Thursday, 12 September 2019
Long Beach
The main tourist season ends when the hundreds of visiting Rod Runners leave. The day when we tidy Long Beach planters after the Rod Run feels like our annual end of the tourist season. Town was still busy today with an older and quieter sort of tourist, now that most children over four are back in school.
When Rod Run used to coincide with Labor Day weekend and had an official parade of cars that closed the road in Long Beach, the planters would get turned to mush by planter sitters and standers. I think the year 1999 might have been the last year before the event was moved to the weekend after to cut down on the dangerous traffic gridlock which made aid cars and fire trucks unable to get through. The parade was shortened so it just goes around Ocean Park area. The vehicles show off through Long Beach, though, but the planter damage is minimal in comparison to days of yore.
We started with the welcome sign.
Because watering the planters would freshen them up, we did so.
Someone stood in this one hard enough to break off the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.
This planter at the Bolstad light got sat upon so hard that Rozanne was smashed and the santolina was disarranged.
I decided to go ahead and trim the santolina.
If I cut back Rozanne hard, it would revive and rebloom, but the planter would look barren for too long while there are still tourists in town.
On the other side of the street, the roses had mostly protected the fuchsia…
…but I still want the rose dug out because it never does anything pretty.
Looking across the street at the planter I had just trimmed, today…
My theory that people would not sit on Geranium ‘Rozanne’ that was trailing well over the edge was proven wrong.
I pulled the Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ stems out from the tree by the bakery. Most of them were lying sideways from being stood in.
It is time anyway. Two more parks, two planters, another tree, city hall, the beach approach have them still.
I had The Toy™ with me because I knew I faced a lot of trimming. When I used the loo next to the police station, I hoped no one would steal it.
I saw myself reporting such a theft by walking into the police station saying, “Someone stole my toy!”
The police station planter had Geranium ‘Rozanne’ trailing down on both ends last week. I had to trim it today because of the sitting and smashing. One of the center agastaches was also a casualty.
A particular smashed up planter at the SW corner of Third, by a park with plenty of seating:
Across the street, Rozanne was still trailing beautifully.
Delightfully, my favourite planter this year was just fine.
Allan’s photos while watering and tidying the southern blocks of planters:
We have been seeing isolated infestations of black aphids on cosmos, just a stem here and there.
We pulled two of the three batches of sweet peas out of Fifth Street Park. The one in front of Captain Bob’s got to stay.
I reflected upon how different the parks look from the more manicured ones in Castle Rock. Mine are more like amateur home gardens, with mingling plants and a lot of experimentation. I think many will welcome if a more standard park look happens after we semi retire.
We had left the northern two blocks for last so that Allan could pull the tatty old erysimums while I did the watering. His photos:
Boreas Inn
Susie had been so thrilled with her mulch that she had asked us to mulch some more by the west side of the inn.
Upon arriving, we saw the deer next door.
That tarp is covering a future garden bed next door.
I was this close.
They jumped the neighbors’ fence to eat apples.
Honestly, is that maybe even more attractive than having a deer proof fenced garden?
Bill came out to have a chat with them.
The west lawn beds have been deciminated by the deer this year, even plants that should be resistant. More lavender next year!
I have known deer to eat rue and eucalyptus and other plants that thoroughly surprised me.
After our mulching, during which Allan continued for fifteen minutes longer than me, while I went off the clock to sit on the deck and chat with Susie and longtime friends who were staying at the inn, we went home and then joined them all at
Salt Pub.
I had my favorite, the delicious tuna melt.
We don’t get out to dinner as much as we used to, partly because we are trying to be more frugal. Twice in one week was a treat, especially for Chef Allan.
Skooter, lounging next door, had something to say when we returned home.
a book: Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
I have read all of Reichl’s memoirs, and tonight I finished the most recent one. My favourite bits.
She describes how years before she became the Editor in Chief at Gourmet magazine, she had Thai food for the first time.
This took me back to my first Thai meal at a Seattle restaurant (1982?) with my significant other, Bryan, and our group of friends. I felt the same, such a thrill, at the food I had been looking for my whole life.
It was news to me that Gourmet had once published such great writers:
Oh, look, we have some phobias in common!
I did not know that lambs quarters are edible.
