The oldest tree at our house isn’t doing so well – it’s been pruned strangely, and is starting to need replacement.
I was told by neighbors that the city has been coming every 4 years or so to prune it back, since it is near a power line – which is strange, since the pruning involved topping the tree, which I know is not recommended at all. I was looking up details, and here’s the story:
http://www.seattle.gov/trees/expertsArchive.htm
09/05/2008
Q:Years ago someone planted 2 cedar trees on the strip between the sidewalk and curb in front of my house. These trees are huge and are under power lines. The city at some point topped the trees and continues to cut and butcher them every year. It is a shame but I think these trees are better to be cut down. Is the city able to help me take care of this?
A: Our City Light experts had this to say:
It sounds like the trees are too big for their location and have to be trimmed to maintain a safe clearance around the power lines. Seattle City Light maintains a 10 foot clearance around the high voltage electrical lines by having electrically qualified tree trimmers safely prune the trees (http://www.seattle.gov/light/neighborhoods/nh4_trtr.htm ).
Long term, it makes more sense to replace trees like this with smaller trees that don’t require such extensive pruning to protect electrical safety and reliability. Seattle City Light will replace trees when we are working in a neighborhood so you may have to wait until we come back. When work is upcoming, we leave door hangars for residents whose trees are going to be pruned. Use the contact numbers on the door hangers to discuss opportunities for potential removal and replacement of your trees through the Urban Tree Replacement program (http://www.seattle.gov/light/neighborhoods/treetrim/tt3_replace.htm ).
Planting the right tree in the right place is key to keeping Seattle green.
King County (Seattle’s county) is definitely lagging (hugely) behind the other counties that I have lived in – Oakland County (Oak Park/Southfield/West Bloomfield) and St. Louis County (WashU). Wonder why? Size is one issue (King County is huge), but the participation spread seems to be large enough to have another cause. Mail delivery speed is actually a likely cause as well, of course.
On a related note, Detroit proper is having major problems with the census; it’s not in any of the counties I am comparing below, but I really hope they find a way to get Detroit properly counted so it gets the federal funds it so desperately needs – for a good article, see http://www.freep.com/article/20100324/NEWS05/3240326/1322/Few-in-Hamtramck-Detroit-mail-census-forms. This article got me interested in checking out the participation in general.
From http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/
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We’ve been trying to get Aviva to have a variety of spices and ethnicities in her diet, as she continues to explore the world of solid foods. Last week, we took her for Ethiopian (Queen Sheba), which she really enjoyed – especially eating the spongy injera bread, but also the veggies – they are pureed similar to baby food after all, so it works well.
Looking for another good food for “eat with hands” and pureed consistency, we ventured over to Cedar’s on Brooklyn today for some Indian food. She loved this one – sharing our full meal, she went to town on the Naan, Channa Massala with Paneer (chickpea simmered in spices with paneer), and Dal Maharani (lentil in spices). Pictures, as always, tell the full story – including watching Aviva get messier and messier as she eats; not an uncommon occurrence, of course.
BTW, for a great read about feeding babys/toddlers the various culinary delights of Seattle, I highly recommend reading Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton. Joelle and I loved this book, and it’s given me lots of great ideas.
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Happy Valentines Day from Aviva (and all of us)!
(PS Sorry I haven’t blogged much; Facebook has been getting nearly all of our picture and video uploads, since frankly, it’s so easy. I have a goal to start doing longer blog writing more again; expect that to start “any day now!”)
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A couple of friends stayed over the house this weekend, and we decided to pull out a bouncing ball and see how their son and Aviva enjoyed the ball. They both loved “kicking” the ball, as you can see in this video we captured of Aviva and me playing “foosball”.
(as always, you might need to visit the actual post to see the video – it is also online on Facebook if you’re on there)
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While we were in Michigan a few weeks ago, an old family friend stopped over at my parent’s house and entertained us all by putting on a performance of her puppet show, starring Coco the monkey. It was actually a very special moment for me to experience with Aviva and Joelle, as I have such fond memories of seeing the same show when I was younger. Aviva was enthralled with it all, but was especially amazed (and laughing) when Maureen/Coco pulled out her/his kazoo, and started (through ventriloquism) playing the kazoo; Aviva giggled more than any of us had seen before, and was rapt with attention whenever she guessed the kazoo was coming back out.
Upon arriving back in Seattle, I had finally got around to buying a kazoo for myself to entertain Aviva last weekend. As I dropped it on the floor by mistake last evening, Aviva “scooted” towards it, and picked it up – turns out, she’s quite a natural kazoo player – who knew?
Here she is learning the kazoo:
And here she is putting on quite a performance: (and yes, she’s starting to sit a little – can’t really hold it too well yet, so I am holding on to her feet in this video)
(as always, you might need to view the actual post to see the video.)
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I want a BlackBerry – no matter how far away it is!
01 Nov
Posted by: aaron in: Aviva Tzipora Averbuch
Aviva’s really started to move around over the last couple of days. While I wouldn’t call it crawling yet, she sure manages to creep from place to place!
She also has a few favorite things to try and grab – Molly, of course, but also either of our cell phones, along with her set of fake keys.
I had accidently left my phone on the floor, and Aviva decided it needed to be hers – video ensued!
(you might need to visit the actual post to view this video, as usual. If you are Facebook, it’s the same video I already posted there).
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I decided to see what Aviva would do if I plopped her down in front of the computer, since she was eyeing me earlier while I was on it. Quite a typing prodigy, she is:
dzdddddd..gcd
vbc\x]]]/q\\’z
/
Not quite sure what that means, but I’ll take it :)
Look at me!
Typing away!
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Trip to the East Coast, Labor Day 2009
27 Sep
Posted by: aaron in: Aviva Tzipora Averbuch, family, travel
As I alluded to in the previous post, Aviva took her first trip to the East Coast last month. Joelle had a conference for work in Baltimore, and since both her parents live in the area, she made an extended trip out of it, spending time at each of their houses, and took advantage of getting Aviva some excellent grandparent time during the conference days as the grandparents played nanny (quite excellently, I might add). I had to work at the beginning of the trip, so this also served as Joelle and Aviva’s first time flying together solo – quite successfully, from what I am told. I joined midway through, and got to spend some nice time exploring Baltimore (National Aquarium, Inner Harbor, etc…) along with a quite wonderful weekend in Potomac, MD with Joelle’s dad and stepmom (and new dog Waldo – quite a character!).
As always, pictures tell the story:
Joelle and Aviva spent the first part of the trip at Grandma Sue's in Virginia - had a great time!
Got to ride a train around Burke Lake Park
Went to the AAPA Conference (American Association of Pathologists' Assistants) in Baltimore, where Aviva met some of Joelle's old grad school friends
Spent Labor Day weekend in Potomac with Grandpa Allan, Grandma Barbara, and their new dog, Waldo! Waldo was quite intrigued by Aviva, and the feeling was mutual :)
Smiley time with Grandma Barbara!
Aunt Amanda came in for the weekend to see Aviva; she got to see Aviva's new game of "everything goes in the mouth!"
Took Grandpa Allan and Grandma Barbara out for their anniversary for some very good Lebanese Food
Aviva had a great time at Girls Shopping Day out!
Took a great trip to the National Zoo to see the animals
Had to cover Aviva's eyes for this one!
Just relaxing on vacation!
More relaxing :)