Ell Alley: 2020

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Christmas 2020

In the evening on December 23, we watched the 1954 film White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye & Rosemary Clooney. Rusty set up his silver, fiber optic tree. Jordan decorated the Norfolk Island Pine that is usually just a houseplant. It was foggy & frosty in the morning on Christmas Eve. The temperature was 30. That evening, we watched The Christmas Chronicles 2 with Kurt Russell & Goldie Hahn. It wasn't as nearly as good as Christmas Chronicles 1. We were disappointed. The low temperature that day was 28 & the high was 44. On Christmas Day, Rusty made waffles & scrambled eggs for breakfast. We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was still enjoyable after all these years. We opened gifts. Rusty & Steve got clothes. Jordan got a pillow, maple sugar candy & pencils. We all got a small table to use while sitting in a chair. It was slightly overcast that morning, cloudy & dark that afternoon. It rained heavily that evening. The low temperature was 35 & the high was 50.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

October Garden 2020

Festuca ovina 'Beyond Blue' (Sheep Fescue) & Dorycnium hirsutum (Hairy Canary Clover)

Mystery mushrooms: As I was standing on the sidewalk one day in October, a man asked me if these mushrooms were edible. I said, "I have no idea what they are." He replied, "Don't eat them!" I don't know where they came from. They just started growing there, possibly from spores in the compost.

Rubus parviflorus (Thumbleberry)

Mahonia repens (Creeping Mahonia)

Viola tricolor (Johnny-jump-up)

Hebe 'Red Edge'

Fatshedera lizei 'Aureo Maculata'

The garden in October was wet, but not as wet as normal. Even as the leaves of deciduous plants turned color & fell to the ground, evergreen plants put on new growth. Total rainfall was 2.56 inches, 0.92 inches below normal. It rained at least 0.01 inches on 11 days, 0.10 inches on 5 days & 0.5 inches on 3 days. The most rain (2.19 inches) fell on October 9 through 13. The average maximum temperature was 60.2 degrees, 0.5 degrees above normal. The mean temperature was 54.3 degrees, 1.5 degrees above normal.

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Smoke for 8 Days September 2020

We had significant smoke for 8 days: September 10-17. It got worse & worse from September 10 to 15. We kept our windows closed & stayed inside. Then on Wednesday September 16, the air in Seattle improved from “Very Unhealthy” to “Unhealthy”. At 10 PM, the temperature outside was 66, but inside our house it was 82. On Friday September 18, it rained 0.29 inches & the high temperature was 66. The air in Seattle improved from “Unhealthy” (past “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”) to “Moderate”. We opened all our windows & let the cool air in. The indoor temperature dropped from 80 to 72. It was a huge relief. On Saturday morning, the air was “Good”.

Sunday, September 6, 2020

August Garden 2020

Pacific coast native Iris hybrid

Hypericum hybrid (St John's Wort)

Maianthemum racemosum (False Solomon's Seal)

Mahonia repens (Creeping Oregon Grape)

Paeonia mascula (Balkan Peony)

The garden in August was dry with some fruits, few flowers & browning leaves. The irrigation schedule was every 5 or 6 days depending on the temperature. At 67.9, the average monthly temperature was 1.8 degrees below normal. At 0.31 inches, total rainfall was 0.57 inches below normal. The most rain on any day was 0.11 inches on 8/21. The highest temperature was 98 on 8/16. The next highest was 88 degrees on 2 days. The lowest high was 69 on 8/8. The lowest low was 51 on 8/30. There were 12 days with lows of 51 to 56 degrees.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

July Garden 2020

Spiraea douglasii (Hardhack)

Kniphofia 'Alcazar' (Torch Lily)

Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' & Erigeron speciosus (Showy Fleabane)

Sidewalk Garden

Native Meadow

The garden in July was disappointing. There was only 0.17 inches of rain. Average rainfall is 0.70 inches. Last July the garden got 1.15 inches. Irrigation can't compete with adequate rainfall. The garden started turning brown earlier than usual. Flowers were smaller & less profuse. At 76.8 degrees, the average maximum temperature was 1 degree higher than normal. Perhaps it's the new normal. The highest temperature was 94 on July 27. The lowest was 54 on July 14.

Saturday, July 4, 2020

June Garden 2020

Erythranthe cardinalis (Scarlet Monkeyflower) & Erigeron peregrinus (Wandering Daisy)

Potted plants near the front door

Lilium 'Yellow Whoppers' (Asiatic Lily)

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow)

Hypericum hybrid (St John's Wort)

June 2020 was warmer & wetter than normal. The mean temperature was 61.8, 0.9 degrees above normal. The highest temperature was 85 on 6/23. The lowest was 49 on 6/14. Total precipitation was 2.28 inches, 0.71 inches more than normal. However, there was a gap between 6/16 & 6/26 when it rained only 0.04 inches. Plants slowed their growth & some began to wither. More than an inch (1.03) fell during the last 4 days of the month.

