23 July: all Ilwaco, mostly watering

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Ilwaco gardens

We began with the mowing, weeding, and rose deadheading at the J Crew Cottage.

While dropping off some elephant garlic at our friend Marlene’s house, I wondered how much were the doggies in the window.

The park at the end of Spruce Street has a new sign, tile work by Renee O’Connor.

Fancy front to a house across the street…

We weeded at Mike’s garden, where I have filled in with cosmos while waiting for three hardy fuchsias to grow larger.

We saw two critters there, a cat…

…and a banana slug.

Garden writer Ann Lovejoy had a bumper sticker that read “Catch and release banana slugs.” They are native and mostly eat fallen plant debris. It was rehomed into the nearby long grass.

Port of Ilwaco

We separated to water (and weed) all the way along Howerton Avenue. All our work hoses and one of our at home watering hoses were needed.

At the east end, Allan hooks up to the port dock and runs a long line of hoses past CoHo charters to the curbside bed. He used to run them across the parking lot, where several hose connections got driven over, till he realized that with a little extra hose, he can come down a north south sidewalk.

The Sedum ”Autumn Joy’ get stressed and yellow in the droughty conditions at the port, especially the east and west beds that we only water twice a month.

I watered from The Dave Jensen architecture office….

…down to the port office curbside beds.

Allan has driven down to the west end, two beds that are watered just twice monthly because they require that hoses be run all the way from the dock ramps.

This garden area with just achillea brings down the tone by midsummer and needs a redo this fall.

I am sure Allan did some weeding after taking the photo. Otherwise, the tough plants at the west end look pretty good.

He had caught up to me and watered the Time Enough Books garden….

…and then we moved on to water our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco fire station…

…where once again I failed to get a photo of the square garden bed at the southeast corner.

Next we watered and did some weeding and deadheading at the Ilwaco boatyard.

It is time to spend a day at the boatyard transforming the look of the garden by pulling spent poppies. Next week, perhaps.

We watered the Ilwaco post office garden on the way home but no photo was taken. When Allan went to dump debris, he did some bird watching at the marshes east of the marina.

It would have been an entirely peaceful day except for two weird pandemic-related encounters. First, an unmasked man with an important insignia (not local police or port staff) seemed reluctant to move from the edge of a garden so I could water it. He did, but spat a wad of chewing tobaccy on the ground nearby. I could not help but say, in an astonished tone, “It’s not such a good idea to spit in public during a pandemic.” He looked me right in the eyes and spat again. I was utterly amazed but just kept watering. Sometimes lately it is a good thing that wearing a mask hides the things I say to myself.

The other oddly disconcerting event was when, while watering from behind the tall chain link fence at the boatyard, a boy around age 14 was walking north and was completely amenable and pleasant when I said, “Could you please walk around the guy who is working further up the block?” I thanked him and I saw him give Allan a wide berth. Later, when I was away from my hose and weeding from the sidewalk side of the fence, he returned with several friends. I had piles of plant debris on the sidewalk, and my mask was yards away in the van because the boatyard sidewalk in the evening is a place where social distancing is easy. As the unmasked group approached me, I said, “Could you please cross over?” There was no traffic and the other side of the street has a big parking lot. Instead, they argued about why should they. “Wellll,” I said in amazement, “because this is my work zone? and we are here working for the port? And…I’d appreciate it?”

“We’re six feet away from you,” they said from five or six feet away, but then they did walk on. All I could think to say was a not very coherent, “Six feet is not the last scientific word,” or something like that. I reviewed my conduct and found it to be mild-mannered (I hope) since I wondered if they had been hoping to make a YouTube of a crazy gardening lady. I decided that from now on, no matter how quiet the boatyard seems, we will have to go back to weeding in close proximity to each other and using caution tape to mark our area. How utterly tedious, and it should not be necessary to put up barriers there. And I must always keep a mask in my pocket. I went home disheartened about humans again. Fortunately, we now have four days off.

