Saturday, 9 September 2017
You may have read our September 9 posts about the cottage tour. I have two more things to say, the first being that I bought some bulbs for my garden at Costco on the way to Cannon Beach. And as usual, their bulb arrangement caused me much angst because of the inaccessibility of many of the bulb bags.
The first section was neatly sorted, with each row being all the same bulb pack. This was a much appreciated new phenomenon.
Then I came to the same problem as every year.
Usually, we haul the whole set of racks out into the aisle, determined to see everything. Today, we did not have time because we had cottages to visit.
At the cottage tour, one of the most intriguing things I saw was in the cottage whose residents had turned all their books around.
I would be proud to have people browse my book titles (if I had dusted the books first). I found it interesting that such private people were willing to open their home. I am not saying which cottage it was.
I was ever so glad to be home after the tour.
I rejoiced that I would not have to go anywhere for weeks, except to work and to dinner with Melissa and Dave.
That lasted for about 24 glorious hours until I saw that there is a rally, in Astoria, to support DACA (the Dreamers) next Saturday (16 Sept). All I want to do is stay home in my garden. However, there are most assuredly dreamers and their parents who would LOSE their gardens by being deported, so we must show up for that event.
Sunday, 10 September 2017
At 75+ degrees, the day was too hot to garden. After a day of blogging (for both of us, since Allan had many cottage photos to process), we had a campfire to celebrate the end of tourist season. Our back garden was damp enough because of yesterday’s rain to make it safe.
The sky was clear, with many stars on view…if one turned one’s eyes from the annoying glaring white street light to our north.
We then watched the excellent film, Bridge of Spies.
Monday, 11 September 2017
Despite the heat, Allan embarked upon a project in the afternoon. He is prying the shakes off of his shed, in preparation for new siding. Underneath, he is finding old tongue and groove that just might be good enough to not have to cover.
Allan’s photos of his shed project:
None of the four windows in the shed open. It gets hot and stuffy inside. He wants to replace the four windows with vinyl ones that open. (Won’t be as cute…or paintable…maybe.)
He thinks maybe putty and sanding can save the old siding.
I finally decided, after more blogging about cottages, that I simply had to do something in the garden. By late afternoon, an annoying 21 mph wind had arrived, cooling the temperature but making it dangerous to work under the bogsy wood trees. Nevertheless, that is what I did, cutting down a salmonberry to reveal a new area. (Have I gotten all the established areas weeded? No, I have not. Never mind.)
I once had Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’ starts planted along the fence in this corner; they died from neglect. I could try them again, or could maybe put up two outdoor plywood sheets in the corner and paint them blue! Or…could plant something deciduous for privacy in summer and seeing through to the port in winter.
Today I ran out of energy and daylight before I did any weeding. Allan will help me dig out the stump and haul the chopped salmonberry to the work trailer.
When he saw me emerge from this project, he said it was hard to take me seriously because I was wearing my slippers.
At almost sunset, we chatted with Devery while she took my good friend Royal for his evening walk.
I then collapsed in my chair to do some evening reading with Smokey and Calvin.
Because I love diaries, I am loving this book, and yet I also find it disturbing. In his youth, Sedaris worked construction jobs in Raleigh, North Carolina (later the home of Plant Delights Nursery and our friend Todd). He keeps quoting the horribly racist things his white co workers would say. It exposes the truth, and yet…I don’t think I could enjoy the book if I were Black, because the repeated use of racial slurs would be so hurtful and jarring that I might throw the book across the room. (And this huge large print volume would do some damage.) I don’t know what to think about whether Sedaris is right or not to quote the racists. At least, he wrote (in his youth) about how he would object to what they said. And we all need to be reminded that people and language like that still exist and need to be … battled. I am at a loss for words about this.
Despite all that, I am truly a sucker for diaries, and I would like to read the unexpurgated originals and not just the excerpts he chose.
How very much I relate to the following; my mom would give my groceries sometimes when I was poor, at just about the age Sedaris is in this entry:
With a huge book full of treasure like this….
…..I wish that I had two rainy days to sit and read it from cover to cover.
Tomorrow: back to work
Huh. Seeing those books turned around in the bookshelf would have given me a strong urge to pull a few out to determine what the titles were.
Not that I would have given into that urge….I hope….
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Funny. There is signage about not opening drawers or closed doors so I guess people do snoop. But no rules re books!
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So weird to turn the books title inward, But then I always check out peoples bookcases. It is revealing. And I am judgmental. But still, why open your house to the public and hide book titles?
As for Sedaris, I think it is our duty to call attention to racism and hatred. Imagine what they would have said if they knew he was gay! This book is non my winter reading list.
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ThAnks for your thoughts on Sedaris. Yes, it made painfully clear the casual racist commenting just spewing forth. Better people know it exists. Let me know what you think of the book.
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I also would have read some of the book titles.
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I hope that the rally for the dreamers went well.
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There will be photos. It went very well. Thank you.
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