Archives for April 2010

Community Garden is a GO

April 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Sprout!There have been plans for some time now for a community garden at the north end of the big field at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center. There have also been meetings. And one pancake breakfast in a downpour. But no ground breaking and no planting.

That is, until next week. IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!

Seattle Parks and Recreation has given the project a green light for sod busting (Thursday, May 5) and raised bed building (Saturday, May 8).

The approval coming this week allows the raised bed building party to take place on Saturday, May 8, the same day as the city-wide SPRING INTO BED celebration. Find out more about SPRING INTO BED here.

For more information on how to participate in your (yes, YOUR) community garden, contact me (rebecca [at] ravennablog.com) and I’ll pass along the contact information.

Filed Under: Events, Seattle Parks and Recreation

Busy Weekend – Athletic Edition

April 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment

UWA few UW events in the area you might be interested in/affected by, traffic-wise and Dawg fan-wise:

Friday, April 30 – Friday Night Lights, the first spring night game for the Husky football team starts at 6:30pm. And it’s free!

The format (out just a coupla hours ago) will be the one offense and two defense against the one defense and two offense. This should make sense to those of you who know about such things.

There’s also some stuff for kids (13 and under) on the East Practice Field, adjacent to the stadium. The Husky Kids’ Zone opens at 5:30 with free food and beverages and “a number of football-related activities.”

Saturday, May 1 – The Opening Day of Boating and the 2010 Windermere Cup

If you want to see the racing, be at the Montlake Cut by 10:05, the start of the Dragon Boat Exhibition Race.

He won, OF COURSE.If you’re just in it for the parade, line the cut by 11:45 to see the crews make their way back through, followed by the decorated boats.  The theme this year is Out of This World, which might not stop the Bremerton Yacht Club from busting out Elvis again. Elvis is good with everything.

More info about the parade than you’d ever be able to read available in pdf form at the Seattle Yacht Club website, HERE.

TRAFFIC TRAFFIC TRAFFIC

Friday: More than usual in the Husky Stadium area in the PM. Nothing on the scale of a regular Saturday game in the fall.

Saturday: Oy. Montlake Bridge CLOSED from 10am-4pm.  Also, the 520 ramps in the Montlake Bridge vicinity also CLOSED at those times. And if you are visiting friends in the area, good luck finding street parking!

EXTRA: I also want to mention that the Husky Baseball team is playing Stanford at Safeco Field on Saturday, May 1 at 6:30pm. Home plate gates open at 5:00pm, free trading cards for first 1,000 kids AND kids get to race around the bases after the game. You do need to purchase tickets for this one, though.

Thank you to Katie Silva at UW Intercollegiate Athletics for the baseball and tackleball info. And to the WSDOT for the traffic stuff.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

Feels Like Ravenna To Me

April 23, 2010 by 1 Comment

Ahhh, that's my neighborhood.

Some neighborhoods in Seattle have a very strong sense of place.  I say FREMONT, and you may think of trolls and Lenin statues. I say U-DISTRICT, and you think of 27 Thai restaurants next to 75 Indian restaurants and lots of college students. PIONEER SQUARE = Pergola, Elliott Bay Book Company and panhandlers.

But when I say RAVENNA, what do you think of?

Today, I’m standing in my parking strip, tearing out ivy, making room for sunflowers and corn, when my across-the-street neighbor walks over. She offers up her extra composted cow manure and her wheelbarrow to cart it over with, and I hand over a jar of icky crawly grubs my son and I have collected as treats for her chickens.

My Ravenna: Cow manure and squirming grubs. And good neighbors.

What’s your RAVENNA?

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

Mission Statements

April 13, 2010 by 4 Comments

ARRRRRRROne of my goals with the Ravenna Blog is to keep things as local to Ravenna as possible.

[However, if I see President Obama walking down 15th Avenue NE eating frozen custard from Peaks, and I’m across the street (hopefully with my camera), heck YES, I’m going to write a post about that.]

There are a number of other NE Seattle blogs that can keep you and yours updated on the doings and transpirings of the greater NE Seattle area. Most of them also have Facebook and Twitter accounts, too.

The Seattle P-I has a reader blog for North Seattle that anyone can write posts for.

KOMO TV has started their own “communities” pages. Northeast Seattle is currently represented by Green Lake KOMO, Lake City KOMO, North Seattle KOMO, University District KOMO, and View Ridge KOMO. And, apparently, they’re all on Facebook AND Twitter, too. Gotta hand it to that Kathi Goertzen for putting all that together. [I kid. It was really Dan Lewis.]