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22 July: safe and soothing jobs

Wednesday, 22 July 2020

We had our pleasant work day, with no unpleasant human encounters, including a quiet session in a quiet part of Long Beach.

On the way to work, we took a detour through “deep Seaview”, where the ambience is so simpatico.

The Depot Restaurant

Someone was mad at the dierama for daring to wave flowers over the edge of the parking lot.

Otherwise, all looked good.

Patti’s garden

Stella got her biscuit.

I decided to pull the orach, which I thought would be more beautiful. It’s actually kind of coarse and was so huge that it was competing with the hydrangeas and morning glories.

The garden looks better without it. We had it some of it stir fried for dinner the next day; it is a delicious spinach substitute.

Boreas Inn

Sweet pea success!

I picked off the tendrils, as advised by a guest on Gardener’s World, realizing I had not got round to googling whether nor not it really helps.

We cut back one tall blue lupine whose leaves were terribly shabby.

If I were the sole designer here, I would not have a lupine as a centerpiece in the garden because it goes over mid season. I’d have it in the background along the edge.

Apricot Lemonade cosmos:

The conditions for this garden are challenging and it’s hard to get it to thoroughly fill in. I could probably achieve that if I were there to hover over it every single day.

The Red Barn

Barn cat Cosmo left messages for Skooter on our work trailer…

…and read a message Skooter had left for him.

Holly came over from Diane’s house for a biscuit. Amy’s dog photobombed the photo a bit and also got a biscuit.

I made a new friend.

Diane’s garden

Chatting with Diane about life in general.

The roadside…

…and the septic vault.

Long Beach

We got done in time to weed the south parking lot so-called berm. The ground was packed hard as concrete, so it was more of a string trimming job than a weeding job. We used The Toy (our Stihl hand trimmer) to shear the rugosa roses back from the parking spots. A guest of the RV Park just across the parking lot was so intrigued that she came across to see it, from a safe distance, and will buy one.

That is the last of the Long Beach clean ups left from our springtime absence from the job. Now the next six weeks should just be quick check ups on the parks and once a week watering. I am thinking of switching the Depot/Boreas/Diane day to Tuesdays and watering Long Beach on the same day, and doing only a two day work week through the month of August. Because life is short and I want to be in my own garden.

We heard today that the mayor of Long Beach has Covid. It was not until late the next day that the local newspaper came out with this story, which included the disturbing news that the sewage test now shows over 80 active cases have used Long Beach toilets. I am told that the sewage test does not include the toilets of Seaview or Ilwaco (also on sewer), nor does it include the poo of all the people using septic systems, which is the entire rest of the peninsula. There are a couple of other possible cases connected with city hall and an unconnected case of a local business owner with Covid, as well. It is most disturbing. I love Long Beach and the city hall staff and am sad that the virus is most definitely encroaching upon us.

At home, Allan did a thing to his boat that he will perhaps explain to you. Messy, but I added some treated wood blocks as filler and poured resin into the stern. Next is the bow pour, then tidying up before installing the deck.

He has been taking almost all the work photos lately.

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Local health notice

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21 July: Long Beach short day

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

After Ann and Frank’s visit, we went to work in Long Beach, where we weeded the north parking lot so-called berm (not really mounded so not really a berm).

I like that the berm has some cool plants like Rosa rubrifolia and Stipa gigantea. It never gets supplemental water.

I wish so much and have wished for several years that we had mulch for the so-called berms but we do not.

After dumping a trailer load of debris at city works, we set out at five thirty to water the city planters, first the south blocks of downtown where it is quiet and we can breathe easy without masks, because we can see people coming and have room to step back.

It does slow things down to step way back when someone has a question or when groups walk by.

Lawns and parking lots give plenty of room to get away. The lines on the sidewalks are supposed to help people remember to social distance.

