Gardeners have been anxiously awaiting the time when they can send in their postcards for a chance to buy the much coveted “Zoo Doo” or “Bedspread” composts from the Woodland Park Zoo.

A steaming pile of Zoo Doo. Photo courtesy Woodland Park Zoo.

Well, the time is now. Send in a postcard from Sept. 1-23 to request your compost (you can request both Zoo Doo and Bedspread, but separate postcards are required and only one postcard per person is eligible for each drawing). Entry cards will be selected randomly for as many entrants possible. “Dr. Doo” will contact the lucky drawn entries only.

Send a standard postcard to Dr. Doo, Woodland Park Zoo, 601 N. 59th St., Seattle, WA 98103. Include the following information:

• Name
• Day and evening phone numbers
• Preference: Zoo Doo or Bedspread
• Amount of Zoo Doo or Bedspread you’d like to purchase (anything from a garbage bag to a full-size, pick-up truck load)
• Weekday or weekend preference for pick-up

Pick-up dates for Zoo Doo or Bedspread begin Oct. 1 and end on Oct. 17. Winners load their own compost, but Dr. Doo will provide shovels. Costs: pick-up truck 8×4 bed – $60; 6×4 bed – $45; 6×3 bed – $35. Limit one full truck per person. Garbage cans: $8 to $10 depending on size; bags $4 to $6 depending on size. Two-gallon and pint-sized buckets are available anytime at the ZooStores for $14.95 and $4.95, respectively.

Next week, North Seattle Community College is celebrating the grand opening of its 46,000-square-foot Opportunity Center for Employment and Education.

Photos from Doug Scott.

Although it first opened in May, the ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, which will be followed by a brief program, reception and building tours.

The new enployment center, which provies aid to more than 400 North Seattle residents a day and features classrooms, public computers as well as copiers, fax machine and phones available to those searching for work, also offers: [Read more →]

After months of waiting, the new Maple Leaf location of Flying Squirrel Pizza Co. is scheduled to open this Thursday, Sept. 1, at 5 p.m.

The restaurant is taking the place of the former A New York Pizza Place at 8310 Fifth Ave. N.E., and required more extensive renovations than was originally expected, owner Bill Coury told us at the Maple Leaf Life Summer Social (where we snapped his picture at right).

He also told us the pizzeria would be open in time for Labor Day, and it looks like that deadline will be met. From his email:

A couple Flying Squirrel FAQ’s….

Yep…we’re kid friendly. We don’t have a play area, nor encourage
running around, but we’re a family place!
Yep…we’ll have gluten-free options.
Nope…we don’t sell pizza by the slice.
Yep…we have lots of local beers and wines.
Nope…we don’t sell hard alcohol.
Nope…we don’t deliver.
Yep…we do takeout and love to see the neighborhood folks when they
pick up their pizzas.
Yep…we have amazing, salads, pizzas, appetizers, and sell Molly Moon
ice cream pints to go (also scoops in-house)

And a word of warning: In addition to fighting the Maple Leaf crowds that have been waiting for Flying Squirrel to open, you might have to fight Flying Squirrel’s loyal Seward Park fans for the first couple of weeks while that location is undergoing an extensive renovation. From Flying Squirrel’s Facebook page:

ATTN SEWARD PARK! Flying Squirrel Pizza in Seward is about to undergo a complete kitchen renovation. Due to this, we will unfortunately be closed starting tomorrow, Monday Aug. 29th - Sept. 15th. Sorry! However, we’re opening our Maple Leaf location on September 1st! So if you need a Squirrel fix, head on up and say hi to us in Maple Leaf.

It’s going to be an exciting weekend in Maple Leaf!

We know it’s late summer, and we know the weather’s been good for weeks - but this is a bit much. Or maybe a lot much.

Linda emails:

Greetings! My husband and I are organic urban farmers/gardeners in Maple Leaf.

See attached photo of this amazingly tall sunflower in our yard! Is this what happens to plants when the sun finally comes out in Seattle???!!! My husband is 5′ 8″ for reference.

