25-27 Oct: windy

Saturday, 25 October 2014

We had 47 mph winds and Allan saw the excitement of a big branch coming down in the bogsy woods, on the gear shed side, and breaking as it hit another branch on the way down.

Of course, I am pleased about next summer’s campfire wood. (Allan’s photo)

Out the front window, the Tetrapanax showed the wind gusts.

dogwood outside kitchen window whipping sideways in wind and rain

The wind in the bogsy wood was so dramatic that it was hard to stand up to take this (safely far away) photo:

Later, while I worked on adding more photos to my page about Gram’s garden, Allan prepared the framework for the upcoming Halloween Avenue of Spooky Plants, through which brave trick or treaters will arrive to the porch.

We left the posts up since last year. (Allan’s photo)

He put up the crosspieces of bamboo. (Allan’s photo)

I’ll wait till closer to Halloween before attaching the plants, as they could blow every whichway in the wind.

I had good company while blogging.

Later, I finished a book, Mean Girls Grown Up. While I did like some passages, I debated whether the subject was good for this blog, and decided to save the topic of friendship for sometime this winter, perhaps. Now and then this summer, I’ve written a paragraph on the subject and then deleted it before publishing because I hesitated to be so revealing. (As Ann Lamott so amusingly wrote, “If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”)

I then began a new to me Margaret Drabble book, Seven Sisters. Immediately I fell in love with the (sort of) chapter titles being set off to the right side of the text. (Below, what is not clear is that she is not HIGH, she’s in an upper floor flat.)

Ms. Drabble, how I love thee.

I was surprised to see Georgette Heyer and Dorothy Sayers invoked in the same sentence:

That’s nothing against Georgette Heyer; my significant other of the 80s, Bryan, loved her books and during those years I read every one of them and loved them, too. He also got me to read Jane Austen for the first time, and A.A. Milne and P.G. Wodehouse. For a punk rock club manager and soundman, he had the gentlest of reading taste.

Surely on Sunday, I would get another rainy day to finish my Drabble book and probably read another book, as well.

Sunday, 26 October 2014

Our rainy day off was not to be. We woke to rain, then sunshine and a rainbow over School Hill.

The dark sky had moved to the north.

Another heavy rain squall passed right after I took the rainbow photo and I thought we had a reprieve from work. I yearned to get back to my Drabble novel! And then….out came the sun.

I decided to take a look in the back garden to see how many tree branches had come down in the storm. I am utterly fascinated with every little change in our garden: what’s blooming, how deep the puddles are, and how many branches and twigs have fallen in a storm.

Onyx came from next door to greet me.

Dicentra scandens still blooming by the sunporch.

moss on the old dogwood outside our window

The rain had filled the water barrels.

…except for this one, which has a leak.

I hadn’t battened the hatches well at all, as the patio shows.

a branch halfway up the garden

The way the branches spear several inches into the ground is why I don’t go into the back garden in a wind storm.

It was imbedded about three inches into the ground.

BIG branches

I stared up at my alder trees for a little while, trying to figure out which tree the really big branches had come from. I couldn’t see any break that explained the large amount of alder on the ground. Then I looked to my right.

It took me a couple of minutes to realize that the small-of-girth dead alder in Nora’s back yard had snapped halfway up and fallen mostly on our side.

You can see to the right how very much bigger the trunk of our Danger Tree (cut last spring) is.

The fallen tree was so dead it had split all apart when it hit the ground.

Its debris stretched 3/4 of the way across the 80 foot wide lot.

An old tricycle (now a planter) had broken from a branch falling from one of our trees.

I went to fetch Allan to share in my marveling at all our campfire wood and wondered if I should try to find a friend with a big chainsaw. He walked down Nora’s yard and took some photos from that angle.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo showing the broken trunk

Allan’s photo; the flat topped trunk in the background is our former danger tree.

Unbeknownst to me, he also took some photos of me checking out the water level in the bogsy woods.

I had no idea I was being followed by Onyx, who was being chastised by Smokey.

I had found that the swales had an attractively pleasing amount of water.

the meander line swale

the bridge swale

chairs and tables blown around the fire circle

I went into the house for a few minutes and was amazed, when I returned to the scene, to find that Allan had already managed to cut the trunk off of the fence.

Even more amazing, he had cut it with our corona hand saw:

Allan’s photo showing little red saw

He cut the weight off the Nora side first and then braced the long piece with a thingie from his workshop:

Allan’s photos of bracing thingie.

Allan’s photo: It’s a “table saw outfeed stand”, used upside down.

We couldn’t linger to do more clean up as we had decided to work, mostly a drive around day checking for storm damage and fallen over plants.

The front garden path is filling up with ingredients for the Halloween Corridor of Spooky Plants.

On the way out of our driveway, our own personal Lake Street puddle was much bigger than usual.

I’ve had so much to say about wind that I’ll make a separate post for today’s and tomorrow’s fall clean up work.

When we got home from work, we spent some enjoyable time until dark picking up sticks and rolling trunks in the back garden. The weather remained so pleasant and windless, and some of the fallen tree wood was so dry, that I wished we had some sausages so that we could have a campfire. (I find the roasting of sausages to be essential to campfire enjoyment.) The next morning, I took photos of our progress:

27 October: LOTS of campfire wood

The tree trunks will be an edge to the garden for now.

They may or may not be a permanent edge with soil build up behind them…or they may be for burning next summer.

 

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24 Oct: around Long Beach

Friday, 24 October 2014

The storm I had been expecting had been postponed till the weekend. I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to do, although I had a vague idea of doing the picket fence garden clean up at Andersen’s RV Park. First thing, I decided, would be to check for fallen cosmos at the Depot Restaurant garden in Seaview. On the way, we picked up some books at the library. (Three Junes by Julia Glass is still not here, and I am so eagerly waiting to reread it.)

in the library garden, fall crocus and heather

fall colour in the library garden (Hamamelis, witch hazel)

I did get a book that I’d ordered through interlibrary loan: The Sisters of Hardscrabble Bay. All I know about it is its irresistible title.

