Friday, 16 November 2018
Klipsan Beach Cottages
I have been the gardener at Klipsan Beach Cottages for over 22 years, first with Robert, and since 2005 with Allan, and have often written of it being my favourite job. I posted a series about the garden through the year in 2012, starting here.
When we first began, the garden looked like this:
Robert and I helped with the big project that turned the above area into a fenced garden and enabled Mary to grow her favourite roses safe from the deer.
We have known all this year (and for the couple of years before) that longtime owners/managers Denny and Mary would be retiring at the end of 2018, and we had decided to retire with them from this one beloved job. It had become our only north end job, which makes little sense because of the longish drive there and back. And I just cannot imagine working there without Mary’s involvement in the garden and Denny coming outside to josh with us at “beer-thirty” at the end of the afternoon.
Mary and Denny will be living in Naselle, only ten minutes further of a drive for a social visit than the drive to go to work at KBC.
I will miss seeing them and my good friend Bella every week.
My sentimentality began with the view from where we park on the north side of the fenced garden.
Sometimes on warm summer days, a rich piney smell would greet us when we arrived, reminiscent of childhood camping trips.
We worked hard for almost five hours. I had poignant feelings mixed with some relief that certain issues, like a BadAster invasion, too much Japanese anemone, and a running rugosa rose were no longer my problem.
Poignancy was soon overshadowed by some anxiety on my part about whether or not we would get done with the fall clean up today. We did. Mary worked with us for most of the time.
I dug some of the lilies, originally from my mother’s garden, and potted them for Mary to take to her new garden.
Todd stopped by partway through the day with some snowdrop bulbs for me. I had forgotten to order any.
In the garage, Allan photographed the usual squeeze between the truck and the golf cart that is used to ferry cleaning supplies and laundry to the cottages.
I feel quite verklempt about about the rebar gates that Robert built being left behind, but it is not as if Mary and Denny could take them to Naselle and leave the garden gateless.
I suggested to Mary that they take Robert’s free standing garden tuteur to their new garden. She had not thought of it and liked the idea. Allan helped pull it out of the ground.
When we were done, at almost dusk, I walked the garden taking photos and thinking of the many years of gardening here.
It will wake up to new owners and new gardeners.
Upstairs on the house deck, I took some overviews of the grounds.
We lingered after work for awhile in Mary and Denny’s dining room, reminiscing about our many years of working together on the garden.
This table was the setting for many lunches together back when our schedules were more leisurely and we would all take a break to dine and chat partway though the day.
After dark, as we returned to our van parked outside the north fence, I took a last look.
It is not as if I will never be at KBC again. When Seattle Carol visits, we like to stay there. This winter, I hope to do a few posts about the room diaries that I read the last time I stayed with Carol at KBC, on November 1st, 2017. Because our visit was the day after my best cat Smoky died, I never did find time last winter to share the best of those journals.
I know I will be glad to not have the long weekly drive to that one job and to have more time for other gardens. Still, it is hard to let go. I will recommend that if the new owners and managers need gardening help, they call Willapa Gardening (Todd) or BeeKissed Gardening (Terran), both of whom live closer than we do.
The Shelburne Hotel
On the way home, we stopped at the Shelburne to plant the ten snowdrops.
This time we succumbed to the golden glow of the pub windows and had a meal to celebrate the beginning of staycation. It has come early this year because of all the good weather. We just worked twelve days in a row.
Over staycation time, we do intend to keep checking on the Shelburne garden (now my favourite job) and occasionally on the port and Long Beach gardens.
postscript: Christmas past at KBC
I spent a few hours on the following Tuesday evening tidying up the photo albums on the KBC Facebook page, which I have been administrating and taking all the photos for since 2009. I will be turning the page over to the new owners and managers in 2019. Because Facebook used to allow only 200 photos per photo album, some of the older garden years were split into two albums and, for the sake of decluttering, I consolidated those albums. I ran across these sentimental photos from Christmas gatherings in Mary and Denny’s home which are no longer quite right for the page. Here they are:
Spring, summer, autumn, winter at KBC are all good memories to treasure.
Congrats on an early start to Staycation! You have many wonderful photos of KBC to remember gardening at a favorite place. It is so nice Mary and Denny and pets will still be close enough to visit. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Allan!
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That was a nice tribute to a garden well tended and well loved. By both you and Mary. Fitting that the hand over will be with the transition of seasons, as you snugged the garden into winter, so too your memories.
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What a sweet tribute to a garden well tended.
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Thank you!
Sent from my iPhone
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Parting is such sweet sorrow.
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Exactly, Mr T.
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That is what I was thinking. I know moving onto other more exciting adventures should be something to look forward to; but leaving something that so much work went into can not be easy.
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Thank you.
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Looks like you have a lot of great memories there, and you added a couple of words to my vocabulary (verklempt and tuteur). Not every day that happens! 🙂
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That is an honor! Thank you.
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🙂
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After almost 15 years, I probably wouldn’t be back to KBC (cabin #1 was “ours!) since my wife, Shelley’s passing, but I am glad the garden will be taken care of. Thanks for the details. I am glad Denny and Mary will be retiring so close. After all, they are an important part of the history of the area.
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