Northwest Notes

We have had about twenty warm, sunny days in 2008 and today was one of them. Tom and I went to the arboretum at South Seattle Community College and walked through the whole thing without seeing anyone else until we were on our way out. I loved their conifer gardens, with a lot of trees that most people never think to put in their home gardens. There are so many small and big conifers, with golden foliage or variegation, compact or airy shapes, tall or ground hugging, that it made me wish I could start over in our yard and use conifers a lot more.  

Some of the slow-growing cypresses, junipers, and cryptomeria were my favorites. Many of them still had nursery tags on them, which was strange, but it let me see that they can be purchased at a specific nursery that I don't normally go to.

In the alpine rock garden, also full of conifers in full sun, there's a manmade stream. We sat by it on a rock for a while in the sun and watched birds. We saw several cedar waxwings--a bird I wish I could attract into our yard--and a big flock of a grayish-yellow finches or sparrows we could not identify. They were all gregariously perching together on sparse, overhanging branches, and looked as picturesque as Christmas ornaments on the twigs. There are five birds in this picture:

Hummingbirds chased each other in and out of the scene. What the birds really wanted was water, and every so often a few of them would hop down into a shallow spot in the stream where we could not see them from our rock. In spite of being close to a road that we couldn't see, it was all so tranquil and full of bird calls that it almost felt like we were out of town somewhere.

We decided to see if this restaurant we like in the Fauntleroy neighborhood was open, and on our way we stopped for coffee at Jo-Jo's, a little hut in a convenience store parking lot, decorated with flowers and fringes, even with a tiny deck in the sun. The guy running it seemed like someone who you might see working at a Jiffy Lube but he was enthusiastic about the garden we told him we had just seen, and asked us if we've ever been to the big arboretum in Seattle, which he said he loves. You never know! 

We had a late lunch at Endolyne Joe's and then visited a tiny park that overlooks a salmon ladder in Fauntleroy Creek, which we never knew about until today. We were just following our noses. It would be fun to live over there. The creek is so wooded that you can't see much of it. I want to go back after Halloween when apparently it is the peak migration time for coho. It's hard to believe salmon swim up these tiny creeks that you could wade in, that are only ankle deep, but they do.

Next we walked along the beach in Lincoln Park, along the Sound, and admired the driftwood and watched people swimming in Colman Pool. It would have been a great day to swim there because of the heated water and the sunshine. Too bad we didn't have bathing suits. While watching the pool people, with some woods in the background, we saw three ospreys soaring over the woods. They were moving so slowly that we couldn't see how they stayed up there without flapping. Beautiful!

If that wasn't enough, when we got home I couldn't stay inside. It was still sunny so I went out and dug a bunch of weeds. They were in an area right along our south property line, where I haven't landscaped yet and I want to put in another Woodchipstrip. I've been waiting all summer for free chips from one of two tree companies who put me on their list, but still nothing. I am going to have to call the guy I got chips from a few years ago, who charges a lot but at least shows up when he says he will.

I also dug out a lot of too-big plants from the tiny strip that is right up against the north foundation of the house--hostas and a couple of sword ferns. Now you can walk on the sidewalk next to it without brushing against leaves. I left a few ferns in place because they're so happy there, but I cut back their overhanging fronds. I'm not sure what I'll put in the new blank spots, maybe some very small ferns.

After all that I think we will sleep well.

I like the new David Byrne and Brian Eno album and I really like that you can stream it for free.

I've been working four to six hours a day in the gym lately, training individuals and running a kettlebell class (which just ended) and a small CrossFit class. It's very rewarding work, but strenuous--maybe I'm doing too much demonstrating! It's also harder than I thought it would be to get my own workouts in, get enough rest, do my house chores, gardening, and guitar practice, while I'm planning and running workouts for other people. I like the high amount of mental energy I have to spend on my work, but at the same time, it is taking me a while to get accustomed to these new demands which are completely different from any other job I've ever had. I'd like to do more writing, but I can't pressure myself to add more to my day. Now that I listed my daily tasks here, I see that it is a lot; it's not just my imagination!

Today I deadheaded some dahlias and roses. I love my yellow rosebush. While it's forming hips on its spent blooms, it's already starting to regrow from its growth buds. So by the time I get around to deadheading it, it is showing me where it wants to grow and therefore where to cut. Dahlias just started blooming in the last 10 days so now I'll try to do a little deadheading every day. I've done well at weeding this year, doing it extensively in spring and just a little a day now.

