In a Lost Garden

Just two houses east of us is an old empty house that is gently sagging into ruin.  We were invited inside by former tenants who showed us a big upstairs room they called “the trampoline room” because the floor had so much give they were afraid to walk in there.  We hope someday to see the house loved again.

the front of the house

historic marker on front porch

The house sits on a corner lot. As one walks past its east side, one can see that it was long ago planted with beautiful trees and shrubs.

The back yard used to fascinate me when I would walk around downtown, before I moved to Lake Street in October of 2010.

summer 2010, from the side street

Someone is still dispatched by the owners to mow the lawn.

summer 2011

On a foggy 1st of October in 2012, the garden beckoned me in irresistably.

October 2012

Roses festooned the edged of a huge old Pampas grass.

Pampas grass and roses

An old rhododendron sprouted a topknot of Himalayan blackberry.

rhodo with blackberry

Looking east toward the road from the center of the garden, unkept ornamental grass with rhododendron.

grass and rhodo

It would be hard for me to bring this garden back because of the way the plants are planted sort of willy nilly.  I would feel sentimental about its past, but the arrangement would be difficult for me to work with.

a maze of grasses, roses, and rhododendrons

Further in, an old area is fenced, perhaps for a veg garden.

maybe a berry patch?

Near to the fence, a holly seedling has sprouted vigorously right from the middle of another old rhodo.

holly usurper

arched branches

There is the occasional beer can, so the paths in the lawn are worn by deer or perhaps by human feet.

deer path? or?

Like our lot two doors down, the Elfreda house lot goes through all the way to the meander line.  Until the Port of Ilwaco built up the land with dredge spoils in the middle of the last century, the south end of the lot would have been tidal riverfront.

willow

This area corresponds with our “bogsy woods”.  My neighbour to the west has lived here all her life and tells me she and her friends used to swim in a swimming hole just past the willows.

to the old swimming hole

This used to be the old swimming hole…at the river beach. Now it’s by the Port parking lots. By October 2012 it has completely dried up from an unusually droughty summer.

old swimming hole, October 2012

Here it is in late October 2011 after a more normal period of autumn rain.

22 October 2011

By late December 2012 the rain had returned and the water had again risen….much better for all the little frogs, but nothing like the swimming hole that it used to be.

December 2012

And here, once one walks around the swimming hole to the very south side of the property, is the view of the port where once the tide lapped in.

view across the meander line, Feb. 2011