Photos of Plants in Beacon Hill and Wedgwood

I liked the way the smoke tree's leaves caught the morning light yesterday.



Yes, another photo of my Ceanothus. It's just fucking killing me how close to bloom it is.



Here's a misleadingly cropped photo of the view of my living room from this morning. When you're actually in the living room, you see the top of mean neighbor dude's house right under this. But let's just look at the Olympics instead.



OK, off to Wedgwood. I believe this is where local gardening personality Ciscoe Morris lives.



He has one of the lushest planting strips in Seattle.





Moss, mondo, maple.



This is my friends' house.



They built this fence around their tree.

Quick Tour of the Garden

Nowadays whenever I come home from a trip, I'm so excited to see my plants that I tour the front and back yards before going in the house.

My blue oat grass is sending up some seeds.



Smoke tree is starting to show us its beautiful leaves.



Looks like the ginkgo survived the cold winter in its aluminum pot. I know this seems awfully sexist, but I'm afraid to plant it in case it's female. I bought it for $10 from a guy at a farmer's market last summer.



I think this may be the first honeybee I've seen in the yard this year.



Alliums are coming right along.



I love how juicy the barberry leaves look at this time of year. This summer they'll look more variegated.



A little bit hard to see in this photo, but it does look like this Julia Phelps Ceanothus is going to have brilliantly and deeply blue flowers. This one is doing better than a couple of the others, but that's OK. I think I may remove some of the weaker ones. Despite their incomparable beauty, no one really needs nine Ceanothus plants in their backyard.

Dick and Jane's Spot in Ellensburg

While looking for a place to have lunch in Ellensburg, Washington, on Saturday, I passed a weird-looking house and yard. These kooky homeowners call their place Dick and Jane's Spot.















The drive back to Seattle on I-90 takes us past farms and lakes in the Cascades.

Trip to Yakima

Friday we went to Yakima to see our friends' bands Trentalange and Head Like a Kite play at the Sports Center. No plant photos here, but there are some museum shots.

First we stopped at the Yakima Valley Museum, which has a small collection of neon signs and a large collection of horse-drawn carriages.



Coincidentally, I was wearing a T-shirt that depicts a horse-drawn carriage.





Kitty!





Old apple crate labels.



A Depression-era dress made of flour sacks.





People used to hunt mammoth around here.





A prehistoric cat.



A stuffed cougar.



A few of local businessman Joseph Klingele's collection of 3,000 pencils.



Then we went to a junk shop, where I spent $20 on old postcards. I did not buy this.



Or this.



I don't like most Chinese food, but I enjoy a seedy Chinese lounge.



This one's called the Lotus Room. "Cast Away" was playing. I started drinking liquor, after having already had beer and wine.



Trentalange was already playing when we get back to the Sports Center.



The rest of the night is sort of a blur.



Barb showed off her biceps.



Dave showed off his horns.



Bye-bye, Sports Center.



Hello, Mel's Diner!

Does Your Day Need Brightening?

Visit the Hel Looks wesbite. A couple of Finns take photos of weirdly dressed people on the streets of Helsinki, ask them about their clothes, and upload the pictures and quotes to the website. Finnish teens are very brave, creative, and cute. Here's what a 20-year-old girl recently said about her outfit:

"I made this dress today, because I didn't know what to wear at tonight's Fag You club! It is made out of an old dog's blanket."

Here's a picture of her later on at the club (she's in the top one).

Apparently Club Fag You's motto is "Nice boys don't wear cha cha heels!"

Now I want to be young and Finnish.

Mid Beacon Hill

OK, finally, here are some shots of the houses around my neighborhood, Mid Beacon Hill. They're mostly modest older homes, some of which have been well-maintained but have fallen victim to questionable aesthetic decisions by different homeowners over the years. And there's too much chain-link fence (which I sometimes refer to as "CLF") for my taste. But there are some well-kept yards, so that's nice. Anyway, you're about to see for yourself.

FYI -- My own house isn't included because we're actively trying (weeds were pulled and ancient concrete was sledgehammered this weekend). We've planted lots and lots of things, and now we need to plan out some hardscaping. We're working on the front of our house this year, I promise.

Lots of photos and a few comments follow.



The lovely woman who lives here does a lovely job keeping up her flowers.



Here's a vertigo-inducing shot of her planting bed.



I like the way these trees are sculpted.











This house almost burned down last August. Nine fire trucks came.



Looks like the remodel/rebuild is almost done.



I love the huge flat-topped boulders in this yard.



What a coincidence that so many VW bus owners park on this street!





I like that pine.









They have one of those garden-hose-coiler-uppers. We need to figure out what to do with our garden hose.



















I have more pictures, but they all look like what you've just seen. This is my little neighborhood. It's not very exciting, and there are too few eccentrics. Next time I'll walk down toward the supposedly haunted old Comet Lodge Cemetery.