Yesterday was a lovely sunny day here in Seattle with the temperatures hovering below, but not quite cracking 80 degrees. I had to make a work run to Ballard and felt cranky and tired and worn out. I’ve been working three days a week for other people plus doing Orange Twist and it’s starting to take a toll. To make the trip more fun and have a dual purpose, I asked Mr. Mate to accompany me. He said no he had to clean the bathroom. You can imagine my displeasure.

Dogs who look like they’re driving make me laugh

After bit of petulant throwing myself around, specifying that we would also do fun things on this trip, and finally eating breakfast while sitting on the balcony in the sun, we worked things out and headed to Ballard around 11:30.

In my next life I’ll be a pink sedum or a cat

I hadn’t been to the Ballard Sunday Market since we moved here 8 years ago and it was bustling and crowded. We made our way through the throngs of dogs, bicyclists, people, heaping amounts of summer raspberries and cherries and ended up buying two new sedums for our rockery. One is supposed to turn bright pink — which would be amazing if it ended up looking like the one we saw on last year’s West Seattle Garden Tour.

Looking down the canal from the Ballard Locks

We headed over to the locks with iced coffee in the back of our minds and with a fudgescicle watched the boats load in and out. High drama ensued as inexperienced boaters struggled and I was grateful to be the viewer and not the participant.

After checking out the fish ladder we headed back to the car, enjoying the sun, but ready to leave the crowds.

I can’t say that we shrugged off all our cranky ways during the day, but it was lovely to just be outside in the sun without an agenda and enjoying a different part of the city.