Tag Archives: parks

Pikes/Pines | A few things to chew on about Seattle’s magic mushrooms 🍄

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UPDATE: We got a lot of feedback over the weekend about the original headline for this story — Seattle’s magic mushrooms ruined my life. Some people said it didn’t accurately portray what the Pikes/Pines nature post was about. Others were concerned readers would only see the headline and a negative portrayal of magic mushrooms. We settled on the original headline after agreeing it fit given the personal story of starting a natural history exploration of psilocybe mushrooms. But we agree that the headline can cause confusion and is getting in the way of a good episode of Pikes/Pines. We have updated the headline. Thanks and apologies for any frustrations.

A map of Psilocybe mushroom observations around Seattle illustrates their urban tendencies (Source: iNaturalist)

A wavy cap, indeed (Image: CHS)

It was a Friday, a weekend away from my 16th birthday, and I had permission to wander off after school with my friends. On this dry October evening, I sat astride monkey bars in a playground in Northeast Seattle while we waited to catch a bus. For some reason that is still a mystery to me, I decided to jump off my perch, but neglected to notice the length of metal tubing below. My face impacted steel before my feet touched the ground and the majority of my two main incisors disintegrated.

When I landed on the ground, I felt obvious pain, but I hadn’t really clocked the ramifications. That was until I looked up at my friends, who appeared to be imitating The Scream. Tentatively probing my jagged maw and realizing what I’d done, I uttered an extremely dramatic phrase for someone under their parent’s insurance and with access to modern dental care.

“I just ruined my life.”

Now, you’ve already jumped to conclusions based on the title of this article and assumed I was high. You’re wrong. I was stupid, had made a bad mistake, but I wasn’t high. But my friends were. They’d eaten mushrooms earlier that afternoon and had just watched what they described as “tracers” fly out of my mouth, and then heard me utter a phrase that haunted them for the rest of the weekend (and long into the future). While it’s reasonable to ponder if my imbibing would’ve helped me through this trauma (doubtful), I know being sober made calling my parents on my Nokia brick less terrifying. My friends caught the bus and ditched me and I didn’t blame them. We’re all still friends and are all reasonably well functioning adults, drugs aside.

For years after breaking my teeth, I was deeply suspicious of psychedelics despite using cannabinoids, alcohol, caffeine, and very rarely nicotine. In fact, I didn’t try mushrooms until fairly recently, when I had a lovely time sitting on a river bank watching birds, making willow branch wreaths, and taking photographs. Despite my reticence and an enjoyable first experience, I never once did I stop to consider the natural history of these mushrooms — many of which grow right here in Seattle. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | A hazy Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day

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Neighbors celebrated the 14th annual Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day under the hazy late summer Sunday of a Seattle smoke season.

While the air quality readings stayed mostly at the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” level in the city, things were more dank around other areas in the region. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency said a clearing is due. “We are expecting westerly surface winds on late Monday/early Tuesday which will help with clearing out the smoke,” the agency said Sunday. “Limit your exposure by staying indoors, keeping your windows closed, and using air purifiers, if available.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill community center adding expanded hours this fall

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Capitol Hill’s Miller Community Center is on the roster for Seattle Parks facilities slated to see a bump in service hours this fall.

The 19th Ave center will see hours boosted by 12 hours a week and will now be open 52 hours weekly to provide access to its gym, meeting rooms, and recreational facilities as well as “drop-in activities, childcare programs, recreation programming, community events, and building rentals.”

The boost comes for a handful of centers as the city tries to restore various services to pre-pandemic levels amid ongoing staffing challenges and is part of spending increases approved in the new six-year plan for the city’s parks.

The city says the increased hours are hoped to support increased public access, “with a focus on expanding evening and weekend access in response to stated community preference.” Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | The pronking, nibbling, Volunteer Park-chilling deer of Capitol Hill

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These deer appeared in Volunteer Park in July (Image: Volunteer Park Trust)

When my parents moved out of Seattle and to a small city North of Seattle in 2017, they took with them plans for a new garden. They didn’t realize that Anacortes is filthy with deer, nor what it meant for that garden. Deer rubbing their antlers on their precious new Japanese maples. Deer uprooting fresh plantings of flowers. Deer relaxing on lawns and chewing cud.

What does Anacortes have to do with Capitol Hill? Nothing really, but if you are anything like me, you didn’t grow up having many first-hand experiences with deer. They were animals you saw in the country, common but still kinda fun to see. Believe it or not, there are deer in Seattle and a couple of Capitol Hill’s green spaces host them. But that makes the deer that have been hanging out in Volunteer Park no less exciting.

