Wallyhood welcomes our newest sponsor, Aditi Yoga|Bodywork, located at (4206 Stone Way North, rear entrance). Here’s a little bit about the studio and information about some upcoming classes:

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The Wallingford Community Senior Center (WCSC) at the Good Shepherd Center (4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Basement) is offering two new programs this month that you’ll want to check out if you’ve got a preschooler at home, or you are a family (or friend) caregiver. Both programs are part of the WCSC’s new campaign, “Building Community Across Generations,” and I’d say with these two new offerings, they’re off to a good start!

Creative Drama for Preschoolers, Ages 3-4

Free Demo class on Monday, 2/13, 1-1:45pm
Regular class begins 2/27 – 3/26 (no class on 3/12), from 1-1:45pm. Cost: $32 for WCSC members/ $40 for non-members. Class size limited to 10 kids. Taught by Blanka Jindrich (Wallingford neighbor, former preschool teacher, studies drama in college, also a personal trainer and exercise instructor), this program introduces drama through imaginary games and story-telling. The instructor prefers that parents not stay in the room during class (to avoid performance anxieties); however, there is plenty of space elsewhere in WCSC to relax during the class. We will have coffee and tea available, as well as wifi and a public computer lab (or parents may drop-off/pick-up their child).

Please register in advance for both the Free Demo class on 2/13, and the regular class series. Call 206-461-7825, or email register@wallingfordseniors.org.

Click here to see the flyer.

Free Family Caregiver Support Group

A new group facilitated Mike Maye (R.N. and a caregiver for his wife). He is a Wallingford resident who approached us about hosting a group because he couldn’t find any support group for caregivers in the Wallingford neighborhood that did not focus on certain conditions. This group is open to any adult over 18 who identifies as a caregiver for a family member (or friend) with any condition. The first meeting is on 2/23, from 7-8pm at WCSC, and will meet either once or twice monthly thereafter, depending on the wishes of the group members. The group is free.

Please call WCSC at 206-461-7825 or email register@wallingfordseniors.org with your name and phone number if you plan to attend.

Click here to see the flyer.

If you’re interested in becoming a member of the Wallingford Community Senior Center, any individual, regardless of age, may join for just $30. Households of 2-5 people may join for just $50. Click here to learn more about membership (or visit: wallingfordseniors.org)

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Peter “Dayspring” Gaylord, a Wallingfordian of both treehouse and geocache fame, had one of his Wallingford-based geocaches featured in this sweet little video featuring five clever geocaches. The first four are demonstrations of types of geocaches. Peter’s “water cache” is for real.

(Updated: Fixed the embedded video)

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Hey, neighbors! Have I told you lately that I appreciate you? Well, I do! Thank you for being my neighbor and giving me lots tips to write about here on Wallyhood!

You, too, can appreciate your neighbors during the 18th annual Neighbor Appreciation Day held this year on February 11. It’s a day in Seattle when we interact with the fine folks, groups, and businesses who make this neighborhood a great place to live. The city has lots of planned activities, which you can find here. There are several ways to participate:

• Plan an activity for your neighborhood such as a block party, potluck, or work party. The website, www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/neighborday, provides ideas, tools, resources, and templates to help community members organize an activity. Once organized, the event can be posted to the online calendar at www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/neighborday/eventsubmit.htm (the submission can be made public or private).
• Send out Neighbor Appreciation Day greeting e-cards to your neighbors. The selection of e-cardsfeature artwork from past winners of the Neighbor Appreciation Day Student Art Contest.
• Share a story or two about your favorite neighbors. Community members can visit the Neighbor Appreciation Day website to post stories about great neighbors or their neighborhood.
• Attend one of the many community activities listed on the online calendar. Seattle Fire stations, Seattle Parks and Recreation community centers and pools, and other organizations have special Neighbor Appreciation Day events and work parties planned.

Our neighborhood doesn’t yet have activities planned, but we’ll keep you posted once we hear of any organized events in Wallingford.

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Love Yogurtland? Then get yourself over to the “Blue Spoon Frenzy” at the Wallingford Yogurtland and celebrate National Frozen Yogurt Day.

Monday, February 6 only, starting at 4 pm, the first 200 guests will receive 8 ounces of free yogurt and toppings. The tasty treats will be served in a one-day-only limited edition National Frozen Yogurt Day cup with a collectible blue spoon. (We’re hoping that both are compostable, as are the usual Yogurtland bowls and spoons).

The free yogurt offer ends at 7 pm if the 200 free samples haven’t already been claimed.

Yogurtland in Wallingford:   2320 N 45th, on the NW corner of Sunnyside.  634-2900

This offer may also be available at the Yogurtland stores in the U District, Capitol Hill, and Bellevue.

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Following the destruction of the old Chuck Berry / Elvis Presley / Jim Hendix mural on the side of Golden Oldies back in August and the aborted replacement, a new new replacement is finally underway.

