8 Dec: Compost, Rally, Village

Friday, 8 December 2017

at home

We stayed up till 2 AM finishing season one of Stranger Things, and since I did not get to sleep till four, my idea of getting back to the compost project early did not come to fruition.

Noon! Allan is on the job, with the two new pallets that he got last night.

1:15: The new Bin One. Getting it installed involved shifting a heap of compost.

It took me an hour to shift most of bin two into bin one.  Now that bin one is installed, the job entailed shifting compost sideways to make room for bin two.  I longed to get the project done, but since we had a rally to attend a half an hour away at three thirty, I figured we’d be lucky to get two bins done.

1:40 PM: Bin One is full

Allan helps.

When the space for Bin Two was close to the bottom, it was possible to skoot the compost around in order to install the back and second side.

Two PM, with Bin Two installed. A long throw from Bin Three.

We were also moving the bins forward so that they would now be accessible from behind.

3 PM: Three bins installed!

We now have a walkway between bins and greenhouse.

We had pushed hard to get that far before having to leave for the rally.  I wanted so much to stay home and finish the fourth bin!  I sternly told myself that there is no composting for people languishing in the detention center.

Ocean Park: Rally for “Rosas”

“Rosas was arrested when going to Okie’s early in the morning of November 27. When he asked why he was being arrested, ICE officers said “My supervisor asked me to come find you because of what appeared in the newspaper.” We want to speak out against this arrest and on the attack on his rights to free speech. Please join us!”

Background:

The original story in the Seattle Times (my home town paper) is here, and well worth reading.

The follow up, after the arrest of Rosas, is here.

He appears to have been sought out because he spoke (under his nickname) to the Seattle Times.  ICE did not detain him earlier, even though he asked them why they took his family and not him.

This story has drawn the attention of the Mexican consulate and has been picked up by national and international news, including the Washington Post and The Independent, UK.

Here is a link to the gofundme where you can contribute, to help him and his family, who were deported to Mexico.  (His children are American citizens, who went with their mother.)

We arrived to find folks on both sides of the street by Okie’s Market, mostly on the other side of the street because we don’t want it to appear that we blame the local markets for the fact that ICE uses them to catch Hispanic people who are shopping for groceries.

Another group had settled in three blocks east on the main intersection.  Eventually, we walked down there to join them.  As we walked, a man came out of one of the shops and said “Thank you so much.  I would love to join, but I don’t want to be targeted.”

by the new medical clinic and pharmacy

on the right, newly elected Long Beach city councilman Isa Cline.

Allan’s sign:

I suggested he put something warm and fuzzy on the other side:

We had enough people to be on three of the four corners of the intersection.

by Doc’s Tavern

Someone who walked by the sign holders by Doc’s said something about people being illegal, and then went into Doc’s.  A few minutes later, she came out and said, “You are right!”  Something in there had changed her mind.

A woman paused her car to say she had just moved to Ocean Park and was pleased to see us, as she had no idea there were protests here.  I want to meet her.  None of us got her contact information.

I was heckled by a driver with a scowly face, something about “illegals” and “securing our borders” and “they should get legal.”  “It takes years and costs thousands of dollars,” I replied, but he had driven on.  That was the only heckling that I noticed.  Mostly, we got some honks and thumbs up.

Lee Hogan Knott, local teacher at Sea School Cooperative and yoga instructor at Earthlight Yoga, joined us with her children.

Lee’s photo

Lee’s photo

m

Some black and white photos by Stephanie:

Two counter protestors showed up after sunset, just as we were ten minutes away from departure.

The counter-protest duo paraded back and forth on the other side of the street with their yuge Trump banner.

The rally ended at dusk, when it was too dark to easily read signage.  Some ralliers went to a nearby pizza place.  Allan and I had other plans.  Since my goal is to not get out much during staycation, we combined the rally with our annual visit to the Hungry Harbor Grille to see their lovely holiday village.

Hungry Harbor Grille

Every year, Hungry Harbor sets up an ever larger and more elaborate village.

It is a coastal village with boats and lighthouses.