Depot Restaurant

Once there, so many cosmos were tipped over by wind that I began to pull most of them, and then decided we should clip the hop vines on the lattice, as well.

before

after

before

after

I remain impressed with the Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’ this year. I liked it before because of the amusement of having smallish coreopsis flowers way up high. This year, maybe because all the ones I’ve planted are well established three year old plants, they’ve all bloomed well and profusely and for a long time.

Flower Tower

I’d given up on the maddening cosmos that had not even flowered yet. I’m sure it was not ‘Sensation’ and pretty sure it wasn’t ‘Psyche’ that was so late coming on. The foliage was pretty, but no flowers yet. I left just one, to see if it ever blooms before frost (or before it falls right over from wind).

the tardy non blooming cosmos

Long Beach

We pulled the cosmos and some of the Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ out of the welcome sign garden (and forgot to take a photo) and pulled more cosmos and cut down a rugosa rose in Fifth Street Park.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The rose is chopped down. Part of the Melianthus major has fallen sideways since we cut down the Helianthus that was holding it up.

Allan’s photo: after

after

We left this section mostly untouched because it’s still so pretty.

Lots of debris in our little cart and lots more to come after the next storm.

a digression: In Defense of Chrysanthemums

Not long ago I read an article on Garden Rant excoriating chrysanthemums. It’s not the first anti-chrysanthemum article; here’s another. One of the criticisms is that chrysanthemums brown off in just about a week.

I disagree.

The chrysanthemums in the Long Beach planters have been there for years, from when the Basket Case Greenhouse used to sell them in the fall. They have perennialized beautifully, have lovely natural shapes and bloom for weeks.

Here are a couple of photos from October 3rd:

pink ones

pale pink ones by NIVA green

And here are some photos from two days ago:

yellow ones by Campiche Gallery (have been blooming for weeks)

pink ones still blooming

and more

just north of NIVA green

 

And here are the dark pink chrysanthemums still going strong on October 27 after heavy wind and rain:

Monday, 27 October

AND the scent of the foliage reminds me of my grandmother’s garden. She loved chrysanthemums, and that’s good enough for me. (My page about her garden is newly updated and expanded, by the way.)

I’m pretty sure those are chrysanthemums in a vase in my grandma’s living room.

Now…back to work.

Jo’s Garden

After our work in Fifth Street Park and the dumping of debris, it seemed too late to go all the way to Andersen’s. Instead, we decided to start on the fall cleanup of Jo’s garden. In previous years, we have left it till after bulb planting and it’s been the last hard, cold job of the season. With fewer jobs this year, we might be able to get it done earlier, Wouldn’t that be nice?

We did not make much of a dent in the job before we got rained out just after four PM.

after

after

Jo likes the garden flattened for winter, so we have a long, long way to go.

Allan pulled the crocosmia at the west end.

She wants to get rid of all her Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. Who wants some?

Allan’s before and after of pulling the crocosmia; still many more plants to take down

hydrangea blooming in the driveway

Captain Bob’s Chowder

Earlier, while working in Fifth Street Park, we’d decided to have crab rolls at the end of our work day, and so we did.

crab rolls and chowder

It was a good meal and a good talk with restaurateur Cathy.

the end of our workday

After blogging (which takes a couple of hours), we have a later dinner (thanks to Allan) and watch some telly. In the last month we’ve been watching the most recently released seasons of some series: The Americans, Bletchley Park, Homeland, Doctor Who, and tonight we saw a charming film called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. My only complaint: From my own experience, I don’t think high school misfits would be so pretty.
 

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23 Oct: ahead of the storm

Thursday, 23 October 2014

We expected a storm to arrive Friday so decided we should make an appearance at several of our public garden jobs. But before we went public, we attended to Cheri’s garden a few blocks east. You may recall the Margaret Drabble short story I had read recently in which a vacationer’s idyll with nature is interrupted by several days’ work by a gardener.

Not wanting to cause such disruption is what had kept us away from Cheri’s while she and Charlie had housesitters there. Now that Cheri and Charlie are back from vacation, we did some more fall cleanup.

Cheri’s Garden

before

after

before

after (after not cutting down the foreground plants (Anthemis ‘Sauce Hollandaise’) due to lack of time)

Penstemon ‘Burgundy Brew’ still blooming

before

after

Long Beach

I wished to accomplish one thing in Long Beach: cutting back a tatty Geranium ‘Rozanne’ that had been plaguing me each time we drove through town.

before

after, with the concrete damp in the area where old foliage was removed

Next, we drove all the way north to Ocean Park (although NOT all the way to Marilyn’s in Surfside).

Wiegardt Gallery

I tackled the task of clearing out some of the Bad Aster and Geranium ‘A.T. Johnson’ that has had its way with the garden this summer.

before (or, rather, during)

after

Look who I found! (So glad I did not hurt it.)

Meanwhile, Allan chopped Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ down in the north garden bed. It didn’t look bad yet, but this year we are on a mission to get most fall clean up done before bulb time, instead of during or after bulb time.

north bed, minus Helianthis, with Miscanthus variegatus

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We drove south a short ways to Klipsan Beach Cottages. As we got out of the van, I said a squall was on its way, and at that moment Denny came out the back door of the garage and said we probably had fifteen minutes before the rain came. That was about right. I only wanted to get a little bit done, mainly to cut down the tall stalks of Thalictrum ‘Elin’ and move one lily.

east gate of fenced garden

fall colour on blueberries

before

after (at home, I won’t cut the Thalictrum till much later because I love its stem colour)

a late rose

with a little spider

My friend comes to say hello.

