garden tour

In a prelude to August, on Sunday I joined my friends biking the annual Anchorage Garden Tour. The more than 32-mile loop took us to the Anchorage Hillside, to South and West Anchorage and even to good old Spenard. Corinne and Paul have biked the tour each year for several years. Their friends, Roger and Pam, started joining them a few years ago, and now I think I'm hooked as well.

The day started out teasingly warm and sunny as we climbed from Main Tree to Hillside Drive. We could see a storm in Turnagain Arm as we began descending on De Armoun Road. It was while we were exploring the third garden in all its creativity, that sprinkles began and stayed with us for most of the afternoon. Luckily, we had all packed our rain jackets and the fast descent on De Armoun was behind us.

My friend Corinne took this photo; you can see her reflection
in the garage window. Her husband Paul is on the right.

Some things I liked about the tour: exploring neighborhoods while we picked our route through the city; the surprises in the gardens be they whimsical sculptures or carvings, or interesting uses of driftwood. Of course I liked seeing how people designed their flower beds, using similar flowers in a bed or using contrasting flowers. I often wonder how people pull together great ideas to come up with something so pretty to look at. I also liked the structures: benches, gates, water gardens.

Besides being an opportunity to get garden ideas, bicycling around different parts of Anchorage gives me all kinds of inspiration for our ongoing remodel project. It is reassuring to notice that ours is not the only renovation happening. And once the outside of the house is done, maybe I'll be able to put some of those garden ideas into play in our yard. There's a goal.