Ell Alley: July 2014

Monday, July 28, 2014

New Neighbors

December 2013

February 2014

June 2014

The last building in our development was completed across the alley from us at the end of June 2014 & new neighbors moved in shortly thereafter. This building of 3 townhouses is exactly the same as the one next to it, except that it is painted slightly differently: tan where the other is white & white where the other is tan. Construction started soon after we moved into our building in November 2013. The couple in the unit directly across from us had 2 large parties within the 1st few weeks. The couple who live in the middle unit are American & Canadian. The Canadian lives in Vancouver most of the year, but is here for the summer.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

July Sunset

The sunset from our garden on the alley.

Our house in July 2014.

We saw this extravagant display through the dining room window while we were watching TV one night. We all went outside to take pictures. It was during the mid-July heat wave of 84 to 90 degrees for 7 days. At that point, it was 6 degrees above the normal average temperature for the month of July.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

June Garden

Delphinium nuttallii (Larkspur) in the native meadow.

Penstemon serrulatus in the native meadow.

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow) in the native meadow.

Stachys cooleyae (Hedge Nettle) in the native meadow.

Hemerocallis 'Bela Lugosi' (Daylily) in the patio garden,

Erigeron speciosus (Showy Fleabane) & Erigeron glaucus (Beach Aster) next to the garage.

The native forest garden.

The garden was even more impressive in June, than in May. Sand strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) & woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) spread by runners to cover much of the bare ground. Showy fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) & beach aster (Erigeron glaucus) bloomed abundantly in the native meadow, while the yarrow (Achillea millefolium) & hedge nettle (Stachys cooleyae) grew tall. It was constant amazement & delight. Jordan began regular weekly watering. He set up soaker hoses in some locations & used sprinklers in others. Rusty & Steve brought rocks & moss-covered branches & logs back from the campground. We sat out on the patio in the evenings watching the planes descend over Beacon Hill toward SeaTac International Airport.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Seattle Pride 2014

Capitol Hill Pride Festival

Rusty at Samurai Noodle on Broadway

Steve on Broadway

Rainbow flag atop the Space Needle

PrideFest at the Seattle Center

Rusty & Steve at the Seattle Center

PrideFest at the Seattle Center

Click here for more photos of Seattle Pride 2014.

The last weekend in June was Gay Pride weekend, the 40th Gay Pride celebration in Seattle. We went to the Trans Pride Festival on Friday night at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. On Saturday, we went to the Capitol Hill Pride Festival on Broadway, which was closed from E John Street to E Roy Street & filled with booths & people. It was mostly a commercial event for the businesses there. On Sunday, we went to the PrideFest at the Seattle Center. We caught the tail end of the Gay Pride Parade on 4th Avenue at Seattle Center. There was a huge crowd. The booths were mostly groups related to the LGBTQ community, plus food vendors. There were several stages with music. It was a very festive atmosphere with people dressed in rainbow colors & some completely nude.

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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