I walked out on to the jetty at Olga to look back at the shoreline. A short distance around the shore was an inlet which had about a dozen herons fishing within it. They were constantly stalking through the shallows and grabbing at fish as they passed by. With so many of them there, it must be a productive place to hunt. A heron drive through (or should that be fly through?).
I shared some shots of lambs from Maltby Farm quite a while back. The lambs weren’t the only creatures that got a lot of attention from the visitors. There was an enclosure with a lot of goats. Goats are curious creatures to look at. They have a look that I guess is not very appealing since the goats head seems to have a lot of diabolical associations. Not sure why but they can be a bit creepy.
Smaller goats have a cuter look like a lot of smaller versions of large animals do. They do seem to like standing on precarious things. There were some wooden structures for them to walk along and one of the goats came up behind another that wasn’t moving. It was a small diversion to drop down to the ground and go around but, instead, it just stood behind the first goat waiting until it finally moved. Maybe it is like a game you play as a kid (pun intended) where you won’t step on the cracks in the ground.
On our most recent trip to Orcas, we had an unusual experience during the ferry crossing to the islands. The crew announced that there would be a rescue boat drill and that we weren’t to worry or do anything. The ferry came to a halt in the open water and the crew manned up the RIB. Fortunately, the RIB they were using was the one mounted on the side of the ferry we were parked on so I was able to lean out through the opening of the car deck and watch the launch.
Two crew members got in the boat and then the davit was swung out and the boat lowered to the surface. They got the motor going, let out the lines and zipped off in to the distance. I figured they would shortly be back but they seemed to go quite a way off and then disappear from view. Instead, the ferry powered up and continued on its way.
As we got closer to our first stop at Lopez, we caught up with the RIB and, after bringing the ferry to a stop again, the process was reversed and the boat was brought back on board before we resumed our normal crossing. Reading the Washington State Ferries news emails, it appears that rescues are a pretty regular feature with the ferries picking up various water users that have got themselves in to trouble. Good that they keep well practiced!
A Piper Malibu was launching out of Boeing Field last year. Things were quite busy and the tower asked them to make an early turn downwind once airborne. They clearly took them at their word because they barely seemed to be off the ground before yanking it in to a tight turn to the north. I doubt they even passed the tower! They were only going a short distance and were due back about fifteen minutes later so I guess they know the area well.
If you follow Formula One, you will have seen that the Renault team recently changed their name to Alpine. This is an old brand that has recently been reintroduced by the company. I popped down to Exotics@RTC recently to see what was showing up and came across a pair of Alpines of differing vintages. One was a new one to me but the younger example did seem rather familiar. I guess I must have seen them in the UK when I was younger.
A few people were hanging around them but I thought they weren’t getting the attention that they deserved. Exotics@RTC has a never ending supply of McLarens, Ferraris, Porsches and Lambos but these were something that definitely deserved the title exotic.
The title is not intended to catch you out, but it probably will. These photos are in Washington rather than Hawaii. Cape Disappointment has a small beach tucked under the cliffs and it goes by the name of Waikiki. At the tail end of my trip there, I saw that a group of surfers had gone in to the water and were making the best of the waves which, since they were a lot smaller than what I would have hoped for, we probably ideal for them.
Not being a surfer, I am not a good judge of what the right techniques are when surfing but, even so, you can usually quickly work out who has got a better feel for the waves and who hasn’t. Picking the right one to go for and getting up to speed to make it on to the wave seems to be a bigger deal than staying up for some of the people. As I say, I’m not a surfer so this is all uninformed commentary.
Two things are of interest when photographing surfers. Having them coming in your direction so you can see their face while they are carving across the wave or watching them wipe out in style. The latter is probably not what they want me to be focused on but you take what you can get when shooting this stuff!
I have posted a few shots from a visit to Paine Field one evening when the light was really nice. The bigger movements of that evening have got their own posts but there was a fair bit of light aircraft traffic that evening. Some of these were vintage types or at least types that have been a round so long that they should probably qualify as vintage these days. The warm, low light made for good shots of what otherwise might not be the most interesting of photo subjects.
Down in Federal Way, there is a rhododendron garden. It is next to the bonsai garden I have posted about previously but we hadn’t visited it before. We took a trip down when the rhododendrons should have been getting into bloom. The garden is a strange location since it is tucked in between two freeways. While you are walking around lots of lovely greenery, you can’t escape the rumble of traffic nearby.
Unlike some gardens that have a very manicured feel to them, this feels a lot more organic in the layout. I am sure there is a lot of planning that went in to the design but it feels like it is a natural growth. Supposedly, it has the largest collection of rhododendrons in the world. Not sure who verifies such things but it was certainly large.
It isn’t just rhododendrons, though. Lots of other plants are scattered around the place. They have a meadow that has blue poppies in it. They are lovely looking flowers if a little fragile looking. There is a glasshouse in the middle of the garden and we took a wander around in there but, with the sun out, it was pretty hot and humid in there so we didn’t spend too long.
The blooms were not extensive when we visited so it didn’t have the same feel as we got on our first visit to Meerkerk, for example. However, as a garden with a wide variety of plants and color, it was certainly a great place to wander about and I suspect we will be back there in the future.
The SAAB 2000 was not a best seller when it was in production and they are definitely not too common in the North American market these days. That makes it a nice surprise to get one. The 340 was a reasonable looking plane anyway and stretching it and adding bigger engines resulted in a more elegant look in my mind. This one is apparently used for charter operations and was a nice thing to get when taking some time off recently.
I was driving through the Skagit Valley quite a while back when I passed a farm that seemed to have a lot of donkeys on their property. I only realized this as I passed at speed and I had somewhere else I was heading so I parked the thought for a while. Later in the day, when I had finished whatever it was I was planning on doing, I remembered that I had seen them so retraced my steps to see if I could remember exactly where the farm had been. That part of the valley has loads of farms so I wasn’t certain where it was exactly.
Fortunately, the road was quiet so I was able to slow down while passing each farm until I spotted the donkeys out in the field. A quick turn and I was able to pull off the road. Not only were they in the fields but they were also walking about in a yard right near the road. My arrival probably got them to move a little further away but I still got a bunch of shots of them. As a kid, a farm near where we lived for a short while had donkeys so I have always had a soft spot for them. They just look like a friendly creature.
