Architecture – Page 3 – Willem's Planet

January 9, 2025January 10, 2025

Thursday 👺

Here is a selection of photos du jour.

There was no palm tree at this beach house that belonged to my family thirty years ago. My dad sold it in 1996 and some time after that it was turned into a self-catering guest house.

The 6-story atrium inside the **Beacon Isle hotel**.

This is a **western cattle egret** (Bubulcus ibis).

A decorative mask from Ghana, for sale in the Global Village art store here in Plettenberg Bay for US $184.

December 22, 2024January 1, 2025

Sunday/ in Frankfurt 🏙️

Here are a few pictures from today, as well as a few clippings from the Sunday newspapers.

This closed-for-traffic street across from the **Hauptbahnhof station** (main train station) is lined with restaurants from the Middle East and the Far East. **Döner kebab** is very popular in Frankfurt: a dish of Turkish origin made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie.

Inside the Hauptbahnhof. This train from regional operator Hessische Landesbahn GmbH (HLB) is a Bombardier Talent 2 model ET150 (a German manufacturer as far as I can tell, not the Bombardier that makes business jet airplanes). It is about to depart for Giessen, a 42-min trip to the north of Frankfurt.

Hello. A fluffy pup inside the food court at the Hauptbahnhof station.

My lunch from seafood franchise Noordsee. It’s Norwegian salmon. Very nice. An elderly woman took the seat across from mine.
“Ich spreche nur ein wenig Deutsch” (I speak only a little German), I said. It was a little noisy to carry on a conversation, anyway. As I got up, she pointed to my phone and said “Dein Handy” (your cell phone). Cute word— and appropriate— that handy thing called a “Handy” in German.

**Paulaner from Munich** also makes non-alcoholic beer now. (Weissbier is a wheat beer: a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley (from Wikepedia). I will have some more when I stop over in Munich on the way back from South Africa.

Back at the Flughafen train station, and across the street some nice dinosaurs on the sidewalk walls promote the **Senckenberg Nature Museum** in Frankfurt.

“A MOOSE COW HAS ESCAPED FROM SCHONFIELDE WILD PARK”
“WELL, ONE CAN SPOT THEM EASILY, BIG AS THEY ARE .. “
” .. BUT THEY CAN STILL BE ASTONISHINGLY DIFFICULT TO FIND”
[Cartoon by Naomi Feam for newspaper Tagesspiegel]

A loose translation of a few paragraphs in this piece titled “**When trees and nerves are burning out/ How to survive Christmas nonetheless**” reads like this:
Christmas can be a pretty stressful time. We have baked cookies, made the Christmas wreath, drunk mulled wine at overcrowded Christmas markets— and what now? Now the time has come. The extended family is about to arrive. Or: you find yourself in a crowded train traveling across the country and have to split your time between Christmas Eve and Christmas Holiday because your parents are separated. Grandma Inge wants to see you again, and Uncle Bert and his new girlfriend have invited you to dinner. Once you have managed all of that, New Years Eve follows. You should be totally festive here, as well— but now with sparklers and a glass of champagne in hand. And heaven forbid it’s not a great party! In short, December is a seemingly endless series of social, personal and societal expectations and gatherings that could send you straight into end-of-the-year burnout. How the hell is one supposed to survive all of that?

This cartoon refers to the chaos in the German coalition government. (Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote, deepening the political turbulence in Germany).
“Are these all returns? Rejected by the electorate? And what is inside yours?”
“Candidates for chancellor”.
[Cartoon by Stuttmann for Tagesspiegel newspaper]

December 21, 2024December 22, 2024

Saturday/ the Christmas market 🎄

Hey, on this winter solstice day I made it to the Christmas market at Römerberg. It was cold and raining, though, and I did not stay very long.
(It did seem that the inclement weather increased the glühwein sales volumes!)

