the end of December 2018, gardening

25 December 2018

The Christmas present exchange between me and Our Kathleen had a touch of O’Henry about it.

from Kathleen (Cream Earl Grey is delicious)

To Kathleen (from NIVA green gift shop)

I would love to have sent the same Liquid Wisdom teapot to Montana Mary but have a long and sad history of fragile things getting broken by the time they reach her.

We had already celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve, so I spent the afternoon potting up plants for my Memorial Day plant sale.

rain gauge

In hazy winter light, the lawn sparkled but I could not catch that in a photo.

new greenhouse lean to already full

Skooter helped with digging and dividing.

A terrible disappointment: The Eryngium, grown from seed from a reputable big name seed company, that was supposed to be Miss Willmott’s Ghost, have all turned out to be just an ordinary eryngium (and this one is blooming in winter).

I am sad.  I still desperately want Miss Willmott’s Ghost.  If anyone can bring me a real one, I will take that person out to dinner at the Shelburne Pub!

I have had a potting soil situation.  I bought the same brand from two different local stores.  One shipment is normal looking and dark.  One is extremely red and barky.

This kind, spray painted to mark the barky batch.

So I bought some from each source and mixed them, two parts good to one bad (at least, I think it is bad).

I think the red and barky soil is not as good (left).

Look at the difference, same brand!

The barky bags also had a lot of this.

What do you think about that, fellow gardeners?

26 December 2018

rain gauge and Frosty getting ready to help

Along with potting up starts, I did a little project.  The patio I made in January of 2011 had pavers at the edge, with the water boxes that were later installed.  I suddenly realized those pavers no longer served any purpose and took them out.

I crammed in some sod so that it can be string trimmed right to the edge of the boxes and will no longer be a weedy mess.

From the free wood pile by Jessie’s Fish Co, Allan brought home an armload of plastic venetian blinds.  He had asked me months ago if I wanted them for plant tags.  At that time, I was tired from work, had no intention of having a plant sale, and said no.  I had been regretting that no and was thrilled the slats were still there.

now chopped into plant tag length, four per slat

The potting continued with hellebore seedlings and divisions of golden oregano.

I am keeping track of the time I spend on this project, and the soil, and will divide that by any profit I make to see if this is a worthwhile thing to do after we retire.  (I have dreams of a plant stand at the Saturday market.)

Allan got round to photographing a gnome (made by Wendi Peterson at a Basket Case Greenhouse winter workshop) in a downtown window.

27 December 2018

I continued on a doomed mission to remove as much Ficaria verna (lesser celandine) as possible from areas of the garden where it is taking over.  It no doubt came from plants I brought from my mother’s garden.  It goes dormant in summer, so during the time when I was taking plants while we had her house for sale, its tiny corms hitched a ride.

little round leaves on the run

I am unlikely to win this battle.  I do love the bright yellow spring flowers.

I debated cutting down more dead perennial growth with The Toy, but what is left still looks beautiful to me.

Chelone (pink turtlehead)

We had made a trip to The Planter Box to get some pots back; I have been donating all my extras back to them before I decided on having a plant sale.

potted up some hens and chicks in these cute tiny pots

The only hen that has made no chicks is my favourite one that I bought for about $8 last spring:

Sempervivum ‘Gold Nugget’ is, so far, ungenerous.

After dark, I took a break from daily reading to watch just one episode of Gardeners’ World.  I know if I go down that rabbit hole, my reading plans will end for the winter so I must resist.  But…just one…

I trusted my memory so can not tell you the location of a garden right by the sea…

with a wonderful greenhouse…

…where the gardeners mulched with seaweed.

They said it helped to repel slugs and snails.

I wept with the tenderness of the visit between Carol Klein and Beth Chatto, one of my all time favourite inspirational gardeners.

30 December 2018

We’d had more rain. and now I had a semi-squally winter afternoon for more potting up of plants.

This time, I worked partly in the greenhouse making cuttings.  Wish me luck; it would be wonderful if these take. I was advised in a workshop of yore and by my friend Ann to use perlite.  I had one small bag of the stuff, but found it hard to stuck the cuttings in so I made a mix of half perlite and half seed starting mix.

I used santolina (green and silver), escallonia, rosemary, hardy fuchsia, red and gold twig dogwood, and a few other plants.

Maybe the ones in the lower right should have fewer leaves (olearia, just an experiment).

