Category: Seattle

Posted on

Friday/ in the twilight zone 🌃

A diagram that shows civil, nautical and astronomical twilight. Only when the sun has sunk 18° below the horizon at night, is it completely dark.

 

 

The days are long here in the north, and the twilight lingers.
It takes until midnight before the sky is completely dark.

Looking west to the Space Needle from 14th Avenue on Capitol Hill at 9.58 pm last night, during nautical twilight (see below).
Civil Twilight is from 9:10 pm to 9:50 pm
Nautical Twilight is from 9:50 pm to 10:46 pm
Astronomical Twilight is from 10:46 pm to 12:00 am
Posted on

Wednesday/ a new platform for the bus 🚍

The No 10 bus stop at 15th Avenue & Republican St has gotten a new platform— one that makes it wheel-chair accessible.
The platform is also sporting rainbow colors and a ‘butt bench’ (for pressing one’s derriere against, whilst waiting for the bus).

The platform for the stop for the northbound No 10 bus, at 15th Avenue and Republican St. The bus stop used to be at the entrance of the (now-shuttered) QFC grocery store a little further down.
Posted on

Sunday/ Happy Pride! 🌈

The Seattle Pride parade in downtown was back this year.
It was toasty outside, as was expected.

Seattle Kraken team pooch ‘Davy Jones’ with his Pride bandana, during today’s Seattle Pride Parade.
Picture posted by Seattle Kraken @SeattleKraken on Twitter.
Posted on

Saturday/ the heat is here 🌟

We are having a little heat wave here in the city.
(Heat wave for us, anyway). It feels as if we went from early spring weather to the summer highs in three days flat.
The highs look like this:
Saturday 88°F 31°C
Sunday 87°F 31°C
Monday 91°F 33°C
Tuesday 68°F 20°C

A few panels from my Adventures of Tintin book called Der Geheimnisvolle Stern/ Eng. The Shooting Star*/ Fr. L’Étoile Mystérieuse.
*The English-language publisher’s translation from the French is scandalously inaccurate: it should have been The Mysterious Star.
Anyway: part of the plot of the book is that a giant meteoroid appears in the sky, and heats up the surface of Earth in a big way. (Kind of like the ‘Don’t Look Up’ movie on Netflix). 
Translation of the text in the bottom panels:
Poor Snowy! He is perishing of thirst .. and the plants also look pitiful.
The end of the world, Snowy! The end of the world- do you understand that, Snowy? (Evidently not, he is only too happy to have some water).
Posted on

Tuesday/ hello summer ☀

It’s summer solstice here in the North, with the North pole at its maximum tilt towards the sun for the year.

It was a lovely day outside. We had 75°F (24°C) which makes it the warmest day of the year for Seattle, so far.

These lovely cosmos plants (Cosmos bipinnatus) and their flowers are from City People’s Garden Store on Madison Avenue.
The Imperfect Foods truck swing by on Tuesdays in my neighborhood; their mission is reduce food waste by saving (selling) ‘ugly’ produce and surplus items from local farmers, and delivering it to buyers.
Posted on

Wednesday/ Seattle downtown 🏢

I made a run into downtown today with the No 10 bus to pick up an item at Walgreens.
The one here on 15th Avenue closer to me is has lots of empty spaces on the shelves!

The Walgreens that I went to is in Melbourne Tower on 3rd Avenue. It is a 10-floor, reinforced-concrete office tower that was completed in 1927. It is not fully occupied right now, with available office space on the 5th and 6th floors.
Third Avenue in downtown had been in bad shape at times the last few years, but is finally looking much cleaner. New public art has been installed, adding a little color to the beiges and grays all around. This is one of five such pieces, called The Five Creations (2022) by artist Angie Hiojos. The motifs depict traditional Aztec beliefs.
Nordstrom’s flagship store and headquarters across from Westlake Center still looks nice and clean after the renovation of its exterior, some years ago.
A sign of the times? Look up! and Look right! from texting on your phone! A scooter rider or cyclist might be careening towards you in the new bike lane.
The Washington State Convention Center is now called Arch | Seattle Convention Center.
Is the coin and stamp store still there? I wondered. Yes, but with only one employee, instead of the 4 or 5 that used to sit inside. You have to knock on the glass door to get in.
I thought for a moment to buy this First Day of Issue envelope featuring Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair (just $5) but didn’t. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow and get it. 🙂
Here’s the Summit | Seattle Convention Center, nearing its final exterior form. This is the extension of what was called Washington State Convention Center, and what in now called Arch | Seattle Convention Center.
Posted on

Sunday/ at the bookstore 📙

I needed a bookstore ‘fix’ and so off I went to U District today.
I got a little wet while walking back in the rain from the Capitol Hill train station, but it was all well worth it.

A postcard in Magus Books in U District with two characters from the famous Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Inspector Lestrade is a determined but conventional Scotland Yard detective who consults Sherlock Holmes on many cases. Professor Moriarty is an evil mastermind, providing criminals with strategies for their exploits and sometimes even protection from the law, all in exchange for a fee or a cut of profit. That must be detective Sherlock Holmes himself, and Dr. Watson, in the main picture. 
Posted on

Monday/ happy Pride month 🌈

There is a nice new Pride flag on the Uncle Ike’s building on 15th Ave. here on Capitol Hill.

