Daffies and Cherries on Dibble

 

4/4/25 Crown Hill neighborhood

Although the cherry trees on Dibble Avenue Northwest are on my regular petal-peeping route, it’s not a destination that I would consider for an Urban Sketchers outing. A narrow street full of parked cars, trash cans, basketball hoops, utility poles and other street stuff that I enjoy sketching, it’s probably not the kind of view most sketchers like. I did, however, encourage everyone who attended the Sunset Hill outing to at least peep the petals, if not sketch them, since Dibble in Crown Hill is only a mile or so east of Sunset Hill.

Dibble Ave. NW

With the top down, I cruised slowly down the block, looking straight up at the blossoms arching over the street from both sides. Then I turned around and came back to sketch from a spot I had sketched a few years ago that has become one of my favorite cherry blossom sketches: The pink blossoms as a backdrop to the daffodil-fringed traffic circle.

With bittersweetness, I must concede that our all-too-brief petal-peeping and -sketching season is coming to a close. But if this is its finale, I’m good with that. As a resident of the Sunset Hill street and I had just concurred, if we could have cherry blossoms all year round, they would no longer be precious and special.

Technical note: After all the trees I’d been sketching, my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen ran dry when I started this sketch, so I had to bring in a gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen for an assist. I like the way the gray ink made the cars and utility pole fade out more than compared to drawing and shading with the same Pentel ink. I’m going to try to remember that in the future.

Trunk Appreciation Day at Sunset Hill

 

4/4/25 Sunset Hill neighborhood

Peg & Awl Petra palette in action

For Day 2 of USk Seattle’s pink marathon, we headed west to Sunset Hill and my favorite street of cherries. Since I had already sketched them earlier in the week, I used this second opportunity to try – ta-da! – gouache again. (I even brought along my Peg & Awl Petra palette, still full of the gouache and watercolors I had filled it with last spring.) I was disappointed when I tried it last year, but this time I limited the paint to the blossom areas only (with a bit of Caran d'Ache Neocolor II for texture), and stayed with my tried-and-true Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for the trunks and shadows. I like this approach better.

That one done, I declared it Trunk Appreciation Day and spent the rest of the outing making small vignettes of some of the most amazing trunks. Many trees on this block are nearly a century old, and I always feel the need to honor and revere their beauty, whether or not they are in blossom.

As I sketched, I chatted with a resident who told me a bit of the trees’ history: About a hundred years ago, one of the block’s residents went around to her neighbors and encouraged all of them to plant cherries in front of their homes. They did, and that’s why we have these trees to enjoy now, a century later. Thank you, forward-thinking home owners!

It’s a good thing we went when we did, as the leaves were starting to sprout, and I could tell that the blossoms were past their prime. Although I had started out in my down parka and gloves, by the time we left at noon, I was ready to take the top down for the drive home!

Sunny sketching!

Blossom-Sketching Marathon on Capitol Hill

 

4/3/25 Capitol Hill neighborhood

Time’s a wastin’! With so many pink blossoms and so little time, USk Seattle offered a marathon of cherry tree-sketching opportunities on Thursday. First, in the morning, we met on a quiet residential block near Holy Names Academy. Petal peepers and sketchers alike could walk slowly down the middle of the street, where trees arched over from both sides. Although not as mature, these trees are of the pink (not near-white) variety similar to my favorites on Sunset Hill (above and below).

Near Holy Names Academy

Immediately following the throwdown outside Holy Names, some of us continued on to nearby Volunteer Park, where more sketchers met for the afternoon session. A few of us opted to walk just outside the park boundary to Lake View Cemetery (below), where we had heard about a large grove of cherry trees. None of us had sketched these gorgeous, mature trees before! Actually, I think I did when I sketched there years ago, but it was fall then, so I didn’t know they were cherries. You can bet I put this location on my perennial petal-peeping list!

4/3/25 Lake View Cemetery

It was a long, beautiful day of pink!

Just before the throwdown, I made a quick sketch of one of the two
dromedaries outside the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

4/3/25 A few more bits from my fun day on Capitol Hill!

Bring on the Pink

 

4/1/25 Green Lake neighborhood

I’m in full-on blossom-sketching mode these days, and for good reason: While dodging rain, I’m also trying not to miss the best of the pink. I’m not sure this tree near Green Lake was a cherry, but I’m not discriminating. It was already starting to shed petals – none too soon to sketch it.

Sunset Hill Before it Rains

3/31/25 Sunset Hill neighborhood

Pink pompoms!

I had heard that my favorite cherry trees on Sunset Hill were nearing peak, but several days of rain were in the forecast. Right after I got home from a play date with Roy and Mary Jean, it was still dry, so I dashed out to the west side.

Indeed, the blossoms were at 99 percent, I’d say – just a few visible buds within the huge, pompom clusters of pink blossoms! In addition to those huge, old, gnarly trunks, what I love about this block of cherries is that the blossoms are truly pink, not white, as many cherry blossoms are, including the ones at the UW Quad. I adore walking slowly through this fairyland, admiring each tree one at a time, then choosing one to sketch.

