A late spring snow has blanketed most of Western Washington in the last 36 hours. The Green River meanders through the valley communities of Auburn, Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Allentown, South Park and eventually empties into Puget Sound at Harbor Island in the industrial area of south Seattle. The Green River valley was very rural, and filled with dairy farms and truck farms (produce) from one end to the other up until the 1970s when development began encroaching upon the fertile fields. This encroachment has continued until today. You can hardly find any place to pick fruit, or see a cow, horse for field of daffodils. A sad commentary on progress, if that’s what you choose to call it. I choose to call it devastation. The beauty of the area as I knew and grew up with is almost totally gone. This barn is a remnant of an earlier time and it sits along Russell Road. Today it gleamed with scarlet brilliance against the pristine white snow.
You know, I go through these same feelings, specially when I go home to Tennessee and see houses in fields I used to play in…yet people want/need a home. But I often tell my husband that won’t be long until concrete and asphalt covers everything.
I understand the need for homes, but this beautiful, fertile valley is covered with warehouses mostly. Directly across the Green River from this barn is a huge housing development. Used to be they couldn’t build in the flood plane… hmmm, somebody must be throwing money around…