Pictures:
Entrance hall to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station). There was a strong of police presence at the station. Hauptbahnhof station looked a little more ragged and rundown from the last time I saw it— especially the floors leading to the U4 & U5 subway lines’ platforms.
Poster for Messe Frankfurt (exhibition center) close by Hauptbahnhof station.
It’s two stops on the U5 subway line (turquoise train car) from Hauptbahnhof station to Römer/ Dom station to where the Christmas market is. The U5 is getting a 2.7 km (1.7 mi) extension that will open in 2027.
Last picture: the S9 regional train (red train car) arriving to take me back from Hauptbahnhof station to Flughafen (airport) station where my hotel is, a 14-minute ride.

December 17, 2024December 17, 2024

Tuesday/ rain ☔

It has rained all day in Rain City.
It will rain on and off all week here, in the run-up to winter solstice.

Here’s an artificial intelligence (AI) generated image that I generated with Apple’s Playground application. I selected a day-time image of the Space Needle that I had on my phone, and added a text instruction ‘Space Needle in the rain’.

December 4, 2024

Wednesday/ Danish stamps, the last 🇩🇰

Here is the final installment of the batch of Danish stamps on my envelope!

Clockwise:
**1983 The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Poet N.F.S. Grundtvig**
Issued Nov. 3, 1983
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Jane Muus | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No watermark
747 A232 2.5Kr Brown red | N.F.S. Grundtvig, Poet

**1987 The 100th Anniversary of the Danish Cooperative Bacon Factories**
Issued Jun. 18, 1987
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Bente Olesen Nystrom | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No watermark
841 A289 3.80Kr Multicolored | Domesticated pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus)

**1992 EUROPA Stamps – The 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of America**
Issued May 7, 1992
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Niels Winkel | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. | Engraving: Martin Mörch | No watermark
959 A342 3.50Kr Brown & green | Potato plant* (Solanum tuberosum)
*I’m not 100% sure why the potato is significant to this anniversary. The first permanent potato patches on US soil were established in 1719 near Londonderry, New Hampshire by Scotch-Irish immigrants.

**1989 Nordic Cooperation Issue**
Issued Apr. 20, 1989
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Birgit Forchhammer | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark
868 A312 3.20Kr Multicolored | Woman from Valby

**1984 “Plant a Tree” Campaign**
Issued Jan. 26, 1984
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Tage Stentoft | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr.|Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark
749 A234 2.70Kr Red & green | Shovel and sapling

**1982 The 500th Anniversary of the University Library**
Issued Nov. 4, 1982
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Lisbeth Gasparski | Issued in sheets of 50 |Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark
731 A221 2.70Kr Multicolored | Library Seal
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]

Clockwise:
**1986 The 400th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Sorø Academy**
Issued Apr. 28, 1986
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Birgit Forchammer | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark
816 A269 2.80Kr Multicolored | Sorø Academy and Heraldry

**1981 EUROPA Stamps – Folklore**
Issued May 4, 1981
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Palle Pio | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark
680 A208 1.60Kr Brown red | Tilting at a Barrel on Shrovetide

**1985 The 300th Anniversary of the German and French Reform Church in Denmark**
Issued Jan. 24, 1985
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Mads Stage | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark
769 A249 2.80Kr Magenta | Reformed Church (Reformert Kirke) in Copenhagen

**1982 EUROPA Stamps – Historic Events**
Issued May 3, 1982
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Jane Muus | Issued in sheets of 50 |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark
723 A215 2.00Kr Magenta | Abolition of Adcsription*
*Adscription means the state of being added, bound, or annexed.
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024

Tuesday/ more stamps from Denmark 🇩🇰

Clockwise:
**1983 The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Painter C.W. Eckersberg**
Issued Nov. 3, 1983
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Birgit Forchhammer | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark
748 A233 2.50Kr Brown red | Street scene by C.W. Eckersberg

**1983 EUROPA Stamps – Inventions**
Issued May 5, 1983
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Lars Klint | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark
739 A227 3.50Kr Blue/ greenish blue | Proposal for Øresund Bridge, across Øresund strait to Sweden (the Sound)*
*Ideas for a fixed link across the Øresund strait were advanced as early as the first decade of the 20th century. Almost a century later, a cable-stayed bridge was finally constructed (from 1995-1999), opening in Jul. 2000.

