In the northern hemisphere of the third planet, watery world, orbiting a yellow dwarf star is a country called America. On the northwest shore of the northwest state* is a city called Seattle In the city are many lakes, over the lakes run many bridges. Under one of those bridges, under a road called Aurora, under a suburb called Fremont lives a Troll.
* ignoring Alaska because it isn't connected to the rest
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| The troll under the bridge |
The troll is perpetually crushing a real Volkswagen Beetle after a wizard turned him to cement and it has been on my list of things to draw for a long time. It was a beautiful day but that made the sketching a little hard. I was sat in the sun and my eyes really struggled to see the troll in the dark and with light coming from both sides of the bridge the shadows were a good challenge.
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| flowers on a sunny day |
The troll is a big tourist attraction, which is almost as bizarre as a wall covered in peoples' gum being a tourist attraction, but this IS Seattle! Whilst I was sat sketching the troll had many attendants, ten to twenty at a time, taking a quick photo, climbing over his petrified form, and jumping back in the car to see the next thing.
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| Across the Fremont Cut |
On the way home I stopped by Gas Works Park. Gas Works Park, as its creative name suggests, is the remains of a gas works, specifically the only preserved remains of a coal gasification plant left in the US. It sits on the lake Union shore and has great views of Downtown Seattle. It also features kite (flying) hill which was still closed, after maintenance, when I visited so the grass could re-establish. There are always concerns that there are organic chemicals, like benzene, leaching into Lake Union but its hard to establish that for definite. Gas Works Park is also the location for the paint ball scene from "10 things I hate about you", one of my favourite teen chick flicks, let's face it still a favourite. In fact the troll also features in that movie.
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| Looking across to Downtown Seattle, kite hill on the right |
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| Remaining chimneys and tanks of gas works |
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| Sparrow on the rusting ribs of the structure |
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| Across Lake Union |
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| A busy day on Lake Union |
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| Space Needle! |
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| Float plane on the move |
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| Float plane coming home |
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| All these exciting pipes have been turned into a play barn and picnic area |
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| A few more pipes |
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| Bridges upon bridges |
On Sunday I took part in the 'Take Steps' walk for Crohns and Colitis at my local park. In contrast to the Diabetes walk I took part in last autumn there were many Benaroya people walking however somehow I managed to loose all of them at the starting line so I walked alone. This time I got a 'BRIng it on' T-shirt so it wasn't a total loss and more importantly we raised a little money for a good cause and supported some of the people we are trying to help with our research and who help us with research through donating to our biobank.
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| The starting line |
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| Lots of different people took part |
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| Mt. Rainier has been out a lot recently |
Coming soon... Trips to the Kubota Gardens, Seward Park, and the San Juan Islands (or at least one of them).
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