Look at the size of that lily bulb!! It’s one that I have been planning to move as it is quite tall and too close to the front of the bed.

Miscanthus ‘Gold Bar’ in a pot in the center of the garden

pineapple sage in the rain

I yanked some spent cosmos and some aster. Then the rain came just as we thought. I could see that it was only a squall as the sky was light to the south, so we left to drive to the next job 90 blocks to the south.

Andersen’s RV Park

looking southwest

nice shapes and colours behind the office

All we did was a bit of deadheading; we still have one big project to do here, the picket fence garden clean up, but we did not have time today. I wanted to make sure we accomplished some work at The Anchorage before the next squall hit.

Anchorage Cottages

There were several more things I might have gotten done at the Anchorage had the skies not opened with a dramatic hailstorm and thunder and lightning.

This golden hardy fuchsia is trying to revert to green and needs to have the green stems removed.

gardens by south wing of cottages

on the roof

I groomed the remaining annuals in pots while Allan did a hard cutback of some lady’s mantle near the office. I was able to take shelter in the office while the hail pelted down. Poor Allan was stuck hunkering against a wall near the garbage bin behind the building, while trying to dump some debris.

north cottages and office

stormy colours down on the east edge of the lawn

We had managed to work till almost dusk, and then went for our traditional Thursday dinner.

The Cove Restaurant

The Cove

There was no ahi tuna on the revolving “Chef’s Mercy” menu this week, so I had the prawns solo and Allan had the fish tacos ($2 each!), with an apple ginger salad for each of us and the hard apple cider that I find so refreshing on Thursday evening.

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17, 19, 22 Oct: 3 bookish days

Friday, 17 October 2014

You can skip the bookishness, scroll to the end, and be rewarded with some photos of the Port of Ilwaco.

Serious rain meant a true day off with no guilt.

view from front window (As you can see, the river rocks have been taken away from across the street.)

east window

and kitchen window, with wind and rain

My book of the day was Closer to the Ground about life on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. Recently we had seen the Bushwick Book Club musical performance about this book. While I expected to enjoy the book, I found it even more enjoyable than I had expected, and educational.

Don’t think the whole book is doom and gloom just because I’m about to share some of what I learned, starting with salmon:

What?? BRAKE PAD DUST? I had no idea. Allan says he thinks that it is possible to choose a less toxic kind of brake pad. Maybe ceramic. We are going to look into this.

I had no idea that geoducks are commercially harvested in an environmentally damaging way.

The place names in the book are familiar to me from my teenage and 20s years, when I would often take a ferry to Bainbridge Island just to walk around; Mary and I walked all the way along what was then a quiet road from Winslow to Fay Bainbridge park. Last time I was there garden touring in 2007 or so, that quiet country road had become a busy highway.

From the book, I learned a new excuse to not battle very hard against the salmonberry groves that fill our bogsy wood, even though I sometimes dream of replacing them with more variety.

I learned that rat poison is a big threat to owls, and thought about all the rat poison traps I see around the Peninsula. I doubt most people know that such poison endangers predatory birds.

I had never considered the truth that living in the city might actually cause less impact on the environment:

The book is not all environmental education. It inspired me to think about growing more veg.

Poetic descriptions of nature abound in Closer to the Ground.

The images of night clamming are familiar to me from watching clam diggers here on the Peninsula.

One of my favourite themes is how the author thinks about childhood memories and tries to create good ones for his children.

Trust me, these passages are just a hint of the richness in Closer to the Ground. I hope that the author continues to write memoirs about island life. I feel inspired to re-read one of my other favourites on that theme, Onions in the Stew by Betty McDonald about life on Vashon Island back when it was undeveloped.

I had time to read a second book because it was a bookish day with no booting up of the computer.

I almost quit it when I came upon an essay in the second person. I can’t abide reading “You, you, you.” I’m glad I stuck with the book (which was not as much about empathy as I’d expected) because I came upon some gems, including a fascinating chapter about the West Memphis Three, in which I learned that there is a third Paradise Lost documentary. I immediately ordered it from the library (and a week later watched footage of the three innocents finally getting released from prison).

Here’s my favourite part of the book and exactly how I have come to feel about people who are said to be crying out for attention:

Sunday, 19 October 2014

After a work day, we had another storm day. I felt a little guilty when I saw the sunshine from the front door, which I had open while I read.

But one step onto the porch validated our decision to stay home. Despite the sunshine, the wind was strong with gusts up to 30 mph, so strong that it even rang the heavy bell on the porch.

ringing in the wind

Allan made cookies…the most special and yummy Russian Tea Cakes from his mother’s recipe.

I read The Sea Lady by Margaret Drabble, one of my favourite authors. Set partly in a seaside town on the North Sea of England, it is simply beautiful and has inspired some evocative cover art.

 

Margaret, Margaret, Margaret, I love every book you write. I think I might have to reread all of them this winter. Those would be some good bookish days.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

After some more work, I was able to enjoy another bookish day. I dutifully finished reading The Game by AS Byatt. I had wanted to read it because it is said to be the catalyst of a life long non-speaking feud between Byatt and her sister, Margaret Drabble. However much I love Margaret Drabble (which is lots), I found Byatt’s book to be a hard slog. I couldn’t quite see how it started the feud, and neither of the sisters seem much like the real life sisters. The younger one is so foolish that she could not possibly be based on Margaret; if she were, then the feud does make sense.

From an article in Slate:

While I found The Game tedious, I did find two quotations that I liked. First, this one, that speaks to me of what it feels like to be the subject of malicious gossip:

And I liked this bit as I am deeply opposed to judging people by their appearance:

I was glad to finish reading The Game and to get on with my enjoyable book of the day….by Margaret Drabble herself.

