At last I have come to the last entry for 2012. Through the mild end of the year we had no snow and only minimal frost.
south window view, 1 November
On the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas star was lit at Jessie’s Ilwaco Fish Company, here photographed from my neighbour’s back yard.
Jessie’s star
26 November, full moon
full moon over Allan’s shed and the greenhouse
We barely….well, Allan barely managed to get our lights up in time for Ilwaco’s traditional night of lighted crab pot tree and lighted boat parade. In fact, the hazardous stormy weather prevented the boat parade on December 1st.
2 December, our holiday lights
one string of lights on the back of the house to show from the Port
lighted tree in east side garden.
Due to mild weather, our Melianthis major was going strong on December 4th.
I rejoiced in plenty of rain.
Although the part of the storms I did not like was trying to get the last of the bulbs planted and the lighted boat parade being cancelled.
On December 4th, grape hyacinths were confusedly blooming very early in the front garden.
Muscari, much too soon
9 December
10 December
By Dec 12th we had our tree…very early.
12 December
On December 13th, a wonderful present arrived from my friend Mary F., a great gardener (and a jobbing gardener to whom I had passed on several jobs). She had had to leave the Peninsula for health reasons, and I miss her.
Miss Mary’s gift
The gift theme for my Christmas seemed to be vehicles, because meanwhile Allan had been painting a little VW bus model to exactly replicate my beloved old “Beaky”, the vehicle that Robert and I had moved to the Peninsula with on December 24th, 1992. It had indeed been twenty years since I had moved from Seattle to the Long Beach Peninsula.
Allan even included a gardening figure who looked somewhat like a younger me.
Beaky
Smokey took an interest in the Beaky tableau as I took the photos in the back garden.
Smokey, upper right
For reference, here are some photos of Beaky from Seattle, a camping trip, and from 1992 when we first lived and worked at the Sou’wester Lodge in Seaview.
Beaky history
Beaky’s name came from the beak-shaped chrome around the VW logo. It had been a orange van. The stripe came from masking tape that divided the colours. We painted it with XO Rust paint with little rollers.
Every van camping trip we went on, Robert had to fix something on the van: clutch cable, starter, something! So he may have loved it less than I did.
Just one thing is missing from the model of the van: our bumper stickers.
1991
Back to 2012: On December 25th, another present from Allan:
gardening Scrabble
Now who can I possible get to play REAL Scrabble (garden themed, with a few different rules) with me? It won’t tell us if our words are right or not like Words with Friends does.
On December 27th, we still had flowers in bloom in the front garden.
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Calendula
Agyranthemum and Christmas lights
And with that, I have at last officially caught up with the present year in this journal.
My goal for 2013: to blog regularly and sometimes more briefly year-round as I did in 2007, and during the rainy days of late winter and spring to take you on some more garden tours that took place BEFORE 2007.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 