Christmas Day my partner and I decided to pass on various family Christmas doings and attend the Church of Nature. We left in the morning and drove north on a nearly empty I-5 up to the Sedro-Woolley turnoff to Highway 20 and headed into bald eagle country. This time of year, eagles flock to the Upper Skagit River and you can stop along the road from Concrete to Rockport on up to Marblemount and spot the splendid birds perched in the trees along the river like so many over-sized Christmas ornaments, or watch them feed on salmon carcasses along the river banks.
It's bleak midwinter on Vashon Island and you'd think the garden would have sense enough to hunker down and wait for better weather.
Thankfully, no. Outside the dining room window, a pink viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense) is in full bloom on the year's shortest day, a joyful counterpoint to the drizzle and gloom of December in Puget Sound. Why every gardener doesn't grow this beauty is beyond me. It's undemanding and bursts into bloom when most of the rest of the garden is on seasonal sabbatical.
The county once before ran ferries, only to be rescued by the state. Now the state is too broke to keep the passenger boats running, and the county has got the bug again. It's expensive, there are other solutions, and Vashon Islanders were once dead set against passenger-only ferries. But hey, nostalgia springs eternal.
What's in a name? For one, the formerly elegant "Katrina" has been purged from those names-for-your-baby books (and "Pete," alas, is reserved exclusively for three-legged dogs). That's what's in a name.
All the more reason for The Seattle Times to revive its U.S Weather Service-sponsored name-that-storm competition.
The New Economy started in the suburbs, but the new trend is back to urban neighborhoods. Amazon is a good match for South Lake Union, but the danger is that it could be too big, with too few small companies clustering around.
A recent e-mail we intercepted from a stadium-loathing group that calls itself Taxpayers on Strike (TOS) asserted there's an untold story about another victim of the storm that swamped the state two weeks ago – Safeco Field.
TOS's Vincent Koskela contended "the recent rain storm caused severe flooding at 'Safeco Field.' The lower bowl, Clubhouse and Dugout flooded. Four feet of water shot up in the Clubhouse. Conduits carrying TV Cables were full of water," Koskela wrote.
Wrong on all counts, counters M's spokeswoman Rebecca Hale, who also saw the e-mail. Koskela claimed his info came from disclosures made at a Public Facilities District maintenance and operations committee meeting on Dec. 10.
Well that was quick. A week after the Seattle Streetcar began serving passengers, apparently there has been an accident. KIRO-TV is reporting that police have responded to Mercer Street and Terry Avenue North. Update: It was minor, and no one was hurt, says KOMO-TV.
Meanwhile, the driver of a Gray Line bus was killed on Interstate 5 under the Washington State Convention and Trade Center overnight when the bus she was driving crashed, and the downtown Seattle bus tunnel is closed again due to software problems.
Might be a windy, rainy day to stay home.
Now that the Mariners have introduced premium prices for in-demand games like Opening Day, the Yankees, and Bosox, we were wondering if the club gave much thought to offering cheaper seats for the likes of perennial losers like Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Baltimore. Say, like charging 1999 prices?
The Seattle architect leaves the wild ride of the City Council for calmer waters. But with his vision for a sustainable city and commitment to civic activism, he won't be coasting.
A group headed by Norm Rice and John Stanton is gathering allies for a more rational and practical approach to the region's transit needs. Both supporters and opponents of the failed Proposition 1 are part of the effort.
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