Nancy Merrill, the Lorax of Wallingford, asked us to post this reminder that it’s time to make sure your young trees are getting enough water, kindly set to verse:

Spring Forward, Bucket in Hand

One fish, two fish
Water street trees when you take out
Your trash-ish.

One gallon-ish per trunk diameter inch
Every week dear Wallyfish
Rain or shine starting now.

One block, your street
My ave, their place
Happy trees aren’t choked by sod.

Some are high and some are low
Not one of them is like another
Be a friend to the trees
Oh me! Oh my!

With apologies to Theodor Seuss Geisel

Magnuson Park is outside our bailiwick, but we’re big enough fans of the edible garden that we’re going to post it anyway:

Wallingford-based Seattle Tilth will be holding their first-ever Early Spring Edible Plant Sale this Saturday, March 20, 9 a.m.- 2 p.m at Magnuson Park, Hangar 30. If you want your pick of the choicest plants, head on over tonight, Friday from 5:30 – 7:00 pm for their Early Bird Sale. Sale benefits Seattle Tilth.

Don’t worry if you miss it, as their regular edible plant sale will follow on May 1st and 2nd at the Good Shepherd Center. And yes, we’ll remind you.

Vanessa Ho over at the Seattle P-I ran a story yesterday about the Festering Pits of Seattle (not titled as such, but perhaps it ought to be). Seems Wallingford is not alone in its despair over abandoned construction projects, and the city is considering legislation to encourage developers with stalled projects, such as we have at the corner of 40th and Stone Way, to do something more constructive while they wait.

Should such an idea come to pass, we would like offer our list of suggestions for the developers on how they could put the space to use while they wait for the opportunity to Ballardize our neighborhood:

• Giant swimming pool
• Skate park
• P-Patch
• Farmer’s market
• Monorail station
• Tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven
• Pretty much anything except a Festering Pit

Other ideas?

Back in December, we reported that the old Home Realty spot by 49th and Stone Way was being remodeled by the owners of House of Hong, the famed dim sum restaurant in the International District, and would become Bamboo Village. The My Wallingford blog has followed up with a call to the owners to get some more info:

Lee told us that the restaurant, called Bamboo Village, will open in late May or early June and will serve dim sum all day, every day. “Customers always asked to have dim sum later in the day,” Lee said. Bamboo Village will also have a full menu of mostly Cantonese and Mandarin dishes.

Dim sum in Wallingford. Epic.

“Wallingford Walks” is a series of guided tours of various aspects of Wallingford. For example, one month, they toured solar-powered homes around the neighborhood and another they toured backyard chicken coops and bee hives (hosted by nous). Walks generally start from Tully’s on a Saturday and rove around Wallingford for a couple of hours.

Mike “Build a Wallingford Community Center or die trying” Ruby has organized the walks in years past, and has asked us to put out a call for suggestions for this years walks. Got ideas? Leave them in the comment section here or join their Ning group over at http://greenwallingford.ning.com/group/wallingfordwalks.

Our first clue came from Chuck:

I just walked by a door marked Grizzled Wizard on 45th between the UPS store and the Erotic Bakery.  I did a bit of Google sleuthing and found a liquor license application by Savoy Foods and Joseph L. Couden.  But my investigative abilities end there.  Since you’re a guy in the know, or at least a guy who knows guys in the know, would you be able to find out any more info?

Always up to the challenge, we checked Everyblock and found little more than Chuck was able to discover:

Location 2317 N. 45th St.
Application date January 19, 2010
Applicant SAVOY FOODS, LLC; COUDEN, JOSEPH L
License number 083856
Event type New application
License types Restaurant / lounge — spirits, beer and wine (Less than 50 percent dedicated dining)
Action type New liquor license application

Fine, we grabbed the license number and tried a public records request. The response:

Thank you for your public records request.  Please see the information below:

Trade Name: The Grizzled Wizard
Privilege Type: Spirits/Beer/Wine Restaurant Lounge
Location Address: 2317-A N 45^{th Street}, Seattle, WA, 98103-6905
Daytime phone: 206-849-0062
Licensee: 359591
Pending Licensee: Savoy Foods
Pending people for license:  Joseph Couden

This is a pending application.  When the license is active, the application documents will be available for a public records request.  You may submit another public records request at that time.  You might want to call our office first, to ask if the license is active.

