25 April: beach clean up morning

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Black Lake, Ilwaco

We had to get up EARLY for us, and even then we were twenty minutes late for the Grassroots Garbage Gang beach clean up.  We might have made it on time, for once, had we not been distracted by the end of the Black Lake Fishing Derby.  We had to stop and take a few photos of the last of the boaters at this annual event for children; it had started at 7 AM.  The lake had been stocked with nice big fish the previous week.

Black Lake

fishing from shore

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Beach Clean Up

We started our clean up from the Seaview beach approach, as my knee had been hurting a lot the evening before and even though a wilder area would be more fun, I did not want to have to walk in on a half mile long trail.

check in point on the Seaview approach

looking northeast from the beach

Looking north, we could see lots of trash-pickers up toward Long Beach, so we turned south.

We like to see beach cleaners starting young.

Despite the dramatic light and clouds, we were spared any rain or wind.

looking south toward North Head

The beach was strewn with piles of little dead jellyfish, the blue sailed velella velella which had arrived in droves recently.  As they die off, they can create quite a stench.  Fortunately, that part was over.  They were still slippery and squelchy, though.  A book in my collection, Beachcombing the Pacific, says that when velella wash ashore, debris from Japan is not far behind.  Nowadays, debris is likely to be from the tsunami and thus associated with sadness rather than the romanticism of finding a glass fishing float.

drifts of velella (Allan’s photo)

from Wikepedia. They are stunningly beautiful when they wash ashore.

From a local Facebook page

drifts of dessicated velella

The gulls seemed to find them quite tasty.

Allan’s photo

Allan walked along the edge of the dunes seeking (and finding) debris that had washed up that far in last Thursday’s storm.  We did not find as much debris as usual, however.  Later, the clean up organizer, Shelly Pollock, told us that this length of beach has been adopted by some regular volunteers who have been reliably collecting all the big stuff.

Allan’s photo

wild beach peas, Allan’s photo

Horse riders are a common sight on our beach.

Allan’s photo

The beach was covered with tire tracks; perhaps there had been clamming earlier in the day.  I do not like driving on the beach for ANY reason other than to pick up trash.  One of the big arguments for beach driving is that seniors and disabled cannot get out there on foot, so perhaps there could be a section of beach open for vehicles with “handicapped parking” stickers.  That is as far as I can concede on that topic.

Allan’s photo:  These are the sort of tracks I do like to see on the beach.

photo by Rose Power: deer tracks

Eight city blocks south of the Seaview approach, Holman Creek flows into the ocean.

looking up Holman Creek

When I lived in Seaview in 1993, this was my favourite place to walk.

It is shallow enough at low tide to wade across, with one’s shoes off.

This time, we did not wade it but instead turned upstream to trash pick along the edge.  Again, we found not much trash compared to previous beach clean ups.

a little further upstream

Note the car to the right. probably on a valuable mission to pick up the trash bags left by volunteers.  Any other day, I would feel that having a car there wrecked the photo.

looking south

gulls having a bath

a flock of noisy birds flew overhead

Their swirling flight pattern made me think they were something like sandpipers.

Allan was still up at the edge of the dunes.

trying to get a photo of the flying birds (didn’t turn out; he says it was just blue sky)

He did get this photo of a woolly bear in the dune grass.

Later: He says he hoped his flying bird landing would be as clear as Mr Tootlepedal’s photos. No…

Allan, back to trash picking

beach grass trying to colonize a new dune

Again, we did not find as much trash as usual, even though we did not see the back-and-forthing footprints of any beach cleaner who might have walked ahead of us.  Finally, along the grassy edge of the dunes, I found a treasure trove of small plastic bits.

lots of little bits of plastic in these grasses

Just walking on that bit of rough ground got me knee in an uproar.  Fortunately, Allan found me a perfect piece of driftwood to use as a cane (and I used it all the way back!).  A little bird kept us company from the top of a nearby beach pine.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: This little bird regaled us with song while we picked up little plastic bits.

Warning, sad bird carcass photo below, posted to illustrate why we pick up the little bits of plastic. Birds eat them and dead birds have been found with a gut full of plastic bits.  Because they cannot digest the plastic, a bird can starve from eating it.

little bits of plastic, Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Nearby, we saw a woolly bear on the sand.

Allan’s photo

the bear in question

Just as I was about to pick up the woolly bear and take him to the dune grass, a hummer drove up with a volunteer who took a full garbage bag from us.

Allan’s photo

A lot of erosion took place on the dunes along the creek estuary over the winter.

On the way back, more gulls eating velella.

Some more volunteers

These folks speculated that the reason for the lack of trash was that Thursday’s windstorm had buried it, so they walked along poking mounds of sand with their pick-up sticks.

We met a little dog named Ellie or Alfie.

Of course, I was smitten.

The dog was tied to a tonka truck which “slowed him down”, according to his people.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo (omitting the car that was parked right next to this scene)

Just about then, I recalled that I had forgotten to rescue the woolly bear from the sand.  By now, it was seven blocks back, so that mission was abandoned.

Leaving the beach, we drove north to the Peninsula Senior Center for the soup lunch provided for volunteers.

inside the center

volunteer soup servers (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

dessert. Someone made fudge, and I do dearly love iced animal cookies. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Rose Power is in blue and is, quite thrillingly for Anglophile me, originally from England.

We sat at a table with local artist Rose Power and shared our best finds.  Ours were both paper.  We had been amused to find, on the beach, a grocery store receipt that spoke of a beach trip.

Note the three pails and shovels and sandwich making food! And Doritos, of course.

Allan found a paper brochure for hospice care in Hawaii; it can’t have washed all the way from there!  He also wishes to know what that white piece of plastic is for:

Allan’s photo

Rose Power found the coolest item: a bottle with a message in it.

Rose had gone out to the Klipsan beach and had found much more debris than we had.

Rose picked up all this.

Three hundred and twenty five people had signed in at the check points to clean the beach, and we are sure that others had walked out from their beach houses and resorts without signing in.  That is an impressive turnout.

Because the Senior Center is conveniently located right next to Golden Sands Assisted Living, we went to work right after lunch…but that, and a large number of photos of Ed’s new puppy, will be the next post.

Read Full Post »

24 April: a day of little jobs

Friday, 24 April 2015

You might not be able to see the pouring rain in the photo below unless you look quite closely.

from our front porch

The Ribes speciosum is STILL blooming. What a great do-er. Must take starts to gardens of various clients.

The Dicentra scandens (bleeding heart vine) against the porch wall is climbing tall.

The rain stopped and I began to gather some plants to plant today.  I envied the neighbour cat, who clearly planned to spend the day in our garden.

The orange cat from across the street is furtive and shy, unlike Onyx from next door who is a good friend of mine.

I wish I could spend the day in my garden, too.

Ilwaco

Ilwaco post office garden

I think that the reason I have a hard time growing sweet peas against the picket fence in our volunteer garden at the post office is that that strip is in a mysterious rain shadow.  It is dry while the rest of the garden is damp.  Well, phooey.  I don’t think I feel inspired to specially water it every day.

We went over to First Avenue to add some diascias to some of the planters and while we did, I made a list of what we will need to finish planting them up for the season.  Except for nasturtiums (from seeds), I am trying to do all plants that will not wilt when dry, as we can only water these every third day.

planter at First and Eagle with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ and diascia

a boat with me mum’s name

I checked on the condition of the boatyard garden.  We will weed it mid-next week in hopes of attaining top quality for the May 2nd parade.  This year, for the first time since 2010, I won’t be taking photos for the Discover Ilwaco page as the parade conflicts with the Rhodie tour….or vice versa, as the parade has been going on for years and the rhodie tour is new.  Gardening touring trumps a parade in my life.  (Three days later:  I may have figured out a way to do both; we’ll see.)

a reminder

horsetail is popping up in the boatyard again. We will deal with it NEXT week.

Stipa gigantea in full bloom already

at the south end of the boatyard

Back to the planter work:

by the Portside Café

Allan’s photo of the Portside with customers at each window table.

The Depot Restaurant

When we dined at the Depot earlier this week, Chef Michael informed us that the building will be painted soon.  Oh dearie me.  Today we made a short stop there to put bamboo stake tripods over the most vulnerable little plants, like the newly planted Nicotiana langsdorfii and the alliums.  We already lost two alliums during the recent roofing of the building. Even though Michael said the painters will be careful…better safe…

little bamboo stakes tied into tripods. I won’t tidy up the back of the bed till the painting is done.

protective staking of the lilies in the long garden

A rain squall came up just as we were leaving, perfect timing for a drive to the Basket Case.

driving north on Sandridge in a light rain

The Basket Case Greenhouse

While I did not get any yet, I am excited to try the new cross between rudbeckia and echinacia: echibeckia. Ed Strange said it was a great do-er for him last summer.

