The dreadful secret that you have been harboring for the past three or more years - you are sick and tired of perennials - can see the light of day now. More and more articles are appearing that indicate your secret is shared by many dedicated gardeners.Sales figures for nurseries show a steady decline for their perennial plant products. Some, but certainly not all, garden writers are expanding their fields of vision and writing passionately about trees and shrubs. More sophisticated gardening journals have reduced the number of articles on designing borders, and increased their attention to a broader range of gardening topics.Finally, the realities of the work involved in creating and maintaining the perfect herbaceous perennial border are being examined more closely.
With the Super Bowl, Olympic Winter Games, Sonics and more this month - interest in spectator sports seems to be at an all-time high.With more than 70 percent of Americans not regularly physically active (according to the National Center for Health Statistics), interest in actually participating in sports or exercise seems to be at an all-time low. We are all familiar with the old saying, "use it or lose it," referring primarily to exercising the muscles of our body - I admit, I say this all the time when I am training clients. And yet I wonder how many of us take it seriously or fully realize its importance.
We begin with the bottom line: If someone is proposing to show you 10 Alfred Hitchcock movies and the list doesn't include "Juno and the Paycock" and "The Skin Game," it's a good offer.Owing to renovation work getting under way at the downtown Seattle Art Museum (SAM), Greg Olson's quarterly film series for SAM has set up shop in exile at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), 2700 24th Ave. E. That's, well, dislocating, and perhaps seeking the filmic equivalent of comfort food, Olson has programmed a slate by the master - not only of suspense, but also of the cinematic art. Lucid and beguiling, rigorous yet playful, filled with unsettling juxtapositions and rapturously sustained camera movements, Hitchcock's work has everything to instruct the avid student (including most practicing filmmakers) and enthrall the viewer.
Madrona's Spectrum Dance Theater has one very firm mission statement: "To make dance accessible, without limitations, to the community." Since 1982, it has satisfied this commitment through the contemporary dance performances at its theater and high-quality dance training. Starting Feb. 24, Spectrum will bring members of the community closer than ever before into the world of dance with the presentation of its Studio Series.Spectrum Dance Theater is taking a break from the high-budget production and extensive preparation that came along with its recent production of "Sleeping Beauty Notebook," which received critical praise in New York and Seattle. Instead, Spectrum is inviting the Seattle community into its studios for a firsthand look into the sometimes inaccessible art of dance.
Are you feeling a little blue now that all of the holiday decorations are put away for another year? You are not alone. Lacking all the sparkle of the holiday ornaments and lights, your home can feel boring, drab and empty. Home décor is often challenging this time of year since our natural light is typically dark and gray. Many people find the dark and gray depressing. Easy, inexpensive ways to bring life into your home are exactly what the doctor ordered. Here are just a few suggestions that will liven up your home during the winter months and beyond.
Venture along McGilvra Boulevard East or north of East Madison Street on 42nd Avenue East, and you'll see more two-story houses that take up the width of the lot and fewer of the small, one-story cottages that once were the norm. These newer houses - which include "zero lot lines" (houses built with no space between them and little or no yard) - are a sign of Madison Park's evolution into one of Seattle's urban neighborhoods.The transformation is being fueled by an increasing demand for housing in Seattle. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently reported that the median price of a single-family house had climbed to $390,150 in 2005, a jump of 13.1 percent more than the previous year's price of $345,000.
Have you conjugated a word lately?We were having a conversation the other day, an elders' mourning session actually, about "English as she is spoke" and the unique use of tenses and numbers that have become standard modern English. In the course of reciting a long list of pet peeves, someone asked about "conjugating."Everyone remembered what it was, but for some reason, they hadn't indulged in conjugating nor had they given much thought to "parsing."If you should try to explain the words to your grandchildren, they would say that that just proved school in the olden days was really weird.
It was time to move from the sixth grade at J.J. McGilvra Elementary School to the seventh grade at Edmond Meany Junior High School at John Street and 22nd Avenue. Meany was a three-story, wood building at that time, very old and rich with character. We met many new friends from Capitol Hill. Games galoreOne Saturday a couple of friends and I joined some schoolmates on the No. 11 Madison bus for our ritual adventure downtown. The bus let us off at Third Avenue and Union Street, just a few doors north of the Embassy Theater, and we walked to First Avenue, where there was a penny arcade about a block long. There were endless games to play - most for a penny, some for as much as a dime! Among the games was a contraption with two viewing areas, one for each eye. We pooled our funds , and each of us shared an eye fitting. We took turns turning the big handle, as scenes of a young lady flickered by. As it became a little more interesting, the movie would end. After several coins and a mild case of eyestrain, we adjusted to the fact that there was to be no satisfaction with this and had ourselves a good laugh.