The Seattle Weekly notes that the new mural is the work of noted muralist David Heck and will feature the likenesses of the Fab Four, a la Abbey Road…if Abbey Road was a stretch of I-90 leading up to Snoqualmie Pass, perhaps?

(Thanks to Nancy M. for the heads up!)

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Photo by Noe Alexander

Sick of paying $5 for a bunch of organic kale? Tired of anxiously peering into your CSA box every week only to find 14 pounds of your least favorite root vegetable? Maybe it’s time to switch it up a little bit, and trade trips to the grocery store produce section for the promise of a delectable supply of super-duper local produce via a CSA from City Grown. Wallingford’s own urban farmers are expanding their operations and looking for new Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) shareholders with appetites for fresh yummy garden goods.

City Grown’s CSA memberships are a handy way to shop local, ensure an influx of fresh and healthy food into your family’s kitchen and a great way to meet your neighbors! Unlike traditional CSA programs, City Grown sells shares of their organic goods that the members choose themselves at the Wednesday Wallingford Farmers’ Market and the City Grown farmstand on Eastern Avenue (hours for the farmstand are yet to be determined–check their website and Wallyhood for updates in the coming weeks).

City Grown is a distributed, urban farm whose primary goal is to “bring people closer to the source of their food, both physically and in their level of understanding.” Vegetables are grown in the yards, parking strips and vacant lots of Wallingford and Ballard residents, farmed by the City Grown crew and volunteer workers and enjoyed by the farmers, and happy-tummied local families. This partnership in food production forms the core of the City Grown enterprise. It’s all about neighbors and locals working together to use the fertile Seattle soil for the production of healthy and delicious food. So get in touch today! City Grown is accepting CSA memberships (with discounts!) through February 28th. To find more information, meet the farmers and get involved, visit the City Grown website.

Photo by Gerry Chu

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Tomorrow is the big day people, the one you’ve all been waiting for: the day Madison Avenue unveils the greatest advertisements of the year!

Yes, tune in tomorrow for the finest in one-minute entertainment from Volkswagen, GE, Audi and more starting tomorrow, Sunday Feb 5th at 1 pm.

Also, there will be some sort of sporting event broadcast amongst the commercials.

Now, should you wish to gather with your fellow Wallingfordians to watch said commercials and sporting event, there are certainly opportunities.

Murphy’s Irish Pub (a Wallyhood sponsor) will be hosting a Super Bowl party featuring $5.50 for a shot of Jim Beam and a Tall Rainier, $7 Domestic Pitcher, $4 Bloody Marys and $3 Mimosas.

The Iron Bull, being a sports bar and all, no doubt will be a full house, too (although they didn’t respond to our mail asking for details). Kate’s Pub should be full up, and maybe the Publican? You tell us, where are you spending Sunday afternoon?

BTW, if you want to check out the commercials without the hassle of the whole football thing, they’re all on-line already.

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Wallyhood reader Andrew wrote to tell us this bit of bad news from Wednesday night:

On Thackeray Pl., north of 45th St., mine and my neighbor’s car were both hit by a drunk driver. I was asleep at the time, and was woken up by a roommate, around 10:30, after the incident. My car got a good scrape on the passenger side, largely bad comestic. The drunk driver proceeded straight into the right front fender/headlight area of the car, knocking it back about five four to feet from where it was parked. My neighbor told me that the driver continured up Thackeray, hitting other cars, and then even made it to I-5 before SPD got him/her.

Sorry to hear that, Andrew. Any other readers have their car hit on Thackeray Wednesday night?

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Looks like Wallingfordians took Metro up on it’s offer to “Have a Say” regarding its proposed system-wide restructure. You may recall, there were many advocates who wanted Metro to keep Route 26. Now, with a new round of changes to the proposal, King County Metro has decided the following:

Routes 26, 28X, 31, 40 (now numbered as Route 20), 48X, 355X, and the Water Taxi shuttles operated by the King County Ferry District (Routes 773 and 775) were previously included as part of this proposal. In response to public feedback, we are no longer proposing changes to these routes at this time.

According to Bruce Nourish of the Seattle Transit Blog, King County Metro released its revised restructure proposal yesterday.  In the post, Nourish does a pretty amazing job summarizing what routes have been changed and what hasn’t, and adds that while Metro hasn’t published individual route maps yet, you’ll be able to see them on the System Restructure page on the Have a Say site. Nourish adds, “Metro staff tell me that citywide and neighborhood-by-neighborhood maps will be available by the end of the week.”

Nourish goes on to summarize route changes by neighborhood. For Fremont, Greenwood and Wallingford, he writes:

Fremont, Greenwood and Wallingford: All routes have been returned to their current configuration, except for the replacement of the current Route 17 with Route 18; however, with the introduction of RapidRide E, it’s likely that Metro will reexamine this area next year.

