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Saturday/ street food

On Saturday, we trekked down to South Lake Union to check out the food – and the people – at the 6th Annual Seattle Street Food Festival.

Here is 9th Ave at about 2 pm, with the crowds still manageable. 9th Ave is lined with the brand new construction going on in South Lake Union.
This food truck sells schnitzel. Originally from Austria, breaded schnitzel is now popular in many countries and can be made with almost any meat: veal, mutton, chicken, beef, turkey or pork. 
Frozen pops and icicles, in exotic flavors.
And here is my meal: stir-fried chicken and spices with jasmine rice, a fried egg, and a little cucumber salad on the side. It was very good.
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Friday/ squirreling

First thing on summer mornings, I open the kitchen door to let the cool morning air in.
I keep a leery eye on the squirrels that are usually out and about, or on the backyard fence. I doubt they will sneak into the house when I’m not looking .. but you never know.

Mr Squirrel on the fence, all innocent, keeping his eye on me, and contemplating his next move ..
.. which is to hop onto the post, and take a flying leap onto the next section of the fence, and then jump up onto the neighbor’s roof.
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Thursday/ fireworks make a lot of smoke

Not to be a party pooper, but it may be time to look for high-tech options* to replace the massive fireworks displays for events such as Fourth of July. Prof. Cliff Mass reports on his weather blog that Puget Sound Clean Air Agency measured a huge spike of the dangerous PM2.5 particle in the aftermath of Thursday night’s show. From levels under 20 µg/m³, the readings increased to over 100 µg/m³, which is in the ‘unhealthy’ air quality index range.

*Using drones, like the ones deployed at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, is a possibility.  But yes, I readily concede that drones do not explode with loud bangs.

Seattle Space Needle panocam views, looking south & slightly east. It shows Mt Rainier on the left of the top frame on the afternoon of July 4. The haze on Friday morning was from the fireworks display in the city on Thursday night – not from forest fires. The mountain is no longer visible.
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Fourth of July

I had sad eyes and angry eyes in my LEGO box for my minimalist Statue of Liberty model – and I chose angry.

It’s Fourth of July here in the United States, the country’s 242nd birthday .. but in my book, not a happy one.

It’s time for a reboot – by booting the immoral and corrupt Trump Administration and all their Trump Republicans in the House and Senate (that’s pretty much all of them), out of office.

..  at least there is this, on a positive note.

Is it the mid-term elections yet? No, but November is coming.

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Tuesday/ England in the last eight

I love the Three Lions shirt badge of the England team.

England went through to the final eight in the World Cup, but they made their fans bite their nails through a penalty shoot-out against Columbia.

One has to feel sorry for the team that loses in a penalty shoot-out. It’s like the tie-breaker in tennis. A stray shot, a lucky break, a bare miss, makes the world of difference between winning and losing.

From the online edition of the Daily Express. (‘Southgate’s Lions’: Gareth Southgate is the head coach of the Lions, the nickname of the England team).  Check the green box for the four match-ups in the final eight.
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Monday/ snow in South Africa

There is widespread snow in South Africa – always a novelty in a country with a sunny climate, sunny even in winter.

I never saw snow up close while growing up in South Africa. Yes, one would see it far away on the mountains some winters, and my mom told would tell me that when I was 5 years old, there was snow at my grandparents’ home in Johannesburg.

The coldest town in South Africa (and in Africa) is Sutherland*. It is situated in the south of the semi-desert area called the Great Karoo, and some 250 mi (400 km) northeast of Cape Town.  *Average annual high/ low temp 52/ 37 ºF (11/ 2.8 ºC). Not very cold! one could say, but keep in mind South Africans generally consider 50ºF (10 ºC) weather to be already ‘very cold’.
The landscape around the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) near Sutherland looks like dunes of salt (pun intended).  The SALT has a hexagonal primary mirror array 36 ft (11 m) across, made of 91 individual 3 ft (1m) hexagonal mirrors. It is the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, and started operating in 2011.
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Sunday/ it’s hydrangea time

My hydrangea is still going strong, and its beautiful summer flowers are coloring up.

My hydrangea’s flowers are mostly pink. Hydrangea flower color changes based on the pH in soil. Acidic soil with a pH of 5.5 or lower will sprout blue hydrangeas; soil in between 5.5 and 6.5 will have purple hydrangeas, and a ph of 6.5 or higher will produce pink hydrangeas. White hydrangeas can not be manipulated by soil pH -they will always be white because they do not contain pigment for color.
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Saturday/ yay! for Uruguay

I had to Google Uruguay after their win over Portugal in the World Cup. Officially the ‘Oriental Republic of Uruguay’ (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay) –  it is a remarkable country, slightly smaller than the state of Washington, with some 3.3 million people.

More than half the population live in the capital of Montevideo. Uruguay gets high marks for its ‘liberal social laws, and well-developed social security, health, and educational systems. It is one of the few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where the entire population has access to clean water’ (from the CIA World Factbook).

