24 August: kites and watering

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

this year’s festival poster

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.

flying colours kites by George Peters

Aztec Calendar by Michael Alverez

Today:

booths along the Bolstad beach approach road

a big sand shovel being carried to the beach (Allan’s photo)

A “rescue” Great Dane (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

“Beach Books” booth

one of several booths featuring fair food (Allan’s photo)

wind chimes

banners for sale, made by Above it All Kites

at the South Pacific County Humane Society booth

In the World Kite Museum tent, an eclipse flag was being raffled.

volunteer fire fighter at the ready (Allan’s photo)

koi banner out on the beach

giant kites

Not enough wind to get the giant rings and large animals flying.

rings and creatures on a previous year and windier day

Kite fliers and teams set up their “territories” on the beach.

Allan’s photo

stunt kites waiting to fly

a man….

…and his kite

kite flyer (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

On this same day, a talented local photographer shared this stunning kite:

photo by Janelle Hux

Walking back to town along the approach garden, I was so pleased to see roses still blooming.  This garden gets no supplemental water.

Rosa rugosa alba

Back in town….

Long Beach City Hall

fuchsias overhanging the fence in Coulter Park, where we park for kite festival.

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.

still my favourite planter

Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’

trolley passing by shuttling folks to Kite Festival (art by Don Nisbett)

the first chrysanthemum blooms by NIVA green

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.

These flowers came from more than one planter and from under one of the trees.

Allan’s photo

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.

a kite painted rock

Allan’s photo

Gladiolus papilio (Allan’s photo)

Gladiolus papilio (Allan’s photo)

We met up in Fifth Street Park and did some garden tidying (Allan more than me because he got there first).

NW quadrant

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Chelone (pink turtlehead)

Rose ‘Super Dorothy’ before deadheading (Allan’s photo)

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.

at Captain Bob’s

Sid Snyder planters needed watering next.

The trail ride horses were being gathered up to go home.

Westernmost Sid Snyder Drive planter (Allan’s photos)

The water is still turned off in this one.

gazania

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.

Allan’s photo

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.

Mirabilis jalapa ‘Salmon Sunset’

Pennisetum macrourum from behind the fence

Miscanthus and Stipa gigantea

Joy! Hoses were again available to water the north end of the garden from the inside.

I had time to weed and deadhead almost the entire north stretch of the garden.

looking north, about 1/3 of the garden

blue skies, not too warm, almost windless

Unfortunately, half way through my weeding, I suddenly remembered: WELCOME SIGN.

Allan’s photo: the fire station planter

When we reunited, we drove home to leave the trailer behind.

our neighbour Jeff from two doors down was taking his boat for an outing.

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:

Asian salad

gazpacho

 

We shared Carne asada.

clam chowder for Allan

We sat at the end of the bar.

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.

 

 

 

 

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21 August: Long Beach and Ilwaco

Monday, 21 August 2017 (part two)

After a beautiful solar eclipse experience, we had our breakfast and got a late start on the work day.

Long Beach

The work got further delayed when I remembered my desire to walk out to the Washington State Kite Festival at the end of the Bolstad beach approach.

On the way, I was pleased to see some bachelor buttons that I had planted from seed.

First, we picked up our cheque at city hall.

The hanging baskets (from Basket Case Greenhouse) are getting huge.

heading out to the kite festival (Allan’s photo)

I was so pleased that this year, none of the vendors were selling Confederate flag gear (unlike previous years when one vendor heavily featured it).

Instead, I saw this!

We viewed the kite trains, today’s special festival feature, from the boardwalk.

Allan’s photo

a sign that should not be necessary, but is (Allan’s photo)

City crew at work

a basset and a boxer

I was ever so pleased that roses still bloomed in the beach approach garden.

Allan’s photo

lots of rose hips, too

Finally, we got to work!  We went split up to water the planters and street trees.

