25 August: Pam and Prissy’s public gardens

Saturday, 25 August 2018

I had been tipped off about a Hardy Plant Society open garden down in Manzanita, and when Seaside and Cannon Beach gardeners Pam and Prissy decided to go with us to see it, the one garden visit blossomed into a day of garden touring with friends.  As always with good garden tours, I have divided the day into several posts.

our day trip

Seaside, Oregon

We got up quite early, for us, and managed to get to Seaside by 10 AM to beat the Hood to Coast relay race traffic.  We did such a good job of being ahead of the race that we had some extra time, and so we drove along Broadway, admiring Pam’s downtown public garden beds.  This time there definitely was nowhere to park and admire them on foot.

The fire department had stationed themselves at intersections, asking for donations.  We gladly complied.  Like the firefighters on the Long Beach Peninsula, these brave souls are volunteers.

“Fill the boot!”

Pam’s glorious gardens

As always, I envied the size of Pam’s garden beds and her freedom to choose an assortment of small street trees.  (She told me that gingkos have been performing well as street trees here.) I also desperately envy that each bed has a good automatic sprinkler system.

The double bench with arbors beds are my favourite.  (Excuse the from-the-van-on-the-move photos, some through the windshield.)

Through the windshield = impressionistic.

the turnaround

The beach had all sorts of tents set up for the relay race event.

You can just see, to the left, part of a big inflatable castle thing that seemed to be the finish line.

the turnaround garden, total exposure to coastal wind

Oops, traffic speeded up a bit.

A few days later, the Visit Seaside Oregon page posted a video tour of Pam’s gardens, hosted by Pam herself.  It is well worth going along on this tour by watching it here.  We then drove to Pam’s house nearby.

by Pam’s stairway

driveway display

detail

We spent a short while indoors at Pam’s waiting till time to go meet Prissy.  I was moved by the lyrics laid out on the table, a song that Pam’s musician spouse Dave would be performing at a show this evening.

You can read the complete lyrics here. If you desire more poignancy, read the lyrics of the next song, An Old Box of Memories, too.

The Waves, Cannon Beach

With Pam driving a four seater car, we went south to The Waves to meet Prissy, who is the gardener there (and other places) and who was finishing up her morning watering of many containers.  It was a treat for Allan to be able to enjoy the views without driving.

an ocean front bed

hebe and rosemary

a pretty pink something

The Waves oceanfront promenade

a dog walker (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Pam said she would train the little dogs to “mush”.

Pam and I touring while Prissy finishes work. (Help was offered and declined.)

tricolor hebe, maybe reverting to green

Prissy’s pots on a glassed in deck

Allan’s photo: the only place for variegated ground elder: in a pot on concrete (lower right)

The resort is an interesting maze of outdoor corridors between buildings.

idyllic view

hydrangeas against cedar shakes

agapanthus

salpiglossis; both Pam and I realized we have been forgetting to use this.

Allan’s photo

These very cool whorls of flowers are on pennyroyal.

Berkheya purpurea “Zulu Warrior”

agastaches, which of course I adore

Bupleurum, Allan’s photo

Bupleurum and lavender, Allan’s photo

mimulus in a container

a pelargonium

and another pelargonium

Prissy had arranged for us to see two other gardens in Cannon Beach before going to Manzanita.  She finished watering, loaded her gear into her truck and then joined us in Pam’s car, and we were off to see Beth Holland’s garden.

 

 

 

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Cannon Beach Cottage Tour ’17: cottage and mansion

Saturday, 9 September 2017

Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour

a benefit for the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum

For the second year, the wording of the cottage tour description included “dream homes”.

I gleaned that there were a couple of reasons for this.  In recent years, some larger homes have been featured.  It had become more difficult to find historic small cottages, as many have been remodeled and enlarged.  (I find that heart rending but I am probably in the minority. I’m an avid watcher of tiny house shows on HGTV and I appreciate the small and humble.)  I admire the tour organizers for changing the description to reflect the new reality of the tour, and I appreciate their efforts in finding as many small cottages as possible.

So far today, we been touring in the low lying neighbourhood north of the Ecola Creek estuary.

satellite view

We were about to go uphill to the ocean view ridge.  A docent at the last cottage we had viewed noticed my decrepitude and suggested we drive to the last two homes because of a steep hill.  While I have never in the past, no matter how hobbled, resorted to driving on this tour, I am glad we took his advice.

Our route took us up this hill.  Walking tour-goers took the stairs.

I saw I had a raindrop on my lens!

Then we went down a steep, gravelly street to the lowland again.

Mindy’s Cottage

You can read Mindy’s blog here.

Allan’s photo

I somehow missed noticing the garden to the north, and did not peer over the fence.