There are still trays and trays of exquisite and economically priced violas left.

perusing my purchase (Allan’s photo) (with another subtle Rhodie Tour reminder)

Fred can be very funny. (Allan’s photo)

Next, back down the road to

The Red Barn Arena and Diane’s Garden

Allan had a project at the Red Barn: to replace two worn out wooden barrels with new plastic ones.

The little garden at the Red Barn

his cordless rechargable drill for making drainage holes.  He drilled out all four so that barn owner Amy can have two extras ready for use.

Allan’s photo: digging out the old soil and bulbs; some of the narcissi got replanted in the ground level garden

Allan’s photo: the whiskey barrels were pretty well done.

There is always some horsey activity going on. (Allan’s photo)

bulbs replanted into new container with Erysimum and red diascia added (Allan’s photo)

I used to use bright yellow, tall Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ in these barrels.  I got tired of seeing them not thrive from not being watered enough, so am going with the much less thirsty Erysimum this year.

Meanwhile, I planted the lone planter by the south door of the barn.

The red calibrachoa ‘Vampire’ has come through the winter with many blooms already.

Hugo observed my work.

I feel bad for Hugo who seems always to be in his stall.  He is missing one eye and the other one seems cloudy, so I wonder if he is blind.  I hope he gets to go out sometimes in the evenings.

While Allan finished his project, I walked over to Diane’s garden next door, with some pink diascia and blue bacopa to plant.

Tulip ‘Angelique’ in one of her pots

I noticed that the planter closest to the garage is so dry that the tulips withered.  I sent Diane a photo-illustrated email.  I often find that people don’t realize that the eaves of a building keep a certain pot or garden area completely dry.

happy rainwatered planters…and one dry one

In the front garden, Stipa gigantea in full bloom

Long Beach

We had a bit of deadheading to do in Long Beach, left over from yesterday’s mostly rained out day.  The red tulips and late white narcissi in Veterans Field are going to be all done by the parade day (May 3rd) due to blooming early this year.  However, the early bloom for red Geum and blue Salvia ‘May Night’ will make up for that.

the last of the narcissi and tulips

Geum and Salvia coming on

Long Beach City Hall also needed deadheading attention and we planted a golden Physocarpus in a dull area of the garden.

Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’ should liven up the north garden bed….

which has taller plants at its other end

the west wall of city hall; the dianthus on the corner got blasted by Thursday’s wind

across the street, the HQ for our neighbours’ cranberry farm

Long Beach City Hall

tiles by local artist Renee O’Connor are set into the sidewalk

The Anchorage Cottages

We had one more garden to check, and at The Anchorage we were greeted by my good friend Mitzu.

Mitzu

Allan’s photo

center courtyard

The center courtyard garden is full of scilla that is just going over.  Next time, we will have to pull all of it and the garden will be transformed.  Today, I could not resist pulling some but really did not have time for all of it.

Scilla, which I wish was not in this garden at all.

Every year, we pull out foliage and many bulbs. It always comes back.

The top of the ceanothus at one end of the courtyard is pitiful. Even though it won’t be pretty for awhile, we will cut it back to good new foliage next time.

shade garden: Note to self, prune the rhodo gently back from the siding next time.

the “Zen Courtyard” Note to self: Beth wants a Japanese maple here. I need to find one that is extra special; the hardest part is finding time to shop for it.

Clearly, we need a good long session at the Anchorage to get everything done that needs doing right now.  I think we need to go “overseas” (to 7 Dees in Seaside perhaps) to find a special little Japanese maple.  (But WHEN?)  I don’t want a plain old red-leaved one, thank you very much.

Darker and darker clouds inspired us to hurry at the end of the job, and as we got into the van, down by the Chameacyparis trees, the rain came.

Tomorrow: We have to get up dreadfully early (for us!!) because it is beach clean up day, and a work day, and a puppy visiting day.

Read Full Post »

23 April: reading to working

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Last weekend, while gardening at home, I realized that I have suddenly shifted into gardening mode and no longer even think with longing of a reading day off (because I’d rather get my garden weeded).  Today, suddenly it seemed a reading day had arrived.

wind graph on WindAlert, with driving sideways rain

The local airport forecast showed the wind dropping in the afternoon, and the several other weather apps that we check said that the sun would appear at 4 PM.

Ilwaco airport wind forecast

So I settled down to read, but restlessly, with an eye on the weather.

Tony Hillerman’s daughter is doing a good job at carrying on his mystery series.

The rain did stop, as predicted, at just before 4 PM, and we were off.  Allan took the opportunity to get another photo of the dogwood outside our kitchen window, with the flower of the wild cucumber vine.

Allan’s photo: Marah, wild cucumber vine, in dogwood.

I suppose we should get the cucumber vine out of there, as it has a massive root, leading to its also being known as “manroot” and “man underground”.

Ilwaco

Our very first project was to re-do the Ilwaco street planter that finally got moved back to the fire station.  It had been tucked up against a café where it did not show.  The fire station planter had been moved instead of the café one, after I’d promised the fire chief it would NOT be moved, so some musical planters was played by the city crew.

Allan’s photo: before: too many bulbs, and has catmint, which we are removing from the planters because it looks bad for awhile after its first flowering.

Allan’s photo: after, with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ and diascia and violas and one little piece of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

 

I broke up the rest of the Autumn Joy and ran it down the west side of the fire station in a narrow bed that had lots of empty (weedy) spaces.

after. (We did not forget that extra bag of potting soil.)

Since we were working just across the street from Nellie’s house, I wondered if I would catch her attention.  Sure enough, her husband came over and I went in to speak with her and she does indeed want us to do a spring clean up on her garden.  We will be happy to, although I had to tell her it might not be for over a week as we have a lot of prep to do before the May 2 and 3 city parades AND the Rhodie tour.  (Klipsan Beach Cottages is one of the tour gardens.)

Nelie’s historic house

In case you’ve forgotten that the Rhodie tour tour is coming up soon:

Long Beach

Next, we had to deadhead all the planters and street tree gardens along the main highway in Long Beach.  I was mighty glad for the good evening weather, as I had noticed lots of dead narcissi flowers when driving home the previous evening.  I took some photos while we worked.  I did not need the green wheelie cart this time as we parked several times and worked fairly close to the van instead of walking the whole route.

lavender already in full bloom  (This is one of the few planters where we’ve allowed Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ to stay)

The first Geranium ‘Rozanne’ flower this year…very early

Cerinthe major purpurascens

Tulip ‘Florette’ is a real do-er this year.

Asphodeline by Fifth Street Park

Gunnera in Fifth Street Park, already with huge flowers

Darmera peltata and Gunnera. Note to self: remember that Gunnera likes fertilizer. Dan Hinkley said “Feed the brute!”

Dutch iris in Fifth Street Park (north side)

another note to self: Get this Carex OUT of the planter by the carousel!!!

across from NIVA green: Tulip ‘Green Wave’

on the NIVA green side: more Tulip ‘Green Wave’

by the Elks lodge: a columbine left over from volunteer days

It was on this block, across the street, that a man walking his dog said, “Now that’s a good looking planter” about the boring one with two escallonias and creeping sedums (also leftover from volunteer days).  Then he said, “The planters on the beach approach are FULL of grass.”  I said, “That’s impossible; we weeded them last Friday.”  He said “Nope, they are FULL of grass and it looks terrible” and walked on.  He’d gotten about ten feet when my last nerve snapped and I said, “REALLY?”  He turned and I repeated that they were weeded last week, then said, “Do you mean the raised planters or do you mean the garden at ground level?”  “The ground,” said he. “The roses looked so good last year but now it is all grassy and the roses look beat up and need to be trimmed.”  I looked at him all goggle-eyed and said (in a calm enough tone that Allan, just up the block, though we were having a jolly chat), “I have no idea what to do about that.  We do the whole town of Long beach, and Ilwaco, and about ten resorts [that’s easier to say quickly than enumerating private gardens, resorts, and businesses] and we do not have TIME to weed the beach approach till later in the year so I really have no idea what can be done about it unless the city finds more weeders.”  “I wasn’t complaining,” said the man, walking on a faster clip.  I refrained from another “REALLY????”  As he departed, I remembered that I had seen his dog tied up for awhile in front of the Long Beach Tavern and wondered if beer had anything to do with his desire to inform me that the beach approach is not up to his standards.  (I could also have pointed out that those roses do not bloom till at least May AND that last year we did not get the darn garden, which takes about SIX DAYS to weed, done until sometime in July!!!

