Friday, September 27, 2013
With much rain predicted, I was sure we could get the entire day off. I had various computer projects in mind, mainly sorting out and deleting some of the 16,000 plus photos I’ve taken since my old computer crashed last February.
I walked down to Olde Towne in the wind while Allan continued to snooze.
He joined me after awhile because I had gotten thoroughly soaked by sideways rain and buffeted by wind on the way to breakfast. While he took the opportunity to go to a shop in Seaview to have new shocks installed in our van, I got a ride home from Queen La De Da and told myself I would put ten things away before I booted up the computer. After maybe thirty things had been properly dealt with, I proceeded to sort cerinthe seeds that I had collected over the summer.
Out of that pile of chaff (in a bowl made by my friend Sheila (New Leaf Plants and Pottery), I got over 150 seeds.
They are large and each plant produces so many that I am amazed at how expensive a packet of Cerinthe major purpurascens seeds is.
Allan returned from his errands and told me that, as the rain and wind had slowed, he had seen the Port of Ilwaco crew out removing (with a backhoe) some of the tall ornamental grasses we had tagged earlier in the week. We waited long enough to give the crew a head start and then went out…leaving the cats snoozing.
The crew had done a wonderful job of tidying up after themselves after removing grasses to the north of the old Port Bistro building.
We had just a bit of cleaning up to do so we also clipped the big, woody old lavenders. We may replace them next spring.
I am a big fan of ornamental grasses; the problem with those is that they blocked the oncoming traffic sightline of people leaving the nearby parking lots.
Just to the west in the next curbside bed, the removal of another large Miscanthus had pulled the root mass of a Ceanothus in a way that reminded me of the ruching up of a rug.
Allan managed to get it back where it should be with the pick, and I did some pruning on the Ceanothus and pulled as much soil as possible into the hole where the grass used to be. We’ll get more soil but we want to wait till the removal of the rest of the tagged plants because we will have more holes to level off.
At home, the cats were still snoozing but Mary welcomed some attention.
At five PM we walked three blocks down to the museum for opening night of “Charles Fitzpatrick: Pen & Photo”. On the way, I admired a stunning gazania in Judy’s garden.
The rain held off for our walk to the museum, and the snacks were excellent.
One panel of photos was especially interesting to me as it showed a lot of old hotels, including the Grandview Lodge…AKA The Sou’wester.
Back in those days, the beach came right up to J Place in Seaview and was at the Sou’wester’s front door. Now it is half a mile to the west because of dune accretion.
Every November, the museum has a lively auction of small pieces created by local artists and craftspeople. The display was up for preview and I now know which ones I am going to bid on.
Unfortunately, so do a number of other people.
We were able to walk home without being rained on.
Soon after we were cozily indoors, the rain returned with force and remained for most of the next two days. As it was only 6 PM, I had a good head start on writing the blog post about the wonderful bayside garden I had seen the day before. What with getting the photos in the right order and side distractions such as messages from friends, it took four hours to complete the entry after all.
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We had a kind of rainy day on Sunday….both mist and sure-enough rain fell most of the day. Certainly enough to settle the dust raised from the harvest of beans and corn that had begun in earnest last week…
Sure wish I could adopt some of the grass…I have just the place for grasses tall and ornamental!
The museum’s snacks DID look delicious. (Even at this early morning hour.)
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Those grasses would have loved to go to your place if only there had been a way!
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