Okay, One Last Post as I Head Out the Door
April 2, 2013
I carried my camera with me as I ran some last-minute errands this morning. I wasn’t planning on doing another post today, but I want to show you what I am leaving behind for one month. (Am I crazy for taking a vacation in April when it is so beautiful here??) I’m consoling myself, knowing I can look back at this blog post from the road whenever I feel homesick.
Tree Watching: A Tree in the Sidewalk
June 9, 2012
Tree Watching: Time of the Falling Maple Flowers
April 28, 2012
I checked on my “adopted” maple trees this morning. The maple leaves are getting larger, and the trees’ flowers are dropping and littering the sidewalks like green snow. I love the dappled green light under the trees.
“Cities have always offered anonymity, variety, and conjunction, qualities best basked in by walking: one does not have to go into the bakery or the fortune-teller’s, only to know that one might. A city always contains more than any inhabitant can know, and a great city always makes the unknown and the possible spurs to the imagination.”
— Rebecca Solnit, A History of Walking
Today I attended a workshop at the Seattle Public Library downtown, and I decided I would walk from my house. It’s only 5-1/2 miles, but I had never before walked downtown to work. I chose a direct route down Eastlake Avenue, which parallels the east shore of Lake Union. The street does not run right along the water, but I got brief views at each intersection, where I could see down to the lake. It was a clear, sunny day, but I walked on the shady side of the street and did not get too hot.
Here are some of the things I saw along the way:

I kept passing these sidewalk plaques on Eastlake Ave E. They showed various microorganisms native to Lake Union. I learned later that they are the creation of artist Stacy Levy.

"The Vessel" by Ed Carpenter, a sculpture at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, South Lake Union

One of the figures from Akio Takamon's "Three Women" sculpture outside Whole Foods Market, South Lake Union
I arrived downtown after walking two hours. I had an hour before my workshop started, so I decided to check out the Chihuly glass installations in public locations in downtown Seattle.

Persian glass installation by Dale Chihuly, on the mezzanine of the City Centre building on 5th Avenue
All too soon, it was time to report to work at the library.