27-28 January: 3 meals, 4 clinics

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

There will be some garden photos further down as a reward for making it through the rest of this post.  Or just scroll till you see a crocus.

A Tuesday doctor visit, long avoided, turned out to be just over an hour of talking with a kind doc who makes me laugh. I had remembered that about her, so to see her especially, we went to the Naselle Clinic, half an hour away. Wednesday featured a different sort of clinic.  Poor Smokey had a nasty abscess on one of his paws (I will spare you the photo of THAT) and had to go to the vet.  We did have the pleasure there of seeing Devery with a darling dog friend of hers.  The vet said Smokey was a very good boy even when she was lancing the wound.   

Devery (Allan’s photo)

 

Devery’s friend

 

one of the office cats

 I then had my own appointment for several knee x rays at the local hospital (associated with the Naselle Clinic).  One knee does look awfully off kilter. I realized that, having cut jobs down to just the ones I love, I rarely have to do things I do not want to do.  How fortunate, or how spoiled.  The round of doctor appointments will change that, as my primary care wants me to see several, including a neurologist to track down the source of dizziness (for which some terrifying possibilities were suggested, along with some not so scary ones, all of which I am doing my best not to dwell on).

waiting room: I will have to become accustomed to more noise during this time with loud tvs and classic rock radios.

I was simply smitten with the delightful personality of the X Ray technician.  Anyone in the medical field who can make me laugh is so helpful.

The Ocean Beach Hospital is not as big and fancy as the one across the river, yet it has a huge advantage for me: not having to cross the bridge.

I appreciate their well cared for greenery…

and I find their lighthouse mural oddly comforting.

I resolve that this round of doctor visits will be educational and interesting.

At home, Allan helped me drag a comfy chair into the large bathroom so I could sit with Smokey most of the afternoon, reading the latest in the excellent Dog Lover’s Mystery Series by Susan Conant.

Sire and Damn…top rating!

I enjoyed this description of why protagonist Holly Winter has so many dog people as Facebook friends.  I feel the same way about my network of gardening friends.

Below: I might feel this way about guests sometimes, but of course never about you.

After an unpleasant incident damages a kitchen cupboard, Holly’s spouse, Steve, behaves much the way Allan would:

I agree with Holly’s assessment.

In the evening, we were invited to join our good friends Fred and Nancy from The Basket Case Greenhouse for burger night at the Depot Restaurant.

Depot entrance in the rain (Allan’s photo)

on the Depot Restaurant grille (Allan’s photo)

We’ve missed Fred and Nancy over the non gardening winter and had a good catch up.

Thursday, 28 January 2016

After my third clinic visit, this time to have a copious amount of blood drawn (which I am happy to say is NOT one of my many phobias, and also that I got another clinician who made me laugh and who understood my reference to Doc Martin’s blood phobia), our reward for skipping breakfast was brunch at the 42nd Street Café.  I now get to wait until late February for my next doctor visit; I have a feeling all the many tests are going to slowly continue on through early spring.

42nd Street Café in Seaview

42nd Street: We hit the quiet time between breakfast and lunch

My favourite Peninsula breakfast: the 42nd Street Russian scramble

Allan’s French toast

We departed as the luncheon folks began to trickle in.

An errand in Ilwaco gave me the chance to look at one of our planters.

The rosemary looks less silly from this angle.

A quick tour of our front garden revealed many signs of spring.

Crocus tommasianus at the base of tetrapanax 

hellebore, crocus, and Scrophularia variegata

Iris unguicularis almost done

Ranunculus ficaria (lesser celandine)

more crocus tommies and some tiny spears of narcissi

Crocus tommies in a brief ray of sunshine

I love the crocus, the texture of the soil, and the promising spears of bulbs

In Allan’s garden, hellebores and Acanthus ‘Hollard’s Gold’

crocus tommies and Melianthus

I have only once before had Melianthus major come this far through winter so unscathed.

In the evening, we had our weekly meeting of the North Beach Garden Gang.  With the Cove Restaurant no longer serving dinner, we chose Salt Hotel Pub as our new place.

Allan’s photo, Salt Hotel

up the stairs to the pub

With a marina view table at the window and tasty sandwiches on offer, Salt Pub met with all of our approval.  We mentioned to its co-owner, Julez, that another regular party at the Cove was also on the loose.  Julez texted that fellow (a mutual friend) immediately saying “Hear you are looking for a Thursday night hangout” and within twenty minutes the former Cove regular and his spouse were seated at the next table.

Julez behind the bar

Allan’s ham melt

Melissa, Dave, and I had the smoked tuna melt.

At home, I was pleased to find Mary and Smokey cuddled up in his convalescent room. (I had bunged her in there to keep her son company.)

Mary and Smokey

 

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30 Dec-2 January: books and a birthday

Wednesday, 30 December 2015

On the 30th, I took a break from reading time with the feeling that I simply MUST remove the Christmas tree, eager to have the space back because I wanted to put my mother’s old desk there.  I had used it for blogging during Christmas time and realized I liked it much better for that purpose than the blue table.

I needed my space back!

many precious ornaments carefully packed away

new spot for blogging with a garden view

Before putting away my village houses, I thought I should photograph them in order to study the details.  I acquired them from Swanson’s Nursery in Seattle back in Dcember 2005.  The backdrop is kitchen condiments, as I was in a hurry to be done with Christmas and move on.  Pretend it is a mountain range (of pink salt and of pepper).

Thursday, 31 December 2015

This book was extraordinary and all about restaurant life.

This is how we get treated as weekly regulars at the Cove Restaurant.

the call and response

the ebb and flow

dealing with annoying customers:

poor old chocolate lava cake:

restaurant workers:

This gives away nothing of the plot.  Bread and Butter is a flawless book.