Oh, but look! Allan noticed and got a photo!

inside: Classic white, blue, and yellow beachy decor (Allan’s photo)

I met Mindy’s delightful cat.

sweet tucked in feet

a lovely sit spot

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo. I missed seeing kitty emerge onto the porch.

Allan’s photo

I wish I had gone out there and looked back.

Allan’s photo

Driving around the block took us to the wealthiest homes on the ridge.

ocean view home

beside the driveway

The east side has a cottage look.

From steps down to the dune path, north side, you can see why the house is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.

 

Allan’s photo

 

artful gate

The gate pivots vertically though the outer edges taper outwards. Allan admired that the offset upper hinge is the solution.

Allan’s photo

 

looking out the west window; Chapman Point and Bird Rocks to the right

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

A fireplace door handle (Allan’s photo)

Allan went to the lower level:

surfboards

on a closed door

green on green

west side patio

postscript

We walked half a block to a view point.

house next door for sale, by Sotheby’s, of course.

I sometimes wish we had put a circular drive in our front garden, so that we would not have to unhook the work trailer at night.

I peeked in.

houses continue up the hill to the north (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo nearby

Allan’s photo of another house nearby

public beach path half a block north

Although there be many mansions, the beaches in Oregon are public.  You can read the history, here.

Chapman Beach

We drove back through the flatlands.

a house that I would like to live in and surround with a garden

We wanted to look at Pam Fleming’s downtown Seaside gardens.  Unfortunately for us, the street was blocked off for a car show and we were out of energy to find a parking spot nearby.

a brief drive through Seaside

Pam’s diligent watering of the Seaside hanging baskets has paid off beautifully.  She stands and counts (to one minute, I think) as she waters each one daily.

The Astoria-Megler bridge seemed to disappear before reaching Washington State.

Thus ends one of the most anticipated events of our summer, and with it comes the end of tourist season.  I am already looking forward to next year’s cottage tour.

 

 

 

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Cannon Beach Cottage Tour ’17: two cottages

Saturday, 9 September 2017

Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour

a benefit for the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum

1972 Cottage

from the program:  This house was built in 1972.  There have been a few changes to the house, including remodeling the kitchen, bathroom, new floors, windows, the deck and the skylight.  And interesting feature is that the deck is built around the tree.  The homeowner’s kids have enjoyed walking to the beach and playing in the sand; the pictures in the home tell many stories.  The owner was the vice principal and principal of Seaside School for many years.

Allan’s photo

over the inside of the front door

high school theatre productions by the cottage owner

bunk bed book nook

interlude

The house just to the south of our next destination had a beachy garden.

the house next door

We overheard one of the docents say that this part of north Cannon Beach was hit hard in the 1964 tsunami.  You can read more about that here.  We could see that the estuary was just a couple of blocks to the south.  It was disconcerting to imagine a tsunami flowing up the street. Allan found a map that shows, in orange, the low lying area where these cottages sit.

1924 Cottage

darling dining nook with view of that beachy next door garden

reminds me of our friends Don and Jenna

kitchen tiles

on a bedroom dresser

bedside reading

I have read this book.

Must read this one.

I was smitten with this cottage and its books.  Of all the cottages today, it was my favourite.

And it has a clawfoot tub (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

back garden

outdoor shower (Allan’s photo)

by the door to the garage loft

Allan went up to the garage loft, not me.

nautical things table in the loft

west garden

Allan’s photo

We walked half a block north to look for the farmhouse and barn.

We think this is the farmhouse.

And this has to be the remodeled barn.

interlude

across the street

I would like this. It is probably only $300K or so.

Next: the last two homes of the tour.

 

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Cannon Beach Cottage Tour ’17: Inga’s Cottage and a “Tree House”

Saturday, 9 September 2017

Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour

a benefit for the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum

Inga’s Cottage

Just up the street from Salmon Trout House is Inga’s Cottage.  It had been on the tour in a previous year, an anniversary tour which had so many cottages that we ran out of time before seeing this one at the north end of town.  I was glad to get the chance to see it today.

It is a vacation rental and is also the part time home of the owner.

Inga’s Cottage

from the cottage’s Facebook page

We all leave our shoes off when touring.

beachy turquoise front door

view of neighbouring garden

a guest book!

As longtime readers of this blog know, I am obsessed with guest books.

Fortunately, it was not a very full guest book or we would have been delayed.

courtyard view bedroom

courtyard

Allan went to the upstairs, which I find difficult (coming down, not going up) these days.  Allan says only one side of the duplex was viewable.

bathroom floor tiles

beautiful lamp

Interlude

We now walked  a block west to a street where two more cottages were featured.  Along the way,  small cottages appealed to me:

I want two bay windows like this on my double wide, in the front.

a double wide! a rare sight in Cannon Beach

nicely framed greenhouse window

such a sweet blue cottage

porch with hammock

tiny

“And they lived happily ever after.” (per the life ring)

trellis

I could happily live in any of these.