This is the tree whose trunk I sketched in my March 22 post when it was still in tight buds.

Exquisite, Confused Corpses

 

3/31/25 Exquisite corpses by Mary Jean, Roy and Tina

Exquisite corpses live again! Mary Jean, Roy and I got together to work on more exquisite corpses, which we had so much fun with last time. This time we chose an ocean theme. Somehow, though, we got the rotation mixed up, so we each ended up making both the head and the “feet” on the same piece! It was still a ton of fun, and we’re going to continue with more.

Afterwards, we had lunch at nearby Geraldine’s Counter, where our friend Allan Carandang has a show of intriguing paintings.

Some of Allan Carandang's paintings at Geraldine's Counter

A Joyous Celebration of Pink

 

3/30/25 UW Quad

Although USk Seattle meets at the University of Washington Quad every spring to sketch the glorious cherry trees, this year felt very different to me. Even the heavy crowds on a dry Sunday morning didn’t bother me as much as they sometimes do. With so much disgusting “leadership” going on in our country, and tragedy, horror and devastation elsewhere in the world, it was truly uplifting to be part of this joyous celebration of nature. Everyone seemed so happy! It was impossible to walk among those trees, even bumping into each other, without feeling a bond with humanity: All of us brought together by tiny pink blossoms.

Thank you, brilliant cherry trees, for giving us such joy.

At upper left, I tried to show some cosplay characters being photographed, but my sketch doesn't show them well. See photo below for what they actually looked like.

Technical notes: The past several years, I have used the Quad cherry trees outing to try various media, hoping to find the one that might help me successfully convey the billowing clouds of very pale pink (nearly white, actually) blossoms. As if the subject matter weren’t challenging enough, I wanted to add to the torture with uncertain media. Watercolor, gouache, dry colored pencils, acrylic markers, water-soluble crayons and blocks – you name it, I’ve tried it, usually with frustration and disappointment.

This year I decided to end the masochism and went back to basics: My favorite Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with a Derwent Inktense pencil (and a gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Big Brush Pen for contextual elements that I want to fade into the background). Familiar, reliable, satisfying in their simplicity.

These are the characters I saw being photographed. In addition, several groups of choreographed teenagers were being video'd, probably for their TikTok channels.

So much exuberance everywhere!

Wide Awake!

 

3/29/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Two days after I sketched the sleepy cherry tree that was still in buds, it woke up! Seemingly overnight, cherry blossoms are popping open all over town. Sadly, the weather forecast for the next few days is not looking good – so many blossoms, so few dry days ahead!

3/29/25 Wide awake!

3/27/25 Still sleepy

360 at Third Place Commons

 

3/29/25 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

Five other sketchers and I tried something fun during Saturday’s USk Seattle outing. Sitting together around a table, we each sketched the slice of view directly in front of us, forming a 360-degree view of Third Place Commons. When I’ve participated in 360 sketches previously (once at the downtown public library and another time at the UW Quad), the participants sat in a circle facing out. For this one, we all faced each other toward the center of the table, which meant we all included fellow sketchers. Fun!

After I finished my first sketch that included Kim (at right), I turned around in my seat 180 degrees to sketch whatever had been directly behind. I like that sketch better (below) because I could see further out into the distance.

During the last half hour before the throwdown, I walked around a bit and sketched a few more people enjoying the Commons on a Saturday morning.

Our 360 throwdown was incomplete because a couple of participants had already left by the time we remembered to photograph all of them together!

Inside the Spheres Again

 

3/28/25 Waiting for coffee inside the Amazon Spheres.

Shortly after they had opened, a friend who works at Amazon invited Greg and me to visit inside the company’s amazing Spheres. That was back in 2018, and although I have sketched the geodesic domed buildings many times from the outside, I hadn’t been back inside since then. As good fortune would have it, Ching works there now, and she invited Natalie and me to sketch inside with her. (Although the buildings are open to the public at certain times, you can only enter as part of a guided tour. When accompanied by an employee, you can wander and stay – and sketch – as long as you like.)

It’s still a wondrous terrarium of green; in fact, many of the plants had grown, so it seemed even more jungly than before. On a cold, wet afternoon, the warm, humid interior climate felt comforting. (I was so eager to get on with sketching that I forgot to take photos this time! Please see my 2018 post for lots of images of the interior.)

It was jam-packed with employees trying to work while many visitors ooh-ed and ahh-ed while taking selfies. (Not that I know anything about the latter.)

After all that fun, we adjourned to happy hour at a nearby pub, where I had a personal celebration. This time, it wasn’t for a downsizing accomplishment. Instead, I had just gotten good news from my doctor. All my bone-building exercises, a calcium-rich diet and meds had paid off!

3/28/25 King Leroy pub, South Lake Union

Still Yawning

 

3/27/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Hitting the snooze button for another week.