**1985 United Nations Decade for Women**
Issued Jun. 27, 1985
Perf. 12¾ | Design: Hans Bendix | Issued in sheets of 50 | Lithography & Engraving |Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark
779 A257 3.80Kr Multicolored | Cyclist

**1983 Nordic Cooperation Issue**
Issued Mar. 24, 1983
Perf. 12¾ | Design: C. Achton Friis | Issued in sheets of 50 |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark
735 A225 2.50Kr Brown & red | Egeskov Castle (opened 1554), Kværndrup, Denmark
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]

November 17, 2024December 5, 2024

Sunday/ Boston architecture 🏙

Here are a few pictures of buildings and artifacts that caught my eye.

Here is a beautiful **flatiron building at the junction of Pleasant Street and River Street** in Cambridge with lots of copper on the outside (the green). It was built in 1899, and its most recent renovation was done in 2020 with the repair and replacement of some of the doors and windows, and updates to the wiring and plumbing inside.

This firehouse is just a few blocks down on River Street in Cambridge.
**Engine Company No. 6** was established in 1852 as Pioneer Engine Company No. 6 and was located in a building on Pioneer Street in Ward 2, Kendall Square.
They moved into this building at 176 River Street in 1891 and has been there ever since.

I love old-fashioned hardware such as this walk signal push-button.

The **First Baptist Church** on River Street is undergoing a few renovations.
The church is a tall single-story brick structure, with sandstone trim and decorative detailing in terra cotta, and has Gothic Revival styling. It was constructed in 1881.

**The Old State House**, also known as the Old Provincial State House, was built in 1713. It was the seat of the Massachusetts General Court until 1798. It is the oldest surviving public building in the city.

The **Park Street Congregational Church** is on the corner of the **Boston Common**. The Boston Common is the oldest public park in the US.

The **Massachusetts State House** (built 1795-1798), also known as the New State House (to distinguish it from the Old Statehouse), as seen from the Boston Common. The building is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
That is gold foil on the dome, put on in 1997 at a cost of $300,000 (and previously done in 1969 for $36,000). Another $20.3 million renovation project has gotten underway just this year.

This is the tombstone of **John Hancock** in the **Granary Burying Ground** near the Boston Common.
Hancock was the first and third Governor of Massachusetts; in office between May 1787 and October 1793.

**Central Station** on the **Red Line** has benches decorated with colorful tiles.

I took pictures of all the little decorative tile inlays on the pillars across the tracks. I posted them all. 🤗

**Macy’s department store** in downtown Boston takes up the entire city block, the same way as the one in New York City does.

Unable to pay its bills after decades at the heart of Boston’s cultural life, the **Boston Opera House** closed its doors in 1991 and began physically deteriorating at an alarming rate. Now, however, after a lavish restoration in the early 2000s, the Opera House has a new vitality.
The Boston Opera House was completed in 1928 as a tribute to Benjamin Franklin Keith, a leading figure in vaudeville, so popular in the United States in the years before.

And here we are today— a collage of modern glass and steel facades, caught in the zoom lens of my phone’s camera.

November 16, 2024November 20, 2024

Saturday/ on the Harvard campus 🎓

Here are a few pictures from in and around Harvard Square and Harvard’s campus.

Rowers on the **Charles River** running through Cambridge.

**Saint Paul’s Parish church**, with its distinctive bell tower, is a Catholic church on Mt Auburn St in Cambridge.

A closer look at the **bell tower of Saint Paul’s Parish.**

**Adams House**, one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University.

The Harvard Lampoon Building (sometimes referred to as the Lampoon Castle), designed by Edmund M. Wheelwright and built in 1909 in the Mock Flemish style.

Inside the **Harvard Coop store**, a bookshop founded in 1882, offering textbooks plus branded Harvard and MIT clothing.

November 10, 2024November 11, 2024

Sunday/ a little architecture 🏙

I took the No 8 bus to Westlake Avenue and walked from there to the Amazon Spheres, and back up to Capitol Hill.

It’s cold and gray outside, but summery and light inside the Spheres. I am on Lenora Street, looking towards the northeast.