Allan’s walkabout photos:

A pink flamingo had landed in the Heroncam pond.

a tiny bit of sweet pea success in a planter

southernmost planter

Basket Case Greenhouse basket from underneath

parsley in a planter (it was windy today)

Oddly, the power had gone out on the west side of the street AND the kite festival booths at about the time we started work.  We each bought a chowder from Captain Bob’s Chowder, which was on the power outage side of the street.

Allan ate his chowder while working. I sat in the chowder house and visited with Captain Bob and Cathy. 🙂

My walkabout  photos:

Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’

This visitor’s husband had built this wonderful motorized cart.

flying Canadian and American flags, even had a little ladder on the side

carriage rides

Angel the carriage horse

The bulldog is Brodie.

A tiny passenger is napping.

window boxes at Long Beach Tavern

I found this tiny bit of cuteness in a planter.

Fifth Street Park

by Renee O’Connor

sneaky dandelion

Basket Case Greenhouse basket

We got done in good time despite our chowder break and kite festival excursion.

Ilwaco

Allan watered the Ilwaco trees and planters while I sat for awhile.  When I did go into the garden to water, I found a present from MaryBeth.

a handsome urn that looks great with gold foliage

In a messaging conversation later, I said we must pay her back for these urns that she finds.  She replied that she considers them an entry fee for garden touring; she delivers them “and then wanders”.  I find that utterly charming.

In the greenhouse, I harvested regular and lemon cucumbers, five in all, shared one each with Devery and kept these:

kitchen gardening success

I had neglected to check my email till I got home and then learned that the port crew might be able to dig out three oversized shrubs from the curbside gardens and that we needed to tag them.  When Allan returned from watering, we did so.

The pink-tagged shrubs are three arbutus that want to be tree like. To keep pruned to the desired three feet tall just makes them ugly so I rebelled and stopped pruning them last year.

With yellow tape, I tagged a small evergreen huckleberry that I hoped could be saved.

We also tagged the middle street tree with yellow tape.  When we got home, I realized that if no one read the tag color decoding email I sent, the crew might think that every tagged item was to be removed, so I sent Allan back to untag the tree and avoid potential catastrophe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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21 August: day off: plant talk and fireworks

You may recall that a couple of days ago, I volunteered a garden bed at the Ilwaco Community Park, if it gets the funding it needs to be improved with a new play structure, picnic area, etc.  (Volunteer hours and plants will count toward the matching funds needed to get a grant for improving the park.) Here is the Ilwaco Parks and Rec GoFundMe page where you can make the park project happen.

Friday, 21 August 2015

I just finished this book a couple of evenings ago:

This bit about bloggers made me chortle:

And I found this bit to be true and moving:

As some of my friends know, I have a strong objection to being Bright-Sided by Perky People.  (I prefer curmudgeons and eccentrics, aspergians and peculiars.)  I like it when someone with as droll a sense of humour as Jon Ronson says that it is possibly to be productive and interesting despite not being “especially normal.”

Despite a lack of perkiness, I enjoy my life deeply, especially days off at home.  However, today I did leave home to go out for lunch and a good talk with Garden Tour Nancy at the 42nd Street Café.  I was feeling strangely tired and rather poorly and wonky from having taken a migraine pill, so I did not take a single photograph to commemorate our pleasant meal.

When I got home again, I couldn’t find Allan even though the van was here.  I did not try hard.  In fact, I felt tired enough to just sit down with a book.  Then I heard voices, and both Allan and Todd came into view outside the window.  Todd had dropped by and they had been out looking at plants in the back garden. I went outside to socialize and before long, we had another visitor, Ed Strange and my nephew Jackson.  Both of them are actually quite cheerful people, but neither makes me feel bright-sided or like I have to be “on”.  (Jon Ronson’s quotation had got me thinking about such things.)

Ed, Jackson, Todd

My nephew, Jackson

Allan’s photo: on the patio

looking up plant IDs on my phone

found it! (whatever plant ID was being sought)

yammering away about some plant thing or another

Frosty meets Jackson! (Allan’s photo)

Brothers Frosty and Smokey and their mother Mary are interested in dogs, because they grew up with two very nice dogs:

good old Annie and Jasmine, who were good friends of mine and companions for the cat family.

