14 May: Long Beach APT

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Long Beach

With the van full of annuals, we headed to Long Beach hoping to make it through all the planters with Cosmos ‘Sonata’, painted sage, and assorted annuals that I call “uppies” and “trailies”.

This involves more thinking than usual for me, so I asked Allan to be the principal blog photographer for the day.

a full van

One reason why what used to be “Annuals Planting Hell” has become  “Annuals Planting Time” (mostly) for the past two years is that we are working out of a comfy sized van instead of a tiny two door Saturn.  I shudder with horror at the memory of eight years of bending and twisting to get plants in and out of the back seat of that car.

The trailer was also loaded with short plants (less likely to be damaged by wind while driving) and buckets of water for burbling.

deer in the grassy lot next to the credit union (which is the same block in which they nip at the plants in the planters)

one of the planters

Cosmos ‘Sonata’ and painted sage all burbled and set up for planting

the big Lewis and Clark Square planter ready for planting

L&C Square

all planted up with the lemon-pink Osteo and Cosmos ‘Sonata’

I wish I could get the lady’s mantle permanently gone from the right side of the planter, above.  We can’t get the darn roots out without damaging the sprinkler system, so some experiments with perennials (lady’s mantle, a variegated ivy, some trailing cotoneaster) along the edges have become permanent fixtures.

The street planter next to L&C Square has a wealth of reseeded violas. We cleared it out of a dull perennial geranium last fall.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ has been a successful perennial experiment in some of the planters.  I’d like to plant more; it’s surprisingly hard to come by.

planting

Passersby often want to converse.  The fellow in the photo below is one of my favourites.  He used to be a landscaper, for thirty years.  I told him that I do not enjoy planting, and he said he did not enjoy weeding but had liked planting, so we agreed we would have made a good team.

garden talk

As Allan and I went along, we sheared back the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.  Although they will look regrettably sad for a couple of weeks, they will later bloom more profusely with smaller flowers and won’t fall open from the center.

halfway sheared Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’; it could have been done earlier before the set of flowers.

more planting

Allan got artistic with this one.

Occasionally, it was possible to sit and plant.

We ran out of blue painted sage just after the Police Station planter.  A second sowing from The Planter Box should be ready for us in a couple of weeks to finish up the blues in the last three blocks of planters.  We ran out of trailies by the Cottage Bakery, not unexpectedly.  Part of the plan is to be able to count how many more we will need to finish on a second planting day.  We also ran out of time by 7 PM and did not finish the cosmos in the last two blocks.  Allan asked if we had ever gotten it all done in one day, and I agreed probably not, but I live in hope.

almost 7:30 PM after dumping debris at City Works

The Cove Restaurant

We arrived for Thursday night at the Cove too late for ahi tuna.  Fortunately, Prawns Solo is a splendid second choice.

Prawns Solo

and a $2 fish taco

Allan had Lomo Soltado. Left overs made for a splendid omelettte the following night

To make the evening perfect, Chef Jason sautéed us some freshly foraged fiddlehead ferns in butter.

fiddlehead ferns

Tomorrow: finishing Long Beach and more

bonus book report

Over the past week, in small portions, I enjoyed book about statistics gleaned from users of OK Cupid and Facebook and other social internet sites.  I gave it five stars.  It dealt only with people under 50, as the author felt older people did not use the social internet as much.  As a 60 year old, I certainly don’t find that to be true of folks my age, as plenty of us are social internet addicts.  I suppose not as many of us are looking for online dating success, though.

Some takeaways from the entertaining book:

About John Waters and fandom:

John Waters said:  “Beauty is looks you never forget.  A face should jolt, not soothe,” inspiring Christian Rudder to reflect: “He’s completely correct, for as with music, as with movies, and as with a wide variety of human phenomena, a flaw is a powerful thing.  Even at the person-to-person level, to be universally liked is to be relatively ignored.  To be disliked by some is to be loved all the more by others.”  (I actually don’t think that’s true but it is a thought provoking statement and sort of comforting.)

I found it sweet how he then added a photo of his own self at age fourteen.

the author

some true thoughts about writing in the modern world: