photo by Ballard Avenue

No fresh Ballard cat photos today, so we turn to the vaults for this snap from last spring's trip to New York. If you're living on the Upper West Side, Manhattan Cat Specialists looks like a pretty good place to get little Felix fixed.

She's from Belgium, he's from Catalunya, and they've got that French thing down pat. Please give it up for 21 BOuTONS!

photo by Ballard Avenue

We've seen the bridge down here and here; now someone wants to see the bridge up. Done.

photo by Ballard Avenue

It's time for another Ballard cat and, given the change of season, it should be a cat of fall colors.

photo by Ballard Avenue

The freighter Lietta, registered in the Marshall Islands, takes on a load of grain at Terminal 86 of the Port of Seattle. I don't imagine there are many ports where you can use a rose garden to frame your photo of port operations.

photo by Ballard Avenue

It's not easy being a salmon. Everyone wants a piece of you, as this fish found out. Was it a seal? A sea lion? A boat propeller? Who knows. It's hard to imagine carrying on with the migration home when you have a chunk taken out of your side, but remember there's some good fish lovin' waiting for you when you get there.

map from Google Analytics

At long last I decided to find out where you all come from. Of the first 24 visitors today, 18 came from the US, and there was one each from Canada, the UK, Portugal, Brazil, and Angola. Angola! How does someone in Angola end up on Ballard Avenue? World Wide Web, indeed!

Considering that half of the international readership comes from Portuguese-speaking countries, we'll get cracking on the Portuguese translation of Ballard Avenue muito rapidamente.

video by Ballard Avenue

The chinook salmon are returning to spawn. This pair are working their way through the Ballard Locks for their assignation up-river. Considering what happens afterwards, you hope it's good for both of them.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Don't you wish you could party with us?

photo by Ballard Avenue

Pickles is no kitten, so when he gets up to say hi to you, he needs a moment to stretch and work out the kinks from his busy morning of sitting on the front porch.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Elsewhere at the Olympic Sculpture Garden, you will find a monumental Calder. "Eagle" occupies a prime location overlooking Elliott Bay. We can see the tell-tale signs of where lesser avians have used "Eagle" as a perch and, it seems, have offered their opinion of the piece.

photo by Ballard Avenue

He may be about 1600 years younger, but this fellow at the Olympic Sculpture Garden doesn't have nearly the BQ (Bootylicious Quotient) of his older brother at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

photo by Pam Rentz

Pam reports, "This is the cat that has to sit in your lap when you read in the morning. He likes to knead you with his nails and drool."

A 1988 telecast of a recital at the Metropolitan Opera; James Levine, piano

He lost his way in later life, becoming something of an international joke, but in his day...

photo by Ballard Avenue

Remember the Adams Elementary striptease? Sadly, we lost the hotsy-totsy photos with the plastic wrap ever so suggestively draped, so we leap ahead to the money shot. What seemed like a missile launcher is a cylindrical mosaic of outdoorsy scenes drawn by students at Adams, including Mt Rainier, a couple eagles, a deer, some cute bumblebees and a horse. It's very nice but there's nothing really Ballard about it!

photo by Ballard Avenue

The calendar gives us a few more weeks of summer, but Labor Day is really the end of the goofy good times that make a summer. Goodbye Summer 2007. It wasn't life-changing or anything but it was some kind of fun.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Most people: Bench on left.
Three year-old boys: Bench on right.

For more on park benches, check out this post on English Russia.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Here we see folks setting up a wedding at Golden Gardens August 5. I wonder if the happy couple are still happy today.