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!

Beachcombing 2

From the AP, Seattle Times, April 20
West Seattle, Washington: Garbage in stomach of dead whale includes sweatpants, golf ball, plastic bags, towels.

In a news release, scientists with the Cascadia Research Collective said the examination did not immediately determine why the 37-foot near-adult male died, but it was found to be in better nutritional condition than other gray whales that died recently...the animal had more than 50 gallons of material in its stomach.

Besides the pants and golf ball, the trash included more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces and duct tape.

Last week I returned several times to "my beach" in Newport Hills, to pick up debris and photograph it. On my last visit I had to poke in the grass and horsetails inland to find trash--here it was all beer bottles and cans, mostly BudLite and Corona.

So when I read this article in yesterday's paper it felt personal, especially the "plastic pieces" part.

And now for the deep part, the eternal reminder: It's the little things, those of the least apparent consequence, that truly connect us to each other.

Breaking News from our Neighborhood Mall

click here

Happy Earth Day!

Eastside Audubon was there, among many others:


The VFW parade:


Carol, Preston and Sean at Bellevue's Lewis Creek Earth Day-Arbor Day Celebration today:


Sammamish High's Environmental Warriors meet Bellevue's Mayor Don Davidson:


Nick, Brent and Kyla check out the pervious concrete display



The Mayor confers recognition and awards--spot the Carbon Yeti on the far left:



Happy Earth Day from Red Apple Elegy and Sustainable Bellevue!

At Pike Place Market

This guy was waiting patiently


As was this guy


And this guy



These two guys were rocking out as "Raw Corn"



And these two guys were discussing health care.

Beachcombing

At Newcastle Beach yesterday my eye was distracted from the gorgeous views by shiny colorful objects in the sand. I decided to start collecting them. Bottle caps, tiparillo filters, a lot of styrofoam and even a waterlogged boot. I was alone for a while, but then people became intrigued and joined me. A treasure hunt. Shiny bright colors.

It's just a little bit of beach, but now I feel like I own it. I also understand my dog's nature a bit better now--we're both just treasure hunters.

Day 2: St. Paul

"My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness." F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to his daughter Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald (July 1938)