:
DEC 21, Jan 4 & 18, FEb 1 & 15
Become a Garden Volunteer!
Regular gardening workdays are at 2pm (3 pm during Daylight Savings Time) the first and third Saturdays of the month. Meet by the bathrooms next to the parking lot, and bring a jug or bottle of water and your own small gardening tools.
Whether you’re new to gardening, a master gardener, or just enjoy being outdoors with your hands in the soil—all are welcome. In fall and winter, volunteers are usually busy planting new plants; through spring and summer we are pulling weeds and watering. Get to know California buckwheat, matilija poppies, St. Catherine’s lace, manzanita and other lovelies! We’d love to see you.
RECENT EVENTS
sand Globe Festivity on Albany Bulb
Sunday, December 8, 11am-3pm
Join in to create & play with sand globes and each other! Making sand globes from moist sand and water is easy-- and it feels like magic! Someone said, "It's like making a sand castle in the air."
At this event, environmental artist Zach Pine will teach everyone to make sand globes. It takes just 5 minutes for your first one! We'll use sand globes to make spontaneous, evolving, and ephemeral creations together, play cooperative sand globe games like "pass the peas," learn to catch and juggle sand globes, and aim to break the world record for largest sand globe (a bit bigger than a basketball).
Nature Journal Club
sunday, Nov 10th (5th Session of a 5-month Series)
1-3pm
Join the Albany Bulb Nature Journal Club! A new program of Love the Bulb that brings together people who want to explore the Bulb’s diverse nature through nature journaling.
In the practice of nature journaling, you use words, pictures, and numbers to collect and record your observations, questions, connections, and explanations on the pages of a notebook. You do not need to be an artist or a naturalist to begin!
The Albany Bulb Nature Journal Club will meet once per month for five months, July-November and will survey the breadth of plant and animal life at the Bulb. We are still welcoming new participants, join us!
fairy door creation
sunday, November 17th
1-3pm
Join us for this public art-making event where children and adults will create and install playful miniature fairy doors at the Bulb.
We’ll provide each participant with a blank wooden fairy door and an assortment of paint markers for decorating. You can bring natural materials (acorns, eucalyptus pods, shells, etc.) to accessorize. Then choose a spot to mount your door to delight yourself and others!
Bird-watching walk
saturday, sept 28th
noon-2pm
Join us for a bird-watching walk led by naturalist and Master Birder Ralph Pericoli.
On this bird walk Ralph will share his birding knowledge and guide us as we observe the local and migratory birds that are currently residing in the Bay surrounding the Bulb. We will learn how to identify birds, talk about their behavior and marvel at their beauty and majesty. Birders and aspiring birders of all levels are welcome.
(Photo credit: Charlie McClelland)
marine Life Nature walk
Sunday, July 7th
8:30-11am
Naturalist Patty Donald will share her knowledge of nudibranchs, mudsnails, and pickleweed--and an appreciation for the creative forces of both humans and nature. In an adventurous low-tide 2-mile walk we'll consider the stunning variety of the Albany Bulb's ecosystems including beach, mudflat, salt marsh, upland, and rocky shore. We'll explore the Bulb’s tidepools and learn about some of the 150 bird species at the Bulb, the impacts of climate change, and the complex functioning of the San Francisco Bay estuary.
Bird walk
POSTPONED to Sunday, June 30th
9-11am
Join us for a bird-watching walk led by naturalist and Master Birder Ralph Pericoli.
On this bird walk Ralph will share his birding knowledge and guide us as we observe the local and migratory birds that are currently residing in the Bay surrounding the Bulb. We will learn how to identify birds, talk about their behavior and marvel at their beauty and majesty. Birders and aspiring birders of all levels are welcome.
Community Meeting
Thursday, June 27th
6:30-8pm
@ Ocean View Brew Works in Albany
Please mark your calendars for a Love the Bulb Community Meeting on Thursday, June 27th at 6:30pm. If you're interested in getting more involved with Love the Bulb, please plan to join us on the 27th! If you can't join the meeting, but want to volunteer with us, please fill out this volunteer interest form. Thank you!
