Independence Day

To be honest I failed to find any Fourth of July events to join in with on Friday. I was told at work that I should be going to a barbecue to celebrate but that didn't happen. I didn't do a lot for most of the day but I did go out to see fireworks at the end of the day. Fireworks are illegal in Washington except for where you have a permit. My local park sits on the edge of lake Washington and I had heard this was a good place to see the organised displays without getting caught up in the traffic. At 9:30pm I left the house and joined the slow flow of traffic down to the lakeside in the blue dusk light. I could already hear the occasional firework bouncing off the surrounding hills.

As I said fireworks are illegal in Seattle but that didn't seem to stop people. There were at least 10 groups letting off small amounts of fireworks all over the park. Clearly the American public hasn't been scared into only going to public shows by decades of 'Fireworks are Dangerous' ads on TV. Nonetheless I enjoyed the firework around the lake. I tried out the fireworks setting on my cheap digital camera, and was quite impressed with how steady the pictures are. There was also one of the big army helicopters flying around towing a star and stripes flag, which was quite cool but I couldn't get a picture of it. So I'll just leave you with my firework photos. 

An American Cathedral

Another Choir of the Sound performance. This time Verdi's Requiem. In St. Marks Cathedral. They brought in four professionals for the soloists, supported by a full orchestra but the parts I liked the most were the full chorus singing. It was glorious.

I'm still slightly bemused by the Cathedral. I haven't been to any modern Cathedrals in the UK so I didn't really know what to expect. It was built in the 30s on one of the highest points of the city and served as an outpost in WWII. It is basically a large cube. The ceiling is wooden and several stories high, then there are just four massive 6ft wide columns standing a little in from each corner of the room. The windows were massive and when we arrived it was full light, so we could appreciate the light they let in. No stained glass. The building was a bit sparse really, I suspect that there are usually banners which had been removed for acoustic purposes, and the echo was lovely. It did have a lovely organ (which we didn't hear but there are pipes all around the building) and also a cool glass installation, with coloured glass arranged to be perpendicular to the window in a large star or sun shape. All in all it lacked the cosy but vast feel of European Cathedrals with the arches and aisles, stained glass and high ceilings.

The top of on of the massive columns in St.Marks Cathedral.

A fuzzy image of the pretty organ

The stained glass window

But the choral singing - that was glorious.

Odds and ends of an overly busy month...

I have to admit I come to the end of June in a state of total disarray, slightly bemused and confused that I have been in Seattle over a year, how did that happen? I can't even remember the last month without some serious prompting from my box of random ticket stubs and leaflets (which I may one day turn into a physical journal of this trip), and my camera and sketchbook.

What have I been doing, lets piece the evidence together...

Evidence number 1: A sketch dated 26th May of Sandpoint UMC.


This evidence seems to suggest I got to church on the 26th of May - that seems like a good start!

This is of the alter at my church. I was listening to the sermon but I can't now remember what it was about now...









Evidence number 2A: A photo of the back of my head taken 1st June!

Evidence number 2B: A flyer...

Both of these bits of evidence remind me that I ended May and started off June singing a Bach Cantata with my church choir. Saturday the 31st was our final rehearsal and Sunday the 1st was our performance. To be honest most of the piece is sung by soloists but as it took us a couple of months to learn chorus parts that is probably a good thing. As well as excellent soloists we also had a host of amazing musicians on period style instruments playing with us. To make life harder for myself after working hard to get the Alto part down I decided to defect and support the Tenors. It was actually quite fun to sing at a lower pitch and restful for my voice, helpfully I had the support of some excellent tenors on the day of the performance otherwise I wouldn't have got it. Why is there a picture of the back of my head? Unfortunately I couldn't find a second mirror so this was just me checking my hair style! This is the single occasion I have had to dress up fancy in Seattle and I don't actually have a photo of my whole out fit, someone at church does I think? There was a recording made of our performance so maybe one day I'll get to hear what we sounded like.

