Whirlwind Wednesday

About a month ago we learned that one of our favorite authors, J.A. Jance, would be appearing at a library in Olympia in the evening for a book signing and talk. It just so happened to be the same day as our anniversary, so we decided to make a day of it. Olympia is about 60 miles south of where we live in South Seattle. 

We went on line and found some nurseries that we had not ever been to in the Olympia area. However, our first stop was a Cabela's, a sporting goods mega-store on the way. We had decided that since our shellfish licence was expiring at the end of March, and a beach on the central Washington coast would be open for razor clam digging on Thursday, we needed to go clam digging. We had only gone with my sister and brother-in-law before and used their equipment, but they couldn't go, so we had to buy our own clam guns. 

Happy Anniversary to us!. No, we don't do big gifts for anniversaries. But clam digging was for Thursday. This post is for Wednesday. 

It was another rainy day, of course. We followed our GPS to the first stop, The Barn Nursery.

 The graphics on these fancy fertilizer bags were good enough for framing. 

 Colorful seed racks.

 The man who made these chair planters had just unloaded them. We talked to him a bit. He used wood he finds on river banks near the coast. 

 The several attached barns were filled with layers of treasures waiting for just the right buyer. We weren't that buyer, but we had fun looking. 

 In one room we saw this big burlap "tree". 

 They actually had plants too! But the fierce wind was blowing the rain sideways, so we only ventured into the greenhouse. 

 Tom bought a "Spotty Dotty" May apple.

At the next stop we had no idea what to expect, but this organic garden shop was on Black Lake and we had never been to that lake, so off we went to Black Lake Organic.  It turned out to be an outfit that sells specialty organic fertilizers and other remedies for plant problems. We bought a jug of something magic to spray on fruit trees and roses and everything else. We'll see if it was worth it.

 And we found Black Lake, right across the road. 

 Somewhere in here, I guess before Black Lake, we found a Subway sandwich shop for lunch, our usual choice for road lunches. Our next stop was Olympia Bark and Garden. This is a very large nursery and landscaping supply company.  

It had just been raining very hard, and these bloomed out pussy willows had water plastered pollen. 

How about a pottery pony perch. 

Can you grasp that?

I love heucheras, and this is the best supply I have ever seen in one nursery. 

Lovely hellebore blooms. 

Do you wanna iguana? 

Pretty camellias. 

So many colorful shrubs!

What's lurking in the hothouse jungle? 

Done with our nursery list, we spent a little time browsing antique shops in Old Olympia. 

Then it was time for dinner. We drove out to North Point, surrounded by the waters of southern Puget Sound. 

 We had dinner at Anthony's Hearth fire Grill.

 We watched the squalls gather over the water.

 And maybe a chance of clearing!

 And then we went to hear J.A. Jance. She writes murder mysteries, but her talks are more like watching a comedy routine. She was very entertaining.

We didn't stay for the book signing since we still had a hour's drive back home. Besides we don't own any of her "books". We do own everything she has ever written in our cloud library. Tom reads on his Samsung tablet and I read on my Kindle. You can't sign those. 

It was a very full, and a very good day.