We managed to water all the way up to Fifth Street Park and did a quick weed of the park.

We then made the mistake of doing four more planters in a busy area, where time was lost standing back to avoid crowds without masks.

Allan and I both experienced, at different planters the same trio of pushy men who would not pause for a moment to let us step out of the way.

(The Washington State mask mandate is getting sterner as of next Saturday, requiring masking in outdoor places where social distancing is not possible.)

Next week, we will save those four planters for the very last hour of watering.

We then went out to water the planters on Sid Snyder Drive…

…and by then Dennis Company was closed so we could water the two north blocks.

The last ten planters in the middle of town got watered between seven and about eight o clock, playing dodgem even thought the street was quieter by then because most shops are closed.

The plants seemed happier this week, not crispy or wilted. The planters are much sparser than usual because we missed planting season, so they are quicker but not as interesting to work on or look at.

Allan doused the Fish Alley planters, dull but tidy…

…while I weeded the city hall garden, and we even had time to weed the two garden beds at Veterans Field and Lewis and Clark Square.

I realized that if we could just do horsetail patrol at the welcome sign, we would not have to work in Long Beach tomorrow, and so we did, finishing at dark thirty.

And that’s that for one more week of tourist season downtown watering. Six more to go. I erased the number 7 from the work board.

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21 July: a wonderful visit

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

We had a visit from Ann Amato and her father Frank, well-known author of many the magazine and book about fishing. Ann had offered to bring us plants from two renowned nurseries where she works on plant propagation, Secret Garden Growers and Cistus nursery and and also the great Xera Plants of Portland. Her mission is to cheer up gardeners during the pandemic by getting plants to them. I had so enjoyed looking through the online catalogs and placing my orders.

We had a carefully socially distanced tour all around the garden.

Frank liked our new boat fence and was also, being a cat man, pleased to meet Skooter.

He was intrigued by the history of Allan’s shed, which was a small appliance repair shop in World War II years…

…and he recognized some of the plate designs on the Great Wall of China as ones that his family used to use.

He paid great attention to detail and explored every path.

At the edge of the Bogsy Wood, he liked seeing the large gunnera. On a trip to Chile, he had seen people using the leaves as hats. I was happy that I had a gunnera in a pot to give to Ann to plant at Frank’s riverfront house, which you can see toward the end of this post from 2015 when Ann made us a feast there.

Then Ann unloaded my exciting new plants into our two waiting wheelbarrows.

And we had time for a good visit.

Skooter and Frank bonded on the cat bench.

Ann brought her cat Felix in to meet Skooter, who was intrigued but seemed not best pleased.

“Excuse me, sir, but let me escort you off the premises.”

“And don’t come back.”

And yet maybe he was hoping Felix would come back. I am pretty sure he would rather not be the only cat.

Frank liked Allan’s boating book. Allan would love to have given him a copy but was all out. Frank later acquired a copy at Time Enough Books at the port. To have fishing and boating expert Frank Amato like the book was simply wonderful.

We were awfully sorry to see them go.

I was pleased that their visit had come during Lily Time, which I consider the peak of my garden. Ann took a video walk from the front to the back, which you can view right here.

We still had a partial work day ahead of us, which will be tomorrow’s post. I had been able to forget about work during the glorious midday visit.

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20 July: who knows what-all

Monday, 20 July 2020

I had planned to weed because of expecting expert gardening company on Tuesday, until my friend said her garden is a mess. Oh! Then I could leave the weeds to make her feel not so alone.

This meant I could fritter away the day, which apparently is what I did since I can only remember doing one project.

I did find out via phone calls and texts that we would be able to do the Long Beach planter watering tomorrow evening, after all. The road crew is only going to fill cracks, not chip seal the whole shebang. But they use the same sign for everything, I was told.

