Serenity and a Snake

GARDENING: We're endeavoring to walk every morning this week (and weeks going forward!), in part to get ready for our trip in September, which will include a fair amount of walking, I'd guess.

I asked the kids where they wanted to walk today, and Annabelle suggested Kubota Garden. 

For years and years and years, we've driven along I-5 in south Seattle and seen a freeway sign that suggested a visit to Kubota Garden. For years, we've said, "We should stop there," and then kept on driving.

Well guess what? Now Kubota Garden is just a couple of miles from home. And today was our first visit!

What a lovely place it is! 

I'll let Annabelle tell you a bit more about it. ...

Kubota Garden is a Seattle City Park located in south Seattle, very close to our home. The garden is on a plot of 20 acres and includes Koi ponds and water features. According to the Seattle parks website, Kubota Garden “blends Japanese garden concepts with native Northwest plants.”

The park was acquired by the city of Seattle in 1987, from landscaper Fujitaro Kubota’s estate. Mr. Kubota’s work on the garden started in 1927, when he bought the swamped over plot and began terracing it. Today, the park is kept in shape by generous volunteers who donate their time to work.

The park itself has multiple beautiful bridges made of stone and wood, including the two stand-out red bridges crossing the larger streams. There are beautiful waterfalls running across a long stretch of the land that we crossed multiple times. There is a multitude of plants and they’re all wonderfully taken care of. It’s definitely worth finding the Koi ponds and watching the fish. It’s so calming that one of said ponds is known as “Contemplation pond” (see photo below). 

The park is also a great place to walk and find your own secret pathways. Our objective on our visit was to walk across as many bridges as possible (which included a concrete bridge that our dog Laika fell off of). The park is a great place to relax and unwind and it makes for good exercise too. I would very much recommend it if you live in or are visiting the area.

CJ has some observations to share, as well.

Kubota Garden is a twenty-acre public park located in south Seattle. According to its official page on the City of Seattle's website, Kubota Garden blends the style of Japanese gardens with plants from the Pacific Northwest.

In 1907, Fujitaro Kubota, a man from Shikoku, Japan, immigrated to the United States. In 1923, Kubota established the Kubota Gardening Company, which would support the development of what would become Kubota Garden. In 1927, Fujitaro Kubota bought the first five acres of land for Kubota Garden. In 1972, Fuijitaro Kubota was awarded with the Fifth Class Order of the Sacred Treasure (an extremely rare honor) by the Japanese government.

Kubota Park is best known for its garden. Throughout the park's twenty acres, there are multiple ponds, some of which have koi in them.

If you climb up the path to the top of a hill, you can get a gorgeous view of the park from above.

Kubota park has multiple bridges of different construction methods (a staple of Japanese gardens). Examples of these include:

• A steep arc bridge made of concrete.

• Concrete rectangles connected to one another.

While I've never been to an actual garden in Japan, I believe that Kubota Park represents a fascinating deviation from more common garden styles in the U.S.  

Thanks CJ & Annabelle, for your observations!

During our stroll, we saw pretty petals aplenty.

 Honestly, even the pond scum in the park seemed artistic!

We also found places to perch ... 

 and shady spots.

All in all, a gem of a public park. We so glad we finally visited! And can I add that the park is a great place to play Pokemon Go! (quietly, I promise).

Apologies that my photos aren't better. I did the best I could between the heavy shroud of smoke everywhere and the fact I was shooting only with a crappy cell phone camera. Oh, how I miss having a working digital SLR. 

HOT STUFF: Yesterday, Seattle set a record. Not necessarily the kind of record you want to set, but a record nonetheless. The Emerald City has had 52 days in a row with no precipitation. That's the first time that has happened since record keeping began. 

All it would take is .01 inches of rain at the airport, where the official measurement it taken. But, alas, that has not happened for a long darn time now.  (The previous long, dry spell was in 1951, in case you're wondering.)

As it turns out, Seattle isn't the only hot spot. Today on social media, Scientific American shared a video from ClimateCentral.org.

It's a visualization of how everyhwere around the globe is getting hotter, based on GISTEMP data (animation credit Antti Lipponen).

https://youtu.be/K4Ra2HR27pQ


NOT SO FASssssT: This afternoon, a social media post from Seattle Parks and Rec certainly grabbed my attention. It read, "Venomous copperhead snake spotted at the top of the sandy bluff in Discovery Park (map below). Staff currently roping off area. Be safe!"

Say what?! That park was in our old back yard, so to speak. What the heck would a copperhead snake be doing there?! They're nowhere near native. 

A couple of people chimed in after the post, pondering the same thing. Parks & Rec was quick to respond a Fish and Wildlife expert had IDed the snake as the deadly copperhead.

I looked at this photo they posted of it and thought, "Hmm ..."

There was a brief period of my childhood I was semi obsessed with snakes and read everything I could about them in books (this is pre-Internet, people). I didn't think the snake in the photo looked like a killer copperhead; I thought it looked like a harmless (and often a pet) corn snake. 

I pulled up photos on the Internet, and that instantly confirmed my suspicion. Meanwhile, another person posted the same to the Parks and Rec announcement. 

Meanwhile, I received two urgent alert emails about the danger in the park. One, from the Discovery Park Public Education Program Specialist, read, "A copperhead snake has been sighted in Discovery Park. Currently the dunes area is closed to visitors. The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department have partnered with a herpetologist from the Woodland Park Zoo to locate the snake. Until that time please enjoy the rest of the park but please stay away from the South Bluff area until it is recovered. Thank you."

About ten minutes later - after all of the local papers and television stations had picked up the story and ran with it - the "oops" message came, with Parks and Rec saying that a herpetologist from Woodland Park Zoo said it was definitely a corn snake. 

Nothing to see here, slither along.