Thursday, 24 August 2017
We skipped deadheading the welcome sign (south of town), firmly reminding ourselves to remember it on the way home. I was eager to get out to the kite festival again. Today’s events featured an exhibition of handmade kites.
Washington State International Kite Festival
The judging was still ongoing when we got to the beach, and because we had much watering still to do, we didn’t actually see many of the handmade kites. However, here are a couple of old photos of kites from the 1993 festival that still are strong in my memory.
Today:
Kite fliers and teams set up their “territories” on the beach.
On this same day, a talented local photographer shared this stunning kite:
Walking back to town along the approach garden, I was so pleased to see roses still blooming. This garden gets no supplemental water.
Back in town….
Allan and I shook off the holiday Kite Festival feeling and parted ways to water, with Allan doing the planters on the south end of downtown and me doing the north ones.
As I watered, a woman approached and asked “Do you do the gardens at KBC?” She stays at Klipsan Beach Cottages once a year, where Mary had given us credit for our gardening work there. She works at Swansons, my favourite Seattle nursery of yore, and specializes in trees and shrubs and loves conifers. We had a good long talk. I recommended that she look up the posts here about the Bayside Garden, the home of a “conifer man” (John). “I’m a conifer woman!” she said.
Here’s a link to a tour of Steve and John’s garden that showcases conifers, rhododendrons, and more.
I wish my planters had more cutting edge collectors plants. I mostly make do with what I can get around here.
Both Allan and I found the evidence of someone flower-picking their way through town without a responsible adult saying no.
Despite that bit of flower scattering, the workday was a pleasant one. Kite Festival always seems to draw the happiest crowd of any Long Beach event.
We met up in Fifth Street Park and did some garden tidying (Allan more than me because he got there first).
We felt that we were making good time and so rewarded ourselves with crab rolls at Captain Bob’s Chowder, which is temptingly located behind the park.
Sid Snyder planters needed watering next.
Feel quite accomplished to be done with Long Beach before five o clock, we headed south to water in…
Ilwaco
Allan left me at the boatyard to water while he got the water trailer and did the street trees and planters.
At the boatyard, this pretty salmon colored four o clock reminds me of Lorna and Andersen’s RV Park. When we gardened for her there, we acquired salmon, apricot and peach coloured flowers for her. This was from a seed packet, most of which got planted at Andersens. Lorna lives in Seattle now. She might bring her grandchildren to see our garden this weekend.
I had time to weed and deadhead almost the entire north stretch of the garden.
Unfortunately, half way through my weeding, I suddenly remembered: WELCOME SIGN.
When we reunited, we drove home to leave the trailer behind.
Long Beach (again)
We did find many a deadhead when we returned to Long Beach’s welcome sign.
As a consolation for driving north again, we treated ourselves to dinner at
The Depot Restaurant.
I had three of my favourites from the summer menu:
It wasn’t till later that I realized we had treated ourselves twice today, once to reward ourselves for allegedly getting done with Long Beach early, and once to comfort ourselves because we had forgotten an important work task.
I took this photo in the dark as we left, to show the colour echo of green on Petunia ‘Pretty Much Picasso” and the chartreuse sweet potato vine in a container planted by Basket Case Roxanne. For some reason, I like its blurriness. YMMV.
Now…three days off. I thought it would be four, but with 70 degree weather all weekend, we can’t leave the next watering day till Tuesday.