Leschi Rainbow

 

12/28/24 Leschi neighborhood

It’s a long story, so I won’t get into it here, but the upshot is that the house I grew up in is now owned by a family I’m related to on my brother’s wife’s side (see, it’s already getting long). The current owners are very nice people, but another benefit is that I occasionally get to visit them and see my childhood house. A family gathering there a few days ago was such an opportunity, so I allowed a few minutes before my visit to sketch in my old ‘hood.

This Leschi neighborhood street is on the opposite side of the boulevard where my family lived, so I would have seen these houses every day – except these weren’t the same houses I saw when I was growing up. I was stunned and disoriented to realize that all of them were taller replacements for the houses that were there 40 or 50 years ago. On “our” side of the boulevard, most of the original houses still stand. I was comforted by the Douglas firs behind them, though – they were still there (and much taller now).

The Last 6000, the Seattle organization that tracks the centenarian trees that are being threatened by new developments, points out that trees like these firs will long outlive most of the houses being built today if they are allowed to. I hope that continues to be true for these.

Technical note: As I was thinking about how to compose the sketch, a rainbow suddenly appeared! I was tickled to be able to put it in, though it was a technical challenge to make those colors show up on red paper. Tip: Put white down first.