Free Wine Tastings and a New Neighborhood Winery OPEN HOUSE

August 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The Ravenna McCarthy & Schiering Wine Merchants (6500 Ravenna Ave NE) usually has free tastings on Saturdays, and this weekend is no exception.  From 11am-5pm they are sampling seven different varieties of 2008 Oregon Pinot Noirs. See the full selection here, at their weekly news page.

Now, a local free tasting of seven different Pinot Noirs is pretty great news. But the other wine event today promoted on the McC&S site is pretty darn fantastic, too.

There’s a WINERY opening in the Roosevelt/Ravenna neighborhood! And they have an open house today AND next Saturday, also from 11am-5pm.

Eight Bells Winery, in the heart of the audio/visual area of Roosevelt

Eight Bells Winery (6213B Roosevelt Way NE; 8bellswinery.com) is jointly owned and operated by three guys (Tim Bates, Andy Shepherd and Frank Michiels), one of whom (Tim) has been making wine on his own since 1980. Andy joined him in 1996, and Frank completed the trio in 2006 (came to watch, ended up fermenting 100 pounds of grapes in his own kitchen for the cause).  Read more about them on the Eight Bells Winery About Us page.

They do ask that you RSVP if you plan on attending either open house (rsvp [at] 8bellswinery.com).

Eight Bells will have samples of their Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Tempranillo (all 2009) for tasting and sales (read more about these wines here).

Also on display and for sale during the Eight Bells Winery open houses are paintings by Seattle artists Patty Ryan, Rita Marlowe, and Susan Hamilton. Read about these artists and see samples of their work on Eight Bells’ art page.

If those links aren’t enough, Eight Bells also has a facebook page, where you can see some pictures of the new winery’s interior.

Filed Under: Events, Ravenna, Roosevelt Tagged With: , , ,

Last Wednesday’s RBCA Meeting – Agenda, Impressions, Next Steps

August 20, 2010 by 5 Comments

Yours truly made it to a Ravenna-Bryant Community Association meeting at long last! Huge success.

The following is my report to you, the community-at-large, in three parts (which is why this is a Friday post and wasn’t a Thursday post).

Agenda

  • There were two women from the Seattle Department of Transportation present to discuss an upcoming road project (15th Avenue NE Reconstruction + the 22nd/Ravenna Ave/55th “scramble”; all to be covered in a later post).
  • There was an update on the SR 520 project from the Resident Expert on the subject (I seriously think she’s been to every meeting held for that bridge).
  • A charming elder from Sustainable NE Seattle (read his blog here) read a piece he’d written about being old, the history of the downtown Ravenna area (NE 65th St), and changes he sees coming.
  • A fairly distraught foot soldier of the 46th Legistlative District Democrats was there, asking for help before the main election. (Looking back, he could have used a group hug.)
  • Ellen Stoecker, Chair of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association’s Sustainability Group was looking for the RBCA’s support in aligning the RNA’s Urban Village Design Guildlines (2000) with the Draft Citywide Design Guidelines (2010). She got it.
  • Recruiting new board members for 2011, finding issue followers (ex. Sisleyville, 520, Children’s expansion), forming committees around issues as well – just general talk on these
  • Planning for the BIG Fall Community Meeting in October – speakers on three or so topics, a big location (I offered to find that piece), and getting the word out

Impressions

As a member of the hyperlocal, hyper-plugged-in community, I have to say that — up to this point — I’ve found the group very frustrating.  The website’s been stagnant for years. Contact information had lead to dead ends or nothingness. I didn’t even know how many people served on the board until that night (5 officers, 5 at-large). And finding meeting information was merely serendipitous (I spied the about sign at the library last month, the day before July’s meeting).

Now that I’ve been to a meeting, I feel SO MUCH better.  These are passionate people — passionate about their neighborhood, passionate about issues affecting the neighborhood.  But they’ve been at this a while (some for a long while).  Issues come and go, interest wanes, board members get graduate degrees and their time is sucked away…it happens.  I’m certainly not blaming anybody — it’s the nature of the community association beast.

Next Steps

I’m a firm believer in “See a problem? Help fix it.” Some trash on the ground? I’ll pick it up! My new neighborhood doesn’t have a blog? I should start one! My neighborhood’s community association needs some energy? I’ll join up and help supply some!

The next RBCA meeting is September 15, at the NE Branch (6-7:45pm) again (agenda includes more discussion of the BIG Community Meeting in October).  I’m going to be there again. You should join me.

________________

YOUR TURN: What would it take to get YOU more involved in your neighborhood association?

