Art and People Everywhere

Saturday we decided to check out the art and craft show in Fountain Hills, an upscale community near Scottsdale. The park in the center of downtown has statues of several of our presidents.

Here is Franklin D. Roosevelt

and Ronald Reagan

This fountain erupts for 15 minutes each hour between 9 am and 9 pm.  It was once the highest fountain in the world,

I love these sculptures of children.  We saw several on Saturday and we have seen them in other communities, as well.

Each artist had their own tent and the tents went on for what seemed forever.  There were lots and lots of people there.  This photo only shows a narrow edge of the crowd.

Loved this couple from a local volunteer fire department, sitting out under their umbrella.

I didn't take photos of the wares in the artists' booths. Often they frown on that. We spent the most time looking at fine wood objects and pottery. There were also photographs, paintings and drawings, all kinds of hand-made objects, and lots of specialty foods. We also saw a food court.

We showed great restraint. Really, we didn't need restraint. There is almost nothing in the world we need. Our house already has all the decorations it needs and we keep making more things and have trouble figuring out where to put them. We would have loved some food, but we are dieting.

It was a fun way to spend a few hours on a beautiful, sunny day.

Fountain Cleaning

Last Saturday was Spring Cleanup Day at Church of the Epiphany. It is always good to spend time getting better acquainted with other parishioners and we enjoy helping spruce things up before Easter. John and I were assigned to the team that cleaned the fountain in the church courtyard.

The first step is to remove all the river rock surrounding the cross in the center of the fountain.

We then removed the screening that covers the iron grate supporting the rocks. Next, it was time to cut new screen wire to fit the grate.

The same screen material is used to protect the pump housing.

John used a shop vac to pick up all the gunk that had accumulated on the bottom during the past six months or so. The gunk is mainly mud and pine needles. I used a hose to wash that stuff off the sides and into piles so he could vacuum it up,

Next the grill and screen were replaced, then the rocks distributed around.

After the fountain was filled with water, I was given the job of turning on the pump.

I hope you can see the water flowing over the large rock platform in this picture.

On another note, remember this picture I posted earlier?

Unfortunately, we think the dove abandoned the nest. Hopefully it was only for a few minutes. This is what we saw the next time we walked along the same path.