The Friends of Madison Park group had its first community meeting on Jan. 12 to discuss early design concepts for the Madison Park play facilities, which is targeted to break ground in early February 2007. Amid the small chairs, children's books and climbing toys at the Madison Park Bathhouse (which doubles as the Madison Park Co-Op Preschool), parents and children were given a first look into the future of their favorite summer locale.
Tully's Coffee is kicking off its Madison Park community art program by featuring some young artists who are well-known to the neighborhood: Frani Carlson's pre-schoolers.Her preschoolers' giant paper pumpkins, shamrocks and hearts have adorned a growing list of more than 80 storefronts from Madison Park to as far away as the Arboretum Court for more than 25 years' worth of holidays.Now, the framed hearts of red, magenta and pink are on collective display through February at Tully's, 4036 E. Madison St."It's a cute idea," Carlson said, "to try to give students a sense of community.... Past and present children [from her preschool] will get a kick out of it."
Kirkland's ubiquitous Triple J Café - a Central Way/Lake Washington Boulevard icon since 1991 - has changed hands and is being remodeled, upgraded to a full-service eatery and will feature a martini bar on the lower level. (Yes, there's a lower level.)Brit-cum-Aussie Jonathan Sharp, who spent the past 10 years as a chef in France, purchased the corner café on Nov. 15 along with his brother and parents, who are "living out a dream of owning a family restaurant," according to father Alan Sharp.The Sharp family immigrated to Australia from the United Kingdom in 1977 and since scattered throughout the world. Alan and his wife moved here two years ago; brother Drew, who is with Microsoft, moved here five years ago; and Jonathan, who has 20 years tucked away in the chef business, spend the last 10 working on boats cruising the Loire in the summer and running a restaurant catering business in the Alps in the winter. He moved here in September, prior to the sale negotiations, which took only two months.
While it may come as no big surprise that a local chamber of commerce would support its local school district, it is important to note that businesses throughout Washington are joining the call for education reform and improvements.Often times support for education has been left to the teachers unions and/or the local parent-teacher associations. However, times are changing and businesses are recognizing that their success will be dependent on the skills that our future workforce and entrepreneurs gain in the classroom. To quote the Washington Competitiveness Council: "The success of companies, industries and states increasingly depends on an educated, flexible workforce, their access to new technology and their ability to rapidly innovate." The Kirkland chamber board endorsed the three Lake Washington School District levies that will be on the ballot on Feb. 7; however, the board also recognized that simply throwing money at the school system is not enough.Businesses need to take an active role in our education system by investing time and talent in making sure that the next generation has the opportunity to learn from our successes and failures.
Eight days before Christmas, Melinda Johnston and her 12- and 15-year old boys drove 20 hours to her parents' house in Loveland, Colo. After a brief stay, Johnston - a single mother and leader of a team of Kirkland Web developers - left her kids with their grandparents and hopped a plane to Buloxi, Miss. From there it was to Gulfport, where the Hurricane Katrina clean-up effort is still in full swing."You just had to get down there to help somebody," says Johnston, who made her decision around Thanksgiving to spend five days in the Gulf Coast. "I went down there thinking, 'It's been four months - how much could there be to do?' But trash is everywhere. It's hard to imagine how long it'll take to get it all out."
After nearly 30 years of attempts, the gay-rights bill may pass this year, thanks to a change of heart by 45th District Sen. Bill Finkbeiner. The House of Representatives passed the bill last year, as it has for the previous dozen years, but the measure lost in the senate by one vote, and Finkbeiner was among those who voted against it.The House again approved the bill in mid-January this year, but whether a yes vote by Finkbeiner made a difference in the Senate was unknown at the Courier's press deadline. But Finkbeiner, a Republican whose district includes Kirkland, said he thought there was a good chance the bill would pass.The bill would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation the same way the state's Civil Rights Act bans discrimination based on race, sex and religion.Finkbeiner said he changed his mind about the issue in the last six months after discussions with people who convinced him that there was discrimination in Washington against gays and lesbians.
Two eighth-grade girls from Rose Hill Junior High School were hit by a car and seriously injured in January while they were crossing Northeast 70th Street at 120th Avenue Northeast. According to police, the driver of the car, a 78-year-old woman, was not at fault.But the accident highlights a long-running concern about the safety of streets for children in the South Rose Hill and Bridle Trails neighborhoods, according to Deirdre DeWan Johnson, a co-president of the Rose Hill Elementary School PTA.