Fortunately, by this time we were almost done and I was able to go soothe my shattered nerves at…

The Cove Restaurant

in the foyer of The Cove

We sat at the bar at about 7:30 PM and I was so lucky to get one of the last two servings of ahi tuna.  With no hard cider on tap, I had a Vortex beer from Astoria’s Fort George Brewery and Allan had a Guinness.

Strawberry salad…and Carmen at work

delicious food at the pass

ahi tuna

The tiny peppers to the left, above, were sweet and smoky and Chef Jason Lancaster told us they are Peruvian peppers.

Allan tried a new sandwich.  I had a bite (two!) of the pineapple slaw.  Delicious.

Allan’s photo

Finally, at home, I had to take a dusk photo of the cutest little tiny cup narcissi on the garage wall.

Read Full Post »

22 April: not as easy as I thought

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We began our day by zooming up Sandridge Road to Klipsan Beach Cottages.  I needed to meet Garden Tour Nancy there to do a walkaround of the gardens and work on the description for the Rhodie Tour tickets.   So it seemed like a good idea to make it a workday there and get one big weeding project done.

It was a bright day, not the best for photos.

Nancy arrived right on time and we began our walking and talking (while she took notes).

sword fern foliage unfurling

Mary has already planted diascia and calibrachoa in the clam shed picnic area.

I’ve been watching them to see if they are doing well despite cold nights…and they are.

We walked by Mary, Bella, and Allan. She was pointed at the handsome leaf of a podophyllum.

The pond garden has several rhododendrons large and small.

A deer slowly eluded us at the A Frame garden.

With my mind more on descriptive words than photos, Nancy and I walked all around the gardens, and to the next door garden (Joanie’s cottage), and out to the dunes and then back to the KBC cottages on the beach trail.

looking east from the dunes

Then we sat on a bench and talked some more.  Somehow, exactly one hour went by.  (And she gave us some eggs from her chickens!)

Timmy joined our conversation for while.

Nancy and I, as I skive off work

Nancy departed and I got to work.  Allan had already started our main project of the day: to weed massive amounts of wild violet and other reseeded plants from the lawn border, to give it a neater look.

today’s project, before

The podophyllum that was being admired is to the left in that photo…big leaf.  They come in all kinds of exotic patterns, as you can see if you google podophyllum images.

after

before, Allan’s photo

after, Allan’s photo

before and after (Allan’s photos)

The pieris at the end of that border has been blooming for weeks.

I’m not deluding myself that the violets won’t come back.  I hope we can find time to keep them controlled.  I’ve planted hellebores all along here, and by next spring when they have filled out (this was their first year) they should be spectacular.

Euphorbia characias wulfenii outside the deer fence

Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy)

darling rosebud of…April

Geum ‘Mango Lassi’

The sweet peas came up by the garage so Allan made a string trellis.

He also picked a bouquet fit for a zombie bride (by deadheading narcissi all over the gardens)

Narcissi in the A Frame garden (Allan’s photo)

view of the week

Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’

Tulip ‘Formosa’

center plant with purplish foliage: Thalictrum ‘Elin’, which will get over 6 feet tall.

Mary’s beachscape in the old (leaky, so now dry) fountain

Tiger Eyes sumac and red rhododendron

Last week, Allan had noticed some bare-rooted boxwoods languishing in the debris pile and asked me about them.  I said snag them next time, so he did. While I am not sure where I will put them, I am happy to try to rescue them.  They want to live!  There are a couple of deer -chewed arbovitae, too, which don’t thrill me but I can think of a place to use them.

rescue mission

Basket Case Greenhouse

We went to our next job via the Basket Case Greenhouse to pick up a blueberry for Andersen’s, some soil for the Jo’s new roses, and some diascia for the Ilwaco planters.

a wealth of violas

Geums red and orange; I got myself one of the orange, ‘Starker’s Magnificum’.

I could not resist getting a couple of Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’ at a very reasonable price of about $10 each!

Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’

on my cart! (Allan’s photo)

the annuals house. Fred agrees it is too cold at night to plant tender ones yet.

Jo’s garden

Early in the day, I’d gotten a message from Basket Case Nancy asking us to join them at the Depot for burger night.  When they could not get a reservation till 6:30 PM, I thought, “Great, we’ll have plenty of time to plant Jo’s roses and some perennials and do some weeding and…easy peasy.”  It did not turn out that way and was the usual somewhat stressful rush at the end.

entering the garden

Jo’s garden from her deck

Yesterday, Allan had dug some old roses out of these driveway beds.

Today, he planted some new bare root ‘Flower Carpet’ roses, which she hopes will be more vigorous.

He added plenty of new bagged soil to try to avoid the dreaded “rose replant disease’.

Jo gave me a bonus rose that came with the order.  I planted it as soon as I got home, and immediately misplaced the tag somewhere in the house so I can’t look up what colour it is!  (Update:  I found the tag; it’s a luscious deep red one called Always and Forever.)

the center courtyard

the west garden

What threw the day into a tizzy was when I discovered that a lot of the phlox, if not all of it, in the west bed, has some kind of nasty disease and had to be hoiked out.  I have run across this with phlox before.  Allan hacked a lot of it out while I weeded and planted some Agastaches and Nicotiana langsdorfii in the east garden.

yucky phlox

yucky phlox, before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

On closer look, these phlox (against the fence) also look yucky at the base, and may have to be removed next time. I have no patience for chronically diseased plants.

I got this area weeded and somewhat planted. Cosmos and more will come later.

Depot Restaurant

We left Jo’s two minutes before our dinner date; fortunately, the Depot is only a five minute drive.

Nancy and Fred, ready for burger night

We had a jolly old time talking about plants, work, overwork, dreams of retirement, dogs, and more, and ended with delectable desserts:

vanilla bean flan

sorbet duo

chocolate pot du creme

Tomorrow: adding some diascia to Ilwaco planters, and deadheading Long Beach town as I noticed an awful lot of “done” tulips and narcissi when driving through town this evening.

Read Full Post »

reading: The Big Tiny by Dee Williams

April reading:

The Big Tiny by Dee Williams

When I saw Dee Williams interviewed in Tiny, a documentary about building a tiny house, I was instantly smitten.

It’s an excellent documentary.

She won my heart when she spoke of having a life where she can be “Dee, from the time I wake up to the time I goe to bed.  People with regular jobs don’t get that.”  I realized how lucky I am to have a life that does permit me to be myself, however cantankerous, and not have to put on an act, while still doing some good in the world.

Regarding being diagnosed with congestive heart failure, she said, “You have to get comfortable with who you are because who you are may be all you’ll ever be.”  And when she revealed that she had marathon watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my favourite telly show ever, I wanted to be her new best friend.

We could discuss all the nuances of the show.

I was thrilled to learn that she has a memoir about building her tiny house and devoured it over a few late evenings (because it is rare to get an all day reading day nowadays).  Here are some thoughts and takeaways:

I particularly liked her description of living in a small house without heat.  Hers is only 84 square feet; mine was a great big 400 square feet.  In both cases, we had the heat off at night because we were afraid our propane stove would explode.  I love her for sharing that!

She made me think hard about clothespins, an item that we use to dry laundry outside, feeling all virtuous and electricity saving.  Dee writes “I could see birch trees growing in a forest...”  “cut down and rolled through a mill...” and iron ore being mined to make the little metal clips, and “there were any number of human workers…being paid pennies a day” to manufacture the clothespins.   She gives great consideration to the minutiae of daily life, and I appreciate it.

When she describes downsizing to 84 square feet, I remembered that my BOOKS were the main reason (other than being cold) why it was hard for me to live in my 400 square foot house.  I had to give up many boxes of books when I moved there (from an 800 foot craftsman bungalow with one room devoted to my library) into the little house.  I couldn’t go any smaller, and was glad to move into our current 1000 sq foot double wide where again I have room for bookshelves.  I still miss some of the books that I let go in 1992.

My books were crammed into the tiny house, getting damp and musty because of the cold, and leaving little room for art. Most of my art was postcard sized.

bookshelves in the new house…Gardening books have another area.