The very first story starts strong.

Later, a story called The Merry Widow amused me greatly. The protagonist, recently widowed from a mean and critical man, rents a lovely country cottage for a week. The setting is idyllic.

It is all so perfect, peaceful and solitary.

And then, The Gardener arrives, with a scythe to mow the meadow.

Many times, I have thought that I am spoiling the idyll of vacationers by gardening around them at various resorts. That is why this past two weeks we have not gone to finish the fall clean up at Cheri’s garden; while she was out of town, I did not want to disturb the peace of her housesitters.

In a later story, a lichen expert reminded me of the many moss and lichen photos that I enjoyed in Mr Tootlepedal’s blog last winter.

I did manage to get myself out of the house during a time when the wind died down enough to go check out the bogsy woods without danger.

the gutter “water feature”

We’d already had this much rain.

I’ve been hoping the new, slightly raised garden bed would not get too bogsy. So far so good.

The bogsy swale already had some water (and I usually get the leaves raked off the path first).

from the bridge to the south gate, more bogsy swale water. I love it!

Outside the south gate, the meander line pool is fuller now…

and the water is gleaming under the willow trunks…

and in the long grasses.

looking north to the house

We’d had wind up to 40 mph and I expected more branches to be down…but there were only a few.

insignificant

slightly bigger…

and some more bark had stripped off the former danger tree.

Smokey came to find me in the rain, complaining all the way.

Meanwhile, Allan went to the Port to deliver some digital photos (on a flash drive) to the Pink Poppy Farms dad, the photos we took of the glorious Pink Poppy wedding. While there, he took some photos…

the dredge

the dredge at work

E Dock

And Allan also made us a treat at which he excels…

pie, pumpkin pie!

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18, 20, 21 Oct: 3 Andersen’s days

Alternating with some stormy bookish days (more on these later), we settled into a routine of going to Andersen’s RV Park. Other than Long Beach, it’s our biggest fall clean up job. I don’t do this sort of clean up at home. I would rather leave most old plants tall until springtime. At resorts, the guests expect tidiness. Even in my own garden, I do some clean up earlier in the late winter than I would if I were retired, just because garden jobs will keep me too busy in the spring.

Saturday, 18 October 2014

On the way to work (yes, on a Saturday, as one must do fall clean up whenever the weather allows, no matter how much one skived off work in the month of September), we popped into The Planter Box to get a lavender plant for one of the Ilwaco planters. I was reminded of how much I like this perennial chrysanthemum that they carry.

Planter Box plant display

Our work mission was to continue the attack on the Bad Aster at Andersen’s RV Park. We had, as usual, let it invade the west garden way too much after the annual poppies. It had redeemed itself with a show of pale blue flowers through the mid-autumn, but now it has to be removed or it will completely take over and there will be no room for poppies next year.

before

Allan tackled the middle section while I went through the area to the left, that he had cleared two days ago, using the pick to get out masses of roots.

It’s a hard slog to get the roots out. (Allan’s photo)

Often the Stipa tenuissima plumes in the wind catch my eye and make me think for a second that there’s a golden dog wagging its tail next to me.

Allan’s photo

the roots are horrendous

I got out several wheelbarrows full.

after

before and after, Allan’s photos

The dratted aster will re-emerge from any piece of root left behind, as will the accursed quack grass, so this will have to be gone over again in late winter before planting poppy seeds. By then, we will probably find that the red Flanders Field poppies will have reseeded themselves, but we will add more seeds of assorted poppies to be sure to have a good display.

On our next day here, we will clear the south side of the garden, below.

Next!

I gave a bit of attention to the Payson Hall planters. All of the sanvitalia (short and yellow) reseeded from last year. The end is bare where a Salvia patens got cut back due to looking utterly tatty.

To my surprise, a late Tigridia bloomed:

Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower)

Monday, 20 October 2014

Allan found a frog under the trailer while hooking up for work.

As you can see, there had been much rain the day and night before.

After a stormy bookish Sunday, we went back to work at Andersen’s, clearing the south side of the west garden of (some) goldenrod, a lot of asters, and assorted weeds.

before

I was going to take all the goldenrod out. However, the main clump got spared for now by still looking interesting. We’ll take down the rest next week so we can use the stalks in our Halloween corridor of spooky plants. At that time, we’ll get out as many roots as we can, knowing that some goldenrod WILL come back next year. It’s the tough old running kind, not the very polite and clumping Solidago ‘Fireworks’ that I favour now.

before

We would also try to finish the end of the center bed where we left off on Saturday.

before

after weeding among assorted good plants

after

after

after

after….I guess you can tell I am well chuffed with our job.

Allan’s before and after

We worked till almost sunset.

We treated two old friends of mine from my mid 20s, Xan and Marla, to dinner at The Depot Restaurant. I had not seen either of them for well over 25 years. I realized as they filled me in on many former acquaintances of my punk rock years, that the only ones I had truly cared what happened to were my former housemate, Wilum Pugmire, and the two of them, so it was perfect that they were our dinner companions. My mind sort of reeled at all the names that were invoked and thus no photos were taken of the occasion.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Despite a threatening weather forecast, we managed to get just a bit of work done.

First, I did some weeding at our volunteer Ilwaco Post Office garden while Allan dug a large and very tatty old lavender out of the city planter there. The lavender was originally donated and planted by Painted Lady Lavender Farm, so we planted a new lavender in its place.

I am picking away at the post office garden columbine seedlings…far too many.

One little lavender gives room for planting bulbs in the post office planter.

Way back when, someone (not us) had put some bottles or something like that in this planter to take up some room, then put in soil and a lavender plant. The soil had then sunk ridiculously low, so we were very glad to get it filled up with potting soil again.

