Tide's Out

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

It's always hard for me to comprehend that the Pacific Ocean is actually about 100 miles west of Seattle. Living on the Puget Sound in this large port city sure seems like a typical west coast location. The tides still work on us, and we've had some very low tides recently that sent lots of folks out looking for all the interesting critters and objects that had been left behind on the beach. Naturalists are frequently available to lead tide pool walks around the Sound. There can be a 15 foot difference between high and low tides this time of year, so an awesome number of tidal critters are on view! This is Alki beach in West Seattle. There were no naturalists present, but people were exploring on their own. In the distance you can see the south slope of Queen Anne Hill and Seattle Center's distinctive Key Arena roof and the Space Needle.

Pressing On

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

Going green can be an uphill effort on some of our steep streets :-). I'm seeing more cyclists out and about as the days tilt from rainier to sunnier. This guy, though, I'm sure is probably out there rain or shine.

Shadows & Upheaval

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

Since childhood I've had a love of trees and how they frame our world with a canopy of color, filter light, rustle in the breeze, cast shade in heat. It wasn't until I married my husband that I learned some people consider yard trees to be a major headache :-). The former owner of our Seattle home was an avid gardener and had planted many trees, one of which was towering between our house and our neighbor's. My husband had a tree company take it out, fearing it would crash into one house or the other in a wind storm. There were still 4 smaller trees left on that side of the house, so it wasn't as heartbreaking to me as it might have been. After our first windstorm here, I was glad he had been proactive about it. I have an arborist look after our remaining trees and get them trimmed and inspected every couple years.
At first sight I just loved seeing the shadow of this large old lovely along a Capitol Hill street, then I noticed the brick gutter (a common feature in Capitol Hill) was a victim of serious tree roots. One of the downsides of lovely tree-lined streets. The Department of Transportation recently started requiring certain new developments install blocks around the root systems of new tree plantings to prevent this kind of damage to sidewalks, curbs and streets.

Garden Gate

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

I spied this garden gate while out on a morning walk in Capitol Hill. It was interesting to see two types of leaves on one tree, half oak, half elm, perhaps?

Home After a Long Day

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

A car heads home at sunset on a gorgeous Seattle evening.

A Tale of Two Bridges: Part 2

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

Well, I lied. There are actually two bridges in this photo alone, so with the one in yesterday's that makes 3 bridges. The blue colored bridge below packed with waiting traffic is one of the busiest draw bridges in the world, the Fremont Bridge that opens for boat traffic along the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The upper-most bridge in this shot is the Aurora Bridge, officially named the George Washington Memorial Bridge. It is currently undergoing a seismic retrofit that should be completed next year. Unfortunately, this graceful span is associated with hundreds of tragic deaths since it was built in the 1930s, most from suicide. There have been over 50 in the past decade alone despite installation of prevention call boxes and compassionate signage. Governor Gregoire allotted 1.4 million dollars from the 2007 budget to install a suicide prevention barrier which was completed in February. Hopefully it will substantially reduce the likelihood of further jumping attempts. In 1998 an articulated metro bus like the one you see in the photo plunged off the side and onto an apartment house below after the bus driver was killed by a passenger. Such a horrific history for a bridge that seems here to top even the Olympic Mountains.

A Tale of Two Bridges: Part 1

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

The I-5 Ship Canal Bridge is busy with evening traffic. This view is from across the northern tip of Lake Union. Tomorrow I'll face the opposite direction and give you a glimpse of another high bridge to the west.

Ghost Sign on the Roycroft Theatre

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.

The Roycroft Theatre urged patrons to wait for pictures to leave the first run houses downtown and see them here on convenient Capitol Hill. The theater opened in 1925, complete with organ. After 40 years as a cinema, the building was converted to become the Russian Community Center. Although films haven't played here in 50 years, the ghost sign remains unchanged. Speaking of films, the Seattle International Film Festival is winding down to its last week. If you haven't heard of it or attended in the past, it is very much worth your attention. "Throughout its 34 years, SIFF has evolved into one of the leading independent and international film institutions in the United States and the world. With extensive local, national, and international media coverage, the Festival is one of Seattle’s most accessible and highly–publicized cultural events."

iPhone Action Shot

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

I was standing by the duck pond in Denny Blaine Lake Park when a guy walking six dogs passed me, then doubled back and passed me several times more. He was encouraging the dogs to follow his directions and not let their temptation to chase the ducks override what they were doing. This photo turned out a little strange, as the iPhone doesn't capture movement like some other cameras will (thus the chocolate pooch in front has a crackled face and some bodies and tales are a blur. But, I liked the effect and the way it showed this Dogs Around the Block trainer and six dogs having a grand time.

Rain Gardens Not Draining

Photo & Text © 2011, Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

I, and I suppose a lot of other Seattle residents, received a notice from Seattle Public Utilities this week announcing incentives to encourage residents to instal rain barrels or rain gardens on their property to reduce storm water and pollutant run off into our vital waterways. I've seen rain gardens properly and very attractively installed in a few places (the parking strip adjacent to Ballard Corners Park, the median on 14th Ave NW, and  in private landscaping in a couple resident's front yards). I've also noticed while out walking that, on the main, the large pilot program the city attempted in parts of the Ballard neighborhood isn't working as expected. After walking past this rain garden, and noticing standing water when there had been no rain in days, I looked for information on how the pilot project was going (read about it here and here). Apparently, after meetings with concerned residents, hiring pumping trucks to siphon off standing water regularly, and further surveys in the field, SPU agreed in April to remove the rain gardens that aren't working and restore the grassy parking strips where they were built. I'm hoping the rain gardens promoted in this week's flyer are of significantly better design. We have a large cistern filled with rock and gravel under the top soil of our small back yard, into which the rain gutter downspouts of our roof and those of our two next door neighbors drain underground. I've never had soggy soil or standing water, but we are near the top of a hill. I'm wishing the city and affected residents well in successfully resolving these unforeseen drainage difficulties in what was a well-intentioned pilot program.

PATH Cloudscape Reflection

Photo and text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, reproduction, alteration or republishing in any media.

I loved the cloudscape adorning the glass exterior of this building that houses PATH, a non profit global health advocate headquartered here in Seattle. PATH works on diverse international health issues and does a world of good, working on research, medicine, social and financial factors to improve health for people around the globe. This new building stands at the corner of Westlake and Denny Way and was part of the giant reshaping of the neighborhood into a vital core for biotechnology, medical research, and high tech businesses.

Theme Day: Under Construction

Photo & Text © 2011 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.

It is the first of the month City Daily Photo Bloggers' theme day: Under Construction. This huge and colorful mural adorns 135 feet of the eastern side of the 24 foot high bright red wall that surrounds the Capitol Hill Light Rail station construction site (also seen in yesterday's photo). Note the ginormous red crane swinging its weight around in the blue sky above! This mural was designed by Baso Fibonacci (that's his spray-painted likeness on the right) and painted in record time by Zach Rockstad and Japhy Witte (check out this video of the guys at work). They started by painting over the red with a pink, green, and gray camouflage pattern, then painted the fantasy figures over that. Street artists gone muralists with gallery cred :-). The mural is one in a series curated by performance artist DK Pan for Sound Transit's STart Capitol Hill Wall Project (you can see many of the other works here). This wall will be up for five years while the station takes shape within. To see how the construction theme was interpreted in cities around the globe, click here to view thumbnails for all participants.