Thursday, 12 September 2019
Long Beach
The main tourist season ends when the hundreds of visiting Rod Runners leave. The day when we tidy Long Beach planters after the Rod Run feels like our annual end of the tourist season. Town was still busy today with an older and quieter sort of tourist, now that most children over four are back in school.
When Rod Run used to coincide with Labor Day weekend and had an official parade of cars that closed the road in Long Beach, the planters would get turned to mush by planter sitters and standers. I think the year 1999 might have been the last year before the event was moved to the weekend after to cut down on the dangerous traffic gridlock which made aid cars and fire trucks unable to get through. The parade was shortened so it just goes around Ocean Park area. The vehicles show off through Long Beach, though, but the planter damage is minimal in comparison to days of yore.
We started with the welcome sign.
Because watering the planters would freshen them up, we did so.
Someone stood in this one hard enough to break off the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.
This planter at the Bolstad light got sat upon so hard that Rozanne was smashed and the santolina was disarranged.
I decided to go ahead and trim the santolina.
If I cut back Rozanne hard, it would revive and rebloom, but the planter would look barren for too long while there are still tourists in town.
On the other side of the street, the roses had mostly protected the fuchsia…
…but I still want the rose dug out because it never does anything pretty.
Looking across the street at the planter I had just trimmed, today…
My theory that people would not sit on Geranium ‘Rozanne’ that was trailing well over the edge was proven wrong.
I pulled the Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ stems out from the tree by the bakery. Most of them were lying sideways from being stood in.
It is time anyway. Two more parks, two planters, another tree, city hall, the beach approach have them still.
I had The Toy™ with me because I knew I faced a lot of trimming. When I used the loo next to the police station, I hoped no one would steal it.
I saw myself reporting such a theft by walking into the police station saying, “Someone stole my toy!”
The police station planter had Geranium ‘Rozanne’ trailing down on both ends last week. I had to trim it today because of the sitting and smashing. One of the center agastaches was also a casualty.
A particular smashed up planter at the SW corner of Third, by a park with plenty of seating:
Across the street, Rozanne was still trailing beautifully.
Delightfully, my favourite planter this year was just fine.
Allan’s photos while watering and tidying the southern blocks of planters:
We have been seeing isolated infestations of black aphids on cosmos, just a stem here and there.
We pulled two of the three batches of sweet peas out of Fifth Street Park. The one in front of Captain Bob’s got to stay.


I reflected upon how different the parks look from the more manicured ones in Castle Rock. Mine are more like amateur home gardens, with mingling plants and a lot of experimentation. I think many will welcome if a more standard park look happens after we semi retire.
We had left the northern two blocks for last so that Allan could pull the tatty old erysimums while I did the watering. His photos:
Boreas Inn
Susie had been so thrilled with her mulch that she had asked us to mulch some more by the west side of the inn.
Upon arriving, we saw the deer next door.
That tarp is covering a future garden bed next door.
I was this close.
They jumped the neighbors’ fence to eat apples.
Honestly, is that maybe even more attractive than having a deer proof fenced garden?
Bill came out to have a chat with them.

The west lawn beds have been deciminated by the deer this year, even plants that should be resistant. More lavender next year!
I have known deer to eat rue and eucalyptus and other plants that thoroughly surprised me.
After our mulching, during which Allan continued for fifteen minutes longer than me, while I went off the clock to sit on the deck and chat with Susie and longtime friends who were staying at the inn, we went home and then joined them all at
Salt Pub.
I had my favorite, the delicious tuna melt.
We don’t get out to dinner as much as we used to, partly because we are trying to be more frugal. Twice in one week was a treat, especially for Chef Allan.
Skooter, lounging next door, had something to say when we returned home.
a book: Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
I have read all of Reichl’s memoirs, and tonight I finished the most recent one. My favourite bits.
She describes how years before she became the Editor in Chief at Gourmet magazine, she had Thai food for the first time.
This took me back to my first Thai meal at a Seattle restaurant (1982?) with my significant other, Bryan, and our group of friends. I felt the same, such a thrill, at the food I had been looking for my whole life.
It was news to me that Gourmet had once published such great writers:
Oh, look, we have some phobias in common!
I did not know that lambs quarters are edible.
These few takeaways may imply that the book did not offer me much. Not so, I loved every minute of it and it made me want to reread her other memoirs, especially Garlic and Sapphires, about her years as a food critic. Oh, how I long for reading season, which will begin in mid November, after bulb time.