Meanwhile, Allan made a sturdy new cat ramp that replaced one that had been hurriedly made before we moved in :

before: getting pretty wobbly, saggy and missing a step

after, now strong enough for a raccoon family (that we hope don’t come back)

And he took some photos of what I believe is a female stellar jay:

Allan keeps us alive during stay(book)cation by foraging for groceries and for the daily mail from the post office.

Seen by Allan in the back window of a vehicle:

Friday, 1 January 2015

Wind blew down a tree on some important power lines partway up the Peninsula and all of our friends at the north end, including Todd and Dave and Melissa were without power till after 9 PM.  I was glad we were not affected as the day was cold and we have no alternate source of heat.

I followed Bread and Butter with another book by the same author.

On page 44, it rocketed to another ten star rating.

This author has a knack for picking subjects that interest me:

ALS (a friend died of it and I fear it) in the novel You’re Not You. The film kind of butchered it.

Restaurant life in Bread and Butter.

And now alternative co-op life (and food co-ops and feminism and small farms) melded with something maybe a little apocalyptic. She knows just what I like to read about.

This is just how I feel when someone posts a meme on Facebook justifying spanking.

(Below) Co-ops like these still exist in Madison. The Womyn’s Coop is now called Avalon. The name change was not so long ago. I read some websites about them. So fascinating.

She has life with an alcoholic perfectly pegged:

and

just how it is

Michelle Wildgen is a new favourite novelist, but unfortunately I have now read all her books.

Saturday, 2 January 2016

I began a long novel by another favourite:

The title comes from a favourite quotation of mine:

I do feel that attention should be paid to the fact that Allan had a birthday! In the evening, we were joined at the 42nd Street Cafe by Dave and Melissa, Todd, J9, and Patti.  It was not the weekend for Kathleen to be here, and we were sorry she could not attend.

Places were set for three absent friends, Ed Strange (who had to help some friends wash dishes at another restaurant) and Susie and Bill (who had to attend to guests at their B&B, the Boreas Inn).

Patti got her caesar salad with calamari deconstructed, so she could take half of it home.

J9 observes the pepper grinding.

Three of the party chose this comfort food (stroganoff).

J9’s squash and gorgonzola ravioli

Melissa got the pork dish.

The 42nd Street provides an exciting touch for birthday dinners:

the sparkler!

the perfectly tiny chocolate mint sorbet

Melissa and I checking out Allan’s new hairy lip (Cheilanthes lanosa) fern from Todd

Another gift: about a fern quest:

  

a good evening

Melissa and I arranged one more trip to see Star Wars midweek.  Other than that, I plan to be re-immersed in reading time with as few interruptions as possible.

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24-26 Oct: friends from afar

Saturday, 24 October 2015

Smokey and Mary say good morning.

Yesterday, I had gotten a message from a Canadian Facebook friend, Karla, saying that she and her spouse planned to be passing through Long Beach and wondered if we could have dinner with them.  We’ve been imaginary friends since August 2008, the year that I was obsessed with playing Scrabulous.  When the game of Scrabulous was discontinued, we continued to be imaginary friends.  Karla and Gary had some car trouble and did not make it here yesterday, so today I was waiting for a phone call saying that they had arrived so we could meet them for lunch.  That call came at 12:45 and Allan and I left immediately to meet them at the 42nd Street Café.

Meeting in person for the first time went very well. (Allan’s photo)

Gary and Karla watch Allan taking photos of the food.

I had the tuna sandwich, Garden Tour Nancy’s favourite.

Karla and Allan had delicious mushroom quiche.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Gary’s photo

Gary and Karla (Allan’s photo)

We all found it easy and natural to converse as if we had known each other for a very long time.  Our friends had come all the way from near Toronto.  As Karla said, she loves meeting old friends she’s never seen before, and as they continue down the Oregon Coast and then across country to their winter home in Florida, they might visit more Facebook friends.

After lunch, we had the pleasure of accompanying them to the Seaview beach approach where they saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

Allan’s photo

meeting a cute little dog named Taco (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The tide was out, making it a long trek over tire tracks to get to the water.  They agreed that it is weird and not very nice to see vehicles driving on the beach.

Looking back from the shoreline: I was a wee bit embarrassed that they had to cross this ugly mess to get to the water.

Gary, Allan and Karla on the clean wet sand.

looking south toward North Head; edited out the wide view that would have had an SUV in it!

Gary’s first visit to the Pacific.

Allan’s photo

It’s a long walk to the water at low tide. Karla, determined to get her feet in the Pacific!

chasing the waves

a dream fulfilled!

Allan’s photo; the water is cold!

contagious happiness

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

 Karla and Gary left to go down the Oregon Coast where they will get to see miles of spectacular beaches (with no cars on them).  We will be following their journey on Facebook.  The visit was joyous and too brief.  I wish we had a guest cottage where we could have put them up and taken them round to see all the sights…and yet they do need to get across the country before winter, and we do have a lot of sights.

At home, we spent the late afternoon working on the Corridor of Spooky Plants for Halloween.  We cannot assemble it all now in case there might be a windstorm.  It’s good to get the basic structure done a week in advance to avoid a last minute rush.

assembling the corridor (Allan’s photo)

Allan tying hops on the arbour.

the framework in place with some Thalictrum ‘Elin’ and some spooky alder branches tied in place.

Allan’s photo

Evening brought the task of B&O taxes and state tax figuring, and I give myself a gold star for taking care of business.

Sunday, 25 October 2015

My rainy day with Susan Conant…sort of a friend from afar because we are Facebook friends.

