Magnolia / Interbay

Counter intelligence: Eat, learn and enjoy from the best seats in the house

Nancy Leson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Want to eat at a counter? Need some culinary entertainment? If you're in Seattle, you're in business. We've got many restaurants with counter seats that front an open kitchen — the best seats in the house.

From this vantage point, you get the raw and the cooked! Sharp knives and hot pots! The speed of the feed! Wondering what's in the soup? Where'd they get that grass-fed beef? How to make that delicious pan sauce or brandish a squeeze-bottle like a pro? Look and learn.

Commit random acts of kindness -- all year long

Lisa Wogan — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:05:05 -0700

Since Monday, the Seattle Animal Shelter has been promoting Be Kind to Animals Week. I love the sentiment and admire the work of the Seattle Animal Shelter. I have a major soft spot for them, since that's where I found my dog Lulu. In the spirit of the thing, the Shelter suggests excellent actions such as encouraging family and friends to spay or neuter their pets, creating spaces for wildlife, reporting animal abuse or neglect, volunteering at your local animal shelter and speaking out on the importance of respecting animals.

Dog parks seek squeaky wheels

Lisa Wogan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:18:08 -0700

Over the course of the coming days, folks who love and use off-leash-areas in Seattle have a chance to communicate their passion and good ideas to the people in charge at Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Home is where the pet is

Lisa Wogan — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:27:12 -0800

The Seattle Animal Shelter hosts a cat-fostering orientation tonight. If you have the crib and the inclination, fostering a "homeless" cat is a concrete way to support these deserving animals. Cats outnumber dogs in the shelter by 2 to 1 and are reclaimed by their people at very low rates of about only 2.5 percent. As a result, they are also euthanized in far greater numbers than dogs.

Not wily enough in Discovery Park

Lisa Wogan — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:57:33 -0800

In honor of Super Tuesday, I'm checking in on the coyote poll. You know about the coyote, right?

How much is that bunny on the Webcam?

Lisa Wogan — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:10:36 -0800

I recently discovered the Seattle Animal Shelter's Bunny Cam. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., a video eye silently captures rabbit life in two glass-fronted cages. I've whiled away more time than I'd like to admit watching a pair of floppy-eared, gray Lagomorphs sleep and munch, but mostly sleep. It's calming on a hectic day.

Flora & Fauna Books puts down new roots

Kathy Schultz — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:52:09 -0800

A recent search for a field guide on the birds of Northern India led me to the charming new digs of Flora & Fauna Books. Last April, the Seattle institution moved from its subterranean space in Pioneer Square to an adorable cottage just outside Discovery Park in Magnolia.

Whatever your pace, these trails will take your breath away

Greg Johnston — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700

Sweat is trickling down your brow now, your thighs and calves are warm and working as they're intended, your mind wandering with your eye; a green and white ferry leaves Coleman Dock, a red and white Coast Guard cutter steams into Elliott Bay, seagulls squawk. A friendly female jogger smiles as she passes coming the other way, you wipe your forehead with your wrist and begin to round Duwamish Head, breathing rhythmically, feeling the sun's glow, smelling salt air. Into full view strides the Olympics, the twin peaks of The Brothers most prominent, their shoulders cloaked in fading snow.

Naturalists bring to light a usually hidden world of marine wonders

Greg Johnston — Thu, 29 May 2003 00:00:00 -0700

Another world comes out during the extreme ebb tides of spring and summer on Puget Sound, when geoducks poke their siphons into the air, purple sea stars cling to the undersides of rocks and tiny green shrimp flit about tide pools.

This is the perfect time to pull on rubber boots and explore the fascinating margin between land and sea, and it helps if you have someone along who knows his or her way around a beach, like the two naturalists who led a recent shoreline walk at Discovery Park in Seattle.