14 December: weeding and bulbing

Thursday, 14 December 2017

Finally, I got eight hours of sleep.  Unfortunately, after being up till all hours watching meteors, that meant a late start to the weeding day.

In the front garden, I partially weeded the beds from east to west in order to plant crocuses, so I can count those beds as almost done.

If I had not clipped a lot of Geranium ‘Rozanne’ in Long Beach town, I bet it would still be blooming there like it is in my garden.  This summer weather in winter is surprising.  Usually, my blog would be on a partial winter hiatus now because of inactivity.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ in mid December

a stand of borage still covered with stars of blue flowers

You can float the blue flowers on a soup or use them in salads.  Just carefully pull the blue stars off the fuzzy part.

Today was a bit chillier and slightly more seasonal. Skooter helped me again.

between me and my crocuses

With the front garden packed with new crocuses, I returned to weeding the west bed so that I could plant some down the center there.  Allan walked by at just the right moment (for me, probably the wrong moment for him), and I asked him to remove a nest of Solidago ‘Fireworks’ mixed with rampant creeping buttercup.  If he had not, I would have run out of daylight and been unable to erase “west bed” from the weeding list.

creeping buttercup mess, before (Allan’s photo)

Skooter (Allan’s photo)

Once I broke up the dug up mass of this medium height clumping goldenrod, I ended up with a surprising amount of good clumps that I can plant around Long Beach and at the boatyard. Today and Tuesday, two members of the Peninsula Gardeners Facebook group had come to pick up the  hardy fuchsia pieces that Allan had dug up two days ago.  It’s a pity that I did not have clumps of the excellent goldenrod to share at that time.

Skooter inspects the job (Allan’s photo)

after, with crocuses placed and Skooter enjoying the new clearing

I filled the area with a Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer” that had been lost in the middle of the garden bed.

at dusk, west bed weeded and crocused up

All the paths are a mess now and need a good raking (or mowing).  Allan has been coming along behind me with a rake, doing some of the tidying, and he ran the string trimmer all along the edges.

As the light faded, I got the last 50 crocuses planted in three beds around the campfire area.

Danger Tree bed

two of the three big beds I’ve weeded this week

dusk

sunset next door

across the street

I still have not even put up our own Christmas tree, and I have a feeling it may not happen this year, unless the weather becomes properly wintry very soon.

I was able to do some satisfying erasures, and I changed the “Good weeding” to just “weeding”.  I have to admit it has not been a perfect job.

Tomorrow, rain and some wind may return, and we must go to a late afternoon political rally, and so we might as well try, if the weather is not too bad, to accomplish a few of the “post frost check ups”.  Without frost, I will just call them pre-holiday checks ups.  I long to clear the board of work and be fully on staycation.  Maybe if “call accountant” is the last thing on the work side of the board, I will make myself find a new accountant (our nice local one retired) before it is too late.

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6 December: composting!

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Skooter also sleeps late.

After a good long sleep, I returned to my composting project.  The wind was an annoying 30 mph, and yet the weather was so warm that I did not need a jacket.  Allan went off boating in the afternoon to take advantage of the brisk wind.

before

Before I finished tidying, I had the urge to remove the “hat” from the honeysuckle hops tangle.

1:43 PM

This is nothing on the hat that grew at the top of a power pole at my old house.  From this post written in 2007: That one was scary, as it had to be done with pole pruners and involved trying to avoid some big power lines.  We had to leave the hat in place or risk catastrophe.

 

Today’s was easy in comparison.

It is a glorious moment of triumph when a big tangle starts to break free.

2:30 PM

I left the uncompostable honeysuckle pile on the lawn.  The wind made it impossible to drag it out and load it neatly into the trailer.  It would have blown all over the street.  Instead, I turned back to the compost project and chopped up and added the remaining pile of debris, that had been sitting on the nearby garden bed,  into bin one.  Underneath it was a patch of Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’ and some purple lysimachia that I was heartily sick of.  I dug it out, put it all into a wheelbarrow to sort later, and decided I could probably move a Spirea ‘Goldflame’ from the center of the garden to the edge.

The spirea was lost in the middle of the garden.

Much to my delight, I did manage to dig it out all by myself (not entirely easy).  When I got it dragged out to the edge, I felt sort of bored with it and realized I could switch it out with a couple of blueberries at the south end of willows loop.

