seattle pics: 2011

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hanging With Mom @ Work

This girl was winding up a long day of helping her mom arrange and sell flowers at a neighborhood farmers market. Her family grows those gorgious blooms and trucks them to market. Huge bouquets of fresh picked blooms range from $10 to $15. Do you remember yourself at this age, helping your parents?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

What Will the Water Do?

Well, it will keep them cool, bu these children were exploring how water runs down a spiral channel of a giant sea shell at the water works in Ballard Commons Park. It's not been our typical summer yet, but the kids are making the most of the sunny and partly sunny days we have had. Hope you are keeping cool and enjoying summer (northern hemisphere folks :-)).

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Les Seattlennes Summer Style

So equal time today to what some segments of the female population are adopting for summer attire in Seattle. I spied these tres chic fashionistas conversing on NW Market Street.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Utilikilts About Town

Since multiple readers mistook the garment in yesterday's photo to be a skirt, I thought I'd post a few shots I've taken of wearers of Utilikilts, a contemporary take on the traditional tartan kilts of Scottish Highlands origin. These originated here in Seattle and are made to be worn as work clothes and everyday casual dress by folks who enjoy the freedom they offer. :-)

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Family Stroll

A Seattle mom and dad with their child in a stroller and their dog make their way down the crowded sidewalk of a neighborhood street festival.Typical Seattle summer vibe.

Update 2:30 PM: Dear readers, several commentors below are asking why the skirt? Sorry not to have clarified for you to begin with that this guy is wearing a Utilikilt, a brand of utilitarian and work kilts designed and manufactured here in Seattle (kilts are a tradition in Scottish Highlands' menswear--think Braveheart and Great Britain's famous Highlands Regiments). Kilts in the United States are mostly worn only for formal occasions by people honoring their family heritage, commonly made of a wool tartan woven in a family pattern. But, here in Seattle there is a company that designs and manufactures kilts for everyday and work wear. In cooler months these are often paired with ankle high Doc Martins for footwear rather than the traditional wing tip Gillie Brogues. I've seen a lot of guys around Seattle wearing Utilikilts, and I've seen some female fashionistas adopt them for their ensembles as well. They aren't cheap! I'll post other images tomorrow to illustrate how this is pretty common attire around these parts :-).

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Monorail & Needle

In the dark and almost silently, the monorail speeds overhead through downtown and back to Seattle Center under the watchful eye of the Space Needle. Next year the iconic symbol of the Emerald City turns 50! Some of the lights you see are from Sky City, the revolving restaurant, and others above are flashes from people taking photos on the observation deck. If you'd like to see the 360 degree view from the top of the Needle, click here and have some fun manipulating the live webcam to look in any direction over the city that you would like.

Friday, July 15, 2011

End of an Era

No, its not the latest prediction of doomsday. It's the poster outside the Cinerama in downtown Seattle announcing the final film in the Harry Potter series. Our daughter was in 3rd grade when the first Harry Potter book was published in the USA. Our family partner-read through the series as each new book was published. Well, we'd partner-read it after dad, who'd nab the newest edition for himself upon our return from the bookstore, finished reading it cover to cover in one or two sittings, that is :-). We also went to see each of the films together and enjoyed them very much. In a way the books and films have been markers along the stages and ages of childhood and adolescence and pleasant family times spent together. She's grown up right along with the book characters and the actors who portrayed them. So, it is with a mixture of fond anticipation and a bit of sadness that we look forward to seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 while we are on vacation together soon. Seattlites won't be waiting. They cued up for a midnight showing (as they have for most of the Potter films in the past), and this after a week long Harry Potter film marathon.