You can read more of Nourish’s post here.

Linda Thielke of King County Metro also provided us with the addition, changes, and deletions affecting Wallingford:

Green Lake – Fremont – Wallingford

New Routes: RapidRide C and D Lines, and 32

Routes proposed for routing or frequency changes: 3, 5, 13, 16, 28, 30

Routes proposed for deletion: 45, 46

All the details are at: www.kingcounty.gov/haveasay. We are working to add maps and more information to that site in the next few days.

With regard to Route 16, Nourish writes on the Seattle Transit Blog, “Minor changes to Route 16, but the bus will still travel directly into Northgate TC via 92nd St versus looping around on Northgate Way.”

All changes will take effect in September, during the system-wide service change. This updated proposal is still open for public comments and review, beginning February 13. Here’s a schedule of six open houses:

• Monday, Feb. 13 – Ballard High School
• Wednesday, Feb. 15 – Madison Middle School, West Seattle
• Thursday, Feb. 16 –Chief Sealth High School, Delridge/White Center
• Tuesday, Feb. 21 – Union Station, Downtown Seattle*
• Thursday, Feb. 23 – Queen Anne Community Center
• Monday, Feb. 27 – Washington Middle School, Central Area/Mt. Baker        ·

Open house meetings will be held from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. *Feb. 21 meeting from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Riders who are unable to attend an open house can share their comments by responding to an online survey on Metro’s website.

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Last June, we wrote about a new bilingual preschool in Wallingford — Cometa Playschool.

Future families of Wallingford’s two language immersion schools will be interested to know that Cometa Playschool (4106 Stone Way N.) will be offering a Spanish Immersion Pre-K class beginning this fall.

Owner and lead teacher, Manuela Slye wrote to tell us that she’s be hosting an open house at the Wallingford location on Saturday, February 18, from 10:00AM to noon. For more information, email Manuela at info@cometaseattle.com or call 206-353-6781. Cometa’s website is: www.cometaseattle.com

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Let's get this project started.

Seattle is a really cool place to live. We have an incredibly vibrant collection of community-driven projects, where residents act on their passions for sustainability, public art and usable public space to create everything from public orchards to street murals to ballfields.  Sometimes, these projects require more resources than the participants can offer up, and this is where Neighborhood Matching Funds grants provide a huge leg up.

There are 3 levels of grants within the NMF program, each designed for different sizes of community projects and requiring varying amounts of planning and effort. The Large Projects Fund awards up to $100,000 per project including large-scale programs like the Salmon Bay School Playgrounds Renovation Project in Ballard. The Small & Simple Projects Fund (up to $20,000) funded the 46th Street Mural in Wallingford. The Small Sparks Fund awards up to $1,000 in matching funds for small-scale efforts and community events that aim to build foundations for larger projects in the design and planning stages. Check out this great video highlighting some of the more recent NMF projects.

Deadlines for these grants are staggered throughout the year:

• Small Sparks Fund grants are awarded throughout the year.
• Small and Simple Projects deadlines are March 12th and October 8th, 2012.
• Large Projects Funds applications are due on July 16th, 2012.

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Mark your calendars, folks, because the awesomely-cool annual Science Night at Hamilton International Middle School (1610 N. 41st. Street) has been rescheduled for next Tuesday, February 7, from 6:00PM-8:00PM. You may remember that Science Night was originally slated for January 17, but had been canceled because of the snow.

Don’t forget that some of our Wallingford neighbors will be exhibiting at Science Night as well:

Wallingford volunteers for The Think Green Recycling Challenge will be on-hand to talk about how our neighborhood will can will win the $50,000 grant that’s up for grabs. They’ll also have specific information on how to recycle certain things in Wallingford and Seattle, and there might be a fun game or two to test your recycling knowledge.

Also, the folks helping to plan the Wallingford Neighborhood Greenway will be onsite to talk about our awesome greenway project along with the Cascade Bike Club, who will be putting your mad pedaling skills to use for making bicycling smoothies! Rumor has it that the folks exhibiting the greenway will have a pretend Traffic Garden in the hallway.

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Of all the new flavors and foods permeating Wallingford, one stands out among the rest as damn-near perfect stick-to-your ribs-style comfort food: Cajun-style gumbo, delivered right to your door by Gary’s Gumbo.*

Gumbo? Yes! Random? Yes, but I guarantee that once you’ve tried Gary’s Gumbo, even if you’ve never tried gumbo before, you’ll love the way it warms you up during a cold, dark day. And if you already are a gumbo aficionado, you’d be hard-pressed to find a tastier and more authentic-style gumbo this far away from the Mississippi.

