A Morning in Wallingford

The lovely Marie, three years ago.
I had so much fun spending a morning in Wallingford yesterday. The synergy that you get in a comparatively dense neighborhood inspires me more than anything. Got to watch the crew for a Microsoft commercial at work across the street from my friend Marie's house. While I looked on from Marie's porch neighbor Basha strode up and proceeded to give me the most amazing headrub while the media crew looked on enviously. She's a professional masseuse who is fresh from a course on Indian head massage. Later we walked up to a three-year old grocery store (gearing up to celebrate their birthday with a big bash this weekend) which houses a fantastic deli/bakery and had a great lunch of pannini and soup while Marie's three year old ran up and down the aisles. In keeping with the bumble bee outfit he wore he was literally "abuzz" the entire time.

Here are Marie's kids with my Piper last weekend at our place.
Later her friend Anne walked in and greeted us. Now Anne is going to come talk to our newly-formed Sustainable Bellevue group about her passion, community gardens. And it turns out her husband is a McArthur fellow, which I found out because I commented on the cap she was wearing. "Dirt Matters", from a Willamette Valley winery, was emblazoned on the front. Her husband, David Montgomery, a geology prof at the UW, literally wrote the book on "Dirt"!

I hope Anne doesn't mind me posting this photo of her husband on my blog, but he is all over the internet, as I was to discover later.



Can't wait to start reading it!