Fremont Chestnut Tree

 

9/21/26 European chestnut tree, Fremont neighborhood

A ginormous European chestnut tree grows in Fremont that is a marvel of nature. Decades ago, a fire hydrant was installed in the sidewalk with presumably plenty of space between it and the tree. Now the roots are growing around the hydrant like it’s just a minor inconvenience! Right now the leaves are still green, and it’s full of fuzzy, green chestnuts that I understand will eventually be the kind that are tasty to roast and eat.

The man who lives in the house behind the chestnut came out to rake. Although the tree still has most of its leaves, I can imagine what a huge job it would be to keep up with them once they start falling.

I first learned about this street tree, the widest-diameter chestnut in Seattle, from Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle, which I used as a guide for sketching many street trees a couple of years ago. A recent Instagram post from Taha reminded me of it, and when she showed photos of the roots wrapped around the hydrant, I knew I had to sketch it. My sketches feel puny, though; I’d need paper four times as large to capture even a part of its crown.

How big would my paper have to be to capture this whole tree!

How annoying. . . like a seed stuck between teeth!

Cars & Coffee

 

9/20/26 David drawing the Miata's birthday portrait at Cars & Coffee

When I had proposed a commission to David Hingtgen to make my Miata’s birthday portrait, he suggested that we meet at Cars & Coffee in the Madrona neighborhood. A local chapter of a national group (like Urban Sketchers!), this community of car enthusiasts meets every Sunday morning, rain or shine, throughout the year. The large parking lot, apparently unused most of the time, is right on the shore of Lake Washington. On a chilly but beautifully sunny morning, I took the top down to drive my clean and shiny Miatamobile to Madrona.

Similar to the Greenwood Car Show, it was fun to see people greeting friends, admiring each other’s vehicles and chatting about their favorite subject. It reminded me of Urban Sketchers: People of all ages happily congregating with their tribe.

I started the morning by sketching David drawing my Miata (top of post) while he drew my Miata and me! (Woo-woo, a meta Miata moment!)

Skimming from Lake Washington

Between admiring and snapping photos of cars, especially convertibles, I captured a man skimming stuff out of the lake, a metal detector (I assume?) beeping as he waded along slowly (at left).

I also met nice people who told me about their cars and wanted to hear about mine. A young woman said a Miata was her “dream car,” especially one of the same vintage as mine. She had entered a drawing to win one before she started college soon, so I wished her luck. Her boyfriend, who had brought them to Cars & Coffee in his dark green Lotus, teased that she seemed to think Miatas were hotter than the Lotus (I heartily agreed and said so).

A patient pup

A young man, owner of the most souped-up Miata (2000 vintage) I had ever seen, described and showed me every modification he had made since he took ownership of it last January. He has already crashed it once, he said, but he repaired the damage himself at his father’s auto body shop. When I said I was sad that top-down weather would soon be ending for the season, he said he is looking forward to rain so that he could practice “drifting.” According to Google, “Drift racing is a motorsport where drivers intentionally break the traction of their rear tires to slide cars sideways through corners while keeping full control.” Who knew? Now I do. I pointed to my own Miata and said proudly that I try to keep all four tires firmly on the ground.

I figure that’s why she still looks so good at 30.

Not too shabby for 30!

This '00 Miata was so souped up, I hardly recognized it. The owner uses it to "drift race."

This man's roadster was so new that it still had temporary plates.

A perfect top-down day!

Miata’s Birthday Portrait

 

Portrait of my Miata on her 30th birthday, Sept. 20, 2026, by David Hingtgen

Initially the Miata's "eyes" were closed (as they usually are when
the lights are off), but David suggested that opening the eyes would
give the portrait more sparkle and character. He was so right!

On Sept. 20, 1996, I drove a brand new, bright red Miata home for the first time. Partly sunny, the day wasn’t exactly warm, but of course I took the top down. Without a destination, Greg and I drove around all afternoon, and it was the beginning of beautiful friendship. (See my post from the Miata’s 20th birthday in 2016, when I waxed nostalgic about my history with convertibles.)

To commemorate her 30^th birthday last Sunday, I commissioned urban sketcher and car artist extraordinaire David Hingtgen to make a portrait of my beloved.

