A frontal line moving south produced a spectacular sunset tonight over Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.

The forecast calls for lows of 25 degrees for the next three nights, through New Year’s Eve.

Days should remain sunny, but cold, through New Year’s Day .

Kyle emails: “We found a ring on the sidewalk on Christmas Eve outside of LeBlanc (across Roosevelt Way Northeast from Maple Leaf Reservoir Park and near the Rez). “If anyone is missing a ring and can describe we would be happy to return it.

“Thanks.”

Solstice week is ending, and the Solstice Day tree has vanished from Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.

For those who donated decorations and would like them back, they are in a box in the pavilion.

Any left behind will be saved for possible future use.

Photos courtesy Dane Doerflinger Photography.

Welcome to Christmas Eve! And a gray one, at that. (1.22 inches of rain in last 24 hours.)

Two things:

From Seattle Public Utilities: “No garbage, yard waste or recycling collections are scheduled in Seattle on Thursday, Dec. 25.

“Thursday and Friday collections will be collected one day later that week due to the Christmas Day holiday. Please be sure to have your containers available by 7 a.m., to ensure collection.”

Also, beginning a week from Thursday the city gets tough on trash.

From our news partner The Seattle Times:

Starting Jan. 1, food scraps, pizza boxes and paper napkins won’t be allowed in garbage cans. For the first six months, violators will get notices from the city; after that period, violators will be fined $1.

It gets more complicated, but, yes: “Drivers will be watching for the materials and will inform the city about violators”

The Times’ story is here. Many, many comments on it are here.

Rose messages on Facebook:

Hi Maple Leaf Life, could you ask Maple Leaf to be on the look out for suspicious mail theft activity?

We have had our mail stolen several times this last week, our neighbors have as well. We live on Northeast 96th Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast.

We have had several neighbors from a few blocks away return our empty envelopes which they say were left in their yards.

We’ve anecdotally heard similar reports. Any more?

Update 12/22:

More decorations are arriving:

Happy Solstice Maple Leaf!

Sunday afternoon, as the light was fading from the sky, a Solstice Day tree appeared on the east end of Maple Leaf Park, at the pavilion.

It has lights, a single ornament (a dog, of course) and an invitation to neighbors to bring ornaments to fully decorate the tree.

Celebrate the return of light!

Update 5:45 p.m. 12/23: Ralph is back home.

Dionnie emails:

Our dog, Ralph, is wandering around the neighborhood. Sneaked out of the house last night.

He is a black Labrador/Chow mix with a blue collar. Please call 206-335-3569 if found. Thanks.

Update:

Mary emails at 2:47 p.m.: “If any one is missing a gray male pit bull I just saw him wandering down 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 94th Street.

“He had a blue collar. Hope he makes it home safely.”

There’s a brightly decorated tree in Maple Leaf Reservoir Park this morning.

It’s on the north side (where it joins an earlier artistically decorated feather tree).

But … (more later).

Speaking of trees: If anyone needs a really tall Christmas tree, there’s a free one waiting on Northeast 89th Street between Roosevelt Way Northeast and 12th Avenue Northeast.

How tall? We’d say 14-16 feet. Tall enough to almost hit utility lines when we stood it up.

Gonna take a high ceiling.

By the way, check out Maxine’s entrance on this Solstice day.

(Spoiler alert: Doesn’t look like it.)

Eric emails: “Thought you might be interested in this story. ‘The Northeast 75th Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast Safeway may be changing to a locally owned Haggens.’”

He references a story in Friday’s Seattle Times which notes that Haggen, out of Bellingham, “has entered into an agreement to acquire 146 stores as part of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) required divestment brought about by the merger of Safeway and Albertsons announced in March.

For the last three years, Haggen has been remodeling the remaining Haggen and Top Food stores to highlight its ties to the Pacific Northwest by rebranding the stores as Haggen Northwest Fresh.

