All posts by Wendi Dunlap

Editor of the Beacon Hill Blog.
Arts, Local Events

Los Flacos bring sounds from Latin America to the Garden House

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Los Flacos (courtesy of flacosmusic.com).

The monthly Sunday Folk Club brings Los Flacos and The Lentils to the Garden House (2336 15th Ave. S.) this Sunday, December 2, at 7 p.m.

Headliners Los Flacos (Juan Sérbulo, Tim Wetmiller, Abel Rocha, and Diego Coy) use a variety of instruments to create their own acoustic versions of songs from Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.

Opening band The Lentils features Jill Friedberg and Carlo Cennamo on accordion and saxophone playing a short set of Latin-flavored waltzes.

The Garden House opens for Beacon Bento (dinner delivered to your table from Inay’s Kitchen and Travelers Thali House) at 6 p.m., and the music starts around 7. Tickets are $7 at the door, free for kids under 12.

Upcoming Folk Club performers this winter include La Famille Leger and Peckin’ Out Dough on January 6, Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifters and Stefanie Robbins on February 3, and Fasten With Pins and Jo Miller on March 3.

Local Events

St. George’s Holiday Bazaar offers food, music, and local shopping

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There is a chance to shop locally right here on Beacon Hill next weekend at the St. George School Holiday Bazaar on Sunday, December 2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the school’s Gathering Hall, 5117 13th Ave. S.

The bazaar will feature 30 vendors, including A Clean Sweep, Choice Organic Tea, Cookie Lee, Cupcakery, D’s Organic Concepts, Italia Imports, It Works! Body Wraps, Magpie Design Shop, Miche Bags, Pampered Chef, PartyLite, Pearl in Oysters, Rosso Gardens fresh wreaths, Sam’s Club, Scentsy, St. George Parish Fil-Am Association, St. George Parish Seniors, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, and others.

All ages are welcome. Activities for children include a craft table and cookie decorating. Eighth grade students are hosting a Santa booth. Breakfast and lunch food will be served all day, including biscuits and gravy, pastries, Ivar’s clam chowder, spring rolls, Spam musubi, and more.

Performers will be on hand to entertain shoppers: Traci Hoveskeland at noon, and the St. George School Choir at 1 p.m.

Admission to the bazaar is free.

Health and Safety, Life on the Hill

Coyotes seen in the neighborhood

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Neighbor Vinna wrote with a warning:

“On Tuesday, Nov 20th around 1:30 a.m. I was driving home and on the corner of College and 21st Ave South I believe I saw a coyote. It was dark and I was able to take a picture. The next day I learned that my neighbor of four cats was missing one and found another half eaten.

“I want my fellow neighbors to be aware and thought this might be the best way in case others had pets that may be outside.”

Coyote sightings were also the subject of some discussion on the Beacon Hill mailing list this week, where neighbor Waldene wrote:

Around 9:30 pm Monday evening a coyote was on the SE corner of 12th and I believe Lee Street right across from PacMed. He acted like a scared, lost dog. I didn’t know what to do so I pulled up next to him/her and blew my horn. I was hoping to scare it back into Lewis Park but instead it ran across 12th. It looked confused.

Coyote sightings aren’t unusual on Beacon Hill. We also see raccoons and possums visiting our yards sometimes. Please keep your pets safe.

Photo by Vinna Nanola.
Food and Drink

Happy Thanksgiving from the Beacon Hill Blog

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Vintage postcard image courtesy of Ewan Traveler via Flickr/Creative Commons.

Happy Thanksgiving (a day early) and thank you for reading the Beacon Hill Blog! I am thankful for our many wonderful readers.

As has become traditional here at the BHB, here is a recipe for a Thanksgiving treat: my grandma’s pumpkin pie recipe. I’ve used this recipe many times and it is very good. If you forgot to get evaporated milk, this recipe will save the day for you—–it doesn’t use it, and you won’t miss it.

Pumpkin Pie

Start with 1 recipe pie crust. Set the uncooked shell aside. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put 2 cups pumpkin (or one small can) into mixing bowl.

add: 2 eggs beaten slightly (Egg Beaters work just fine if you want it to be lower-fat)

add:
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

then add:
1 c. scalded milk (skim milk works fine if you wish to use it, and so does soy milk)

Mix all together. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turn the heat down to 350, bake 45 minutes. It’s done when you can stick a knife in the middle and it comes out clean.

Makes 1 pie. For two pies, use a large can of pumpkin and double everything else exactly.

Enjoy!

As always, I hope some of you will try this with a Seattle tradition: Emmett Watson’s famous Thompson Turkey, the recipe for which he used to publish every Thanksgiving in his Seattle Post-Intelligencer column (and later, in the Seattle Times). After reading it every Thanksgiving for years, I can never forget the final lines: “You do not have to be a carver to eat this turkey. Speak harshly to it and it will fall apart.”

(If you do try the Thompson Turkey, by all means let me know how it is!)

Clean and Green, Meetings

Community input wanted in Lewis Park design

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The Friends of Lewis Park invite the community to the Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Ave. S.) on Tuesday, November 27 from 5:30 – 8 p.m. for a public meeting to discuss the design process for the park.

There will be food provided from 5 to 6:30 p.m. From 6 – 7 p.m., there will be a presentation of some preliminary design principles and information about the project as it stands now, and from 7 – 8 p.m., representatives from Hafs-Epstein Landscape Architecture will discuss the project and listen to community comments.

