As the region slowly awakens from its Covid-induced slumber, here’s a bit of welcome news on the local front: the Blue Star Café and Pub is resuming dinner and entertainment! Wallyhood heard from Wendy at the Blue Star and she happily announced that starting this Wednesday (1 February), they will begin everyday hours of 8am-8pm (with happy hour every day from 4-6 pm). Trivia nights return in a few weeks, so stay tuned. The first week’s kickoff includes a live acoustic singer (Tom Melancon), Friday, 3 February, from 5:30pm-8pm. This is a free event. Live music is planned every Friday.…

If, somehow, you have missed the subtle reminders that went up in Fred Meyer and other establishments the day after Halloween:  we are now in peak Christmas-and-other-December-holiday season. So get into the spirit, darn it!  If you have anything left over after filling your gas tank, buying groceries, and paying for all that heat you’re using because we’re in another La Niña winter—please patronize our Wallingford small businesses so they can try to cover pilfered inventory and repair the broken doors and windows from their latest incidents. Seriously…it’s an awfully challenging business climate in our town these days. It would …

We posted earlier this week about obtaining Covid test kits for free through the State of Washington, through the end of the year. We subsequently received a note from Warren Chin, the Interim Supervising Librarian at the Wallingford Branch of the Seattle Public Library. He wanted to let people know that kits are also available at the Wallingford Branch, and that you can stop by to claim one or two as needed. So while you are out and about in the neighborhood, you can avail yourself of this option, in addition to ordering through the State.…

As we head into the heart of the cold and dark Seattle winter, news reports are all a-twitter (yes, pun intended) about the so-called “tridemic” of RSV, flu, and Covid. RSV has been especially hard on kids, and the flu season has already been called the most severe in 13 years. If there’s a ray of good news in any of this, it would seem to be that our region continues to show a relatively low rate of new Covid cases being reported (according to the King County Department of Health website, however, a recent data breach may have resulted …

Just in time for the holidays: the Good Shepherd Center Artists Open Studios and Sale features six artists showing—and selling!—their work. The 5th floor walk-up at Good Shepherd (with an amazing view) will be open 12 – 3pm on all Saturdays through December 17th—except Saturday, November 26th (the building will be closed during Thanksgiving weekend). The show opened on November 5, so there are still plenty of terrific items available.

The offerings include paintings, luminaries, art objects, casual profanity tea towels and dinner napkins…and much more. One of the featured artists, Mary Welch, wrote to Wallyhood and provided a little …

This is a lengthy article, but we are discussing a complex topic that does not lend itself to brief descriptions. Please bear with me!

Wallingford has experienced its share of homeless encampments and more organized communities of people without permanent shelter. For a long time, a row of RVs in varying states of functionality and decay lined Northlake Way, east of Gasworks Park. The Tiny Home Village known as Nickelsville has quietly existed across from Ivar’s Salmon House for years. Like every neighborhood where people pitch tents or construct makeshift dwellings, these places are controversial and evoke a range of …

…and no, we don’t mean the Greatest of All Time (Sue Bird, of course).  We are talking literal goats, i.e., ruminants, here. If we can convince Sue to talk to us, you’ll be the first to know.

Those of you who have ventured into lower Wallingford lately may have noticed the return of the goat herd that visits every year (except last year) around this time, in the fenced area along NE 40^th.  This is a steep and heavily vegetated piece of property that frequently hosts encampments and occasionally small wildfires. But in late summer, Rent-a-Ruminant appears on …