Friday, June 12, 2020

May Garden 2020

Fragaria vesca (Wild Strawberry)

Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' (China Rose)

Camassia quamash (Common Camas)

Rubus parviflorus (Thimbleberry)

Clematis alpina 'Stolwijk Gold' (Alpine Clematis)

Camassia leichtlinii 'Alba' (White Great Camas)

Erythranthe guttata (Yellow Monkeyflower)

The garden in May was spectacular! May is always the month when the greatest number of flowers are in bloom. The average high temperature was 68. The average low was 50.5. Both were more than 3 degrees higher than normal. The highest temperature was 87 on May 10. The lowest was 39 on May 4. Total rainfall was 3.12 inches. That was 1.18 inches more than normal. Warmer temperatures & more water contributed to making the garden more abundant in foliage & flower.

Friday, May 1, 2020

April Garden 2020

Polystichum munitum (Western Sword Fern)

Viola tricolor (Johnny Jump Up)

Camassia leichtlinii (Great Camas)

Tellima grandiflora (Fringe Cup)

Pacific Coast Native Iris hybrid

Paeonia mascula (Balkan Peony)

April 2020 was warmer & drier than normal. The average monthly temperature was 52.3. That was 2 degrees above normal. The highest temperature was 71 on 4/17. The lowest was 35 of 4/4. Total rainfall was 1.70 inches, 1.01 inches below normal. There were 8 days with rain, 7 days with clear skies, 16 with partly cloudy skies & 7 days with cloudy skies. Spring really took hold in the middle of the month with temperatures of 66-70-71 on April 15-16-17. Many flowers opened & foliage dramatically expanded then.

Sunday, April 5, 2020

March Garden 2020

Ribes sanguineum 'White Icicle' (Flowering Currant)

Veronica 'Georgia Blue'

Euphorbia myrsinites (Myrtle Spurge)

Anemone blanda (Grecian Windflower)

Helleborus x hybridus (Hellebore) March 2020

The garden in March was damp yet encouraging as plants flowered & shoots pushed up from the ground. Hellebores had been blooming for more than a month. The average temperature was 44.8. That was 1.7 degrees cooler than normal. Total rainfall was 3.17 inches. That was 0.55 inches less than normal. It rained a significant amount on 11 days & a small amount on 15 more. The skies were mostly clear on 6 days. There were 2 days when the temperature dropped to freezing at 32 degrees. It was wet & gloomy as it often is in March. The highest temperature was 62 on March 20. The average high was 51. The average low was 38.

About Ell Alley

Ell Alley is the home of Jetta, Jordan, Kitty, Rusty, Steve & Toby. It is named for the alley beside & behind the house that forms an ell: the shape of the letter L. It is located in the Rainier Vista development, in the Rainier Valley of Seattle, which extends 7 miles southeast from Downtown Seattle to Rainier Beach, between Beacon Hill & the lakeside ridges of Mt Baker, Lakewood & Seward Park. Ell Alley is 4 miles from Downtown Seattle, 0.4 miles from the Columbia City Station & 0.7 miles from the center of the Columbia City Landmark District.

Rainier Valley History

The first settlers arrived in the 1850s, but settlement was slow until the forest was cut down & milled, as it was throughout the city. Developers bought logged-off land toward the end of the 19th century. They laid out the communities of Genesee, Columbia City, Hillman City, Brighton & Dunlap.

Cheap land in the valley, just outside the City of Seattle, attracted Italians of rural origins & they planted large, productive gardens. The north end of the Rainier Valley became known as Garlic Gulch. Japanese immigrants also had farms in the valley. The produce filled local markets including Pike Place.

The Rainier Avenue Electric Railway opened the valley to greater development, reaching Columbia City in 1891 & Renton in 1896. In 1907, the City of Seattle annexed most of southeast Seattle, including the Rainier Valley.

At the start of World War II, Japanese residents were forced into internment camps east of the mountains. Tens of thousands of war workers came to Seattle to work at the Boeing Company, the shipyards & the port. The US government constructed thousands of temporary housing units at Rainier Vista, Stadium Homes (now Mt Baker Village) & Holly Park in the Rainier Valley.

After the war, the temporary housing became public, low-income housing. Suburban development took many white residents away from the valley. Blacks moved into the Rainier Valley from the over-crowded, nearby Central Area. Interracial couples found acceptance here. Filipinos arrived in large numbers.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees came from southeast Asia: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Lao & Mien peoples. Many settled in the Rainier Valley. Chinese continued to arrive, although most settled on nearby Beacon Hill. There was a small influx of Mexicans. Somali immigration began after US involvement in Somalia in 1992.

Work on new housing at NewHolly (formerly Holly Park) began in 1997 & continued for a decade, with 1400 units sold to private owners. The rebuilding of Rainier Vista began in 2003 & still continues. Columbia City rapidly gentrified starting in the late 1990s. Many units of new housing were built in the form of townhouses, condos & apartments.

The current population of the Rainier Valley is about 41,000. The racial breakdown is 34.1% Asian, 26.9% Caucasian, 26% African American, 1.6% Pacific Islander, 6.5% Mixed Race, 1% Native American and 3.4% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race are 7.2% of the population.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.

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