Allan carried two bags of potting soil to almost top off the Jessie’s fish tote, which will be one of two (so far) raised beds. I planted four kinds of beets (Golden, Bull’s Blood, Early Wonder, Lutz Winter Keeper), some kale and some chard, all in hope of a late fall crop. I realized that hoops could be put over the bins to make them into mini greenhouses in winter. Pretty cool. I need two more fish totes, if anyone has some. Someone told me of a white one I could have. At the time, I was set on red but now I want more so badly that white would do.

The sign is up on the inner front gate, the one we call the Trowel Gate. For overseas people, let me explain that UPS is United Parcel Service, which often makes a delivery to our house, even more than usual during these pandemic times.

Allan made a small cedar ‘roof’ and installed the window that our friend Annie made us for the Catio.

The blue house across the street is reflected in the photo above. You can see both the pandemic panic sign and the pretty window when you walk by and look in the low front gate.

I have had some sweet pea success on the west back fence.

My mom’s favorite rose, Joseph’s Coat, is blooming by the west front gate.

I adore my Stipa barbata.

Allan worked on his boat building project again. He may tell you what this is all about: This is reluctantly sawing into a perfectly good stern to widen it for a rudder. 

I spread it apart for pouring in resin and made a Hoover-like dam from Skyler’s new clippers package. 

He got a lovely letter and a bonus from someone who mail ordered his boating book.

This made both our days. 

You may remember that I wrote about the trash on our local beaches on the July 4th weekend. Here are a couple of updates.

This despite the fact that a midnight high tide drove people and their vehicles off the beaches and assuredly swept some trash out to sea.

I’ve thought about sharing a series of articles about news stories that haunted me all weekend, about the federal martial law being imposed and violence wreaked on peaceful protestors in the nearby city of Portland. (Friends who live there tell me that the majority of the protesters are indeed peaceful.) I know that news about it has made its way around the world, including being a lead story on the BBC. It’s just too upsetting to revisit all those articles. I hope this apparent slide into fascism is reversible…in my lifetime. It cast a pall of worry over the long weekend.

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19 July: bin one

Sunday, 19 July 2020

I sifted bin one of the compost, piling the uncomposted debris high onto bins three and four.

First sifted barrow:

Skooter helped all the way as I added the sifted compost mixed with leaf mold to the Jessie’s fish tote. The mix might even be too rich for veg; I suppose that it possible.

Now bins one and two of the four are empty, awaiting something new. I’d like to keep them empty till autumn debris comes, including, I hope, the hanging baskets from Long Beach when the season is over.

Second barrow:

In the garden, I noticed that the Sugar Magnolia peas…

…tone well with the nearby Clematis ‘Rooguchi’, although I couldn’t manage a good photo of both, unless you knew what you were looking for.

Allan worked on his boat.

Just before bedtime, I found this notice posted regarding downtown Long Beach road work posted on a local Facebook group.

What now? Just like last week, it says we can’t water on Tuesday the 21st, the day that the planters need water? Of course, last week we watered anyway because I did not read the fine print…and it was a drizzle of rain, not our watering, that postponed the project till this week. Distressed, I had to take an sleep aid to not lie awake and fret about it.

The next morning, I made some phone calls and sent some texts first thing and eventually got a reply that we would be able to water Tuesday evening, so the whole week will not have to be rearranged. The road crew is just filling cracks, not resurfacing the entire road, but they use the same sign for everything, apparently.

Production note: I usually write several blog posts at a time, let them sit in a scheduled queue, and only proofread them the night before they go out. Sometimes it’s pretty funny how many mistakes I find. If you’re ever reading and you find one that’s rife with typos, it would mean I’m either sick or I just plain forgot. The most recent odd typo was some “hunky” weeding and I could not even remember what I actually meant.

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18 July: bin two and a book

Saturday, 18 July 2020

I sifted compost bin two today, piling high the uncomposted material onto bins three and four. It was ever so thrilling.

Before:

All the siftings went into one of the Jessie’s fish totes.