This art installation off Westlake Avenue is called Kilroy Star and was put up by commercial real estate agency Kilroy Realty in June. (The colors in the star cycle continuously through reds, greens and blues).
If my research on the mathematics of polyhedrons is accurate, this is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron. This one is called a **small stellated dodecahedron**. It consists of twelve pyramids with pentagonal bases that are mounted on the faces of a regular dodecahedron.

The Seattle architect Louis Svarz (1886-1976) designed this building on Lenora Street for the **Puget Sound Notion Company**, a wholesaler of notions (sewing accessories).
Its construction was completed in 1930. Today the building belongs to **Cornish College of the Arts**. (The 1914 date in the window is the founding year of the Cornish College).

The **Omni South Lake Union** (also known as 1120 Denny Way) with its two 41-story towers boasts 827 apartments and 272 hotel rooms. It opened in May 2022. s

The balconies on the Denny Way side offers a list of historical events and their dates.

I’ve made my way up Denny Way to the junction with Stewart Street. In the distance is **REN Seattle**, a high-rise apartment tower at 1400 Fairview Avenue.
To my right is the 1200 Stewart Street apartment towers that are still under construction after six whole years (construction started in 2018).

Here is the **1200 Stewart Street apartment complex**. The construction of the towers is complete but it seems that there is still a lot of finishing work on the inside and outside that remains. If I can believe what I read on Redditt, there are plans afoot to suspend a repurposed Boeing 747 fuselage above the residential project’s galleria as a centerpiece and a symbol of industrial innovation— on view as a sensational artifact for both pedestrians at street level and for residents in their dwellings overhead. Hmm.

Here’s a closer look at one of the posters in the window.
On May 10, 1968 **The Jimi Hendrix Experience** performed two shows at the Fillmore East in New York City, with support from Sly & the Family Stone and the Joshua Light Show.
(Jimi Hendrix is James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix, an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. He is widely regarded as the greatest guitarist in the history of popular music and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was born in Seattle on Nov. 27, 1942 and died tragically young at the age of 27 in September 1970 – from Wikipedia).

I’ve now made my way across I-5 on the Denny Way overpass, and I always turn around on Melrose Avenue, to take a picture of the Space Needle wedged between the towers of 1120 Denny Way.

November 7, 2024November 7, 2024

Thursday/ stamp therapy ✉️

I still have shoeboxes full of South African stamps on paper cutouts, and I dunk them batch by batch into water to separate the stamp from the paper.
Those that have nice postmarks on (place name and date), I keep on the paper, though.
Below is such a page.
Some of these postmarks belong completely to history.
The cities and towns that they denote have been renamed in recent years.

**Fourth Definitive Issue (1982-87)— South African Buildings**
Issued Jul. 15, 1982
Perf. 14½x14, 14×14½ | Litho. and Recess Printing | No watermark
564 A229 1c Brown (’84) | Old Provost, Grahamstown
566 A229 2c Green | Tuynhuys, Cape Town
574 A229 8c Intense Blue (’83) | Leeuwenhof, Cape Town
576 A229 10c Light red-brown | City Hall, Pietermaritzburg
578 A229 11c Cerise (’84) | City Hall, Kimberley
579 A229 12c Deep Ultramarine (’85) | City Hall, Port Elizabeth
580 A229 14c Rose brown (’86) | Johannesburg City Hall
(Note- Only the stamps in the picture are listed here; several others were issued as part of the fourth definitive series).
[Source: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 6A]

Postmarks:
ADELAIDE, HEIDELBERG, BEAUFORT WEST, WESTONARIA, BRANDFORT (Winnie Mandela since 2021), BENONI, ESTCOURT, BOKSBURG, FOCHVILLE, GRAHAMSTOWN (now also known as Makhanda), ALBERTON, KROONSTAD, KING WILLIAM’S TOWN (Qonce since 2021), NIGEL, PIETERMATIZBURG, PORT SHEPSTONE, POTCHEFSTROOM, QUEENSTOWN (Komani since 2016), SASOLBURG, STRAND, SPRINGS (now part of the City of Ekurhuleni), SOMERSET WEST, THBAZIMBI, VANDERBIJLPARK, LICHTENBURG, WORCESTER.

