2024.5.15. Barber of Seville

5/15, Wednesday. Seattle Opera's Barber of Seville is a real treat. Very funny. Lively and fun choreography. Good acting. Nice stage set. Beautiful costumes. 2 acts with a 25 min intermission. First act is twice as long as the 2nd. The story is typically operatic silly: Figaro plays matchmaker between the savvy Rosina and the lovesick Count Almaviva, while Rosina's vulturous guardian does everything he can to keep the lovebirds apart.

2024.5.14. Steven Pinker speaks at Town Hall

5/14, Tuesday. Steven Pinker promoted his book Rationality, part of UW's Public Lecture spring series. Despite of some valuable examples, I didn't find the lecture engaging or fun. More like reading notes. The questions afterwards are mostly long winded and uninteresting, except for one lady, who asked his preference of the 2 rival bagel shops in Montreal.
Afterwards, people lined up for book signing.

2024.5.10-12 Aurora Borealis

Drove to Canada for a few days, it happens to be a northern light weekend.

5/8, Wednesday. Late afternoon, headed out to Pitt Lake for an easy walk. Saw 2 Osprey at their nest. A few red-winged black birds. This is one of my favorite locations in the Great Vancouver area: scenic, not too much traffic, not too many people, many options with long or short loops. Very quiet on this Wednesday. However, seems it has been discovered. The parking lot will be installing a fee collection station starting on May 17th (till Octobor). This year, the water level is so low, that there's only one short channel that a boat can get out into the lake proper without risk being stuck in the mud.

5/10, Friday. At 9:40pm, we headed out to SFU's Starry Night (every Friday on a clear night). Forgot to bring a flashlight ! Maybe 50 people are roaming around next to Trottier Observatory. A couple of telescopes were set by their proud owners. I got my phone attached to one of them for this beautiful photo of our moon. Then, we queued up to enter the observatory. It was slow going.

While waiting, as the moon set, we started to see faint aurora. Tonight, an unusually strong solar storm unleashed the color in the sky. University of Alaska's aurora forecast called for 8/10 solar activity. For 5/10, I was flying to Alaska (twice) to see the light (both failed). We could see pink and green, albeit more faint then fancy camera (even newer phone camera) can capture with long exposure. These photos are from my old phone (2019 model), more realistic, on par with what my eyes saw. The color light was all over our heads (360°), shifting. Not all the time, but frequent enough. Red is dominant. Green next.

Inside the observatory, all we were shown was an LCD panel that's connected to the telescope. In fact, the solar storm had made the star image not as clear as usual. Need to peek through the solar system. We were looking at Galaxy M81. The volunteer students went on and on about black hole. Anyway, we were disappointed.

It was past midnight, we drove down the hill (a lot of cars coming up to SFU campus now), and headed to Pitt Meadow area (near where we walked 2 days ago), hoping for darker sky. But this time, so many cars leaving, shining the road like daylight. Unfortunately, around this time, the color wasn't as good. Mostly white and green. I like the framing of water with the night sky.

5/11, Saturday. Back home was almost 2am! I picked up my luggage and drove back to US, hoping to see more northern light on my way. Yes, I did. Mostly white and green. I made two stops, for nap and watching the night sky. Got very sleepy.

5/12, Sunday. The solar storm continued to Sunday evening (wasn't in the forecast on Friday). The strength on Sunday was 7 out of 10. The moon was 21%, much brighter than Friday. After it set at ~1:50am Monday, I went out to the waterfront, slightly less artificial light. Too cloudy. I didn't see anything.

2024.5.7. Mima Mounds + Tacoma Port

5/7 Tuesday. I had booked a bus tour with Port of Tacoma a month ago. Planned to checkout Mima Mound before the tour, as it's the time for camas.

On my drive south, I first stopped at Nisqualy NWR. I've always like it here. Maybe better to come during dusk or dawn to see more birds. This spring, the water is suprisingly low. I didn't see any migrating birds. 1 heron, 1 female hooded merganzer, 2 bald eagle sitting in the mud flat. A couple of people carrying camera with large scope and tripod.

