Susan English

Bullrider Guy Waite hangs on moments before being thrown by his bull Big League in the Pendleton Round-up. AP Photo

Unless you're going to watch the Lilac Parade from an armchair at home, you'll need to plan before heading out the door to nail down a spot on the sidewalk of downtown Spokane Saturday night. Here are some tips: Take a coat and a blanket. It's not going to be balmy; you'll be sitting outside on a May evening for three hours.

Disappointed in the look of your lawn? A program on lawn care and maintenance will be offered Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the East Side Branch Library, 524 S. Stone. The "Yardening" workshop will be taught by master gardener Mark Davis. Although it's free, preregistration is recommended; call 626-5375.

There's still time to pre-register for the Children's Day at the Japanese Garden. The Friends of Manito call the day "a cultural experience for the whole family." Activities include storytelling, music, origami, calligraphy and a Japanese card game. The event will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Manito Park Japanese Gardens. While pre-registration is recommended (call 456-8038), it's not required. The activities are free. Going native Two new booklets are available - "Landscaping with Native Plants" and "Native and Adapted Landscape Plant List for the Inland Northwest" both from the Master Gardener Resource Center, 222 N. Havana, 533-2048.

Drive through new housing developments and you'll see nary a turret being erected on those new homes. But there's at least one being built right now in the city. As part of a historic renovation, the owners of The Fotheringham House bed and breakfast in Browne's Addition are reconstructing a turret similar to the original on the house. Spokane's first mayor, David B. Fotheringham, built the house, which included a turret, in 1891. Costly repairs for leaks prompted former owners to remove the turret in the 1950s. Current owners Graham and Jackie Johnson used a 1904 picture of the house as a model for having a new turret designed.

An array of bedding plants will be available at the Spring Bedding Plant Sale sponsored by the Garland Avenue Alliance Church, Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The sale is at the church, 2011 W. Garland. Plants will be sold by pony pack or by the flat. The organizers say: Come early for the best selection.

1. Among the whimsical birdhouses to be actioned off April 20 by the Spokane Art School are Ritch Fenrich's "Birdhouse V" (top photo), a telephone takeoff which features a glass insulator atop a copper roof, and< 2. Pat Boyd's "The Cat's Meow," a fat feline inviting winged visitors to make themselves at home. Photos by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Naa Kahidi Dance Theatre

Spokane Valley resident Don Rhodewalt has undertaken an ambitious study and needs your help, that is, if you live in or know of a house built with river rock. Rhodewalt became interested after buying a house in which the builder utilized the naturally rounded river rocks. When he looked for information about the style, he found it lacking. He'll turn the results of the study - photos, historical details, home descriptions - over to the Spokane Public Library and the Spokane Historic Preservation office.

FOR THE RECORD: April 6, 1996 CORRECTION: The Spokane County/WSU Cooperative Extension workshop "Gardening In Spite of It All" will be April 18. The date listed in Friday's IN Life section was wrong.

The national convention of the Gardeners of America garden clubs will be in Spokane in July 1997, but the local garden clubs involved aren't idle until then. The president of the national group, Howard Matz, will be in the area for a regional meeting later this month, and a reception will be held in Spokane Thursday to honor him. The event will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook, and it's open to members of all local garden clubs. For more information on the reception or the national convention, call James McKay, 467-9804.

The 79th annual Arbor Day will be celebrated April 10, and the Arbor Day Council is making it easy for everyone to participate. More than 57,000 seedling trees will be planted this year, and the council is distributing some of those. People and organizations interested in planting seedlings, whether in their own yards or in public areas, can order evergreen or ornamental seedlings. The cost is $9 per bundle of 20 evergreens, or $2.50 per ornamental seedling with a limit of five.

(No caption-Dance Brigade)

Inside and out

Those who were not able to attend the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle last month can still see what a big deal it was. The Home & Garden Television network filmed a special at the show, and it will be aired Sunday night at 6 on HGTV. Call for help The already vast array of ways gardeners can get help and advice on demand just got bigger. Now, gardeners can call and get expert help 24 hours a day. All it takes is money, of course. Here's how it works: Call (501) 954-6754 and leave a fax number or your name and address, and you'll get a menu of gardening topics. Then you can call the Flower Line at (900) 562-7536 and press the menu number for the topic - composting, pruning, perennials, etc. - you want to talk about. The calls to the Flower Line, however, cost $1.99 a minute.

The company is known for its interesting choreography.

Karen Green and Sara Gilpin from Theatre Ballet. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Keredith Owens, a member of the Cherokee Tribe of North Carolina, is a featured Fancy Shawl Dancer with the American Indian Dance Theatre, a company of all-Native American dancers, singers and drummers.

Those who are crafts-inclined and still looking for a Valentine's Day gift can pop into a workshop Saturday at Palouse Prairie, 703 N. Monroe. The one-hour classes feature a demonstration of pressing, storing and using flowers and plants, and participants will make a pressed-flower bookmark. They start at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Cost is $22; call 327-0430 for information about this workshop or a class schedule of spring workshops. For competitive gardeners: It's not too early to start planning your entry for the Sunshine Creative Windowbox Contest. The prize: a seven-day trip for two to Venice, Italy.