October 5, 2024October 11, 2024

Saturday/ a new waterfront park 🏙️

The new elevated Waterfront Park here in the city opened yesterday.
The park is on the central waterfront by downtown Seattle and connects Pike Place Market and downtown neighborhoods with the waterfront.
A few public art installations and a concessions area are still to be added, by early 2025.

This picture is from Friday, and from the Seattle Times. People wait to take to the Overlook Walk before the grand opening on the Seattle waterfront.
[Photograph by Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times]

The view from the uppermost deck across from Pike Place Market today, and I am looking more or less south to the Seattle Ferry Terminal in the distance, on the left and behind the Ferris wheel.

There are several winding staircases down to the lowest level where the piers are. The blue building is the old part of the Seattle Aquarium, and the structure clad with the wooden slats outside is the new extension of the Aquarium.

Looking up from one the decks halfway down. The newly routed Alaskan Way and Elliot Way meet here. The elevated Alaskan Way viaduct that used to run along here is now long gone (demolished in 2019).

Looking north towards the Port of Seattle Cruise Terminal (Pier 66). The Norwegian Bliss is about to depart for Alaska.
In the foreground Palestinian flags are being waved by anti-war protesters. Some signs read ‘No War in Iran’, as well.

This structure houses the new pavilion of the Seattle Aquarium. The wood-clad outside is meant to weather to a gray color, I believe.

At the entrance to the aquarium, prospective visitors get a glimpse into one of the large tanks.

September 19, 2024September 19, 2024

Thursday/ a walk in the city 🏙

I had business downtown and missed the No 10 bus on the way back.
Oh well, I thought, it’s such a beautiful day— let’s just walk back up to Capitol Hill.

Top to bottom:
The monorail station at Westlake Center.
The Summit Convention Center, the addition to the original Seattle Convention Center. (The Arch + Summit Convention Centers hosted 160 events in 2023, up from 114 in 2022, but still came in with an operating loss of $23 million for 2023).
Fall leaves at East Pike Street and Boren Avenue.
The Starbucks Roastery at East Pike Street and Melrose Avenue.
The pooch is wearing booties.
Beer truck from Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon.
Korean Restaurant on Denny Way. (And now you know how to write Korean Restaurant in Korean!).
Hey! And here’s the Google Street View car at work. Maybe an image of me will make it onto the next update for Capitol Hill. 😆

September 2, 2024

Monday/ the Lynnwood Link🚆

Here are my pictures of a ride today on the new northbound extension of the Sound Transit light rail system to downtown Lynnwood.

Here it is: the $3 billion extension from Northgate to Lynnwood with four new stations, 16 years in the making.
Voters approved it with along with Obama’s election in 2008; planning was done from 2010-2016, design from 2016-2019, and construction from 2019-2024.
The 1 Line extension hugs 8½ miles of Interstate 5 and crosses over it north of the Mountlake terrace station. A fifth station will open in 2026 at NE 130th Street.
[Map from Sound Transit website]

Northbound and approaching the existing Northgate station here. Interstate 5 traffic on the left. Much of the extension is elevated compared to Interstate 5, though, due to the uneven terrain there.

Here is the view from the elevated rail and platform at the Lynnwood City Center station. There is a large parking garage at the back (not visible here), a parking lot on the left, and the canopies and bus stops of the Lynnwood Transit Center. Buses can be taken from here to Everett in the north, or to either of the ferry terminals at Edmonds and Mukilteo.

Glass mural artwork on the boarding platform at the Lynnwood City Center station. The artist is Preston Singletary. The art was inspired by his Tlingit heritage and family, and influenced by his father’s recent death.

Here’s the train at the Lynnwood City Center station, with the parking garage at the back of it.

One of two identical sculptures called “Shift” down on the grounds below. The artist is Claudia Fitch and are a nod to the lamps from Lynnwood’s Interurban trolley system, which operated from 1910 to 1939.

