Signal boost: New features at Poetree

Stolen from jjhunter because she said it so well. :)

Every Sunday, starting today, we'll have a Sunday Picnic:
Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

And there will also be two weekly challenges, one for writers & one for readers, both of which are open to anyone regardless of whether they are currently a member of POETREE (or Dreamwidth, for that matter), posted as Climbing the Poet's Tree: Weekly Challenges. This week the challenges are as follows:
For Writers:

Challenge #1: Write a poem of any kind using one of the following opening lines*:
They chopped down the lazy tree last Friday
He made time from spinning seconds collected from door jambs
it was enough to make an alien weep
For Readers:

Challenge #2: Comment, if you haven’t already, on at least one post from this week (3/12 - 3/17) or this upcoming week, and add a new comment of length (three or more sentences) on an older post not tagged '!admin' to the community with fewer than three comments as of this post.
Please see the post in question for further details. Thanks go to stillnotbored for the inspiration for the first contest.