The Cinerama Theater in downtown Seattle first opened in 1963. It was saved from demolition years later by Seattlite Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft and Vulcan real estate developer) who was a patron of the theater when a kid. It has undergone major renovations and restoration in 1999 and again last year and is now outfitted to show Cinerama films, 70mm, and 3D. It has a state of the art sound system and is very popular in this town that loves films. And all things 60s (check out that tile wall!) :-)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bastille Day in Seattle

Wishing all our friends in France a happy Bastille Day. Seattlites will be staying up late to celebrate with you. Check out my More Seattle Stuff page to see particulars of one such evening of fun.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola @ Jazz Alley

For the last couple years I've been enjoying going to a concert a month. I love live music of all kinds. Seattle has a lot of great local venues and musicians, and we are also lucky so many touring musicians enjoy playing here. Many of the musicians whose work I follow are guitarists from several genres. Tonight I got to see jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter (above) for the first time, playing at Jazz Alley with drummer Scott Amendola (below). Their improvising was really wonderful. I'd heard recordings, but had never seen Hunter play and couldn't believe my eyes when I realized he was in effect playing bass lines over inventive melody lines, chords and harmonics all at the same time on his 7 string guitar. I've seen Bruce Cockburn similarly use his thumb as his own complete rhythm section while playing complex compositions on a 6 string, but Hunter's fluidity and speed while playing inventive jazz/rock/funk/blues and riffing off Amendola's considerable contributions and vice-versa were beyond unreal to behold.Very fun set!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Captain Argh

At least I think that's his name. He was roaming the streets at last weekend's Ballard Seafood Fest. This neighborhood street fair is part of Seattle's city-wide Seafair celebration, and it wouldn't be that Seafair time of year without pirates. Lots of them. They came ashore at Alki on Saturday in the Seafair Pirates 61st annual landing. They will be seen everywhere. I don't know if this plundering devil is part of the Seafair rable, but he was certainly in the spirit of their fun.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Usual Suspects From Near & Far

They are camera crazy. Every last one of them! I've had the pleasure of meeting each of these fine folk from the CDPBlogging community when they visited Seattle. Oh, except that one guy who makes two appearances in jaunty caps--he isn't visiting, he's a longtime Seattlite :-). Some of them I've met with multiple times and enjoyed photowalking my city or theirs. Others have had limited time so we met for coffee or during a a pit stop while on a 3 day walk to raise funds for cancer research. They came from Yakima, Greenville, Portland (formerly from Mashhad and now in Chicago), Brattleboro, Bangor (formerly from NYC), Belgrade, Victoria, Versailles, Vancouver, Ferney-Voltaire near Geneva (formerly from Seattle and DC), and Paris. Thanks so much for spending time Chuck, Ciel de Quimper, Michael, Wayne, Chuck again & Bibi, Maya & Janet, Bibi, Conrad, Benjamen, Brattcat & Mr. Brattcat, Denton, Kateney and Meead. CDPB folks drop in on each other all around the globe when they get the chance.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

In Touch With His Inner Viking

It's that time of year for fun in the streets. This weekend you can head over to Ballard and follow the scent of the alder wood smoke to the amazing Salmon dinner and the rest of what the historic maritime neighborhood's 37th Annual Seafood Fest has to offer. It's in full swing from 11AM to 9PM today and tomorrow, inviting folks to come enjoy all kinds of amazing street food, two stages of live music, dancing and entertainment, beer and wine gardens, lots of fun children's activities, artists and vendors booths, and that certain Ballard Nordic vibe. They invite you to come "eat, play, plunder." I got a kick out of The Hi-Life's non-seafood offering to the festivities--the popular local eatery in a refurbished historic fire house started late last night roasting a pig for their 2nd Annual Ballard Back Alley Pork-Fest today. It's all about alternatives, from Vegan eats to Big Easy-style red beans and rice with shrimp, to Lutefisk, Deadliest Catch crab, roasted corn, and gourmet seafood, you won't go away from seafood fest hungry. This gentleman got into the spirit of things at last year's fest and was kind enough to let me nab this close shot.