Dee Williams describes the process and pain of culling her books:

I’m also intensely connected to things that used to belong to my grandma.

some of these were my grandma’s…The words on the cabinet say “I instinctively like to acquire and store up what promises to outlast me.” -Colette”

According to Dee, the average size of a house in the UK is 815 square feet, just the size of my bungalow in Seattle, while here in the USA the average size is now 2,349.  That is appalling.

Dee writes in several passages about how she feels different from the rest of the world.  I strongly identified with this:  “I used to try harder to fit in with my friends who liked to discuss their OKCupid dating experience, or how a good pedicure can save your life.  I’d lean in and tilt my head with determined interest, and then compliment her on the color of her tonails and ask for the name of her pedicurist, or I’d fuss over the way my friend just poached an egg… But the truth is, I’m a complete ding-dong when it comes to many normal activities.”

This past year, I have completely stopped hanging out in any sort of group where clothes and haircuts and shoes and such are a regular topic of conversation, because I have nothing at all to contribute and my silence is better put to use at home, weeding or reading.

Dee writes about how only a small portion of her possessions are “normal lady things“.  I think it would be nice if possessions weren’t divided into lady things and man things so that women who don’t “fit in” to the traditional idea of womanhood could be more comfortable in this world.

How very much I like Dee’s appreciation of darkness:

“In my estimation, there are far too many lights in the world; street lights, car lights, tiny lights in the glove box, front and back porch lights.”  (I might add security lights to her list.)  “I wondered if all that light was somehow causing us to forget things, blinding us to the truth that a little darkness can be a good thing.”

There is a goodly amount of thinking about mortality, because of her heart diagnosis and because of a friend dying, and since that is a subject that is often on my mind, I appreciate her writing about it most of all. “…..We appreciate everything that is predictable and safe.  Everything is clear and you can navigate around the things that bother you and steer toward the things you love.  And then someone dies and fucks the whole thing up.”  Not every book that delves into such topics makes me cry.  Dee’s did.

When she wrote about a couple of personal moments of grief, she said “I’ll tell you about them if you swear…that you’ll never asking me about them even if we become best friends who talk about everything.”

Ok, I swear, because I would I would be awfully happy to be Dee’s friend.  If she ever needs a new place to park her house, maybe our back garden would do.  The sounds at night would be pretty much the same as the ones she described at her current location in Olympia:  “…the tree frogs.  And the port downtown was stewing away with any number of generators and forklifts and hustle and bustle, and whatever the hell else they do that sounds like a distant avalanche.”   She’d also hear the wind in our garden, and fishing boats going out in the morning, and she would be welcome to come in and use the shower without asking.

I hate that Ilwaco has rules preventing a tiny off grid house in the back yard.  I think you are only allowed to live in a trailer parked behind a house for two weeks at a time.  This should change, since alternative ways of living lightly should be encouraged.

If you like thoughtful yet humorous memoirs, dogs, tiny houses, and community, don’t miss out on this book.

“Whose idea was it that we should all get jobs, work faster, work better, race from place to place with our brains stewing on tweets, blogs, and sound bites, on must-see movies, must-do experiences, must-have gadgets, when in the end, all any of us will have is our simple beating heart, reaching up for the connection with whoever might be in the room or leaning into our mattress as we draw our last breath.  I hate to put it in such dramatic terms, but it’s kinda true.”  -Dee Williams

links: Dee Williams at Portland Alternative Dwellings

Dee Williams TED talk

Read Full Post »

20 April: day off, day on

Monday, 20 April 2015

I continued to work on my rather overwhelming garden, while Allan went to weed the terribly weedy garden at the community building, a project that I foolishly agreed to last week.  I so appreciated him deciding to get that started rather than taking a day off.  Here’s the problem:  I need time off more than I need money at the moment, and so does he.  We can’t afford to retire for several years, but we can afford to cut back…and yet, how can we with so many jobs?  Then I think…we should keep working like mad in case we have medical bills before medicare age (as in insurance co-pays and deductibles, something you UK readers don’t have to worry about).  And THEN I think, as Allan has pointed out, NOW is the time to have more time off while we are healthy enough to still enjoy it.  I remind myself that my mother was able to garden till age 82…but that was with me helping her.  She could garden on her own till about age 77…I hope I am as fortunate.  She retired at age 55, and that may have contributed to her years of healthiness.

my day at home

Before he left for work, Allan caught this bird checking out one of the birdhouses.

The first thing I heard when I finally got outside at noon-ish was a great roar out beyond the bogsy wood, and I saw that the south gate was mysteriously wide open.  I don’t know how long it had been that way.  On the way out, I checked for a herd of deer in the garden.  None could be found, and the roses did not appear to be eaten.

Smokey followed me all the way out.

The sound was from a big mower beyond the trees, and some sort of tree-mauler that was cutting down some of the willow that had sprouted up on the edge of the lawn between the port parking lots and us.

The view at noon. I still have strimmed to the bench by the seasonal pond.

The noise got louder and all the willows started to shake.  I hoped that all the little frogs could hop fast.  It must have been a bad time for them.

at 1:05

at 1:05 outside the gate, with the big machine tearing at the big willows

Fortunately, the trunks of the two big willows are on our property, which runs roughly to the middle of the ditch.

the view to the south at 1:30

Well.  We will certainly have a better view of what is going on down at the port now.  Poor little frogs, though.  (Update: For the next several nights, I could hear the frogs peeping from the other ends of the ditch, but not from the middle part that had been mown and chopped.)

The seasonal pond all covered with floating wood chips.

I’m glad I left a long grass frog haven on my side.

I had asked Allan to move two planted chairs all the way from a corner of the front garden to somewhere that they did not have to be shifted for weeding.  I like where he put them, in the salmonberry groves:

While all the tree-ripping was going on, I got much planting done: two trays of Nicotiana langsdorfii and several assorted Agastaches (‘Apricot Sunsrise’, ‘Summer Glow’, ‘Tutti Frutii’, ‘Cotton Candy’, ‘Sangria’, and ‘Mexican Giant’).

Later, I got my new Hellebores in and my two birthday plants.

I found that this new area was really pretty much full, if I am to leave proper room between plants.

my new little bloodroot right at the edge of the new garden bed

a cool pulsatilla about to bloom

in another bed, two little noses coming up…very big event for a CPN

My new candy lily seemed right for the mini-scree bed.

Yesterday, when Debbie came to pick up plants for the Master Gardener plant sale (I’m not in the MGs, although I did take the course years ago), she gave me a flower sculpture by Sue Raymond of Bay Avenue Gallery

.  I installed it today, placing it where I could tie the stake to a post.

I love this exotic flower.

our garden boat, the Ann Lovejoy

in the boat: Tulip ‘Green Wave’

Tulip ‘Angelique’ (pretty sure, although that green flame confuses me)

Tulip ‘Akebono’ and ‘Green Wave’ in bud

More ‘Green Wave’ because it is my favourite this week.

Tulip ‘Green Star’

After the work done by the port staff, our view corridor is back.  The garden was designed around this in the first place.

When we first moved here in October 2010, the bogsy woods was thick with junk and brambles and we cleared a path through and eventually build the fence and the south gate; outside the gate is only lightly gardened on occasion and is a haven for happy frogs. Below, the bottom photo shows the area which is the view corridor now.

what our woods looked like in Oct. 2010 when we bought the place

To whoever it was who did one of those annoying blog posts about words and phrases that she or he never wanted to read in another gardening blog, and included “view corridor”:  Oh, well!

The east bed still has lots of small (for now!) weeds and will be my next big project.

The west bed is pretty well weeded except for a strip all along the back side, and an area behind the blue chairs.

that tall heather from the front garden…I keep trying to appreciate it more.  I think I like it best in a pot.

I had a feeling my brand new narrow leaved Hosta ‘Stiletto’ would be slug food. Dang it.

Next to it, the hosta I got from Mary Fluaitt when she moved away is proving to be very strong, just like its former owner.

I’m loving the bronzy top knot on this mahonia in Allan’s garden.

Another look at the results of the weekend’s main projects…the front border…

…and the northeast corner.

my double file viburnum on the west side of the garage (deer proof!)

my lovely silver nameus forgettii  (Help me remember?)

One fringed Tulip ‘Aleppo’ has returned from a planting a few years old.

Tulip ‘Aleppo’

I got my new outdoor sit spot almost back…for now.  It will fill again quickly when annuals planting time arrives in a couple of weeks.

my sit spot two days ago

and this evening

Allan’s day on

Meanwhile, Allan had nobly gone to weed at the community center for seven and a half hours.  Perhaps because his area of our garden is small (by his choice, as he has boating and motorcycling as hobbies as well as gardening, unlike my one-track mind), he is more willing to give up a day off.