Now the spirea is in the bed to the left…

And the blueberries are where they will get more sun and watering.

That was all tremendously satisfying, as was the final raking of the compost area.

4:30 PM

Backing up further begins to reveal the mess left behind on the lawn.

At dusk, I was able to remove “re-do compost corner” from the work board.

I heard Jenna’s voice outside.  Allan had returned from boating and came in with a prize, a plaque by artist Don Nisbett to say thank you for helping decorate the crab pot tree and more:

I did some reading in my current book…

Cover is edited by me to remove DT’s mug.

The hassle of being camera-ready:

Katy Tur writes not just about the political scene, but also the rigors of being a reporter on the same beat every day, staying in hotels or the news van and eating fast food because there’s no time for anything else.  At the nomination celebration, the reporters were given some good food for a change:

I didn’t finish the book quite yet.  We had watched Blade Runner: The Final Cut yesterday evening.  To my amazement, Allan had not seen the film before; it’s one of my favourites.  Tonight, we watched a “making of” feature that surprised us by being two and a half hours long.  It was interesting in every detail.

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5 December: compost and work

Tuesday, 5 December 2017

It had been a cold night.

one of our bird baths. clippers resting on ice (Allan’s photo)

We drove up to Long Beach to do a small amount of work and pick up our check.

some lovely seasonal garlanding next to the Ilwaco Post Office

in Long Beach City Hall

Long Beach City Hall: finance staffer Helen does the decorating

City Hall west side

We’d had a frost overnight that had not been hard enough to create the need for the final go-round of planters.  However, Allan did cut down the last of the blooming chrysanthemums in a planter.

Unclipped Geranium ‘Rozanne’ were still blooming.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and primroses blooming in December (Allan’s photo)

Goodbye to the yellow chrysanthemum (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

In Fifth Street Park, we took down the remaining old leaves on the Gunnera.

before

Thick stemmed gunnera take the big loppers.

after, with a few old leaves tucked over the crown of the plant to protect it from freezing

We had gotten a call from Oceanside Animal Clinic that our Smoky’s ashes were ready to be picked up.  Listening to the message, I had gotten teary when Dr. Raela said, “We will just tuck them away till you can pick them up.”  She knows just what to say.  We did pick them up, and I couldn’t help but cry.  My best kitty ever.  It’s hard to have the little box of ashes.

We dropped a book into the Ilwaco Timberland Library return box and admired their Christmas wreaths.

Ilwaco Timberland Library

I am enjoying other people’s decorations even though I don’t think we will put up our own tree this year.  The only place to put it is where my living room desk sits.  I like sitting at my living room desk on rainy days to blog with a garden view.  Eventually, I will make my Smoky retrospective photo blog posts there.

We drove along the Port of Ilwaco gardens and, of course, I saw a few things to do.

east end, looking west, before (Allan’s photos)

after

calendula blooming (Allan’s photo)

We clipped a small Miscanthus ‘Gold Bar’ at the Ilwaco Pavilion and an Eryngium at Time Enough Books and that was the end of the work day.

Crab pots are now stacked up in the field to the south of our property.

Allan’s photo

At the western port parking lots, stacked crab pots make a long aisle out of the traffic lane.

crab pots and the boat storage yard

Allan’s photo

At home, I decided that the Ilwaco boatyard garden and the port gardens are done for the year and erased them from the work board.

I then took a closer look at the box containing Smoky’s ashes.  It was so nicely decorated; when I got the ashes of my good cat Dumbles, from a vet across the river, they were in a plain square box.

“If love alone could have kept you here, you would have lived forever.”

I intend to bury Smoky’s ashes where his mother, Mary, is buried by the garden boat.  I need a day when I can do that properly, not in haste, and I do not know when that will be. Maybe I should wait till early spring.  I am wondering if I should finally bury my good cat Dumbles’ ashes in the same spot.  Dumbles liked to go outdoors at our old house.  At our new house, he was scared, and he died before the garden got big enough to be like the old garden.  Surely by now he would like it?  I know Mary would have probably bossed him around, like she did all the cats, but Smoky would have been his friend because Smoky was friends with and cuddled with Frosty, Calvin, Skooter, and of course, his mother Mary.

me and my Dumbles at the old house

Dumbles was a special boy, but even his loss did not affect me like Smoky’s did. I miss Smoky every day, especially while I am reading or watching television.  Frosty or Calvin (not Skooter) will sit on my lap, for awhile, but neither of them are snuggly.  Dumbles’ ashes are on a shelf near where I sleep. For now, Smoky’s ashes are on shelf near my chair.  I find that hard to deal with.

