Crazy About Murals: The best alley in Spokane

Anyone who has been reading the blog knows I have an infatution with murals. Many previous entries have featured murals. It occured to me that Spokane deserves equal  coverage. There is an area here that I have noticed murals when I drive past on Monroe Street, but until yesterday I had neglected to explore in the depth it deserves.  That area is in the Garland district of Spokane. There is an alleyway between Garland and Providence Streets and for about a four block stretch headed east from Monroe is an incredibly rich source for mural gazers. So, I present for your viewing enjoyment the murals of the Garland District. The first ones are all references to cultural icons, and the featured image is a dragon, a representation of my Chinese horoscope character.

After our mural walk we went to Garland Brew Werks. It has been voted “Best Neighborhood Pub” in Spokane. That fact made us curious so we tried it. Note, I am a beer snob, probably a carryover from multiple efforts 40+ years ago at beer making. I don’t like gimmicky brews, flabby beers, or muddled ones that lack clear definiton of characteristics and flavors.  That pickiness eliminates most beers I have sampled the past couple decades from pleasing my palate. Much to my surprise I was impressed with the quality of the 5 beers we sampled. That all had clear crisp definition thta allowed balance of hops and malt to co-exist.If you read this please bear in mind I am no beer expert, just a beer snob. Nevertheless, we give a big thumkbs up to Garland Brew Werks. Now here are more alley pics, common theme – living entities. 

There is a bitter sweetness to being here in Spokane in my favorite season. This would be our ninth summer in our home. Our yard has been our art project, our empty canvas for creating our identities. We have spent numerous hours since our return cleaning up the gardens in preparation for the bloom of the season. Knowing we leave in two weeks we realize we are going to miss the fruits of our labors. We also take it for granted that nobody will be there to try to save our gardens from the ravages of what is expected to be another brutally hot summer at times. We realize we may come back to some dead plants, way too many weeds; and intentionally, no food gardens. Luckily we are already eating the arugala from our garden. That is the bittersweet part of our decision to travel, but it is not a reason to feel sorry for ourselves. It is simply one more opportunity to learn from the challenges we have accepted. I am going to close with the remainder of my photos of Garland District murals. For you puzzle lovers there is one photograph interspersed with the murals that is of a live scene. See if you can guess/tell which one it is.