It was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Blue sky.  Warm-ish.  A good group of hardcore Berkeley-lovers.  Walking together and talking.  A benefit for the library.  Perfect!

We started at Live Oak Park and walked slightly west on Berryman.

At 2033 Berryman we saw this topiary giraffe.  I cover the quirky topiary of Berkeley in this post

We looked across the street to the Hog Farm compound (1301 Henry Street is the official address).  We saw the largest peace sign in Berkeley.  I cover big peace signs in this post.

We cut through Live Oak Park to Walnut Street and walked south half a block.

At 1328 Walnut we saw the Crying Angel/ Singing dog bench, minus the dog head.  I blog about benches in front of homes in this post.

We crossed the street and walked north almost to Live Oak.

 At 1309 Walnut we saw the bench with tiles made by Penny Brogden.

We met Penny and she took us back to her workshop behind the house.  Her website shows her ceramic tile work.  I blog about her and her sister Dorothy Klein in this post.  Penny was at Berkeley High with one of our walkers.

We continued east through Live Oak, turned left/north on Spruce, passed the monkey over the garage at 1242 Spruce, and turned right/east on Eunice and then left/north on Arch.

We admired the school desk planter at 1176 Spruce and then faced east.

At 1175 we saw Frederic Fierstein’s Buddhist altar, blogged about here.

We talked about Fierstein’s large Guardian sculpture at the Berkeley Marina, fashioned after a small carved figure he saw in a temple in Penang.

We got back onto Spruce.  On the northwest corner we saw the living roof on the garage.  We then headed up the hill.

At 707 Spruce, we saw Buldan Seka’s giant ceramic freaks, blogged about here.

I told you about all the figures up on the deck, but we didn’t go up to see them. Buldan’s website is here.

Across Spruce, a few houses down the hill:

Down the driveway of 720 Spruce is Bruce Dodd’s giant orange, rescued from Highway 99 and lovingly restored.  My blog on it – here.  Cookies and fruit break.

Back down Spruce, left/east on Marin – down down down.

 

At 2219 Marin is the sax-playing rusting steel skeleton made by Mike Nagamoto, featured in this blog.

Down Marin, left/south on Shattuck.

At 1026 Shattuck is the home of Dick and Beany Wezelman, collectors of and dealers in African art.

We talked about the African mud hut in the back yard but couldn’t see it.  Keep an eye on Berkeleyside for notifications of their sales – wonderful stuff and you can see the hut.

It was a good walk!

Remember, the homepage for Quirky Berkeley is here.  It has links to the last ten posts and the index of other posts.