Summer solstice group movement
Thursday, June 20th
7-8:30pm
Join us this Thursday, June 20th @7pm to celebrate the Summer Solstice with a group movement activity where we will stroll to different Bulb locations, pausing to stretch and move, each to their own comfort level. There will be lightly guided prompts to invite body and spatial awareness, and take cues from our environment, noticing and being inspired by the movement of the wind, water, plants, animals and the Sun. Feel free to bring your own music and headphones to listen to your favorite danceable ditties as well if you like.
Passing the Torch
May 18, 2024, 3-5pm
Love the Bulb Garden Party
featuring the Del Sol Quartet
Join us to celebrate 8 years of Love the Bulb’s stewardship, advocacy, and arts activities at our beloved Albany Bulb!
Love the Bulb founder Susan Moffat is retiring!
Come meet the new team including fearless leader Angela Armendariz. Come learn about the history and future of the Albany Bulb! The award-winning Del Sol Quartet will return for an encore performance of enchanting contemporary string music!
Fairy village creation
may 5, 2024, 1-3pm
Come help create a fairy village at the Bulb by creating your own fairy house out of found materials at the Bulb. Join us for this public art-making event where kids and adults will create and install playful miniature fairy houses at the Bulb.
sand Globe Festivity on Albany Beach for Earth Day!
Sunday, april 21, 10am-3pm
(arrive anytime)
Join in to create & play with sand globes and each other! Making sand globes from moist sand and water is easy-- and it feels like magic! Someone said, "It's like making a sand castle in the air."
At this event, environmental artist Zach Pine will teach everyone to make sand globes. It takes just 5 minutes for your first one! We'll use sand globes to make spontaneous, evolving, and ephemeral creations together, play cooperative sand globe games like "pass the peas," learn to catch and juggle sand globes, and aim to break the world record for largest sand globe (a bit bigger than a basketball).
Garden Planting Day
New Date! Sat, Jan 27, 2024 @2pm
(postponed from Jan 20 due to rain forecast)
Join Love the Bulb for our annual planting day in the Library Garden on January 20, 2024. We’ll be planting plants, making some garden art, clearing invasives, and doing general maintenance.
Please click here to sign up (this ensures that you receive updates, e.g. in case heavy rain postpones the event). We’ll meet at the bathrooms by the parking lot and walk out to the garden together. For this event, we’ll provide gloves, gardening tools, and snacks! Or you’re free to bring your own gear.
Whether you’re new to gardening, a master gardener, or just enjoy being outdoors with your hands in the soil—all are welcome.
Bird walk
Saturday, Dec 9th
8-10am
Join us for a bird-watching walk led by naturalist and Master Birder Ralph Pericoli.
On this bird walk Ralph will share his birding knowledge and guide us as we observe the local and migratory birds that are currently residing in the Bay surrounding the Bulb. We will learn how to identify birds, talk about their behavior and marvel at their beauty and majesty. Birders and aspiring birders of all levels are welcome.
fairy door creation
sunday, November 12th
1-3pm
Join us for this public art-making event where children and adults will create and install playful miniature fairy doors at the Bulb.
We’ll provide each participant with a blank wooden fairy door and an assortment of paint markers for decorating. You can bring natural materials (acorns, eucalyptus pods, shells, etc.) to accessorize. Then choose a spot to mount your door to delight yourself and others!
We’ll be meeting under the tree at the center of the Bulb. To find it, follow the fairy ribbons lining the path from the parking lot.
sand Globe Festivity on Albany Bulb
Sunday, October 8, 2-4pm
Join in to create & play with sand globes and each other! Making sand globes from moist sand and water is easy-- and it feels like magic! Someone said, "It's like making a sand castle in the air."
At this event, environmental artist Zach Pine will teach everyone to make sand globes. It takes just 5 minutes for your first one! We'll use sand globes to make spontaneous, evolving, and ephemeral creations together, play cooperative sand globe games like "pass the peas," learn to catch and juggle sand globes, and aim to break the world record for largest sand globe (a bit bigger than a basketball).