Here is Claudia Fitch’s “City Hummingbird” and “Kitchen Window Curtain” at Lynnwood City Center Station, to honor the history of neon road signs that once lined Highway 99 as well as the nature Pacific Northwesterners see in their own backyards.
[Description of artwork and text from Seattle Times]

Getting ready for the 30-minute ride back to Capitol Hill train station. The overhead graphic of the 2 Line (blue) and 1 Line (green) shows that more stations will open in the near future. Stations have numeric identifiers as well, which should make it easier for foreign language speakers and visitors to find the stations that they need to use.

A peek into the future, looking at a little section of rail north of Lynnwood City Center station that has already been constructed. The next push north is scheduled for 2037 with stops at West Alderwood near the mall, Ash Way, Mariner, Highway 99 in South Everett (possibly) and Southwest Everett Industrial Center near Paine Field. Two final stations at Evergreen Way and downtown Everett are aimed for 2041, depending on funding.

August 28, 2024August 28, 2024

Wednesday/ mail from Spain 🇪🇸

Let’s see what’s on these stamps from Spain.
They were put on an envelope sent to me from an Ebay seller from Barcelona.
There was a single stamp from South Africa inside, to add to my collection ☺️.

**Architecture of Gates in Spain**
Issued 2015, Jan. 2
Die Cut Perf. 13 | Booklet Stamps | Lithography
4010a Moon Gate, Cordoba | 42c | multi-colored
4010c St. Mary’s Gate, Hondarribia | 42c | multi-colored
[Source: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 6A]

June 29, 2024August 26, 2024

Saturday/ drive to Port Townsend 🏰

We drove up to Port Townsend from Hansville today— about an hour’s drive.

**Port Townsend** (pop. 10,148) is a city on the Quimper Peninsula (on the greater Olympic Peninsula) in Jefferson County.
[From Wikipedia]

The view this morning from **Hansville on the Kitsap Peninsula** across Hood Canal at low tide. Across the canal is the Olympic Peninsula, with the Olympic mountains in the distance.

Crossing the Hood Canal Floating Bridge (constructed in 1961) to get to the Olympic Peninsula.

A quick stop at the **Chimacum Corner farmstand and nursery**, on the way to Port Townsend.
These are Sunny Days Ruby Echinacea, basking in the sun.

We stopped by Saturday’s farmer’s market in Port Townsend.

This little marina is by **Sea J’s Cafe** just south of Port Townsend’s downtown.

This is the beach at **Point Hudson**, with Whidbey Island in the distance.

The pebble and stone beach at **Point Hudson** also features a few uprooted trees and driftwood.

For thousands of years before the settlers came to Port Townsend, the **S’Klallam** (“strong”) people lived in villages along the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula.

These little wildflowers by Point Hudson are **mallows** (Malva sylvestris).

The **Mount Baker Building** in downtown Port Townsend was built in 1889 and renovated in 1999. It was sold in 2020 for $6.8 million.
At the time of its construction, negotiations were underway for the railroad to link Port Townsend to the rest of the country. Real estate price skyrocketed, the population of the town doubled, and Port Townsend dubbed itself “The Inevitable New York.” The railroad never arrived and the boom went bust. As a result, Port Townsend was left with many spectacular buildings and residences, some of which were never finished.

The **James & Hastings Building** with its carved stone trimmings from the Victorian era was built in 1889, and restored in the 1990s and early 2002. It is at the corner of Tyler Street and Water Street.

The ornate **N.D. Hill Building** (constructed 1889) at 635 Water Street was designed by noted Seattle architect Elmer H. Fisher.
It is principally Italianate in design, but also shows Grecian and Romanesque influences.

Here is the elegant four-story Hastings Building at 839 Water Street— built in the Victorian style, and completed in 1890.

June 22, 2024June 22, 2024

Saturday/ new digs 🏡

I like to peek into the new townhomes that appear around Capitol Hill when I go for a walk.

Here’s the first floor of the model townhome, one of 12 built in two blocks of six, at Capitol Hill’s **13th Ave E and E Roy St**.
Prices range from $900,000 (2 bed, 2 bath, 1,195 sq ft) to $1,285,000 (2 bed, 2 bath, 1,930 sq ft).
This building is in a great location but one would have to be able to afford it— and accept features such as the galley kitchen (on the left, at the back of the first floor), and the flights of stairs connecting the three floors.
Reflected in the window from across the street is 1910 landmark building **The Maryland**, a co-op with 20 units. Right next The Maryland it another 5-story building is under construction.

