Highline/SeaTac Botanical Gardens will be hosting their annual “Ice Cream Social and Plant Sale” on Sunday, Aug. 15th, with special guest Ciscoe Morris and FREE ice cream to the first 300 guests.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Ice Cream Social & Plant Sale with Ciscoe Morris.

WHEN: Sunday, August 15, 2010, 1:00pm to 4:00pm.

WHERE: Highline/SeaTac Botanical Gardens, located at 13735 24th Ave S, SeaTac, WA 98168.

INFO: From a flier (download PDF here):

Join us in the garden on Sunday, August 15th for our 4th annual Ice Cream Social.

This year’s Celebrity Guest will again be Ciscoe Morris, who hosts “Gardening with Ciscoe” on KIRO 97.3 FM radio and KING 5/NWCN television, and is the author of the best-selling garden tome, “Ask Ciscoe”, as well as a weekly column in the Seattle Times.

Ciscoe’s topic will be “Create a Hummingbird Haven in a Pot or Garden ”

The fun starts at 1:00 p.m., with Ciscoe taking center stage in the Celebration Rose Garden at around 2:30 p.m.

Local nurseries & designers will plant 10 gorgeous pots. Register to vote for your favorite container & get a chance to take it home for free. Door prizes & free ice cream to the first 300 guests!

More information: www.highlinegarden.org or 206-391-4003.

Other featured events include:

• Silent Auction
  Bid on a variety of great items including two Aw Pots personally planted by Ciscoe, a room at SeaTac’s Radisson Hotel, a sightseeing flight around Seattle with pilot Warren Hendrickson, an original oil painting by Kathy Wyckoff, garden art, garden tools, a complete bird-gardening kit, and more!
• “Humm-dingers!!!”
  Local nurseries and designers will again plant up 10 gorgeous pots donated by Aw Pottery. This year’s theme is plants that attract hummingbirds. Just show up and register to vote for your favorite container and get a chance to take it home for FREE!!! HGBF members get two extra chances to win! Memberships will be on sale the day of the event.

Participating designers and nurseries include Clinton Bamboo Growers, Design of the Times, Dogwood Design, Minter’s Earlington Greenhouse and Nursery, Furney’s, West Seattle Nursery, Herr Backyard Garden Center, and Branches Garden Center.

• Free Aw Pottery Pot to first 40 new members!
  Be one of the first forty people to join the Highline Botanical Garden Foundation during the event and receive a gorgeous, frost-proof Aw Pottery pot! (NOTE: IF YOU PLAN ON ENTERING THE CONTEST, BRING A VEHICLE LARGE ENOUGH TO TAKE HOME YOUR WINNINGS! THE PLANTED POTS ARE BETWEEN 24″ AND 36″ TALL AND MAY WEIGH AS MUCH AS 75 POUNDS!)
• Door Prizes Galore!!!
  Register to win two free passes to the 2010 NW Flower and Garden Show, a “Cascadia” compost bin from the City of SeaTac, and gift packages from Benson’s Best Bites, Hey Paison, The Tin Room Bar and Grill, 909 Coffee and Wine, Vino Bello, Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub, and Elliot Bay Brewpub.
• Free Ice Cream to the first 300 guests!
  Please join us in the garden for an afternoon of the very best in gardening “edu-tainment”, ice cream, and of course, brussels sprouts!

For directions to the garden, click here.

The next Rat City Rummage will be Saturday, May 15th from 2pm to 6pm in the upstairs room of Big Al’s Brewing, and there’s still room for vendors.

If you’d like to be a vendor at this art show, email your website info or three images of what you’d like to sell at the show to:

Here’s more info:

WHAT: Rat City Rummage Sale.

WHEN: Saturday, May 15th from 2pm – 6pm.

WHERE: Upstairs room of Big Al’s Brewing, located at 9832 14th Avenue SW in White Center.

INFO: Here’s some copy from their website:

Next Rat City Rummage will be Saturday, May 15th

From 2pm to 6pm @ Big Al’s Brewing 9832 14th Avenue Southwest, Seattle, WA 98106

In the upstairs room.