The Friends of Lewis Park event notice says “We are very pleased with the selection of this firm and just as excited to get started on the community-based collaborative process that will result in a design proposal for the park. We have a dynamic consultant, a committed steering committee and a great site on North Beacon Hill. This missing ingredient is you… the community; we need to know what you want in this park.”

The park improvement project is funded by a Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple Grant.

Flowers glow in sunset light in Lewis Park. Photo by Wendi Dunlap.
Uncategorized

It’s tree time at El Centro de la Raza

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Photo by Steven Depolo via Creative Commons/Flickr.

We know, it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, but Christmas is coming soon, and El Centro de la Raza wants to supply your Christmas greenery. The tree sale will help raise funds to support El Centro’s services for low-income families.

If you pre-order your tree or wreath by today, you will receive a discount. (See the price list here.) You can then come to the tree lot and pick a tree on any day you choose to.

The lot is located on El Centro de la Raza’s south side, 2524 16th Ave. S. It will be open starting at noon on Friday, November 23 through Christmas Eve. Open hours will be 4-8 p.m. on weekdays and noon-8 p.m. on weekends.

To order by phone or for more information, call 206-957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org.

Local Business, Local Events

Beacon Hill business people to meet for lunch tomorrow

Beacon Hill business members and home-based businesses are invited to the first Beacon Hill Merchants Association Networking Luncheon, tomorrow (Tuesday), November 20, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Tippe and Drague, 3315 Beacon Ave. S. This is the first of a planned monthly event, scheduled for the third Tuesday of each month.

Cost is $15 for the lunch. RSVPs are requested since space is limited; contact Sandra Burr at 206-255-6500 or sandra@slimdowntoneup.com. Carpooling is suggested since available parking is limited to on-street parking.

Here’s how the Merchants Association describes the event:

Join us in making local business connections, building relationships that
lead to new friendships, endless referrals, and powerful advocates!
Meet, Mingle and Connect with like-minded Entrepreneurs in a Fun and
Festive Environment

  • Enjoy a fabulous lunch, network, meet new friends, and nurture new business relationships
  • Learn how to promote, showcase, and network your business
  • Hear a variety of 60-second commercials about each other’s businesses and services
  • Door Prizes!
  • Free 2 hour on-street parking

What Do You Need To Bring?

Your smile, 25+ business cards, and be prepared to give a 60-second commercial about your business.

Let’s powerfully step into the third quarter of this year meeting some new friends, making some excellent connections, and expanding our businesses now and into 2013.

Crime

Volunteers search near Jefferson Park for signs of missing woman

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Kelsey Collins.
by Kiersten Throndsen, KOMO Communities (Beacon Hill Blog news partners)

More than three dozen volunteers with King County Search and Rescue spent Sunday scouring wooded areas near Jefferson Park Golf Course, searching for evidence of Kelsey Collins who went missing from her home three years ago.

“We have strong reason to believe she was murdered. We have seen or heard nothing since early May 2009,” said Jim Pugel, assistant chief of police with the Seattle Police Department.

Pugel would not go into to detail but said they have obtained credible information leading them to believe Collins may be buried somewhere along the greenbelt or wooded areas near the golf course.

According to Pugel, Collins was forced into prostitution by a violent pimp at an early age. She was 18-years-old at the time she went missing.

“This was a particularly tragic case. As we know young girls do not voluntarily do that, they are kept in prostitution by coercion and violence, so this one is very important to us,” he said.

The hope behind Sunday’s search was to find any evidence indicating Collins may have been buried or kept in the area at some point but Pugel admits, search crews were challenged by the environment and the conditions.

“As you can see it’s very wet out here. There are years and years of environmental debris, leaves, steep terrain in certain areas, and human garbage as well.”

Pugel says there are no particular suspects at this time but detectives do have strong leads and suspicions about who may have been involved with Collins’ disappearance and possibly her death.

Clean and Green, News, Volunteering and Giving

Local volunteer recognized with Denny Award

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Seattle Parks and Recreation announced today the winners of the 2012 Denny Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Stewardship. Among the winners: Beacon Hill’s own Craig
Thompson, who received the Community Stewardship Award for his work at Dr. Jose Rizal Park and the nearby area.

Here’s how Parks described him:

“Since 2001, Craig Thompson has been on a mission to reclaim the overgrown, crime ridden hillside at the north end of the East Duwamish Greenbelt and to activate Dr. Jose Rizal Park.

“He has spent hundreds of hours clearing brush himself and organizing work parties for thousands of volunteers. After a decade of volunteer leadership and personal stewardship, Craig’s hard work is paying off. With the completion of the Mountains to Sound Greenway trail through the greenbelt and park, activity has increased tenfold. Craig now spearheads activation. He continues to solicit and lead volunteer groups. He has provided mentorship and support to the new Off Leash Dog Area Steward. He inspired and continues to lead an Orchard Steward group, which has renovated and maintains an orchard in the park. And, he is now a Green Seattle Partnership Forest Steward.”

Additionally, Russell Odell was nominated for an award. He is a youth mock trial instructor at Jefferson Community Center.

The Denny Awards are named for Seattle pioneers David T. and Louisa Denny, who donated land for Seattle’s first park, Denny Park, in 1884.

Craig Thompson at a community meeting about PacMed development in August 2011.