7 Jan: another brief goodbye

Thursday, 7 January 2021

Our good friend Tony had visitors.

Photo by Tony Hofer

We not only left our property but left Ilwaco on some errands. We had a month’s worth of 2020 cheques to put in the bank and a B&O tax form to drop off at Long Beach city hall….and the sacred key to the city works gate to return.

On the way, we did our second to last Long Beach task, cutting back some wind blown rudbeckias at the welcome sign. I had left them standing on our final work day because they still looked good.

Narcissi emerging, horsetail still hiding underground

While doing the quick trimming, I saw some shotweed and ignored it. It’s none of my business now.

At city hall, I did one more LB task, pulling out one lily stalk that I had accidentally left. Because I am detail-oriented and was obsessed with the job for so many years, I had been thinking about it since noticing it while driving by. I saw some grass and creeping buttercup and ignored it!

City hall north side, will be full of white narcissi and leucojum soon.

Across the street, the fence surrounding the lot that will house the Dollar General store has fallen down. What a depressing thought that the view from city hall will be a boxy cheap-goods chain store….nothing beachy or old-towny about that….goodbye to the ambience of the approach to the arch.

At city works, our arrival coincided with lunch so, even though we didn’t see Parks Manager Mike, we turned the key in to members of the city crew. One of them said, “What will you do now?” I replied, “We’ll still do the port gardens and some private jobs. Allan is older than me [looks ten years younger, actually is two years older] and really wants to half retire.” I’m still not sure how I feel about it but I think I will like it. We must get more frugal, though, and have discontinued our monthly Universal Yums box!

The Return of the Key

Goodbye, again.

In a non pandemic year, would there have been a farewell party after 22 or more years, with a cake and a golden trowel and “For they are jolly good fellows”? Probably not, as we were always on the periphery of the city staff.

I did get to fill up some more buckets with farewell mulch. Better than cake.

We headed straight home and were there by one o clock.

Allan mulched his garden while I mulched the east front bed….

…where some narcissi are already blooming.

• 

• 

Allan found a snow drop in his garden.

With five buckets of mulch left, I weeded the driveway garden and added it there.

Meanwhile, Allan cut a downspout behind the lean-to greenhouse and changed it to a flexible tube that goes to a water barrel inside the greenhouse. The cottage next door is almost right on our property line with a narrow passage between it and Allan’s shed. We’ve changed the set-up of that area that we use to store ingredients (wire, lumber, old windows and other garden possibilities) so that it’s completely open to both properties with a gate at each end, instead of the way it used to be with a swinging gate from their yard to ours. Because a toddler lives there, we do not want to have a water barrel that easily accessible. So here is the solution, with the barrel moved into the greenhouse instead of behind it:

• 

• 

I am well chuffed.

Ilwaco’s water bill is going way way up next year, so the more rainwater I can use, the better.

He also cut and shortened a gutter end from between the greenhouses that had stuck out too far. I had not even asked for it to be changed, but it is a lot better now…even though there is no after picture.

• 

• 

The weeding that went along with the mulching felt good. I would not mind a couple of days of weeding rather than reading weather.

After I came indoors, I had some excellent news. The person that I had been hoping would take over the Long Beach gardens is going to do so and already has our old key! I have high hopes that this is someone with a good quarter century ahead of enthusiastic and capable public gardening. I can let go of the job with mental ease, knowing it will be well done. (The hard part is not giving all kinds of unasked for advice.)