Summertime, and the livin' is...easy?

Before

Not around here. The "tile man" came yesterday, the "hedge man" comes next week, the "bathtub refinish man" comes when he gets around to it. In between, there's scraping and painting and weeds and cleaning and fighting the rampant bamboo a thoughtless couple planted in their own yard 15 years ago. People who must enjoy creating work for themselves.

When summer only lasts six weeks, you have to hit the ground running.  After much dirty and spidery prep work,  I got started painting the old backyard garage and finished one side yesterday.  The side we look at year round from the kitchen window.  A red door?  And why not...life (like summer) is short. 

After

Hollyhocks

Hollyhock House
Built 1920

Who wouldn't want to live in a "Hollyhock House?" I'd like to see this place if we ever get back to Southern California.  It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall and is now a National Historic Landmark in East Hollywood. The house takes its name from her favorite flower, and Wright designed decorative hollyhocks into the roof line, wall, columns, planters and furniture.

Interior view

Many Frank Lloyd Wright homes have precious names that only enhance his reputation as an architectural genius:

Snowflake House
Butterfly Woods
The Crimson Beech
Fallingwater
La Minatura
Deer Track
Airplane House
The Ship House
Cedar Rock
Rocky Roost
The Acres

And so on...there's an excellent  Wiki page with a chart and pictures of all his projects around the world.

Our hollyhocks are just starting to bloom.  Forget East Hollywood, hollyhocks were once called the "outhouse flower" because the long stalks would pretty up the little building in the summer.   In fact, that's exactly where I remember them growing on farms in Pennsylvania.  Now we have them by the recycle bin, which I guess is sort of the same thing.

Hollyhocks are one of those flowers that seem to do just fine when you stop trying so hard.  I've transplanted, fertilized, watered, gathered up and planted the prolific seed pods (with no luck.) Yet for years now, we've had a neglected patch growing by the house in what amounts to dry dust. Children love them-- the upside down blossoms make excellent dolly skirts.

Hummingbird heaven

One of our favorite flowers has just started blooming-- the red crocosima lucifer. The hummingbirds love it, and they stare right in the window at me like little drug addicts while they gorge themselves.  The plant is a member of the iris family, native to the Floristic Region of South Africa. I'd never heard of this place, but found out it's one of the most amazing plant habitats in the world. Among other plant oddities, the the incredible protea family grows there in spectacular variety.

Although the region is tiny, it contains some 9,000 plant species with over 6,000 found nowhere else on earth.



Crocosima should be divided every 2 or 3 years, but of course I wait much longer.  When I finally get around to digging them up, the corms have formed these unusual vertical chains with the youngest on top and the largest buried deepest in the soil.  The roots of the bottom corm are "contractile" and drag the chain deeper into the soil over time.

There can be hundreds of corms under each old plant that form a thick mat that is hard to shovel through.  I think each corm can be separated and planted individually, but I don't have the patience (or space) for that many plants so I give the extras away to my friends, which makes me popular.  Like any little thing from the nursery these days, they are expensive, but it's hard to think of a flower that gives more pleasure.

Bucket fixation

This morning the sky is clear blue, but a rare thunderstorm blew through Seattle last night with free water for the flowers and grass.  Great timing, since after five sunny days I was getting ready to hook up the sprinklers.  Dragging around hoses is my least favorite summer task and I always manage to pull down plants or spray myself in the face.

It was a busy weekend in our corner, and it felt like the eye of the hurricane with thousands of people having fun just down the road at Alki Beach and sirens going off (what seemed like) every few minutes.  They say there are 30% more emergency calls in the warm months, but surely it's much more. It is quiet as the tomb around here in the dead of winter.  When the sun finally comes out, people make up for lost time by getting in trouble.

Between chores we anxiously watched the basement bucket for drips and used the process of elimination to narrow down the leak before calling out the experts. We showed impressive teamwork!  After everything was off in the upstairs bath and the bucket was dry, we started the water systematically and then waited.  We ran up and down the stairs many times. The worst possible scenario would be a pipe leak way under the loo-- this happened years ago and it means ripping out a section of drywall ceiling.  I was in denial and afraid to flush the toilet to find out.  Then I did. All was well and by the end of the day we were pretty sure it was only old grout failure on the shower wall. A minor hassle having to use the downstairs shower for the time being, but not a big deal.
 

As Bob Dylan once wrote: I can't help it, if I'm lucky.

Violet sunrise

What could be prettier than violets on the Sunday morning breakfast table?  However, it won't be a day of lazy flower contemplation in this house. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.  A day ahead of projects, Home Depot trip and researching local plumbers on Yelp.  Last night John noticed a drip, drip, drip coming through the downstairs ceiling light fixture from (somewhere) in the upstairs bathroom. But exactly what pipe is leaking under the floor is the mystery of the day.  Oh, the joys of ancient plumbing.  Fortunately we have two bathrooms.

Summer nights

Summer Night

by Akageno Saru

Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night
I weep for wonder wand'ring far alone
Of shadows on the stars. 

James Agee