12 months

August 2015

What a difference a year makes.  I remember being so unhappy last August without our lovely and horrible bamboo wall. The back yard was all torn up and exposed, the new fence was still months off, and I couldn't see how it would ever come back together.

After looking at bare dirt all winter, in February I planted little 5-gallon Leyland Cypress trees...

And just look at them six months later.  They've certainly lived up to their reputation as one of the fastest growing trees.  They're already over the top of the fence and filling in nicely, with the help of abundant fertilizer and water this summer.

Timid gardeners avoid them, because Leyland Cypress eventually become massive trees.  At the rate these are growing, "eventually" might be just around the corner.  John was wondering how soon until they become problem trees?

I told him not to worry, there's probably a special Seattle Leyland Cypress abatement company.  They will come out and sadly shake their heads at the irresponsible planting, then write up a big bill for removal.  Sound familiar? 

But until that day comes: Grow babies, grow!

The first day of school

It's going to be a peaceful day for this kitten and dog.
And Mommy.

Summer winds down

On Saturday, my friend Candi and I spent a nice morning poking around in Edmonds, north of Seattle.  She lives in Poulsbo and took the ferry over from Kingston. It was busy and crowded on the main street.  Edmonds was once just a dull ferry dock town, but it's posh now, with expensive boutiques, galleries, restaurants and the best farmer's market I've ever seen in the northwest.

This must be partially due to the success and fame of Rick Steves.  Edmonds is his hometown, and he has a large store there called The Savvy Traveler. The quaint streets are planted with perfectly coordinated flowers, and unusual pocket gardens with rare plants tucked here and there. Everything was still fresh and pretty, even late in the summer.

It was inspiring and discouraging. We decided we are "so over" our boring, dried-up gardens, full of flopping daisies and pooped out vegetables (well, at least for another season.)

On Sunday the weather was finally cool and I got motivated outside.  The soil was dry as dust, and I dug out an ugly corner crammed with unhappy things like matted grasses, invasive ground cover, poor strawberries that never made fruit, and oh yea, some of those big iris.

Since I couldn't just throw them away, I took a bag of iris roots over to my neighbor's house. Diane  will find them when she gets back from vacation tomorrow.  In the flower gardening world, "sharing" big iris is like sneaking a 10 pound zucchini on someone's porch under cover of darkness. Ha!

I divided up all that nice drought-resistant grass and replanted it. It will fill in quickly. There's no need to buy any new plants around here, and now it looks like someone actually thought about this bed, instead of an old hodge-podge. 

Like this!  But we are own worst critics. The late garden is still attractive, even with the bare spots where I got annoyed and hacked things off.

Common but pretty flowers...

Only 5 plums on the tree this year, but a bumper crop of apples. Go figure.  It's too bad each and every one has a secret worm hole.

My new friend

About a year ago on a drive home from Twisp, I spotted this metal crow for sale at a produce stand.  It was too much money, but later I wanted it.  Of course no one else was foolish enough to buy it, so I brought him home with me last week.  He can hold peanuts for all the scavengers I feed in the winter.

The olive man cometh

Last time I was in Las Vegas, we were sitting inside on a long, hot afternoon and I showed dad how easy the online shopping experience is at the Olive Pit website.  A few clicks, and soon your basket is full of California goodies.

There's no shipping charge for all those heavy fragile items if you meet the minimum order (which isn't hard.)  And soon the UPS truck pulls up with a couple of big boxes from northern California.  Our dad has seen many things in his long life, but he thought this was pretty incredible.  He is right-- we take the most amazing things for granted these days. 

When we drive to California in a few weeks, we'll stop at the Olive Pit store in Corning, just because we always do.  It's easy to go on a shopping spree there, but John needs to remind me we are stocked up with enough olives for at least a year.  

Sorry, I wish I had something to write about other than food and boring summer weather. The big news in Seattle this morning: it will be very hot again today. How exciting.

I was hankering for roast chicken yesterday (homemade, not Costco) but it was too warm to run the oven, so I cooked this on the grill.  It takes about an hour, using indirect heat, and it was delicious. I made some green salad with lime dressing and corn on the cob.  Roasting whole chicken on the grill isn't hard, just tricky.  The tricky part being keeping the grill lid closed, and not peeking and poking at it like a steak.

The "vulgar month"

Roger and Georgia

Roger looks happy being underfoot in the kitchen again. He spent a couple days at the veterinary school clinic at WSU in Pullman.  There was good news/bad news. Roger's home vet couldn't find a underlying cause for his gagging cough. Neither could the experts at the college.  But he had some tests and treatments done, and Amanda said he is doing pretty well now.  He is the dearest fellow and only 8 years old. Hopefully he will be with us for a long time to come. 