Beautiful Weeds- Making Ink at the Albany Bulb
Saturday, June 24, 2023, 10am-2pm
Join Love the Bulb and Elissa Callen in exploring the use of beautiful “weeds” found at the Albany Bulb as art materials for inks, watercolor, and environmental restoration. Attendees will learn about native, non-native, and invasive plants, how to ethically harvest plants as color for pigments, and how to process them into pigments, inks and watercolor. During the workshop everyone will have the opportunity to explore the area to collect their own invasive plants for color possibility. Participants will also gain a better understanding of the importance of building a deeper relationship with the natural environment through learning about conservation and the ecological impact of their artistic practice.
Aerial view of the Albany Bulb
Love the Bulb Community Meeting
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
6:30-8:00 pm
Edith Stone Room, Albany Library
1249 Marin Ave. Albany CA
Please come to our community meeting to meet our new team members, learn about Bulb history, and brainstorm about its future. This meeting is for everyone: folks who want to get more involved or who just want to learn more about the Albany Bulb, about upcoming events, and about Love the Bulb as an organization.
Garden Planting Day, Feb 11, 2023 @2pm
Join us Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 2 pm to plant new native plants in the Library Garden! Please click here to sign up (this ensures that you receive updates, e.g. in case heavy rain postpones the event). We’ll meet at the bathrooms by the parking lot and walk out to the garden together. For this event, we’ll provide gloves, gardening tools, and snacks! Or you’re free to bring your own gear.
Whether you’re new to gardening, a master gardener, or just enjoy being outdoors with your hands in the soil—all are welcome.
Native PlanT(ing) Garden Workday
2-4 pm, SATURDAY, january 15, 2022
Join us Saturday, January 15 at 2 pm to add native plants to the Library Garden! Please click here to sign up (this ensures that you receive updates, e.g. in case heavy rain postpones the event). We’ll meet at the bathrooms by the parking lot and walk out to the garden together. For this event, we’ll provide gloves, gardening tools, and snacks! Or you’re free to bring your own gear.
Whether you’re new to gardening, a master gardener, or just enjoy being outdoors with your hands in the soil—all are welcome.
Monument to Extraction:
Walking California HISTORY at the Albany Bulb Landfill
A multi-media self-guided tour created by UC Berkeley students. The tour is available to download any time. Some of the sculptures installed in April 2021 have succumbed to the elements, but others remain in place.
Download the free audio tour and augmented reality app at monumenttoextraction.org.
As a vast pile of construction waste, the Albany Bulb is a good place to study the connections between extractive resources and our everyday lives. On this 1.5 mile walk across this giant monument to extraction, participants will take a journey through history that uses art, narrative, and augmented reality to link materials underfoot such as concrete rubble and steel slag to the industrial history of the East Bay and its connections to mining and other forms of extraction in nearby and distant California landscapes.
Learn about dynamite manufacturing in Albany; brick making and oil refining in Richmond; food processing in Emeryville; container shipping in Oakland, and the ways that wartime mobilization and postwar housing construction created racial divides in the landscape that are still visible today.
This project is created by students in a Future Histories Lab class at UC Berkeley taught by Love the Bulb founder Susan Moffat. It is part of EXTRACTION: Art on the Edge of the Abyss, a global multimedia, multi-venue, cross-border art experience examining the environmental consequences of industrialized natural resource extraction.
community parks planning workshops #1, #2, and #3
(City of albany)
Thanks to everyone who joined the city’s community workshops about park planning on June 13, July 8, and August 14, 2021 and spoke up about the Bulb!
The first workshop (on Zoom) captured a high-level vision of what changes people would like to see in their park system. The second workshop (also on Zoom) focused on site-specific changes. For the third workshop (outdoors at Memorial Park) the community was asked to prioritize park ideas by category—and ended with raffles and prizes!