Ilwaco Community Building

The gardens are all on the west side of the building, which houses our beloved Ilwaco Timberland Library, a low cost lunch room for seniors, Ilwaco City Council meetings and Toastmaster meetings.  We have declined this gardening job several times.  Now it seems there is just NO ONE else willing to take it on, and even though we feel a great need for free time, a love for Ilwaco has trumped all and we are going to try to do it.  By try, I mean we will see how long we can stand it.

Here are Allan’s photos:

He started at the driveway entrance with the theory that is best to do the areas first that are parked next to or walked past by Ilwaco Timberland Library patrons.  The first area gave him hope that the job might go quickly.  The kinnickinnick sprawls around and while I feel it is kind of boring looking, there were not many weeds.

before and after; maybe someone else had pulled bindweed out of here earlier.

When he moved on the the top of two tiers between the parking lot and the sidewalk, he knew this was more than a one day job.  (Last year, we saw someone weeding for a whole week in these beds.  We wish she was still doing it!)

top tier, before

before

after

after

I look upon this with despair as I can’t stand heather in a flat garden.  The other day a friend said that even though the boatyard garden is so very long, it helped to have interesting plants to weed among.  I am going to have to do something with this garden to make it more interesting to me if we are going to keep it in the long term.  Allan just quietly stated that he doesn’t like the heathers, either, nor does he like the fact that there is nothing flowering in the garden in the summer.  He also commented, and of course I agree, that it is a pain to have salal in the garden because it is popping up through everything, including the heather.  If we keep this job long term, the salal is going to be our mortal enemy.  (I think it is just lovely in the wild woods, by the way.)

behind the sign, before

after

strip along the sidewalk, before

before

after

another area along the sidewalk, before

after

How did we get into this?  It is one job I firmly did not want to take on because it has bindweed, horsetail, and, quite frankly, I am only interested in maintaining gardens we have created, with just a couple of exceptions. (Mayor Mike’s pretty little garden comes to mind because it was designed by a friend of mine who moved away, and I like it.)

I remember when the garden was being developed by a group of volunteers and I saw the big pile of dirt that they were planning to put back in.  I said “No!  No!  Don’t use that; it is FULL of BINDWEED!”  Bindweed was sprouting up all over it.  There was a chance that if that soil, dug out during the re-do of the parking lot, was just discarded, some of the bindweed would go away.  However, even a few little roots left down in the ground would easily create a menace within a year.  (I don’t know if that soil was re-used or not.)

The entrance garden: the outside was fine, as if someone has already weeded it.

Last time I saw the area above, it had dandelions.  We wonder if someone else is still doing part of the job and if there is going to be some mix up about us being hired.

the entrance garden behind the wall, which we quite like, before

before

after, with ferns trimmed

The last area that remained is the hardest, a tiered garden covered with vetch, bindweed, and a haze of other weeds.

a before photo of an area he did not get to today. What a mess of vetch obscuring all the good plants.

YOIKS!

After some weeding. This area is steeply tiered and would be hard on my knee.

I can already see in my mind some Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Eryngium migrating from my garden over to the bare areas in the community building garden.  Free plants would fit in well with the budget, and would add some summer colour.  Some clumps of baby poppies could perhaps be moved up from the boatyard, as there are certainly MORE than enough poppies in that garden.   With that sort of change, I could get up more enthusiasm for this new job.

When Allan got home, I said he should have a look at the work the port crew had done at the south end of our property.  He went and took this photo from the outside, and said something about going in there and prettying it up with a better sawing job.  Otherwise, he agreed that it is a positive thing to have our view of the port returned.  You can even see our sitting bench now.

our property, south side, now

Tomorrow, we must get back to work if the weather allows.  The forecast is iffy.  There are new roses to plant and fertilizer to apply at Jo’s garden.

Postscript:   Tuesday’s weather, drizzly with 23 mile an hour winds, inspired me to take another day off.  Allan worked a tiny bit, digging up about a dozen drab roses at Jo’s garden in preparation for planting some new ones, and helping Ed Strange shift some pots of bamboo at the Boreas Inn.   I had time to write a paean of praise to The Big Tiny and have set it to be a bonus book post tonight.

Read Full Post »

18-19 April: two days off

Saturday, 18 April 2015

After my concern that someone mean would look over the fence and sneer at my weeds, I opened the curtains this morning to see a stranger gazing over the low front fence into the garden with a most appreciative expression. I ducked so she would not be embarrassed.

I wish I could start with a burst of energy on days off.  Instead, I tend to fritter and put off the beginning of the gardening day.

Smokey encouraged me to get started.

I got a surprising amount done considering that I did not begin till noon, including transplanting four roses into the back (fenced) garden, as I am tired of deer eating them.  (But now what will they eat when they jump the low front garden fence?)  The rose transplanting should have been done in March or earlier.  I got several Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ planted along the fence, to fill in between the ones already there, because I like them so much.

before filling in

 After that, I tackled the weedy corner of the front bed, below.

before, looking west

I soon realized that I wanted to remove ALL the variegated carex along the front border.  The more I examined it, the more concerned I got by how far it has run into the center of the garden.  This required much swinging of the pick.  When Allan returned from his motorcycle excursion, he helped me with one large and stubborn clump; the pick simply bounced off unless swung with extreme force.

My energy got flowing full force at around 4:30 PM.  We had dinner plans so I couldn’t take advantage of that and work till dusk.

5:50 PM

When we began this garden in fall of 2010, I thought it was such a good idea to use the carex as an edger along the front.  Having to trim its tatty blades back hard in early spring this year made me go off of it, and its running habit was the death knell.

after, with gallon sized Sky Pencils planted along the fence.

The weather looks pleasant in the photos.  It was not.  All day a strong, cold, irksome wind buffeted the garden.

At six, we met Kathleen for dinner at Long Beach Thai.  The first thing I asked her when we all sat down is if, during the months of long daylight, could she possibly manage to wait till 7 to eat?  (She is on a much more morning-person schedule than we are.  At home, we dine at nine or ten o’ clock.)  She agreed, so I won’t be having to stop gardening this soon again.

The food was delicious, spicy and with all of the flavours that Thai food is supposed to have.

fresh rolls

larb gai

Allan’s tofu cashew stir fry

We lingered until sunset.  Because of wildfires in Siberia, the sun here is setting in a huge red ball.

After dinner, I sat down at home and read Straw Bale Gardens; the pressure was on as it was two days overdue.  The author’s gently droll sense of humour made it entertaining as well as informative.

Example:

I won’t have time to try out his methods this year.  Maybe someday, in retirement.

As for now, I planned to take two more days off to plant and weed.

Sunday, 19 April 2015

Smokey and Mary waiting for me to get started

After the usual difficulty in getting started, I went back to weeding and planting Sky Pencils in the front garden.  I found one more deer-nibbled rose to move to the back garden.

Allan helped me by getting out two difficult clumps of carex.

Allan’s photos: before

and after

carex pile just from that one spot

By pre-arrangement, Debbie and Dave came by to pick up a pile of the Carex, some Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, a few sanguisorbas and a few other divisions for the fall plant sale.

Debbie will divide and pot them all up.

After the carex removal and a construction type chat with Dave (who is an expert builder and in fact built the house in which he and Debbie live), Allan went down to the port to see his pal Chris sailing his trimaran.

Chris pulling up the main sail as his friend holds the pontoon

lot’s of hand paddling after Allan pushed them off the dock

it looks like they’re up on the hydrofoils in this long shot as the Ginger returns to port

While I complained all day (mostly quietly in my mind) about the horrible cold maddening wind, Chris drove by after his outing and said it had been wonderful and he had “never before gone so fast”.

Meanwhile, Allan had nobly gone to work for a little while and strimmed behind the fence at the boatyard.  We hope this keeps the boatyard crew from even thinking about breaking out the Round Up.

Allan’s photos: before

after.

Last year I found time to actually dig out a strip of grass along the fence.  This year, time for that has eluded me.

Allan had to move assorted gear in order to do a good job.

before

after

and a boat

My big project of the day was to weed all the “stink mint” out of the north east corner of the garden and plant some more Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ along the fence.  Here is before photo from last week:

I found a darling little plant that had been completely hidden by a cluster of suckers from the big tree.  I’m pretty sure that I got it at Joy Creek Nusrsery.