Monday, 26 October 2015

I had hope for another rainy day so I could read the next in the Dog Lover’s Mysteries.  It was not to be and so became a gardening day.  Allan took the opportunity to paint the trim on the front fence to match the new arbours.  This made me very happy.

setting up (Allan’s photo)

Allan starts painting.

I was pleased to see a flower bud on my Tetrapanax.

And lots of buds on my Eupatorium hernandezii , a plant from Todd that should bloom in winter.  (With Mary)

I decided to clean up the back garden middle bed.

Smokey was hoping for a campfire.

It was wonderful to see shy Calvin being brave out in the garden.

Next door: The crab pots are being readied for commercial crabbing season.

my project: 2 PM

Allan’s photo

5 PM

I also kind of hoped Allan could move our “park” sign which does not show well with a passion flower and clematis growing over it.

speaking of which: passion flower still blooming

It turned out that sign was attached with bolts that had rusted tight.  Allan managed to remove it and is going to rust proof the sign so the fine details do not not wear away.

The last photo of the sign in this spot.

Smokey continued to hope for a campfire, but we had other dinner plans.

Allan’s paint job.

Allan’s photo

I had added more material to the Corridor of Spooky Plants. (Much rain is predicted for Halloween, sadly.)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s painting sheet looking like modern art.

In the evening, we began a visit with another friend from afar.  Carol (my friend for 37 years!) was here from Seattle and we had dinner at the Depot Restaurant.

mango scallops at the Depot

Wilted spinach salad is back!

Allan’s delicious French Onion Soup

Cinghiale Brasato, my favourite winter menu dish.

8 PM at the Depot

After dinner, we took take-out desserts to Carol’s home for the night, the Zelmar Cruiser at the Sou’wester Lodge.

I love visiting the Sou’wester. The Zelmar Cruiser (Allan’s photo)

When I entered the Zelmar Cruiser, which I had cleaned many times during my year of working at the Sou’wester (1993), I found myself hugging the round wall at the back of the kitchen!

The bathroom and bedroom are through there. (Allan’s photo)

in the Zelmar Cruiser (Allan’s photo)

the living room (with take out desserts from the Depot; Allan’s photo)

Carol in the Zelmar Cruiser living room

as we leave, more trailers: The Potato Bug and The Blue Wave (Allan’s photo)

Next: Carol and I tour Cannon Beach, followed by Allan goes boating.

 

 

 

 

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24 July: some swanning about with Nancy

Friday, 24 July 2015

Garden Tour Nancy and I had plans for some Edible Garden Tour pre-touring, but first, we went by invitation to see a charming small Seaview garden.

Sue’s Garden

My Facebook friend Betty had told me about the garden of her neighbour, Sue.  First, Nancy and I had a look over the fence at the well-grown vegetables on Betty’s “Farm”.

Betty’s farm

and her darling dog, Ella

We then went to view the cottage garden next door belonging to flower-loving neighbour, Sue.  Betty had told me it was a good example of how someone on a budget and a small space can have a garden with, as Betty says, “just love and hard work. She looks for ‘deals’ and nurtures them into lush, healthy plants. Sue grows most of her garden from seeds which she shares freely.”

Black Eyed Susan vine at the gate

Sue’s flower garden, staged in containers. Later there will be sunflowers along the fence.

zinnia

zinnia

beans

morning glory

We had an audience.

sweet peas

sweet peas

Nancy and I were both delighted.  I would much rather see a tiny garden grown from scratch and from sharing than the grandest estate.

Dawson Garden

Next, Nancy and I visited another small garden in Long Beach to get some sneak peek photos for the Edible Garden tour (which, by the time you read this, will have taken place on August 9th.  Although I’ll save most of the photos for my edible tour posts.  Upon arrival, we were offered a free hydrangea which Nancy happily arranged to dig up this fall.

the hydrangea in question

a well grown delphinium

The edible portion of the garden is in containers, and I am sure, or at least I assume, that’s because, like me, the gardeners are more into using the majority of the space for a flower garden.  Because the paths are narrow, they’ll have that part of the garden blocked off during tour day.  Owners John and Judy let us go through it.

This driftwood is piled over a little fish pond to protect the fish from the local raccoons.

protected pond

John makes garden art from objects.

driftwood decor

screened fish tub

and another tub protected with driftwood

view from the deck

potted plants on the deck

overlooking the garden

another creation

ingredients

a pond next door

The home is on a cul-de-sac where several other homes also have gardens, and one gets the feeling it’s a friendly street to live on.

a tidy house at the inside end of the cul-de-sac

42nd Street Café

Nancy and I replenished our strength..and talked about garden tours…over lunch at the 42nd Street Café.

locally canned albacore tuna sandwich with house made potato chips

Russian vegetarian scramble with sour cream

homemade jellies

Gene Miles, retired Long Beach city administrator, was at the café and showed us some photos of how he is remodeling his garden, which was on the garden tour in 2013.  I got him to email them to me and will share them a little later.

On the way to our next pre-tour, Nancy and I went to the

Columbia Pacific Farmers Market 

It takes place every Friday afternoon at Veterans Field in Long Beach.

produce stall

flowers

Nancy admires some fresh berries.

Double J and the Boys on stage (except more girls than boys today)

our neighbours’ farm, Starvation Alley

Our Vet Field corner garden bed makes a nice backdrop.

the Humane Society raffle booth…with kitty litter buckets holding down the tent in the ubiquitous wind

plants

onions and flowers

Nancy’s bouquet

Pink Poppy Bakery

squash blossoms from Pink Poppy Farm

another good backdrop: our flag pavilion garden

Garden Tour Nancy

The Planter Box garden

Next, Nancy and I went on a sneak peek pretour of the expansive vegetable garden grown by Ray Millner, patriarch of The Planter Box.  He and his wife, Barbara, have pretty much retired and passed on the garden center to their son and daughter, Raymond and Teresa, and Ray devotes himself to growing enough food to feed his extended family.