Annie and Jasmine had passed away before we inherited the three cats from their guy, Terry.

Jackson got a little too excited, so Frosty exited up the cat ramp.

Ed had to leave to go to mow a lawn.  Todd stayed for awhile and we had some good Plant Talk.  I had to keep moving us to different spots to get out of the sun for coolth, into the sun for warmth, and out of the sun again.  Below, you can see Allan’s project continuing.  His next plan is an arch at the front gate but his back pain has put the project completion on hold.

Into the shade…

Smokey having a drink (Allan’s photo)

both into the shade

I got a useful piece of information from Todd:  I showed him one of my hamamelis (winter blooming witch hazel), commenting that one branch seemed to think it was autumn already.  He said the witch hazels are known for suckering from the graft and all the light green branches are actually ones that should be cut out!  I will do that later this weekend, as Allan had left to have dinner with some old friends from Seattle and had taken the big loppers with him in the van.  Todd also thinks that even though my baby eucalyptus from Cistus has dropped its leaves, it has not expired and will revive.

Hamamelis rogue branches; you can maybe see the dark red ones that are the ones to keep. (to the right of the white lilies)

[Here is what it looked like pruned two days later:]

With the later afternoon and evening to myself, I managed to accomplish nothing in the garden but take a few evening photos.

back garden, looking south

from the patio, looking south over the papyrus

sweet pea success, almost to the top of the arbor

Toward the end of his evening, after dinner with his friends at The Cove, Allan saw the kite festival fireworks from the window of their suite at the Worldmark Resort.

First, came the Lighted Kite Night Fly.  Often, the wind drops at dusk.  This year, there was enough wind to get the heavier kites, with lights attached, into the air.

before dusk

kite formation made by several fliers with Revolution Kites

view from the Worldmark

the sunset

lighted kites and boardwalk lights (you’d have to have been there)

from the Worldmark: the moon, boats, and the lights along the boardwalk

fireworks

not an eclipse: the moon obscured by fireworks smoke

one of several fire trucks poised, just in case. The dunes are highly flammable because of our drought.

Something plant-y is going on at the WorldMark resort:

I’ll close here with a clever bumper sticker that Allan saw on his evening out.

 

 

 

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21 August: kite festival and Long Beach

Thursday, 21 August 2014

I had hoped to get enough work done to see the handcrafted kite competition at the Kite Festival. So why did I schedule so many tasks before we got there? It just seemed proper to do the jobs in order, and besides, there was very little wind in the morning.

Ilwaco

First, we added some free begonias from The Basket Case to the vandalized and replanted Ilwaco planter.

and a lotus vine, thus adding some extra colour before the three remaining big tourism weekends.

One of the begonia colours coincidentally echoes the building colour across the street.

When we did our compost bucket switch at Olde Towne Café, we were so pleased to see the Depot’s Nancy Gorshe and her mom, Marilyn of Marilyn’s garden.

Nancy and Marilyn out and about

Luanne’s container garden

The Depot Restaurant

The Depot garden

I realized today that half of the cosmos are lush and yet not blooming.

Solidago ‘Fireworks’ (goldenrod) just about to flower

Persicaria ‘Firetail’, a favourite perennial of mine

Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ after a good deadheading

windowboxes and barrels on the north side are by Nancy Aust of the Basket Case Greenhouse.

The rosemary on the south side of the deck are finally thriving, having responded well to a dose of Dr Earth all purpose fertilizer.

Chef Michael’s herb garden

Kite Festival

Even though it would have been next in consecutive order, we skipped the Long Beach welcome sign in order to get to the kite festival in time to see the Water Creatures in the Sky mass ascension. Although it was not to be, as there was so little wind, we did see some sights that made the walk well worthwhile.