Allan’s photo

Jessie’s Fish Market is one of many buildings personalized for our area.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

second from left, back: I dream of living in the top floor flat with a roof garden.

It’s odd that the flat with roof garden is my dream instead of a house with towers and room for a garden….

…or a farm with animals.

You could spend hours looking at the details. Some people bring binoculars.

tree house and train tunnel (Allan’s photo)

Our burgers and onion rings were perfect comfort food.

Allan’s photo

the best dinner seating in the house

Tomorrow: Barring calamity, I WILL finish the compost project!

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7-9 Dec: brief emergence from Winterval

First, here a are a few preliminary photos by Allan.

4 December: Skooter watched Allan make dinner

later that night, atop the refrigerator

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

On a surprisingly nice day in the early afternoon, I suddenly decided that we should do some pre-frost clean up.  Frost and ice were predicted for Thursday.  With Allan planning to take a trip to Seattle on Friday, we would not be able to do a round of the Long Beach planters after the storm.

We checked all of the Ilwaco planters and removed the last batch of almost dead nasturtium from one.

At The Ilwaco Timberland Library, I had an exciting book to pick up.

red twig dogwood at the library entrance garden

and heather in bloom

The new head librarian had found a bag of bulbs (narcissi and alliums) in a back room at the Ocean Park library.  Because they were over a year old, most of them were dried to almost powder.  I had sorted out a few narcissi that still felt slightly plump.  Allan planted them, and we will be interested to see if any of them grow.

Out of a large bag, maybe ten old bulbs were faintly viable.

Next: We clipped back the annuals in the Depot Restaurant window boxes.  I would hate to think of them all frozen and blackened over the weekend.  The window boxes do not get rain water so those plants looked pitiful and dry without our weekly visits.

window box clean up

The Depot garden, ready for winter

With cold hands, we did some clipping in the Long Beach planters of assorted plants that I knew would be unattractive after the cold snap.  Perhaps the cold snap would not happen.  If it did, I did not want to think of sad looking planters over the weekend.

Fifth Street Park, before

I clipped back some sad perennials in Fifth Street Park.

Allan’s photos: before (with some flowers still on Geranium ‘Rozanne’!)

after

The temperature dropped rapidly while we worked.

Fun rides are put away for the winter; the center pole of the carousel is capped. (Allan’s photo)

When we finished cutting back the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ in the northernmost planter, we dropped by the Shoeboxes of Joy volunteer HQ at Coulter Park to make a monetary donation.  (We had dropped off some yummy energy bars and some cat food at a donation bin at the bank earlier in the day.  Yes, they do want pet food, not for the senior humans, but for their companion animals.)

old Long Beach train depot building in Coulter Park

Allan’s photo

Shoeboxes ready to be filled.

sorting has commenced

Shoebox HQ Christmas tree

cotoneaster in Coulter Park

I tried and failed to reach Dave and Melissa to reschedule our weekly dinner for tonight, in case an icy storm prevented it tomorrow.  Therefore, we had time to fulfill one of our holiday traditions: a visit to the Hungry Harbor Grille holiday village in downtown Long Beach.

Even though I have not been able to muster up any holiday spirit for decorating at home, I was able for half an hour to vicariously enter the life of this village (and we had an early dinner there.  Well, not IN the village, but at a table next to it).

approaching the village

Allan’s photo: Hungry Harbor burger

Allan’s photo

Taking pictures of the village. In my mind, I am living there.

At that moment, I was photographing the top floor apartment in which I live, in the village.

I live on the top floor of that apartment building, and the roof garden is mine.

Allan’s photo

The only reason I can think of that out of all the lovely detached houses with gardens in the village I pick a top floor flat is that it reminds me of the happy year I spent living in the Gables on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

on the second floor, with many big windows running all the way down the center courtyard…

I left here only because I wanted a house with a garden. This modern photo shows that someone did make a garden there sometime later.

I can only imagine that around my imaginary apartment building, I do have a garden in the village.

The harbor now has 15 lighthouses and more boats than it did last year.