Ray and his grapes, protected from dew. He says he will remodel the top to be domed.

I am saving the photos for the edible tour coverage.  But here is the hand of a gardener:

On the way home, in Long Beach, we saw the family of deer that eat from the planters on Seventh Street (which is just north of where they are).

at home in the town

in my own garden

This is a before photo of an upcoming project area.

I had thought I was going to spend most of my weekend painting lumber and was thrilled to find that Allan had already done it.

posts

And he was now mowing the lawn.  At least the part in back that is still growing.

While watering, I found a Todd plant that had suddenly sprouted! I up-potted it right away.

The tadpoles in the water box are refusing to turn into frogs.

passion flowers

with sweet peas

After dark, I heard the sound of rain.

rain, making a puddle! thrilling!

Gene’s Garden

Gene had emailed me the photos of his Long Beach garden and here they are.  You may remember his garden from the 2013 garden tour, or from this article by Debbie Teashon.

the driveway container garden

new: a two tiered deck on the west side, surrounded by garden beds…and do I see a new fence?

the view from the driveway…hey, that fence is new along the street!

I am so impressed with the new streetside fence and sweet peas.

sweet peas

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ might have come back from 2013.

what was a too-narrow straight edged bed along the house

Thanks, Gene, for the virtual garden tour.  You have done grand improvements.

 

 

 

 

 

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10 April: not quite a reading day

Friday, 10 April 2015

Because the prediction of bad weather had become less dire by yesterday evening,  I was not entirely counting on a reading day.  We arose at the usual time and assessed the weather.  Just before breakfast, the various weather apps suggested rain would begin in 54 minutes.

I just could not relax because I knew how happy I would be to cross one more garden off the work list…and Mayor Mike’s is small and only a few blocks away.  When I told Allan that I did not want to drag him into a miserable weather experience. Even so, he agreed to give it a try.

Mike’s Garden

We were fortunate and got the fertilizer spread and worked in, and the garden and path weeded, and even weeds along the outside edge of the low outer wall removed, before the rain (which means the rain came about an hour later than predicted).

Mike’s garden, looking south

The big red thing is an outdoor storage unit, due to home remodeling.

one of Mike’s lilacs

Pulmonaria (lungwort, spotted dog)

looking north from the front entry

Ilwaco Post Office garden

We went to get our mail. Even though a light rain had begun and the wind was kicking up, I surprised Allan by getting out of the van at the post office with a bucket of fertilizer.  I wanted so much to apply it and let the rain wash it in gently for the sake of not disturbing  assorted seeds I had planted.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Tulip ‘Chinatown’ (Allan’s photo) (with white stripe on leaves)

I’ve noticed that the tulip foliage looks much better this year than the last two springs when we had lots more rain and they got terribly splotched and battered.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo. That is a lily that has gotten so tall under the “o”.

While working at Mike’s, I’d had a brainstorm:  Garden Tour Nancy and I had a date to have lunch on Sunday.  But what if the weather was better on Sunday?  I don’t trust forecasts to be accurate, and I feel I should be weeding somewhere (perhaps my own garden) in workable weather.  I had texted her and she had agreed to have lunch instead today, so Allan drove me up to her house in Long Beach…after I had quickly changed into clothes that did not have the faint smell of Dr Earth fertilizer.

As we drove down Lake Street, the rain began in earnest.

42nd Street Café

a nice warming pot of English Breakfast tea

Much to my surprise, my birthday was not over!  Nancy brought me a bag of birthday gifts.

They included a most excellent book about books, Book Lust by Nancy Pearl, and an Annie’s Annuals catalog from which I was instructed to choose 6 plants, one for each decade.  (More on this later.)  And some eggs from Nancy’s flock of hens; I wish that heavy rain had not prevented me from getting some photos of them and the garden before lunch.

eggs

and some seeds, including the ‘Sugar Magnolia’ edible pea that has lovely purple flowers.

We split an order of beignets, “New Orleans famed fritters, with a hint of spice, doused in powdered sugar”.

My friend J9, who lived in New Orleans for a decade, agrees that these are quite good.

We each chose the same entreé, the Russian vegetarian scramble.

with red potatoes, fresh dill, mushrooms, and green onions

After a good long talk and being the last people in the restaurant at luncheon closing time, Nancy drove me home and I had at last an afternoon to finish the novel I’ve been reading.

From no puddle to this much had happened while I was gone.

The wind got to over 30 mph in the late afternoon.

Erasing Mike’s garden from the fertilizing list was a moment that made having gone out to work worthwhile.

getting shorter…for now.

Next week, we will be focused on getting Long Beach town and the Port of Ilwaco ready for the Razor Clam Festival.

Not only does Long Beach abound with events, but the Ilwaco Saturday Market will be in session for that one Saturday  (with their weekly schedule beginning on May 2) so we will have many garden areas to fluff up.

reading time at last

First, I perused the Annie’s Annuals catalog and picked out my six plants (perennials rather than annuals) from Nancy:

 I chose Penstemon palmeri, Penstemon ‘Stapleford Gem’,  Dianthus ‘Thea Marie’,  Fuchsia ‘Mrs McDowell’,  Salvia patens ‘Cabrillo Giant’,  Eccremocarpus scaber ‘Pink Lemonade’, and two alternates in case any of those are sold out:  Erioganum grande var rubescens ‘Red Buckwheat’,  Fuchsia ‘Galfrey Lye’.

Then on to the last third of my book:

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

I’m predisposed to like fiction or non-fiction by this author, one of my favourites.  I especially love his non- fiction about books and music, and his novel High Fidelity is one of my  favourite modern novels (and the movie made from it is wonderful).