Back at Andersen’s RV Park, we continued the fall cleanup at the garden shed garden.

before

As we were getting toward the end of the project, I felt an ominous darkening of the sky and advised Allan to get at least one of the two wheelbarrows of debris dumped. As he did, a pelting fierce rain began, the kind that drenches one to the skin almost immediately. I had to keep picking up debris and then got into the van, thinking I would not even be able to get a proper after photo.

from in the van

Then the squall had passed. Had I known it was only a squall, I would have hopped into the van earlier. We were able to do a bit more weeding till more rain came, and with a dark sky all the way to the south and clothing sodden from rain, we decided work was over for the day.

In the second rain squall, the “after” photo of the day

On the way home, we saw the city crew out making a new garden bed in Veterans Field. It will soon be ready for us to plant up (with more red white and blue-ish plants).

The little monument is a tribute to former senator and local groceryman Sid Snyder; we all agreed that it is a lettering about Sid (lower part) is a little hard to read and might need some touch up with black.

We decided to have a look at the weather on the port. The wind was whipping at about 28 mph. Allan’s the one who walked out to get the photos while I sheltered in the van.

The two flag warning was up.

warning flags flown at the port office

The Mystique, whose progress in the boat yard we have been following all summer, is now in the marina.

Mystique

Mystique’s owner plans to sail off to Mexico with his dog.

The Discovery, which we saw being brought into the boatyard a few days ago, is in the water again.

quick turnaround on the Discovery

We found it poignant to see the for rent sign on the space formerly occupied by the late lamented Pelicano Restaurant.

the restaurant, now being marketed as a turnkey establishment

At home, I wrote out the work board, just from memory, so it probably does not even include all the jobs we have to do before staycation. (I forgot to list The Boreas Inn garden, for example.) There are two fall clean ups: The one we are doing now, cutting plants back, and the post-frost clean up at jobs that have annuals. We are awaiting the bulb arrival for bulb time to begin.

After a month or more of being blank, the work board returns to action.

The forecast for the next day or two is dire and I predict at least one bookish day off before returning to do the Andersen’s picket fence garden fall clean up.

The wall of china on the shed had already begun to rattle in the wind, so for the second and final time this autumn, down they come till springtime.

battening down the hatches

The wind was already too fierce to go back into the bogsy woods to rescue a couple of decorative items from there.

danger of falling branches from the alder grove

It’s so much better at our current residence than back at the old Tangly Cottage which was so scarily overhung by tall trees that each storm was an ordeal.

Finally, Allan’s photos of a late rose blooming in Nora’s garden next door:

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16 October: more fall clean up

Thursday, 16 October 2014

We did the rounds of most of our public garden jobs because rain was predicted for Friday and we wanted to make sure they got done. Wiegardt Gallery, Oman Builder’s Supply and Marilyn’s garden, the three most north jobs, and Golden Sands got neglected this week.

Before work, I took a quick spin around the garden.

out the front door, Stewartia fall colour

coleus by the shed

Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’ by the greenhouse

Soon it will be time to take my few tender succulents into the greenhouse.

I had picked up more fallen branches yesterday, so our campfire wood pile grows. Allan had added some branch pieces from the ornamental plum pruning.

autumnal astilbes

fuchsia magellanica

and another hardy fuchsia

In the greenhouse, the appalling-looking tomato plants are still producing.

I picked some tomatoes, and then had to get to work.

Ilwaco Post Office garden

We simply had to do a little bit of weeding in our volunteer garden.

And I planted the best of the rudbeckia divisions given us by Kathleen Shaw.

The Depot Restaurant in Seaview

We are no longer trying to completely deadhead the cosmos…

I did deadhead the Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ by the window, behind that maddenly late blooming cosmos, some of which had broken off.

Long Beach

We paused to clip Lysimachia under one Long Beach street tree.

carrying an armload of debris to the trailer

On the way north out of town, I was maddened to see a very unattractive stalk of spent Schizostylis (a late blooming perennial) in the planter just north of the pharmacy. I had noticed it last week, too; something would have to be done later.

Anchorage Cottages

At the Anchorage, I was inspired to do a good fall clean up of one end of the courtyard garden, getting rid of two tatty old lavenders and a cluster of Bad Aster.

after

The area above got a piece of Kathleen’s rudbeckia; she used to stay at the Anchorage while visiting, before she bought her little cottage halfway up the Peninsula.

The annuals in the courtyard planters are still looking pleasant enough…although not for much longer.

Lotus vine has been a big success in the four windowboxes…

and is blooming now.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Bella was out on the lawn when we got to KBC.

She’s a little camera shy.

There she is!

Mary was raking leaves.

A critter of some kind had gotten into the fenced garden. I think it was a bear, over the fence! Or maybe a deer, standing on its hind legs to get the apples off the top of the young apple tree. Whoever it was, the top of the tree was broken off, and the apples were gone.

Luis pruning the broken parts off the tree, deciding what would be the new leader.

I clipped a plethora of perennials back in this corner by the greenhouse.

a good aster that has bloomed for weeks

hardy fuchsias

a late rose

and a spider web on rose ‘Jude the Obscure’

Andersen’s RV Park

While I deadheaded the ubiqitous Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’, Allan began the fall clean up of the west beds, pulling of the Bad Aster along the westernmost edge of the beds.

the aster project begins

As usual, I berate myself for letting the aster take over so thoroughly after the poppies are done, when its cloud of pale blue seems welcome. Worse yet, we let it go to seed.

Allan’s photo: before

Allan’s photo: after

root length of the bad aster, Allan’s photo

I went in after him and got more roots out, as the aster roots are pernicious and have given shelter to swathes of quack grass. We would return soon for more aster mayhem.

