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Mark your calendar for two important Mentelle Neighborhood events. More details to follow:

• The neighborhood picnic will be Sunday, Sept. 16, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the Cramer Avenue end of the Mentelle Park median. The Mentelle Neighborhood Association will furnish hamburgers and hotdogs; please bring your own drinks and a side dish to share. There will be music and special activities for kids. All neighborhood residents are encouraged to attend.
• The Mentelle Neighborhood Association’s annual membership meeting, which will include the election of officers, will be Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of Ashland Elementary School.

Holly Salisbury, a longtime Mentelle Park resident and retired director of UK’s Singletary Center for the Arts, died unexpectedly Saturday after a routine medical procedure. She was 74.

A celebration of her life is planned at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Singletary Center, 405 Rose St.

Holly, a visual artist and art teacher, was active in the neighborhood. She will be greatly missed by her friends and neighbors.

Holly moved to Mentelle Park in 1978, renting the house of a family friend. It was in front of that house her father had proposed to her mother, she said in a Herald-Leader article in 2000. In 1986, Holly bought the house next door and lived there the rest of her life.

“I laugh and say I was meant to be in Mentelle Park,” she told reporter Bettye Lee Mastin.

For more information about Holly’s life, read this Herald-Leader news story and her obituary. Memorial contributions are suggested to Lexington’s Central Music Academy or Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra.

Randolph Runyon, who in May 2016 attended our historic marker dedication on Mentelle Park and spoke at our neighborhood history program, has published his book, The Mentelles: Mary Todd Lincoln, Henry Clay, and the Immigrant Family Who Educated Antebellum Kentucky  (University Press of Kentucky, $40).

It is an excellent read, with a lot of surprising information about this famous French couple Lexingtonians didn’t know as well as they thought. I have written my Herald-Leader column for Sunday’s paper about it. You can read it now online by clicking here.

The book is available in local bookstores, such as Brier Books on South Ashland Avenue or Wild Fig Books on North Limestone Street.

Runyon will be speaking and signing the book at a July 18 luncheon at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate. Click here for reservations and more information. Ashland has offered to give Mentelle Neighborhood Association members the Ashland members’ discount on tickets. Space is limited.

It may be tiny, but you can’t miss the Tiny Library installed June 5 on the large lawn in front of Temple Adath Israel, 124 North Ashland Ave.

An initiative of the Lexington Public Library, it is one of about 30 book-filled boxes around the city. More installations are planned, but for the moment the box at Temple Adath Israel is the only Tiny Library in the Mentelle, Bell Court, Kenwick, Ashland Park, Chevy Chase, Fairway, Idle Hour, Shriners and Lansdowne Merrick neighborhoods along Richmond and Tates Creek roads.

(Mentelle neighborhood already has a couple of Little Library boxes neighbors have installed that aren’t affiliated with the Lexington Public Library.)

The idea is that passersby may take a book for themselves to enjoy or leave one that others might like. The library’s website describes a Tiny Library as a “miniature community center for sharing books. It’s hyper-local — right in your neighborhood — and it’s free, easy and fun.”

The box arrived at The Temple already stocked with books for children and adults. The Temple will be responsible for making sure it remains filled with an enticing array of choices.

The Tiny Library boxes were designed by Nomi Design, a Lexington firm that donated its services. They sit on a concrete base and are made of steel, wood and plexiglass, “with an eye toward elegance, durability and ease of use,” according Lexpublib.org. Sponsorship of a Tiny Library is $250 per installation. For more information, go to Lexpublib.org/tinylibrary.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the neighborhood garden party social Sunday afternoon. Special thanks to our hosts: Page Etchison, Esther Hurlburt, Shelby Reynolds and David Bartley. The event was made even more special by our talented neighborhood musicians: Daniel Mohler, Andres Cruz and Elaine Cook.  What a lovely afternoon.

