If you don't like the weather in Seattle . . .

On Golden Puget Sound

It was several years ago that a young man at the Sylvia Beach Hotel knowingly told some strangers at the shared breakfast table, "If you don't like the weather in Seattle, just wait ten minutes." He was young, of course, and maybe didn't realize that sometimes it seems like it does nothing but rain for weeks on end. Rain was predicted for this weekend which made yesterday's gorgeous, sunny imitation of Spring all the nicer, perhaps. I pruned the grapes while Scott did some much needed cutting back to the bush/shrub thing I can never remember the name of and also a couple of camellias. It feels late to be doing the camellias since they started blooming right around Christmas but, well, so it goes. It may have been a little late for the grape as well; I don't remember there being sap when I've pruned them in the past. Damned unpredictable climate change/weather patterns.

One of a pair of geese wandering about Lincoln Park

But all that work was done before noon in part because I had uncharacteristically leapt out of bed when I saw there was blue sky around 8:00 a.m. This meant that when we decided on an impromptu bike ride in the early afternoon, the laundry I'd hung out (in February! I love you, crazy early Spring-like day!) was pretty much dry and could be taken down because, of course, we didn't entirely trust the lovely weather to continue.
But it did! It was the first outing for my new Bandbox LLC bike helmet and I must say I do adore it.

 The bike ride was what seems to be becoming the usual just-over fourteen mile loop to Jack Block Park (no herons),

Many cormorants, both pelagic and double-crested, sitting on the docks of Elliott Bay

then onto Alki (no donuts),

Full house of surfbirds and turnstones. I think.

along to Constellation Park (no selkies) and then Beach Drive (same broken-up asphalt)

A watchful bald eagle looks out over the Sound

to Lincoln Park (harlequin ducks!)

Left holding the bikes at Lincoln Park

 across the park to Fauntleroy and onward to to the Junction (Bakery Nouveau) and home (whiskey sours and ibuprofen). While there were no herons to be seen and no pit stop at Top Pot, we saw a mass of surfbirds and turnstones, as well as a dock or two of cormorants, the aforementioned harlequin ducks, any number of grebes and goldeneyes, a couple of bald eagles, and oh! so much more I'm sure. It made for a swell Saturday afternoon.

Assorted Barrow's goldeneyes

Today, predictably, the rains returned though I see just now it's all blue sky again. Too late for a bike ride, but not for a little yard work.

In a shameful attempt to engage readers, three weiner dogs and a puppy