All the cats were pleased with my afternoon off.

Calvin

Frosty’s tail does not a book marker make.

Three take away passages from the novel about the creation of a 1960s English telly sitcom:

How to have a good relationship:

In a restaurant catering to entertainment industry luminaries, a writer for the sitcom says to his wife that other patrons are thinking,  “Who let them in?  They’re not beautiful or famous.”  She says, “Thanks,”….

Later, on the subject of old age, a subject that has always been of interest to me because of my closeness to my grandmother and her friends, and one that is getting even more interesting the older I get:

“It was absurd that they were getting old.  Absurd and wrong.  Old people had black and white memories of wars, music halls, wrteched diseases, candlelight.  Her memories were in colour and they involved loud music and discos, Biba and Habitat….”

“It was a different world they lived in now, [she] caught herself thinking, and then she told herself off.  Of course it was a different world.  Don’t be so banal.  Obviously 1980 was different from 1930, 1965 was different from 1915, and so on.  Oh, but dear God….to a twenty-two-year-old now, 1965 was like 1915 had been to her when she was starting out.  It wasn’t like that, though, was it?  She saw pictures of The Beatles and Twiggy everywhere.  Nobody had wanted to think about 1915 in the 1960s, had they?  And then she remembered the Lord Kitchener posters that used to be everywhere.  It was all so confusing.”

I am hoping for a reading day tomorrow and an at home gardening day on Sunday.

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2 January: a birthday

Friday, 2 January 2015

‘Twas a birthday for Allan:  age 62.

I guess this is the year he could start collecting social security.  However, it would be a paltry amount so we must keep going with work.  Good thing we like it (and fortunately, we still have a month of staycation).

His day began with him making breakfast.  That’s not very fair on his birthday!  It always works out that way though, as I sleep longer.  And…I would be taking him out to dinner, at least.

My presents were on a sailing theme:

Three Men in a Boat, its sequel, and an amusing science fiction book that references Three Men in a Boat

(There was also a not very photogenic Cuisinart hand mixer, as he likes to bake and I had heard him grumbling a tiny bit about the one he had.)

We had a leisurely day during which he puttered in his shop, and then a dinner with some friends at the 42nd Street Café.  (I managed to round up a partial crew of friends; I’m not very good at organizing parties, so I picked the ones that I knew liked the 42nd Street, and I chose the 42nd Street because it has the best birthday dessert, as you will see.)

image from their Facebook page

a beautiful tree in the foyer

As we wait, top server Jean-Marc glides through the room.

Our guests joined us at 6 PM.

I took a photo of Bill and Susie of the Boreas Inn

 

 Susie took a photo of me and Patti of the glorious Seaview garden

I took a photo of J9. (Jeannine, for those who have asked about her name)

J9 took a couple of Allan and Kathleen.

Jean-Marc (who does have a delightful French accent) took a photo of all of us.

left to right:  Bill, Susie, J9, Allan, Kathleen, me, Patti

The restaurant was filling up. At two of the other tables sat guests from the Boreas Inn.

It looks lovely in Waterlogue.

The opening of presents, during cocktails and a flatbread pizza appetizer time:

a calendar from Susie and Bill, an excellent local book from Kathleen…and a local massage gift certificate from Patti for later in the year when Allan is sore from work.

The food of the evening:

Kathleen and Bill each had one of the burgers.

Jambalaya for former New Orleans-er J9: Prawns, Chicken and Andouille Sausage in a spicy stew of tomatoes, onions, celery and peppers seasoned with Tasso ham and served with rice

Susie gives the fish special two thumbs up.

Patti and I had the Crab & Cheese Ravioli with a lemon and caper cream sauce, which I had been so craving since tasting it last month (and almost taking the whole bowl away from Allan on that occasion)

Allan had the classic comfort food: Rich & Real Beef Strogonoff Pan-seared sirloin strips, wild mushrooms and caramelized onions tossed with egg noodles, sour cream and garnished with poppy seeds.

The 42nd Street was historically a comfort food café, and when Blaine and Cheri Walker took it over some years, they kept the pot roast, chicken fried steak and stroganoff for people who liked the food the café had been famous for when it was the “Bonnie B”.

a photo from the old days

When dessert comes, the birthday person is advised to NOT blow out the flare.

Chocolate Mint Sorbet
a miniature dessert for those desiring just at taste of sweetness and chocolate after dinner

Lemon almond “Dainty”
baked lemon almond custard with a “caked” meringue top and whipped cream

Old-fashioned Northwest fruit crisp
warm with vanilla ice cream

Aren’t the glazed plates chunky, solid, and beautiful?

The restaurant crowd thinned out slowly as we ate and talked.

three hours later….

Owner Blaine sat with us for awhile after all the other diners had gone.  If there had been someone putting the chairs up on the tables and sweeping, the scene would have looked like the end of My Dinner with Andre.

And now….We are both hoping for some quiet time.  With the holidays over, and the days still short, we just might choose to skip going out to the available concerts and other entertainments for awhile and enjoy some complete relaxation.  (At this time of year, that means reading and puttering for Allan, and quite simply just reading for me.)

 

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22 Nov: last workday of 2014

Saturday, 22 November 2014

I woke up early to the sound of stormy weather and the happy thought: Today I can spend all day reading And the Dark Sacred Night…at last!..and then fell back into a sound sleep. Both Allan and I slept shockingly late. I clocked an exhausted ten hours and did not even wake for a dramatic thunderstorm around 7 AM (unless that is what woke me for a brief and happy book thought).

When we finally arose, the sky was blue in all directions. Ironically, at 1 AM the night before Allan had asked if we were going to go do Marilyn’a garden if the weather looked good today. I had said no, because she lives a half an hour away and I did not want to fall for a weather “sucker hole”, get all the way there on a day that predicted to be rainy and then have the rain dump on us and make it a wasted trip.