At two o clock, I was able to get back to my compost project, with the goal of emptying bin one into bin two.

I first took some starts of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle clippings,  sticking them in here and there, including by Mary’s grave where I want to grow silver-grey plants.

By the garden boat, the strawberries have taken over again. My vision is silver grey plants, and some catmint, with the scree garden reclaimed from strawberries.

Then the compost shifting began.

2:30 PM

Allan climbed onto the roof to prune the blue potato vine, which was putting some weight on our internet cable.

Allan’s photo, before; the after was after dark and too late for a photo

Here is an “after” taken the next day.

view from the roof

🙂 I do love composting.  I had no idea he was taking these pictures.

By 4:15, bin one was successfully shifted into bin two.

finally at the bottom of bin one!

I added some debris to bin one, clipping the pieces up small (six to eight inch lengths, mostly) to make them break down faster.

After sunset:

Tomorrow, I have one more pile, to the right, to shift into bin one, and then I will still have room for more garden clippings.

Scott and Tony stopped by briefly with a Christmas card.

Rudy and Bailey and Scott; Allan lent Scott a couple of movie DVDs.

Our good friend Tony.

Scott and Rudy

Tony and Scott had just been out on the beach clamming and took these photos.

Tony’s photo

Tony’s photo

When clams are in season and the clam tide comes at sunset or at night, people clam by lantern light.

This photo is just to show those who cried along with me about Smoky that there is still happiness in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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30 Nov-1 Dec: gardening and reading

Thursday, 30 November 2017

I had been exhausted enough so that I slept late and missed most of a good gardening day.  Since I usually manage only five or six hours of sleep, I welcome an eight hour sleep even if it cuts into the day.

In the afternoon, I managed some gardening accomplishments.

I wanted to improve the south east view from my south window by cutting down a tatty looking Sanguisorba ‘Korean Snow’.

before

after, giving a bit more depth to the winterscape

In the center bed, one of the good things about Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is that the old foliage pulls right off without any clipping necessary.

before

after; now the crocuses will show better

Rozanne debris

Just pulling some old cosmos made another area look somewhat better.

before

after

The last thing I wanted to accomplish in my two hours of gardening time was to take down a big stand of Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ so that I could see a smoke bush better.

before

after

I left that pile of debris lying where it fell because of my compost bin situation.

I started a pile across the path from the compost bins until I can get their contents lowered.

temporary pile

my compost bin problem, yesterday; it is even taller now.

The bins will make me a lot of free mulch.  Allan said we could shift them over, sometime when and if all three are empty, and add a fourth pallet bin.  However, I think the problem is that I put three to five big balls of basket soil and plants from Long Beach in them.  Next year, if I set those out separately to break down. I think I might have enough room for work debris and home debris.  Just in case I never have all three empty at the same time again!

I hope for a nice day tomorrow, to empty the third one off to the side, and start shifting and breaking down the piles.

I took a big rooted piece of Darmera peltata to the outer swale and tossed it at the edge of the seasonal pond, just to give it a chance.  The bridge to the outer garden would be deadly slick to walk on, were it not for the wire mesh that gives good footing. We must remember to re-staple the end at the gate though, as it has become a bent up foot-tripper.

I saw that the big pile of crab pots has been moved out from the corner by the gear shed next door.

My corner view is back, of a tarp and old board.  At night, I will be able to see more lights from the port.

I admired a selection of still-blooming hardy fuchsias.

Helianthus ‘Gold Lace’ is finally blooming.

Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’ and smokebush

Skooter by the water boxes

All afternoon (all two hours of it), I wore these gloves of Allan’s, only because I found them in my pocket from when I took them and did not use them on Crab Pot Tree decorating day.  I love them.  I find them so much more comfortable than blue Atlas gloves.  Finally, a glove other than “non latex exam gloves” that I can stand to work in.  They let me feel what I was doing.

good brown “Wonder Grip” gloves

Here is a useful tip that I read in Fine Gardening magazine.  When your glove wears out a finger, cut a good finger out of another even more worn out glove and insert it into the finger space.  The reader tip said that even works if you put a glove finger into the thumb space.  I will try it.