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Take a walk down the Mentelle Park Median.  It looks beautiful thanks to the work of an amazing group of volunteers who came out last Friday and Saturday.   This group contributed a total of at least 50 hours’ sweat equity weeding, trimming trees and bushes, and spreading topsoil and mulch.  Special thanks to all for their hard work and expertise: Ray DeBolt, Jill DeBolt, Gil Dunn, Tom Eblen, Bill Fortune, Susan Janacek, Tom Lillich, Andrew Parker, Patrick Eavenson and Sam Wynn.

—  Jill DeBolt, Mentelle Median Committee co-chair.

Mentelle Neighborhood’s second annual all-neighborhood yard sale is Saturday morning.  Any neighbors planning to have their own yard sale that day are asked to chip in $5 to help advertise the neighborhood sale. If you want to participate, please email President Ann Olliges.

If you have good items you would like to get rid of, but don’t want to organize a sale in your yard, you may donate them to the Mentelle Neighborhood Association. The association will have a booth on the Mentelle Median near Cramer Avenue, with all proceeds going to the association. Please bring your items to the booth at 7 a.m. to help with pricing and display.

All Mentelle Neighborhood residents are invited to a progressive garden social at three of our neighbors’ gardens Sunday, June 3, beginning at 3 p.m. at 817 Cramer Ave.  Here’s where we’ll be:

Page Etchison’s Garden, 817 Cramer Ave.

3 pm – 3:45 pm

Page has lived on Cramer Avenue since September 1999. Her home was built in 1913 on the former site of the Lexington Brick Co., which located on the north side of Cramer  in 1889 and moved to Liberty Road in 1910.  Her home was originally owned by the Cramer Family. Page loves Mentelle Neighborhood’s lovely neighbors, its central location, its peacefulness, and its rich history.

Page found that all of the brick remains made it difficult to grow grass in her backyard, so she created a Gazebo with a brick path entrance. Her landscaping is meant to be a peaceful  place to relax, enjoy the sounds of birds, barking pals, clucking chickens and the flowing fountain.  Page’s front yard is unique, with a gate entrance, no fence and four Chinese weeping cherry trees that get compliments often when people pass by.

Guitarist Daniel Mohler, our neighbor on Memory Lane, will provide music.

Esther Hurlburt’s Garden, 309 Given Ave.

3:45 pm – 4:30 pm 

Esther has lived in her home since 1986, and lived on Cramer for five years before that. She has lived in Mentelle Neighborhood more than half her life!

“Gardening is my therapy,” she says.  “I have to be outside and work in nature to maintain my sense of well-being and health.  I don’t really have a plan.  I find a place to plant something and I stick it in the soil.  I like to share plants and vegetables.  My garden is always a work in process.  It’s kind of messy and it changes from year to year.”

Esther loves Mentelle because it is a great neighborhood for walking, front porches, and it has great access to downtown. She calls it, “the epitome of ‘neighborhood.”’

Guitarist Andres Cruz, our neighbor on Aurora Avenue, will provide music.

Shelby Reynolds & David Bartley’s Garden, 710 Aurora Ave.

4:30 pm – 5:30 pm 

Shelby and David have lived in Mentelle Neighborhood for 31 years. They love that the neighborhood is diverse, welcoming, and close to downtown. Their home was built in 1919, and it was one of the first houses on the street.  The style is a combination of cottage and bungalow.

Shelby and David redesigned their backyard themselves in 2003 after the ice storm, and they like to think of it as “their own little paradise.”  The deck and pagoda were constructed by hired professionals.

Classical harpist Elaine Cook, our neighbor on Given Avenue and a member of the Lexington Philharmonic, will provide music.

Mentelle median volunteers: Mulch and topsoil will be delivered this afternoon about 2 p.m.  Since Mother Nature may be sending rain our way Saturday,  we’re asking anyone who has a little time this afternoon or evening to come out and help spread some topsoil or mulch and we can finish up tomorrow morning.  Please bring a shovel and wheelbarrow if you have one.  All help is appreciated!