While we were working, park owner Lorna came out to visit and told me that she now reads the Tootlepedal blog every day. I was so pleased. Now there are at least three Tootlepedal fans on the LB Peninsula. We worked till the sun was low in the sky, and then indulged in our Thursday tradition.

The Cove Restaurant

the cats of the Cove

This Thursday’s menu

J9, Jill and their friend Judy McP. were also there (finishing their early dinner), as I knew they would be, and, as secretly planned, J9 presented Allan with a bag of sweet goodies from a recent trip to Trader Joe’s, to thank him for the plaque he made in memory for her cat, Buddy.

Allan’s treats

I had been counting the hours till I could have a glass of crisp and frosty hardy apple cider.

fried artichokes with creole mayo

apple ginger salad with craisins and feta cheese

I had the ahi tuna; Allan had fish tacos.

Allan had chocolate cake; I had this bread pudding with cranberries, so rich I took half home for tomorrow.

Long Beach again

That is not a finger blighter…That’s Allan, pulling the ugly schizostylis stalk that I noticed much earlier in the day. I remembered!

Now it will stop haunting my dreams.

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15 October: a bookish day

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Nature had had her revenge:  When I had pulled wild grasses along the meander line a week before, I had cut my finger.   I thought it had healed well, but today it was sore and looked inflamed.  As a hypochondriac, I was quite worried; fortunately, rain let me stay in and read a book, because the sore spot was right where it would hurt to pull weeds.

much fierce rain

  I became completely absorbed in the book  (with some guilt, as the weather improved considerably in the afternoon).  I should have got me arse in gear and hied us down to Cheri’s and Mike’s garden, both close to us, on the pleasant hours of the afternoon.  But I did not.

Allan was more ambitious.  I had pointed out, last time I weeded in the front garden, a limb that might be removed from the ornamental plum tree.  He had been thinking about it, and today he cut it.

before

after: more light for the shrubs underneath.  I do not especially like that tree.

He also hung up all our Halloween lights for the upcoming Halloween trick or treating extravaganza.

front porch

 

purple lights on the front arbour

..and he hung two new pots (given us by our client Jo, I think) by the garage door.

I went out to admire his handiwork, and noticed one plant blooming nicely in the front garden.

some sort of rudbeckia?

the front gate, ready for Halloween

Now we just have to erect our spooky corridor of dead plants for the trick or treaters.  That will have to wait until later as windstorms would tear it apart.

Here is the book that had me so absorbed:

A couple of bits that spoke to me follow.  The first reminded me of stories I have heard about the end of life, including Jo’s dear mother who said something like “I don’t mind going but I’m not enjoying the trip”, as she died in her late 90s.

Why must death be so hard?  It is a mystery that plagues me; the concept of it being a passage, like birth, even though hard, is comforting, and I do hope it is toward something more than just the dark.

The following passage reminded me of my questioning about whether or not it was right for me to try to control nature in the far reaches of our property (and the revenge of nature that had my finger looking worrisomely weird and making me think of going to urgent care, although I can tell you, as I am writing this days later, I did not go and it turned out ok).

It’s a great book, and I recommend it so highly that on a scale of one to five I would want to give it a ten or a twenty.  I finished it by evening and was in mourning when it ended.  Sometimes Julia Glass has revisited characters in her novels (Three Junes, and then The Whole World Over, and now her new book And the Dark Sacred Night revisits the same characters).  I do hope she revisits the characters from The Widower’s Tale in a future novel.  I did not want to let them go.  Meanwhile, I am impatiently waiting for Three Junes to come from the library so I can reread the first two books of her trilogy before I read the third one.

 

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14 October: fall clean up continues

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Ilwaco boatyard garden

I had decided that, because of its place on the noxious weed list, all the bronze fennel in the boatyard (about six plants) needed to be cut down instead of left standing all winter with its seeds falling all around.

A boat was just coming in as we arrived.

I found a disturbing imbalance in the center (slightly wider) part of the garden. One side the the widest bit has a big rosemary plant.

north of the widest spot

And just south of the widest spot, the rosemary is missing.

Where did it go? We’re out of balance now.

Rosemary is easy to start by sticking cuttings in the ground, so I did that; it will take a long time to catch up and balance the garden out again.

Allan doing some weeding and chopping.

One of those annoyingly late, not yet blooming Cosmos

Long Beach

Just south of city hall in Long Beach, we weeded all along the front of the “big pop-out”.

no before poster…it has been sorely neglected for lack of time.

City Hall was next. I like to leave up any plants that have some good structure, even tall spent perennials. However, Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ had to come down before it flopped over, and today seemed like a good day to deal with it.

before, west wall

after; soon more perennials will come down, but not quite yet.

pineapple sage, fragrant and late blooming

dianthus throwing some late blooms

corner of the wider garden bed, before

I usually don’t cut Miscanthus down in fall, but here the variegated one had new growth that looked rather fine, with the old growth flopping all the way to the edge of the garden…so I did. I wonder if it was our warmer than usual summer that brought on the unusually excellent new growth in the center of these grasses.

wide garden bed, tidied

behind Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Miscanthus with good new growth

We dumped our debris in the city works yard, where I managed to get a couple of photos of the resident flock of ducks.

🎵 “Ducks on a pond, ducks on a pond, very pretty swimming ’round…”

These ducks are shy and standoffish, so I think no one has fed them bread during city crew lunch breaks. (Bread is not supposed to be good for them).

While we were at the works yard, and Allan was doing the dumping because the rough ground hurts my knee, I noticed that the old hanging basket plants still had their fabric rounds. So I messaged this photo to Nancy at the Basket Case asking if it would be helpful to get them back:

hanging basket landscape fabric circles

After dumping our first load of debris, we turned to some pruning and weeding in Coulter Park. When we had stopped there on Saturday to see the art show in the old train depot building, I had noticed some projects to do.

my sharp and handy pruning saw

I tackled the back entry to the park…

making it just a tad more passable in a way that hardly shows from the outside.

