Chilly Swanson’s

 

12/6/22 Swanson's Nursery

Visiting in town after moving to another state, Victoria invited a few sketchers to join her at Swanson’s Nursery. One of USk Seattle’s favorite locations, Swanson’s gets decked out for Halloween, the holidays and spring, too. For Christmas, they used to bring in live reindeer, a camel and goats, but I was disappointed that none of them showed up this year. I had heard that ownership had changed a couple of years ago, and things haven’t been the same since.

I made do with the closest I could find to an animal – a wireframe dinosaur embellished with green lights. Where were my black sketchbook and metallic gel pens when I needed them? I had hoped the palm trees in the parking lot would help me feel warmer, but it didn’t work.

Thoroughly chilled, I went to get some coffee, then sat in my car, which I had strategically parked facing the same dinosaur, thinking I could sketch it from there. But something better had arrived in the parking lot by then: a fabulous art car sparkling with lots of rhinestones! I regret that I didn’t get a photo of it, but it sure got a lot of admiring looks from shoppers passing through.

Art car in Swanson's parking lot... it looked much better than my scribbled color,
and it was very sparkly!

Chilly but cheerful!

Winter urban sketcher? Or purple Jawa? You decide.