April’s Furniture

Left: A mocha brown corner piece at Francis Ave N and N 43rd Street. This was probably snapped up quickly.
Right: A sight for sore eyes this tan couch with lavender pillows at Winslow Pl N and N 41 Street. Walk on by.

So It Goes

Left Image: That’s the title of the stencil on a land use permit sign. Another huge chunk of Stone Way N is disappearing, below N 38th St where currently there is Rodda Paint Co and Morgans Electric & Plumbing. A new and interesting site Seattle in Progress tracks these projects. Here’s the project for this location. 

Center Image: Up the street and between N 40th St and N 41st St (west side of the street) is a mural on the south wall of a building used by WorldSpice Merchants.

Right Image: A fence in Wallingford, just above 45th on Bagley Ave N. Theme? Sea monster echoing the Seamonster Louge in the nearby building?

What’s up with Fire Hydrants and Discarded Furniture?

This fire hydrant is consorting with a rather nice looking sofa, complete with throw pillows. The couple was photographed at the corner of Evanston Ave N. and N. 35th St. The mixed-use building just west of 9 Million Unmarked Bills is getting demolished, which probably explains this couch deciding to leave the building and look for a better home.  (BTW, I will always call 9 Million … whatever the Triangle Tavern, which is what it was for many years before.)

Also, a stool. Nothing more to say. But let me leave you with the Carly Simon song Love Out in the Street from her Playing Possum 1975 album.

I've seen the sidewalks
And I've been aware
Of the lamps and tables and the paperback books
That you throw out there
All your artifacts
In disrepair
Make up a pile so high
Could tie up the traffic in the thoroughfare
Put your love out on the street
Put your love out on the street
Put your love out on the street
Put your love out on the street tonight
I don't mind your sinning
I'm no saint myself
And if the neighbors call you a hellcat
Then let them call me a jezebel
Cause I've come to know you
I've come to know you so well
From spying on you from my bathroom window
In this cheap hotel
So let flow the hydrants
And we'll dance in the spray
And we'll wash out our dirty laundry
In the alleyway

Me and My Clown Bike

Panorama of Bay Trail (Shoreline Mountain View) – Looking East

I like to ride my clown bike every morning. Today I rode to the Shoreline at Mountain View. I like this area in the Spring when the grass is green. It’s better than the brown, dry grass of summer (see Life in the Snail Lane). I ride carefully to avoid running over the snails. Sometimes, I hear a crunch. Oops.

This morning, my bike and I learned about:

• “The Wild & Wonderful Wetlands.” Slough is a funny word.
• “The Burrowing Owls of Shoreline.” Athene cunicularia is what the scientists call it. We also saw the yellow-eyed owl in the Imperial Valley (see Imperial Valley Miscellany). Maybe the Shoreline owls work at Google?
• The “Community” – of the wetlands that is – is all about living with salt (and no pepper). Plants that can grow in conditions of high salinity (lots of salt) are called halophytes. Here are some of them:
  • Sea Lavender – Limonium in the Plumbago family.
  • Australian Saltbush – Atriplex in the Amaranth family.
  • Saltgrass – Distichlis in the Grass family (what did you expect?)
  • Pickleweed – Salicornia also in the Amaranth family.
  • Cordgrass – Spartina foliosa also in the Grass family.
  • Salt Marsh Dodder – Cuscuta salina in the Morning Glory family. Dodders are parasitic plants: it lives off other plants. You know, like the uncle or nephew in your family that never moves out.
• “Limits & Controls.” Plants growing here have to work darn hard to get rid of the salt inside them. Cordgrass sweats it out. Pickleweed concentrate the salt in one part and then gets rid of that part. To each his own.
• “The Spirit of the Times – Wild Marshes, Handy Scows & Mr. Henry Rengstorff.” A scow is a type of flat-bottomed boat. Useful for the sloughs perhaps. Too many strange words this morning.  Mr. Rengstorff – who was born in 1829 and died in 1906  – had a nice house. Today is house is appropriately called the Rengstorff House.
• “Wind & Water Bring Life to the Farm.” Mrs. Rengstorff was one lucky housewife because her house was plumbed for indoor water thanks to their windmill. With all the time she saved, she could pursue her passion for hunting burrowing owls (just kidding).

Now, on to work.

Top Row. Left: The Burrowing Owls of Shoreline; Center: Community. Right: Limits & Controls’';
Bottom Row. Left: The Wild & Wonderful Wetlands; Center: Wind & Water Bring Life to the Farm; Right: The Spirit of the Times.

Left: Bay Trail Joggers – Looking East; Center: Bay Trail; Right: Mountain View Slough – Looking South.


Left: Bike on the Bay Trail; Center: Bike in front of the Rengstorff House; Right: Bike and Windmill.

Left: Shoreline Lake Aquatic Center; Right: A Snail on the Bay Trail – Life in the Fast Lane.

March Grab Bag of Street Art

Two images of the south wall of the building of 501 Commons, Lower Queen Anne – 2nd Ave W and W Republican St.

Left: A Henry (ryanhenryward.com) on a Garage on Taylor Ave N. (For more Henry work, see Henry Murals In and Around Fremont and Ballard, Seattle).

Right: The back of Lighthouse Roasters in Fremont.

I Am The Change

"Wow, look at that wall!" Mark says. I catch a quick glimpse of it - a large face on a wall - as we head down Nickerson Street on the back side of Queen Anne. "Let's go take a look."

This is what happens when people know you are interested in street art and graffiti. They are on the look out for you. Email, text messages, and newspaper clippings about street art find their way to me all the time.

We make a detour and find the face. It has "I am the change" written across the forehead and "Climate Justice" written across the middle of the face. It's an image from the People's Climate March (Septemer 21, 2014). The image is located on the Seattle Pacific Art Center building on Queen Anne Avenue and West Cremona St (just off of Nickerson St).

First Day of Spring - Blue Plastic Chairs

Welcome to the first day of Spring. What better way to enjoy Spring then to grab a blue plastic chair and watch it happen? (And what a Spring it has been in Seattle.) These two chairs were last seen in a Fremont alley.

Zio Ziegler - Crittenden 2

Right under my nose - that's where this Zio Ziegler mural was. The previous week we saw a piece of his in Las Vegas (see Las Vegas – Fremont Street, Street Art).  This piece is in Crittenden 2, a Google building. The location is not great for appreciating Ziegler's work, but nonetheless manages to be quite striking.