While it might not look very different, quite a few shabby lower branches came off, so the mowing will be easier.

I asked Allan to take a big branch off of the Ribes sanguineum (flowering currant).

after

He also tackled some very bad pruning that had been done (not by us!) when the new ramp to the depot building had been put in.

I had noticed this mess when we had walked up the ramp to the art show!

after

I chopped away at more the of Siberian iris, a project Allan had begun about a week ago.

iris all cut back

We both clipped salmon berry and weeded in the row of roses on the back north side of the park. It is a hopeless problem because the neighbours’ salmonberry constantly creeps under the fence and into the roses, and it’s a painful, miserable, and sticky mess.

sort of better

Allan used welding gloves to dump the rose mess back at the city works yard, along with our other prunings. It took me just a few minutes to whisk the fabric rounds out from under the old basket plants and I retrieved a pot that was partly buried, and we detoured up to the Basket Case to drop them off.

safely stowed out of the considerable wind in a Basket Case greenhouse

This will save Fred and Nancy considerable time cutting rounds of fabric next year. The city is no longer going to use that type of plastic pot for baskets; of two kinds of pots used this year, the OTHER kind (of which I have no photo) held the water better.

at home

We got home in time for Allan to mow the lawn while I picked up fallen branches from wind that had gotten up to 24 mph the night before.

beginning of our new campfire wood stash, with Allan mowing beyond the salmonberry tunnel

Rainwater has begun to fill the meander line seasonal pond at the south end of our property.

By midwinter, water should be gleaming all along the ditch under the willow trunks.

My other project was to dig up a big clump of Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and some Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ (I have too much of both) for Starvation Alley Cranberry Farm to plant as pollinators.

before

after, with Allan’s help; the Helianthus was pushing on the dark leaved Physocarpus (ninebark) shrub and had to go.

another big clump that gets to stay

I noticed that strawberries have crept all around the garden boat and will soon want to enter my new scree garden…

The attack of the strawberries must be controlled…

Donkey tail spurge is thriving on the new scree bed.

I wheeled the Helianthus and Sedum to the driveway next door to the east and dumped them, as two Starvation Alley-ers live in the grey house.

In Nora’s driveway, just west of our lawn, plants ready to be wheeled.

Speaking of Nora’s driveway, something rather wonderful happened. Nora’s sweet grand daughter came for an overnight and told us that she has no plans to sell her grandma’s house anytime soon but will use it for visiting. When she said that people keep asking her when she will sell it, I told her she had every right to keep it in memory of Nora for the rest of her life if she so desires. When we saw Alicia at her vehicle unloading a walker (zimmer frame) that used to belong to Nora, both Allan and I had the sudden thought that Nora herself was coming to visit. We miss her. Later, we mentioned that to Nora’s former caregiver, Devery, who caretakes the house. Devery laughed in her kind and bubbly way and said in her musical St Kit’s accent, “Oh, Nora is there all right. Sometimes when I go into the house, I smell so strongly the perfume that she used to wear. Other times, I can’t smell it there at all. So when I do smell it, I say ‘Hello, Nora!’ and I talk to her.”

Later, Smokey kept me company while I blogged.

my Smokey

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13 Oct: a brief workday

Monday, 13 October 2014

There will be no proper three days weekends now unless we have rain. All good weather must be taken advantage of for fall clean up.

We had the briefest of workdays, followed by work related socializing and a birthday dinner. More work would have taken place between the work meeting and the dinner had the weather been at all conducive!

We at least accomplished one of my goals, to cut down the Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and a few other perennials in Long Beach’s Fifth Street Park. Can you tell the difference?

before

after

before

after

after

Soon the cosmos will be done, but not yet…

Usually we leave the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ up all winter. This year, I think we will chop it down before staycation, so it does not taunt us with ugliness in late winter; cutting it back in Long Beach is usually the first thing that compels us back to work at the end of January. It would be rather lovely to be able to wait till mid-February before hitting work again full bore.

I had planned to chop the mildewed Dorothy Perkins rose canes to the ground; she redeemed herself with some good late blooms.

Dorothy looking good

The pineapple sage in the park is blooming well, unlike last year when it got blackened by wind before its flowers emerged.

The leaves smell like pineapple on this late blooming salvia.

The miscanthus on the south side of the park is another thing that draws us back to work when it has fallen over in late winter. I wouldn’t dream of cutting it now and depriving passersby of its backlit plumes.

The Cranberrian Fair is over…as of yesterday. Tile work by Renee O’Connor.

At one o clock, we met our friends Shelly and Terran at a coffee shop in Long Beach so that they could “pick my brain” about starting their own gardening partnership. Shelly is the former co owner of Ilwaco’s beloved and much lamented Pelicano Restaurant who is turning to gardening as a new career, and, having worked with Terran in the past, I highly recommend them as a gardening team.

The coffee shop has attractive ambience (except for the whinging of Bob Dyan on the stereo, which fortunately was not an entire string of songs, just one).

comfy couches and artful walls

music potential

and our friend Don Nisbett is a regular there.

The coffee shop has one fatal flaw: I don’t go there often, because it seems like usually when I do, even in the early afternoon, the pastry case is empty.

Nought but crumbs!

Even a jar of biscotti would have helped, as I was hungry for a nosh. I also wish, as a friend commented, that when they do have treats, there were some savory instead of just sweet things. Just give me some food options and I would be much more likely to meet friends there on a regular basis.