The Seattle Times has partnered with various blogs across the city to create the Seattle Networked News Initiative. I really like the Team Effort Journalism idea, but Northeast Seattle has no coverage in it whatsoever. Here’s a link to the description of the project, which also includes contact information.

I’m sure I’ve missed stuff (Crosscut?). Do let me know what it was, and I’ll update my list and blogroll.

I’m also not going to post something every day.  For one, this ain’t Capitol Hill, or the U District. Things are a little quieter up here. For two, I want to stay excited about this little project and focus on churning out quality interesting stuff. I’m sure you want that, too. And, for three, it’s just me typing this thing. I’ve only got so many hands!

Lastly — for SURELY, this post has gone on long enough — I can only find so much fuel for this blog with my own eyes and ears. Ravenna Blog needs YOU.

Please contact me (rebecca [at] ravennablog.com) if you have news to share, neighborhood questions to ask, events to take part in, plants you’ve dug up and don’t want anymore,…whatever.

I look forward to serving you, dear reader, and the rest of Ravenna as best I can.

Filed Under: Events, metablog

All a twitter

April 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Yes, yes, we’re on twitter now, too.

twitter.com/RavennaBlog

Don’t ever worry about us cloggin’ up yer feed. I’m thinking three tweets a day, TOPS, and usually to just plug a new post on the site.

Now, are there any other social networking and/or microblogging media we’re missing?

Filed Under: metablog

2010 Husky Football Schedule (home games)

April 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

No times listed yet, but you still might want to get the home game days on your calendar: Who doesn’t love Husky game traffic?!

UW

  • September 11 – SYRACUSE
  • September 18 – NEBRASKA
  • October 9 – ARIZONA STATE
  • October 16 – OREGON STATE
  • October 30 – STANFORD
  • November 13 – UCLA

Full schedule here.

And, if you happen to be new ’round these parts, the City of Seattle has a Husky Stadium Football Game Day Traffic Information page. But I would say that the biggest effect on our local traffic is the last point:

  • At the conclusion of the game, NE 25th Street between Montlake Blvd NE and NE 75th Street becomes one-way northbound for approximately two hours.

Well, that and all the people sneaking up the side streets trying to get to 75th.

Anyway.  GO DAWGS.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

Ravenna Blog — now on facebook

April 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment

ARRRRRRRWhat can I say? All the other kids were doing it.

Be a fan, won’t you?

Filed Under: metablog

Restaurant Inspection Round-Up Resurrection

April 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

Remy!I did this feature for a while on the now-deceased Ravenna Nation blog, and I kinda miss it.

Here’s a couple of recent-ish local restaurant inspections:

  • PAIR (March 18) – Proper Consumer Advisory not posted for raw or undercooked foods, inadequate equipment for temperature control, and improper cooling procedures
  • SUBWAY 7347 35th Av Ne (February 25) – In-use utensils improperly stored

Can’t speak for the SUBWAY as I’ve never eaten there, but I’d still take PAIR over them ANY DAY.

Here’s the homepage for King County’s Food Protection Program, should you want to use your facebooking time in a more constructive way.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

FREE irises to a good home

April 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

Actual iris may or may not look like this.During my latest attempt at making my backyard more a produce section, I have dug up a bunch of irises that I have no other home for.

YOU want ’em? Free delivery and everything!

Not quite sure how many I have…around 15?  Some clumps of the rhizomes may have a few other plants attached — some lilies of the valley, a bit of a fern — and I can’t say I did a careful job extracting them, but, hey, they’re FREE.

First come, first serve. Just email me at rebecca (at) ravennablog.com.

UPDATE: Thank you to Greenwood Kim for offering to give them a good home.

Filed Under: Updates

Compost Days are NIGH.

April 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The GOODSDid you get your Seattle Public Utilities CurbWaste & Conserve Newsletter in the mail this week, like I did?

And did you flip right to the back to see what FREE STUFF you get this season, like I did?

Here’s the goods, and how to get them:

Makes sense that Cedar Grove passes along some free compost to SPU users — it’s where all our food waste ends up. Here’s a video tour of the Cedar Grove Compost facility in Everett.

KEEP IT UP, SEATTLE. I’d like four free bags next year.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts
Next Page »