Arborvitae Thuja

 

Instead of going downstairs and watching depressing news, I've been sitting outside after dinner finishing my wine while John cleans up the kitchen. This is very nice. There's only a few weeks in the year when it's warm and dry enough.

I can contemplate the planting mistakes and successes I've made over the years. These beautiful trees started out gallon size, and over the decades they've grown into a beautiful garden wall separating our property from next door. 

At some point, the old single story house over there will get torn down to build something enormous, most likely multiple townhouses, since that's the current trend.  Maybe these trees will be a visual break from whatever is looming over us.

 Just like these Leyland Cypress I planted to hide the ADU across the alley. These must be kept pruned, but cutting back the slow growing Thuja just makes an ugly hole that never fills in. When the times comes John can no longer push the mover past them, I'll just nip in the garden bed by a few feet. Not a bad idea, because those big flower beds are getting to be a huge amount of work. 

Cinnamon Queens

 

It takes courage to start over again so soon, but if Amanda waited until next spring for chicks, it would be almost 2 years before they had eggs again. Not only that, the useful hens also consume all manner of kitchen scraps, and this family goes through tons of salad, vegetables and fruit. 

Cinnamon Queens are a cross between a Rhode Island Red rooster and a Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. They are also known as Golden Buffs, Golden Comets, Boven Browns and Red Sex Links. Fancy names! They are social birds that like interacting with humans and are kid friendly (see above.) 

Prolific egg layers, the only negative is they don't live as long as other breeds. Since they look like peas in a pod, it's going to be hard to name them as individual pets, although Maya is trying. 

July

 

Peach pie, oh my. It was as good as it looks. 

I bought some amazing peaches this week for $1.29 a pound with a digital coupon, probably the best we'll have all summer. When I went back for more yesterday, they charged me $4.50 for just three. Apparently that coupon was a once shot deal. You have to watch the fine print when doing business with Mr. Safeway. 

July arrives with a good stretch of summer weather. It usually rains on the 4th in Seattle, but not this year. The temperatures will be close to 90 by the end of the week and the chorus of heat complainers will start up soon. People love their cool, cloudy days here.

It's a busy week. The West Seattle Senior Center recently rebranded itself as the Center for Active Living (don’t ask me why) and they asked if I was interested in helping to design a float for the West Seattle Grand Parade on July 20, then walking the route handing out leaflets. The last time I did that was 40 years ago with Amanda's gymnastic group. John says the next time I'll probably be in one of those retirement home vans. Ha!