March 29, 2024
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An outdoor reading garden will soon be located on the front side of Liberty Lake Municipal Library, just north of the entryway. The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-June.

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On the May Library page: Library to break ground on garden
4/28/2014 12:41:11 PM

By Tammy Kimberley
Splash Staff Writer

With trees budding and flowers in blooms, there's no better time to prepare the ground for the season ahead. The Liberty Lake Library Municipal Library is planning to do this, literally, with the creation of a reading garden north of the main entrance.

The idea for the garden evolved from discussions of how to enhance the appearance of the building, Library Foundation Board President Randy Long said. The Board's desire was to create a natural, aesthetically-pleasing space that patrons could use and enjoy. 

The project, which was funded by the Library Foundation in partnership with the city, is expected to begin this month and be completed within three weeks of breaking ground. The garden will include natural stone elements, including benches and flagstone paths, as well as trees, shrubs, perennials and specimen plants. Long said it will also include several custom wood pieces created by local craftsman Tim Holman, including a bench, gate and three trellises. 

"We hope the garden will serve a multitude of purposes, including children story times, a quiet place to just read or think, or a place to enjoy a cup of coffee or a cool drink," Long said. "We hope it is a refuge from stress and anxiety."

The group would like to see if the community desires to extend the reading garden across the front of the library to the south, Long said, but that would require additional fundraising. Library patrons are welcome to offer their input or ideas at the Foundation's regular noon meetings on the first Wednesday of the month at the library.

A celebration of the reading garden is being planned for June 16, and more details will be available closer to the event. 

"We are extremely proud of what we believe will be something very special," Long said. "We want the community, including everyone who has contributed to this project, to be present and share the joy."

• • • 

Prepare for planting season
For those wanting to cultivate their outdoor knowledge, they need look no further than the library. Liberty Lake Municipal Library Director Pamela Mogen said they have several shelves of gardening books, although they become "slim pickings" during the spring and early summer. 

A variety of books, DVDs and website resources specialize in everything from flowers and vegetables to landscaping ideas and backyard structures. The collection also supports the city's raised garden beds and has fueled past ideas such as a salsa and spaghetti sauce garden in planters outside the building.

"This year we'll be extending those ideas into the reading garden, where the library's mission of informing, entertaining and encouraging community spirit can be experienced outdoors in an inspiring and beautiful setting," Mogen said.

The library hopes to offer gardening programs in May, Mogen said, and residents are encouraged to check the library's website and Facebook page for announcements. 

• • • 

Book Review: Making their way in the minors
 
By Daniel Pringle
Liberty Lake Municipal Library
 
With baseball season underway, most people are paying attention to the Strasburgs, the Jeters, the A-Rods and the other multi-million dollar prospects playing under MLB's bright lights. But for every one of those stars, countless unknowns are grinding it out in the uncertain, unforgiving world of the minors. John Feinstein's "Where Nobody Knows Your Name" tells their story.

Told over the course of the 2012 season, the challenges and successes experienced by a range of veterans and rookies, managers, even umpires and broadcasters, unfold in a series of vignettes bouncing between ball clubs in the AAA system. This is where professional baseball is really played. On AAA teams whose players are one step (or injury) away from the majors, a single-A farm club in Kentucky, or the winter-league in South America, hundreds of hopefuls wait for the right combination of talent, hard work and luck to get them to the next level and the dream of the big leagues. The hope of making it, even for one at-bat, compels them to endure punishing travel, budget accommodations, lackluster crowds and persistent disappointment.

While some of them are close by book's end, Feinstein doesn't follow the usual uplifting arc of a sports story, leaving some of them in limbo or out of the game entirely, and for that it is truer to the reality. But it's also true that the collective dream of pro ball is so powerful, and the love of the game so profound, that many take the chance and survive on the hope they have what it takes. This love of the game is what inspires in the end, and that even though these players don't make it all the way, they swing for the fences.

Daniel Pringle is adult services and reference librarian at the Liberty Lake Municipal Library.

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