The country gets 95% of its energy from renewable resources. (Washington State is at about 85% electricity generation from renewable resources, with 8% of electricity from burning natural gas, and 7% from burning coal).

Uruguay’s team at the start of their match against Portugal. The screen changed to the May Sun from the national flag just as I snapped it. Uruguay has by far the smallest population of any country that has won a World Cup Final (although very long ago: in 1930 & in 1950).
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Friday/ a scene from Texas

Here’s a simple Texas-themed construction. I was inspired by pictures that I found online for a 1977 set called ‘Texas Rangers’.

The original Texas Rangers set had horses and cowboys in. I did not have bricks to build those, but added a cow that I had on hand. (That cow is about to walk over, and chomp that yellow flower in the corner).
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Thursday/ one to become six ‘net zeros’

Here’s another house nearby mine, that is now gone, gone, gone. The stately 1905 construction was completely demolished, and in its place will come two 3-story buildings with three net-zero condominium homes each. (A net-zero home has zero net energy consumption).

I am sure there will be stretches of winter months when the new homes will not achieve net zero energy consumption (cold weather, short days of sun for the solar panels) – but they will then make up for it in the summer months.

The 1905 home on the left is now gone (it’s 122 17th Ave), and will be replaced by two buildings (one front, one back) that look like the one in the black frame. The net zero energy use of the new buildings is mostly achieved by complete solar panel roofs. I wonder if some developers are starting to install Elon Musk’s Tesla Powerwall batteries.
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Wednesday/ squeezing through the Locks

The Star Legend passenger ship went through the Ballard Locks today to get to Lake Union from Puget Sound. News reports said it was the biggest vessel yet – but that must be by tonnage*.  The Star Legend’s beam is 67.5 ft (20.6 m), and the lock is 80 ft wide (24.4 m), so there was room to work with.

*In 1975, on-lookers beheld the extraordinary sight of a wide floating dry-dock vessel 81 ft wide (24.7 m), that was manoeuvred through by listing the vessel on her side, here.

These are stills from drone footage recorded by King5 TV. 1. The big draw bridge with the railway line is lifted, the ship approaches the locks. 2. Entering the locks. 3. The lock behind the ship is closed, and water is pumped in to lift the vessel by about 20 ft (6.1m). 4. The lock has been filled and the front lock is opened. The ship can go on to Lake Union.
The Star Legend in the lock, with the rising water lifting the vessel. The vessel belongs to Seattle-based Windstar Cruises, a small ship cruise line with a fleet of six ships.
Not everyone was interested in the activity in the lock.
The lock is full. The mooring lines are being removed. After this the ship started moving – slo-o-owly, carefully.
This is a smaller lock, next to the big one. Four smaller vessels are cramming into it. In the distance, a flotilla of kayakers is patiently waiting. They came into the lock as well, so that they could go back to Lake Union where they came from.
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Tuesday/ modern ‘Vikings’

I try to watch as many World Cup matches as I can, and I just love the bit of pomp and ceremony at the start. The players come out onto the field with the kids, the giant flags are unfurled on the field, the national anthems play, and the game starts.

Denmark and France squared off today, in Moscow. Shortly after this moment, the Danish anthem ‘Der er et yndigt land’ and the French ‘La Marsellaise’ were played, while the camera panned over the players – very touching. [Photo from fifa.com].
Enthusiastic fans rooting for Denmark. One wonders where in Moscow they found those croissants that they stuck onto their Viking horns! The match ended in a 0-0 draw, and both France and Denmark will go through to the next round.  P.S. There is actually no evidence from archaeology and historical sources that Vikings wore horned helmets.  [Photo from fifa.com].
Hmm .. I thought, I am a little unsure which are all the modern countries that can lay claim on Viking heritage, so let me check. Looks like it would be Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Finland to the east: not really. The purple is Viking home territory and the blue areas are territories that they set out and conquered. [Map from Wikipedia].

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Monday/ watch that yield curve

Is there a recession on the way (say, some time next year)? It seems a silly question, with low unemployment, and projected growth of 4.7% here in the second quarter in the United States .. but a reliable indicator called the yield curve has been steadily trending down to zero.  Typically, breaching zero means recessions inevitably follow.

The 2Q projection for economic growth is a whopping 4.7% (year over year), and retail sales are up by almost a percentage point as well, for May.