Friday, July 8, 2011

5th Anniversary of Seattle Daily Photo

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, or republishing in any media.
Many thanks for stopping in to help celebrate SDP's 5th Blogoversary. It is the people I've come to know through SDP and the photo friendships that have developed that have made exploring and photoblogging Seattle's diverse neighborhoods so fun. Up there in the new header photo I've pulled up 5 red chairs from the Olympic Sculpture Park for you to sit in the sun and relax. Perhaps you'd enjoy a little happy hour style appetizer to get the party started, so here is a tiny sampler of some of the most well received of the 1735 posts from 2006 to present. SDP by the numbers in 5 years is kind of mind boggling. Over 525,000 visitors have made 1,058,145 pageviews from 19,488 cities in 200 countries. Over 4,200 are subscribed to the RSS feed, and 653 folks are following through Google Friend Connect. That's a ton of wonderful people! Thank you for your many kind comments and for informing, inspiring me and stretching me in new directions. If you're a longtime visitor or fellow City Daily Photo blogger you may have noticed I haven't been able to visit around to comment as I used to, and my dailiness in posting here has been slipping since my employment went to full time last fall :-). I'll get back into the regular rhythm soon and look forward to sharing many more shots of what catches my eye in this amazing city. Thanks very much!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Urban Chickens

Urban chickens are pretty commonplace in Seattle backyards. These two, however, decided to keep an eye on what was happening in the front yard of their Queen Anne Hill home. This Saturday, July 9, 20011, Seattle Tilth is sponsoring it's Chicken Coop and Urban Farm Tour from 10AM-4PM in several neighborhoods throughout Seattle (all information can be found by clicking this link ). My backyard neighbors built an amazing coop last year. When I saw it taking shape I thought they were building an architectural model or a designer shed. It was really amazing, but I don't know if it will be on the tour :-). I just love hearing their beautiful hens' little happy sounds. They are well cared for and I think the neighbors are happy having their small supply of fresh eggs.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

It Was a Sunny Day

. . .not a cloud was in the sky.
Sun dogs flare on lens glass as I shoot straight into the sun. Can you see the float plane heading into the northwest? The pilot had a spectacular view as far as the eye can see. Hope your day was as beautiful as it was here!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Casting Shadows in Seattle's Streets

Seattle streets are full of people enjoying the summer sun. This cyclist was one of them. It wasn't until I uploaded this shot that I noticed the rider had a "pocket full of Kryptonite," (her orange bike lock in her back pocket :-).

Monday, July 4, 2011

Ready and Waiting

The Center for Wooden Boats is a treasure among all Seattle's wonderful organizations that educate and give so much pleasure back to the community. Situated at the south end of Lake Union, it provides education for all ages, demonstrations, boating classes, camps for kids, boat building, restoration and repair know-how for enthusiasts, and opportunities to see historic ships or get out on the water in small craft like this. Over this 4th of July weekend the Wooden Boat Festival will welcome thousands of visitors to its Lake Union Park home. I'm with Ratty: "There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

Friday, July 1, 2011

Theme Day: Green

My fave color! Well, it's the theme for first of the month CDPBlogger's theme day, and I'm late, but here :-). I call this shot Day Vision (as opposed to night vision and that green view such goggles give).
This is the glass roof of the vivarium at the SAM Olympic Sculpture Park. You can see a little bit of blue sky peeking through. This green glass casts an eerie hue over everything inside and sometimes out (see my More Seattle Stuff page to see a cool sidewalk shadow). The vivarium was build around the long living tree on it's side that inhabits this unique structure (see photos here). Check out how other interpreted the theme by clicking here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tide's Out

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.

Tide's Out

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Pressing On

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.

Pressing On

Friday, June 10, 2011

Shadows & Upheaval

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.

Shadows & Upheaval

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Garden Gate

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?

Garden Gate

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?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Home After a Long Day

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

Home After a Long Day

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

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A Tale of Two Bridges: Part 2

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 2

Monday, June 6, 2011

A Tale of Two Bridges: Part 1

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.