Pink Poppy Bakery, set up outside with liquid refreshments by Starvation Alley Cranberry Farm

We saw passersby wondering over the rose hips in the beach approach garden.

a very few roses still hanging on. Many people ask us what the rose hips are.

the source of Vitamin C rich rose hip tea

The rugosa roses can stand up to kite festival foot traffic as the prettier and more delicate garden of yore could not.

path worn through because of booths on both sides of the street

at the end of the garden, nice amenities for dogs

out on the sand, a photo being taken…

of this

Some frogs were flying; you can see on the sand that there was not enough wind to get the kitty kite in the air.

the cat kites in 2009. Later in this week, there was enough wind to launch them.

banners in the sand

One of my favourite events at the kite festival is on Saturday afternoon when festival participants parade down the boardwalk holding their banners in the Parade of Colours. I would miss that this year as I was so much longing for a weekend at home.

Parade of Colours over the sand in 2010

and in 2009

Our work schedule did not allow us to wait around to see the handcrafted kites in the air (as it seemed from the announcements that the event might have been delayed due to no wind earlier).

quilt kites on the ground

I mostly hobbled around with my cane just off the hardpacked road, while Allan made it all the way down to the water’s edge.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

looking south toward North Head (Allan’s photo)

Fishing is HOT this summer. Nine boats on the horizon. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan saw a handsome display with the likeness of extraordinary multiple kite flyer Ray Bethell. I had seen on Facebook that he is using a cane this year; he is 86 years old.

Ray Bethell banners (Allan’s photo)

Here he is in 2009 flying a kite with each hand and one off his hip.

I felt poignant all day about Ray, and later I heard that he did fly two kites later in the week.

You can see some videos of him here.

Near the event field, I saw this banner created by a fan of his.

Ray and a fan; he is beloved.

We had to get back to work…

Kite Festival booths on the beach approach, as we head back to town (Allan’s photo)

Our next work stop was Erin’s garden. We could see the kites off in the distance.

Erin’s garden

looking south

Cosmos and Kites

The new garden bed at Erin’s has come out fairly well except for a bare area at the west end. My solution will be a drift of silver santolina made from cuttings (stuck right into the ground) this fall. A river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’ would be awesome, too, although I would have to buy those somewhere and they would need a lot of water and deer might nibble them.

mysterious empty spot

looks better closer in

In some areas, California poppies grew well (just not in that bare spot).

‘Thai Pink Champagne’

‘Buttercream’

probably ‘Red Chief’

probably ‘Rose Chiffon’

and a great, tall feathery poppy

Erin has a friend helping in the garden and they have done a good job in the back courtyard.

back courtyard with three new Knautia ‘Thunder and Lightning’

Anchorage Cottages

At the Anchorage, we were greeted by my good friend Mitzu.

lots of deadheading to do in the containers: Salvia ‘Victoria Blue’ and Salvia viridis (painted sage)

the windowboxes are pretty much self-cleaning

I’m going to get me some of this Persicaria ‘Dimity’ in the fall for my garden and for an edger at Larry and Robert’s garden.

Long Beach

We circled back to the Long Beach welcome sign, just where Seaview turns into Long Beach, for the dreaded deadheading of hundreds of yellow daisies on Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’.

before

after

What the heck?! One of the bidens along the edge is missing, leaving a hole.

the whole view, with a gap of a missing plant; did they think I would not notice??

Cosmos ‘Happy Ring’ doing very well in the welcome sign garden.

Back to downtown Long Beach to water the planters. We parked near Veterans Field where we heard drumming and found a troupe of Korean drummers and dancers on the stage.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

 

The Veterans Field garden mostly white now with Gaura.

just a little blue and red(dish)

After nitpicking little lawn grass sprouts out of the Vet Field garden, we left there to water the street planters just in time, as I looked back and saw the dancers down in the audience hauling citizens up to the stage! No photos of the planter watering as I was just tired.

After the planters, we weeded and deadheaded in Fifth Street Park.

Much as I love Baptisia australis, the one in this garden has gotten so large, and has such a short period of bloom, that I think it has to be removed.

too big and just too plain green

During this and the previous water session this week, we got many compliments about how exceptionally pretty the town looks with all its flowers, not only the parks and planters but also the many hanging baskets created by Nancy Aust at Basket Case Greenhouse.

