It isn’t always easy to harmonize weed whacking, jazz and hummus – especially in the rain.

But that’s why they invented the Hardy Park Cleanup and Spring Fling – to let Foxhall community residents try.

On April 22, 2017, it was a cast of 30 or so people that showed up at the playground at Q Street and Foxhall Road to brighten and tighten up the place. They trimmed bushes and edged sidewalks, swept and shoveled, heard live music, and sampled fare from a local café.

CLEARING: Dianne Seltzer carries away weeds stripped from the fence at the Hardy Park tennis courts. Photo Credit: John A.Bray

It was Amara Mwesigwa’s rookie season. He recently moved to the community from Dallas and, having signed up for one of the park’s garden plots to grow tomatoes and jalapeno peppers, was drawn into the cleanup.

He said it’s too easy to pass through and “never quite recognize how much it takes to keep up a park like this.” Mwesigawa leveraged his height to trim drooping tree branches. “I’m actually glad it’s raining,” he said. “The cool air makes this easier to endure.”

PILING IT ON: Amara Mwesigwa mounds up tree trimmings for disposal during the Hardy Park cleanup on April 22, 2017. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

The Palisades Community Band sheltered in place on the field house’s covered patio. Band member Noel Bicknell scoffed at the drizzle. “We’ve played here when it’s snowing,” he said, recalling a pre-global warming Halloween performance.

He was accompanied by sax and flute man Frank Cappello, drummer Dan Lozier, and bassist Guy Stevens.

As we talked, Lozier allowed that he had not yet seen the movie “Whiplash,” the story of an aspiring jazz drummer enduring the perfectionist abuse of his teacher. Shrugging about references lost on his band mate, Stevens said that a trio he plays with had toyed with going by the name Not My Tempo, one of the teacher’s signature digs.

RAINY DAY RAZZMATAZZ: The Palisades Community Band strikes up the jazz. From left, Noel Bicknell, Dan Lozier, Guy Stevens and Frank Cappello. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

Anyway, there was plenty of mini-cupcakes, cookies and coffee to go around, courtesy of Kiano Armani, operator of Kristina’s Café & Pastries, which opened in September 2016 at the nexus of MacArthur Boulevard and Foxhall Road.

Armani said he spent 13 years as a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker in the Middle East. He came to Washington, D.C., to take a different line. A hint of the past was present in the form of a tray of pita chips and a luminous bowl of hummus.

HARDY HUMMUS: A detail from a bowl of a chickpea delight from Kristina’s Cafe & Pastries shows a dusting of the tangy spice called somagh. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

Sprinkled atop the chickpea dish was a maroon spice that I had never tasted. Armani and assistant Cyrus Bahadori clued me in to somagh, an intriguing blend of lemony, peppery flavor.

In coming years, more people from the neighborhood might be tempted to join the weeding, listening, and tasting organized by Friends of Hardy and the Foxhall Community Citizens Association, groups that have been working to improve the park. (See, Hardy Park: State Of Play, 2.0, Potomac Times)

HARDY RAILROAD: Rodrigo Lalvay, left, and Gerald Bemis tighten fasteners on the locomotive of the playground train. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

It’s an investment, Mwesigwa said.

“You want everyone to be able to enjoy the park,” he said. “So we just want to do our part.”

ORGANIZING MUSCLES: Friends of Hardy chief Frank Staroba, left, and Leo Blyth, the Foxhall Community Citizens Association board liaison for Community Events & Young Families, pitch in during the cleanup they led. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

© 2017 John A. Bray