Friday, 1 June 2018
My own front garden needs weeding again, especially along the edges.

I might not even get the poles repainted till July, if then.
The Depot Restaurant
We went to check on the watering at the Depot. It felt dry. While I watered, Allan trimmed the escallonia (that wants to be ten feet high) so it won’t block the Clamshell Railroad history sign. I shrieked when I saw how far he had cut..into old wood, which will break new growth, but still…right before tourist season. Chef Michael came out to talk about the sprinklers and said, “Oh Jeez…” and went back inside. I think this wouldn’t have been cut so low had it not been for now having an electric hedge shearer.

We have had to trim the escallonia weekly to keep it green on top with the sign showing. Chef Michael feels it protects the corner of the building from bad drivers (not customers! passersby!). This will certainly hold off the need to trim for awhile.

Allan’s photos show why it had to be done. We had not had time for the weekly trimming.


Hmmm.
Darling Katie came by.

I learned from Chef Michael that the sprinklers may finally get re-done this fall so that they hit the part of the garden that is just inside the logs.

We replaced a strip of lawn with garden years ago but the sprinkler pattern remained the same, only hitting the back two thirds of the garden.

The back of the garden does get automatically watered.
Roxanne’s window boxes did get sad…

…but not as bad as it looked like last night at dinnertime. I cut back the sad plants.
Basket Case Greenhouse
We zoomed up to the Basket Case because they had some new agastaches: Kudo’s Coral and Purple Haze. I had to have them.

At the Basket Case
Long Beach
We watered the planters, taking half each. I did not have a happy time because my hose was spewing water.

I got drenched. Not quite like this:

on Deadliest Catch
But it was still darned annoying, especially since I was using the hose end fertilizer sprayer and sometimes did not have enough pressure to make it work.
I bought myself one delicious little Korean banh mi taco to help me get through the trauma.

from Streetside Taco

my view while eating
Allan bucket watered the Fish Alley barrels.

Allan’s photo
He said two days later that carrying water buckets is why his right shoulder is so sore.

We still have alliums in planters! (Allan’s photo)
In Fifth Street Park, when Allan and I reunited and the miserable watering was done, I fretted that this bit of garden seems to not be getting water.

I do not like the red bark that got applied here.
I do like this bright pink California poppies. Even though Tony thinks they should just be the traditional orange. 😉

View from in the vehicle before we moved to another parking spot:

I liked the way the planter in front of us looked. Orange Calif. poppies.
Last time we worked in LB, some nice tourists asked me, “What are those shrubs?” pointing to the pink rhododendrons:

First time I have been asked to ID rhodies. The tourists were from Salt Lake City. They were pleased when I recommended a few of my favourite places for food and touring: Captain Bob’s Chowder, Salt Pub, Shelburne Pub, Depot Restaurant, Oysterville walking tour, the lighthouses at Cape Disappointment, Ilwaco Saturday Market.
We continued hose watering out on the Sid Snyder approach. Allan took the bad hose.

a Sid Snyder Drive planter
For anyone who wonders who Sid was, here you go. He was a well loved citizen.

Sid Snyder Drive, also known here as the Sid Snyder beach approach, as it ends at the beach.

thirsty Geranium on the Sid approach (Allan’s photo)

Someone plucked a sea thrift, and I do not think it was a deer. (Allan’s photo)
On the way south, we checked on the welcome sign planter. It is still dull. Cosmos and agyranthemum are not blooming yet, nor is Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

Shelburne Hotel
We watered. The art walk in Ilwaco was going on during this time.

wisteria by the pub deck


We will be pruning this after it blooms. By which I mean Allan will.
Ilwaco
Art walk was over when we got to Ilwaco. We watered the plants transplanted from the port office.

Allan’s photo

lavender was unhappy, had to be sheared (Allan’s photo)
The shaved ice truck arrived for tomorrow’s Saturday Market.

Allan’s photos

I watered the boatyard from behind the fence.


ceanothus from behind

the wild and the relatively tame

in the boatyard

Halmiocistus wintonensis

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’
Usually, I would weed after watering till Allan came back to get me. This evening, I lacked all energy for that, and it still looked pretty good after the last weeding. So I walked home along the meander line.

looking north from the boatyard gate

and south

crossing the parking lot of fish hauling trucks

a look back
I angled over to the meander line road.

looking west; it ends at the boatyard

looking east, a block of assorted items….


crab pots


looking west behind me

I want this so much, on a raised foundation, as a garden shed!

emerging to the old boat storage yard

looking south; the green building is the Freedom Market, where our Howerton Way gardens begin.

boats by a repair shop of some kind

poor old Warrior of the Seas; how did you end up here?

other side of road

past the boat storage yard, looking east to Grays Harbor College (brown building)

old Kola boat buildings, being refurbished
I thought I would walk up Myrtle to Lake.

Maybe not.

We don’t know each other. (telephoto)
So I walked around to the field alongside the meander line, toward the bogsy wood.

The path from the field to the woods was gone. I pushed through…


The meander line bog is all dried up. Poor frogs.
And the path through the Nora House meadow was also almost gone. Allan has not had time to mow it.



home at last!

in my own little paradise

by the front driveway
I went indoors with an explosive attack of hay fever sneezing from the long grass and completely changed clothes to get away from the pollen.
A nine hour day for me, and longer for Allan.

in one of the Ilwaco planters, a dark sedum (Allan’s photo)
He got home at dusk after also watering our volunteer gardens at the fire station and the post office.
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