Skooter chose to not help out in the iffy weather.

sound asleep by the bathroom sink, the warmest room in the house

31 December 2018

We had ice!  Definitely a reading day.

My sarracenia did not mind the ice.

My plant sale stash is growing, but no more will be added till the weather warms up again. We did not dip down into the 20s so I did not have to cover these.

I learned this month that while planting in the ground is not a task I enjoy, I love potting up starts and making cuttings.  I found myself wishing that I had kept my previous home, which was zoned commercial, so that I could have had a weekend nursery.

Wishing you a belated happy new year as I finally got around to writing this on January 17th!

Next: some of the reading of late December.

 

Read Full Post »

15 April: work between rains

Sunday, 15 April 2018

Instead of me finishing my cutting garden book, we took advantage of a break in the rain to put in a couple of hours at the Shelburne on two things that had been bothering me.

But first, I picked a bouquet to take with us.

window box

and another window box

Muscari botyroides ‘Superstar’

some tulips hoping to open

The rain has been hard on the tulips; it is a challenge to find nice ones to pick that are not rain-spotted.  The peony flowering tulips are in the worst state, of course.  Even the single flowers are battered.  This is one of those years when I resolve to never again grow anything but single tulips.

sad mushy double tulips

the rain gauges (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

flowers on the way

The Shelburne Hotel

My project was to get some ferns removed from the roots of a rose in the front garden, and Allan’s was to prune a climbing rose in the back garden that may not have been pruned for years.  It had much dead whippy growth.

Allan’s photos:

before

before

Pruning canes with leaves does remove some of this year’s flowers.  However, the canes were so all over the place that it had to be done.  I would have had it done sooner but was unclear whether or not this arbor will be preserved.  It is more likely to be so if it does not look like a mess!

after

I am flummoxed by the formerly espaliered Asian pear trees on the west fence.  What to do?

(right) The pear has shot straight up in the past nine years.  The center tree is a limbed up hawthorn.

I got the center Asian pear tree looking a little better after I took this photo; it seems this one was not allowed to shoot straight up.

The third one has also been allowed to grow straight up. Its top growth does provide a screen from a window of a nearby house, so….might be valuable like this.

In the front garden:

looking south

base of the second rose today, where before it was all mucked up with a trashy fern.  It was almost buried in soft fern fronds.  And MINT.

Long Beach

We drove through town, stopping to deadhead under one tree, and then decided that the weather, which had just become miserably wet and windy, required the rest of the deadheading to wait.

Allan’s photos

Basket Case Greenhouse

A rainy day is a good time to check on the latest new plants at local nurseries.

Basket Case Greenhouse

We acquired some violas, at the request of Sous Chef Casey of the Shelburne, who wants them for edible flower garnishes.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I cannot resist agastaches.

On the way home, we decided to not plant all the violas in the rain; four went into pots by the front door where they will be handy for garnishing.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Read Full Post »

14 April: We had some rain…

Saturday, 14 April 2018

Looking out the front window, I noticed that the goldy-bronze Japanese maple, which I planted for eventual privacy, tones well with the cottage across the street.

Allan picked up some books from the library and did some deadheading there:

Ilwaco Community Building

Tulipa sylvestris

Tulipa (probably) ‘Peppermint Stick’

at home

In the early evening, Allan went on a splashabout in the back garden.

I wish that white bucket was not sitting there. Fire water bucket. I keep forgetting to move it.

in the bogsy wood

looking north from the Bogsy Wood

Bogsy Wood bridge

Bogsy Wood swale

the seasonal pond at the Meander Line

looking north

fairy door

at the north edge of the Bogsy Wood

lawn under water

In the evening, we watched the documentary Kedi, about the cats of Istanbul.  It was glorious.  You can watch it right here.

Skooter, lower right

To protect our telly, we had to put Skooter into the laundry room.  The soundtrack of meowing cats had him all in a tizzy. He never gets worked up by the meowing on the show My Cat From Hell.

After the film, I studied the first couple of chapters of this book, a gift from Lorna, former owner of Andersen’s RV Park, a longtime past job of ours..

I have looked at all the lovely photos before, but this time I am seriously studying it as I am not all that successful at intensive cutting gardens.  I am wanting a small one around the edges of the back garden of the Shelburne Hotel and would like to do better with cutting flowers at home because I am taking bouquets there on a regular basis.

A sweet story of how the author got started:

I don’t often pick bouquets for myself but I do like to make them for other people. I learned useful items already, such as succession seeding for annual flowers up till July 15th.  And planting them extra close together for cutting flowers.

