|
|
| Thursday, 31-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share |  | Bookmark |
|
A ride on the fire truck
|
|
I was downtown running errands of various sorts and went past the firehall in time to catch Steve on his way to the fuel company to fill up the truck. Well, who in their right mind would pass up a chance to ride in a firetruck? And besides, I needed a chance to talk with him and figured he'd be captive for at least the duration of the three blocks to the station. Of course, before we could get started we had to adjust the mirrors (and this is not a simple pull-on-one-corner event, oh no). And then the mayor came by and needed a quick consultation on some city business.
But finally we were on our way. Riding in that truck is such a spectator sport. All the little girls riding by on their bicycles wave and smile; all the guys look at you out of the corner of their eyes and wish they were the ones driving.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wednesday, 30-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
A visit to Backer's Island
|
|
|
This summer a new resort opened on Backer's Island. It's three brand new houses, as well as some older places that I didn't see into but aren't guest accomodations. It's across from the boat harbor, and for today's open house, the owner ferried everyone back and forth in his landing craft from the floatplane dock in the harbor.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tuesday, 29-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
At the old cannery
|
|
Steve had to stop off at the old cannery wreckage to look for a piece of metal stock to fabricate a bracket for the fire truck. I was with him, so while he looked at metal, I looked around at some of the old canning machinery that's scattered about the lot.
All of this belongs to the city, and I imagine that all of it will simply go to the dump. Everything that anyone wanted has already developed legs and departed, so only the dump-pickers will find very many further gleanings here. There are folks here who could tell you what each machine did and, most likely, the maintenance history, who operated them, and, undoubtedly, several interesting anecdotes about each one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Monday, 28-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Flowers and other growing, or not, things
|
|
|
While I was walking around this weekend looking at other things, I was also taking photos of flowers. Of course. Here are the best of the gleanings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sunday, 27-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Old things
|
|
You've seen selections from this set elsewhere, but yesterday seemed to be a day for getting rid of old things. The Paisleys were dragging that old truck out of the woods, and as long as it was on its way to the dump, they filled the back up with rubbish as well.
Walter said he was cleaning up the lot he owns along the Slough, picking up years of debris, stuff that's been there at least since the '64 earthquake. Of course with Walter, everything has a story. There was the story of the prybar and the story of Nick Hoganson, which related to where the road used to go and, I didn't quite follow all the details, to someone whose gravesite needs a new marker (since we'd already established that I was working on the cemetary project, possibly by way of the graves not being where mapped). Everything always has a point, but you can lose your way pretty easily when Walter gets started telling stories. Come to think of it, I didn't hear the story about these sinks. But I'm sure there is one. I'm certain of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Saturday, 26-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Tina in the garden
|
|
Tina's main ambition these days is to get out in the yard again. She's pretty good about hanging around, and she likes to bask in the shade of the lupine "tree" or the mint patch while I'm working in the lower yard.
Getcher Tina fix here!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Friday, 25-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Garden report
|
 |
|
Bleeding heart
|
|
 |
|
Two currants go in; one currant survives
|
|
 |
|
The highbush cranberry that was never meant to grow
|
| | View all 13 photos... |
|
Aside from some wind damge to the leggy daisies and the lupine "tree" and the peas, things are looking pretty good in the yard. The bleeding heart, which I'd feared a victim of that late frost, not only eventually set leaves, but managed one spray of blossoms.
Of the two currant slips from Crow Hill that I replanted, one survived. Crow Hill is for sale again and rented out; I should go ask the tenant if I may clip a few more branches from the big currant bush in the back yard to start some more slips. On the other hand, a highbush cranberry pruning that I used for a quick-and-dirty twig fence a few years back has rooted and seems to be flourishing. I have no shortage of highbush cranberries, but it is an attractive plant, especially in its fall foliage, so I will leave it there until it misbehaves.
This year's kale, a dwarf variety (Russian red, I think) is delightful-looking with its spiky leaves and red veins. I think I should plant more of this in the flower beds in an ornamental capacity. It and the lettuces in the redneck raised beds are now mature enough to start picking, and last night I made a full dinner salad from garden gleanings.
The peas are finally blooming in the beds; up on the deck I am less sanguine after the wind's wild damage. I continue to find pleasant flower juxtapositions and surprises in things salvaged or given me.
Also surprising is what happens to your macro spot focusing when you are taking a photo of some beads of water in a little plant and the cat chooses that moment to stage a swoop-and-rub. I do not fully have the hang of this new camera yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Thursday, 24-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
A day spent indoors
|
|
The wind was howling out all day, and I asked Steve to take down the top pot of flowers out on the deck. Look at how the wind has just flattened the lettuce, too. So I stayed in and sewed, under close supervision, of course.
I also started sketching ideas of elements to include in the mural the arts council may be painting down along the ferry dock. We talked about doing a boardwalk village (like we aren't any more), and the assignment for everyone was to think up things to include. I especially like my dog on the 4-wheeler and the black bear lifting the lid of a garbage can.
