Wednesday, 11 October 2023
I thought for sure I’d get to read for most of the day, was looking forward to finishing a Lisa Jewell suspense novel I started yesterday (one that I would have loved to read in one sitting). Instead, I woke early, to the sound of the forklift moving crab pots at a gear shed nearby, and to fine weather.
Long Beach
Despite a break in the day due to having scheduled our flu jabs, we finished a medium sized Long Beach task, pulling Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and cutting back some perennials north of the Long Beach Tavern. We finally got a parking spot right smack dab in front of where we wanted to work.
We also tidied the nearest street tree bed.
Note the damage done to the tree by a vehicle sometime this past summer.
We dumped a medium load of debris at city works.
The Planter Box
I had used all of my stash of potting soil bags at the Freedom Market on Sunday, so we made a trip to get potting soil, and a pumpkin which will be used in our Halloween decorations. Planter Box has quite a selection of pumpkins, smooth and warty.
On the way back south with potting soil, I had the idea that we could use the next hour to accomplish one more Long Beach job. And then some of the predicted rain arrived.
Ilwaco
So we went home, via the Doupe Building by our one stoplight.
At home, we unloaded soil and I admired my Acanthus sennii…
…and autumnal leaves of hamamelis.
We had our flu jabs. While I was waiting for Allan outside the pharmacy, I saw something suspicious at the Doupe Building.
We drove by to investigate.
As soon as we got home, out came the warm sun, so we hooked the work trailer back up and returned for another task in
Long Beach.
Allan pulled Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and bindweed from the mini park behind the Lewis and Clark Square wall. We had scored a parking spot right across the road!
I tidied up the big planter in the square…
…and then weeded and pulled bindweed in the mini park.
We dumped a large load of debris at city works. We never would have gotten it done in the slot of time we had had before our flu jabs; the project took two hours.
Ilwaco
We saw the result of the activity at the Doupe Building.
Earlier, I had noticed a large non-blooming cosmos front and centre at the post office which I felt looked just wrong. We stopped, Allan pulled it, and our volunteer garden looked better.
I have had the problem with tall, lush, non-blooming cosmos before, which I had pegged on Cosmos ‘Sensation’, so I have stopped growing that one. It therefore couldn’t be Sensation, so my prime suspect this year both here and in Fifth Street Park is Cosmos ‘Seashells’, a favourite which I grew from seed. I also grew ‘Cupcakes’ and ‘Cupcakes and Saucers’, which bloomed well, but I don’t recall seeing any flowers of the tubular Seashells form. Mr. Tootlepedal’s blog recently mentioned cosmos that would not bloom, and finally bloomed very late, in Scotland. We both find it notably frustrating.
I don’t know what happened to our predicted storm. Looks like tomorrow might be another dry day, so if we feel well enough, we might go to work again. Or not! We have two local-politics zooms to attend starting at four, so it would be a short day. (We have not missed more than two or three city council zooms since zoom attendance became available in 2020, and seeing the behaviour of two of those who sit behind the council table has definitely informed our upcoming votes. Zoom is an excellent innovation for recluses like me.)
The work board tonight:
Tangly Cottage Gardening 