Buzzing Around

HAPPY BUMBLE: Above is one of the dozens - or perhaps even hundreds - of bumblebees that visit our yard on the daily. This one loved our lavender. You can see it has been packing pollen onto its 'hips.' 

FRIDAY NIGHT STROLL: On July 15, CJ and I went for a Friday evening stroll through parts of  Seattle's expansive ( ) Volunteer Park. Our first stop was the Louisa Boren Lookout.

It's at the northeast corner of the park, and offers views of Lake Washington, Husky Stadium, and the Cascades. There were a number of people there enjoying their dinner al fresco. 

Oddly, the city of Seattle Parks' Website doesn't offer any information about who Louisa Boren is or was. I'm guessing she was part of the Boren family that is now a  major street running through the city, near now Interstate 5.

A quick Google search told me there is also a Seattle Public Schools building named after her (it's in West Seattle). Per the school's website, Boren (1827-1916) "was one of the Washington Territory pioneers and a founder of the city of Seattle."  

We also strolled the historic Lake View Cemetery. I could spend hours there. There are so many stories there. One of them involves an expansive terrace where members of the Denny family are buried. Interestingly enough, Louisa Boren's mother was widowed young, and she remarried into another Seattle-famous family, the Dennys. Interestingly, Louisa ended up becoming a Denny, as well, by marrying her step brother, David Denny (and her sister Mary Ann married a Denny step-brother, as well). 

Per the bio, in addition to being a teacher and a mother of eight, Louisa Boren was an early suffragette, and and advocate for the Chinese workers settling in Seattle.

In another part of the cemetery, one towering monument certainly captured our attention. Upon closer examination, we  learned it is to honor American soldiers of Japanese heritage from the Seattle area who died in World War II.

I love the FDR quote on it: “Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart. Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”

We definitely had to stop by to pay respects to Bruce and Brandon Lee, who rest side by side. It's hard to believe Bruce Lee died 49 years ago. Wow.  And Brandon was killed more than 29 years ago.

It's hard to read in the photo, but the inscription on Brandon's grave reads, "Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless." 

Definitely food for thought. ...