This and that

We had a big day on the town Friday. A walk through the galleries then early lunch at the Seattle Art Museum restaurant, followed by the concert at noon. That weekday audience made us feel quite youthful! Although there was also a field trip of high school kids up in the balcony. Always nice seeing young people at the symphony. Our matinee crowd won't be around forever.

Speaking of young. The guest conductor was maestro Aziz Shokhakimov, a musical prodigy who made his conducting debut at age 13. Our own concertmaster played the violin solos in Scheherazade, beautiful to see and hear from the 3rd row. 

The weather was dry and weirdly sunny for November. Since it was a nice day and we had already paid for the expensive parking, we walked over to the Pike Place Market.

It's always crowded in there, but nothing like the summer cruise season when you literally have to elbow your way through. The Market is a must see on every tourist itinerary. Frankly, the locals tend to avoid it unless they have out-of-town visitors. (When you've seen one flying fish, you've seen them all.)

We avoided that fish crowd and gawked at the prices instead. We are certainly out of touch. Wow. Even the lowly snow crab legs with a morsel of meat (once called "spider" crab) are $45 a pound.The King of Crab $70 a pound.

Some cute signs outside an Irish pub on 1st Avenue: 

Soup of the Day-Whiskey
Dogs Welcome- People Tolerated
Free Beer Topless Waitresses- False Advertising

What else is new?  The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. Not. But other than a few foggy mornings, this has been a spectacular stretch of weather, two weeks and not a drop of rain. Everything changes tomorrow with the first of a series of wet and cold weather systems. Of course that's when we planned to drive over to Twisp. The latest forecast calls for freezing rain in central Washington, a nasty thing. 

That pretty branch is one of the heavy fruit spikes (not edible) trimmed from the top of Windmill Palm. After it flowers in the summer, it turns black and falls off like a big weird spider. The palm looks so neat now, albeit a bit naked.

People are often surprised that some palm varieties grow here. In fact, they're a common sight in Seattle suburban yards, although rarely as tall (or high maintenance) as ours. Native to China, the Windmill Palm can be grown in states like Alaska, Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and of course, western Washington.

The yard does have a certain wabi-sabi charm this time of year.

 

The fig tree about to drop all the leaves at once...rain returns today.

 

And finally, taken with my new phone, what we once called "trick photography." The real estate listings all use the wide angle lens to make rooms look larger. Our kitchen looks palatial! Nice seeing counters clear of stuff for one entire day. Ha! The new grout is a big improvement. Other than a few little chips and scratches on the tile, we're happy with Sir Grout.