Before the Light Fades Entirely: A Dialogue Involving Two Buildings Wholly Unconnected to the Community Around Them (and yet complete within themselves)

I had a dialogue with the ghost of John Graham Sr as I walked around this building on Sunday.
St Edwards Seminary, home to 214 students in its heyday, abandoned 300 feet above the north end of Lake Washington.  No one wants it anymore.  But there were so many people and their children here--strolling about the grounds.  Anyway, we talked about the Romanesque Style.  We talked in the fading light about

Rhythm Scale Light Axis Massing and a little bit about detail.

And then I went next door to Bastyr College and saw the garden, tried out the shiatsu footpath and observed 556 herbs being grown for medicinal purposes.  The village, housing 132 students in LEED Platinum Certified cottages, with no one about whatsoever and the architects Collins Woerman spoke to me, through their building, as architects often do,  about rain gardens and vegetative roofs.  We talked in the fading light about

Rhythm Scale Light Axis Massing and a little bit about detail.

And when I left I hoped they talked amongst themselves (the buildings, not Collins Woerman) because they both seemed rather lonely.

   

The Plague

Plagues and infestations are just under the surface here in Bellevue in August--mosquitoes on trail hikes and giant spiders in the bathroom and basement... the worst are the tiny fruit flies everywhere in the kitchen and the larger ones in the windows.

At Bellevue Arts Museum this week we saw origami on the second floor, an installation called "The Plague" by Sipho Mabona

"The Plague" by Sipho Mabona

Which reminded me of "Infestation" from Yorkshire Sculpture Park by Anna Collette Hunt last spring:

And then the Mill Creek Earthworks Park in Kent by landscape architect Herbert Bayer, which is really about the good kind of infestation (worms)  that we encourage in our gardens:

And Tanner Springs Park, in downtown Portland.
Ancient railroad ties are interspersed with painted glass depicting indigenous animal forms, including insects, by the German landscape architect Herbert Dreiseitl.  The park removed an industrial cover in the Pearl District and reconnected it with pre-industrial wetlands which ran through the area.

The New York Times described it as "a sort of cross between an Italian piazza and a weedy urban wetland with lots of benches perched beside gently running streams":

So, four ways to look at insects in eight months.  Meanwhile I'm trying to live with all the bugs around me that flourish in the month of August.

Locke Park

February 26 I arrive at Heathrow where I'm met by Melly and Eva and whisked off to Barnsley.

We walk in Locke Park with Alfy, the neighbor's dog.  It's half-term and the children are out on the fine  sunny day in droves.

Here's Piper with Alfy in 2012.

And here is more of Locke Park.

Out my bedroom window this morning.

Named for Joseph Locke, who was a railway engineer raised in Barnsley.  According to Wikipedia:

"Joseph Locke (9 August 1805 – 18 September 1860) was a notable English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with railway projects. Locke ranked alongside Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel as one of the major pioneers of railway development."

I knew him by the infamous story of the accidental death of William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool.

"When the (Liverpool Manchester) line was finally opened in 1830, it was planned for a procession of eight trains to travel from Liverpool to Manchester and back. George Stephenson drove the leading locomotive “Northumbrian” and Joseph Locke drove “Rocket”. The day was marred by the death ofWilliam Huskisson, the Member of Parliament for Liverpool, who was struck and killed by “Rocket”."

"The (Manchester Sheffield line) project included the three-mileWoodhead Tunnel, and the the building of the line required over a thousand navvies and cost the lives of thirty-two of them, seriously injuring 140 others. The Woodhead Tunnel was such a difficult undertaking that George Stephenson claimed that it could not be done, declaring that he would eat the first locomotive that got through the tunnel. It was estimated that the mortality amongst the navvies at the Woodhead Tunnel was just over 3 per cent, whereas the mortality amongst soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo was only 2.11 per cent.^[3]"

An observation tower was erected by Sarah McCreerey in memory of her sister, Phoebe, the widow of Joseph Locke, and donor of the land for the park.

Here is Locke Park's bonfire night last year:

  There is also a Ghost Walk and a Park Run held the first Saturday of each month.  Speaking of ghosts, an old "not very nice" lady lived in this park gatehouse.  She paid 4.50 a week in rent and believed herself to be the lover of Placido Domingo.  He sent her "packages" which were "signed" by him in her handwriting.  It is now derelict.

Pomegranate Carve-A-Thon

The Dig Project at Factoria with Pomegranate Center: Part 2

The Design Comes Together and the Carve-A-Thon

Part 1 described in a blog entry here 

Eggs provided by Newport Hills hens

Midsummer 2011:   A full day of design, drawings and site walking planned.  I made a fresh frittata  with locally grown Newport Hills eggs, courtesy of neighbor Michelle Hilhorst's hens.  On to the drawings provided by Pomegranate staff and our volunteers, "Space Rangers" all!

Placement of carved panels on the roof supports

Corrugated metal roof plan

Stone seating layout

There was even a model of the amphitheatre in order to better visualize the seating and the roof over the stage

Much listening and presenting of ideas going on here

Milenko and Space Rangers back at the onsite drawing board

The site is walked over and over again:  fortunately the sun came out!

Bree Dillon, project manager, hard at work

Milenko explains it all

Kimberly Kibby as a  "placeholder"

Rick, Milenko and Janet 

Our P-Patch from the orchard site of the amphitheatre

Pomegranate Center's home in Issaquah

Then there was something called a "Carve-A-Thon", one of Pomegranate's unique ways of raising funds.  Carved panels are carved, assembled and painted at the Pomegranate Center,  all by us volunteers, and then sold off to the highest bidders!

Milenko  draws on a cedar panel

Beginning to carve

Finally, the panels are hand-stained and delivered to their new owners