So, more record high temperatures for today and Friday. Can you believe it is almost September? Back to school for Nova next week. September can be a warm and pleasant month, but this is probably the last hurrah for summer heat. Over the weekend, the weather pattern shifts to morning clouds, cool ocean breezes and maybe even some showers.  I can't remember the last time we had real rain.  Everything is dried out.

I always dread the upcoming dark and wet winter, but the September season shift is one of the nicest times of year in the Northwest. We didn't take a vacation this summer, but have a driving trip to California planned in a couple of weeks. It's been two long years since we visited our favorite spots in the Napa Valley. As usual, we're staying several nights in the hot springs town of Calistoga.  Keep the mud bath hot for me!

I'm also planning a trip in late September to visit dad in Las Vegas. After a such a hard, sad year for our family, there are suddenly some nice things to look forward to again.

When you’re young you prefer the vulgar months, the fullness of the seasons. As you grow older you learn to like the in-between times, the months that can’t make up their minds. Perhaps it’s a way of admitting that things can’t ever bear the same certainty again.

Julian Barnes
"Flaubert's Parrot"

On this day in history

On August 24, A.D. 410, tribesmen under the Visigoth King Alaric entered the city of Rome and started a three-day frenzy of burning, looting and pillage.  They came from what is now Germany and were basically immigrants, tired of oppressive Roman rule and wanting new land to settle on. Rebellious Roman slaves opened the gates to Alaric's guys in the middle of the night.

It's been called "one of the most civilized sacks of any city ever witnessed."  The palaces of the aristocracy were looted, Romans who resisted were killed, but not many monuments were destroyed.

The Visigoths were Arian Christians, and they treated Christian sites and relics with respect. It was the first of six major raids on the Eternal City and the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire, which had lasted for 507 years.

Oh yea, and inspiration for some lurid art in the centuries to come...

Up and at em'

"The serving boy brought the coffee.  Duquet looked suspiciously at the sinister black liquid.  It was scalding and bitter, a very dreadful potion, but he drank it. In a quarter of an hour he felt ideas rushing into his head- he memorized the faces before him with newly sharpened senses."

From Barkskins,  by Annie Proulx

Early morning blogging couldn't happen without it.  I worked hard yesterday doing chores and housework, so I'm running slow this morning, even though the sun is coming up bright and strong, which usually energizes me.

The dark and chilly marine layer of clouds vanished, and another ridge of high pressure is building over the Northwest. We might set more record high temperatures by the end of the week.  This is bad news for the wildfire threat across the state.

Our neighbors are on vacation this week, so I'm watering two gardens in the heat. I don't mind of course, she does the same for me when we're gone. Their yard isn't as big as ours, but it is very beautiful, and she has every darn nook and cranny planted with delicate, water-loving plants and pots. I have to be careful not to miss anything.

I'm a more slapdash with my own garden by late August. My attention has shifted to garden clean-up. Yes, I am getting tired of the work!  I'm hacking off the flopping perennials, and the weekly yard waste bin will be full from now until November.  I also water less and actually enjoy seeing some open space between the remaining plants.  We'll have cutting flowers like dahlias for a long time yet, but the main show is over.

However, there are always some late, surprise bloomers. This is the pretty Diamond Eyes rose that Tammy gave John a couple months ago.  I pruned it and gave it a good dose of fertilizer, and now it rewarded us with an even nicer second bloom.

Weather whiplash

My car thermometer read 89 degrees at the summit of Snoqualmie Pass yesterday.  I thought, could that be right? I cracked the window, stuck out my arm.  Yup.  It really was that hot, and got even hotter as I drove down through the Cascade foothills into baking Seattle.

This morning is a different story.  A heavy marine layer came in overnight, the sky is grey, and a chilly breeze blew away all the heat. I'm getting ready to work outside. I suppose we are always the most critical of our own gardens, but mine is looking downright raggedy.  I'm spending this cool Sunday clearing out dead stuff, deadheading and weeding. 

I had an easy drive home, considering what can happen on that busy I-90 route during summer weekends. On Saturday morning, most of the traffic was headed east. They were passing each other like madmen on crazy three-lane Blewett Pass, so that was the only hazard traveling west.  I didn't even hit any construction delays on Snoqualmie, a real bonus. 

I hate driving around Seattle with a passion, but being alone on the open road is one of my secret pleasures.  I plug in my iPod on Bluetooth, then sing along to folk songs and the Greatest Hits of the 70's.  And not have to worry about making a certain "classical" someone jump out the window.

Thanks Amanda and Tom for having me stay.  I sure hope the girls had as much fun as I did. 