Although we all wait with much anticipation for the cherry trees to reach their peak bloom, I often find it easier to sketch them when they are still at the plump bud stage – just about to open but not quite. At peak, the Yoshino variety is such a pale pink that the blossoms are nearly white, but as buds, the pink is darker.

This one is taking its own sweet time before it’s wide awake with blossoms, and I was happy to catch it yawning.

Spring for a Day

 

3/18/25 Metro Market, Crown Hill neighborhood

3/25/25 magnolia tree, Maple Leaf neighborhood

On March 18, I went out on my first petal-peeping mission to see how my favorite cherry streets were doing. As expected, all the buds were still tight (journal page above). Less than a week later, a freaky warm front brought sunny temperatures in the high 60s and even 70s. Hallelujah, spring was finally here! OK, so it only lasted a day, but it seemed like the whole city was outdoors rejoicing. More significant, those warm temps will surely push the blossoms to open!

After walking around Green Lake, shedding layers as I went, I took the top down for the drive home. Spotting a magnolia just starting to pop, I basked in the sweet sunshine to sketch it.

That afternoon, I stopped at Macrina Bakery (below) for the annual ritual that marks my personal harbinger of spring: The first al fresco iced coffee!  

3/25/25 Macrina Bakery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Bergen Blossoms (and New Sushi Place)

 

3/24/25 AA Sushi and Bergen Place, Ballard neighborhood

An appointment brought me to Ballard around lunch time, so I took the opportunity to try a new sushi place in town. AA Sushi (remember all the companies that used to be called AAMCO and AACME so they would be listed first in the phone book? I guess it’s still a thing), which apparently started with a restaurant in Kirkland, just opened a new one in Ballard a few months ago. (It happens to be right next door to Ballard Consignment, where I stopped in to say hi to Greg’s jukebox, still there, unsold. Yay!)

I daresay these are cherries!

Whenever I try a sushi restaurant that’s new to me, I usually order chirashi as a test. But I had been craving saba (mackerel) lately, so I got a couple of saba nigiri with a salmon bowl (always a safe choice). Both were excellent, and the whole meal was a really good value (which is becoming less and less the case when dining out lately). Recommend!

Across the street from AA was Bergen Place, a pocket park well-decorated with several tall, tree-like sculptures and one actual tree just beginning to blossom. The pale pink petals had the telltale notches! Could it be that Sakura season is finally beginning? And I sketched outdoors without gloves for the first time since last fall! Hallelujah, perhaps it’s spring, after all!

Technical note: Look at all the sushi colors I got to show up on this aggressively pink Uglybook – with colored pencils! I’ve mentioned it before, but the trick is to put down white before applying color. Posca paint markers can be too thick and plastic-y, which makes colored pencil difficult to apply over it. I usually use a white colored pencil (the rainbow in this post), but it’s often not quite opaque enough. This time I used a white Penrote acrylic marker, which is ideal for this trick. The paint is thinner and less opaque than Posca, but it covers enough of the paper to enable colored pencils to show up brightly.

Penrote acrylic markers from Taiwan

I’d like to review Penrote markers, which I have been enjoying, but they were a gift from Taiwan, and I can’t find them anywhere online. I thought it would be frustrating to tell you how much I like them when I know you won’t be able to get them easily. (Its paint is very similar to the white Omiowl acrylic marker I discovered last year, fell in love with, and then discovered its fatal flaw.) The set I received has some nice pastel colors that I’ve been using here and there (the turquoise in these sketches and the pink at Wallingford Center). The white, though, continues to be the most useful, and if I could buy a bulk package of white only, I would.

Sketchers Give Life to Empty Wallingford Center

 

3/23/25 Wallingford Center

Even before the pandemic, Wallingford Center was a reliable but quiet mainstay for USk Seattle during the wet, cold months. If the weather cooperated, we had all of the Wallingford neighborhood to explore. If not, the Center’s cozy historic building kept us comfortable. After the pandemic, it never really recovered, but at least we had Trophy Cupcakes to keep us caffeinated and sugared. Unfortunately, Trophy recently closed, so there’s not much left there except a couple of retail shops and one restaurant. It’s a good thing we sketchers showed up on Sunday to liven up the otherwise ghost town vibe!

Although a few hardy souls sketched in the cold drizzle, I opted for the warm and comfy. Wallingford Center has enough window views that I could still capture one of the neighborhood’s classic bungalows, trees and street furniture. I also got snippets of the few remaining retail spots and some other sketchers, of course.

A great turnout in an otherwise empty space!

After the outing, Roy, Allan and I went to lunch at Dumpling the Noodle, whose funny name kept us cracking jokes as we enjoyed food the delicious. And because we all believe that any outing that ends with ice cream is a good day, we proceeded to Molly Moon’s for cream the ice. I meant to a put a little more in my sketch journal spread than just what I ate, but with food getting either cold or melty, and the conversation lively, I knew my priorities. Any outing that ends with good friends and good conversation is a terrific day.

My tasty lunch and dessert

Cream the ice for all!