 

a new sign, acquired this year. Altered from “Las Vegas”

The village carousel keeps going through the holidays.

These swans actually swim around the pond.

There are several bridges that Mr Tootlepedal would enjoy photographing.

I would make a few tweaks to the village before I moved in.  I would make sure the folks who live there were ethnically and racially diverse and, if there were any churches at all, I’d add a synagogue, a mosque, and a Quaker meeting place.  I’d make sure to install an Indian and an Ethiopian restaurant, and a sushi bar.  And a skateboard park, which is something Long Beach youths sorely crave.

Outside again:

Allan’s photo

Fifth Street Park

Despite all this seasonal delight, I did not get inspired to decorate at home.  A few years back, I wrote about the dilemma of whether or not to “tree”.  We did buy an artificial tree the next year, and it would be fairly easy to set up.  Yet I think the decision this year’s decision is coming down on the side of not treeing.  I don’t feel like moving my heavy desk to make a space for it and, frankly, I am not in the mood and I would rather have the time to read.  I can always say that I am afraid Skooter would try to climb it; he is, after all, only three years old.  The other cats are a dignified twelve years.

Thursday, 8 December 2016

We did get some snow.

from the front porch

from the east window

from the front window

I put Skooter out to see if he would like the snow.  He made just a few footprints before hastily retreating.

That’s as far as he got. (Allan’s photo)

Skooter snoozing

Wind kept snow from accumulating in the back garden. (Allan’s photo)

Meanwhile, at THE Oysterville garden, Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) worked until they could no longer see what to cut back.

Melissa’s photo

That was all we had, and it did melt, to be followed be evening ice that only affected the riverside towns. So our garden club meeting was cancelled this week…and it turned out that Salt Pub, where we had planned to dine, closed for the evening because of the weather.

Meanwhile, in Portland, friends like Danger Garden were suffering a horrible ice storm.

Friday, 9 December 2016

Allan departed for Seattle, and I did some holiday shopping at the port.

at the marina

With nothing but silence and time, I began a 700 page book that would keep me busy for the next  three days.

sequel to last week’s Austerity Britain

My very favourite passage of all, from a Mass Observation investigator:

 I was especially thrilled that my most beloved diarist, Nella Last, was often quoted in this book. 

As I write this on 13 December, Allan is on his way home from Seattle and volume three of the Tales of a New Jerusalem, Modernity Britain, awaits at the library. At 880 pages, it will keep me busy for a few days.  I have some plans tomorrow so will wait to start it on Thursday so that I can completely immerse myself with few distractions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4 December: holiday village

Thursday, 4 December 2014

So far I’ve managed to have one day of just reading out of this whole week. We went out in the very late afternoon today on an excursion to buy, for the first time, an artificial Christmas tree. I had seen, at Dennis Co. Hardware, the only one I’ve ever (sort of) liked. It is pricey but might solve my dilemma every year of to tree or not to tree. We found that we had mistakenly thought that THURSDAY was senior discount day. It’s Tuesday….sigh. (Yes, Allan is that old, even though he looks 35.)

We cheered ourselves up from this little setback with dinner at the Hungry Harbor Grille’s Mexican Fiesta night (Thursdays, off tourist season) and our annual visit to their delightful holiday village.

Perhaps you would like to take a walk with us through its snowy wonders.

Hungry Harbor Holiday Village

313 Pacific Avenue South, Long Beach WA

Allan’s photo

new lighthouse (found at a garage sale, in an unopened box!)

 

new this year: a working carousel

new: tree with white lights

Allan’s photo

Restaurateur Lois came to chat with us, and I hope she was impressed at how well we know her village as I think we picked out every item that was new.

new this year: a working trolley

the train tunnel

whale watching tours

ferry

ghost ship

Seacoast Martiime Museum

I love the vignettes in many of the windows.

Whale Tale Pub and Inn

delicious details

new this year: vintage truck and trailer

barnyard

Whale Point B&B

Knit Shoppe

The Knit Shoppe puts me in mind of the fictional town of Sea Harbor, Mass., in which I am immersed while trying to find time to read the Seaside Knitters mystery series. (Sea Harbor also offers whale watching tour boats.)

