Aloha to Mullet Creek Nature Park in Safety Harbor, Florida

Last week, I traveled to my home town of Safety Harbor, Florida, to renovate our condo for sale.  The Sunshine State was colder than expected!  One cloudy afternoon, I took a brisk walk and brought my camera along.  I discovered the Mullet Creek Nature Park.  From the city's website (link),

Safety Harbor's newest park is Mullet Creek Nature Park. It is an outdoor art gallery that provides a unique visitor experience. The demonstration gardens are an area where you will be able to learn about and see plants growing. These garden plots are planted and maintained by volunteers. The formal art gardens sits is on 2.6 acres of City owned land and is at the corner of Church Street and Philippe Parkway. The Park has Outdoor Art Gallery, two picnic tables, one barbecue pit, three swings, lots of benches and chairs, a water fountain, and lots of fresh air.

Let's check out the art gallery ...

... where children explored their imagination ... 

... and I found the same flowers and fish from Hawaii!

The wise owl ...

 ... watches over those who sit for a while.

I was delighted to find the Little Free Library.  From its website (link),

In the beginning—2009--Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one room schoolhouse. It was a tribute to his mother; she was a teacher who loved to read. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard. His neighbors and friends loved it. He built several more and gave them away. Each one had a sign that said FREE BOOKS. Rick Brooks of UW-Madison saw Bol's do-it-yourself project while they were discussing potential social enterprises. 

 

Together, the two saw opportunities to achieve a variety of goals for the common good. Each brought different skills to the effort. Bol was a creative artisan experienced with innovative enterprise models; Brooks was a youth and community development educator with a background in social marketing. They were inspired by many different ideas:

- Andrew Carnegie’s support of 2,509 free public libraries around the turn of the 19th to 20th century.
- The heroic achievements of Miss Lutie Stearns, a librarian who brought books to nearly 1400 locations in Wisconsin through “traveling little libraries” between 1895 and 1914.
- “Take a book, leave a book” collections in coffee shops and public spaces.
- Neighborhood kiosks, TimeBanking and community gift-sharing networks
- Grassroots empowerment movements in Sri Lanka, India and other countries worldwide.

What's your favorite artwork?  Or have you seen a Little Free Library in your neighborhood?  One randomly selected commenter from this week's blogs wins a book choice from my convention stash. Comments are open through Saturday, January 23, 10 pm in Baltimore.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, January 24.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore
Aloha Spirit in Charm City

The back view of the Little Free Library