From Sea to Shining Sun!

Aside from editing and posting lots of garden photos, I have been busy doing other things. This post is about some of those things.

Last Friday we returned once more to the Pacific coast for the final dig of the razor clam season. It was a successful trip.

 We got our limit, had breakfast with my sister Laurie and brother-in-law Arnie, did a bit of sight seeing on the way home and had time to rest after Tom cleaned the clams and before I fried some  up in a pan. A 4:00 AM get up time sets us back a bit.

Saturday morning we toured The Chase Garden and The Old Goat Farm, as I have posted, and then our group went out to lunch It was 3:00 before we got home, and by 5:00 we were on our way to the light rail station for a home Sounders game at the stadium.

On Sunday we went for our morning walk in the neighborhood and in the neighborhood park, as we do most days.

Then we drove north to meet up with a fourth cousin of Tom's that he connected with through Ancestry.com. She is disabled and had her father along to assist, but Tom was able to share photos and family history with her. To top the day off, we visited the Bellevue Botanical Garden. That will be another post or two. 

Monday was cold and rainy much of the day. We got in our walk and then slowed down a bit and cleaned house and did laundry.

Tuesday through Thursday we walked each day and then we worked in the garden.

 The patio pots are stuffed and tender plants have come out of the greenhouse. 

I planted out the impatiens and plectranthus along the patio edge under the cedar tree after working up the bed and clearing out tree root mats. 

 Tom got the raised beds worked and the vegetable and flower seeds are in. 

 Geraniums from cuttings grown in our greenhouse are potted up and being placed out. 

Wednesday the weather suddenly warmed up, and by the late afternoon gardening in the 75 degrees left me wilted. 

Thursday was warm again. We were just finishing up our tasks for the day when I looked up to see black clouds and soon, the first clap of thunder. What followed long into the night was one enormous thunder storm after another, as thunder rolled continuously across the sky, and after dark, the lightning lit up the sky. We are not prone to long duration thunder storms and it was a shock, and quite devastating to some property a bit south of us, with flooding and trees and power lines down. At 3 AM the grand finale was a crack of thunder so loud I thought the house was coming apart. We listened to it rolling across the sky for quite a while before going back to sleep. 

Friday morning, our usual breakfast day, was instead a celebratory brunch for our teacher friend Mavis, who celebrated her 90th birthday on May 5th! We were hosted by her son Larry and his wife Kathy and enjoyed delicious food and a tour of their lovely garden.

Mavis has recently recovered from a fall which left her with a cracked pelvis and a dislocated shoulder. We feared we might lose her, but she battled back and is as spry and quick witted as ever. She has lost most of her eyesight to macular degeneration, which makes it tough on her, but she copes. We all love her. 

 By the time we got home at 1:30 we decided we could declare the remainder of the day a rest day, but I went for a walk by myself anyway. I had to walk off all the good food. 

Saturday. That was yesterday. Let's see. Oh yes, the Sounders were playing a home game at 12:00 noon. We left for the train at 9:30 so we would have time to stop and indulge in coffee and a sweet at the Starbucks near Pioneer Square, and then join up with other supporters for the March to the Match. 

 The weather was mostly clear, but still cold. 

 We played Toronto. I always love singing "Oh Canada!"

 And of course our National Anthem and the "rocket's red glare, bombs bursting in air".

 We lost, 0-1, but is was a pleasant day and an intense game to watch. This is our view from our third tier concourse at halftime. 

After the game we hustled back to the train so we could meet up with Jill and the kids to do some plant shopping. Our Mother's Day gift to her was plants for her garden. That included a fruit tree and a shrub and a bunch of petunias. After two stops at a nursery and a big box store, we finally all got to sit and eat. We dined at Red Robin and finished off the day with mud pie. 

And now Sunday is winding down. We went for a "destination" walk this morning on the Des Moines Creek Trail, beginning and ending at the marina. 

In the afternoon we got the yard waste bins stuffed with debris we have been piling up. I was going to take it easy, but before I knew it, it was 4:00, quitting time. I potted up a bunch more of the greenhouse plants, some to give away. We moved a few more things out to the patio and the garden deck. Tom is working on hooking up the drip system.

And I am done for the day.  Well, until I have to get up and cook dinner anyway.

If you made it to the end of this post, Thank you. I'm tired, and you probably are too.