While perfection was not achieved, the results were certainly an improvement, and I had gotten all of my Sky Pencils planted.

at stopping time

I was happy to stop at 6:30, as we had plans for another dinner out.  We treated Todd to dinner at the Depot in thanks for all the great plants he has sent us and in celebration of having a true CPN (Certified Plant Nut) back on the peninsula.  When he arrived, my 60th birthday celebration that seems to never end continued with two cool plants, a pardacanda (candy lily) and a Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot).

Allan’s photo, surely the last of the endless birthday

Allan’s photo

I forgot to photograph the three scrumptious scallops that we had for a starter; they were so beautiful, and so good, that I dived right in.

Here they are, courtesy The Depot website

the special: Rockfish, with parsley pesto, on beans, with clams.

Allan’s rockfish with a mushroom sauce

At my request, we got to hear the story of how Todd became the curator of the display garden at Plant Delights, and reminiscences of learning to love plants as a child while exploring the woods and bayside of the Peninsula. He told us that his first memory was of admiring a container of pansies at his parents’ house and thinking “Those are cool!”, and said that someone told us we often follow a path in life inspired by our first memory.  I think my first memory is listening to my Grandma’s cuckoo clock.  Hmmm.

We lingered till after closing time, while the staff put the chairs put up on the other tables.  Chef Michael kept telling us we did not have to leave yet.  When we did, the restaurant looked like the final scene in My Dinner with Andre, the film in which two friends talk and the end shows them suddenly realizing that the restaurant is closed and the floor is being swept.  (This seems to be a common occurence when we go out to dinner with friends.)

Chef Michael Lalewicz

Just before bedtime, I finished a book that I would give ten stars instead of five on Goodreads, if I could.  I recommend it highly and I hope to find time to write about it a little bit more, some rainy day.

I am smitten with author Dee Williams and wish that we were friends.

I intend to take one more day off and get as many of my “ladies in waiting” (plants in waiting) into the ground as possible.

Read Full Post »

18 April: motorcycling

Saturday, 18 April 2015

Allan’s Day

 The motorcycle I bought back in ’84 has been running on only one cylinder for the past several years. It was slightly entertaining but frustrating when I would take it to the port parking lot, fiddle with the plugs and carb screws and ride home on one cylinder (it came with two). I even took the carbs apart last winter, cleaned out some white powder, got it all together again and the good news was that it didn’t run any worse. My previous attempts at taking carburetors apart have failed too. They look clean inside and nothing is lying around broken or stuck. Last time it was at the shop, a cylinder had quit working because one of the spark plug wires didn’t like to get hot. New plug wires and it was fixed.

Here is a shot of Ken Miller of Papa’s Pacific Cycle taking the motorcycle up to his Long Beach shop just south of the Bay Trader on 102nd St. & Sandridge. If I was willing to pay a little extra for his learning time, if needed, he was willing to figure out why the Italian parts weren’t working right anymore. With patience and an order of the freshest Dell’Orto bits from Mandello del Lario, he found and fixed everything. Both cylinders now worked.

Ken also invited me to a charity ride that went up the Columbia River, across the Cathlamet ferry and back. It was to raise funds for the continuing treatment of our local girl Jessi Harman, who happens to be his granddaughter. I had been on this trip once before; it is beautiful, noisy and full of interesting people. It was a near guarantee that if something broke, there would be lots of opinions, tools, and maybe a ride home if needed.

Below: Looking west as riders gather in the town of Chinook. My bike is on its center stand so it positively won’t fall on something expensive. By the way, Moto Guzzi developed the first motorcycle centre-stand.

I’ve discovered that I might as well start with my helmet on the ground instead of dropping it off the bike later

 The Fish Trap was busy selling breakfasts and giving out free coffee. Across the street bikes were gathering.

The Fish Trap also keeps a well tended flower pot at its entrance.

‘Reflector Red’ tulips

A ‘poker run’ has the participant draw a card at each stop. The person at the end of the table is using the official stamp to mark what card was drawn. The best hand at the last stop wins something, usually merchandise donated by a local merchant. Raffle tickets are also sold for other donated items. I once won a new bungee cord at a Bremerton ride that was donated by the local K-Mart. I wrote them a proper thank you note as all donations are appreciated. I don’t have a list of  all those who donated to this event but it did fill up the back of the locally printed t-shirt.

A repurposed pool table

This guy with the side car had worked for Road Rider magazine and had plenty of memories of 60’s motorcycles. We both had owned Yamaha YDS 3’s and had ridden the old Guzzis. The bike in front is a Honda. It takes a close look to find the label. I think it was designed to look and sound like some older brand.

We headed into a fog bank just east of town.

Leaving Chinook for Astoria

Below is a map copied from the Cathlamet Chamber of Commerce. The route is marked and the poker card stops are red stars.  The whole route, about 71 miles, is short enough that one of our favorite bloggers from Scotland Mr. Tootlepedal could do it in a day on his bicycle. Regarding bicycles, I felt sorry for a couple of bicyclists we passed in the Fort Columbia tunnel as engine noise was pretty much everywhere for them.

Next stop, Astoria.

Members of the sponsoring club flagged the cycles through the stoplight onto the bridge and over fifty motorcycles stretched out over its length. The span rose over the fog and into Astoria. The view of such a long line of motorcycles is one of my most vivid memories.

2nd stop: Mary Todd’s Worker’s Tavern

 Looking around, maybe I could give another shot at hanging my helmet on the bike again.

Across the Columbia in the fog

I met another rider in line who might buy the set of saddle bags I saved from an old GT550

Waiting to spend some money and draw a second card

Next stop was Tom and Jerry’s, a hard to find place off the main highway but a good spot for a meal (92104 Taylorville Road- Westport, OR). Almost got a picture of three riders that were peering around my bike. There is a quart of olive oil (Italian) strapped inconspicuously under my rack. Earlier I had been explaining to another rider about Europe’s oil shortages during the second world war. Germany developed synthetic fuels and oils while the Italians also redesigned many of their engines to use vegetable based oils (olive oil was common) in the early 1940’s. Now days, only Benelli, Morini and Moto Guzzi, but not Ducati, still use the olive oil.

Then I joined a group by a parked Buell air cooled motorcycle that was listening to a fan running under the gas tank cooling the otherwise shut down engine. Now that really was true.

Her bike of choice? A Can-Am Spyder.

I was so distracted outside I was too late to draw a card indoors. This was not like forgetting a credit card payment, a form, or, “I’m sorry, can I help whoever’s next in line?” situation. She didn’t get the cards and rubber stamp out and give me ‘The Look‘. She said, “Just pick two cards next time.”

Cueing up to quickly accelerate to a legal 55 mph

Here I got the polite inquiry of, “Who makes a Mota Gusy?” It is the second oldest motorcycle manufacturer in continuous operation, second only to Harley Davidson, but they never sold a lot. Fortunately it’s pretty simple and robust, parts are usually available or can be substituted from cars, lawn mowers or something.

In line for the ferry across the Columbia and back to Washington

This is where I heard the dreaded click-ck-ck-ck-gum, click-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck gum. Soon I saw two guys pushing a Harley off to the right on a dirt lot, and the puff of dust as the rider bumped it in gear trying to get it started so he’d catch the ferry. I was about to help push, as that is what you do to make other’s lifes easier, but there was plenty of help and better mechanics than me around and the line was boarding. It apparently didn’t start and four other riders stayed behind to help.  I was near the treasurer as the ferry crew collected fare for the forty-eight motorcycles that boarded.

Center stand time again and two adjacent riders pushed and lifted the Guzzi up and back on the stand with me. Didn’t ask, it’s really pretty easy, it’s just what you do. Just to be sure, I was holding my bike securely when the ferry bumped into the dock.

Probably looking at the horses.

Probably looking off the stern…

…but the horse was looking for pets.

Here we are on the back porch at the Duck Inn in Skamokawa. We picked up our fourth card. I overheard a comment  “It would take ten cards to fix this hand.” I asked and learned more about Harley starters.

Across the bridge in the background is a shop that will lead kayak trips and give lessons.   I took a short trip with Columbia River Kayaking last year and it was a great help in deciding what kind of boating I wanted to do.

The last stop in Naselle. Dogs, burgers, potato salad were so good I overheard, “I want to marry a woman who makes potato salad this good.”

Inside I drew my last card and watched my tally sheet disappear, not a winner. Since I had donated to the ‘fill the helmet’ and not bought raffle tickets I hung around outside listening about a trip to Texas, what happens when luggage tie downs fail, what size a passenger seat should be, pretty light stuff really.