Yesterday, an artist friend from Ocean Park, Carole B., dropped off a package for me because she is down sizing.  I waited till this evening to open it so that my appreciation would not be rushed.

It contained treasures.

Carole herself made this cloth beach cottage:

adorned with treasures from the beach

And she made these brightly coloured kitten mittens (shown with a plush kitty):

Allan says these will be “wall art”…the mittens, not the plush toy, which is now on the back of a chair.

The main feature of the box was “cottage books”.

I immediately sat down to read Woodland Style, for which she wrote a note saying it was “for Allan, because he builds things”.

It is full of natural projects, including this amazing bird feeder hat.  I think Mr Tootlepedal should have one, and set his camera on automatic and sit outside to have his photo taken.

You can read more about Erica Fielder’s bird feeder hats here and here.

I must do this on my round table that sits out in the bogsy woods:

The book is full of more whimsical headgear decorated with pine cones, bark, flowers, and moss, ideas for making furniture and art from roots and branches and natural embellishments, and even recipes for foraged foods..

I look forward to delving into the rest of the stack of cottage books.

Friday, 1 December 2017

Back to just six hours of sleep. I had hoped for a clear day to empty one compost bin and start chopping and shifting debris.  Cold wind daunted me at first, soon followed by rain.

Allan started working on the window box project outside, which he prefers so as to not spread sawdust around his workshop.

He was soon driven into the work shop by rain.

I finished my latest Steinbeck book.  Even though it was excellent, I did not enjoy it as much as the others, because I didn’t especially like most of the characters.  Steinbeck could write a good female character, but in this book the one young woman character is just a background prop for the story.

It is one of his farm workers trilogy, along with Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.

It did share the detailed Steinbeckian descriptions of places:

Doc was the one main character that I did like.

My favourite passage in the book:

The book came with something I’d never seen in all my many interlibrary loans, a bookmark saying “Read Me First.”

I was glad to finish it. Tonight, we will watch the old movie of The Grapes of Wrath. I have a feeling I will like it much better than In Dubious Battle.

I have a growing stack of library books to read next.

The cozy cat mystery must be read soon because it is another interlibrary loan.

As soon as tomorrow’s busy Crab Pot Tree day is over, my hope is to have nothing especially social till Christmas eve, leaving lots of time for reading and compost-turning.

Before dinner and the Grapes of Wrath film, I succumbed to the Van Engelen 40% off end of season sale and will soon have 550 more bulbs of crocus and miniature narcissi to plant.

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29 Nov: volunteering, gardening

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Today, I got up early enough to join the tree decorating crew, which began with me, Allan, Jenna, and Don.

a boat leaving the boatyard next to the tree

Don up high (Allan’s photo)

view from the top (Allan’s photo, obviously!)

A former co worker of Don’s helped for half an hour.  He and Allan found they had a common interest in small boats.

Jenna and George

Jenna garlanding the fence, with the boatyard’s Marine Travel Lift to the right.

the fence, with the boatyard garden in the distance

I trimmed the edge of the boatyard garden grasses again.  Next year, some of these must go.

before

Pennisetum macrourum, after

The Port crew was putting up the crab lights.

north of the boatyard gate

I mowed the big field where people will gather (and I picked up dog poop).

Jenna and me

hanging the float decorations with zip ties

finishing touch

done

While spending some time actually working on a few of the Ilwaco planters (pulling Erysimums that have become too tatty from wind), we drove around one of the downtown blocks and saw this newly created sit spot.

I used to think this building would make a great refurbished loft-type space. Now I think it is too far gone.

I like it in Waterlogue.

For the rest of the afternoon, we gardened, decorated, and mowed at home.  We’d scored some leftover garland, which Allan attached to the fence.

That inspired some clean up of the front garden till I ran out of daylight.

garland enhanced with rose hips, allium, and elephant garlic heads

the rain from yesterday morning’s storm (during which Allan helped with the crab pot tree)

Three more wheelbarrow loads of debris have the compost bins looking rather ridiculous.

a problem to be addressed on a winter day

Here are some at home befores and afters, accomplished while Allan gave our lawn the last mowing of the season.

before

after

before

after

front middle bed after, still needs much clipping and a good weeding

In the evening, Allan and J9 went to dinner and then to the Ilwaco High School varsity basketball game, against the South Bend team.