Nancy’s baskets on the restroom building, Fifth Street Park

On the other side of the street, while Allan pulled some bindweed from behind the fence, I sat on a bench and had a pleasant view of the waterfall pond.

a sit down view that I have never seen before! Backed with Darmera peltata (with Gunnera on the right, small as it was beaten down by a hard winter)

beautifully reflective

Cove Restaurant

I had been looking forward all day to our weekly reward at the Cove Restaurant.

Allan’s photo, art by our friend Don Nisbett

the entry garden, Allan’s photo

Parking Lot Cat (who despite his name, has a cushy life)

He wanted to come in but was shooed out per health rules.

We dined on Chef Jason’s strawberry salad

Ahi tuna, a fish taco and a Vortex beer went down a treat.

An outside diner got the company of Parking Lot Cat who sat in the chair through the whole meal.

Next, we are planning on a three day weekend (except for Allan watering Ilwaco) and perhaps, if it is not too hot and dry so that we can put off watering Long Beach till Tuesday, a four day weekend. My goal is to not leave the property.

 

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prequel: 1993—a few outings

Our lives in 1993 were almost completely absorbed with our job, my new beach garden, and, when I could get away from work and the garden, walks on the Seaview beach.  However the occasional outing to another part of the Peninsula at least would give me some photos from which to make cards that I sold at the front desk of the resort to make some extra dollars to supplement our meager income.  We never could have survived had it not been for the rent from our house in Seattle that paid for the property tax and insurance and small mortgage payment that remained up there.

In the spring, I got two salable photos from Oysterville:

Oysterville Spring

Oysterville Picket Fence

One from Long Beach, since the owner of this house saw it and bought about twenty cards:

Minnie’s in Long Beach

Saturday was our slowest day because there would often be no turnover of the vacationers, so we went to Sandsations in June:

sandsations

sandcastles awash at end of Sandsations day

Kite Festival in August amazed me with its gorgeous kites. I had expected some Charlie Brown kites in the air and had no idea such artistry would be on display:

Revolution kite

kite festival

flying colours kites by George Peters

Flying Colours

Aztec Calendar by Michael Alvarez

 

Michael Alvarez and his box kite

kite festival

launching a kite train

kite train

going up…

kite train in the air

The owners of the resort told us they never got to go to Kite Festival because of needing to answer the phone.  (Their vintage trailers were usually the last lodgings on the Peninsula to fill up.)  I took over one day so that they too could go enjoy the amazing display of kites.

We discovered a little natural food store in Nahcotta (where Bailey’s Café is now), whose hours were very irregular, and got to know its owners a bit.

back yard of Nahcotta Natural

Nahcotta garden

Port of Nahcotta

After Labour Day, the work slowed slightly…although weekends would fill up each week until the end of October.  Robert and I got away to Oregon one day and I realized it was the first time we had left the Peninsula since bringing down our U Haul in the late winter.

Indian Beach

Robert found a huge net on Indian Beach and we hung it as a trellis for vines along the RV Park building.  I think we planted ivy there, which we now consider a noxious weed.

As autumn drew on, the work did not seem to slow down as much as I had hoped as it was now the time for deep cleaning and for many repairs on the 100 year old lodge and cabins.   However, by late summer, I got another, very significant job…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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flashback: Kite Festival, August 2009

Every year comes the Kite Festival to the city of Long Beach.  Sometimes I get jaded about it, but I shouldn’t because I’m always happy when I go….especially now that the beach approach garden is full of rugosa roses that can defend themselves against the eager crowds.

In 2009 me mum was in hospital and I thought I would be skipping kites altogether but as it happened we nipped down to the beach for a couple of hours on two different days and took in the lovely, colourful and soul-refreshing sights.

I’m especially fond of seeing Ray Bethell flying his three kites to music, one from each hand, one from his hip.  And of course I always root in the Rokkaku Challenge for Andersen’s Raiders from our gardening client Andersen’s RV Park.

