30 April 2017: work, rally, work

Sunday, 30 April 2017

From inside the house, I could see this on a bamboo pole:

Allan’s photos

‘We figured it belonged to baby Celestine down the street, who is often taken for a buggy ride past our house, so we dropped it on her porch.  Celestine is too young to have put it on the pole herself.

Ilwaco boatyard

My goal was to get an edge put on the back of the south strip of boatyard garden.  This could only be done on the weekend when we know boats won’t be coming in and out of the yard.

before: 11:30 AM

11:30 AM

We pushed ourselves hard because of an upcoming afternoon event.

1:30 PM

1:30 PM

Allan had also done some string trimming at the north end:

It is a busy work area by the boats.

just along the edges behind the garden

debris

Allan dropped me at home so I could dig and box up some plants while he dumped the debris, and then we gathered our sign and earth flag and rushed over to Black Lake for the

Indivisible Climate Change Rally and Plant Exchange

The idea was that Joe Chasse and Allan would boat around the lake with earth flag and signage.  Joe’s heavy wooden sign on a small barge turned out to be too heavy to tow easily…

So he brought it up to join the rest of us who were picketing along the street.

Joe is a veteran and worked for years on boats, mostly in Alaska, and he knows the importance of the Coast Guard.

 

We are legion.

 

Allan did successfully sail (and row) with the earth flag.

Allan left the flag with me and rowed back to the other end where he’d left the van.

Gwen, who organized this rally,  wrote: “It was a lovely day to be out on the streets smiling at folks as they drove by. Denny counted 70 cars in 10 minutes times 2 hours. That’s over 800 cars with an average of 2 passengers. Good audience for our smiles and poster work. Methinks there should be more poster work ahead and more pop up rallies on sunny days. The plant exchange was bountiful as well. Thanks to everyone who showed up today.”

After an hour and 45 minutes holding our signs, we had our little plant exchange.

Gwen and Robert’s doggie.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Gwen gave me a pin that I love.

at home

When we went home to pick up our work trailer, we gave an impromptu tour to our friend Gene and his companion who had just stopped by.  Although the garden is embarassingly weedy, they seemed to enjoy it.

Ilwaco Community Building

Allan and I got back to work, first with some deadheading at the community building that turned into a whole lot of weeding when we saw how much horsetail and bindweed had popped up.

Life Flight came over to the hospital just to the north and took off again post haste, meaning someone was having a terrible day.

The community bulding with Life Flight coming in for a landing.

Allan’s photo

deadheads with bindweed (Allan’s photo)

Life Flight leaving (Allan’s photo)

I complained vociferously about the bindweed, horsetail, salal, and way too much heather, four reasons why I had resisted taking on this job. The upside of the job is that the library is in this building. I find it meaningful for the library to have a beautiful garden.

There are still too damn many flat, scratchy heathers, though, and it’s beyond me why anyone would plant the vigorously running salal where it can entwine with other plants.

boatyard again

We returned to the boatyard to string trim the newly weeded edge.

repeat photo of before

tonight

Now we just have to find time before Saturday to finish weeding the garden…

damnable horsetail

We are counting on the predicted five weekdays of good weather to get all gardens as perfect as possible before next Saturday and Sunday’s parades.

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4 March: meeting and meal

Saturday, 4 March 2017

In the early afternoon, we crossed the Astoria Megler Bridge and joined a roomful of like minded folk for an Indivisible North Coast Oregon meeting.

a darling small house by where we parked (Allan’s photo).  A sunny garden in front would have no privacy, though.

Allan’s photo, on the way

Astoria was parked up because of a winter brewery festival. We walked two blocks in the rain, passing one of my favourite little gardens on the way to the Fort George Brewery meeting room.

Allan’s photo

This ornately fenced garden is built by piling soil (now mulched with washed dairy manure) on top of pavement.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: tulip foliage, and pigeon pecking in the manure

a goodly crowd

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

a neat driftwood thing

Some thoughts from the meeting:

Indivisible is opposed to the ABC of authoritarianism, bigotry, corruption.

A speaker advised that we send postcards to politicians…”even a picture postcard works because I think they stand out,” she said.  This made me smile because of our recent art postcard parties.

an example from one of our postcard parties

A woman from Germany spoke, saying “who would have thought a little painter from Austria could have killed millions” and she asked, “How could my people not see this coming, how could they look away?”  She said “My life is a series of attempts to make up for the crimes of my ancestors”.  When she goes to a protest, her thought when seeing a photographer is: Is he from the newspaper or from Homeland Security?  She believes she sees the early signs of fascism.  Right here is her recommended reading on the subject.

The following speaker quoted this: “What you would be doing in 1930s Germany is what you are doing now.”

Action item: A member of KMUN radio asks that we write to or call members of the Senate Committee on Appropriations asking that public radio continue to be funded.  Small rural stations like Astoria’s KMUN depend on federal funding far more than city stations do.

Afterwards, we were encouraged to sign up if we had interest in particular topics (education, environment, immigration, health care, equal rights).).

Allan took the opportunity to buy a women’s march copy of the Daily Astorian.

Afterwards, we walked by the Fort George Brewery’s lower garden, also freshly mulched.  The ornamental grasses have been cut back since last time we went to the Blue Scorcher Café next door.

Fort George garden

We walked by the temptations of the Blue Scorcher because we wanted to try out a new restaurant in Seaside, Oregon.

In Seaside, it was too wet and miserably windy to walk around and look at Pam Fleming’s city gardens.

drive by photo

Allan’s photo

a new restaurant (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

a warm and simple place

Allan’s photo

something so sweet on the menu

many choices

I had to try the cauliflower appetizer, hoping that it would be similar to the zahra from Seattle’s Mediterranean Kitchen…and it was.

Allan’s chicken sandwich

The tasty baba ganoush had pickled on it; I just put them to one side because I’m not used to that.  All food is made fresh so I bet I could ask for no pickles next time, and there will be a next time.

the turnaround at the end of Broadway

Pam’s garden on the turnaround (Allan’s photos)

We shopped at Costco.  Wouldn’t this elaborate plastic apple container make an interesting little seedling greenhouse?

stormy crossing of the Columbia on the way home: freighters at anchor, waiting

light snow and fog on the hills on the Washington side of the bridge

in the dusk, golden daffodils that someone once planted on the hillside

According to the weather forecast, we are due for several days of bad weather, possibly even light snow.  I will not mind reprising staycation.

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