South Bend team in burgundy

Number 50 is Don and Jenna’s son, Joe.

Joe about to make a basket.

Ilwaco won.

On the way home, Allan took one more photo of one of the crab pot tree decorations that the city crew put up downtown today.

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28 November: volunteering, reading

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Allan got up early to join Ilwacoan friends Don, Jenna, and Karla decorating the Crab Pot Tree in drenching rain and wind.  I have to admit I weather-wimped out on this one.  I swear I would have been there if it started at 11 instead of 10.  I had pictured it as nothing but climbing the crab pot stack.  I could have been there to unroll garlands and hand things up to Don and Allan, the stack climbers.

Some of you may already have seen some these crab pot tree photos, as I have already published the two day tree decorating sequence on the Our Ilwaco blog.

Allan arrives (Jenna’s photo)

Jenna, also known as Queen La De Da, owns Queen La De Da’s event gallery and the Mermaid Charm School, and her spouse is the beloved local Artist Don Nisbett.

Don making the tip top more securely fastened. (Jenna’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Karla of Time Enough Books and the city’s bucket truck, which came to help for awhile (Jenna’s photo)

Allan zip tying the garland

Triumph after the garlands were done (Don and Jenna, Karla and Jenna)

In the afternoon, Allan worked on the two window boxes he’s building for the shed.  They came out too wide and did not look right, so he cut out part of the bottom to make them narrower.

This shows how wide they would have been before the bottom got narrowed.

We took Frosty to the Oceanside Animal Clinic for a check up and to see if he could get de-itchified.  Our once a month treatment seems to not be enough for him.  Allan took some photos.

Frosty did not like the carrier. Much yowling and complaining.

This was my favourite of the other patients of the day.

Frosty got a eight month flea collar. We decided to have a full blood panel done on Frosty, since we so recently lost his brother Smoky.  His tests came back perfect.  I smothered down the feelings about Smoky having been my true beloved and yet he is the one who is gone.  Can’t think that way. (Frosty can be sort of annoying, but I we do like each other.)

We dropped by Shoeboxes of Joy again to donate a big leftover bag of Halloween candy for stocking stuffers.

Allan’s photo

In the evening I finished Sweet Thursday, the sequel to Cannery Row….

Favourite passages:

Later that day, we picked up some books from the library, including East of Eden and In Dubious Battle, two more Steinbecks.  One of the librarians commented that people have said to her that Cannery Row is not realistic, but that if they had ever lived in a fishing town, they would know that it is quite realistic indeed.

“The communication system on Cannery Row is mysterious to the point of magic and rapid to the speed of light.”

on the nearby beach

Sweet Thursday:

In the evenings this week, we’ve watched a DVD set of Orange is the New Black season 4. In a scene set after their prison garden becomes a crime scene, and as they mourn the death of a young friend and sister prisoner, Red reads a beautiful passage by Ann Lamott about gardening. Click here for a video of the scene.

If you would rather just read the words, here they are:

““The garden is one of the two great metaphors for humanity.

The garden is about life and beauty and the impermanence of all living things.

The garden is about feeding your children, providing food for the tribe.

It’s part of an urgent territorial drive that we can probably trace back to animals storing food.

It’s a competitive display mechanism, like having a prize bull, this greed for the best tomatoes and English tea roses.

It’s about winning; about providing society with superior things; and about proving that you have taste, and good values, and you work hard.

And what a wonderful relief, every so often, to know who the enemy is.

Because in the garden, the enemy is everything: the aphids, the weather, time.

And so you pour yourself into it, care so much, and see up close so much birth, and growth, and beauty, and danger, and triumph.

And then everything dies anyway, right?

But you just keep doing it.”

It is from this excellent book:

I love Ms. Lamott and have read every one of her books.

As we watched, I wondered if the show has awakened its audience to the desperate need for prison reform.  Turns out the author of the book has some ideas about that.  This article  tells how the show is inspiring more interest in improving the lot of prisoners.  For some background reading, I recommend The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.

