Friday, May 13, 2016

A Visit to Ballard

Wednesday we arranged to meet up with Jake in his neighborhood of Ballard after he got off work.

We used this as an occasion to go in early and stop in at Swanson's Nursery, where we enjoyed looking at all the beautiful plant displays, and bought a couple of things too. I didn't take any photos there. Sorry.

It was 81 degrees, and we were getting warm, so next we sought the green coolness of the gardens at the Ballard Locks on the Lake Washington shipping canal. 

Across the canal, in the grove of trees, Great Blue Herons have set up a nesting community, a rookery. 

We didn't expect to see any nests because of the foliage, but I did have my little Canon camera with me, and it has a powerful zoom lens. Look what I found. 



The zoom lens is more powerful than my ability to hold the camera still, so these are blurry, but there are either three or four quite large youngsters in this nest. It must be quite a job to keep them fed. 

It is believed that the herons have moved here in an attempt to escape the marauding eagles. Placing their rookery so close to human activity might discourage the eagles. 
Then we moved on into the shade of the many large trees here in this mature garden. 

We took a leisurely stroll through the garden


And then sat on a bench in the shade and watched the geese. 
At 6:00 we met up with Jake at the Giddy-Up Burger joint, where we enjoyed a visit along with our big, fat burgers and beer. 
Jake now has a regular route in Ballard with the USPS, and while he says the management is totally messed up, the job itself is great. He works six days a week, usually up to ten hours a day, with a rotating day off each week. Sundays he delivers Amazon packages. It was good to have a chance to connect with him and catch up. 

15 comments:

  1. Good to hear Jake is doing well. Unfortunately almost all jobs have some element we don't like. Sounds like he's working a lot of hours. Glad this is working out for him. Those heron nests are really interesting.

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  2. love your bird nest photos. we are waiting for our mommy robin to hatch her eggs.

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  3. That Jake is a hard working man. You've got to love it when our kids put their feet to the grindstone and work extra hard for whatever reason they have at the time. We all have times in life when we are pushed to make it, a car breaks down, major medical bills and on and on. Seeing him work so hard now tell us he will be able to stand up to life's little tests.

    And the Heron are amazing. I've never seen them in their nests. Very interesting.

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  4. It seems like there's always something to do with plants that's interesting in your area.

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  5. those heron nest photos, in particular, are amazing! Everything is so beautiful; thanks for sharing!

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  6. I can see why it was a task to schedule some time with your Jake. It made for a very pleasant day.

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  7. That is a HUGE burger, all right. We have a rookery in Bellingham near the water treatment plant. On our Saturday morning walks we sometimes go by them during the winter months and can see all th-)

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  8. Good to see those herons; we have a rookery here near the Whitman Mission Historic site on the Walla Walla River. We often drive to keep an eye on them. Love the locks! Took my kids there and they used to roll down the long grassy slope. Great place to cool off. Best of everything to your Jake.

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  9. I didn't know there were gardens to wander near the locks, I'll have to check them out some day. Sounds like you had a good lunch with Jake.

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  10. Lucky you. I have never seen nesting herons. That is some nest.
    So glad Jake likes his job. I have 3 family members retired from the PO and 2 members still active. They really have good benefits.

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  11. I have found that I do need my bigger camera because the iPhone can't really zoom very far. What fun to see the beautiful nesting herons. The best part I'm sure though, was spending time with Jake.

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  12. Jake sure keeps busy. Nice that you could share a meal out with him.

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  13. Beautiful photos, Linda, and so nice to see our Canada geese visiting you, too. Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. :)

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  14. Hello Jake! Looks like a wonderful visit

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  15. How lucky to see the nesting heron! Glad that you had a good time with Jake.

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