Walking Seattle Again

 Today's meandering walk was an attempt to fill in streets I had missed on prior walks in Northeast Seattle. Most of the streets were in the Victory Heights neighborhood but a few were in Meadowbrook. That's where I came across the new location of the Northeast Seattle Tool Library in the old Lavilla Dairy building on Fischer Place. Lake City Way was noisy but I didn't need to walk too far away to find quiet dead-end streets. This staircase at 105th Street on the east side of Lake City Way took me to Fischer Place. It's a nice new staircase, too bad so much trash has been left there. Just north of this staircase, the old Don Willis Furniture store is being converted into housing. Near Fischer Place, I noticed a new design on a manhole cover. Back on the west side of Lake City Way, there is a staircase at 103rd. Lake City Way still has car dealerships but there are a growing number of pot shops, storage facilities and massage places. There is even a cat boarding facility...

  Puddles and drainage ditches with water running through them greeted me in Pinehurst today. The area between I-5 and 15th Avenue NE just south of Jackson Park Golf Course is mostly comprised of single family homes on decently sized lots. There are some apartments and condos on the busier streets as well as these townhouses on 10th Place NE. The area is also home to IFGF Church, Grace Chinese Lutheran Church, Northeast Early Learning Center, Longhouse Adult Family Homes, a pizza parlor, a Mexican restaurant, and a Pakistani/Indian/Halal Market. On this 5.5 mile walk, I spotted a mobile pet grooming truck, ... ... some pink flamingos, ... ... a nice street-edge alternative, ... ... a house with quilt patterns displayed, ... ... some majestic trees, ... ... signs of autumn, ... ... a staircase, and light rail construction in progress. I noted six Little Free Libraries. They contained children's books, parenting books, novels, a GMAT prep book, a cookbook, Homer's Odyssey, The Bo...

  Rain threatened during today's walk in the Green Lake and Wallingford neighborhoods. Starting out just west of I-5 at NE 60th Street, ... ... I came across a work party at Freeway Estates Community Orchard. A bulletin board advertised a request for volunteers and the 13th Annual Cider Fest on October 21st from 2 to 4 PM. I do remember this orchard from my prior walks which started 13 years ago. Continuing north then turning east, I walked under I-5. Walking west along 65th, I could have gotten a tattoo, eaten a tamale or Thai food or stopped in at the friendly Latona Pub by the time I reached Latona Avenue.  I wound up walking some of the northern streets multiple times before ... ... walking south along 5th Avenue from 60th to 50th Street. This was probably a lovely neighborhood of modest homes before I-5 cut through it. For quite a few blocks, trees block views of I-5 but not the noise. Closer to 50th Street, there aren't even trees and I-5 is ever present. The streets are...

  Today's walk was primarily in the Pinehurst neighborhood but included a few streets in Victory Heights and Maple Leaf. I observed the progress being made on the building at the old Display and Costume site. 9th and Roosevelt Avenues were very different from what they are a few miles south of here in the U District. There are still streets of single family homes but not as many streets have sidewalks and curbs; there are open drainage ditches; the lots are larger; the trees are taller. Along the way, I noted Halloween decorations, ... ... a dog sculpture near some rooftop solar panels, ... ... some lovely gardens, ... ... and free veggies. There is a newer-looking row of trees in front of Lamp Presbyterian Church (Korean).  Lots of bike routes cut through this area. There is a large Dog Day Care center. The Idris Mosque is here. I spotted a lot with quite a few trees recently cut down. Workers were leveling a lot abutting the I-5 barrier wall on a dead-end street; I wonder if...

  The Huskies had an away game today so my husband and I thought it might be a good day to take our granddog for a walk in the area around The Center for Urban Horticulture. We started by walking on the boardwalk through the Yesler Swamp. We learned a bit about the site history - Henry Yesler built a sawmill here. We spotted a heron. Winding our way back to the Center, we admired the grounds. We almost meditated while walking the Baltic Labyrinth. We walked as far as the bridge over Ravenna Creek and looked at the UW campus on the other side. Circling back through the Union Bay Natural Area, we read about Climate Ready Landscape Plants. We could see the UW Farm in the distance. Finishing up our 2 mile walk, we came across a bulletin board which listed three separate sightings of a deer and a fawn between the 25th and 28th of August.