007 Snap-A-Dozen Days – October

October in Salt Lake City can bring just about any kind of weather – hot summer-like days or 18″ of snow. Some years we get snow in the valley in early October, but other years we don’t get any until late December. But most of the time, October provides us with lovely Fall weather.

Since the temperature is supposed to drop more than 20 degrees for tomorrow, I decided to take advantage of a glorious October afternoon today. Although we’ll probably still sneak in a few nice days before the end of the month, this is likely to be the last day I can comfortably enjoy a walk in shorts and a tank top. Yes, that’s right – yesterday there was snow on my deck, with a high of 51 degrees, today it’s tank-top weather (72 degrees). And I’m enjoying every minute.

So come on a walk with me through downtown Salt Lake.

	There’s not many red leaves to be seen in Salt Lake, but Burning Bushes give us a break from all of our typical yellow and gold.
	Or we might spy a bit of paprika-colored yarrow nestled among the grasses.		Even the shadows of leafless trees provide interest.
		From the steps of our main Library, you can see a beautiful panorama of the Wasatch mountains. Yesterday the mountains were white all the way to the valley. Today the snow is gone except for the higher peaks.
	The library’s rooftop garden provides a small oasis.		Sitting in the garden, you’d never know you were on a rooftop.
	And it seemed the perfect day to wander through Gilgal, the sculpture garden created by Thomas Child between 1945 and 1963. A secret get-away for many a teenager in prior years, it’s now an official Salt Lake City park.
	The Sphinx, with the face of Joseph Smith, is the best-known sculpture in the garden. Thomas Child did not actually carve the face himself, but instead hired a sculptor named Maurice Brooks.
	Across from the Sphinx is the “Captain of the Lord’s Host”, which I must admit to thinking of as “Blockhead”. This is not “unfinished”, Child intended for it to be left this way.
	Behind the Sphinx is a small hill, representing the Biblical story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, in which a giant is destroyed by a stone which becomes a great mountain. In the foreground are the giant’s feet – his head is at the upper right edge of the photo.
	Then, of course, there’s Child’s “Self Portrait”. The statue itself was created by sculptor Maurice Brooks, though Child did all of the meticulous masonry.
	Though most of the garden seems yet untouched by Autumn, the trees by the entrance provided plenty of golden leaves to shuffle through.