Plenty to eat

Meanwhile, going on inside I had missed the conclusion of the Charity Run; the appreciation of all the sponsors, volunteers and the donations.  Jessi Harman and her family were there and I snapped this picture as they were visiting outside.

Thanks to the Pacific County Chapter of A.B.A.T.E. for organizing this event and our hopes are for Jessi to continue to get better.

A brief update on Jessi Harman written last year can be found here.

Read Full Post »

17 April: kind of a miserable day

Friday, 17 April 2015

The day was miserable in spots for just three reasons:  25 mph mighty cold wind, too much to do, and like a doofus I was too frazzled in the morning to take my new green wheelie cart to Long Beach (an omission I would regret later).  The vehicle had lots of Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ and other plants and we had not yet figured out a system for taking the wheelie to Long Beach.  We will have it figured out by next time!

Ilwaco

at the Post Office, a creamy California poppy in bloom

Our first task was to see if the two planters city planters had been moved from semi-hidden locations to more visible spots on Spruce street.  Well, they were, BUT the one at the fire station was one of the ones moved, after I had told fire chief Tommy yesterday that it wouldn’t be moved, and the one hidden by other planters next to a café had been left unmoved.  A stop at city hall got it sorted; the one by the café will be moved to the fire station in a complicated dance of musical planters.

We put some violas and golden variegated thyme in the two newly placed planters, along with a Diascia ‘Blackthorn Apricot’, and will add more plants next week.

Allan by one of the newly positioned planters. Sadly, the owner of the English Pub passed away some years ago and the historic  building is for sale.

We then swung around to town to do the rest of the planters, starting with the boatyard intersection.

See the little bit of yellow at the edge of the garden?  That is Limnanthes douglasii, also known as fried egg plant.

also known as meadow foam

Narcissus bulbocodium ‘Golden Bells’ (Yellow Hoop Petticoats) in a planter.

same planter as above at First and Eagle, with Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’, golden oregano, and Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

After over an hour working on the Ilwaco planters, adding some violas and thyme, and in one case digging out some too-large narcissi, we went on to Long Beach.

Long Beach

Allan weeding and deadheading the welcome sign

front of welcome sign

I’m most pleased with the back side of the sign.

Thank you for visiting Long Beach, with tulips complementary to the colour blue.

Next stop: Veterans Field, which will be the main gathering place for the Clam Festival tomorrow (April 18th; this blog is running about six days behind).  We won’t be going this year as I have home gardening to do and Allan has some motorcycling to do.  You can read about our enjoyment of last year’s festival here.

The city crew was getting the tent with the giant frying pan set up (not the same pan that is mounted in Fifth Street Park).

LB Parks Manager Mike Kitzman

Allan planted five Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ at the back of the corner garden.  

 Sky Pencil stays elegantly columnar.

After a thorough grooming of both of the Veterans Field gardens and the adjacent park behind Lewis and Clark Square, we headed for the Sid Snyder beach approach.  On the way, we paused to drop off a gardening bill to the Oman Builders Supply Long Beach store (for our work at their branch in Ocean Park.  Outside, I almost got caught by a little scam.  One of four high school age kids asked me if I would buy a book of coupons for $1.  The local high school has offered such books before.  I first said no, because the coupon books rarely have anything that we would use, then decided to be a good citizen and said yes and handed him a dollar.  As they walked away, I looked at what the kid had handed me and pursued them right into Oman and Son and said, “Hey, you’re just pan-handling; give me my dollar back.”  Which he did, looking only faintly embarrassed.  I realized they were spring breakers from somewhere else!

It was just an old newspaper insert that had probably been blowing down the street! (We found another one blowing down the beach approach road later on.)

That was interesting.

Onward we went, weeding and deadheading the planters and the kite museum garden (fertilized it!) on Sid Snyder Drive and then the Bolstadt beach approach planters.

Sid Snyder and Bolstadt Beach Approach roads

satellite view of beach approach roads

Allan’s photo: one of the Sid Snyder planters with lots of California poppies coming on

Allan’s photo: Two trail ride outfits are located along Sid Snyder. Here, a group is heading to the beach.

me waiting for Allan by our last planter on Sid Snyder

weeding the westernmost planter on Bolstadt beach approach (Allan’s photo)

Sedums are good here as these get very little water. (Allan’s photo)

Allan weeding one of the western Bolstadt planters

past the west end of the beach approach garden (looking east toward town)

rosemary in one of the planters

That rosemary and the heather harken back to my friend Lily Gibson, who died in 2004 in her early fifties of ALS.  Before that, she had taken on two of the volunteer planters on the beach approach and won the prize for best planter.  She would drive out with her three little dogs every day and water it, and took such good constant care that she even had blue lobelia thriving around the edges.  (We only water these planters on occasion; last year the city crew watered them once a week in summer.)  I planted the lilies in Fifth Street Park and at City Hall with Lily in mind.

To check on the planters, I walked east along the weedy beach approach.  We don’t have time in our schedule to do anything about it yet.

weeds!

City Hall, looking west, with the Chinook flag flying

The wind was getting worse, and colder.  I checked 642 weather (26 mile an hour gusts) and my Wind Alert app.

Wind Alert

I put an another flannel shirt and my jacket (difficult in the flapping wind) and gave myself the Deadliest Catch pep talk: “It could be worse.  I could be crab fishing on the Bering Sea.”  (Of course, we don’t make $50,000 in a few weeks, either.)

Deep purple on emerging hostas on the east side of city hall.

north side of city hall

The memorial marker is worn.

This hellebore has been looking good for months.

City Hall west side

After dumping our debris at City Works, we took an intermission from Long Beach to check up on the garden at…

The Anchorage Cottages

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ still blooming in the windowboxes..

…along with Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’

center courtyard

the bearded iris that got half broken off last week

Camassia

Tulip ‘Angelique’ by the office

sweet peas!! and a new application of Sluggo by the chimney

After the most basic of deadheading and weeding and the planting of two dahlias, we returned 20 blocks south to groom all the street planters in Long Beach.  By now it was 4:30 PM.

Long Beach Planters walkabout

For two and half hours, with me feeling increasing soreness from carrying a heavy bucket, we did the Long Beach planters.  We did the two north blocks together, then split up and each took half of the rest of them.  I swear I will not do the bucket carrying again; next time I WILL get organized and take the green wheelie cart that Mary Beth gave me!  (We need to organize a way to lash it into the trailer; that will be easy for Allan.)

just north of Dennis Co….The mermaids will be at the Depot building for clam festival photo opportunities.

Here they were last year, photo courtesy Queen La De Da’s

Tulip ‘Rococo’ at 3rd N and Pacific

me capturing the picture above with Coulter Park in the background (Allan’s photo, zoomed)

more ‘Bright Gem’ tulips

2nd N and Pacific…I SO hope to get this vinca-heavy planter redone this spring!

variegated euonymous and tulip (Allan’s photo)

Narcissus Baby Moon and Tulip ‘Bright Gem’ (Allan’s photo)

Tulip ‘Green Wave’ next to Scoopers ice cream shop, blown by the wind

Tulip ‘Green Star’ (Allan’s photo)

The wind was tormenting me, so when I got across the street (I was criss crossing back and forth) I went into NIVA green for a moment of respite.

Tulip ‘Green Wave’ in bud

window display

Heather Ramsay’s newest lamp, from a Peek Frean tin

one of several gardening books on display

The pond at Bolstadt and Pacific

When I went into the Long Beach Pharmacy for a quick purchase, I saw some cute garden decor items:

faucet with crystal raindrops

“Sometimes the tiniest flowers smell the sweetest.”

another faucet with crystal water drop and a fairy door

Back to work!  In front of Stormin’ Norman’s kite shop, this planter is due for a clean out of aster that goes back to volunteer days.

For a few years, the aster (by the lamp post) was polite; now it is on the run all over the planter.

I did not expect the wire plant to be so vigourous; may have to do something about that, too.

in front of the Cottage Bakery: reseeded Cerinthe major purpurascens

sparaxis! wish I had lots more of this darling bulb, which is blooming early this year.

Sparaxis

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’

more cerinthe

looking south, still two block to go to meet up with Allan, who is doing the southern two blocks

Delightfully, the wind had died down just a bit, as you can see from the less intense angle of the flags as I passed by Veterans Field again.

not quite straight out. Still a north wind, the coldest one.

As I worked on this planter, passersby swooned over Tulip ‘Akebono’.

