Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Our vaccine appointment was not until 1:20. Between 11:30 and 1 o’clock, Allan helped me implement a new garden design idea. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the dark SE corner of the garden. Recently, I realized that moving this sit spot is the answer. Below: The sit spot as it is now against the south fence (the idea had me so excited my hand shook).


The round “table” is an old lawn and gravel roller that lost its handle.
The difficult SE garden corner was obscured with salmonberries when we first started gardening here. I had thought of just using it as a dump site, but I can’t leave an area alone. Then I thought of making a willow dome (willow branches tied together at the top), but the willow cuttings have grown so slowly that I got impatient.

A couple of days ago, I realized a had the perfect backdrop for the corner sit spot. Work had got in the way of setting it up. Now, we just had enough time. On the west fence, Allan had installed a panel with doors that we’d found in by a garbage dumpster at the port and four louvered panels that we’d found…somewhere. They make a nice backdrop to a Bogsy Wood path but not as nice as they will be in their new spot.



I dug up a small evergreen shrub (Lonicera nitida) from the SE corner and replanted it where the panels used to be while Allan installed the panels in their new home. Spaces between the panels allow glimpses of the view. Or you can open the doors in the middle panel to look out. If I decide I want more privacy, a vertical board could be added to the outside of the fence in each space.


Allan went indoors to sort out masks for our Covid jab excursion while I moved some stepping stones roughly into place. I felt that the round roller table was in the wrong place so moved it to the corner, where I think it looks better.

It will all be refined when I have time. Right now there aren’t enough leaves on the alder trees to give me the shade I need to safely be outdoors (because of medication photosensitivity).
I was pleased that even from Rozanne Loop, you can see the panels and know that a destination awaits.

In the middle of the Bogsy Wood, the metal path goes to the left…

….past what was a sit spot but will now be a shade garden….

And then you come upon the new sit spot.
The old sit spot had this view…

…and the new one has this view, not quite as good.

And I might have to angle the bench and the round table somehow to make it look more inviting. Cleanup and positioning and planting will be a fun project. I must redo the metal path so that the one big “leaf stone” in the middle is moved to where it naturally leads one to walk from the alder wood path to the new sit spot.

It will look better when some rearranging is done and when it’s not so muddy. This is a swale of water during winter rains.
The cattens had very much wanted to come to the Bogsy Wood with us.



Allan and I then went to the community building for our second Covid vaccine jabs (Pfizer). While we waited outside, Allan got the long clippers and finally got a piece of plastic that has been hanging from one of the community building trees all winter. I had stopped noticing it.

I still did not like waiting indoors after the completely painless jab. It made no sense to me. I wanted windows and doors open. This time, I didn’t feel any panic because I knew the first jab gave me some immunity. A nice semi-retired nurse chatted with me, which distracted me during our fifteen minute wait after the jab. She reminded me that the community building used to be the hospital (which is now next door to the north of it). I’d forgotten that.
It was good to be home even though I couldn’t go outside in the sun. I did the monthly billing, wrote this blog post, and Allan mowed our lawn for the first time this year. Oh, and I watched an episode of Real Gardens, an old Monty Don show, on HDClumo, with a younger and red-haired Carol Klein helping out in a garden.


A half an hour before dusk, it felt safe to go out into the waning sun and play around with the metal and stone path for a short while. The temperature dropped uncomfortably (in fact, to almost freezing that night), so I didn’t last long.


Allan jumped on three small round water meter covers to insert them into the mud.




I have good books lined up for taking tomorrow off, and Thursday too, if we feel poorly or the sun is bright. And I have a new (to me) gardening show to watch online that I’m quite excited about. More on this later!