“Our Pacific Northwest grocery-store chain has been committed to local sourcing, investing in the communities we serve, and providing genuine service and homemade quality since it was founded in 1933,” John Caple, chairman of the Haggen board and partner at Comvest, said in a statement. “We will continue our focus on sourcing and investing locally even with this exciting expansion.”

However, “our” Safeway - yes,the one with the murals of Maple Leaf, Ravenna and Roosevelt in its underground parking garage - is neither on Haggen’s store acquisition list nor its map of stores to be converted to Haggen from either Safeway or Albertsons.

The closest potential new Haggen stores are the current Safeway in Shoreline (15332 Aurora Ave. N.) and the current Albertsons in Lake Forest Park (17171 Bothell Way N.E.).

It’s true that roughly a car per day is prowled in Maple Leaf.

It’s not true that, despite the Northgate Mall and transit center, it’s the most likely place to have someone break into your car.

New Seattle Police statistics, released this week, indicate the most cars are prowled on Capital Capitol Hill and a chunk of downtown.

In the 28 days from Nov. 16th to Dec. 13th, 1,043 car prowls were reported to Seattle Police.

Thirty percent of them happened in that one area:

The morning after. Good work, Seattle City Light.

Some work remains to be done.

——————————————————————————————-

4 p.m.: Multiple Seattle City Light crews on scene. Say they will be able to replace the pole without turning off power. !!

A Seattle Police officer photographs the roped-off intersection.

Two things this afternoon:

1) Shortly after noon a CleanScapes recycling truck struck a utility pole at 12th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 89th Street, breaking the pole at its base and again toward its top.

Seattle City Light is on the way. Neighbors (including Maple Leaf Life South) may well have their power/landline/cable interrupted as the pole will have to be replaced.

2) Eric emails:

On 12/11 my car got broken into in front of my house at Northeast 91st Street and 15th. Avenue Northeast.

They stole my prescription sunglasses and spare change. The glasses will be discarded as soon as they realize they are for somebody with a significant astigmatism. If somebody finds a pair of Rudy Project sport sunglasses, I’d really like to get them back.

Thanks.

The annual Green Lake luminaries - path of lights - starts at 4:30 tonight.

Singers, musicians and thousands of people will stroll the 3.5 mile paved path at the lake.

Earlier tonight outside the Boathouse.

It appears that Real candles have returned! (We stopped going during the LED candle years.)

AND there’s no rain in the forecast. (We have been to some very soggy luminaries. And one memorably so-thick-you-can’t-see-six-feet-ahead foggy one.)

Details are here. If you can, bring non-perishable food bank donations.

Many species mingle at the luminaries.

Updates:

All over.

9:20 p.m.: Part of ViewRidge is out.

9:15 p.m.: 3,000 out in Laurelhurst.

8:50: Outage in Maple Leaf. Three customers at about Fifth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 90th St.

8:40 p.m.3,000 out in Lake Forest Park.

At 8:20 p.m. winds gusted to 38 mph here at Maple Leaf Life South. Lights are flickering, radio’s in and out.

1:46 p.m.: This update from Cliff Mass:

Nearly everyone will experience gusts to 40-50 mph tonight and some more (coast, near the Sound, NW Washington).

I would not plan any ferry trips tonight and if you need to cross the Sound do it before dinner. I suspect a few hundred thousand folks will lose power in our region, so be ready.

The Seattle office of the National Weather Service says:

THE REMAINING LOWLANDS INCLUDING PUGET SOUND AND THE NORTH INTERIOR WILL HAVE HIGH WIND GUSTS DEVELOPING AFTER 6 P.M. THIS EVENING.

How high? Up to 60 mph here, the weather service says.

The man - Thomasdinh “Dinh” Bowman- accused of the 2012 drive-by shooting of Yancy Knoll at 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 75th Street was this morning found guilty of first-degree murder.

Our news partner The Seattle Times is following the story here.