LGBT Pride is celebrated in June every year to coincide with the month in which the Stonewall Riots occurred (Jun 28, 1969 – Jul 3, 1969 in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in New York City).

Posted on

Saturday/ the U District Street Fair is back

Here are a few scenes from the U District Street Fair, back this year after three-year hiatus because of Covid.

I had just exited the U District Light rail station, and rounded the corner of Brooklyn Ave NE and 45th Street. The red markings, for the newly designated bus lane on 45th Avenue, are a recent addition.
The Fair had the usual assortment of vendors selling art, clothing and trinkets (and soap for blowing bubbles). This is University Way NE (closed to traffic, of course).
The band was playing Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon. The singer delivered a decent interpretation of the lyrics of the 1975 song (written and originally sung by Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac’s lead vocalist). Nicks is said to have introduced the song in concerts by saying ‘This is a song about an old Welsh witch’.
The food trucks seemed to be very well supported, with some having lines of 20, 30 people. The sign in the window of this truck serving up Alaska weathervane scallops says ‘We are the Fishermen’.
Gyros and falafel on the left, and pirozhki across the street, the baked or fried boat-shaped buns with different kinds of fillings.
And here comes my south-bound train at U District station to take me two stops down to Capitol Hill station. Some 75% of the passengers still wear masks, and I was one of those. 
Posted on

Saturday/ apartments with art 🎨

I frequently drive by the newly completed Midtown apartments on (23rd Ave. in Central District) with its colorful exterior and artwork.
Today I checked it out a little closer, on foot.

The Midtown Square apartment building has 7 floors with 428 apartments, from studio ($1,800 pm) to 2-bed, 2-bath (about $3,200 pm). So expensive, as expected for a new development, I guess ⁠—although a 130 apartments are offered as affordable housing units through Seattle’s MFTE and MHA housing programs.
The images on the panels were created by photographer/ artist Adam Jabari Jefferson.
The entrance to the public square on the inside, from the Union Street sidewalk.
The colorful exterior panels on the corner of Union Street and 23rd Avenue.
The artist is Barry Johnson.
Public art on the Union Street/ 23rd Avenue corner. I couldn’t find the artist’s name.
I would like one of these for my backyard. Beautiful.
Central .. the first of a series of murals facing 23rd Avenue.
Edwin T. Pratt (1930 – 1969) was an American activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He was assassinated at his home in Shoreline, WA in Jan. 1969. At the time of his assassination in 1969, he was Executive Director of the Seattle Urban League. His murder is still unsolved.
DeCharlene Willians (1942-2018) was a legendary owner of a Central Area boutique, who also founded the Seattle neighborhood’s chamber of commerce. 
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
District.. the second of a series of murals facing 23rd Avenue.
Langston Hughes (1901-1968) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. (The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute is a cultural, community, and artistic center in the Central District). 
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.

 

Community .. the third mural facing 23rd Avenue.
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was a musician, singer, and songwriter and a Seattle native.
Ernestine Anderson (1928-2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. Her family moved to Seattle when she was 16.
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
The entrance to the public square from 23rd Avenue. The lamp sconces feature performance and recording artists. The installation was made by Henry Jackson-Spieker in collaboration with KT Hancock studios.
I believe this is Duke Ellington (1899-1974), composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra for most of his life. He gained a national profile through his orchestra’s appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City. Duke Ellington’s The 1952 Seattle Concert was his first legitimate live performance release.
The public square inside the apartment complex. The picture shows part of a 120-ft mural with historic scenes and lettering that says C E N T R A L  D I S T R I C T.
The artist is Takiyah Ward.
Posted on

Wednesday/ the Sounders make history

Seattle Sounders FC made history tonight by becoming the first Major League Soccer team (team from the United States or Canada, that is) to win a Concacaf* Champions League title.

*The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, founded in 1961, one of FIFA’s six continental governing bodies for association football (soccer).

The Sounders beat the Pumas UNAM (based in Mexico City) by 3-0 in front of a record home-crowd of 67,000 at Lumen Field.  The weather played along, as well:  a high of 65 °F/  18 °C today before it starts raining on and off for the next several days.

Seattle Sounders players celebrate after winning the CONCACAF Champions League title over the Pumas UNAM from Mexico City.
[Picture Credit: Getty Images]
Posted on

Saturday/ it’s not orange; it’s galaxy gold 💫

My mission for the afternoon was to get a few pictures of the Space Needle. It is again painted in galaxy gold for its 60th anniversary⁠— the way it had been for its debut at the Seattle World’s Fair in April 1962.
I even drove up Queen Anne Hill to Kerry Park, to get the classic skyline-with-Space Needle picture.

The Davenport Apartments building is posted here as a ‘Find the Space Needle’ puzzle. (Part of the Space Needle appears in the picture). The Davenport was designed by architect Herbert Bittman in 1925, and has an unusual courtyard entrance to its 14-car garage.