Clerodendron trichotomum

Clerodendron flowers (Allan’s photo) will be followed by stunning berries.

Clerodendron in my old garden, the best bloom and berries I ever had from it.  Adding to my must have list to reacquire.

tiny, with a big remodel of a small cottage going on next door

“Tree House” 

When I entered this home, I immediately noticed how it felt surrounded by greenery. I commented to the owner, who was there, and she said that to her it feels like a tree house.

front porch (Allan’s photo)

north side of front porch

salal

north window

west window view with wetland below full of skunk cabbage (aka swamp lanterns)

south window

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

bird watching deck (Allan’s photo)

bird watching deck (Allan’s photo)

I went out to the patio on the south side.

south side patio

at the edge of the wetland

succulents window box

south side fence with cutouts

blurry, but shows clever way to hide the works of the electrical box (Allan’s photo)

interlude

At the end of the street sat a house that looked so very private.

a true hideaway

On our walk to the next home, a substantial drizzle had begun.  I was pleased and also cold and damp.  I admired this cottage along the way:

Next: two delightfully small cottages

 

 

 

 

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Cannon Beach Cottage Tour ’17: Lannie’s Cottage and Salmon Trout House

Saturday, 9 September 2017

Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour

a benefit for the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum

Lannie’s Cottage

closing in on the cottage

front garden

For some reason, neither Allan nor I got a photo of the front of the cottage.  Possibly it was crowded with tour guests and we thought we’d do so on the way out, and did not.

The entry is up stairs.

back deck has view of ocean (Allan’s photo)

the travel tiles

(Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

garden shed

love the sinuous wood

the iconic Haystack Rock

The Daily Astorian featured this article about Lannie and her cottage.

“On the outside, the house looked terrible, [prosepective buyer Kelly] Giampa recalled. “We almost didn’t want to go in,” she said. “But when we walked in, Lannie greeted us in the kitchen, which was unusual because usually the seller isn’t there.”

They immediately connected and soon bonded over their shared love of Broadway, music and shared roots in Portland.

In the transition, Hurst quickly became family to the Giampas. “We told her to keep a key to the house,” Giampa said. “It was our house.”

 “…… to Giampa, what makes her home special is the friendship that formed there before Hurst’s death in 2010. That’s what she hopes to share with more than 500 people who signed up for this year’s tour.

“To me, this house is a person. That’s how it’s always been. Every time I’ve walked in here the past 15 years, it feels like I’m getting a hug,” she said. “It feels like Lannie.”

Lannie herself

You can read a bit more about Lannie here.

“Even after Hurst moved back to Portland full time in 2002, she would get calls from Hurst asking if she could pop in. Hurst would come over to have dinner with Giampa’s family, and in Portland the two made a habit of going to the theater together. When they were in bloom, Giampa would make sure to bring Hurst a bouquet of the cow lilies that grew in their shared yard.”

interlude

We walked back through the grounds of the Ecola Creek Lodge, and encountered a group of Peninsulites, including Karyn and Kathy, who own Home at the Beach.

Home at the Beach Kathy, left

As Allan and I walked back to Les Shirley Park, we noticed that the estuary was just past a field to our left.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo; not exactly a path to the estuary

plaque by a grove of trees (Allan’s photo)

a cottage near our next destination

interesting car decal along the way

a license plate our friend Jenna (Queen La De Da) should have

Salmon Trout House

Salmon Trout House

limbed up myrtles in front

The stairs up were easy.

front corner of steps

window sill

in the kitchen

kitchen counter corner

window seat

Allan’s photo of a cute clock

Allan’s photo

upstairs (Allan’s photo)

curved windows (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

idyllic reading nook (Allan’s photo)

shower outside the back door for washing off beach sand

on the back deck

back patio with a natural water feature just beyond

a shed placed well for privacy

I think this is the John Klein house next door referred to in the description.

stairs down

back garden

A creek runs right next to the fire patio.

I thought, “I’d make that water show more.”

Allan overheard that the neighbourhood is built around a wetland, thus some of the houses are on stilts, or built up high, and I imagine that the stream is much higher in winter.

I walked along the north side of the house.

the house next door to the north

North side path, looking back. Creek is on the left.

Allan’s photo

interlude

I walked up the street a bit because I was interested in how the creek related to the homes.

