Sunday, 17 March 2019
I had a tiny bit of birthday in the morning when I opened two cards from two friends I’ve known since we were all age 12.
Whenever I see that garden and library quotation, my literal mind says, “But we need food and drink, also.” Mary’s card and gift addressed this:
A cozy cat mystery is something of a tradition….as long as the cats don’t talk!
Then there was no getting around going to work, because of nice weather and because of having missed a couple of days to the Shingrix vaccine.
Long Beach
The weather forecast called for big wind on Monday and Tuesday. We drove out to the beach approach to see if it would be too busy and crowded to work there today; it is the worst place in the wind. The whole stretch was bustling with cars and pedestrians so we returned to the parking lot berms on the east side of downtown.
I had thought it would be moderately easy to do the south berm, based on the north berm going quite swimmingly yesterday. It turned out to be much thornier and more hard-packed with weeds than the north berm and was a fairly miserable work session in weather that felt uncomfortably warm.
We found all sorts of trash in the beds.
Getting the crocosmia out from the rugosa roses was most unpleasant.
Years ago, an alternative school had its student parking in this lot, and there was so much backing and forthing across the beds than anything delicate got crushed, leading to the decision to plant rugosa roses. The school has moved but the thorns are still there.
We have not had any mulch left over for the berms for years, so not only is this not a raised berm, it is sunken down to pavement level and extremely hard to weed. I finally decided we would just string trim the open areas and they can darn well just be lawn. These three beds get no supplemental water so in late spring and summer, the short grasses will stop growing anyway.
When we left to dump our debris after four unpleasant hours, our van thermometer said the temperature was 76 degrees. It felt like 76 to me. No wonder I was so miserable. I then looked at the weather apps and saw it was actually 62.
After a short turn around time at home, we drove back to
The Depot Restaurant
where we were joined by J9 and Our Kathleen for a birthday feast.
I have now entered my 65th year (turning 64).
At home, I opened the rest of my presents. I got a haul of wonderful gardening books from Allan, all ones I especially wanted, along with a book about punk rock in Eastern Germany from Kathleen and the cat mystery from Montana Mary, and an insulated lunch bag from Mary and Denny. (They had found us in Long Beach on Friday and their other present, chocolate dipped shortbread cookies made by Mary, was already consumed!)
Allan might enjoy Alys Fowler’s book as it is about boating as well as her own life.
The Christine Walkden book has me burning for a rainy day. Just opening it, I could see it is a wonderful diary of JUST the sort that I adore. Fortunately, we are due for some rain by Friday…I hope.
Allan also found for me a proper English watering can (I had told him that the metal one was too expensive) and soil sifter for topping off seed flats. The can has a push on rose rather than screw on and a place to store the rose on the can. The flat end of the rose snaps off for cleaning. It is perfect. I’ve lost all the roses on my cheap watering cans years ago by removing them in annoyance when they get clogged.
Another special birthday treat was that so many of my friends on Facebook donated to my birthday fundraiser for Pacific County Immigrant Support that by today, the amount was $251 for this important local cause.
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Happy Birthday, Skyler! That was a challenging project working on the south “berm”. Looks like you had a fun evening at the Depot Restaurant with Allan and friends. Nice book haul!
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Thank you!
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Happy birthday! Looks like it was overflowing with joyful friendship. And all those books plus some treats, yes, indeed, a happy day to start your new year.
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Thanks for pointing out the typo that it’s a cat book, not a car book.
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Perfect birthday presents. Books n’garden stuff and a few treats…topped of by a lovely dinner with a good friend! And bonus, a good cause benefits too.
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The birthday fundraising is a good idea. Regarding you age, all I can say is that it must be great to be so young.
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