I visited Mima Mounds a few times before, now (spring) is better. The flowers were not as abundant as Glacier Heritage Preserve when we visited ~10 days ago. The mounds are more pronounced here. A lot of camas, buttercup and lomatian. Patches of penstemons. This time, I walked more south than before, less people and more flowers. Overall, very quiet on this Tuesday.

I arrived at Falbulich Center (the meeting location) for the bus tour of Port of Tacoma exactly at 1pm. It's a large office building, and I had no idea where exactly I shall be. No front desk. Had to find someone to ask where the tour is. The bus was waiting outside on a different side. It left soon after I boarded the bus. There were ~3 more empty seats. A few things I learned that I still remembered:

• the Port Authority doesn't own all the land here. There's a concrete business operating here before the port.
• you can rent space here. One of the largest tenant is car detailer. See the photo of new cars parked here, all with white roof and hood cover.
• crew of these ships stayed onboard, so they don't need to go through immigration
• there are special organization to handle onboard crew members' need (medical, grocery...)

• cranes are lined perpendicular to the ships, each (un)loading a row of containers
• each container is then loaded onto these trains (see photo) by this kind of truck
• odd shaped objects are operated by special crew, and they enjoy the challenge
• Port of Tacoma had to buy neighboring properties to avoid being developed, so avoid being sued for noise or other problems

The view from the bus is often limited. The guide is entertaining. One of the guy working at lift dock came up the bus and talked to us. He's black. Very nice and happy to chat. He said he loves his job. That's good to hear. My fellow tour participants are almost all white. We returned around 3:10pm.

2024.5.5. Red Mountain South Peak

5/5, Sunday. 70% precipitation. 8 of intrepid hikers convened at Issaquah at 7am, went to scramble a peak no one else would have bothered (well, so it would be new to everyone). Here's the Red Mountain proper, the north peak (highest).

We parked 3 cars by the road. T.C. the organizer weighed everyone's pack. He demanded 20lb minimal. We started on a decommissioned road. The road is in bad shape, well on its way back to nature. A creek crossing or rather a big ditch crossing that's not too easy. At some point (~1.8 miles in), we need to scramble up to connect to decommissioned Red Mountain Rd, which is in such bad shape where we hit it, we just continued scrambled, up on the ridge.

Once we reached the top of the ridge, continuation doesn't look good. We scrambled down south, ~200', all on steep-ish rocks, then traversed (right) west to below Red Mountain, before scrambling up, soon in snow.

Once reached its ridge, it is flatter. A few trees on the summit. Light snow, windy. T.C. produced 2 bottles of wine, a bottle of whisky! All glass bottles. Didn't stay long, as it was chilly, too cloudy for a good view.

Heading down south straight, hitting the decommissioned Red Mountain Road after losing ~1200'. Followed the road, ducking branches here and there. The group overshot the road, had to return to scramble down to the lower unnamed decommissioned road. There, we decided to cut straight down. It was okay for awhile, but soon ran into thick willow or alder. It was pretty bad, slow progress. Finally down to Copper Road. Walked the road for a bit back to the car.

2024.5.4. Martha Washington Park restoration project with David Perasso

5/4, Saturday. WA Native Plant Society, Central Puget Sound Chapter, organized an open house at Martha Washington Park to see the result of a multi-year project by David Perasso and his team (see David's talk last year: restoring the oak understory with native plants. Some lessons I learned (of no particular order):

• build a fence and plant brushes outside to hide the fence.
• don't plant too many varieties, or too many seedings;
• when you order your seeds, you may not receive what you ordered, so better propogate yourself;