However….the weather app promised a perfect window of opportunity to get the job done….

So off we went after quick bowls of cold cereal for breakfast. We skipped making coffee and went through the Great Escape espresso drivethrough instead.

view from Great Escape coffee window. I have issues with pampas grass. However, these look pretty fine right now.

Marilyn’s Garden

At Marilyn’s, we had two projects to accomplish. Allan’s was to clear a better path around the east side of the house. He did an impressive job.

before

after

after

Allan’s audience on the roof next door.

My project was to pull some patches of montbretia, cut back some flopped ornamental grasses so they would not smother other plants, weed some little plants out of the gravel path, and pull some weedy creeping charlie.

before, front driveway

after

before, near back porch

after

Creeping Charlie is a fun weed to hate, as it comes up with ease in satisfying large sheets. There’s always a bit that lurks in the center of a perennial and then emerges and covers the ground again. Some folks might even like it (even though the leaves are stinky) and plant it on purpose. I have found that I do not much like anything that is called a groundcover as most plants described as such turn out to be invasive pests.

all nicey nice again

Charlie still lurks in the background; more will be pulled in spring when we cut down all the stems of perennials. In this garden, we leave the backdrop of tall perennials standing over the winter as shelter for birds (and deer!).

My good friend Goldie came outside for awhile.

looking for (and getting) some pets

This patch of montbretia (which I really wish was not there at all) got pulled.

looking south: path weeded. Fig tree on left had lots of figs, most unripened.

Maddeningly, I had forgotten to bring the little bits of golden boxleaf honeysuckle that I meant to plant at the south end of the path. I was able to get some layered rooted starts from the Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’ that is already there to extend its run. The starts I have in a bucket at home will just have to go somewhere along my fence instead.

looking northwest from back porch

Allan had finished his side project in time to also tackle the drainage swale in back where we have commingled Siberian iris, ornamental grass, and daylilies.

before

after

same area, after, from the corner of the house

That is a very hard area to do as all the irises are difficult to shear.

Goodbye to Marllyn’s for 2014!

To our own amazement, we got out of Marilyn’s with a full load of debris in time to dump it at Peninsula Landscape Supply’s mulch pile.

Peninsula Landscape Supply

at Peninsula Landscape Supply

I walked around taking some photos for their Facebook page while Allan dumped.

When I went to join him I decided to just leave him to finish and take some more photos instead.

Allan at the back of a long slog of mud.

He was probably glad I had not been in the van as I would have been freaking out about maybe getting stuck in the mud.

more pics of the very cool large river rock on offer

and angular rocks

I was ever so relieved to look back and see the van coming around from behind the mulch piles.

not stuck after all

Woody debris gets ground and composted down into mulch.

We took the buckets of creeping charlie home as we did not want to inflict it upon the pile of mulch making ingredients.

Depot Restaurant

On the way home, I suggested a check on the windowboxes at the Depot Restaurant. Of course, the annuals are still refusing to die.

endless osteospermum

I did see that we needed to cut down the Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’ and a completely blackened pineapple sage.

before

after

42nd Street Café

I’d been cogitating about the prospect of yet another celebratory dinner. I knew the 42nd Street opened early, but how early? We went four blocks up the road to find out and learned that we had only ten minutes to wait till opening time.

Something had been bothering me every time we drove by there: the dang blang lady’s mantle near the entrance. Restaurateur Blaine Walker recently had knee surgery and I decided we could trim up the area as a get well present.

before

after

Even though we have bowed out of the occasional job of weeding the river rock, Allan could not resist pulling some big clumps of weedy grass along the front edge.

Sunset over the 42nd Street Café

And now, to celebrate the official start of staycation…

We were almost the first to arrive.

marionberry lemonade and a Vesper (A modern Version of James Bond’s Martini) Broker’s Gin, Tito’s Vodka, Cocchi Americano and a lemon twist…shaken, not stirred.

The restaurant soon began to fill.

bread with their famous corn relish

flatbread pizza appetizer; today’s flavour was New Orleans style

I opted for comfort food: Rich & Real Beef Strogonoff

It is beyond compare, especially compared to the hamburger helper stroganoff that was a staple of my childhood. Not my grandmother’s cooking; hers would have been real.

Allan opted for the crab and cheese ravioli. It did not appeal to me as much from the description; I think because last year, in another restaurant, I had crab in a chile relleno and did not like the combination.

our two dishes

The crab and cheese ravioli

However! that lemon and caper sauce was one of the most delicious sauces that I have ever tasted. We are going to have to return so that I can have a dish of it all to myself. Allan might like to have a dish of it all to HIMself.

My spoon kept sneaking past the breadbasket to get another taste of that lemon sauce.

Our wonderfully warm and kind server, Betty, said “That sauce is so good you could put it on a flip flop and it would be delicious.”

The café filling with diners

In the corner, a diner got one of the thrilling birthday sparklers that are a feature of the café.

We shared a chocolate rum truffle cheesecake that lived up to its description.

Allan had a chocolate linzer coffee and I had the house made spiced butternut squash liqueur.

Now that was a meal worthy of staycation celebration.

leaving the 42nd Street

home

At home, the work board is now empty except for two teeny tiny clipping jobs and some projects for 2015:

The windowbox annuals and chrysanthemums that refuse to die are all that is left.

Each of those last check ups will take only five minutes each!

I broke out last March’s birthday present from Lisa. I’ve been saving it for staycation evenings.

This all seems to imply that with kahlua in my morning coffee and Laphroaig at night, staycation is a boozy affair. Actually, I don’t know how people get much done with a couple of drinks in them as it took me over an hour to stop feeling like it was naptime after tonight’s dinner.