After midnight, I looked to see how much rain had fallen on Saturday: 4.36 inches! And 8.55 since this storm began.

Read Full Post »

30 March: so darn close

Friday, 30 March 2018

With more good weather predicted, I had high hopes for finishing the beach approach today.  And yet, drizzle greeted us as we left home.  My assorted weather apps denied the rain and suggested the day would stay cloudy but clear, with little wind.

We began with a little bit of deadheading at The Depot Restaurant garden:

Depot deadheading

Depot lilies emerging

We then planted some monarda and some Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’ at the Shelburne Hotel, where I grieved mightily over this sight:

The dreaded aegepodium popping up in the sidewalk garden, where it did not used to be nine years ago when the garden was consistently under my command.

an unfurling fern at the Shelburne

Long Beach

We drove out to the beach approach and contemplated this weather…

…and I decided it would be best to finish mulching Fifth Street Park and hope that the drizzle stopped.  It was ironic that the most weatherbeaten garden of any that we do, the west end of the beach approach, was our goal for today.

soil scooping

mulching in Fifth Street Park

Allan’s photo

I cut down the tattered Melianthus major on the other side of the park.  The beds still need weeding but at least there are some narcissi:

Finally, despite a continued light drizzle and some wind gusts that almost made me decide to go home and read (till Allan said the gusts might blow the rain away), we returned to the beach approach.

Two sections to go till the red buoy.

Allan’s befores of the twelfth of thirteen sections:

I got to meet and pet a darling pug.

and this sweet wiggly girl.

We found a rock:

By 3:30, we had section twelve almost done but for the clean up of rose cuttings and sand along the road and sidewalk edges.

Allan’s afters of section twelve:

The drizzle had ended partway through that section and  I did so hope that we could do the last section by 7 PM.  Section thirteen is the longest one of all.

starting section thirteen, 3:45 PM

And then, when we had barely got started on it….

We tried for a bit to keep going but it got too cold and muddy and messy.

There are many roses right along the edge to pull out with the pick.  At least tomorrow the weather is supposed to be good, and we will start with higher energy.

We are SO CLOSE.

This much remains.

after we gave up. (Allan’s photo)

Dark Sky, which is usually accurate, had been wrong for much of the day.

Just one section to go!

Tonight, I finally felt that I had the energy to follow through with offering some rugosa starts to some local gardeners who wanted them.  We had saved some rooted pieces today, and tomorrow  we will be stripping more from along the edge, so I put out the word that the gardeners could come get some tomorrow afternoon.  I also have issued dire warnings about what eager colonizers these roses are and to not plant them where they will escape into the dunes.

I was relieved the person from yesterday did not return. I had some good advice from friends: To write down answers to the person’s repeated questions and give the person a list of answers on paper was one of my favourites.  And to do what I should have done yesterday, to leave for ten minutes and then come back.  Will do if it happens again.

Read Full Post »

24 March: Rally for Our Lives in Astoria

Saturday, 24 March 2018

Astoria, Oregon

Indivisible North Coast Oregon partnered with area students and their families in a Rally for Our Lives on Saturday, March 24, noon to 1:30 pm at 8th and Commercial in Astoria. We took to streets to demand that student lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools now. 

Allan’s photos:

Some photos from Indivisible:

 

photo by Laurie Caplan

photo by Laurie Caplan

 

photo by Laurie Caplan

photo by Laurie Caplan

photo by Laurie Caplan

photo by Laurie Caplan

photo by Laurie Caplan

photo by Laurie Caplan

my photos, till my hands got so cold from 38 degree weather that I had to stop!:

Our good friend MaryBeth!

Just look at that weather.

The rally got many and many honks of approval from passing vehicles, more than I have ever heard here.

From each corner, ralliers stood all the way down the block.

As the crowd began to dissipate after an hour because of the weather, I thought of a recent video that I saw about whether protests work. This article explains how weather can affect a protest and subsequent votes by Tea Party (right wing) sympathizers.  “We exploit variation in rainfall on the day of these rallies as an exogenous source of variation in attendance. We show that good weather at this initial, coordinating event had significant consequences for the subsequent local strength of the movement, increased public support for Tea Party positions, and led to more Republican votes in the 2010 midterm elections. Policy making was also affected, as incumbents responded to large protests in their district by voting more conservatively in Congress. Our estimates suggest significant multiplier effects: an additional protester increased the number of Republican votes by a factor well above 1. Together our results show that protests can build political movements that ultimately affect policy making and that they do so by influencing political views rather than solely through the revelation of existing political preferences.”