• difference between common camas and great camas, other than the height. Quamash (left) is lighter in color, the seed is formed while petals are open; Leichtlinii (right) is more indigo, the petals curl around the seed. Both bulbs are edible, but requires long cooking.
• Camas are easy to grow. If too many, harvest when flowering, before seeds were formed. Camas seed will form root and dig down for 3 years. Then, it'll stop and form the flowering bulb;
• Paintbrush is parasidic, needs grow with something else, and that could be snowberry.
• Rhododendron wood is poisonous, don't use as firewood. Honey made from some varieties of rhodies can be hallucinogenic.
• don't rely on student helpers. They still have a life, and will abandon you :)

The park itself has a flat lawn and the slope has some oaks and a tall madrone, before it goes down to Lake Washington. Some dog poop. The oak area is small. Other than camas (the highlight of this season), there're chocolate lily, columbine, thimbleberry, red-stem ceanothos (leaves have a faint smell, quite nice). Not much to look at.

One of the participant today highly recommended everyone to visit Glacier Heritage Preserve next Saturday on Prairie Appreciation Day. They talked about the golden paintbrush. What a conincident.

I met up with Yoko who's a horticulcurist. She gave me a ride back to downtown. We were planning climbing before, but had't met for over a year.

Today is the Asian and Pacific Islander Festival at Seattle Center. I quite enjoyed it. Especially the martial art, the Chinese yoyo, Kpop dance, Kahoot (trivia) at the end, and all the colorful costumes. The announcer is funny. A large turnout.

2024.5.3. Orquestra Northwest - celebrating spring

5/3, Saturday. Orquestra Northwest's spring concert featuring music from North America, and a young directing student.

• American string quartet - Antonin Dvorak
• Fantasy for a Gentle Man - Joaquin Rodrigo
  Mark Wilson on Guitar
• Pueblito Viejo - Jose A. Morales
• La Gata Golosa - Fulgencio Garcia
• Mi Buenaventura - Petronio Alvares
• Kalamary - Alejandro Tobar

• Dance - RimaWayNina Cumbe

This concert is better than the previous one I went in Town Hall. Quite entertaining, less toddlers. There were students on stage, but mostly adults. Wind section is not as good. The dancers brought color to the auditorium. 5 on percussion. Not sure why attendance was poor.

2024.5.2. First Thursday at UW Arboretum

5/2. A first Thursday. Monthly (except for December) guided walk. I had always enjoyed these walks. Lately, seems to be the same guides.

This time, the highlights are:

• yellow peony
• azalea and rhododandron are nearing peak. In Greek, rhodo = rose, dandron = tree.
• yellow or orange rhodies or azalea often have a faint fragrance
• a woodpecker with red hair (there's a nest close by)
• new(ish) art installation mimicking the cells in the leaves (I didn't like it much, because all the crooked wires, not smooth, rather clumsy)
• golden English oak is now in its most glorious bright yellow
• common comfrey's dark purple bud and white flower color contrast

Biked to arboretum this time. Much faster than the (2) buses.

Afterwards, I biked to Japanese Garden (free first Thursday) that's less a mile south. It's a good time to come here, because azalea was blooming very well.

2024.5.1. Margaret Cho at Town Hall

5/1, 6:30-7:30pm. Not sure why UW Public Lecture series features a commedian, but I'm glad that they did. This event is hosted at Town Hall Seattle, which is convenient for me (20 min walk). The event was sold out, when I registered for the whole series. But later, it became available. The reminder email warned us that 15 minutes before curtain, the tickets would be released to those who hadn't signed up. I heeded to the warning and arrived early. The auditorium is quite full, but you can still squeeze a few dozens in.

Cho is funny. She wore black top and bottom, comfy fit. Seems lost some weight compared to her photos I can find online. She touched on these few topics:

o her beginning of career was bandished by the Korean community elders.
o comedians she likes.
o welcome menopause.
o non-binary gender.
o her immigrant parents owning a gay bookstore in the 60s and 70s.




Another interesting things is how Q&A is gathered. You can ask question by emailing
lectures@uw.edu. So, more anonymously.