First load:

Second load:

Each barrow load was supplemented with sifted leaf mold.

Bin two, empty:

I wish I had not had the bright idea of digging the compost area six inches deeper than ground level, to hold more, because it is awkward to get the last of the compost out. I am throwing all the cardboard bits in there that I can find.

After:

Meanwhile, I ran a hose from double rain collection barrels to the in-ground ponds.

Small pond, before:

And after:

Large pond, before (if you look closely, you can see that pots were out of the water; I don’t like the one that has lettering on it but it’s so heavy now that I’m temporarily stuck with it):

The hose just barely dribbles, so I left it in the second pond all night, emptying the barrels. Next morning:

Some plants admired on Saturday:

White echinops:

…and a miniature variegated sanguisorba that I bought at Dan Hinkley’s booth at the 2018 Hardy Plant study weekend. I have the tag…somewhere…and remember it’s amusing wording about “for people who like that sort of thing, and some of you do.”

I swear that this winter I am going to go through all my plant tags and make a spreadsheet for what’s in each garden bed. I might even start it later this summer.

Allan worked on his boat today…

I made a sign for the inner front gate:

I made it because a right wing local Republican who attends white supremacist gatherings has had his minions put flyers on the porches of houses on our block. A friend advised that a sign that looks a little …eccentric…might make people extra cautious about entering.

Skooter was cute today, as always.

Reading

It has not been reading weather, so my latest reading has been a chapter a night at bedtime. A coupe of nights ago, I finished the book that was a gift from Beverly.

It spoke to me of the childhood fear instilled by a fire and brimstone religion.

I was fortunate that although the Bible camp I was sent to in summer (because, if I memorized Bible verses every week for Sunday School , it was a summer camp my parents could afford) had three fire and brimstone sermons a day and was anti-rock-and-roll to boot, it was leavened by a beautiful setting and by being able to have an occasional horse ride in the afternoon. I was also fortunate in that none of that religiosity was part of my home life. I think my parents liked to send me to Sunday school to get me out of the house. I am triply fortunate that the actual Sunday school was much milder in nature, with one especially kind teacher who spoke against racism and anti-Semitism in terms children could understand.

I worried throughout Chasing Eden about whether the author would escape to a happier adult life. It’s a bit of a cliffhanger as it ends when she is about 20. I look forward to a sequel said to be coming soon. An amazing thing about her personality is how she held onto her kind and forgiving nature throughout her teenage years and continued to love her parents.

This memoir is in the vein of several I have read this year featuring difficult fathers and browbeaten mothers who give up on protecting their children. Seems to me the most difficult fathers were the tyrannically religious ones in Educated and Chasing Eden, while the eccentric and alcoholic fathers in The Liar’s Club and The Glass Castle made life hard but were more tolerable and lovable. My father was tyrannical just for his own ego, I suppose, not religious, not especially funny or eccentric, and not especially lovable. A lesson for parents might be that if you want to be missed when you are gone, behave well toward your children in life. I was so intimidated by him that I never asked him anything much about his childhood and now know almost nothing about him or his family, something I would remedy if I could go back in time. Not having the gentle and kind nature myself of Cherilyn Clough, the lesson I learned was to distrust authority, which is one reason I have been self employed for over forty years.

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17 July: mostly home

Friday, 17 July 2020

We had had a bit of rain.

I am always glad when it rains after we have watered, because it extends the good effect of the watering.

Our day off was not one of me completely getting to stay on our property, because we had to take Skooter to the Oceanside Animal Clinic for an allergy shot and a toenail trim. The whole procedure is different now. The vet picks up the animal in the parking lot, takes it into the clinic then brings it back out.

Then the human pays at an exterior window where a sign asks that people mask up. While we were waiting, a man rapped at the window and asked a question with no mask on, and while he was waiting, he casually hocked a big spitooey on the sidewalk. I was on the phone announcing our arrival at that moment and said “Omigawd that unmasked man just spit right by the window.” As soon as he left, one of the office staff emerged to spray the pavement with Lysol!