Kudos to Manito Park's Rose Garden and the gardeners who maintain the roses. The garden has been awarded the 1995 All-American Rose Selections Award for Outstanding Maintenance. The award honors gardens nationwide that exceed the AARS standards for rose care and presentation. The Rose Garden boasts 1,500 rose bushes and is among 138 AARS public gardens. Of course, it'll be a few months before we can check out this award-winning garden. Specialized planting tool: Now gardeners with arthritis or hand disabilities, and anyone who has difficulty handling the tiny seeds of plants like lobelia, pansies and geraniums, have a tool available to help with planting. The Tiny Tim Seed Dispenser looks like a big hypodermic with an adjustable spout. By applying pressure on the knob, gardeners regulate the number of seeds dispensed. For information, contact Nicol & Associates, 15 Windy Acres Road, Huntington, CT 06484. To order a dispenser, send your address along with a check for $5.95, which includes postage and handling. Thinking fruits and veggies: Those who shopped for produce in the Spokane Valley farmers' markets in the years that area was substantially more rural will probably remember Hearts of Gold cantaloupes. They're juicy and sweet and no longer widely available. So, why not grow your own? The seeds for Hearts of Gold, as well as other varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers popular in this area, are available from Local Favorites, a Spokane seed company. This seed company also recycles unsold seeds that are a year-old, donating them to charitable agencies and the County Extension office. The seeds are still viable, they simply aren't fresh enough to be sold to Local Favorites' customers. For a copy of the seed catalog, contact Local Favorites, P.O. Box 14911, Spokane, WA 99214. Or write the company if your charitable agency wants to distribute seeds to needy people.

If American home design interests you, mark your calendar for a night out Feb. 14. The video "The House" will be shown at Cheney Cowles Museum on Valentine's Day at 7:30 p.m. in conjunction with the museum's Old House Workshop series. The video is part of the "America By Design" video series, and it explores the shape, history and symbolism of the American home. The showing is free, although donations will be welcome. For information on the Old House Workshop, which focuses on the Arts and Crafts movement, call the museum at 456-3931. Gardening from the armchair: Garden catalogs crowd mailboxes this time of year. But if you don't seem to be getting enough of them, there is a way to get on other mailing lists. The Mailorder Gardening Association offers the 1996 Garden Catalog Guide (Where to find them/ How to use them). In addition to lists of catalogs, the booklet includes smart shopper tips, hints for what to do when your plants arrive and some introductory savings coupons. For a copy, send your name, address and $2 for postage and handling to: MGA, Dept. CD96, Columbia, MD 21045. Proud of your remodel? Sunset Magazine is calling for entries for the 1996 Interior Design Awards. Categories include Artful Use of Color, Today's Home Office, Bedrooms & Bathrooms and Quick Fixes. Categories are divided for amateurs and professionals. Entry requirements are available by calling (415) 324-5527. Annoyed by cold drafts? If your home seems to leak in cold air this time of year, light a candle and hold it close to the areas you suspect - doors, windows and electrical outlets. A flickering flame tells you where the air is coming in. For free: A new brochure focusing on area carpets - "Rugs: A World of Design" - is available from the Carpet and Rug Institute. For a copy of the brochure, call (800) 882-8846.

An informative newsletter by the folks at The Corner Cupboard, a needlework shop in the Spokane Valley, has come to our attention. The newsletter includes tidbits about trade shows, the Spokane Needlework Guild, tips for needleworkers and a class schedule (cross-stitch and silk ribbon classes for beginners start Saturday at the shop, 811 E. Sprague). There's also a sit-and-stitch session every Thursday afternoon. Call the shop at 747-7640 for more information. February events: The 18th annual Spokane Home & Yard Show will be Feb. 22-25 at the Interstate Fairgrounds. On the other side of the state, the annual Northwest Flower and Garden Show will transform the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle into a garden, Feb. 7-11 (call 206-789-5333 for information). And the Northwest's largest home show, the Seattle Home Show, will spread across 50,000 square feet of the Kingdome Feb. 17-25 (call 206-284-0960 for information).

Rich reds and greens help create a jewel-like ice bowl - as displayed in a new book from Reader's Digest.

Discover Card Stars on Ice Sunday, Jan. 7, at the Arena Remove the motivation of competition and some athletes just go through the motions of performing. That was not the case Sunday night at the Discover Card Stars on Ice show at the Spokane Arena. The 12 skaters - all winners of world-class competitions - hit the ice and skated to the edge of their abilities for more than two hours. On this tour, their mission is entertainment and they were winners at this, too. The crowd, which numbered more than 10,000 at this sold-out event, popped out of their seats for a standing ovation even before the skaters completed the finale. But the adulation was nearly constant from the sound of the first skate blades scraping the ice. Veteran skater and Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton wasn't the whole show, but he was much of it, and his enthusiasm was apparent even when he wasn't on the ice - little wonder since he's the skater who got this tour off the ground 10 years ago.