Posted on

Friday/ you look nice today

These pictures are from my walk back home from the Bartell pharmacy on First Hill.

This is Hofius House at 1104 Spring Street, First Hill. Designed by German-born architects Spalding and Umbrecht and constructed in 1902. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese began housing the Seattle Archbishop in this residence in 1920.
The Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church at Harvard and Howell held a last service in June 2018, and then closed its doors for good, it seems. The church was built just about 100 years ago, in 1923.
Hey! The tourists are back, even if just a handful. I waved at them. (Maybe I shouldn’t have. I could the city’s reputation for stand-offishness to neighbors and visitors alike, called ‘The Seattle Freeze’).
Spring leaves on the trees by Seattle Central College on Broadway.
I hate graffiti, but hey⁠— if the graffiti complements me, it makes it a little better. Maybe.
Posted on

Friday/ Earth Day 🌎

Mariette (looking at a picture of a tree) : What’s that?
‘K’ (the Blade Runner) : A tree.
Mariette : I’ve never seen a tree. It’s pretty.
– from the 2017 movie about a dystopian Earth, ‘Blade Runner 2049’

The Prez was here in Seattle today. He talked about legislation to help the U.S. Forest Service plant 1.2 billion trees on national forest lands.

These pansies (genus Viola) are in the flower beds by the greenhouse in Volunteer Park.
Here is President Biden, speaking in Seward Park.
Writes Katie Rogers for the NYT: ‘He unveiled a plan to restore national forests devastated by wildfires. He promoted a climate agenda that has largely gone unfulfilled.  .. The trip granted him a bit of a respite from Washington and returned him to the campaign-trail style of schmoozing that energizes him. In Seattle, Mr. Biden appeared before a group of big-ticket donors that included Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft.
Posted on

Thursday/ do rainbows have seven colors?

Here is my picture of tonight’s rainbow that was visible just before sunset, now at 8.08 pm.

Rainbows are optical illusions: reflected sunlight that is scattered by suspended drops of moisture in the atmosphere. Moreover, the multicolored band with ‘seven’ colors is an artefact of human color vision. There is no banding in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading again towards the other side.
– Paraphrased from the Wikipedia entry for Rainbow.
Posted on

Wednesday/ U for Union

Three of the five amigos (two are out of town) had beers and a bite at Union. We liked the ambiance inside. The food was decent. Maybe the volume for the music videos on screens around the place was turned up a trifle too high⁠— or maybe I’m not as young as I used to be.

One of us had to surrender a credit card as collateral, as soon as we ordered our beers. Say wha-aat? I thought. (It’s the first time in a very long time that we had been at a place that required that). They worry that unscrupulous clientele might vanish after a second or third round of expensive cocktails, of course.

I just happened to take this picture of Union’s entrance last week while on a walkabout.
‘Airy bar & eatery with a leafy patio, serving cocktails alongside hearty comfort food & happy hours’, says the online description. The bar used to be located at 14th & Union some three blocks away, but the building there had caught fire in April 2019. It all ended up in a relocation and reopening here in March 2021.
(Side note: very nice to see the sidewalk and street free of trash).

Posted on

Sunday/ Denny Way construction report

This afternoon, I walked down to the 45-story apartment towers on Denny Way (official address: 1200 Stewart Street) to see how the construction is coming along.

I paused at the Melrose Avenue overlook as usual, to peer out at the Space Needle. The Needle is 60 years old this week, on April 21. Surely the owners will put a flag up, to celebrate the milestone?
The Brothers (a pair of prominent peaks in the Olympic Mountains near Hood Canal) are to the right of the bare flagpole on the right.
Here’s the 3-story podium of flanked by Denny Way an Minor Ave. The 45-story tower is hiding its twin right behind it. That’s the Seattle City Light Denny Substation with its Frankenstein tree (my name for it) art installation, on the left.
The podium wraps around towards Stewart Street. The installation of the window panes on each floor is slowly progressing.
Here’s a reflection of the two towers off the Building Cure (opened 2019) belonging to Seattle Children’s Hospital.
I see I caught a sun halo of sorts from the sun behind the building on my picture. I couldn’t really see it with the naked eye. (Sun halos can appear when sunlight interacts with ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere).
Posted on

Tuesday/ beers 🍻 and pub grub

The watering hole called The Chieftain Irish Pub⁠— that the amigos like to go to⁠— seems to have survived the pandemic.
The place was busy tonight, possibly because it was Trivia Tuesday.

We don’t wear masks at the pub or restaurant anymore⁠— almost nobody does⁠— but I still wear my N95 mask when I go anywhere else indoors (grocery store, post office).
I have not gotten my second booster shot, and I probably should go and get it over and done with. There seems to be no downside.

‘Bustling taproom for game-viewing & happy hours, plus familiar pub grub, in dark-wood-paneled digs’, says the description for The Chieftain on 12th Avenue.
Posted on

Thursday/ tulips🌷

It was 70 °F (21 °C) here in the city today; it will be a lot cooler again tomorrow.
These tulips are from the little Thomas Street Garden by 10th Avenue.