The meeting went well, with many laughs, and as we chatted, a heavy rain began to pour so there was no going back to work. The rest of the afternoon was spent at home, until it was time for an early dinner at the Depot Restaurant, a treat for J9 and her sister Jill. Jill, a former Peninsulite visiting from her new Arizona home, was having a birthday.

The Depot Restaurant

a toast to Jill

my delicious smoky flavoured gazpacho

Jill’s crab mac, a dish for wish the Depot is famous.

Allan’s house salad with candies walnuts and blue cheese

My artichoke risotto

Allan’s parmesan chicken

I can’t recall exactly which dish J9 and Jill chose, but it looks delicious.

Allan is sure that it was the salmon special.

chocolate espresso pot de crème

sorbet duo

sisters and friends and tiramisu

I do wish Jill still lived here. J9 was drawn back, after moving away; Jill prefers the mountains of Arizona (a place called Show Low, in the White Mountains). While she was here, Jill was such an asset to the community; among other contributions, she started the Doggie Olympic Games.

And…home again…

Smokey and Frosty, with their mom. Mary, on the right

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12 Oct: Naselle River boating trip

Sunday, 12 October 2014

Allan goes boating on the Naselle River

On the drive south to the Long Beach peninsula, there is a long curved bridge just before the twisty road alongside the Willapa Bay on U.S. Highway 101. It’s just over 15 minutes from our home.

That bridge crosses the river I wanted to explore. It  goes to the town of Naselle.

Today I would travel up the Naselle River from Willapa Bay. Naselle also has a boat ramp onto a narrow part of the river. Launching there could later lead to a walk back to the car from downstream if the river became too swift or shallow.

Boat ramp at Naselle. Image from lunkersguide.com

The closest official point to paddle up the Naselle River is down the bay at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge boat ramp off Highway 101.  The Washington Water Trails Association ( http://wwta.org/willapa_bayfaq/ ) says its about nine miles from there to the town of Naselle but I later found those are highway miles, not shoreline miles according to google maps.

Highway sign

Today I went about fourteen miles and I still have not seen most of the river.

It was my day off and I got the boat into the water not so promptly at noon. Well, it was my day off. The tide was at its lowest and safe to go until after dark.

Someone asked before I left whether they could pick the oysters.  These are private farms, I said. It would be like stealing from a farmer’s fields. Someone else inquired about the outrigger mounts. I decided to leave the sail kit at home again as there was very little wind and a slender kayak can explore more stuff.

Looking back at boat ramp

A house above the twisty road that we will never see while driving. A house like this might be common elsewhere but is the exception here. There is very little development along the shores of Willapa Bay in order to protect the oyster farms.

The first destination was the mouth of the Naselle River. It is a straight three mile paddle according to the site, and another six miles upriver to the town of Naselle.  Ahead on the right is a point about halfway there. I prefer to hug the shore as there is more to see.

Here is where I ground to a noisy halt and discovered I was on an oyster bed. The paddle shows the depth even though I was pretty far from shore. The beds are marked with vertical branches but I thought I could clear them all.

This tower marks the entrance to the Naselle River. Ever notice people watching as you parallel park? Eight birds are checking out whether this other bird can land:

Heading up the Naselle after an hour fifteen minutes with a heron in the distance:

The remains of an old dock on the Stanley Peninsula:

Approaching a small oyster operation straight ahead on Teal Slough. I once approached this place by motorcycle but their dogs didn’t make me feel welcome. The 101 bridge is on the left. The waves were a bit splashy.

A closer view of the oyster place and a discarded boat

A bucket of oysters on the dock:

A boat’s eye view of the last curve before northbound drivers see the 101 bridge:

A troll’s eye view:

I pulled ashore looking for a place to park for the next trip as it was already 2:30. I was not going to make it up any six miles to the town of Naselle and back by dark.

An old dock or trestle parallel to Parpala road:

I continued further upriver to find one of the two Smith Creeks that feed the bay.  Maybe it would be a closer place to launch for the town of Naselle. Later I found out that the other Smith Creek by South Bend has the official boat ramp. Here you would have to leave your car on the highway and find a trail to the water.

  Before Smith Creek is the Ellsworth Slough with more birds and a wide entrance.

Since I started at noon, and it was now 2:40 I went in quickly as the sun set at 6:30.

It was shallow, quiet, and with lots of interesting obstacles.

This is where Humphrey Bogart might hop out dragging a rope to pull me upstream.

This log would have made a good foot bridge but there was no trail I could see. After just over a mile I was stopped and had to head back.

This is where I leaned back so far I pulled out a seat mount and covered everything in sticks and needles:

Quietly hurried back toward the main river…

…back under the Ellsworth Slough bridge…

…and towards the big 101 bridge.

It was now 4:00 and I went for the shortest routes.

From the bridge it’s a boring 40 minutes to the Stanley Peninsula. That worked out to over 3 mph which is also a good walking speed.

Shot lots of pictures as I approached these elk but only this one caught them. They were shy.

Back into the smooth bay. From here, the misty point to the left of the clear passage marks the halfway point to the dock. It was so smooth I could see fish jump.

The birds were watching for fish too.

The Naselle River entrance’s tower behind me:

“POSTED NO TRESPASSING” over a hidden farm:

A gull over a piling showing the tide just going out. The small branches to the right probably signify where the oyster beds are shallow, I avoided them now.

It’s now 5:18 and I still am trying to get a good shot of a bird splashing through a take off. It’s not getting any earlier but I have packed a flashlight and a whistle.

The water is so calm I actually leave a wake pretty far back. Just passing the halfway point down the bay.

Just a shot of how this boat has me sit like I’m in a recliner, or some gym device that floats and takes you places.

Last heron and its squawk coming soon:

The 25 mph bend in the highway and the boat ramp coming up. It’s almost 6:00.

Sunset looking south while packing up.

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