If you’d like to be a vendor at this art show please email us your web site info or 3 images of what you’d like to sell at the show: ratcityrummage@hotmail.com

To avoid too many of the same type of vendors this is a juried show.

If accepted, you will recieve an email confirmation no later than May 10th with an application & paypal invoice.

Booth space is limited to a 2×4 table, booth fee $10

Vending is open to handmade arts and crafts & baked goods.

General information on the event:

• No entry fee for shoppers or other “hidden” fee’s
• Vendor set up at 1:00pm take down no earlier than 6pm.
• You or a booth sitter must stay until 6pm, no early take down.
• Event runs 2pm to 6pm

This event is part of the monthly White Center art walk put on by White Center for the Arts. You are welcome to keep your booth open for the duration of the art walk which ends at 9:00pm, but only required to stay until 6pm.

Bring your own displays, plenty of change, tables, chairs, snacks and whatever else you may need for the day. This will be an indoor event, location: Big Als Brewing 9832 14th Avenue Southwest, Seattle, WA 98106.

This is an all ages event.

White Center for the Arts is a group of artists with diverse backgrounds who have come together to form a non-profit organization focused on supporting the arts in White Center. Our desire is to offer space where local artists can show their work, and to provide a place to learn learn about art. We want to provide classes to young and old in many media, bringing out the rich diversity of culture that can be found in White Center. And we want to have fun!

Thank you for your interest in Rat City Rummage.

One of West Seattle’s biggest and best sales for more than 50 years, St. John’s 2010 Sale is full of good deals on items of all kinds, and will be happening both this weekend and next at their location at California Ave. SW & SW Hanford in West Seattle.

The sale includes a Treasure Shop, linens, books, plants and gardening supplies, a terrific assortment of kitchen ware, clothing and more.

According to an email we received: “You name it, you’ll find it here.”

Sale hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, April 16 & Saturday, April 17 AND Friday, April 23 & Saturday, April 24.

They also add: “We receive a lot of new items between the sale weekends, so it’s worth more than one trip.”

Donations will be accepted for the second weekend of the sale and can be dropped off at St. Johns during the following times:

• Monday, April 19 – 6-8 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 21, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 22, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church
California Ave. SW & SW Hanford
3050 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116
Info: 206-937-4545
www.saintjohnonline.org

All proceeds benefit St. John’s outreach programs.

The next Rat City Rummage Sale will be held from 2pm to 6pm on Saturday, Dec. 19th at Big Als Brewing, which is located at 9832 14th Ave SW right here in the Dub-C.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Rat City Rummage Sale

WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 19th from 2pm to 6pm

WHERE: In the upstairs room at Big Als Brewing 9832 14th Ave SW 98106

INFO: From their website:

If you’d like to be a vendor at this art show please email us your web site info or 3 images of what you’d like to sell at the show. To avoid too many of the same type of vendors this is a juried show.

If accepted, you will recieve an email confirmation no later than December 12th with an application & paypal invoice. Booth space is limited to a 2×4 table, booth fee $10

Vending is open to handmade arts and crafts & baked goods.

General information on the event:

• No entry fee for shoppers or other “hidden” fees
• Vendor set up at 1:00pm take down no earlier than 6pm.
• You or a booth sitter must stay until 6pm, no early take down.
• Event runs 2pm to 6pm

This event is part of the monthly White Center art walk put on by White Center for the Arts. You are welcome to keep your booth open for the duration of the art walk which ends at 9:00pm, but only required to stay until 6pm.

Bring your own displays, plenty of change, tables, chairs, snacks and whatever else you may need for the day. This will be an indoor event, location: Big Als Brewing 9832 14th Avenue Southwest Seattle, WA 98106.

This is an all ages event.

White Center for the Arts is a group of artists with diverse backgrounds who have come together to form a non-profit organization focused on supporting the arts in White Center. Our desire is to offer space where local artists can show their work, and to provide a place to learn about art. We want to provide classes to young and old in many media, bringing out the rich diversity of culture that can be found in White Center.

And we want to have fun!

Thank you for your interest in Rat City Rummage.

by Ralph Nichols

For the second time in three years, King County is attempting to renege at the 11th hour on a deal with the City of Burien.

