Mark Behringer, Eastside Neighborhoods, Kirkland, WA Real Estate Sales

Bridle Trails State Park, the anchor of this great Kirkland neighborhood, is again offering Free Fungi Fun, fall mushroom walks. I went last year and was amazed at what a diversity of fungi we have right here in our own neck of the woods.

Guided walks are lead by mycologist who make exploring fungi great family fun. You will learn how to identify mushrooms and their common names. As well as, learn about the overall biological diversity in the park. I found out that there are over a hundred different varieties of mushrooms that grow here locally.

The walks start in October and are limited to 25 people, so sign up early once dates and details are scheduled and posted through www.bridletrails.org Meet other people from the Bridle Trails neighborhood, learn about the area's name sake park and most of all, have FUN. I will be there again this year in my effort to not only know about the "What" of Real Estate, but to know as much as I can about the "Where" of Real Estate!

Hope to see you there. Learn more about the "where you live is as important as what you live in" at www.NorthWestLookingGlass.com

Bridle Trails is a great neighborhood to be a part of, from the ground up.

The Bellevue Botanical Garden presents Shakespeare on August 16th FREE at Noon. What a perfect marriage of natural beauty and classic theater art. A perfect marriage in another wonderful way. A marrriage of the history of Bellevue and it’s youth. You see if Cal and Harriet Shorts had not had a deep belief in “local community involvement” and made a gift of their home (now serving as the visitor center) and 7 1/2 acres surrounding it, to the City in 1984 , today’s 53 acre Bellevue Botanical Garden would more likely than not, be just another Bellevue housing developement.

Now 27 years later The Bellevue Youth Theatre Foundation is presenting a one hour performance of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” with actor’s that weren’t even born in Cal and Harriet Shorts lifetime.

The Bellevue Botanical Garden offically opened on June 27, 1992 becoming a destination for thousands each year. It’s success due to yet another marriage. That of the City of Bellevue and it’s allaiance with volunteer group’s like Bellevue Botanical Garden Society and the Northwest Perennial Alliance who help with the management in a major way.

The parks well maintained flower gardens at it’s heart, are complimentated by natural native forest that surround it. Trails weave through this woodland wonder within a couple of blocks from busy, cutting edge, mirror faced highrise, techy, downtown Bellevue. I like to wonder as I hike the trails through a landscape older, than Bellevue itself, “When Shakespeare was penning his play some 500 years ago, what did this very ground look like ?”

The Bellevue Botanical Garden gives us so many reasons to enjoy it. That’s why I have taken up the opportunity to do a little voluntary yardwork myself in some of it’s many gardens . Check with the Bellevue City Park’s Department if you’d like to join the fun.

On August 16th, I’m looking forward to seeing Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It”, The Bellevue Youth Theater’s performers, Bellevue Botanical Gardens, and YOU !!!

If somehow we miss in all the day’s activities, catch up with me at Northwest Looking Glass . com

Houghton Wa has a long history being one of the oldest communities on the east side of Lake Washington, opposite the City of Seattle. First settled by the McGregor and French families in the 1870's. Later named after Sarah Jane Houghton, a Boston woman, who donated the steeple bell for the settlement's first church

Houghton's start was very rural. Beginning as a loose collection of farms, setting it apart from it's neighbor, Kirkland just to the north, which in contrast, was a plat plan city very early on. As Seattle grew into a large metro complex, the Houghton area still fairly rural became know as a major egg producer for the City across the lake.

With the out break of World War II, Houghton Wa with its' location on Lake Washington, along with its' history of the Anderson Steamboat Company and the Lake Washington Shipyards became a hub of activity. Almost over night 6,000 new workers from across the country arrived to work in the shipyard as part of the war effort. Temporary housing was set up in several spots. One located just south of present day Lakeview Elementary School along the railroad tracks and one, at the current site of the "Northwest College" campus. In Kirkland just across the northern boarder of Houghton at what is now Everest Park was another large encampment. A very low key blue collar town with roots in farming and shipbuilding.

TODAY, sixty years later, to quote Wikipedia,"Houghton is one of the wealthier districts of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle." My how times have changed. The shipyards became home to the NFL Seattle Seahawks until 2008, when Carillion Point an upscale developement took place. In August of 1968 Houghton Wa was consolidated into the City of Kirkland, but there's still a bit of her rural identity showing.

Over Labor Day the Central Houghton Neighborhood Association, host the great "Houghtdown Celebration" fun for all.

• I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE !!!
• Where you live is as important as what you live in !!!

The dream of a Kirkland Dog Park started off with a small group of residents who saw a need in their community that was not being addressed. Truly a grass root effort of three years was rewarded, on November 1, 2010 when the City if Kirkland agreed to let the all-volunteer, non-profit resident group KDOG (Kirkland Off Leash Dog Group) build and maintain on a 2-acre plot of city owned land.

As a real estate professional who's core believe is "Where you live is just as important as what you live in" found these events of the Kirkland Dog Park, a great testimonial of the residents and the City of Kirkland. A city that is willing to listen and residents who care about their city.

The citizens group is well on to the next phase of the Kirkland Dog Park. KDOG needs to come up with about $55,000 dollars by the Fall of 2011 to develop 1.24 acres of the property. This money coming from the donations of city merchants who have a strong sense of community and individuals who just want to help. And help they will. Before the site can become the first Kirkland off-leash Dog Park, there must be the clearing of the existing jungle of under growth, mainly blackberries and the spreading of 8" of woodchips. Then there's the planting of groud cover, fencing, signage, waste bags and dispensers, dumpsters, and the cost of the first three years of maintence, you guessed it all volunteered by the community.

That's what I mean, when I say choosing a home is more than just the house. It's a neighborhood with a can do attitude of community. If you would like to help with the Kirkland Dog Park check out the KDOG website.