She and Walter didn’t even plant this monster - it volunteered and grew to a mere 5 feet before they left in early July for a month in Europe.

“When we returned on August 6 the height shocked us. Since then it’s just gotten taller and taller! We estimate it’s about 14 feet tall now. The flowers are finally opening; starting at the top but it’s loaded with buds up and down.”

In urban wildlife news, Linda also reports that a sharp-shinned hawk visiting her 5,000-square-foot yard has been trying for song birds. “And finally, had a Lourquins Admiral butterfly visit our veggie garden this past week too!”

She attached a photo of their front gardens from late June.

Any other exceptional garden photos out there?

Photos courtesy Linda Versage

The owner of Maple Leaf’s COA Mexican Eatery & Tequileria, 7919 Roosevelt Way N.E., has been making the news in recent days over a controversy in Mount Vernon that has resulted in community members calling their mayor racist.

In addition to recently opening COA, owner Edgar Carreon is also in the process of opening a similar restaurant with his brother Carlos in Mount Vernon called Calle Tacos Tequila — a process that now is on hold after Mayor Bud Norris asked the state to halt the liquor license.

Norris, who openly discusses wanting to make English the official language of Mount Vernon, made a similar request when another Hispanic restuarant sought a liquor license for the same location just a year ago.

Read more about the controversy via the following news stories:

• Mount Vernon mayor rejects racism implications (shown above) from KING-5 News
• Mount Vernon Mayor Accused Of Discriminating Against Latinos from KUOW/94.9-FM
• MV mayor opposes tequila bar, thinks English should be city’s official language from the Skagit Valley Herald
• Coa’s Owner Expansion Efforts Thwarted by Racist Mayor from Eater Seattle

A sale that covers the east sidewalk of Roosevelt Way Northeast at Northeast 88th Street is now setting up.

It’s big enough to turn the corner and run down 88th as well.

Cool gear includes a dissecting microscope and a fine wooden ironing board.

Check it out!

Free peanut butter! Free eggs! Free apple juice! (Minimum purchase required.) Today only!

The newly renovated Wedgwood Safeway, at 7340 35th Ave. N.E., is offering great deals all day today, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., to celebrate its expansion.

The celebration is similar to the one held when the Pinehurst Safeway reopened last November.

So stop by the Wedgwood store, pick up a coupon book and a flier at the door and start shopping. (Don’t miss the Tillamook cheese, usually $7 a brick, today two for $5.)

Also by the door is a donation bin for the North Helpline food bank. Pick up something and donate.

Budget cuts have hit North Helpline hard. In a letter to donors this month, Amy Besunder, executive director, notes:

Our client base has nearly doubled over the course of the last two years. Every week we see new faces and every week we monitor the decline in our food stocks. We have walked out to a nearly empty warehouse following food distribution and wondered how we will serve our clients the following week.

But, thanks to your donations, we keep on going!

This post is from our sister site My Green Lake.

The Aljoya Outdoor Market at Thornton Place is open for business - and getting a lot of it.

The prices are great: 50 cents for an ear of corn, 70 cents for a head of Romaine lettuce.

Aljoya is catering to both residents of the senior living facility there and commuters from next-door Northgate Transit Center. It runs from 4-6 p.m.

The market, at 450 N.E. 100th St., includes fresh produce and baked goods and is overseen by the chef at Aljoya’s Lilly’s restaurant.

He’s not offering food demonstrations this afternoon, but he is offering this 7-inch pizza for $4.

There’s plenty of other goods. The location is outside the Bistro patio at Fifth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 100th Street.

This post courtesy of our sister site Fremont Universe.

For those of you who read, and commented on, our report on a raccoon attack here last week, we picked up this nugget from our Fremont site.

“Meet Rocky, a raccoon who shows up at a home in Fremont often to do whatever it is that Rocky is doing.”

Catie, who shot the video, says the action took place three feet from her bedroom window.