April in Seattle

Prunus serrulata (Flowering Cherry) on Beacon Hill April 2013

Rhododendron (Azalea) & Picea (Spruce) on Beacon Hill April 2013

Seed packets on the sidewalk in front of a shop in Chinatown April 2013

King Street Station in Pioneer Square has been renovated & restored for $56 million.  It was built in 1906 with the tower modeled on the campanile in piazza San Marco in Venice.  5 Amtrak trains depart daily for Portland, 2 for Vancouver BC & 1 for Spokane, carrying 672,000 passengers yearly. King Street Station is the 14th-busiest stop in the United States.

Magnolia in Seward Park.

April 2013 in Seattle was slightly warmer & much wetter than normal.  The mean temperature was 50.8F/10.4C.  The normal mean temperature is 50.3F/10.2C.  Total precipitation was 5.89 inches.  Normal precipitation is 2.71 inches.  The highest temperature was 71F/21.7C, the lowest 38F/3.3C.  There were 5 days with heavy rain, 10 days with rain, 20 days with light rain, 16 days with fog, 4 days with haze, 21 cloudy days, 6 partly cloudy days & 3 fair days.  Even with the abundance of rain, the month was mostly pleasant.  There were 12 days with very little, or no rain.  Temperatures were cool, but not cold.

I moved (temporarily) to a large apartment building on April 6.  Then I ceased to garden, except for an occasional visit to my tiny plot at Bradner Gardens Park.  At 7.6 acres, Othello Park is a fairly large, but not very interesting space across the street behind my building, almost entirely lawn with rather few trees.  It has recently been renovated with a small amphitheater & new asphalt paths.  I walk the dog there.

I get more pleasure looking out from the 7th-floor apartment at the topography of the southern end of the Rainier Valley.  A friend once called this the DEEP south, just 2 miles from the southern city limits.  To the west, there is a woodland along the east flank of Beacon Hill filled mostly with Acer macrophyllum (Bigleaf Maple) & to the east there is quite an assortment of trees in the upscale neighborhood on Graham Hill in Seward Park.  The land also rises to the north to form a low ridge that cuts across the valley at Hillman City.  Here the neighborhoods of Brighton & Dunlap sit in a sort of a bowl.