Brown By Any Other Name is Not So Sweet

The predominant color in Anchorage right now is brown. Not a rich, patina brown but a dried up, left over, it’s been one hella’va winter yellow-brown. Alaskans call this time of year “break-up.” I think it’s because you are ready to “break-up” with this state and move to Hawaii about this time because things are so ugly AND still cold (it will be in the 20’s tonight). But spring must be around the corner because the Canadian Geese are back and landed on the park strip this morning. This site thrilled Nimbus and had me repeating “leave-it, leave-it, l-e-a-ve-it!” on our morning walkies. The geese are hard to see, but they are in the upper left corner of the picture (photo below). It looks like my little topiary grass sheep (above) made it through the winter –or at least he finally popped up out of the snow. We’ll see if any of the moss and plantings sprout back. I’ve got more “Steel Wool” sheep cut out and will be welding them up tomorrow for the Spenard Farmers Market. It took me a whole day to cut a sheet of curls but I love making them. I’m going to add only small mesh chicken wire to a couple of the sheep for topiaries instead of the curls. Customers had asked about them last year. I’ll probably bring my planted one as an example if it sprouts back nicely.

This week I’ve had

my volunteer hats on. Saturday Gus and I will be reading to kids at the Kids Day, Wild About Reading event. I'm honored to have been invited as a “celebrity reader” (due to my children’s alphabet books) and will be reading Saturday, April 16 at the Dena’ina Center downtown from 10am - 11am. We’ve also rounded up hundreds of “gently read” books to give away promoting literacy. While helping sort the boxes of donated books the last couple of weeks Gus has had his very own lending library! The other project I’m happy to be spearheading is the new “Blooming Artist Youth Booth” at the Spenard Farmers Market! This will be a free booth for kids 17 and under to sell their hand made arts and crafts. Gus has been inspired to try and sell some of his paintings and has been practicing on several small canvases the last few weeks. I thought this would be a good opportunity for youth groups and individuals to share a free, Market sponsored booth as a way to raise and earn

money. The Market will provide the tent and tables. Kids and youth groups must be supervised by an adult at all times and reservations are necessary. If you know of a young artisan or youth group that would like to sell their items at the Market starting Saturday, May 21 have them contact us at spenardfarmersmarket@gmail.com. Also this is a reminder to my artist and farmer-grower friends to get your Vendor Applications in NOW if you want to participate in the Market. Space is limited and 10x10 booths are only $15 per Saturday 9-2. Go to www.spenardfarmersmarket.org and download a vendor application and spend the summer with ME at the Market –where I promise there will be plenty of fresh GREEN color!

I saw this house near downtown that had one of my "Wind Raven" sculptures on the outside! I thought it looked great against that brick color -nice contrast.