The “deer” in question are Black-tailed Deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus. They are a subspecies of Mule Deer, which range all across Western North America. Go east of the Cascades and you’ll find a different subspecies, the Rocky Mountain Mule Deer. Colloquially often called just “Muleys,” they are well named, for their seemingly oversized mule-like ears. Washington is also home to White-tailed Deer, including a threatened population now restricted to Southwestern Washington. Continue reading →

A rite of Capitol Hill summer: waiting for the Cal Anderson fountain to be turned back on

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The fountain in wetter times

With persnickety German-made pump parts and a sensitive infrastructure, it has become a rite of summer waiting for water to return to Cal Anderson’s “fountain mountain,”

Seattle Parks tells CHS the Waterworks installation should be turned back on “any day now” after going dry — again — even as the park’s reflecting pool remained filled.

We don’t know exactly what went wrong this time but past repairs have frequently involved the fountain’s pump and broken water lines.

In 2021, parks mounted a $35,000 overhaul of the Doug Hollis-designed fountain that included work to strengthen the structure and apply water repellent and anti-graffiti coatings.

The fountain is a celebration of what lies beneath Cal Anderson and the creation of the neighborhood’s central park — two 6.25 million-gallon vaults full of Seattle Public Utilities drinking water. There has been a reservoir at the site for more than 115 years. After the state mandated that Seattle’s open water sources needed to be covered in the early 1990s, Kay Rood and community groups helped lead an effort to cap the reservoir with a park.

 

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2023 sit in a park watching free concerts and movies season starts on Capitol Hill

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Sorry! Due to a publishing error, we didn’t get this to readers before Thursday night’s 2023 debut of the Summer Series in Volunteer Park. All of our apologies! Go listen to Khu.Ă©ex’ with Preston Singletary as soon as you can!

It’s sitting in a Capitol Hill park with a cool beverage while listening to free music or watching a free movie with friends season. This week brings the first rounds of two key elements of that season — Thursday night Summer Series concerts at the Volunteer Park Amphitheater and Friday night movies in Cal Anderson Park.

CHS reported on the lineup for the 2023 Volunteer Park concert series here — the second season of the free shows set up to celebrate the park’s $2.7 million amphitheater replacement that opened last July. The 2023 series starts Thursday night with Khu.Ă©ex’ with Preston Singletary.

Friday, Cal Anderson gets in the game with a screening of… something billed as “The Changling.” We’re assuming the city meant The Changeling, the cult classic about a New York City composer who relocates to Seattle where he moves into a mansion he comes to believe is haunted. Continue reading →

Central District’s Powell Barnett Park makes short list as Seattle finally ready to add two new off-leash dog areas

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At the E Cherry “pop-up” dog park

The Central District’s Powell Barnett Park has made the short list for much-awaited new off-leash dog areas in Seattle.

The MLK Way park is the only District 3 location to make the list of nine final sites being considered after years of process by Seattle Parks. The final candidates joining Powell Barnett on the list include the Discovery Park North Parking Lot, View Ridge Playfield, East Queen Anne Playground, Ravenna Park, West Seattle Stadium, Brighton Playfield, Lincoln Park, and Othello Park.

CHS reported here on the high demand for Capitol Hill dog families that has turned Cal Anderson and Volunteer Park into sometimes rogue off-leash areas and the long process from the city to study and designate new sites. CHS also found one Central District dog park opened on the down low by an area developer on property awaiting future construction.

The parks department says the Powell Barnett site would be the lawn area on the north end of the park near its Play Area, Comfort Station, Basketball Court, and Wading Pool. Continue reading →

Bullitt House moves forward in city landmarks process

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(Image: Seattle Parks)

The 1955-built A-frame style house at the center of the Capitol Hill historical district property lined up to become a new city park will be considered for landmarks protections that will shape how the structure will be utilized in the new public space.

Last week, the Seattle Landmarks Board unanimously moved the nomination of the Bullitt House forward in a 7-0 vote. Continue reading →

Playground overhaul work begins at Cal Anderson Park

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(Image: @aronjaay)

Sorry, kids. The Cal Anderson Park playground is closed for construction.

It might seem cruel that, just as the weather has turned warm and summery, the play area at the busy park is fenced off but Seattle Parks says the schedule for the project is necessary as part of the cost savings from bundling the work with a contract covering other parks work in the city. Continue reading →

At center of property lined up for new Capitol Hill park, Bullitt House to be considered for landmarks protections

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As the process to turn the Bullitt property’s 1.6 acres of North Capitol Hill land into a city park slowly moves forward, the family’s 1955 A-frame house will be considered for landmarks protections.

Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board will consider the nomination of the Bullitt House on June 7th.

The land and 68-year-old home on the property left to the city after the death of philanthropist Kay Bullitt stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigious Harvard-Belmont Landmark District. Continue reading →