The Miata's portrait just completed by David

It’s not often that one gets to sit for a commissioned portrait, so I decided that the Miata deserved a morning at the spa. A couple of days before the portrait, Ian of Dreamy’s Detailing Service came over to give the Miata a full detailing, inside and out, for the first time ever. Believe me, the old gal has never been this clean and pretty since that first day I drove her home.

9/19/26 Ian of Dreamy's Detailing gives the Miata the full spa treatment in my driveway. (photo reference)

To prep for the interior cleaning, I took every item out of the trunk, glove box, behind and (inadvertently) under the seats. It’s not a bad idea to completely clean out a car every couple of decades. In addition to several ferry schedules, road trip brochures and paper maps from the turn of the 21^st century, I found my 1995 edition of The Thomas Guide (which I’m sure I hadn’t opened since I got my first Garmin navigational device in the ‘00s).

Long-lost waterbrush cap

Bonus: A waterbrush cap turned up! I remember dropping it under the seat years ago when I used to sketch all winter in my mobile studio, but I couldn’t reach it. Of course, the waterbrush became useless without a cap, so I must have tossed it. I’m saving this cap for the next time I lose one.

Happy 30th birthday, Miata! You’ve been a fun, reliable, low-maintenance friend all these years, and I hope we still have many more together.

One of many relics from the past three decades that were buried and long forgotten in my car.

Scouting Mission at Centennial Park

 

9/18/26 Cafe Hagen at Centennial Park (quiche not shown to scale)

I’d been trying to get to Seattle’s newly redeveloped Centennial Park all summer. My goal was to eventually lead a USk outing there, but this waterfront park on Elliott Bay had several challenges. People who had been there said it was wide open with very little shade anywhere. With new, attractive bike and walking paths connecting the entire waterfront from Queen Anne to downtown, arriving by bike was ideal, but what about the rest of us? Although free parking was available, word had gotten out, and now the lots were full most of the time. For me, taking public transportation required a time-consuming route that included light rail, multiple buses and walking.

Now that the new Café Hagen was open at the north end of the park, I got a new idea: I put the café as my destination in Google Maps, and suddenly the bus leg of my route was shorter, cutting transit time significantly. Summer was nearly over, but I finally figured out how to get there!

Since this visit was mostly a scouting mission, I began with lunch at Café Hagen (a delicious quiche; much better than the nearly inedible toast I had recently at a different Café Hagen) while sketching the enormous grain terminal right in front of me (top of post). Then I walked south, stopping occasionally to sketch along the way (below), until I reached the Olympic Sculpture Park a little more than a mile from Hagen. I saw several more potential sketches as I walked, but I saved them for future visits.

By no coincidence, USk Seattle was near the end of their outing there (which I decided to skip because I’d just sketched at the Sculpture Park in May). I had just enough time for one quick sketch of a sculpture so that I could join the group for the throwdown.

Now that I know how to get to Centennial Park, I can lead an outing there and offer suggestions for public transit. With no shelter or shade except at the café, which has plenty of covered outdoor seating, the cooler, cloudier part of the year may be the best time to be there anyway. I’ll see if I can squeeze in an outing after all before the wet part of fall gets under way.

Myrtle Edwards Park, which is now connected to Centennial Park

Indian blanket flowers, which cover a large area
of the newly planted pollinator meadow

Sketchwaiting Stories

 

7/15/26 Social Security office

6/11/26 medical waiting room

The sketches I make while waiting for someone or something to happen are usually just ways to “kill time” (I’ve always thought that was an odd expression: Why would we want to kill the only resource we truly have in life?). Yet when I look back at them, I realize that almost all vividly remind me of the circumstances in which they were made, even if the subjects are “nothing” (which almost always defines a sketchwaiting sketch), and even if I haven’t written any notes. Or maybe I should say that the sketches evoke the feelings associated with the circumstances.

5/17/26 waterfront

8/6/26 Green Lake PCC

For example, although I didn’t note the temperature, I know that Aug. 6 (above) was a hot day. I didn’t want to turn on the oven to cook, so I went to PCC to get a pizza. I could tell that people were using the café area simply to enjoy the AC.

7/15/26 Social Security office

9/11/26 Federal Way light rail station

The yellow sketch on June 11 (top of post) was made in the waiting room of Greg’s orthopedist, who had examined a broken arm after a fall. He seemed to be declining in other ways, but the fracture was healing well, which gave me hope.

