Spring Equinox Weekend

I always think of Alex quoting Harvey Manning when I see one of these little bits of blue sky.

Saturday we rode for 24 miles in order to visit the Montlake Fill for the first time in over a year and also, okay, to see what Byen Bakeri might happen to have left in its cases at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon. (Answer: croissants, cookies, and tempting but too fragile for pannier transportation cakes and tarts.) 

Bikes at a bakery. Again.

The forecast warned of rain, but Scott (quoting Madi Carlson quoting her grandmother) pointed out that we weren't made of sugar so we packed ourselves up and set out. Spoiler alert: it started bucketing down by the time we'd reached Fremont on the return trip and we were utterly soaked before we reached South Lake Union. The trail that runs parallel to Westlake is handy, but it has some serious puddles as we discovered. I suggested that we should check into the Mayflower Hotel and order room service and I'm not sure I was entirely joking. Instead we continued home to West Seattle, wheezing our way up the final hill. I found I truly was wet to the skin (I still haven't attempted to re-waterproof the sleeves of my cycling jacket) so I showered while Scott put together restorative cocktails. 

Cormorants against a backdrop of cranes

But the Fill was a good time and well worth risking hypothermia, frostbite, and other cold injuries. (Seriously, trench foot seemed likely.) It was oddly busy--a lot of teens and twenty-somethings out with inexpensive binoculars and guidebooks at one end of the spectrum and a pair of quite young photographers with mammoth camera lenses at another end of my imaginary range. The Fill has changed a bit since my last visit: the old parking lot that was being converted to wetland is now a sea of cattails, while Scott mourned the loss of more than one tree. The birds, I've got to admit, didn't seem to care one way or another, though maybe that's not true. We used to see killdeer in that parking lot and on this visit it was home to some dueling blackbirds and a black-capped chickadee who was quite dedicated to tearing apart a cattail--looking for bugs? just showing off its cattail-destruction prowess for a potential mate? I can't say. 

The old parking lot from across the canal

There were shovelers on shoveler pond and plenty of water birds wintering over water though, technically, it was the first day of Spring. We were pleased to see teals, mergansers, coots, buffleheads, mallards, wigeons, comorants, and great blue herons on the water, while Scott spotted a kingfisher quite high in a tree (avoiding the papparazzi?). Yellow-rumped warblers were just everywhere.

Clouds and trees reflected in the canal from the bridge

We heard but did not see a very vocal marsh wren by the bridge and saw and heard a few Bewick's wrens here and there. A bald eagle flew overhead as we were discussing whether the hawk in a tree was a Cooper's or sharp-shinned. (I always assume sharp-shinned.) So, all in all, a good day out, though I wouldn't have minded being spared the drenching. 

Whether it was yesterday's wet or the fact that today is cold and gray, we realized we didn't really desperately need anything at the Farmers Market so today is being a zero day. Part of the calculations about the market included a realization that stuff is blooming in the yard so I could supplement the remains of last week's tulips with some of our own Lenten roses, grape hyacinth, and camellias.  

The results of some back- and side-yard foraging

A lazy day, then, of reviewing yesterday's photos (and realizing I really need to have my camera cleaned) and reading Trollope.

This week's flower arrangements