Today was a relatively solitary day, an certainly much more solitary than a typical Birth Week day. This is because Evan was supposed to join me for Streissguth Gardens late this afternoon, followed by drinks and dinner, but she messaged me this morning she was feeling unwell and wasn't up for it. She said she would make it up for me another time. But, it also meant there was no one new to spend time with for my Birth Week today.

And it was not for lack of trying. I sent an email to Sara W at work to see if she was available for lunch, at least -- knowing it was a long shot. Still, my "Birth Week lunch with coworkers" of years past has evolved from Elin and Stephanie, to Elin and Scott, to, last year and the year before, just Sara. I've tried in the past to get together with both her and Claudia together, but I've kind of gotten the sense that they don't get along with each other quite as well as I once thought. And whatever, I've already established a separate Birth Week tradition with Claudia anyway, which this year will include both her and Mimi at Kubota Garden on Friday evening.

Well, Sara turned out to have meetings from 11:30 this morning through the end of the day, but was available at lunchtime on Thursday. I've already got brunch plans with Stephanie that day, so we settled on going for a walk from the office after I have brunch. Works for me!

Still, it left today kind of empty in terms of socializing. That said, the first garden I went to was Parsons Gardens (that link is to the full photo set on Flickr), which my going to on my own was already part of the original plan for today anyway.

It's on Queen Anne, all of five blocks west of Kerry Park, where all thte most iconic postcard photos of the Seattle skyline are taken, with the Space Needle dominating the view in the foreground. I've been to Kerry Park countless times in the twenty years I've lived in Seattle, but somehow took until now to even become aware of Parsons Gardens, only five blocks away -- because I had searched for botanical gardens to visit in the Seattle area.

And guess what? Parsons Gardens is really pretty! It was totally worth going to, even on my own riding my bike (although I had to get off and walk up about four blocks eastward on Prospect St from Taylor Ave, the hill was so steep. The photo set also includes a few photos of Marshall Park, another Seattle park I was unaware of, with its own spectacular viewpoint overlooking Puget Sound from right across the street from Parsons Gardens.

I rode my bike back home, made myself lunch at around 2:00 in the afternoon, and then edited, uploaded and tagged the photos. Then, with half the captions for the Tulip Festival set left to do, I was suddenly, almost inexplicably, really tired. I could only theorize that it had to do with a combination of having taken an Indian cold medicine pill Shobhit convinced me to take last night, and tiredness from the six-mile bike ride. (And: maybe it worked? I hardly coughed at all, all day today -- probably less than since the cold started two weeks ago yesterday.) Anyway, I napped for about an hour, the entire time with Shanti spread around my left leg like a giant, furry rash.

But then I got up, and finished captioning the Tulip Festival photos, and the Parsons Gardens and Marshall Park photos. I was all caught up on Birth Week photo captioning!

Then, at Shobhit's request, I chopped three potatoes and five bell peppers, which I was nearly done with, listening to the latest (and very good, by the way) Tori Amos album, when Shobhit got home from work. He chucked them all together with spices into the pressure cooker.

Then, after that was done cooking but before we ate, Shobhit and I drove together to Streissguth Gardens -- where I was going to go with Evan. Shobhit should be happy, though: this will give him a Social Review point for the day rather than Evan.

And, similarly to Parsons Gardens, I knew nothing about this garden until I searched for gardens to visit this week. This one isn't even that far away -- about two miles north of home, but still on Capitol Hill. It covers about one full block, but is set up on a very steep hillside. Given how very small Parsons Gardens was, I was surprised I got even the 15 photos I took there -- the full photo set for Streissguth Gardens features 27 shots either of or from the gardens park. At the entrance there was a box of brochures noting that 2016 was the park's 20th anniversary.

It may seem small and simple, but this would be one of the many things that make it nice to have a husband -- someone who can fill the void when a friend has to bail on plans. It was really nice to have Shobhit come with me to Streissguth Gardens, even though we had just spent the whole day together yesterday, and even though we did not stay very long. We stayed long enough for me to get 27 photos, though. Also, since Laney lives basically halfway between there and where I live, I really want to go back there with her sometime, as I'm willing to bet she knows nothing about it either, and would enjoy it. If we go back sometime soon, or at least this year, I'd probably take just a few more photos and just add them to this same photo set.

As you may have surmised already, the photo at the top of this entry is from Parsons Gardens; the one below is from Streissguth Gardens.

Anyway, Shobhit and I drove there and back, and when we got back home, he heated up frozen parathas to have with the dinner he had in the pressure cooker, and we ate while watching this week's The Big Bang Theory and a surprisingly good episode of the eighth season of Roseanne. Then I came back to finish editing and then upload the Streissguth Gardens photos, which I am now going to go and caption -- so as of tonight I'll be caught up on all Birth Week photo captioning!

[posted 9:21 pm]