Greetings from Seattle and Kirkland

On Sunday I got to have brunch with Kristen and her husband Doug! They were in Seattle for a sad reason, a memorial service, but they had some free time, so Paul and I met at the Portage Bay Cafe in U District, ate various excellent eggs and pancakes, then walked around the university a bit -- very scenic, though also rainy! It was lovely to see them -- it's been many years since I saw Kristen in person, and I'd never met Doug before. 

The Beltane PNW Witches' Market was also taking place today, so instead of going straight home, we went to Kirkland. It was still raining when we arrived and the wind off the lake was chilly -- the streamers on the maypole were flying like a flag -- so some of the vendors hadn't set up all their items, but there were lots of people in fun costumes, lots of dogs and kids, and I bought a 3-D printed dragon and was gifted a tiny potion bottle.

 

We stopped at Safeway and I tried on some sandals at DSW...why am I sometimes a 6 and sometimes a 7 1/2? When we got home, we walked around the dock to see if we could spot the ducklings. We weren't very hungry for dinner, so we had more breakfast food and caught up on the day's baseball. Then we watched all the episodes broadcast so far of Franklin, which is kind of slow to get started but well acted and nicely filmed.

Greetings from Skagit Valley

We woke to rain on Saturday, but since it's the last weekend of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, we ate breakfast early and drove the hour or so to Tulip Town to see the late bloomers. I'm told the blooms peaked more than a week ago, but there was still a lot of color, even in the drizzle, and it wasn't at all crowded, which was nice. There's an indoor tulip market and because it's a Dutch tradition, there are soft pretzels along with the hot chocolate that was necessary today!

 

We stopped in Bellevue on the way home to pick up a prescription, and by the time we arrived in our parking lot, the sun was trying to come out. So we took a walk on the dock and found nine of the ducklings -- not sure if this is a new family or if the families of six and twelve that we saw have rearranged themselves. Dinner was quick because Adam and Haley are landing at SeaTac at around 10:30 tonight, and we're going to pick them up and drive them to Fremont!

Poem for Friday and Breezy Hill Farmyard

(Re)location 

By Kinsale Drake 

Salt Lake City boasts white tabernacles,

half-filled parks, a mineral 

highway, and archives so vast

they fill mountainsides.

One summer, we researched our family

genealogy there, surrounded by giddy Mormons.

Their screens flickered with famous 

relatives: a Custer, Jackson, Theodore,

Kit. Nothing came up on ours, 

so we went and got burgers at a place

that sold no liquor. The burgers

were okay. But we shared our shakes

and secret smiles and imagined

ourselves renegades in that room.

Old-West-portrait: an Indian girl

on the run with no records and no documents,

her wind-whipped father clutching

his sarsaparilla. We had infiltrated

the saloon and city hall. 

I locked eyes in the burger joint

with the confidence of a pistol-whipper.

The room stirred.

It smelled of grass

and gunsmoke.

I would not be moved again.

-------- 

We had spectacular weather on Friday, which I got to enjoy! We went to get bagels, I took a walk on the dock around lunchtime to see the ducklings -- and herons and eagles -- and we went to the beach in the afternoon, where we got to hang out with more waterfowl and watch swooping eagles and neighborhood dogs. 

There was a rainbow across the lake at dinnertime, a surprise because we had no rain here at all. We watched the Orioles blow it in the 10th, the Mariners hit a grand slam in their win, and now we're catching up on Ghosts, which we somehow got a few weeks behind on. Animals we met at Breezy Hill Farm last weekend:

Poem for Thursday and Washingtonian Goslings

Above the Dock 

By T.E. Hulme 

Above the quiet dock in mid night, 

Tangled in the tall mast’s corded height, 

Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away 

Is but a child’s balloon, forgotten after play. 

-------- 

Much of my Thursday involved chores, but the trip laundries are folded and put away and the various cleaning and recycling have been taken care of. And we took a walk to the beach in the rain, where we saw eagles and coots, then walked out on the newly refurbished dock and saw two families of tiny ducklings -- one with six baby ducks and one with a dozen! 