That peak-roofed entry arbour is a classic Cannon Beach style.

a simple small cottage (which in Cannon Beach is probably worth a quarter of a million or more).

house accessed by bridge, with enticing landscape

another bridge access

by a driveway, with salal

Next: a cottage just up the street and another two blocks west

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13 September: Cannon Beach Cottage Tour, Wee Mist

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour

a benefit for the Cannon Beach History and Museum

Wee Mist Cottage

from the programme:  This tiny, California bungalow cottage was built in 1941.  The easy to build rectangular, California bungalow style was found in mail-order design books and was adopted and preserved throughout Cannon Beach for summer homes and rental cottages.  The Presidential Streets [named after U.S. presidents] attracted a number of sea captains whose houses incorporated nautical themes and collections, which is depicted in this cottage.  Today, this cottage retains its classic California bungalow style and sweet street sense.  This home is also featured in Jill Grady’s Cannon Beach Cottages.

Allan’s photo

Wee Mist

a delightful porch (and a vacation rental sign)

the over-shoe booties for house touring (Allan’s photo)..or you could wear your socks.

Allan’s photo: “The booklet was full of reference pages for local resources and how to take care of your rental.”

Allan’s photo

reading corner

Allan’s photo

table with a view

old fashioned fireplace

efficient kitchen

kitchen colour

crisp white bedroom

white wicker bedroom

shell tray in bedroom

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo:  “The kite print reminded me of one of our beach clean-up trips.”

Allan’s photo: “It was on taking these tours I learned about the stacking washer and how they fit in so well in these small old homes.”

We think it’s really neat that so many of the vacation rentals have laundry facilities for guests.

at the end of the block (one lot away), the path right to the beach

For more interior photos and information on how to rent Wee Mist, go here.

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On the same block as Wee Mist are two of the cottages we toured last year.

Hopper’s House

and just perhaps my favourite cottage of all the tours!

 

 

 

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the end of our cottage tour

September 14, 2013

By the time we left the Hutchins house, it was 4:15 and we still had three cottages and one historic hotel left to tour.  Obviously, we couldn’t make it to all of them.  By the time we had walked to the next one, it was 4:25.

a driftwood fence on our way

The next house seemed large and a peek inside said to me that it was modern (remodeled in 2008), although the program said it had been built on the footprint of the original cottage.  I was particularly interested in seeing the final tour stop that had been built with two cottages on one lot, so we walked on from the modern one.

on the way, a house with a tower

and a big natural yard with a hammock

I would rather tour a tiny home that a large one…

I found the shape of this one to be interesting.

We got to the second to last house and had a quick look because it was on the way to our parking spot.

house

I took a peek inside while Allan took some photos of the garden.

a peek inside

By now it was 4:40.   There was no way we would make it to that last cottage, the one intriguingly described as “new construction designed to blend with vintage cottages….a duplex designed to resemble two different homes on one lot.  There are many examples in Cannon Beach of two homes built on one lot as families grew in earlier years of Cannon Beach and this fact was used to get the city design review board to approve this concept.  Characteristics of cottages found in previous cottage tours were used and can be found throughout the home.”  The last sentence particularly intrigued me and I wanted to see if I recognized any of those characteristics, but it was not to be because we would have to drive there and find a parking spot, by which time it would be after five.

(Update: As it happens, that duplex (“Inga’s Cottage”) was on the 2017 tour and we did get to see it.)

We decided instead to have a look at the historic Cannon Beach Hotel that featured on the tour and walked the four blocks to see it.

along the way, a mossy arch

arch and fence with hydrangeas

This planting of geraniums catches my eye every time the tour is on the east side!

Allan was impressed with this banana tree along the way.

Cannon Beach Hotel

The program describes the hotel as having been “constructed in 1914 as the Ecola Rooms, but was commonly referred to as the Becker Building.  It was once a boarding house and restaurant for Van Fleet Logging Company employees.  Van Fleet logged from here all the way to Tillamook County from 1938 to 1964.  The Cannon Beach Hotel was admitted to the historic walking tour (year round tours) in 1997.”    By the time we were across the street from the hotel, we realized we could return to see it any time and that we would rather stop at Back Alley Gardens on the way home than enter the hotel on a busy Saturday evening…so we turned back to our parking spot.  Of course, there was more to see along the way.

plants on the west side of a shop

Ivy is a noxious weed indeed…

but here it was clipped into outdoor windows.

That ivy reminds me of the shape of the famous clipped hornbeam hedge at Heronswood.

a cute little cottage on the way to the van

bamboo cottage

an interesting modern shape

I called Back Alley Gardens, thinking they might be open til five thirty and Pam said they had just closed but we should come by for a visit anyway.   So off we went, with no Cannon Beach lingering, to our favourite north coast collectors’ nursery.

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