Let’s have a picnic with ants

You’ve seen the dragon Toby in Tucson. And The Messenger. Now meet the Ants crawling atop a ramada with picnic tables at the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park.

It turns out that Tucson has an active community of sculptors, as well as muralists. They even have a Sculpture Tucson headquarters in Fenton Park. Unfortunately, the road leading to their headquarters and sculpture displays was closed and the gate was locked. So I rambled around looking for the ant sculptures I’d read about. Then found them.

These 60 pound aluminum ant sculptures were created by Steve Kimble for the city of Tucson’s public art program. Learn more about them in this short YouTube video by Steve.

The ants go marching one by one…

Well, not all the ants are in the parade up the ramada roof. One is on the other side, exploring. And perhaps even sneezing from the yellow pollen in the blooms on the mesquite tree in this photo. (I know I was!)

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In addition to the ants I came across some memorial murals at the Park.

The Tree of Life and an iron butterfly are among the most recognizable images of the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park. Nearby there is also a memorial garden wall and individual memorials created by the Gail Roberts studio.

I really liked this park. It is large, open and right beside the Rillito river dry wash. The Diamond St. loop part of the Loop trail that encircles Tucson runs right through the park. and there are a lot of trees, too, including those blooming mesquites that drove me out of there quickly. After pollen season is over, I plan to return.

It still hasn’t reached 100F in Tucson this year, 2021. It may happen within the next few days. Last year thermometer hit 100F temperature earlier in April. One TV station, Channel 4, runs a contest to guess the first day and hour that the temp teaches the century mark. Lots of prizes for the winner!