The weather aspect is especially interesting to me today.  Imagine, if we had at least 250 folks turn out in Astoria in pelting rain and 38F temperature, how many would we have had on a clear and slightly warmer March afternoon?  I admire everyone who stayed to the end; on this occasion, we departed half an hour early when my cold hands could no longer click the camera button..  I believe that those who endured bad weather to march and rally today were especially effective in their display of fortitude, and I have so much hope in the young generation as it reaches voting age.

 

Read Full Post »

22 March: working in miserable weather

Thursday, 22 March 2018

We did not do much work today.  We’d have done none, had we not had an appointment with our excellent new accountant who lives at the north end of the Peninsula about forty minutes away.  Since we were driving north, we also resolved to do a bit of work up that way.

First, we stopped in at the Port of Ilwaco office to try to find out more about the boatyard garden (will it be dug up for an important water project, and if so, how much?).  I could not connect with the port manager today to find out. We did deadhead the narcissi on the south side of the office in the full-on cold wind. A shopper from the Don Nisbett Art Gallery next door got caught in my photo because I was too eager to escape the wind to let him walk out of the way before snapping the shot.

On the way north, we bought some potting soil and two more packets of sweet pea seeds at

The Planter Box.

(I have resolved to plant sweet peas along the boatyard fence as I always do.  Surely the diggers, if diggers they be, would not dig by the fence all the way along.)

at The Planter Box

violas

After our accounting appointment, we briefly worked at

Klipsan Beach Cottages

where Allan trimmed a big sword fern and I planted a few sweet pea and poppy seeds.

looking in the east gate of the fenced garden

I recently came across a photo that compares the yews when Robert and Denny laid the pavers and the yews were first planted in 2003:

and now:

The garden, while still somewhat bare, has plenty to show of interest:

early tulips

blooming rosemary

blueberries

new foliage of Thalictrum ‘Elin’ which will tower overhead.

summer in the fenced garden with Thalictrum ‘Elin’ at middle right

Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii

Euphorbia (dulcis ‘Chameleon, probably)

Euphorbia myrsinites (donkeytail spurge)

daphne (several years old despite a miffy reputation)

azalea

double hellebore

pieris

pulmonarias

hyacinths

camellia (Allan’s photo)

And inside, out of the bitter cold and wind that was blustering even in that sheltered garden:

our good friend Bella, sensibly indoors

Ed’s garden

On the way south, we visited our friends Ed and Jackson Strange to drop off some plant starts (libertia and Lonicera fragrantissima and some rugosa roses; he can pot up and sell the latter at his big plant sale on Memorial Day weekend).

Jackson was most excited to see us.

We humans toured Ed’s exquisite small garden.

a WELL mulched gunnera

the deck

Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’

In the back garden, I scored a presale on the sort of garden bench I have wanted for a long time.

Ed helped Allan load it into our trailer, where it still sits, because I can’t help unload it.  We need help to get it into the back yard; the top piece is SOOOO heavy.

Long Beach

The sun had come out again as we drove further south.  Even though the wind was cold and fierce, we decided we could just about stand getting some buckets of mulch for Fifth Street Park.

Allan’s photo

before

after (Allan’s photos)

While Allan applied the mulch, I deadheaded narcissi in front of the Hungry Harbor, and then we rewarded ourselves for our work in truly miserable wind, with crab rolls at Captain Bob’s Chowder.

Captain Bob’s is behind the NW quadrant of the park.

Captain Bob’s cookies

Refreshed and warm again, we soon got cold by deadheading a few narcissi at city hall and then a rough deadheading of the narcissi at the welcome sign.

before

I took my after photo from inside the van….

….while Allan finished up the back of the sign, somewhat out of the wind and in a rain squall.

The rain stopped again.  We had had enough.  The local weather shows why we could not take anymore today, with 34.5 mph wind that felt like 35 degrees:

 

I had some cyclamens from MaryBeth to plant at the Shelburne. Next time!

At the library, we picked up a book and Allan took these photos:

Fritillaria meleagris

hellebore

and a quilt

At home, I delivered some narcissi clippings to the compost bins and ever so briefly enjoyed my garden.

Corylopsis pauciflora

a good crop of shotweed in this bed

window box

Frosty came with.

Allan’s photo

None of us stayed outside for long.

All I could erase today was one sweet pea task; Fifth Street still needs more mulch.