Filed Under: Civic Envolvement, Events, Meeting, Ravenna, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association

Planet:Home – A Sustainable Living Festival, this Saturday

August 18, 2010 by 2 Comments

Did you know that we have one of the best sustainable living resources in the city right here in Northeast Seattle?  Well, now you do! And they’re having a festival this Saturday, chock-full of green learning opportunities.

Sustainable NE Seattle is hosting Planet : Home – A Sustainable Living Festival this Saturday, August 21st, from 10am-5pm at the Hunter Tree Farm (7744 35th Ave NE).

Event description, from the Sustainable NE Seattle website:

Free workshops, speakers, food, live music, demonstrations, hands-on science and art activities for kids! Come learn how you can reduce your environmental footprint and share your experiences in trying to live more sustainably! Learn about solar cooking, bicycle repair (bring your bike!), cheese-making, weatherizing your home, growing your own tea (bring a cup!), sod replacement, worm bins, bee-keeping, tool repair (bring your tools!), edible landscaping, knowledge-sharing with community elders, rain gardens, and much much more. Take home ideas for environmentally-friendly living and maybe win some eco products to help you on your way.

Morning schedule includes:

Afternoon schedule includes:

Cheese making? Fixing your own bike? Live music? FOOD? PRIZES?!

Eh, they had me at “cheese.”

Filed Under: Events, Neighborhoods, Wedgwood Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Northeast Branch Re-Imagining

August 19, 2009 by 1 Comment

Have any holds at the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library?  If so, you have until Sunday, August 22 to pick them up.

As of Monday, August 23, the branch will be closed…until early October. No no, not just closed Labor Day week like the rest of ’em (for fiscal and BBQ reasons), but for MUCH. LONGER.

But FEAR NOT!  The closure is for a good cause (or three):

  • The hold areas are being consolidated and expanded, and moved into the current Teen area.
  • The Teen area is being moved to the northern end of the branch. [Insert joke about teens here.]
  • Two more self-checkout stations are being added.

I first noticed the monstrous piles of materials on hold after last winter’s snows.  I just figured that the books were getting to the library, but patrons weren’t.  Turns out that this branch of a mere 15,000 square feet process more holds than nearly every other branch in the system.  The aforementioned switcheroo refurbishing will make room for all of that.

Yes, I’m sure that the library folks are aware that the branch underwent a doubling of size only five years ago, and now, here were are, already needing to close things down and rework it again. But I imagine that many of us were hitting the bookstores more back then, in the heady economy of the mid-2000s.  *sigh*

Your holds will be transferred to the Lake City Branch during the closure, unless you choose otherwise.  I’m going to switch to the Green Lake Branch and go for more walks.  Or just visit Chocolati a lot, to try and cope with the change. We’ll see.

Filed Under: Construction, Northeast Branch, Northeast Seattle, Open/Closed

Neighborhood 911

October 15, 2008 by 1 Comment

At 6:23 last night, no fewer than 16 fire department units were dispatched to 70th and Ravenna Avenue NE in response to a fire at the multi-unit building on the NW corner of the intersection.

At approximately 8:00 pm, when we were coming home, there were still a couple units at the scene, including a ladder truck parked in the traffic circle.  A brief walk-by by yours truly revealed that the fire was out, many charred pieces of furniture littered the sidewalk, and more pieces were being removed by fire fighters.

Here’s a shot of the scene this morning:

Work has already started on the unit, which I think is a good sign.  As multi-resident buildings go, we’ve often admired this one as it blends in so well with the surrounding neighborhood of single-family homes.

If anyone has any more information on what happened or what anyone can do to help, drop us a tip.

UPDATE: There’s a bit about the fire on the Seattle P-I’s Seattle 911 blog.  No injuries, which is was I was wondering about and hoping for.

Filed Under: 911, Photos, Ravenna, Seattle Fire Department, Updates

Let the sunshine in.

September 30, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Autumn is upon us.  Never mind that it’s supposed to be 80 degrees today, or something.  The trees are turning, there’s lots of football on TV, school is in session; thus, autumn.

Walked to Third Place Books yesterday, after a bit of a hiatus from doing so.  Good timing on my part, as the mural on the outside of the building facing 20th had just started undergoing its extreme makeover:

Much more is gone today.  Two large holes are now visible.  Too bad about the mural, but the windows will be sweeeet.

Filed Under: Businesses, Construction, Photos, Ravenna

Welcome to the Ravenna Blog!

August 8, 2008 by 4 Comments

The goal here is report on the doings and transpirings in Ravenna, a residential neighborhood in northeast Seattle.

Drop us a line if you see anything remotely interesting happening in the area.  As a new blog with no readers, we certainly appreciate any and all help.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts, metablog, Ravenna
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