We had Aunt Tommy visiting us from Missouri last week. It was the biggest vacation she's ever taken and it was more fun that I even dreamed it would be to have her come and stay with us. We went to Mt. Rainier and Leavenworth and did some short hikes that we made long by stopping to collect tons (well, 46 pounds to be exact) of rocks and to look at every big tree and ancient mossy stump in the forest. We gardened, grilled out, shopped a little, and celebrated my birthday together. It was really a dream come true for me to spend time with Aunt Tommy on my own "turf" for the first time as an adult, and she said she saw things she had only dreamed of seeing (big mountains, old growth forest, Puget Sound) and loved every minute. Fantastic!



Guitar-wise, I'm taking a group class now instead of private lessons and it's fun, but I need to learn songs on my own since the group doesn't always practice the same stuff. I've done a couple of silly performances with a friend from the gym and here is one of them:

The kousa dogwood's flowers look especially creamy and parchment-like this year.



Ice plant and artemisia:


Helianthemum:


Honeywort (bluish green) looks great with this yellow-green euphorbia (but looked more vibrant last week):


Oxalis (clover):

Just figured out how to blog a Flickr photo straight from Flickr, so here's a vacation snapshot.

I loved this long drive through the scenic roads. We hardly got on the Interstates at all. We saw some big ranches and a lot of "empty" country full of hills, sage, pinyon pine, mines, dry salt lake beds, and rocks. We were at well over 4,000 feet elevation the entire time we were in Utah and Nevada. The sky was so blue!

We stopped to eat at several mom and pop restaurants. The Ranch House Diner in Snowville, Utah; Big Moe's Restaurant in Price, Utah; the Golden Stake in Moab; Top's City Cafe in Delta, Utah; the International Cafe and the Toiyabe Cafe in Austin, Nevada; and the Most Likely Cafe in Likely, California.

Price, Utah, was an interesting place. Flat country, huge open sky, wide streets and sunshine, friendly people in Big Moe's. Price is located at the foot of a high plateau (as is the town of Helper--look at this cool picture of it). We had been driving a long time on the top without knowing how far we were going to drop. We got out of the car on a small road up high, and walked onto a ranch to admire a tiny creek in the silent air. Occasionally a bird would sing. The sky was royal blue in the thin air. Then the road plunged down past some cliffs, below the ranch, into mining country. A lot of people in Price work in the mines, the cafe waitress told me.

We spent almost two weeks driving to Canyonlands and back. I put some pictures and details on Flickr.

In a couple of weeks, an asbestos crew and a furnace company are coming to replace our old coal-burning furnace. For a decade or two it's been attached to an oil burner, but when we moved here the coal bin was still in the basement, right under a window. (No coal was left behind, though.) We have lived in this house for ten years so it's about time we got a new furnace. It will still use oil, but only a small amount compared to what this has been using. It almost makes me look forward to next winter.

I spotted an unusual and beautiful bird in the yard the other day and watched while it explored the fountain rim, the flowerbed, the patio, the wheelbarrow, and another flowerbed, then flew up into a big shrub. When I found it in the bird book, it turned out I'd seen it before. I'd made notations in the book of seeing it six and seven years ago almost to the day. It's a mid-to-late-April yardbird. The yellow-rumped (Audubon's) warbler. (Cornell Ornithology Lab photo) Today I was weeding and heard a woodpecker's drilling sound. I often see flickers but they seem to go tap-tap-tap instead of really drilling like other woodpeckers. I followed the sound and saw a downy woodpecker going at the top of the utility pole next door. I think it was a female because I didn't see the red patch on the head. (Wikipedia photo)

Two of my favorite spring blooms are here. If only they lasted all summer!

I've read that after a grove of bamboo flowers, it dies. I discovered today that our "grove" (small clump) of Blue Fountain bamboo is flowering. And it does look like it's dying. The green leaves in the picture are on a different bamboo right next to it, arrow bamboo.


The Indianapolis Zoo has a short article about their blue fountain bamboo:

"In the space of just a few years, every specimen of blue fountain bamboo will flower and most likely die. This is the first time this species has flowered since seed was brought from China to Europe in about 1886.

"Bamboo is known to exhibit gregarious flowering. All individuals of a species flower at about the same time. Reports of flowering of blue fountain bamboo began several years ago and are likely to continue for several more years. Individual plants flower for several months, perhaps even for a second year.

"Based on the history of this plant - seed was sent to Europe about 1886, flowering began in the 1990s - we can expect blue fountain bamboo to flower next in about 2100."