The man behind Gary’s Gumbo is Gary Reynolds, a native Texan who grew up on the swamplands close to the border of Texas and Louisiana where people make Cajun-style gumbo, which is a bit different from the New Orleans, Creole-style of gumbo. Gary explained that while Creole gumbo (from New Orleans) has more okra and vegetable chunks, Cajun gumbo is dark and soupy. Cajun-style gumbo hails from the Mississippi River where folks lived on the bayou in isolated swampland. It wasn’t until the 1930s that they built a bridge across the Mississippi so the area had “a whole different kind of vibe there,” according to Gary.

When Gary and his wife Paula moved to Wallingford nine years ago, he couldn’t find decent gumbo anywhere in the city. “One place had gumbo that actually tasted like BBQ sauce,” he said. So, he’d ask his parents to ship some out on dry ice, and then he began making his own based on a recipe he’d been using for 25 years. Whenever he traveled back to Texas, he’d fine-tune his shrimp gumbo recipe trying to figure out the key to making it perfect. He would go back into the kitchen at Cajun restaurants and say, “I’m looking for this flavor, you gotta tell me how you do it…” and no one would give up the secret. “I finally figured it out. It’s a secret, though,” he said. “People who cook it at home can’t find the key to cooking it like restaurants.”

Right now, Gary cooks his gumbo out of his buddy, Andrew’s kitchen over at Seamonster under a trade agreement: the restaurant serves his gumbo and he uses their kitchen.

“When I would cook it at home, it would end up taking like 5 or 6 hours. It’s an event. Back home, people cook it over the weekend for friends. I’d cook it for my friends up here and everybody likes it but you can’t make a small batch, so I would essentially just give it away to all my friends.”

So, he decided to branch out and sell his gumbo around town as a side hobby to his day job, as the owner and manager of Electrokitty Recording Studio here in Wallingford. So far, his gumbo has been selling out every week.

Gary makes a chicken and sausage gumbo, a shrimp gumbo, and a vegetarian gumbo that has tofu, okra, and kidney beans. “It’s almost blasphemous but I figure I might as well try it,” he adds. I tried the shrimp gumbo, which had a little bit of a kick to it at first, right at the back of the throat, but it was more flavorful than too spicy. And the shrimp – I’m not kidding – was the most tender shrimp I’d ever had. Both my kids (picky, picky eaters, I might add) tried the gumbo and wanted more.

To order, visit Gary’s website: garysgumbo.com Or email him at: Garysgumbo@gmail.com. And check out his Facebook page, too (click on the link or search for “Gary’s Gumbo”, for up-to-date information). Choices are Chicken and Sausage for $12/quart (or a seasonal Turkey and Sausage for the same price), a Vegetarian gumbo for $12/quart, and his signature Shrimp Gumbo for $16/Quart. Each quart comes with rice and in the future, Gary hopes to add on additional items like red beans and rice.

Wallyhood readers will receive $2 off of their first order!

*Gary offers free same day delivery within Seattle city limits.

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If you’re interested in learning more about Salmon Bay School (a Seattle Public Schools K-8 Option/Alternative School located in Ballard), we posted a summary last year, which you can find here.

Below you’ll find Salmon Bay’s open house dates (beginning this Thursday, February 2), but first, this interesting bit of information from Salmon Bay, considering the current capacity management situation:

Salmon Bay School, an Alternative K-8 public school, is expanding its 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes next year.  (They currently have 1.5 classes per grade and have multi-age classes.  The expansion, which began last year in kindergarten and 1st grades, will make it so all grades have 2 classes each).  There are also, as always, seats in Kindergarten and 6th grade.

SALMON BAY IS EXPANDING
Salmon Bay will be expanding it’s 3rd, 4th and 5th grades for the Fall of 2012 to help address the district capacity management challenges.  We will continue to have open seats at our 6th grade level, as well as our kindergarten level. Salmon Bay is a K-8 Alternative School and an option to neighborhood assignments.

All families may apply for placement to Salmon Bay.  Transportation is given to families who live in Hamilton or Whitman reference areas.

ENROLLMENT PRIORITY
1) Sibling
2) Geographic Zone – (73rd NW, 9th Ave NW, NW Market St and 22nd Ave NW)
3) Lottery

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

• Project based learning
• Student centered culture
• Integrated curriculum
• Outdoor, environmental and experiential learning
• Strong family and community support

TOUR DATES/TIMES
ELEMENTARY K-5 – Daytime
Thursday, February 2nd  9:15 AM
Thursday, February 9th  9:15 AM
Thursday, March 8th 9:15 AM

Evening Tour: Thursday March 1st 6:00 PM

MIDDLE SCHOOL 6-8 – Daytime
Thursday, February 2nd  8:30 AM
Thursday, February 9th  8:30 AM
Thursday, March 8th 8:30 AM

Evening Tour: Thursday March 1st 7:00 PM

For more information, visit www.salmonbayschool.org

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