A month later on July 15, I was in the Social Security office with our marriage license, applying for widow’s benefits.

Every sketch tells a story, large and small.

9/14/26 Green Lake

9/16/26 South Lake Union

USk Rides to the Eastside

 

9/13/26 Northwest African American Museum

I woke to hard rain on the roof and windows.

It was the kind of morning that if I hadn’t been the lead, I would have skipped the USk outing. Instead, I boarded the light rail in damp jeans to an outing I had helped plan and had been looking forward to ever since the 2 Line to the Eastside opened last spring.

The first stop of our two-part outing was Judkins Park Station across the street from Jimi Hendrix Park. I was relieved and happy not to be alone on this wet day – a small group of hardy sketchers joined me! Although most stayed in the park to sketch in the light drizzle, I ducked into the Northwest African American Museum, which I hadn’t been to in years (above). Its exhibits tell illuminating stories of noteworthy Black Seattle residents and other significant national figures and their contributions to American history and culture.

I found a window at the museum with a view toward the park’s large sculpture, “Butterfly Canopy,” which I tend to sketch every time I’m in the park. After that, with a short time left before the throwdown, I attempted a strange (and unsuccessful) composition of the edge of the Butterfly and the top of the museum (both below).

Jimi Hendrix Park

After our throwdown, a handful of sketchers rode on to Part 2 of the outing: Bellevue Downtown Station. Most had not yet taken the light rail across Lake Washington, so it was fun to know that our outing was their first opportunity.

Riding the rails across the lake!

Famished by the time we got to Bellevue, I made lunch at Café Hagen* my first stop. It was as good a place as any to finish a page of sketches for the outing’s second leg. Although we didn’t get the best weather, a day of sketching with USk is always better than a day without!

Cafe Hagen, downtown Bellevue

* If you’re curious about my comment on the sketch of my Nordic Cheese Toast, I’ll give you the full review: Although the prettiest toast I’d ever seen, and while its other ingredients were delicious, the bread was so thick, hearty and crusty that I couldn’t penetrate it with the ordinary utensils I was given. With much struggle, I had to dig out softer bread from the center. Although I have done this only a few times in my life, I took the toast back to the counter and explained my difficulty to the servers. I asked them to tell the chef to try cutting the toast with the same type of knife I had been given. I doubt it had ever been tested; perhaps a hacksaw would do the job.

Lovely but inpenetrable

No More Juju

 

9/10/26 Green Lake

This little pinwheel palm had unpleasant associations for me.

In December 2019, I had just started my walk/sketch fitness program (which I’ve maintained to this day). As with any new endeavor, I was still freshly enthusiastic, despite the cold and sometimes wet weather. A few months later on one of those walks, I had stopped in front of Duke’s restaurant at Green Lake for my sketch reward. After sketching this palm tree, I tried to take a trophy photo, dropped my brand new phone and chipped the screen. I take trophy shots of my sketches nearly daily, and that was the only time I have ever dropped my phone; surely the palm had something to do with my bad luck. Shortly thereafter, COVID happened, and I came to associate sketching that poor, innocent palm with both bad things.

Remembering all of that as I walked past the palm at Duke’s recently, I decided I needed to sketch it again to eliminate the bad juju.

Labor Day Weekend Friday

9/4/26 drink & draw at Phinney Station, Phinney Ridge neighborhood

USk Seattle kicked off Labor Day weekend in the best possible way with a casual drink & draw on Friday afternoon. I was happy to have Jenny’s dog Balloo nearby to draw several times. As many times as I seem to end up drawing Kathryn and Michael, this time I actually saw a resemblance!

On these waning days of summer, it’s always bittersweet to be able to sit outdoors comfortably in daylight, knowing that the Big Dark will be upon us all too soon.

I hope you’re having a restful Labor Day!

I got engrossed in conversation and didn't finish this one.

Butterfly Garden

9/3/26 Woodland Park Zoo's Butterfly Garden

On the last week before the Butterfly Garden was to close for the season, the Woodland Park Zoo gave members the offer of free admission (usually $3). The only time I’d sketched live butterflies was 11 years ago at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Remembering that butterflies had been difficult to sketch, I’d never been inside Woodland Park’s exhibit, but who am I to decline a free ticket? I was delightfully surprised to be wrong: Many of the butterflies quietly sat for minutes on end on flowers or, strangely, information placards. They were relatively easy to sketch compared to continually moving animals.

