Yesterday, I had a blog post ready to go but had set it wrong so it would have not published till 9 PM. I noticed the mistake during the day and published. So unless someone had early afternoon coffee, it was not a blog and coffee post after all.
Saturday, 25 May 2019
I was up before seven getting ready for day two. This time I had had six hours of sleep, a big improvement over three. Allan went out in the morning to make sure our signs were still up. The annual “World’s Longest Garage Sale” had dozens if not hundreds of sales from Chinook to Oysterville.
Signs were pointing in all directions at the Ilwaco stoplight intersection. Allan has agreed with me that his original signs were too small. (You can barely see one on the wooden pole.) They will be larger next year. He likes someone’s bucket system of sign display; no one can get mad because the sign is not illegally nailed to a pole.
Only one of our signs had been torn down.
Allan was running a small garage sale, too, which had to actually be in the garage because of rain. I hoped to sell my little pink swivel chair for $10.00.
I wondered who would come out to the garden in the difficult weather.
a cold and drizzly morning
Skooter sampling the merchandise (an ornamental grass)
Allan returned home as I finished more plant tagging and shoppers began to arrive at our sale and the sale at Alicia’s next door. Because we are good friends with her, we were able to have people come down her driveway. It would be more complicated an entry otherwise.
As I managed to scarf down a bowl of cold cereal, Christl (middle, former manager of our former job at the Wiegardt gallery) and her sister Andrea arrived.
My garden quotation signs were still not attracting anyone’s attention.
Despite many squalls of rain and unpleasantly cold wind, we had a steady stream of garden tour-ers all day! I reminded myself to be glad of the rain. It meant we did not have to worry about watering the Long Beach and Ilwaco planters and that we could go back to work on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.
The plants were selling at a rate I had not dreamed of. It would have helped had I gotten it together to have photos printed of the plants. Next year. Not only was I short on time toward the end, but I did not have confidence anyone would show up and did not want to waste printer ink.
A couple of people asked about my Impatiens omeiana, which I had not thought to propagate. I dug up pieces for them with the caveat that it was the wrong time of year, but if they babied them they might just do.
After digging out some impatiens, my Spotty Dotty shows better.
Skooter stayed just out of reach of the customers.
Allan’s photo
You may wonder at seeing a line of golden phormiums, a plant I have gone off of. The Planter Box had sent some plants down to the sale, and the phormiums, which many people do like, were theirs.
Betty came down a few times from her excellent and very choice annual estate sale on the corner of Advent and Lake, two houses east of us. (She does not live in that historic old house but uses it for the sale.) She brought samples of the rhododendrons that grow in the garden there, the one I call The Lost Garden. She thinks maybe we can propagate them. I think that probably takes a special skill but I do know we could do so by layering.
photographing one of the rhodies
The plant in the foreground is a peony that our friend Devery gave me because the deer were eating it. They got all the blooms this year.
I had so many conversations with so many wonderful guests. I tried to remember to tell them that if we meet again, please give me cues and clues to remember them because of my face blindness.
Allan’s photo
I should have dusted my bowls sculpture thingie (right).
Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’ was one of the most asked about plants.
Some friends who I know well enough to always recognize came by during the various days of the sale, and often the press of people was so intense that I did not have time to visit with them, and later I would look and they had departed with their purchases.
Occasionally, I was organized enough to carry a clipboard. I was trying to note which plants people especially wanted. I had not planned the sale more than three months in advance. Now I have plenty of time to propagate all sorts.
Most of my notes were stuffed into assorted pockets. Above, I was making notes on sun or shade conditions for a plant purchase.
We continued to enjoy meeting nice dogs.
Allan’s photo
Rain continued all day.
Allan’s photo
By the time the sale ended, I had soaked through every hoodie and my big sweater. I tried to dry them all in the dryer only to run into a problem that prevented Allan from relaxing and recuperating from his cashier duties. He had tried to wash a Beanie Baby walrus in order to put it in his garage sale and it had disintegrated with little pellets all over the dryer. Despite having vacuumed it out earlier (unbeknownst to me), as soon as the dryer began to spin, a kazillion pellets reappeared, rattling and smelling of burning. He had to pull the dryer out and vacuum the back vents and all around inside instead of putting his feet up for two hours.
Our next door neighbours and fellow garage-salers Alicia and Brian made dinner for us again at the Nora House. We are all night owls so were suffering with our change in schedule. Tonight the feast was pasta with a yummy tomato sauce and a salad.
After dinner and conversation, I finished the last few minutes of an episode the of Chelsea Flower Show that I had begun before dinner (while Allan vacuumed the dryer.
I would have liked to watch the next episode but I was too tired. I found that I deeply missed the quiet hour of midnight to one AM when I usually watch a gardening show online. I simply could not stay awake.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 