Ravenna Street Trees

 

7/13 - 7/14/24 Ravenna neighborhood street trees

Now that I’ve finished sketching the trees in both the Maple Leaf and Green Lake neighborhoods, I’ve moved on to Ravenna’s trees documented in Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle. Ravenna starts on the southern edge of Maple Leaf and goes all the way to the U-District, which is  a long walk for me. I might drive partway to the ones on the southern half, but these two near the eastern edge of Maple Leaf are easy to get to – a western hemlock and an orchard apple.

Sketching in neighborhoods often results in interesting conversations (or overhearing them). As I sketched the hemlock, I eavesdropped on two neighbors discussing a questionable man who had been seen carrying a case of beer, littering cans as he went and sometimes sleeping in people’s yards. One of those neighbors also told me that several flicker families have made their homes in the hemlock over the years. When he had first noticed me sketching, he thought I was an arborist taking census.

7/12/24 Ravenna neighborhood 

The next day, another neighbor who had spotted me sketching the apple tree was concerned that I was from the city and planning to cut the tree down if it was diseased. She loves the apple tree, she said, especially since she had recently lost her own old dogwood to disease.

I enjoy that these street trees give my daily walks a destination and focus.

Material note: I’ve noticed that this particular Uglybooks color is very difficult to photograph accurately, either with my camera or with my scanner. You wouldn’t know it from this image, but the color is much closer to a warm cyan than the cool light cobalt you see here.

7/12/24 Ravenna neighborhood