No matter how many times I’ve been to the kite festival, I always get a tear in me jaded old eye when I see the beautiful colours in the sky.

Parade of Colours: banner wave

Parade of Colours

Showtime: Parade of Colours

line up

flyers camp

lighthouse banners

a patchwork kite

Andersen’s Raiders

Andersen’s Raiders in the fray

Rokkaku battle

Andersen’s Raiders

Andersen’s Raiders Rokkaku kite

Rokkaku Challenge with Andersen’s Raiders

Several bears make the Teddy Bear Drop

Saturday Showtime starts with the Teddy Bear Drop

llamas

warrior

red and black

work

peace

Revolution

ladybugs

lobster

jellyfish and sea lions

jellyfish

Tuxedo cat

cats and horses

flying saucer

sea creatures in the sky

rings and shadows

kite rings lift-off

kite rings

kite rings

rings and creatures

Ray Bethell flying three kites

The world famous Ray Bethell and fans from Canada

Ray Bethell and an admirer

Ray flies one from each hand and one from his hip.

..and flies three kites in formation.

…has a capful of badges..

The famous Ray Bethell…

Flyer showing off his badges.

club banners

Clubs set up camps with banners.

booths line the beach approach

kites, audience

dunes, kites, ocean

Folks sit on the dunes to watch events.

over the dunes to the kite festival

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26 August 2007 — kite festival from a gardener’s perspective

This past week was the yearly week-long Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach, an event which used to bring me joy, and in the more recent past, has brought me much angst.  Since the installation of the Bolstadt Beach Approach garden several years ago, I have fretted during every kite festival about the condition of the garden.  We strive to make it perfect for the event, but what happens when booths featuring fair food, kites, and attractive trinkets are placed on either side of a long narrow garden? Indeed, much trampling ensues.

The first few years the garden featured mostly annuals such as poppies, godetia, cosmos, and bachelor buttons, and had no chance of standing up to trompling feet.  I had a file in my photos called the “Walk of Shame” featuring groups of tourists mashing down the plants.  Other than the problem of not knowing which disk or semi-defunct old PC those photos may be stored on, it might be kinder to not cling to the past and instead to rejoice that finally the beach approach garden has grown tough enough to mostly withstand the event, making it possible for me to enjoy the kite festival again…or I would, if only we had had time to take a day off work.

Now the beach approach garden is filled with rugosa roses, perhaps too many rugosa roses as they have crowded out some of the more delicate items and are competing by underground runners with some of my favourite perennials.   The ephemeral beauty of years past may be gone, but at least the garden stands a chance to look good till the end of the year.

Above) The beach approach garden before…and now…..Not as pretty but it will still have something going on for Labour Day weekend instead of being flat as the proverbial pancake from the feet of festival-goers..

This week: Brand new “paths” boldly trodden where no path was before. Plants turn to mush or simply, completely, disappear into dust! There are sidewalk breaks in the garden and stepping stone paths at regular intervals, so these new paths are unnecessary.

Even now, given the sight of food booths on the other side of the garden, festival goers still beat  trails that  turn plants to pulp.  In past years even a two foot high rugosa rose youngster was turned to blackened broken stems.  Now their thorny mature selves are up to the challenge.

Enough complaining about the garden.  Below are some photos of the kite festival in years past when I had no gardening issues to decrease my enjoyment of the beauty of the kites and the beach.

Revolution kite…………………………………..and a kite club’s encampment

Amazing kite creations: Left, by George Peters; Center, “Aztec Calendar” by Michael Alvarez

………………………..launching a kite train

left: kite face by Steve Brockett; right: flying on a kite string

left: my favourite banner, “Celebrate Diversity” by Lavender Winds kite club….Right, an enormous ring

[2012 note: The Rugosa Roses have filled in so thickly that Kite Festival no longer causes us any trauma.  Weeding does, though, because of the tiny hairy fierce thorns.  We still are frequently asked “Are those tomatoes?”]

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