I talked to my Thursday night chat group, visited with my cat-sitting neighbors, then we watched this week's episode of Sugar as well as the finale of Shogun (less seppuku than I was expecting, but of course the death fetish had to be indulged; I'm not sorry this series is over). We may have ducklings here, but Washingtonian Lake in Gaithersburg has goslings:

Poem for Wednesday and McCrillis Azaleas

Rhododendron 

By Matthew Dickman 

I'm walking my infant

son through a stand of rhododendrons.

It feels like we are walking 

through a cloud of jellyfish

made of pink and purple paper

petals falling

to the ground.

These jellyfish are the fish of spring.

He is making sounds 

like a mouse, small but all out

of his body. Inside,

his organs are so new

that they are both organs

and the beginnings of organs.

When he cries for his mother

to nurse him

he sounds like a rooster.

He is not

just hungry,

but hunger itself.

He is the thing

he cries for. Sunlight is turning

the rhododendrons

into balls of pink light if light

were liquid

and something else,

splashing,

that’s what the pink is doing,

splashing all over us,

lucky without a god,

animals under the bright pink

idea of earth.

-------- 

I had a nice Wednesday around lots of unpacking and laundry. I talked to my three best high school friends, although I had seen Linda and Kay over the weekend and spent most of my time in Maryland with Hildy's daughter Haley -- we had kid gossip to catch up on -- and I watched the last episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with Kristen, plus the Rogers: The Musical number from Hawkeye, which we'll watch next, after I get to see her in person next weekend. 

Paul and I walked to the beach in drizzle and saw mallards, Canada geese, coots, an eagle, an osprey, wood ducks landing in trees, which I hadn't even known they could do, and salmon slapping the water, which I hadn't known they did either. We watched The Masked Singer -- wrong choice, judges -- followed by the season finales of Vice's Icons Unearthed shows about Batman and The Lord of the Rings. Rhododendrons and azaleas at McCrillis Gardens: 

Greetings from SeaTac

Back in Seattle area! Had pizza with my family and my good friend Linda (well, she had tuna on matzah as she is more observant than my parents), said goodbye to Adam and Haley who were headed out to see his high school friends, went to Dulles and sat in Cava on our devices for a bit before boarding, brought Cava to eat on the plane with us and had a relatively uneventful flight! More tomorrow!

Greetings from Potomac

Back from huge fabulous Passover meal at my parents' house with Adam and Haley, after I got to spend the day with the latter two because Paul had to work (which was the reason we could work out coming east for the holiday). We took a walk around Washingtonian Lake with Pepper, then went to Montgomery Mall, where we met my father for lunch after taking some photos of the cherry blossom decorations and attempting to recreate a photo of Adam and Haley from 2015, when myself and one of my oldest friends -- their moms -- made them meet at the mall to discuss summer internship programs. 

We went to McCrillis Garden, where the azaleas were in bloom and beautiful, and took a walk around our old neighborhood, which also had lots of flowers and gave Adam an opportunity to tell Haley about various places he and his friends got into trouble when they were younger. I ran into one of my neighborhood friends whom I'm still in touch with because we both play Pokemon Go. Then we went to my parents' for Passover, though first we took a walk around their neighborhood since Haley's grandparents lived there for many decades. I even got to talk briefly to my sister. Chag Sameach!

 

 Mall Cherry Blossoms

 

Attempted recreation of...

 

...this pic from 2015 

 

Lunch with my dad (most of us got Cava)

 

McCrillis Garden mansion

 

Kids in azaleas

 

Pepper in azaleas 

 

On the swingset in our old neighborhood

 

Frogs on our heads for Passover

Greetings from Hanover

Another lovely day with family and friends, again starting with a walk around Washingtonian Lake with Adam and Pepper. Then we all had Cinnabons for breakfast and drove to Hanover to visit Paul's parents, picking up lunch at Blue Koi on the way (with a quick stop in the Red Barn local craft store). We had lunch with my in-laws, looked at old photos, talked about tax filings, and Clair played the violin for us. 

Then we headed to Gaithersburg, stopping at Giant for drinks and at Lake Whetstone to take a walk and see the many goslings, plus the big great blue heron nests and a few egrets in the trees. We went on to visit Kay and her family, who served us appetizers and pizza for dinner. Now we're back at the hotel watching Captain Marvel on TBS while we get organized for Monday, when Paul has to work before the seder.