To stay tuned:
Go to https://www.albanyparks.com/workshop for clear illustrated summaries of each workshop
Sign up for continuing updates at albanyparks.com
Follow the process at albanyparksmp on Instagram
NB: These are official city events, not Love The Bulb events. Participants include Albany Recreation & Community Services, the Albany Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Commission, and Groundworks.
future of the bulb teach-in
On June 5, 2021, Bulb supporters met at Carlo Ferretti’s Cove to discuss the future of the Bulb in light of the City of Albany’s new parks master planning process. Who owns the Bulb? Is the East Bay Regional Park District taking it over? What is the future of the art? Who sets dog policy? The teach-in was followed by a tour of the Library Garden and its native plants, all nurtured by Love the Bulb volunteers like you. We ended with optional watering and weeding!
NB: This was an informal Love the Bulb event, not an official city event.
DEL SOL QUARTET
”We believe that music changes the place and the place changes the music.”
The Del Sol Quartet brought us two wonderful roaming concerts in 2021. On May 1, the quartet gave a stunning performance of 12 new commissioned works from their Joy Project (music for outdoors during the pandemic), by composers Vijay Iyer, Danny Clay, Lisa Mezzacappa, Chen Yi, Mark Orton, Jungyoon Wie, Theresa Wong, Erberk Eryilmaz, Erika Oba, Jonah M. Gallagher, Sam Weiser, and Elena Kats-Chernin. And on September 4, they premiered brand new work by Adeliia Faizullina, Marguerite Brown and deVon R. Gray; Marguerite and deVon joined us in person!
* Watch video of the tango and other pieces on the Love the Bulb YouTube channel. (You can also subscribe!)
SAY THEIR NAMES
We brought together community members and artists including Michon Sanders, Nakari Syon, Carol Newborg, April Beall, Mae Sarah, and Susan Moffat to create a Say Their Names memorial dedicated to Black lives lost to police violence, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Oscar Grant, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Atatiana Jefferson, Tamir Rice, Natasha McKenna, Renisha McBride and Steven Taylor.
Thanks to Rich City Rides for bringing a bicycle-powered, multi-generational crew of painters to help create the memorial.
Sarah Cahill
World-renowned pianist Sarah Cahill said goodbye to her grandmother’s piano by bringing it out to the Bulb for a performance on the shoreline before sending it on to a new home. Sarah is a champion of contemporary and women’s composers, and host of KALW’s Revolutions Per Minute. See how the piano arrived and listen to an interview with Sarah in Spinet Farewell, curated by Jon Winet and Debra Pughe.
Hannah Ayasse and Dustin Ordway
Hannah Ayasse and Dustin Ordway created a series of seven sculptures placed in Bulb landscapes and a site-specific dance exploring themes of connection, isolation, race, and difference. The journey ended with a looping outdoor video at the Palm Grove of their dance piece, We Live in Our Bodies, We Carry Our History with Us which was shot earlier at the Bulb. Their work continues the conversations we started at the Say Their Names memorial murals near the beach.
Dan Plonsey and Randy Hussong
Dan Plonsey and Randy Hussong brought together an all-star cast of musicians at the Amphitheater on November 11, 2020 to fill the rugged space with the sounds of handcrafted percussion instruments, wind instruments and voice. In 11 11 Caution Yellow 20 20 Veteran’s Day musicians Cleveland, Mantra and Mischa Plonsey; Ward Spangler; Cory Wright; and Suki O’Kane pushed back against the disruptions of this year.
Mads Tolling
When we were all locked down in spring 2020, Grammy Award-winning violinist Mads Tolling created videos to bring the Bulb into our homes. He played Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog and Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal against the spectacular backdrop of San Francisco Bay as part of the Altered Territory series of performances and exhibitions responding to the pandemic. Listen to Mads talk about why he loves the Bulb.
Jo de Mars
Cellist Joanne de Mars recorded Bach's Cello Suite in C Major Number 3 outdoors at the Albany Bulb and created this video for Love the Bulb’s Altered Territory series featuring images of art and nature at the site. During shelter in place in 2020, Jo recorded a series of six Bach cello suites outdoors at parks around the Bay Area, which she calls "Suite Weeks of Quarantine."