Saturday, September 21, 2013
A beautiful day was the last sort of day I expected. The forecast had called for rain, some wind, thunderstorms, and small hail. I expected to sleep and then get caught up on the computer. Instead, I found myself walking down to the Saturday Market at ten fifteen!
evidence of yesterday’s rain
Just as I took the above photo two houses east of ours, I saw Devery and Tuffy coming toward me on their way to the market, so we walked down together.
It was a social occasion for Tuffy.
Mr. TuffMan
Devery bought some delicious produce from De Asis. The sight of okra took her back to her childhood on Saint Kitt’s Island.
at De Asis Produce
Then we parted ways as I went on through the length of the market to take more photos for the Discover Ilwaco page.
More produce from De Asis Farm:
peppers hot
and sweet
The market had about half as many booths as usual. I bought a hoodie from Blue Crab Graphics…a purple zippered one with Kelly’s design one of our lighthouses on it. Kelly told me that she had set up in the rain and many vendors had not come. They would be missing a beautiful day.
new hoodie!
Further on, the English Nursery booth
“reflective pool” by the Shoalwater Cove booth
The pedestrian road called Waterfront Way, which is the market promenade on Saturdays, has a slope toward the middle which provides good reflections after rain.
another booth reflected
The basket from The Basket Case Greenhouse still looks wonderful in front of the Don Nisbett Art Gallery. Don waters it frequently and lavishly.
Don’s basket
The ones by the Port Office are good, too, although not as lavishly trailing without Don’s extra watering.
Port Office
It’s just as well they don’t trail more or they would hide our garden underneath. (Some of the garden plants also came from The Basket Case: Eryngiums, Agastaches, Santolinas, Lavenders, Nepeta, and Cosmos and Salvia Viridis from The Planter Box.)
At the Pink Poppy Bakery booth, Madeline was selling some treats to Jim and Jet Neva. Jim, great friend of port landscaping, may have retired but is still doing a lot for the port. He was there to put up the second warning flag for tomorrow’s weather (two red triangle flags equal a gale with winds of 39-54 mph).
Jim and Jet at Pink Poppy Bakery
flowers from Pink Poppy Farm
I got two Guinness chocolate cupcakes and some shortbread to share with Allan later, then checked out the westernmost curbside garden on Howerton.
The business for sale is the Imperial Schooner Restaurant.
And walked past the boatyard…
And on up First Avenue, checking the city planters along the way.
the colourful Portside Café
My destination was a late breakfast at Olde Towne. Their window display foretells the imminent arrival of autumn.
at Olde Towne
In the way of small towns, I ended up having my meal with our client Ann and local masseuse and baker Diane.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Allan had woken up an hour later than me (lucky to get good sleep!) and gone to the market himself, where he met our friend Donna, her new puppy, Blue, and…some pirates.
Little Blue!
Donna and the pirates.
This one looks familiar.
I am sure Queen La De Da had something to do with all this because it was some sort of significant pirate day. (Talk Like a Pirate Day, I’ll bet.)
While sitting at Olde Towne, I got a text from Donna that she had Blue over at Judy and Tom’s house. I had finished my breakfast panini, gulped my coffee, and excused myself in haste so I could hustle home and meet the little pup.
Donna, Blue, and Tom
Tiny little Blue looked lost in the lawn, which Tom had been unable to mow as often as usual due to weather.
Baby Blue
After a long visit, during which Allan ambled down to join us (having just returned from the market), I harvested a few things from the garden. I knew the pole of purple beans in the garden boat would most likely tip over in the wind.
long purple beans
Inspired by the meal yesterday at Himani Indian Cuisine, Allan wanted to make raita. Maybe because I had found and emailed him a recipe. So cilantro and mint and a cucumber were harvested for that. And tomatoes for me and Judy.
The garden looked unkempt but I took most of the afternoon trying to muster the energy to weed three small sections.
sunflowers by the east fence
Allan pointed out that when I had sent him out to retrieve Sheila’s hanging vase from the shed wall after dark the previous evening, I had neglected to tell him that the photo that reminded me of the vase also showed a big spider. He noticed the spider when reading the blog later that night!
vase from New Leaf Pottery…with spider
In the dark, he had gotten tangled up in the web. Today, the spider was rebuilding.
determination
I miss the vase but it cannot be up there during autumn winds.
A walk around the garden was in order just in case the predicted wind was terribly bad.
Aconitum in back garden
Verbena bonariensis
a very nice daylily
profusely flowering Fuchsias everywhere
From the south end of the garden, I could see the two flags now flying over the port..
gale warning
But we had only the slightest breeze and the evening was warm.
late afternoon light, looking north from the bogsy wood
My usual garden companions had followed me all around.
Smokey
(You can see how the back lawn is mostly creeping buttercup.)
Mary
She’s Smokey’s mom.
Suddenly it seemed essential to have the first and possibly last campfire of the season! I had checked last month with two VIFs (very important local firefighters) and learned that despite a county burn ban it was ok to have a small campfire in one’s own town garden. Work, and blogging in the evening, had seemed to get in the way of having a fire until now.
At first the wood was steamy from yesterday’s rain.
steamy
But then it caught very nicely and we had hot dogs and smores for dinner.
a real campfire
Gunnera by the bogsy wood
Smokey thought the fire was a great idea.
my shoulder cat
During our fire time, not a breath of wind stirred the danger tree almost right overhead. By next year’s campfire season, we will have dealt with this tree, if the storms don’t do it for us. Then we won’t have to wait for completely windless nights, as they are rare here.
a quiet danger tree
I collected some kindling from the bogsy wood.
And we shared one tall beer featuring Deadliest Catch’s Sig Hansen on the bottle.
I had sent last minute messages to Kelly and to Jenna before our spontaneous campfire. Jenna did not get the message til the next day, and Kelly had to do something else. We knew Judy and Tom were in for the evening, so it was just me and Allan and the cats…for most of the evening.
no company!
Light fades behind the alder grove.
I had left two of the gates open in case Jenna and Don or Kelly showed up. When it was good and dark and we were letting the fire die down, I looked over Allan’s shoulder and within three feet behind him stood a deer. I just said “Oh my god!” while I considered whether or not a photo would capture the event and decided that the flash would make everything look too harsh. “What, WHAT?” Allan exclaimed; “Don’t just say “Oh my GOD! What is it!?” He later asked me if I had seen any horror movies lately. I finally told him what was RIGHT behind him and stood up, and the deer scurried away down one of the paths. A keystone cops in the dark chase ensued with two humans, two flashlights, two open gates and a deer that kept going round and round the dark paths. We finally got it herded out the side gate to Nora’s driveway, and Allan made a circuit of the yard to make sure the deer had not brought a buddy.
The whole experience, including the deer’s visit, was so enjoyable I wish that we had done it more often. Now we can only hope for a nice October evening with no wind (because of Danger Tree) to have one more campfire with company.