This closes your public records request.  If you have any questions, please call or email me.

Not much more to go on, but at least a phone number! But before we had a chance to call the number, ’round about 10 pm, we saw this come across Twitter:

At my bandmate’s new bar in Wallingford (the Grizzled Wizard). We’re listening to doom metal and watching ‘Day of the Dead’. Totes rad.

Saddle up the horses, boys, we’ve got some riding to do! Baby Z safely in bed, we grabbed our metaphorical hat and headed up to the 45th to get the scoop. Behold, The Grizzled Wizard:

Yes, indeed, that odd little bar next to the Erotic Bakery has re-opened under a new owner, Joe Couden and his friend and bar manager, Kendall McCormick. Friends of the owner of the old bar (which has been closed for three months, and whose name we did not collect, and which was never posted on the outside), they got their liquor license earlier today and rushed to open. With the benefit of a coterie of loyal friends and customers from the establishment’s previous incarnation (and a St. Paddy’s Day opening night), they were already doing business at a fair clip.

The plan, in case you’re wondering, is to operate a simple, neighborhood bar. When the Seahawks are playing, expect the music to be down and the TV’s on. Come the weekends, your basic blow-out. There’s food available now, but just your basic obey-the-letter-of-the-law TV dinners. The operators, both veterans of Fremont’s Swingside Cafe, suggested that maybe down the line, the offerings might expand. The darts and video games are free. The drinks are generous, and the atmosphere is boisterous.

In the process of our investigation, we happened to pull up a bar stool next to a Flash, a long-time Wallyhood reader and commenter who we’d never met in the flesh. He informed us that, in the no-bullshit manner to which we’ve become accustomed in his comments, while he liked Wallyhood, we had “too much kid stuff”.

OK, granted. But there we are, out at night, in a bar, Baby Z safely home asleep. Give us some credit, right?

Susan McCloskey, Principal of B.F. Day School, is one of three finalists picked from 18 Washington State elementary school principals nominated for National Distinguished Principal of the Year.

This accolade is sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NEASP) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education.

McCloskey was chosen as one of three finalists out of 1008 public elementary schools in Washington State.  On Tuesday, a panel from NAESP visited B.F. Day School to get a first-hand glimpse of this beloved principal in action before making their final selection.

McCloskey grew up in Wallingford and attended St. Benedict’s.  She’s been the principal at B.F. Day for 12 years and is, in my opinion, the heart and soul of the school. Within the first few days of my son starting Kindergarten there three years ago, Susan impressed me with her willingness to stand outside and greet every single student and parent in the morning during drop-off, and then standing outside again to see the buses, children, and parents off in the afternoon. She seems to know each and every parent by name and has a great rapport with each of the 325 students who attend the school.

About 80 children from Wallingford attend B.F. Day School, which is approximately 25% of its total student population.

Spring break will soon be upon us (March 29 through April 2 for Seattle Schools, to be exact), and if you haven’t yet enrolled the kiddos in some sort of activity, you might want to check out the cool week-long sessions happening at Stone Soup Theatre.  Sessions are on Monday-Friday of spring break week, from 9 to 3 p.m.

Tiki Tiki Tembo

Kids ages 5-8 can practice and perform in the Soup’s version of this classic.  Final performance will be open to parents at 3 p.m.

Peter Pan’s Adventure in Neverland

Open to kids 8-14.  Who wouldn’t want to play the part of Wendy, Peter or Captain Hook?

Registration is now open, and the tuition is $240 for either program.  If you have two students or more from the same family, you’ll receive a $15 discount.

Stone Soup Theatre is located at 4035 Stone Way N.

(This post originally appeared on My Green Lake, who totally scooped us)

After Tangletown’s beloved Luau Polynesian Lounge (2253 North 56th St) closed its doors on January 26, rumor had it that it was to be replaced by a cocktail lounge.

Excitement grew once word got out that Pour House, a bar and dining spot billed as “upscale casual without the pretension” was coming soon to the corner of N 56th St and Kirkwood Pl N.

Tonight (Tuesday, March 16, 2010), Pour House opens its doors to you.

Tonight only, opening time will be 6 p.m. Starting tomorrow, the hours will be as follows:
Sunday – Wednesday: 4 p.m. to midnight
Thursday – Saturday: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

I dropped in at Pour House this morning and met with the enthusiastic and welcoming owners, Erik Knutson and Jay Farias.