Evidence number 3: A program and a ticket stub [1st June]

On the afternoon of the 1st of June, as if singing Bach wasn't enough for one day, I was invited to a concert by the 'Choir of the Sound'. This is an eighty strong choir of very good singers which has been around since the late 70s (although I suspect the members have changed!). Before the concert I was taken out for Brunch, which was really nice, I had a plate full of fried potato (hash browns) and tomato, bacon, and all sorts of exciting things. The concert was predominantly Jazz but the choir also 'do' church music and have a Christmas concert. This performance featured a number of people doing short solos, selected members of the choir swing (?) dancing, and generally a lot of animation and acting as a part of the crowd, all the music was sung from memory. It was really good and they had obviously worked hard on the couple of hours of music they performed,with several costume changes. Some of the pieces were really fun like 'The Pink Panther' some were just beautiful like 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square'. They also had some special guests join them - search the web for the Baudboys if you enjoy barbershop octets(?) with a twist. So that was a musically diverse weekend and unsurprisingly I didn't get any sketching done.

Evidence number 4: The start of a sketch and more photos [7th June]
Just to show that not all my sketches get finished. This is one I had been planing for a while. A sketch of the Montlake Bridge. I bit off a bit more that I could chew. I walked about 3 and a half miles or more to get to the Montlake Bridge on a lovely sunny day, found myself a bench, noticed the beautiful position of the moon just above my image, and lost enthusiasm. Whilst waiting for the bus home back on campus I took a quick look around the university's medical garden. Which was interesting but would have been more interesting a) on a day I hadn't exhausted my brain cell trying to pretend to be draughtsman and b) with a little more information on what these plants are doing in a medicinal garden.

An unfinished sketch

The photo I took so I can finish the sketch off at some point. 

The University Medical Garden

The University Medical Garden

Evidence number 5: A leaflet and a wrist band. Plus lots of photos - opps I forgot about them [8th June]
This is evidence of my trip to the 'Museum of Flight'. I was invited by one of the  members of the congregation at church. He was a airmen in the second world war and, as he had joint nationality, worked with both the RAF and then later the american forces as a bombardier. He has donated some of his memorabilia to the museum and has been writing memoirs. He is a great teller of tales and shared some of his wartime stories with us as well as organising a tour of the aircraft from both the first and second world wars with us. They have aircraft from lots of different nations fighting on both sides of the war so a lot of the names were forgettable to me.

As an aside the museum of flight has slew of aircraft to represent the history of flight including space travel. It is situated across from Boeing Fields and so is a bit out of the way for someone without a car although I got a lift to it on this occasion. We didn't have time to look around all of it but I look forward to going back.

So here, in roughly historical order, are some of the planes I thought were interesting. Apologies that I really don't remember a lot of the details and that I am very biased and mainly took pictures of the British planes.

This is a prototype plane made by Caproni, one of the first examples of a plane with weaponary.
In this case a rifle (?) with a firing mechanism and an eye of sight so that it could be fired by the pilot.
 I forget when this was made but it didn't catch on so the museum rescued it from a loft in Italy.
Amazingly this is the original cloth. 

This is the skeleton of a Curtis Jenny (USA, WWI and after).
 I like the fact you can see just how fragile the wooden structure is! 

Sopwith Triplane (Britain, WWI). I was told these planes were quite agile
but when others tried to copy the three wing design it didn't work as well. 

A Sopworth Camel (Britain, WWI).
Apparently the most 'successful' allied plane of WWI.
Success here being measured by it's ability to shoot down other aircraft.

An overview of the downstairs (WWII) aircraft. 

I couldn't not take a picture of the Spitfire (Britain, WWII).
Which I have to say is a lot prettier than it's German counterpart (which I failed to photograph)
I guess it was some kind of Messerschmitt which I think is like saying an oak is some kind of tree!

General Motors Wildcat (USA & UK - Navy, WWII)

Goodyear Corsair (USA Navy, WWII).

