Green Lake Street Trees on a Perfect Day

 

6/19/24 Green Lake neighborhood (This page spread turned out disheveled; the house with the unusual roof doesn't belong here, but when I saw it on my walk, I wanted to sketch it on the spot or I might not find it again later.)

Studying the map in Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle, I’ve been planning my strategy for sketching all 10 trees documented in the Green Lake neighborhood. Five are located toward the southern end of the lake in the Tangletown micro-neighborhood, which is farther than I typically walk, but it was certainly doable. I just needed ideal conditions: Not cold, but also not hot, and definitely sunny. Wednesday morning was perfectly clear, the temperature was in the mid-60s, and by noon, it would be 70: Perfect! I set out with my sun hat.

My favorite in this batch is the impressive bigleaf maple (above) – the sixth widest-diameter maple street tree in the city, according to Taha. It’s on my list as a potential candidate for a portrait later. The ovens wattle acacia is also distinctive for being Seattle’s only acacia street tree.

By the time I sketched the pair of ginkgos (above), I had walked more than 11,000 steps from home – a few more than I had calculated based on Google’s estimated walking times. With an appointment in the early afternoon that I had to go home to get my car for, I decided to take the bus back. I almost hated to do it, though; everything about the day was beautiful, and I wanted to keep on walking.

Although I don't enjoy crossing the freeway to get to Green Lake, I do when I know this will be my reward. . . Her Majesty, Mt. Rainier, to the south . . . 

. . . and a pivot from the same spot gives me The Brothers to the west. Didn't I say it was a perfect day?