Snowmen of Wallingford

There were a number of snowmen out (though not about) in Wallingford today. This merry trio, and their snowdogs, were on the corner of 38th and Burke. Note the classic top hat on the one in the middle:


A close-up of one of the dogs:


This straw-hatted snowman was on Meridian and 39th:


This cheery snowperson was a few blocks further north on Meridian:


And this one was on 2nd Ave NE, north of 40th:


More ambulatory residents of Wallingford skied, sledded and snowboarded around, frequently putting up makeshift markers indicating blocks closed to cars.


How often does one see a palm tree covered in snow?


A view of "downtown" Wallingford around 8 pm:

Wallingford Snowpocalypse

Yesterday afternoon QFC was jammed with shoppers stocking up for the big storm. At one time I saw the checkout line extend all the way down the length of the produce aisle to where the orange juice is shelved.


By Sunday morning about six inches of snow had fallen in the neighborhood. Trash cans that had been sitting on the curb unemptied since midweek acquired a fresh roofing of snow.


This hardly looks like Seattle, does it?


NE 50th Street was almost entirely devoid of traffic at 10:00 am this morning. The peculiar muffled quiet that follows a heavy snowfall was broken only by the cheerful chirping of birds and the occasional distant shout of a hardy pedestrian or joyful child.

Looking east down 50th, the Cascades were clearly visible.


Looking West, a Metro bus sat silent on the side of the road, either parked or abandoned.


Amazingly, I saw the #26 bus was running.

There's a possibility of more precipitation later today. It could be a while before we dig ourselves out of this one.

Do share your snow-related neighborhood stories.

Seasonal cupcakes at Trophy

Four delicious flavors of cupcakes are being served up at Trophy this holiday season.

Chocolate Candy Cane: Every day
Bourbon Eggnog: Tuesdays and Saturdays
Gingerbread: Mondays and Thursdays
Candied Yam (with toasted marshmallow meringue): Wednesdays and Fridays

This week at the Guild

AUSTRALIA / SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK

Ice cream pies, latest business shuffle

First, the important news (to me, anyway): Just in time for the holidays, Molly Moon's is serving up ice cream pies to go. Right now, they have pumpkin clove ice cream in a graham cracker crust, but in a couple of weeks, there'll be some peppermint ice cream pies as well. Having already tried the pumpkin clove ice cream pie, I can say that it's quite delicious, although would probably benefit from a dollop of whipped cream.

• Read more about the ice cream pies in Molly Moon's Ice Cream blog.
  

In other news, neighborhood institution and Seattle's oldest hardware store Tweedy & Popp will soon be vacating their longtime home on 45th Street, but fear not—they're just moving to Wallingford Center. While I'm certainly glad that Wallingford Center will have a new tenant with such built-in goodwill from the neighborhood, I'm wondering how Tweedy & Popp's ambience of dusty shelves will fit in with the sunnier aesthetic of Wallingford Center.

Finally, anyone know what's going on with High Maintenance Bitch? Their door recently sported a rent-due notice from the building's landlord, and the store seemed oddly unoccupied during business hours. Send any tips our way.

Google Maps Street View now live for Seattle

Did you happen to catch the Google Maps camera vehicles snapping photos of the neighborhood a while back? All that photo-taking has finally borne fruit as Google Maps has activated Street View for our fair city. Now you can look for your friends, family, cars, pets, etc., immortalized for posterity in wraparound snapshots.

Link: Google Maps Street View of Wallingford

Free scoops of Baracky Road at Molly Moon's today!

Molly Moon's is offering free scoops of Baracky Road today to celebrate the election results. Yes we can (eat ice cream)!

Autumn foliage

With election season upon us, it can be hard to remember that you need to stop obsessively checking fivethirtyeight.com and look outside once in a while.* If you do, you'll notice that we are having one of the loveliest autumns in recent memory. Something about the weather over the past weeks and months has created an unusual profusion of autumnal coloration. Despite the rains of the last few days, there is still a lot of beautiful foliage in the neighborhood.

Thackeray Place NE

NE 41st Street

I'm especially amazed by these multi-colored trees with red, yellow, and green leaves, sometimes all on the same branch.

* By 'you', I mean 'me'.

Recognition for Sutra and Joule

The cover story of the November 2008 issue of Seattle Metropolitan magazine is "Restaurants: 20 that changed the way we eat, and 10 that are changing it again". Sutra and Joule, both Wallingford locals, are profiled. The article doesn't appear to be available on line, so if you want to read it, you'll have to buy a copy, or pick a long line at the supermarket to stand in.

Wallingford Power Outage

As you may have noticed, the lights went out around Wallingford at 9 am this morning. The Times is reporting that the outage is from 39th to 53rd and I-5 to 3rd Ave NW. There is no news about the cause of the outage or when we should expect the power to come back on.

ETA: The power is back on. According to the Times a goose was to blame. The goose, sadly, did not survive the incident.