Nancy Conner, ABR - Olympia/Thurston County WA

The cloudy skies let a little sunshine break thru just in time for the Procession of the Species to begin yesterday. Children (and adults) had been amusing themselves by coloring in the streets with lots of chalk provided for that purpose, an impromptu chorus of "Do a Deer..." from Sound of Music got much of the crowd at one corner singing along, bubbles floated thru the air - and the Procession began!

From the vantage point of my little granddaughter (on daddy's shoulders) it was an amazing display - we saw lions and tigers and bears - oh my! We saw fish galore - she was very excited at that, and kept saying "Nemo, Nemo" amid her giggles. There were animals and trees walking down the street on stilts, beautiful batik wind socks floating along in the breeze, a multitude of sea creatures, birds, dancing zebras - even one colorful spiral thing that nobody could identify until the person holding it filled us in that it was a virus! Nature and the natural world all well represented by happy participants of all ages!

And Addy had it covered with her "Oh what's zat? Wow!!!" comments throughout!

Olympia sure has created a unique and wonderful celebration of our beautiful natural world - & a great way for our community to come together to marvel and enjoy!

Next weekend is Olympia's annual Procession of the Species www.procession.org (April 25th at 4:30 PM) in downtown Olympia - and you really just have to see it - words or even pictures can't adequately capture this tribute to the natural world. You will see adults, children, groups of people all decked out in elaborate or simple costumes representing everything from the wind to a butterfly and from a tree to a herd of deer prancing down the city streets. Some participants spend much of the winter creating their costumes or masks to join in this celebration of spring & life and creativity. You will hear drums, samba music (complete with samba dancers) & you'll marvel at the beautiful and crazy costumes - this is just NOT your run of the mill ordinary parade!

The Procession on Saturday and Arts Walk XXXVIII, Friday April 24th from 5-10 PM and Saturday noon-7:00 PM are both free and will definitely provide entertainment galore for your family - be there!!

This spring's chilly weather still has Farmer's Market produce coming in a little behind the schedule of some years, but coming in it is! And of course, all of the other goodies from baked goods to eggs to fancy chocolates or Chehalis Mints to sausage and other meats to locally organically raised chickens to oysters are all there ready for hungry shoppers.

The stands of plants are doing well with so many of us just itching to get out in our gardens and start planting some colorful flowers or some veggies. The tomato plants are at a couple of stands, but I am holding myself back - and our garden still needs a little more prep work anyway.

Washington grown asparagus looked too good to pass up so I bought some of that for our dinner tonight - yum!! And all the makin's for a fantastic salad are there this week, too.