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Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.

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Ice luminaria warm Willow nights

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: January 13, 2010 - 2:27 pm

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Ice luminaria throw a warm light despite freezing temperatures. Photo by Les Brake.Ice luminaria throw a warm light despite freezing temperatures. Photo by Les Brake. Les Brake: Plantsman by summer, The Ice Man in winter.

Les Brake busy setting up his ice display. Photo courtesy Les Brake.Les Brake busy setting up his ice display. Photo courtesy Les Brake.Les Brake is presenting his annual luminaria display this Friday from 5 - 9:30pm at Coyote Garden on the Willow Hatcher Pass Rd. Created with tinted water frozen in molds - Les uses everything from Bundt pans to milk cartons to ice cube trays - he then builds sculptures and luminaria by freezing pieces together. He has even been known to "glue" sculptures to the side of his house in below freezing temperatures to get the look he wants.

Les "frozen" in motion as he holds an ice sculpture in place while it freezes to the wall. Photo courtesy Les Brake.Les "frozen" in motion as he holds an ice sculpture in place while it freezes to the wall. Photo courtesy Les Brake.He will be lighting about 21 pieces - enough to line about 90' of driveway this weekend. While temperatures had been down to -18 this past weekend, Les expects more temperate weather - in the (above) teens - for this lighting. Never-the-less, the house will be open for warming as well.

Take the Parks Highway north to Willow and a right onto the Hatcher Pass - Fishhook Rd. Coyote Garden is about 7 miles down on the right. Call Les at (907) 495-6525 for more info. Les says future lightings are possible but dependent on the weather so call him if you can't make it this Friday but may be able to on another weekend.

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