Erik and Jay hope to create a comfortable neighborhood space that “makes people happy.”  The menu, created by Chef Matt Krutenat, features “elevated comfort food,” and much of it is locally sourced. A $5 happy hour menu will be available 4-6 p.m. and 10 p.m. until closing.

The Pour House is divided into two spaces: a 21-and-over cocktail lounge and an all-ages section catering to neighborhood families.  At 9 p.m. the all-ages area becomes 21-and-over.

An outdoor seating area will also soon be available.

A peek at the menu reveals Jamaican Jerk Chicken Skewers, Manilla Clams, Cabernet-Braised Short Ribs, Fried Calamari, a Trio of Sliders, Dungeness Crab Spring Rolls, Seared Ahi Salad, Roasted Pepper & Portabello Salad, New York Steak, Alaskan Salmon, Chorizo-stuffed Chicken Breast, and Pan-seared Halibut.

And for vegetarians: Eggplant & Portabello Napoleon, Four Cheese Macaroni, Grilled Cheese & Spicy Tomato Soup, and Roasted Pepper & Portabello Salad.

Green Salad, Mashed Potatoes, House Fries, and Veggies will be available as sides.

The house cocktail offerings feature Aranciata, Brooklyn, Pink Lady, Pour House Lemonade, Spanish, and St. Germain cocktails.  The wine list includes several Washington wines. A locally-focused micro-brew list will also be available.

OK, so maybe you can’t live in a treehouse, but you can live on a boat. Sure, you could shell out $2.5M for the houseboat Tom Hanks lived on in Sleepless in Seattle, but you’ve got better things to do with your money, right? Instead, for a cool $30,000, you could buy the Frieda Fey, a 40′ 1944 Vic Frank Naval Launch converted to a live aboard cruiser.

Docked just a stone’s throw from Gas Works (literally), the Frieda Fay is the home of our friends Hannah and Joe, their baby boy Ely and their faithful hound Wilco. She’s a cozy little live-aboard boat, with the bed tucked under the bow (that’s the front of the boat, right?), a little kitchen with a fold down table and a “living room” in the stern opening onto a back deck. Says their flier:

The interior has a large pilothouse with lots of light and ample storage. The galley sports a Force-ten propane stove and full size sink as well as custom fridge/freezer and dinette. Further forward you have a Sun-Mar composting toilet and a separate shower room. The stateroom has his/hers hanging locker/dressers and a kingsize V berth . All rooms have ample 6’4” headroom. The back deck has a custom canvas enclosure with large windows. Hull is cedar on oak and has been refastened, engine is a marinized british Ford diesel with low hours on the rebuild and economic fuel consumption.

We’d always been curious what it would be like to live in one of those boats, so we’ve enjoyed living through them vicariously. They work as the on-site managers for the marina, which helps on the moorage, we’d imagine, and it sounds like a good half to three-quarters of the 70 slips in their marina are have year-round residents on their boats.

We asked them a bit about the economic of it and the life:

Moorage can run around $500 – $600 for a boat our size, less if you’re smaller. I think the economy has folks thinking outside the box and sometimes downsizing to a boat or housebarge can end up being a savings on rent and a nice upgrade to waterfront property. Liveaboard slips for rent are a hot commodity on this side of the lake, they get snatched up quick, especially if the marina has extra comforts and facilities..(ours has a sauna!)

I love to bask in the sun on my back deck on those rare warm winter days, the lake comes alive with kayaks and small boats, everyone knows the best place to be on a nice day is on the water. All of the fluffball ducklings are pretty sweet too.

The community is the best part. It’s neat to be around folks who have made a conscious choice to live in smaller quarters with close nieghbors, because you see that reflected in the friendly feel of the place. Some days it’s hard to make it down the dock to my boat because I end up stopping to chat with so many people along the way.  There really is no “kind of people that live on the water”, we have a great mix of folks: retirees, new moms, scientists, massuers, and a deep sea treasure hunter just to name a few.

We do take the boat out in the summer, the last time was for a birthday party raft-up in the middle of the Lake Union. We also have a small wooden row boat that is good for a quick escape from shore on hot summer days.

Could be you!