Here’s where I buy plants.

Here’s where we buy books.

covered bridge

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: our local newspaper, the Chinook Observer

new this year: (magnetized) swimming swans (Allan’s photo)

Jessie’s Fish Market (Allan’s photo)

For some reason, instead of imagining that I live in a grand home like this:

…I always imagine that my residence in this village is the top two floors of this apartment building with a roof garden. (The photo is from a previous village visit, as this year the building was set too far back to get a good photo.) Maybe I think if I lived up there, I’d have more time to just sit and read.

As we were about to depart, I took another good look at the new lighthouse.

There, I saw something evocative of the Tootlepedal blog: a flying bird (or several!) of the day.

another flying bird for Mr. T.

We had tasty meals to go with our village walk:

carne asada tacos and chicken enchiladas

You can check out last year’s holiday village here.

Long Beach

After dinner, we took a little drizzly stroll through the real holiday village of Long Beach.

puddles rather than snow: Marsh’s Free Museum, home of Jake the Alligator Man

police station

Allan’s photo

Cottage Bakery

Allan’s photo: The Long Beach tree in Veterans Field

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Ilwaco

We checked out some of the holiday lights in Ilwaco on our way home. I was not very successful with photos as I had my Lumix pocket cam. The Canon Power Shot pocket cam does better at night photos. Allan had his little Canon so had better luck.

Queen La De Da’s underwater window, Spruce Street

I remember helping to paint the grassy fronds a couple of years back.

Ilwaco Volunteer Fire Department

Spruce Street house

Allan’s photo; This home always has the scariest Halloween decor.

Spruce Street: Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo, Spruce and Elizabeth

Allan’s photo: Spruce Street

Allan’s photo: School Hill

Elizabeth Avenue

The newly paved section of Elizabeth, the road to the port, has new streetlights and with these clad in holiday lighting, there’s now a lighted lamp-post route all the way around the port.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: new this year, crab lights at the top of each lamp post.

At CoHo Charters, blow up decorations sway in the wind while soft Christmas music plays. I like to hear it in the distance, from my window, while I work on a holiday blog post such as this.

CoHo Charters

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I’m worried that there aren’t many lighted boats this year for the crab pot Christmas tree lighting event that takes place Saturday night. I hope some more get decorated by then. Allan took one photo of one boat with what he says is a mermaid; he did not have time to get close.

better photo to come, we hope

We have the Jessie’s star and a sailboat mast! (Allan’s photo)

No matter how many or few lighted boats we have to gaze upon, the Crab Pot Tree Lighting is always a delight and will probably be the next blog post.

P.S. Later, looking out our south window, I think I saw more boat masts decorated with holiday lights. (I can just see glimpses between the port buildings.)

 

 

 

 

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Hungry Harbor Holiday Village

Thursday, 19 December 2013

High on our agenda for holiday rituals is the annual visit to the Hungry Harbor Grille and their holiday village.

last week’s early peek

After dark on Thursday, Allan and I went (as we often do) to Mexican dinner tonight there (every Thursday in winter) and spend a good long while perusing every little building.  I think Allan heard there are 117 now!  Many of them are painted with the names of local businesses.

Queen La De Da’s ship

Jessie’s Ilwaco Fish Co

Jessie’s

Neptune Theatre (Long Beach)

The real Chen’s, in Long Beach, is not this pretty but the food is good.

Sid’s Grocery (Seaview)

Dairy-Aire delivered milk up till they retired about a year ago.

Dennis Company (Long Beach)

Cottage Bakery (Long Beach)

Hungry Harbor…and a knitting shop that could be Tapestry Rose.

It could be the Purly Shell knitting shop, which is soon to open (in real life) at the Port of Ilwaco.

Our local newspaper is represented by a newstand.

one of our several realtors

beloved local artist Don Nisbett (Ilwaco)

Oman and Son Hardware (Long Beach)

I can mentally lose myself in the streets of the village, and sometimes at this time of year when falling asleep I will imagine living there.