 

[From NYT article] ‘On Thursday, the gap between two-year and 10-year United States Treasury notes was roughly 0.34 percentage points. It was last at these levels in 2007 when the United States economy was heading into what was arguably the worst recession in almost 80 years’. My own comments: Some economists point out that we are still in a relatively low interest rate environment, and that the yield curve falling below zero might not indicate a recession will follow shortly. Besides, this graph shows that it took TWO years for the recession of ’08 to take hold after the yield curve first fell below zero.
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Sunday/ we are all gay at Seattle Pride

Today I went to the annual downtown mayhem on Fourth Avenue – called the Seattle Pride parade – and stayed for some two hours to take a few pictures.
Then I walked down to the festivities (food & trinket booths, fountain, sound stage) by Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle.  The Center grounds were packed with so many people, that one could hardly move. I took a few more pictures, and then thought: Alright, I did my part, let’s go home.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Washington State’s 7th congressional district (where I live). The 7th is the most Democratic (read: liberal, progressive) district in the Pacific Northwest, and the most Democratic district on the West Coast outside of the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles.
The crowds loved Blue Thunder, a roughly 33 piece drumline, that performs at games for the Seattle Seahawks (National Football League team).
Delta Dental health insurance company marched with giant balloon toothbrushes.
The big four tech companies showed up, of course: Google here, but also Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft.
Recognize this balloon logo? Microsoft, of course. Microsoft is said to have gotten its ‘mojo’ back under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella (he took the position in 2014).
Here’s the fountain sphere at Seattle Center. It was warm enough (80 °F, 27 °C) to enjoy the spray from the fountain.
Happy Seattle Pride! The rainbow flag is up, and the Space Needle renovation is now complete.
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Saturday/ pretty poison

Foxglove (genus: Digitalis) is toxic down to its roots. It has compounds that causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and even death.

Here’s a foxglove (digitalis), growing right here in the back alley by my house.

There are plenty of these with their pretty finger-like flowers to be seen around in city gardens, but the whole plant is poisonous down to its roots. People have confused digitalis with the relatively harmless comfrey (Symphytum) plant, which is often brewed into a tea, with fatal consequences. [Source: Wikipedia].

 

 

 

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Friday/ a T-Rex in the store

I love this near-life size Tyrannosaurus Rex cut-out in the Target department store. The beast with its beady eye is used to flog Jurassic Park DVDs and toy models – as well as the opening of the new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie, today.

The T-Rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time. The largest complete skeleton (nicknamed ‘Sue‘) was discovered in 1990 in South Dakota, and is now in the Field Museum in Chicago. Sue was 28 yrs old at her death, and roamed around 67-65 million years ago.
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Thursday/ hello summer!

Tonight, the sun set at 9.10 pm here in Seattle. It will rise at 5.11 am.
I see our pitch black night length here at the summer solstice point is only 1 hr 43 mins, if one takes out all the kinds of twilight.

[Graph from timeanddate.com] I added the Sun of May from the Uruguay national flag to brighten the graph up. (Go Uruguay! They notched up World Cup victories against Egypt and Saudi Arabia & will play Russia on Monday). The graph below explains the different kinds of twilight. Solar noon is when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky.
[Graphic and explanation from timeanddate.com] Astronomical Twilight, Dawn, and Dusk. Astronomical twilight occurs when the Sun is between 12 degrees and 18 degrees below the horizon. Astronomical dawn is the time when the geometric center of the Sun is at 18 degrees below the horizon. Before this time, the sky is absolutely dark.

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Wednesday/ LEGO House on the Hill, 2.0

May I present the new and improved version of what I will call ‘LEGO House on the Hill’? The original one was only a shell, with no floors, and not much detail inside.

This house is still very compact, and built with pretty basic bricks. I don’t have custom furniture and kitchen appliance bricks that come with some LEGO house sets – yet.

Front view. I should change out the baseball cap, or the briefcase, on the house resident. The cap & briefcase don’t really go together.
The back of the house. The garage still needs a little work.
Here’s a ‘Google Earth’ view, looking down on the roof.
Top floor, with the roof removed. Stairs from the ground floor lead into the hallway. Bathroom is to the left with blue furnishings. Main bedroom on left with grey bed, guest bedroom on right with orange bed, study at top with a brown desk.
Ground floor. Staircase by the front door. Kitchen on the bottom left with island, with dining room & brown table top left. Top right is the living room with TV and sofa.
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Tuesday/ boxed water and new buildings

Boxed water, offered at the little ground-breaking ceremony yesterday. (Capitol Hill is a registered eco-district). A lot better for the environment than plastic bottles – but these still have heavy plastic caps. Why not do away with the caps altogether?

It’s been more than three years since the Capitol Hill light rail train station here in my neighborhood opened (March 2016).

The construction of apartment buildings on the surrounding open plots of land will finally start. There was a little ceremony on Tuesday, with a few farmers’ market vendors on hand, and displays of the proposed construction, as well as the expansion plans for the light rail.

Some future stations were marked ‘service starts in 2036’ and ‘service starts in 2041’. Whoah. Where will the world be, and what will the world look like, then?

The station & entrance on the left, are complete. The apartment building is one of three 7-story buildings that will be constructed. There will be an open plaza, and space for a farmers market as well. [From www.seattleinprogress.com].