These few takeaways may imply that the book did not offer me much. Not so, I loved every minute of it and it made me want to reread her other memoirs, especially Garlic and Sapphires, about her years as a food critic. Oh, how I long for reading season, which will begin in mid November, after bulb time.
I feel about Indian cooking as you do about Thai. However, I don’t find the Texans I know to like Indian cuisine. I also volunteer with a woman from the Philippines whose husband isn’t crazy about the food from her country. I’ve asked her to make me some dishes, and I hope she does. I like to try new foods.
Alas, many people don’t see plants as living things that deserve respect. I’m not sure this will change any time soon either. My boyfriend occasionally helps in the garden and when I tell him, “There’s a fern there. Please don’t sit/kneel/stand on it.” He immediately sits/kneels/stands on it.–In one ear and out the other. Then, when I say 4 or 5 times, “There is a plant there” he gets testy. “Yes, you told me that. If you say it again…”
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I love Indian food so much. Fortunately, there’s a good Indian restaurant, Himani, in Astoria. On rare occasion I conquer my bridge phobia to go there.
I remember showing my ex a silver and gold dogwood i had planted on the boggy edge of our property. He was my co gardener at work but the next thing I knew he had weedeated it!! Allan is much better at being careful re plants even though he is ummmmm in my opinion… not always the best listener. 😀
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Skyler, you have always done a beautiful job with the Long Beach planters. They make a big difference to the look and feel of the town. Your tuna melt looks delicious. We love the Salt Pub, but miss the view from the upstairs.
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Thank you!
I miss the view but not the stairs. I could do the stairs ok, slowly, one leg at a time, but because of dizziness (chronic, for years, have had MRI even to no avail) I have to go down backwards and I find my disability embarrassing. So in that sense it’s a relief to be downstairs.
I heard that one reason to move downstairs was the stairs were so hard on the servers. Might just be talk though.
Just had the strongest wish you lived closer. I want your sis to move here!
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Yes, you have a good point about the stairs. I’m sorry to hear about your dizziness. The downstairs is cozy, so I like that, too. I would love living closer to Ilwaco, but I have my little granddaughters here. I hope to travel more often to the coast, though!
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A floriferous “standard park look” usually happens with the use of lots of annuals. Which either requires a larger budget for plant purchase, or the gardener has a greenhouse to grow from seed, or grow them on. And then extra watering.
Your public planters are a nice mix of seasonal interest – bulbs, perennials, annuals – and that is the hand of a skilled gardener, not an amateur.
I grew up in a household of wonderful cooking scents. Dad travelled as a lad, a pack and a hopped boat to different countries. We didn’t have money to source special foods, but we had spice jars and Dad would curry anything. We learned to use chopsticks as small kids, and cooked from a wok as often as a frypan. Oh how certain cooking smells take me back.
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Thanks for your thoughts re the standard park look.
Your culinary upbringing sounds wonderful, and rather unusual for the time (at least here, where cooking was more Betty Crockerish back then). My grandma was a great cook of comfort foods like meat loaf and pie and chicken and dumplings all from scratch; at home, we had more processed foods, TV dinners, and a good roast on Sundays, but nothing spicy. My most exotic food was the occasional chop suey from a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. My first great spicy food was going to an Indian restaurant at age 17 with a boyfriend. But I did not know not to order it hot and so I could barely eat it, which made me sad because we had so little money that it was a special treat. I learned order medium heat!
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It is distressing to see so many put upon plants. I feel your pain.
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Thanks, Mr T. When I retire, or semi retire, I look forward to a more consistently cheerful blog. 🙂
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It would be unfortunate if all public gardens looked like they were sponsored by Proven Winners. I love your eclectic mix of plants. I agree it is not amateurish.
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Thanks, Terri. I have been giving this a lot of thought (at least while I am actually at work in LB).
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I wonder what the gardens in Seaside will look like someday when I am gone also! Your gardens are beautiful!! Whoever comes behind us will have their opinion of gardening just like we did. I hope to keep an open mind! 😜
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I want to retire soon enough to stick around and see what happens next. 🙂
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As a long time reader (although very rare commenter), I GREATLY prefer your gardening to that at most public parks. I’m glad Castle Rock is beautifying their public spaces, but they seem garish and lacking in complexity in comparison.
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Thanks! City Hall in Castle Rock is my favourite one there because the plants are the most interwoven.
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