Species identification photos made it easy to label them as I sketched. Noticing how many butterflies were mostly black, I wished I had a black sketchbook with me. I managed to color the Atala and Eastern black swallowtail with a brush pen, but they would have been easier using colored pencils on black paper.

Palm cockatoo in the Conservation Aviary

The most challenging part? Trying to draw foreshortened butterfly wings in perspective!

After spending an enjoyable hour in the Butterfly Garden, I needed to hoof it through the zoo to give myself “credit” for fitness walking and not just sketching. I got almost all the way back around, resisting more sketches, until I got to the Conservation Aviary, which is full of exotic (and sadly endangered) birds. I caught a quick gesture of the palm cockatoo before heading for the exit. 

(See my Instagram post for a butterfly video.)

Lunar Eclipse

 

8/27/26 partial lunar eclipse

Not paying attention to the time, I nearly missed last Thursday’s partial lunar eclipse when a text from a friend reminded me to look out the window. Luckily, the sky was clear at exactly 9:12 p.m. PT, when 96.2 percent of the moon was obscured – the peak of the near-total eclipse. I knew I would be asleep by the time it looked interesting again, so I was happy to catch this much.

Back in January 2019, I made a series of sketches of a total lunar eclipse that had begun earlier in the evening.

Prepping for a Dry Fall

 

Anticipating a dry fall!

The summer of ’26 has been one of ambivalence. On the one hand, the weather has been mostly beautiful: only a few days of extreme heat, and only a few of smoke (so far). I’ve been sketching outdoors to my heart’s content.

On the other hand, it’s been the hardest summer of my life.

Our foggy mornings lately and the blushes of color I’m seeing in some trees are hinting that fall isn’t far off. Although I have no regrets about summer ending, I still feel a bit wistful.

To waylay a post-summer slump, I decided I needed a fresh sketching approach for autumn. Not just a refreshed palette but a medium I haven’t focused on for urban sketching in a long time: Non-soluble colored pencils! Seems like every couple of years or so, I pull out a selection of dry colored pencils (often a secondary triad, which I especially like in the fall) and tell myself I’m going to use them without the help of water-soluble materials. Although I enjoy it for a short time, I eventually go back to the speed and convenience of water-soluble pencils and crayons.

One mistake I’ve made in the past is to continue using an A5-size sketchbook as I usually do with water-soluble materials. Filling an A5 page takes significantly longer without the efficiency of water to spread color. This time, I’ll probably still carry an A5-size book (likely a Stillman & Birn Zeta) for versatility, but my plan is to work on a half-page at a time (a size I’m accustomed to from using A6-ish Uglybooks). We’ll see if that keeps me going longer.

I pulled out my color journal recently to trial a color palette (below). Recalling all the joy I had last winter working from photos with Derwent Drawing pencils, those pencils will form the bulk of my palette. Even the largest set, though, is severely lacking certain hues; specifically, bright reds, magenta and dark greens. I pulled in Prismacolors to fill those holes. Knowing me, I’ll probably change up the palette before I even start using it, but I’m showing what I have so far just because I’m excited about it.

I'll probably further refine the palette, but here are the finalists in Derwent Drawing and Prismacolor non-soluble pencils.

Now when the trees start turning in earnest, I’ll welcome it with something fun and potentially illuminating.

New Drink & Draw Venue

 

8/14/26 Phinney Station, Phinney neighborhood

I feel like I say this every time, but USk Seattle showed a record-breaking turnout for last week’s drink & draw on a gorgeous afternoon! The venue, Phinney Station, was new to us, but I knew from sketching the final World Cup match there that it looked ideal – and it was! We filled up quite a few of their plentiful umbrella’d tables in a huge area. Two food trucks offered different foods, and bringing in outside food was also welcome. Of course, I’m always pleased by dog-friendly venues.

As usual, some folks new to Urban Sketchers joined us for the first time. Several others had come to previous drink & draws but had not yet joined us for regular sketch outings yet. One mentioned that while a general outing still feels intimidating, a casual sit-and-chat over brews feels more comfy and familiar. I’m happy that we have gatherings that are approachable at whatever level people feel ready to participate.