It’s time now to watch this week’s episode of Grimm. Certain friends of mine think it is high time I stopped blogging and joined them in the comfy chair. (Speaking of stopping blogging, there may be a staycation blog slowdown coming up soonish.)

Smokey, Mary, Frosty

My staycation plan is to read, read, read (and I must work in my own garden on some good weather days. And take trash picking walks around town). First, I’ll read And the Dark Sacred Night, the third in a loosely connected trilogy by Julia Glass. I have started it and was worried that I saw no familiar characters. I peeked ahead and was relieved to see my beloved Fenno and Walter will make an appearance. [Later: I was halfway through the book when I realized with a thrill that one of the original characters appears in the very first scene, using his full name rather than a nickname.]

I have a huge stack of library books on order, including the rest of the Seaside Knitters mystery series, and would like to reread some books from my own library, especially Margaret Drabble.

I also intend to catch up on my favourite blogs. I have some midsummer posts to read on the Tootlepedal and The Miserable Gardener blogs, and I have about three years worth to read at Moosey’s Country Garden. I intend to read the archives of Oysterville Daybook, Bonney Lassie, Rhone Street Gardens, and The Outlaw Gardener…among others. One of the drawbacks of writing a “daybook” myself is that it is so time consuming in the evenings that I fall behind on the much better blogs of other gardeners.

A two month staycation is clearly not going to be long enough.

 

 

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2 June: two projects done

Monday, 2 June 2014

I was tired of looking at the projects list on the work board and longing to erase something.

You may note that the weeding list (meaning big weeding areas) on the right side is shorter!

I resolved that the projects were going to both get done in one day.

Just down the block at Larry’s, Allan planted some new perennials on the east side while I tackled the west side weeding problem.

before

east side a little fuller looking

Allan helped me finish.  West side after

Getting the area, which has been weeds ever since we began working on Larry and Robert’s garden, civilized revealed a new project.  The area where the hoses sit would look so good with gravel!

a new project for the board

Next, we weeded the 42nd Street Café pea gravel bed again.  Partway through, I thought why?  WHY am I doing this?  I think it is because I have a weakness for good restaurants and want their gardens to look nice, even though this one does not involve much talent for plants.

42 Street front garden; more on that little dirt patch in the foreground later

Then we were off to Peninsula Landscape Supply.  We couldn’t pass the Basket Case Greenhouse without stopping; I wanted more Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’ but they were out.  Fred said they had been talking about me; it turned out he wanted to tease me about how I had gotten them to order an “ugly” and quite pricey plant, Primula ‘Green Lace’, a green flowered primrose.  I defended it and said I find it stunningly beautiful.  What do you think?

Who can resist? Some can, apparently.

If you like it, go buy one and prove me right.  Remember that I did say it is pricey.  I have one at Klipsan Beach Cottages that has bloomed beautifully for several years.

Here was mine in June of 2012.  I lost it to a hard freeze in a pot; the one at KBC is in the ground.

At Peninsula Landscape Supply, we got half a yard of pea gravel.

Half a yard is all we can carry without hurting the trailer.

Back at the 42nd Street, we topped off the existing gravel so that bits of landscape fabric (the thin ineffective kind) no longer shows….

topped off

especially around to the north side where one enters the café…

much better with fabric not peeking through

As for the nasty hardpacked soil area, I say get rid of it.

This area is just silly, with bindweed roots and dirt too nasty to grow anything good.

They need to take out that row of blocks and just start weedeating this area and turn it into patchy grass.

I had optimistically bought some good thick landscape fabric at Peninsula Landscape Supply for Larry’s hose area, thinking we might have some gravel left over.  Of course we did not.  So onto the work board goes that project.

We had two more Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ with which to replace old ones in the Ilwaco planters and then closed the day with some weeding in the boatyard garden.

boatyard garden poppies

and daisies

and finger blight!

Allan (shown above but not the finger-blighter!) showed me how the two elephant garlic stems right behind him had been snapped off.  Perhaps someone wanted garlic scapes in their dinner; now there will be two fewer tall dramatic purple flower globes.

Thus ended a productive but dull day; the most fun was had discussing the merits or lack of them in the Green Lace primrose.  I was happy enough to erase two projects from the workboard.

 

 

 

 

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Quick job phone blog

Monday, 21 April 2104

Just a short phone blog to keep up on the work story. Our main event of the day was a garden tour in the late afternoon. It will take me a few hours to write and organize photos about it. Meanwhile, we did our once or twice a year weeding at the 42nd Street Café. I am just a girl who (almost) can’t say no to making a public garden look better.

Here’s the garden before:

Allan realized partway through the job that, because the tire shop is two doors south, he could get the tires on our trailer replaced… A wise move as we are going to top off the pea gravel in this garden soon. There are places where strategic arrangement of the existing gravel just barely prevents the underwear from showing.

The yellow sign is the tire place. So that got done.

And here are the exciting after photos:

Our fingers ached from ruching around in the tiny rocks. I was just thrilled to get the weeding done in time to be able to go home, unhook the trailer, change into nicer clothes (although my wardrobe is lacking in the nice category) and get to our much anticipated bayside garden tour on time! And that will, of course, be the next entry and a much better one than this!

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17-19 March: birthday, rain, not rain

Monday, 17 March 2014

I chose to have a low key birthday, even to the point of hiding it from the Facebook crowd. 59 is not very important; the most significant thing about 59 is that I have now started year 60.

A bit childishly, I will share “what I got for my birthday”, since the prezzies that arrived that day were rather wonderful.