The hinge holding the wing on the Corsair.

 So the naval planes with the folding wings really got my attention, I had never really considered how you pack aircraft onto a carrier. Obviously, aircraft with folding wings. Folding Wings?!? The Corsair pictured has a particularly interesting history. It was stationed at the naval base which used to exist 10 mins away from where I live and is now Magnuson Park. This plane failed to get home and sat at the bottom of lake Washington for over 30 years! The plane still technically belongs to the navy so despite having been restored to flyable the plane can not be flown because it is only on loan. I started having flash backs to the movie Independence Day at this point in the tour, I imagined the contents of the museum being commandeered to be flown by retired pilots and crop dusters to fight off some alien invasion...

B17 bomber (USA, WWII).
It is something similar to this that the gentleman from
church flew in with the Eighth Air force - eek!

 So having pieced the evidence together it seems I have had a fairly busy start to the month, phew - no wonder I'm tired! I think that is enough for one entry. I'll write separate posts about later in the month.

The lab and the lake, the park and the pavement.

Another three sketches this week... 

Multicolour Flow-Cytometer. That's a bit of a scientist joke, or maybe just a me joke! The experiments run on a flow cytometer include labeling of markers with fluorescent dyes. The technology is called multicolour flow-cytometry. Here I depict a flow cytometer in multicolours in stead of the samples it is running. If you have to explain it, it really isn't funny - sigh.

Green Lake. This picture also comes with photos. Saturday morning my landlady dropped me off an I walked around Green Lake (about 2.6 miles). Lots of people were out using the water, there were canoe races, some crazy person was swimming, there was a small sail boat, and there were a few kayaks too. Oh, I just realised kayak is a palindrome, how exciting, that might help me remember how to spell it. I was accompanied on my circuit of the lake by a few hundred other souls lapping the lake by walking, running, running with a pram/stroller/buggy/pushchair (which surely must have a name because it is a unique form of exercise torture), jogging, rollerblading, cycling, and a few other odd mode of transportation. 

Flag Irises on the lake shore

Baby Canada Geese are really quite cute!

Natural rose arch

Blue Heron

Canoe races

Japanese Garden at Washington Park Arboretum. 

Saturday Afternoon I took two buses over to the Arboretum. I was impressed that it only took 35 mins, the joy of buses that just happen to arrive late but well coordinated. With in the grounds is a Japanese Garden. This sketch is of the "Kobe Lantern" given to the people of Seattle by her sister city Kobe in Japan in 1957. I loved the way it sits above these rounded boulder like shrubs. More photos of the Japanese Garden and the arboretum below. 

Japanese lace leaf maple (Acer palmatum)

Dry steam bed

Blue Listeria Trellis

View of the lake/pond from the North (ish)

Kobe Lantern

Koi in the pond. The visitors leaflet said the gardens are
often visited by a blue heron, I wonder why?

A turtle saying hello

Tea Garden

The Japanese Garden sits in the grounds of an arboretum used for research by the University of Washington. There are a few main paths but lots of others that just meander. I even found one slightly unofficial path that went through a 3ft high tunnel under some shrubs. I forget how nice it is just to wander and be led down trails that lead to somewhere else. To walk on loam and not concrete, how neat! The trees are not especially exciting for a non-botanist. The are arranged in family groups dotted around the grounds.

Entrance to Arboretum

A twisty tree

A Redwood from bottom-up

Not so Giant Sequoia, but still fairly large. The fence is 3.5ft ish.

A bee having a drink, incidentally whilst I was taking this
a mosquito decided to have a drink from me. I removed it
carefully without damaging it's proboscis, and the little blighter flew
straight back on to my arm to have another go - I must take good!

Last but not least. The Pavement...I know you were all wondering what that was about. I walk over a bit of new sidewalk every day, except this one had a few leaves drop in it whilst it set. Now I see the impressions every time I get off the bus, and I never fail to think how beautiful they are.

Modern fossilised leaf impressions!