Skooter and I were both ever so glad to get home.

After a spell of mental recuperation after having to go out, I took a tour of our garden, using a better camera than usual.

An intoxicating fragrance made me realize that lily time has begun.

Clematis ‘Rooguchi’:

Leycesteria ‘Jealousy’ and Sambucus ‘Black Tower’:

Persicaria ‘Firetail’ backed with (in the center of the photo, looking a bit like marijuana) a very cool small tree, from Xera, I think, whose name I would remember if I ever got around to listing the plants in my garden beds (Metapanax!):

Sanguisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’:

One of the Lilac Squirrels fronts a bed with many the pink flower…

…and an agapanthus, maybe ‘Xera’s Cobalt.’

The center bed:

Maybe ‘Drama Queen’ poppy:

Hips forming on Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium’ (they’ll turn bright orange):

Verbena bonariensis:

Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’:

One of many astilbes:

At the edge of the Bogsy Wood:

A fungus on the Danger tree snag:

Nicotiana sylvestris:

Hydrangeas:

I did a little project in the Bogsy Wood with a small metal vault cover that I had fished out of the Long Beach city works yard.

Before:

After:

I keep eliminating bits of lawn to make the mowing a little bit briefer.

Meanwhile, Allan mowed the Norwood lawn two doors down.

And he did a project, adding some landscape fabric and a couple of wood and wire panels to the boat fence.

The purpose was to block two security lights. I have no issue with my nice neighbours’ security lights. It is useful to be able to see their houses for a security check when I go to bed at two, while the neighborhood is sleeping. But the actual lightbulbs give me migraines. I have had a strip of paper taped to my window just at the height to block the light bulbs and now I can take the paper off. I was ever so happy after dark to confirm that my idea has worked perfectly, and the next morning I was even more thrilled to see from my window that it all looks rather nice…to me anyway.

Almost all my messy work area is behind the screen! Now if I could just figure out a way to block the five glaring white security lights that we see out our front windows….because it takes so long for tall shrubs to grow.

BUT I have absolutely promised Allan that I will not ask him to build anything for another month. I really mean it this time.

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16 July: a difficult all Ilwaco day

Thursday, 16 July 2020

Skooter in the morning:

Work days spent in Ilwaco are my favorite kind. But not today, not from the fault of any of our clients.

CoHo Charters

Allan began his work day with shearing the CoHo escallonia hedge below the south window of one of the motel rooms.

The port was busy….

…and foggy.

Howerton curbside gardens

Meanwhile, I enjoyed weeding the easternmost curbside garden.

The blue is, of course,Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’.

One area has nought but the annoying ground cover, Euphorbia ‘Fen’s Ruby’, that I hate and that hitched in on another plant. It got a firm hold during the time we were non-essential. Nothing else wants to grow in that spot.

I keep trying.

I watered the new heathers in the CoHo curbside bed and rejoiced that they are the more upright types. I like them much better than the white flowering flatties.

This little special one that we planted last year apparently got trampled. But it is trying.

I weeded and watered the bed north of Dave Jensen’s architecture office.

Last fall or maybe this spring, I planted some silver santolina to tone with his silver building. It’s not big enough yet to make a show. I do think I will plant some more when the autumn rains return.

Allan joined me and we weeded and watered the curbside by At the Helm Hotel and the port pavilion.

We dumped the escallonia debris in bin three at home…

…and took a break from the port to tidy Mike’s garden.

We didn’t have to spend long at that tiny garden, having done a thorough job on the last couple of visits.

Back to the port

I weeded and watered at the Powell Gallery…

…while Allan did the same at the Port Office curbside sand Time Enough Books. So far, work had been pleasant, with easy social distancing from any passersby.

I checked on the Port Office south wall garden where the Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ is living up to its name.