I am determined to take tomorrow off in order to avoid more cold wind.

 

 

Read Full Post »

22 Feb: Shelburne again

Thursday, 22 February 2018

I awoke and thought “We will MULCH!”  I had talked with Shelburne owner Tiffany about getting a pile of mulch delivered, but over the course of working at the Shelburne for a couple of days, I had realized there was no good place to have a mulch pile dumped.  The hotel will need all its parking places soon when the pub opens, and right now all spots are taken up with workers for the refurbishing.  I made an executive decision to start the day by getting a yard of mulch for the areas we had cleared.  A plus: We could dump our load of debris at Peninsula Landscape Supply.  Some work time would be added picking up the mulch, but then time would be saved by being able to park (we hoped) near our mulch target area.

Peninsula Landscape Supply

The lava rock showed the cold.

(Lava rock is my least favourite; Pen. Landscape Supply also has grey gravel and river rock.)

P.L.S. owner Colleen gave me two cute pavers.

Inside the garden shop:

I was thrilled to learn that on March 2nd, P.L.S. will be going to their full seven days a week instead of three days a week.  (The three days a week winter hours is why I felt we must apply mulch TODAY.)

One yard Soil Energy (Allan’s photo)

“Soil Energy combines composted wood products, aged screened sawdust, screened sand, composted chicken manure, lime, fertilizer and iron. (pH 6.2, brown tan in color, 38.9% organic matter).”

One of their big trucks waiting to load up after us. (Allan’s photo)

The Shelburne Hotel

We had earlier this week weeded along most of the fence and had removed fennel and yellow flag iris.  The soil there had been low already.  I was so pleased when we had returned to this job to find that over the years, something I had wanted very much had been done: A board along the back of the sidewalk bed to make it possible to raise the soil to sidewalk level.

before

Allan loaded soil into the wheelbarrow for the front garden inside the fence, while I applied soil along the sidewalk with buckets.

I spy an aster.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo (too much hesperantha)

Allan’s photo

When I got to the south end of the sidewalk garden, Allan helped by digging out two Spiraea douglasii, a beautiful native shrub that used to fill up this end of the garden.  Its bloom time is brief and it is a pushy runner,  so these two starts had to go.  There is still one left on the inside, and will be forever, I suppose, because its roots go under the fence.  “It spreads by rhizomes, and is very aggressive, It often forms dense colonies and can quickly become the dominant species in a wetland habitat.”–nativeplantspnw.com

These would want to get as tall as me.

That was hard work and I am so glad Allan will tackle a task like this.

after

I salvaged three Kniphofia (the classic old red hot pokers) and replanted them.

If you know me well, this will shock you.  I planted some starts of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ on the north side of the entry way:

That is because I will never be able to eliminate these Lucifers from the south side:

The Crocosmia is actually a good plant.  I’ve just gone off of it because it has taken over some areas in Long Beach.  It is pushy but not as horribly pushy as orange montbretia (aka crocosmia).  Orange and red pop against the dark green hotel.  That is good because I’m sure I will never manage to completely eliminate the orange montbretia, whose corms are deeply entrenched in shrub and tree roots in some areas.

I am the one who originally planted the Lucifer here years ago.  I kept it contained to a couple of small areas.  It has gone on a rampage since then and is (or was, till this week) all through the garden.

I decided to send Allan for a second yard of mulch while I weeded madly to have enough garden prepared for it.  In picking up a pile of wisteria trimmings (clipped by another worker) to send with him for dumping, I found a surprise:

Here is the source of the yellow flag iris starts that were all along the fence!

Iris pseudacorus is a class C noxious weed here.  It is not mandatory to eliminate it.  However, we (meaning Allan)  are going to dig up this patch on our next day here.  It does not bloom at all in this dense shade and so many better things could replace it.  I would like to get some cyclamen starts from Our Kathleen if she has any to spare, and I could transplant some epimedium into this spot and some hellebore seedlings.  I hope that gardeners from the Big City will stay at the Shelburne and be pleasantly surprised to find garden treasures to admire.

back at Peninsula Landscape Supply (Allan’s photo)

While Allan was gone, I transplanted some hardy fuchsias that were in front of two small rose bushes, blocking them from getting sunlight. The fuchsias went down to the rhododendron end.   I loosened up three more big woody fuchsia clumps that my wonky back suggested I wait for Allan to remove.  When he came back he did…

Anytime he is working in that area, I fretfully cry, “Watch out for the windows!”  We are both excruciatingly careful back there.  The windows were imported from England.