It turns out that when Allan cleaned up the garden at The Picture Attic last week, he was also arranging to have the garden tour poster from 2012 framed by Jean Nitzel. She says that the gold was his idea and that he has a good eye.

poster from our day of glory

Allan also found me a copy of the collection of Dulcy Mahar columns; it has already gone out of print. Dulcy, the beloved garden writer for the Oregonian newspaper, died not long ago and I lay down on the bed and wept as I loved her column so much. I had the good fortune to have toured her beautiful Portland garden twice. (Both times were before I began to devote entire blog entries to single gardens.)

I had not opened my present from my best friend since age 12, Montana Mary, even though it had arrived several days before. It turned out to be an excellent theme present (with the bonus of having a Hello Kitty item and a cat lady card)!

a chocolate theme from Montana Mary

I can already testify that the chocolate in the small orange label box is excellent.

My dear new friend Kathleen Shaw pays very good attention to what her friends like. She has figured out that Earl Grey is my favourite tea (and this is a special cream kind), that I like lemon curd, and that a LARGE forest green mug is just the perfect size and colour.

Thanks, Kathleen!

While a cold mid to late morning rain fell, Allan worked on a cat door for J9’s new residence. I thought he did such an excellent job that I should share it. The framed clear acrylic will slip into her kitchen window.

cat door

And then the sun emerged. That meant I could acquire the most perfect birthday present, from me to me (with Allan driving to get it): a yard of Soil Energy from Peninsula Landscape Supply.

a magical scoop

luscious stuff

I wanted some in the center of this garden bed:

I will plant a narrow, columnar evergreen in there to make Pam Fleming proud.

And along the edges of the beds I enlarged a couple of weeks ago. Allan helped me load the soil into wheelbarrows, my least favourite part of a soil moving job. (After all, it was my birthday!)

before

after

before

after

before: danger tree bed

after

admiring a stunning ornamental rhubarb

I would like to get more soil for the west side bed. Under the soil and compost is newspaper, too close to the surface….and a huge sweep of wild impatiens seedlings that must be removed.

west side, project for next soil day

I am good at organizing work days, the acquisition of plants and soil amendments for jobs, cash mobs, and coffee klatsches, but am terrible at organizing a birthday for myself. Party arranging is not one of Allan’s skills, either. Next year, when I am 60, I will have to do better. Today, I finally got around to texting two friends to join us at the Depot Restaurant. Then it turned out the Depot was closed so I picked another favourite, the 42nd Street. Of the two friends, local gardener Ed Strange was able to come on a last minute invitation. He spilled the beans to the restaurant owner, so I got a birthday sparkler in my wee chocolate sorbet dessert.

Allan with the birthday sparkler

I love the way that Betty, the waitperson, takes the longest route possible around the restaurant with the sparkler. Later, the woman in green by the window (background, above) got a sparkler as well…another St Paddy’s birthday girl.

I cautiously admire the impressive show. One is instructed not to touch it or blow it out.

For their desserts, Allan and Ed dug into root beer floats.

This coming weekend, we and Ed will be helping J9 move to a place on the same street as Ed’s home, so you can expect a blog tour of his excellent garden. He’s the one we recommend for every job that we ourselves cannot take on: Strange Landscaping Services.

As we left, I was very amused by this sticker on the vehicle next to ours. Reminded me of when Robert and I used to go to Seattle in our old VW bus and he would say in his perfect Scotty accent, “I’m given her all she’s got, Captain; she can’t take any more!” as the van juddered and shook at freeway speeds.

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

The weather did this:

south window

The cats did this:

Mary and Smokey

And I read this:

and this, on Allan’s e-reader (it’s not available on paper):

Some of you know that Chris is a former spouse who now has a brilliant writing career (no exaggeration). In his Seattle based mystery, book one of a series, I recognized his old apartment, many former hang outs of mine and ours, and a leather jacket I used to wear.

And then I read this:

Awhile back, we went to a talk by the author at Time Enough Books. I finally got through my library pile and was able to read this, which I had purchased. It is a five star read of interwoven short stories.

Speaking of Time Enough Books, awhile back its owner, Karla, gave me an advance copy of a novel which was due to be published March 4th. After an odd television combo of an episode each of Glee and The Walking Dead, I started it for bed time reading and I could barely put it down.

I predict a rave review.

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

I thought the rain would continue and looked forward to reading more of Mr Owita. First, we had our late morning tax appointment with our accountant.

in Jennifer Hopkins accounting office four blocks down in Ilwaco

Jennifer’s darling dog, Helen, was there.

Helen

With the appointment done, I was pleased that the rain still fell and wind still blew. Allan decided to go shopping overseas (northern Oregon coast). Just as I sat down and reached for my book, out came the bright sunshine. Blast!

I had to go outside and do some gardening. A task I had thought I would need help with was the transplanting of three large Fuchsia magellanica, planted in a bed that once got shade from a large rhododendron that we later removed to get a view toward the ocean. The fuchsias were taller than me but had died to the base from last winter’s cold. I cut them with little loppers because the big ones had gone to Oregon with the van. I used a flimsy pick because the big one was also in the van. This led to some internal whining and a long break in mid afternoon and the decision to leave all the branch clippings on the lawn to deal with tomorrow.

I managed to get two of the three Fuchsias moved as well as three of the four plants from my Forest Farm order into the ground (Descaisnea fargesii, and a golden columnar Ilex, and (in a big pot) a double flowered salmonberry. Hydrangea ‘Ryan Gainey’ is still looking for a destination spot. Sadly, the Azara serrata around which I had based this order had expired and was not available after all. The Descaisnea was also much desired, though, and it arrived just fine.

from Forest Farm

Tomorrow, day one of spring. I felt sad for my friend Sheila when she told me that the temperature in her mid-Oregon garden is supposed to get below 20 tonight. That does not seem fair at all.

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