The King County Library System reportedly has entered into a preliminary agreement to purchase Puget Sound Park at 1st Ave. S. and SW 126th St. from the county in a deal brokered by through the county executive’s office.

Puget Sound Park is located in the unincorporated area of North Highline that is to be annexed by Burien early next year.

But the stealth attempt to sell the park – initiated and discussed by the county without informing the city of its intent – prompted Burien council members at their meeting on Nov. 23 that they will postpone official annexation of North Highline, which tentatively was set for March 2nd (read previous coverage on The B-Town Blog here).

Burien officials and North Highline residents now hope that new King County Executive Dow Constantine, who was sworn in Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 24), will intervene to block the sale, thus allowing Puget Sound Park to go to the city as part of annexation.

Constantine represented Burien, North Highline and West Seattle on the King County Council until his election as county executive in November. Because of his swearing in, he was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Burien City Manager Mike Martin informed council members about the pending sale of the park – which he learned about only late last week – at Monday night’s meeting and recommended that they not vote, as scheduled, on an ordinance setting March 2 as the effective date of annexation. They agreed unanimously to postpone action at this time.

“We expect to have that park,” Martin told The B-Town Blog today. “No annexation deal will be done until we get that asset.”

Mayor Joan McGilton sent a letter to Constantine on Nov. 20, requesting his “direct intervention in this matter.” She noted that city attempts to contact county staff had not produced “satisfactory results.”

“I think we can agree that such a delay is not in the best interest of our residents, and comes at significant additional cost to the County’s general fund,” McGilton told Constantine.

Martin said he only learned about the county’s interest in selling Puget Sound Park – initiated when Kurt Triplett was county executive – during a recent conversation on another matter with Fire District 2 officials, who said the property had been offered to them.

After they declined, King County reportedly contacted the King County Library System, which said yes to the offer and subsequently signed a letter of intent.

“We didn’t know what was going on until then,” said Martin. County officials had given the city no indication of their plans, despite the fact the park is in the area to be annexed by Burien.

Staff in the executive’s office under Triplett – who was chief of staff to former county executive Ron Sims until Sims resigned earlier this year to take a position in the administration of President Obama – apparently hope to make about $500,000 on the sale of the park to help plug the $56.4 million shortfall facing King County next year.

Greg Duff, president of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, said, “The people of North Highline want their parks. We want our open spaces. For them to do that now is a slap in the face…. The people of North Highline voted for annexation and want King County to stop messing around.”

Shortly after the August election, when residents of the southern part of North Highline approved annexation by Burien, Triplett proposed mothballing King County parks to reduce general fund expenses by $4.6 million.

Constantine quickly responded, opposing Triplett’s plan to cut funding for the parks in unincorporated areas. “Parks are important to the health and quality of life of everyone in the communities,” and closing them would be “short sighted,” he said.

In 2007, Sims pulled out of a deal signed years earlier with Burien and the Port of Seattle for the demolition of the Lora Lake Apartments, which were operated by King County Housing Authority, to pave the way for commercial development in the city’s Northeast Redevelopment Area.

Although the county successfully won control of the apartment complex, it later was demolished anyway because soil contamination made it unsuitable as a residential property.

A local arts collective called White Center for the Arts is holding their first Open Studio Art Tour from 5-10pm on Saturday, Feb. 21st at the White Center for the Arts Building (formerly the Southgate Skate Rink) and current home of the White Center Swap Meet.

Speaking of Swap Meets, it looks like that weekend event is being re-tooled (at least for one day) as “Rat City Rummage” on Saturday Feb. 28th from 10am-6pm, with “live art, food and vendors selling whatever they can fit in their space!” There are still 10 x 10 foot vending spaces available for just $20 – email ratcityrummage@hotmail.com for more information.

Here’s a snippet from their press release:

White Center for the Arts is a group of six artists with diverse backgrounds who have come together to form a non-profit organization focused on supporting the arts in White Center.

Our desire is to offer space where local artists can show their work, and to provide a place to learn learn about art.

We want to provide classes to young and old in many media, bringing out the rich diversity of culture that can be found in White Center.

And we want to have fun!

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