Here is a historic photo of the Shelburne, before two buildings were joined together to make a greater whole.  It used to be across the street from where it sits now.

photo courtesy Seaview Historic Preservation Society

Along with loosening the fuchsia clumps, which would like to be so tall that they would block the windows, and one of which was swamping a rose bush, I had ruched out loads of running aster roots.  It helps that the roots are a distinctive pinky-purple.  And I had also pulled out two buckets full of pink-rooted Lysimachia punctata which had colonized almost all of the garden on the north side of the entry.  I will let some grow but I want more variety.  Lysimachia punctata is a plant that is so aggressive that I have (almost) completely eliminated from my garden.

The three fuchsias (plain old Fuchsia magellanica) had to go away; their roots were infested with bindweed, scilla, and aster.  There are still many smaller specimens left of the same plant.

Allan’s photo

Have I mentioned these want to get tall?  A passerby familiar with the garden said that in recent years, “from across the street, you could hardly see that the building was there”.

A cleared area. The aster will come back but in moderation.  The white phlox can breathe now.

second load (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

5 PM with the temperature dropping rapidly

looking south from the north end, with montbretia still to be edited, on the right

I’ve started weeding out the grass along the sides of the round pavers and moving some of the loose river rock to the very north end outside the fence.  I would love to have had time to finish that weeding, but the ground was starting to freeze and we were running out of daylight.

looking south. The southernmost end still needs to be weeded and mulched.

looking north from the entry way, before Allan did some more soil smoothing.

Allan’s photo, after soil smoothing with the back of a rake

Here is how it looked three work days ago:

Monday, before, looking north from the hotel entrance

 

looking south from the entryway, 5 PM today

Here is how it looked three work days ago:

We need to weed and edit up to the north end fence.  One more yard of mulch will finish the front garden mulching.  I have many the cool plant in my garden which I will divide and plant into this garden.  The good kind of passalong plant.  I look forward to days warm enough to start that part of the project.

Salt Pub

Tonight was our weekly North Beach Garden Gang dinner.  This time, the core four of us were joined by Our Kathleen and by Todd (Willapa Gardening).

We gave Todd his belated birthday presents.

Allan’s photo

two books: Cutting Back, my favourite gardening memoir of the last decade, and The Essential Earthman by Henry Mitchell.

“–Henry Mitchell was to gardening what Izaak Walton was to fishing. The Essential Earthman is a collection of the best of his long-running column for the Washington Post. Although he offered invaluable tips for novice as well as seasoned gardeners, at the heart of his essays were piquant observations: on keeping records; the role of trees in gardens (they don’t belong there); how a gardener should weather the winter; on shrubs, bulbs, and fragrant flowers―and about observation itself. “The most soul-satisfying gardening book in years.” ―New York Times  (thanks to Leslie Buck for finding this quotation)

Cutting Back made me want to meticulously shape up so many shrubs and trees…I have not had time to get to all of them.

Todd, who had been with his twin sister in Hawaii for his birthday, brought us all delicious Hawaiian chocolates.

We had the most excellent conversation about everyone’s latest gardening and home projects.  I fear that for awhile I dominated the conversation with Shelburne this and Shelburne that, because I am obsessed.

Our delicious food:

cheese curd app with chipotle sauce (Allan’s photo)

crab mac and cheese

pork belly poutine (I would have had this if it was chicken poutine)

smoked tuna melt with salad subbed for fries

Melissa showed us this photo of her garden a couple of days ago:

photo by Melissa Van Domelen

When I got home after dinner, I had a chat on the phone with Bill and Carol Clearman, making for a good end to a satisfying day and evening.

Friday, 23 February 2018

I woke with an intense desire to get back to the Shelburne and dig up yellow flags and edit the orange montbretia and finish weeding the north end so that we would be ready for more mulch.  I was so determined that I did not care that it was 29 degrees.  (Our Kathleen says the low at her cottage halfway up the peninsula was 21F this morning. Her cottage is set down in a “holler”.) Normally, I would not work in such cold weather.  But I am obsessed.

Just as Allan was getting the trailer ready for work, snow began.  I looked at the weather report and saw this:

Never mind.  I’m not that obsessed.

Even this picture on my bookshelves failed to inspire.

It became a blogging day.  With this post done, I can do another book list post.  (Late last night, I posted Reading in 1993, so I have a long way to go.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »