What’s the deal with recycling? For the longest time, Seattle prided itself in being on the forefront of reducing the massive volumes of trash going into landfills by encouraging/mandating recycling. The footnote to that statement is that it HAD to…city-owned landfills had closed in the 1980s and been declared Superfund sites, and local waste disposal options were dwindling. Depending on how long you’ve been a Seattle resident, you may remember when we had color-coded milk crate-type bins into which we sorted glass, paper, and cans. It almost felt sacrilegious when we were told to toss all of our recycling into …

A (seemingly) long time ago, in a neighborhood not so far away at all…it was raining, and raining pretty hard. I was out walking, and turned south down Thackeray. There was a steady stream of rainwater flowing downhill. As is often the case here in the city, especially when it’s been a while since the last rainfall, there was a very noticeable oily sheen in the water as it cascaded down along the curb. I don’t THINK this was attributable to the oil change business there on NE 45^th, it might have been from one or more of …

You know that it is really springtime in Seattle when Tilth Alliance (formerly Seattle Tilth) holds its annual edible plant sale in Meridian Park. This is one of the big events on the Seattle plant nerd calendar, and is a big draw (and traffic/parking challenge) to the neighborhood. As has been the case in recent years, the plant sale is a three-day event May 3-5, with an early-bird pre-sale on Friday evening (5:00p-7:00p) and the usual Saturday-Sunday (9:00a-3:00p) fest.

The Good Shepherd P-Patch gardeners (I am one, full disclosure) have their community garden plots in Meridian Park and I would …

Earlier this month, we posted a note from Daniel about the Earth Day cleanup that is scheduled for the ‘hood on Saturday, Earth Day. But unless you scribbled that event on your digital or analog calendar, you’ve likely forgotten. Here’s your reminder! There will also be information about other volunteer opportunities including this year’s Wallingford Parade, the Wallingford Beautification Committee, and if you are interested in volunteering to keep your part of Wallingford clean year-round, you can sign up for Seattle Public Utilities Adopt-A-Street program.

From Daniel’s original article:

The bi-annual Wallingford Earth Day family-friendly neighborhood cleanup event is coming …

You may have seen the recent Wallyhood article on the outstanding run by the Lincoln High School baseball team to last year’s state 3A championship. Reader and parent Elizabeth let us know that LHS also hosts a fastpitch softball team, head-coached by Kevin Ticen (former catcher for University of Washington baseball team). The varsity team is led by Senior Annika Ticen (catcher) and Junior Riko Hibino (pitcher). The varsity and junior varsity teams are comprised of players who have run the bases at Lower Woodland Park since little league, and are proud to represent their high school and wear the …

I had a domestic calamity at the end of last year that forced me (and a bunch of my stuff) to move out of my rented townhouse for a few weeks. It was a big pain. But I tried to look at this as yet another character-building event (futile as that may be at this very late stage), and used the unanticipated “opportunity” to clean out and upgrade some of my belongings gathering dust and other residues in the place. In that category were things like a venerable old microwave oven, and a printer that no longer would connect to …

By now, most of you have noticed that Wallyhood does not have a sports desk—and a good portion of you think that is just great, and maybe it’s a reason why you’ve stuck around for as long as you have. But as a diehard baseball fan in a pathetically beleaguered baseball city, I was both surprised and delighted to hear a piece on KNKX by my favorite radio host, Kirsten Kendrick. It features a pitcher on last year’s state 3A champion Lincoln High School baseball team, Bjorn Johnson. Unlike most such stories, it focuses on the journey of Bjorn …