The open space between the two buildings will feature lovely. I love this cute **woolly thyme** ground cover plants. Maybe I’ll get some for my own yard. It looks like I will have to find a spot with ‘full sunlight’, though.

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024

Tuesday/ a flea market 🕸

I believe this is a flea, and not an alien! (sticker on the window). ‘Flea market’ is a literal translation of the French “marché aux puces” (an outdoor bazaar in Paris, France), named after those pesky little parasites of the order Siphonaptera that like to infest the upholstery of old furniture and rugs brought out for sale.

The long-abandoned grocery store building on 15th Ave East here in Capitol Hill will host a flea market the weekend after next.

This building will be demolished in another year or two, three— to make way for a proposed 6-story, 172-unit apartment building with retail stores.

The little parking lot is now open daily, but the flea market will only be open on one Saturday and one Sunday, and I guess that’s it.
Maybe the market will be held here again later this summer.

‘Quality Flea’ says the storefront wall and canopy.

May 21, 2024May 21, 2024

Tuesday/ stamp of the day ✉️

I bought this single stamp from a seller in Canada.
It’s the highest value stamp (10 shillings) in the series known as the 1927-1930 London Pictorials; the last South African stamps printed in London.
(After that stamps were printed in South Africa).
The Afrikaans-English se-tenant (joined) stamp pairs are very expensive (up to $200), but the single ones are $10 or so.
I’m still looking for an English one with ‘SOUTH AFRICA’ inscribed at the top.

From the 1927-1930 London Pictorials
Issued 1927, Mar. 1
Perf. 14 | Engraved printing | Wmk. Multiple springbok’s heads
29 16 | 10sh | Bright blue and brown | **Cape Town, Table Mountain and Table Bay**
[Source: 2016 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue for Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840-1970)
My notes: The prominent white tower might be Mouille Point Lighthouse— built in 1842 but demolished in 1908. To its right and further back would be Cape Town City Hall, a large Edwardian building built from honey-colored oolitic limestone imported from Bath in England, and located on the Grand Parade.
It was completed in 1905 and is still there today.

April 30, 2024

Tuesday/ stamps with tulips 🇧🇪

Hey, and the envelope with my latest order of stamps (from a seller in Belgium) has stamps with tulips on.

**Booklet Stamps**
Issued 2003 in booklet panes Perf. Die Cut 9¾ on 2 or sides
1991 A858 0.59€ Multi-colored Yellow Tulips

**Windmills**
Issued 2002, Jul. 15
Perf. 11½ Photolithogr.
1925 A824 0.42€ Multi-colored Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Lombeek windmill, Azores
[Source: Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]

**Leffe Abbey**
Issued 2002, Jun. 10
Perf. 11 ½ Photolithogr.
1917 A820 0.42€ Multi-colored Leffe Abbey, 850th Anniversary

**Belgian Castles**
Issued 2002, Jun. 10
Perf. 11 ½ Photolithogr. Mini-sheet of 10
1918a A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Ecaussinnes-Lalaing
1918c A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Corroy-le-Chateau
1918d A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Alden Biesen
1918e A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Modave
1918f A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Horst
1918j A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Wissekerke
[Source: Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]

**Birds**
Issued 2005 (types of 1985 with Euro denominations)
Perf. 11 ½ Photolithogr.
2072 A524 0.05€ Multi-colored Bruant zizi (Belgium Cirl bunting bird)

Issued 2023, Jan.23
Perf. Die Cut 11½ Litho. Self-adhesive
Registered Mail Multi-colored Red-Knot Sandpiper
[Source: Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]

January 21, 2024

Sunday/ Coquimbe, Chile 🇨🇱

We arrived at the port city of Coquimbo this morning.
Our excursion today was a bus ride along the shoreline into the neighboring town of La Serena, followed by a drive inland to the commune of Vicuña (pop. 25,000).