I was making the rounds of the house plants this morning watering them when I noticed that this cactusy plant is seemingly getting ready to bloom. At least, I think this stalk is a flower stalk. Either that or we'll wake up some morning soon with it wrapped around our ankles, dragging us towards its gaping maw...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wednesday, 23-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Hike to Tutka Bay
|
 |
|
On the trail
|
|
 |
|
Further along the trail
|
|
 |
|
The pretty little stream that prevented total cutting
|
| | View all 19 photos... |
|
One of the Summer Hike Program beginner hikes was scheduled to go over to Tutka Bay Lagoon, and the weather looked good and I've never been all the way over there, so it seemed like a good time to join them. We had three adults and seven kids, the oldest of whom was 10 and the youngest still in preschool.
About 60% of the trail is through land logged heavily by the native association, so it's open, stumpy and full of brush. They weren't allowed to log along the stream and had to leave a buffer down each side. The trail used to go along the stream as well, but deadfall and uncleared bycut make it impassable or requiring a lot of climbing dead trees for a lot of that logged length.
Still, there are ferns as tall as my head and lots of wildflowers. The kids know some woodcraft well "Wow! That's a really young bear! Everyone look around for the mother!" came from one of the younger ones. But Ila and I spent some time pointing out poisonous plants, like this pretty blue monkshood (see the little hood in the close-up?), and distinguishing the ones that are poisonous to eat from those that burn the skin with sap (pushki) and those that make festering wounds (devil's club thorns).
What we found very interesting, as we walked along, was that although the trail was lined with blueberry bushes, there wasn't a single berry to be seen. Speculation is that the late freeze happened after the bushes had set buds to bloom, and the whole crop for the year froze off right then.
We stopped in a cleared area for lunch, and by then the little kids had lost their enthusiasm. So Ila and I took three older boys and Claire kept the rest to play where they were. We cast up and down a couple times at the edge of the cut, and finally turned up the old trail leading into the woods. These, in the state park, are great tall moss-covered trees with a fern and devil's club undergrowth. The path was easy enough walking, although steep in places.
Over at the lagoon, two of the boys raced into the water, where they swam amidst a frenzy of leaping salmon. Ila and I couldn't figure out why the salmon were there, since there is no fresh water stream for them to spawn in, but speculated that the salmon hatchery there was their imprinted home. It's a lovely spot, and Ila and I sat on the beach and enjoyed looking around and basking until the boys were cold enough to dress and head back out the trail. There were some pooped kids dragging their feet before we'd finished the 3-mile round trip, but, strangely enough, they recovered once they got back in the car and ate some more snacks, and by the time we reached town, the decibel level was back to the norm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tuesday, 22-Jul-2003 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Garden update
|
|
Things have been growing, in some cases rather surprisingly, in the warm weather. The whiskey barrels that flank the door are filling in nicely. I should not have put that leggy lavendar-blooming plant in front though. I got it as one of several still in six-packs from Mother, so I didn't really know anything about what I was getting. This demonstrates the peril of that planting method.
Under the one barrel is Tina's favorite water dish, from which she always stops to drink when she's outside. It's a gift from Susan, left behind when she moved because it was really too small to suit the dogs' needs.
In the rock garden under the barrels, last year's violas apparently seeded profusely and now the volunteers are flourishing. I am happy if they establish themselves there, since (repeated) previous efforts to establish primroses in that bed have not been successful.
The side bed is leggy, still, since I pulled all the spring beauty, but things are gradually filling in.
Down on the south side, the greenhouse is satisfyingly filling with plants. The zuchini, closest to the camera, is rather small thanks to being held back till late pending the building of the green house. The beans are now bearing: the very first beans I have picked here! They got wind- and construction-thrashed while the greenhouse was being built, so I don't have great hopes of a vigorous harvest from them. The tomatoes, astonishingly, are flowering. These are short-season gold cherry tomatoes, so I'm hoping we actually do get to see fruit. Just in the week or so since I've had to put the cages up they have grown dramatically, so I'm thinking the conditions are pleasing them.
The rest of the redneck raised beds are coming along, although the peas have puzzlingly not set a single flower yet. The lettuces and kale are coming along, as yet undiscovered (shhh) by the slug population. The lettuces up in the box off the deck rail (with the watering bottle still barely visible) have been featured in salads for a couple weeks now.
The rest of the yard is gradually pulling together in the new, civilized mode since Steve went after it ripping up fireweed and whacking everything else. I'm working on the first, rather dismal-looking steps of creating a flower bed from the grass-vs-wildflower darwinian delight we formerly had. Some of those rock piles will be moving along into bed borders to complete the wildflower garden and delineate the rhubarb patch beyond. Why yes, there IS still a lot of work to be done.
|
|
|
|
|