However, the day had gone pear-shaped by then. At the port office garden and for part of the time I helped weed at Time Enough Books I was in tears of fear and panic because of something that happened while Allan walked back to one of the previous gardens to coil up a hose on the hose reel. (I loathe fighting with hose reels, give me a simple hose hanger any day. When we split up to water the port, one of us uses our long hose and the other uses whatever hoses are available.)

For the past ten years, Allan and I have administrated the local Discover Ilwaco Facebook page. We recently resigned from that volunteer post because I am not comfortable promoting tourism during this pandemic year, And also because, with 20 years left to live if I’m as lucky as my mother, I want to focus on gardening. So we have for ten years been in the habit of always looking for picturesque photos of life at the port.

As Allan was walking toward the hose location, he took a photo that he thought was picturesque of some work going on at a business. A person emerged angrily questioning why Allan was taking a photo. I could see from far away that the person was two feet away from Allan (who says it was three feet, as it might well have been). Allan was masked but probably had his nose partway out because he’s finding it hard to keep a mask stay on while working. And because he did not expect a confrontation. (He has some clips coming in the mail for his masking problem.)

I started walking as fast as I could (not very fast) yelling “Back up! Back up!” in a complete heart-pounding panic. But Allan did not back up as fast as I fervently wished.

Then I wept and fretted for half an hour while continuing to weed, because our Covid defense was breached, Allan was in the harm zone with the angry person, and something like that could kill both of us.

You have to back up now when someone gets in your space. Just back away.

Marking the calendar for two weeks till we can say we did not get sick from this….because I’m nuts.

I can’t afford to quit ALL the jobs in order to stay safe. And I don’t want to quit the jobs that improve my community and that are the core of my identity and creativity.

I am still terrified about this incident and also angry because why would someone come close to be confrontative during a pandemic? We drove by the same place later after another brief break at home (where I was able to have a better cry out of the public eye) and saw the same person take their mask off to talk to someone up close, and then I was even more scared and upset. I’m not just scared of dying. I am scared of all the lingering side effects that Covid leaves behind in 5% of patients, as described in this article about neurological after effects and this article about respiratory problems and exhaustion lingering in young people who’ve had it.

Still all upset (me because of fear and Allan because I couldn’t stop talking about it), we weeded and watered our volunteer garden at the fire station, where I was still weepy (the kind of tears that just keep slipping out) and didn’t take any photos. Here’s the east side.

We went back to paid work at the boatyard garden (which started out as my volunteer garden over 20 years ago). The year’s first watering was today’s task.

I had a small amount of sweet pea success at the boatyard. During those springtime non-essential weeks, I was unable to keep the snails off of them and so lost many.

Allan watered the north end from the inside of the fence, where grass and horsetail are long and where a few of our good plants are colonizing.

He wished he had taken an allergy pill first because of the grass pollen.

To bolster my good thoughts about human nature today, I observed that someone had picked from the very center of our prize Eryngium ‘ Sapphire Blue’, ruining the shape…

…and right smack dab under the do not pick sign.

I went home before seven because I had preregistered for a zoom class about growing fall and winter veg. Allan went on to water at the Ilwaco Community Building.

My no good horrible very bad day continued when I logged into zoom before the veg class and found that despite preregistration, I could not get in because the meeting was full. With a slightly exploding head, I turned to the local news and found that both Clatsop County, just across the river, and Gray’s Harbor, the county to the north where we’ve gone on some great garden tours, are experiencing “a significant increase in Covid-19 cases”.

That was enough news. I occupied myself for the next three hours churning out the four blog posts that preceded this one and feeling grateful that we have four days off and only one cat-related errand to run on Friday (a toenail clipping and allergy shot for Skooter). Otherwise, I will not leave our property and feel that I would be perfectly happy to never leave it again as long as I live, or as long as the pandemic lasts, or as long as people are mean.

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