Let’s just walk around, starting at the harbour.  The only time I like walking in snow is when it is all fluffy and non slippery, having just fallen.  Clearly, the village is gently coated in just that kind of snow.

I hear the barking of the seals.

I do love walking along the harbour and looking at the boats.

Whale Watching Tour Boat

Harbor Ferry

Bessie

the haunted shipwreck

another lighthouse

How did we get a haunted shipwreck with so many lighthouses?

Whale Point Lighthouse B&B…

…and guests

North Head Lighthouse (Ilwaco)

Bay Boat Works

The wind is cold down on the harbour so let’s walk up into town.

Uh oh, our little scenic train has derailed (and no one can reach in far enough to right it!)

The Clamshell Railroad depot

The Clamshell Railroad seems to be living up to its reputation as the “Irregular, Ramblin’ and Never-get-there Railroad”.

also near the train station, The Nottingham Hotel is convenient for stranded travelers.

Fortunately, we can cover the whole village on foot.  There are very few cars on the peaceful streets.  As you will see, the village has many places we could stop for dinner.

The Lobster Hut Restaurant

Whale Tale Pub and Inn

Whale Tale

Brew House

The Hungry Harbor, of course!

Plogmann’s Tavern

I always wonder if someone misspelled “Ploughman’s” Tavern.  This is my village watering hole.  It is idyllically like The Rover’s Return on Coronation Street.

We can see our friends in there waiting for us.

Earlier, we would have begun our day at the coffee shop (Olde Towne, of course).

My daily hangout.

I like a coffee shop that is open in evening…Have not had one of those since leaving Seattle.

nearby, a purveyor of fine chocolates

I wonder if Allan decided to open a garage?

In my dream village, I have a bookish niece to treat with books and toys.

You would think that I’d choose one of the houses, with grounds, for my dream place to live in the village.  Instead, the place that calls to me the most every year is the top floor of this apartment building:

my village home; I have the top floor and the roof garden!

side view of my building

The coffee shop is conveniently located near my apartment building, which reminds me of The Gables on Capitol Hill in Seattle, where I had a beautiful old one bedroom apartment in 1975.  (The best apartment was the old ballroom, with skylights, on the fourth floor._

on the second floor, with many big windows running all the way down the center courtyard…

I left here only because I wanted to try out communal living.  Bad decision!

But…back to the village.  I wouldn’t say no to this house (below); its stonework reminds me of the previous Tangly Cottage when we lived over behind the boatyard.

my other house in the village!

or perhaps this one!

I’d have this in my garden.

my greenhouse

Here’s the village version of The Basket Case Greenhouse (but open year round)

I still would have the same job taking care of parks and gardens.

Windmill Park

This would be one of my gardening jobs.

Let’s stroll through the covered bridges and explore more of the village streets.

still walking along…

The Post Office

Towers abound in the village.

I love the house with the towers, but even in the dreamy village it is out of my price range.

a pretty house with a tower

Business are mixed with residences throughout most of the village.

I can guarantee the pet shop sells pet supplies, not animals.

Precious Pet Store

Precious Pet Store residence window.

the school

The Fire Station

The Bank

Christmas tree sales

Village Square Library

a grand house

apartment building

Oh….look…THIS is my perfect little dream house, luring me to move out of the roof garden apartment that I have loved up until now; the gate is even open to welcome us.

my house

nearby, a treehouse

We’re at the base of the hill now.

It’s lovely to have a farm within walking distance.

At the top of one hill is the dairy where Dairy-Aire gets milk and cheese.

Chicken Coop Produce

information about hiking trails up in the hills

winter camping, fly fishing tours

and a Sauna to warm up in?

Church Hill

and the Creator

I’ve emerged from the dream of walking through the village, but I can return there in my mind anytime I want to, and, happily, I live in a village that is in many ways similar.  

Most of the village buildings are from Department 56.

The Hungry Harbor Grille is in downtown Long Beach, Washington at 313 Pacific Highway South.  Every year, the holiday village appears right after Thanksgiving weekend.

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