Tomorrow, Crab Pot Tree decorating continues.

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24 Nov: We got ‘er done

Friday, 24 November 2017

I was determined to polish off the work list no matter what the weather.

First, we walked out into our garden to collect some red twig dogwood stems for decorating.

Damp and faded hardy fuchsias are still hanging on.

autumn colour on cotinus (smokebush)

another big branch down

Next door, the tarp had blown off the gear shed crab pot stack.

lots of little branch pieces lying about

As we departed, rain fell heavily.  My Dark Sky app said it would last for 15 minutes, and then we’d have forty minutes before it returned.

The Depot Restaurant

We sat in the parking lot, waiting out the squall.

The building in view is Oceanside Animal Clinic.

Our mission was, in part, to remove the annuals from the north side window boxes and barrels (expertly planted by Roxanne of The Basket Case Greenhouse).  They are still blooming. It is fully autumn now, and I am tired of summer annuals.  The roof overhang keeps them dry even when it rains, so they have be checked on at least once a week.  I want something spare and seasonal and no maintenance for the winter.

before

before; note the wide roof overhang

after

Just a bit of red twig dogwood decor. It would be even better if I had some pine cones.

Allan pruned the Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’ and the escallonia.

before

after (escallonia not shown here)

autumnal garden, north side of dining deck

We did some general tidying and some pruning around the house next door that serves as the Depot office (a tree with branches that were hitting the side of the building, and some pulling of an old patch of crocosmia).  We recommended that Chef Michael hire Sea Star Gardening for a more extensive pruning of the tree.

Even though we’d had more non-rainy time than Dark Sky had predicted, the weather looked damp again as we headed to…

The Anchorage Cottages.

A windy rain squall greeted us there, and made the first fifteen minutes of work challenging.  I had thought it would be time to cut back the chrysanthemums by the office window.  No, they had barely begun to bloom, so this will not be our last visit of the year.

office window

Allan had begun by pulling some cosmos in the south courtyard.

before, valiant cosmos still trying to bloom

after. (Allan’s photos). Next year, a pool of some sort of bright and well behaved ground cover (hakonechloa maybe?) might look better around that Japanese maple.

I almost gave up on finishing the garden tidying because of the cold windy rain.  A brightening sky gave me hope, and the weather cleared.

Allan trimmed the lady’s mantle and geraniums along the front of the bed near the office.

before

after (Allan’s photos)

Even though I was trying to be merciless, some annuals still looked too good to pull.

center courtyard after today’s big tidy[/caption
Anchorage window reflection:

Captain Bob’s Chowder
At almost dusk, we rewarded ourselves and celebrated the start of staycation with a late lunch at Captain Bob’s, behind Fifth Street Park.

[caption id="attachment_132999" align="aligncenter" width="500"] a Renee O’Connor crab sidewalk tile in the park (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Cathy of Captain Bob’s was down to just one crab roll.  Allan kindly let me have the crab roll and ordered fish and chips instead.  Cathy thought that the last of the crab salad did not make for a big enough crab roll, so she gave me a piece of delicious fish on the side.

crab roll

Allan’s fish and chips

Fifth and Pacific intersection after our meal

Half a block south, we admired the lights of the Herb ‘n Legend Smoke Shop, complementing the city’s decorations.

At home, It was too dark to offload the trailer load of compostable debris that we’d acquired at today’s jobs. I was able to erase The Depot from the post frost clean up.  There’s nothing left there that frost would make look bad.  All that is left on the work list is the post-frost go-round…if frost arrives.  Or a pre-Christmas go-round if we don’t get frost.  That won’t take more than two days, probably only one and a half.  Unless some special request from a client arrives, and unless Long Beach gets a pile of mulch that needs applying, we are now off work till the end of January, giving me plenty of time for my list of home garden projects.

I stopped counting the weeks to staycation when my best cat, Smoky, got sick.  I’m not as ecstatic at having this time at home as I usually am.  The other three cats will enjoy the company … not as much as Smoky did, and I will miss him during my reading days.  I have a blog post memorial to him planned, with photos through the years…when I can manage it.  Meanwhile, our first week of staycation should be busy enough to provide some blog fodder, a week that culminates in Ilwaco’s Crab Pot Tree Festival.

event poster by Don Nisbett

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