Sunday, 1 December 2019
After a windy night, I looked out my bedroom window to a different view, shrouded in the branches of the blue potato vine.
Because the day was cold and windy, I did not want to take my ears outside. In the afternoon, Allan had a look and realized that the internet cable was about to be pulled right off of the house by the weight of the vine (which, by its proper name of Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’, is more like a tall and thick-trunked shrub than a vine).
Regretfully, I looked back on my summer thoughts that the plant needed pruning because of its entanglement with the cable.
Allan got busy, trying his very best to not cut the wire.
His photos:
So carefully….
Oops.
A call to the internet company ensued. To our amazement, the dispatcher offered to send someone immediately, even though by then it was completely dark and pouring rain. We declined and set a time for Monday afternoon.
Monday, 2 December 2019
We loaded the trailer with debris and pruned like mad before the afternoon repair appointment….
…including rambling roses along the arbor, in case the cable needed to go there.
The clever repair person did not run the new line into the arbor but instead straight across in the open air to the utility box behind the garage.
All three of us wondered why it had been installed the other way years ago.
After:
Tuesday, 3 December 2019
When I went out the back garage door in the morning, the light felt completely different because of all the pruning.
Because we are monitoring Frosty closely (as he has had some more episodes where he needs an emergency dose of corn syrup to stop the Wobblies), Allan followed him over to the Norwood garden to make sure he was fine. (He was.)
The arborvitae doesn’t look entirely fine, though.
After three hours of volunteering for crab pot tree decorating (tomorrow’s post), Allan ran smaller branches through the Mighty Mac….
….while I took the opportunity to prune a hops and honeysuckle tangle and add it to the trailered debris.
I will prune harder later.
The obligatory compost bin visual update:
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
The hops, the honeysuckle, and the rambling rose clippings went off with Allan to the dump.
While Allan was out on his dump run, he added other errands: a visit to The Planter Box for potting soil…
….and, finally, the trimming of the yellow chrysanthemums in Long Beach.
They were done enough.
On the way home, he photographed some holiday lights in the evening fog, in Long Beach…
..and Ilwaco.
Although all that pruning and hauling that was not the way we had intended to spend our first days of staycation, the pruning project left us with a good feeling of accomplishment. I had perhaps been supposed to be taking it easy, but I did not feel any the worse for my efforts.
The work board now:
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Haunting my mind were the leaves we had seen along the curbs in Ilwaco while helping with the crab pot tree. The trailer had been too full of debris to collect them. Today, Allan agreed to help me get some.
Sadly, we found that the street sweeper had been by….but even so, in one block downtown and then at Black Lake and behind the library, we gathered a trailer load. These will not be mowed because they are much too wet.
Downtown
The Griffin Gallery window has its holiday decorations.
At Black Lake, the parking lot was empty except for one other vehicle.
It wasn’t till I was scooping leaves right next to the red car that I realized some folks were inside quietly enjoying the view. I think I might have driven them away with my peculiar leaf scooping activity.
At the library, I got a pile of new books to read. Other than the crab pot tree lighting and a doctor appointment, I hope nothing interferes with some reading days.
In the afternoon, Allan fixed the trellis panel that had been torn apart by the potato vine. I wouldn’t choose the clunky-looking diamond lattice; the two matching panels had been given to us for free by a client some years ago. Free is good.
Tomorrow: back to Tuesday at the crab pot tree.
Just when you thought you could relax . . . ! lol Hope Frosty is still doing OK, and you are back to reading time.
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Exactly.
Now my MacBook has semi-or-completely-died so this week I’ll have to go see the local well-reputed compare guy!!
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That was a good result with a prompt and capable repair man. These people are few and far between.
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It reminded me of when you had to put up with a downed line in your yard for awhile.
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That didn’t interfere with our telephone though.
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How sad about the solanum (and how unfortunate about the cable). I am not familiar with that species. The solanum I know would come back even more aggressively.
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I think it will.
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