Out and about

Finbar, Nova, Adelina and Maya

These children aren't farsighted, they just borrowed some reading glasses from the basket at the Winthrop library.  We were there yesterday to watch K-9 Officer Gene Davis from the Okanganan sheriff's department do a demonstration.  

I'm not sure who had more fun.  The kids, Officer Davis or "Havoc," his Belgium Malinois police dog. He takes his commands in Dutch, and his thing is catching bad guys in a real no nonsense way. Oh yea, and sniffing out bad drugs. 

Well, other than that excitement, we mostly played around the house and yard.  It is very hot and dry, but downright chilly by the early morning. Pleasant summer weather, really.  Today we're riding bikes to the Cinnamon Twisp Bakery and spending the afternoon at the town pool.

Making mud lasagna....

No shortage of toys here...

Kitty view from inside...

The only concern is about good dog Roger.  He's having breathing problems and bad spells when it sounds like he has whooping cough. So far this has baffled the vet, but he goes for a chest X-Ray this afternoon. He is the dearest dog in the world and we hope he recovers soon.

The long and winding road

I made it to the Methow Valley in non-record time yesterday, about 6 hours.  Of course the first hour was spent on the first 5 miles, creeping along from our house to the freeway trying to get past downtown. From there it was clear sailing going north.  There was plenty of traffic on 20 East, but nothing like a weekend RV parade.  I pulled over occasionally to let the tailgaters by, so I could enjoy the road without someone breathing down my neck.

I made a stop in the town of Concrete at their famous bakery to buy some gluten free breads for Amanda and used their picnic table to eat my ham sandwich.  Just up the road, I parked and walked across the Gorge Creek Bridge (I forgot how terrifying that is) and then made a final stop at the Washington Pass scenic overlook before heading down into the valley.

John and I have whizzed by this overlook many times coming and going from Twisp. We were really missing something special.  After a short walk,  you are rewarded with the most spectacular views of the North Cascade mountains.  It's almost too much to take in.  The weather is usually windy, rainy, and cold up there, but yesterday was an unbelievable 80 degrees at 5,500 feet.

I was happy to see everyone yesterday, and looking forward to a busy couple of days with the girls while Amanda and Tom are at work.  It is very hot by the afternoon, almost 100.  But as soon as the sun went down, a breeze came up and it cooled right down to blanket-sleeping weather.  I thought of that wind coming off the mountains, where the season is changing fast to winter.

A couple of William Stafford's lovely Methow Valley poems were posted at the overlook.

Heat wave

Where the wild things are...

I'm driving over the North Cascades highway later this morning,  and plan to stay stay in Twisp until Saturday. I'm looking forward to spending Thursday and Friday with the girls while Tom and Amanda work.

We've heard it too many times this election season, so I've vowed to never use the odious phrase "very, very" again.  However, one last time. It is going to be very, very hot in Washington!   I'll be pretty busy the next few days, but hope to have some pictures for blog.   Ciao.

The meaning of life

Summer reading

I took this picture from the bedroom window this morning with my camera zoom.  Oh, I wish a had dozens of this beautiful pink Echinacea plant. It's another lovely sunny day, with the sun just coming up, although noticeably later. It was still dark when John left for work, and will be that way until next May. The season is subtly changing-- you can already see it in the leaves.
 
It was a noisy night in the Urban Village.  Shouting on the street woke me at 3 am and kept me awake. It's quiet and peaceful outside now, and I just watched my mamma raccoon friend and her two youngsters go by.  I look for them every morning while I'm sitting at my desk writing.

This is a tough town, so I feel for the few wild creatures still trying to make a living here.  Raccoons don't eat cherry tomatoes :-) or do any harm in our yard, other than poop in the corner, so I have no real beef with them.  Hey! There goes another one.  I think they're mostly looking for water this time of year. 

I see on The Writer's Almanac that today is the 80th birthday of Annie Proulx, one of my favorite authors.  She won a Pulitzer Prize for the novel "The Shipping News," which was made into a movie starring Kevin Spacey. She also wrote "Brokeback Mountain, made into a controversial movie, and many other hard-scrabble stories about the West, particularly Wyoming. 

I don't have much time to read in the summer, I'm so busy outside. Mostly watering right now. But I've just started her newest novel, which took her 10 years to write (and will probably take me 10 years to read) called Barkskins. 

It's 700 pages long, about taking down the forests of America, beginning on the East Coast. The novel begins in the 1600's and (I think) goes up to present time. Her writing style is so beautiful: clear and plain, but poetic.  I splurged and bought the hard-cover at Costco so I could take my time reading it.  Dad and Marji, I will save it for you. 

Annie Proulx calls herself “bossy, impatient, reclusively shy, short-tempered, single-minded.”  Click HERE for an interview in the Paris Review.