Lewis and Clark Square and Veterans Field

by Fifth Street Park (Allan’s photo)

Tulip ‘Rococo’ (Allan’s photo)

Tulip ‘Rococo’, lavender, and a Tulip ‘Black Hero’ that returned from a few years ago (Allan’s photo)

Tulip ‘Florette’ (Allan’s photo)

The multiflowering tulip ‘Florette’ has been fantastic this year.  I’m going to plant more of this type next fall.

Tulip ‘Florette’ (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo…I must ask him where this was! The original name of Long Beach was Tinkerville. The old Tinker house is just west of our friend and client Jo’s house.

(The photo was taken at First Place Mall and the shop is a new art consignment store.)

I can tell by this photo that Allan had turned at the southernmost planter and was working his way north again. Tulip ‘Apricot Parrot’, almost over.

Allan also did the final grooming of the Fifth Street Park gardens, where we had weeded extensively three days before.

Finally he caught up to me, where I was plucking maddening little grasses from the planter in front of the Hungry Harbor Grille….with the cold wind on my last nerve.

By 7 PM, Allan and I had met up.  I was so deeply glad to be done.  We dug deep and managed to groom the Ilwaco Post Office and plant two dahlias there on the way home.

My cat family had been watching me from the window as I carried plants to the holding area.

I am taking three days off, I HOPE.  The little chair and table that I arranged for a sit spot are not going to be sittable until I get these plants organized and planted, and a lot of them go here,

weeding and planting at home await me.

As we did the evening sorting out of the van, the sun was a huge red ball on the horizon at the end of the street.

At midnight, after some blogging, some dinner, and The Amazing Race on telly, Mary snoozes while I finish this blog entry. (Allan’s photo)

Allan said that the sight of a cat on the back of each chair reminded him of photos of three mountains lined up.

Allan’s photo

Read Full Post »

16 April: a Sky Pencil day

Thursday, 16 April 2015

I overslept, on a day when we had much to do.

Allan’s photo of a wild cucumber vine climbing through our dogwood outside the kitchen window

my photo of an epimidium that Todd gave me yesterday

On the way out of town, I looked in passing at the community building garden, which I had recklessly agreed yesterday that we would take on.  Oh my gosh, it was weedy.  I felt a great sense of doom as I would rather spend the time on my own garden.  I brooded about it for some time, and after awhile Allan said that it was his idea that he might go weed it himself sometime soon when I am weeding my own garden.  That would be wonderfully noble.  (He can have ALL the wages!)  Unlike me, he does not have an aversion to heather planted on level ground…or the dry scritchy scratchiness of weeding horsetail and bindweed around heather planted on level ground…If heather was nicely transplantable, which it is NOT, I would move it to the part of the garden that slopes and then it would look like wonderful Scottish moors in miniature.

The Depot Restaurant

At our first job, which was supposed to be just deadheading, I suddenly could not resist a project.

Allan deadheaded the narcissi and tulips. All day long the sun was too bright for good photos.

I did not take a before photo of digging loads of schizostylis out of an area where I want to plant annuals.  I love schizostylis but sometimes it is a good plant gone bad.  Dan Hinkley said that it tends to be more of a runner when it is seeking water, because in its native South Africa, it grows on damp riverbanks.  (Three days later, we dined at the Depot and I learned that the restaurant is going to be painted soon.  I won’t be planting cosmos in this garden bed till AFTER that happens, and must remember to put stake tripods over the alliums and nicotiana.)

during the project with three buckets of plants removed (and my shadow)

after, with three Nicotiana langsdorfii added

ajuga and variegated saxifrage growing under the parking lot barrier

buds of Tulip ‘Green Wave’, one of my favourites, a parrot tulip which is the latest of all.

Last year:  parrot tulip ‘Green Wave’, a very late bloomer

The Basket Case Greenhouse

Allan’s photo

Fred had made a trip inland to bring back some shrubs, especially Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’, a great vertical green almost deer-proof accent plant that is hard to find for sale around here.

It was difficult to take photos for the Facebook page because of bright sunlight.  He’d brought back some very cool plants, including ‘Pink Lemonade’ blueberry, Lonicera fragrantissima, ‘Orange Rocket’ barberry, Sarcococca, and more.  And a ‘Shasta’ doublefile viburnum.  The one in the yard just north of the Basket Case looked like this today:

double file virburnum, so called because the flowers march down the branches in pairs.

me and Fred admiring the Orange Rocket barberries.

Trying to decide if I will take ALL the Sky Pencils!

Just as I was perusing the availability list for the next order, and Allan was loading the van with all but five of the Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’, who should show up but Todd.  While we were on our way north, he was on his way south.  Of course, the availability list was of interest to him, as it would be to any CPN (Certified Plant Nut).

Allan’s photo: the discussion of many plants.

Todd had a t shirt based on Farmville, although Allan only realized that later.

Pondering this as I write, I just realized this is a Plant Delights catalog cover, where up until recently Todd worked as display garden curator.   I am a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.

more plant discussion with Fred joining in

A great deal of time seemed to pass (the availability list is long) before we all went off to get back to work.

Golden Sands Assisted Living

Allan and I managed to make a very short stop at the Golden Sands garden where I planted four dahlias and pulled a very few weeds.

Allan’s photo: camassia and Tulip ‘Florette’ at Golden Sands

Camassia (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo of multi-flowering Tulip ‘Florette’

chives in flower (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Klipsan Beach Cottages

At KBC, I offered Mary a couple of Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’.  She liked the idea so much that Allan ended up clearing space and planting four of them.  I knew Mary would like them because she is fond of a formal look.  What got removed was mostly elephant garlic and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.  I told Mary and Denny that I felt silly because last year I made a fuss when Denny pulled a lot of the elephant garlic (when it was in bloom and adding interest!) and now there is just as much if not more than last year.

Allan making space for the first two Ilexes.

after

Meanwhile, I used the pick to get out a large area where the Bad Aster had taken hold.

before: two more Ilexes would go here.

before: Allan’s photo

after (behind to the right of frog)

before: Allan’s photo

after: Allan’s photo

Next week we will have time to thin plants out behind the Ilex so it shows better.  Meanwhile, Denny and his helper Lewis had been installing new lattice under the house deck.  I like it much better than the previous criss cross diagonal pattern.

elegant new lattice

This fringed tulip has returned for several years.

Tulip ‘Green Wave’ (Allan says he finds parrot tulips confusing as he cannot tell if they are starting or finishing their bloom.)

Tulip ‘Florette’

my good friend Bella (Allan’s photo)

Bella got smooches from me.  (Allan’s photo)

ready for smooching

How I love this dog!

The light and shade always makes it hard to get a photo that shows the vasty sweep of narcissi by the A Frame.

west end of the pond garden

the weekly view in the east gate

This is the new changing view that I am going to try to photograph each week.

I felt compelled, after KBC, to go back to the Basket Case and get the five Sky Pencils that I had left behind.  What if I run out when I start to decide where I want to add more of them to my garden?  Then we went on to the last job of the day, arriving at just before 5 PM.

Andersen’s RV Park

Allan did a weeding session on the garden shed garden while I walked all around and deadheaded narcissi and did some weeding in other areas.

weeding the garden shed garden

before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

Cistus against the garden shed (Allan’s photo)

Cistus (Allan’s photo)

The RV Park itself was full.  Those are the Payson Hall clubhouse planters to the right.

Allium schubertii coming on in the Payson Hall planters

The picket fence garden: The sweet peas have sprouted and are maybe 1/4 inch tall!

The Cove Restaurant

By seven, we were at The Cove for our Thursday tradition.

map of the adjoining golf course (Allan’s photo)

tulip in the entry garden (Allan’s photo)

Owner Sondra has been too busy to get these plants out of their pots and into the barrel.

 The tables were full so we sat at the bar and we were able to see Chef Jason Lancaster working hard in the kitchen.

strawberry salad (Allan’s photo)

Wendy serves up dinner.  Her sister, restaurater Sondra, is in the background.

delicious vegetable stir fry bowl with udon noodles

ahi tuna

home

We got home just after dusk and as I got out of the van I exclaimed that my Davidia involucrata ‘Sonoma’ is blooming!

a flash photo! I was very excited!

I should creep into my old garden to see if the one I planted there fifteen years ago (NOT ‘Sonoma’ so might take ten years to bloom) has flowered.  It never did while I lived there.

Tomorrow, we have to check on the Ilwaco planters for little weeds, get the Anchorage Cottages garden attended to and then make Long Beach as perfect as possible for Saturday’s Clam Festival.

Read Full Post »