Firsts

 Now that we are back home from the island, we are back in our garden, checking out what's new and what needs to be done.

The first roses are blooming. 

Gertrude Jekyll is just about to put on her June show. 

The first big orange Oriental poppy. We almost lost these, but a survivor is now gaining strength. 

Delphnium and columbine.

Our only peony, but she's a beauty. 

While I was working by the roses, the first Western Swallowtail Butterfly flitted by. This is an online photos. Flitting butterflies are hard to capture. 

And the first bee sting. Actually not a bee, but a big black hornet like this. I was pulling binder weed out of the salal hedge when I felt a sudden intense firey pain. I glancingly saw the hornet and maybe a second one. I didn't stick around for more. 

I have always reacted very strongly to any kind of sting or bug bite, so I expected my hand to swell way up, but right away I took a antihistamine and iced my hand and a day later it's not bad at all. 

I'm hoping this sting is not only the first, but the last of the season.

I will be happy to welcome more butterfiles and roses.

Time to Rest

 Yesterday, Thursday, we completed the last big job on the spring garden list.

We trimmed and weeded the plants on the driveway wall. I ran the hedge trimmer, clipping off the spent blooms on the perennial candy tuft, and doing some of the weeding. Tom weeded and cleaned up. It took us two and  half hours, and wore us out. After lunch Tom took the blower to the driveway and cleaned up all of the fir tree debris. Now it is looking spiffy, and we have gone on vacation.

After breakfast this Friday morning we left for Whidbey Island. While the traffic and the overloaded ferries slowed us down, we made it in time for a very late lunch.  Now we have been to dinner at a local brew pub and in a bit we'll go for a little sun down stroll. 

It's sunny and warm and we are happy to be carefree for a few days.

The garden is looking good so there won't be much work to do. Poppies are blooming and recent rain has kept everything green and growing so far.

Down the beach road the vacant lot is full of blooming Thrift. The sky is blue and the living is easy.

June Exuberance

 

We have been dealing with issues with our car dealership, but the car itself is fine, and we choose to forget about it when we work in our garden. 

We have spent hours each day trimming and mowing and edging and removing and replanting and tying up and staking and even planting some seeds, hoping the little sun we have now, due to clouds and very tall trees, will at least produce a few things in our garden boxes. 

Today the rain has returned, and that's OK because we need the rain and we need a rest. 

Yesterday in the late afternoon I took time to just walk around and enjoy the exuberance of June in our Pacific Northwest Garden, and take some photos to share with you. 

When we finally sat long enough to notice, we discovered that Chickadees have returned to nest and raise young in this birdhouse. They are flying back and forth bringing bugs to their babies. 

The tulips have all been lifted and the holes left behind are being covered with other growth, like these hostas. 

We finally got the last of the glass art out into the garden.

Fairy Bells -  Disporum longistylum 'Night Heron'

Columbine plant themselves everywhere. 

June is busting out all over. It is the best garden month. 

A Day Trip to Bellingham

 I needed my graddaughter Irene's signature on a document concerning the family Rockaway Beach Cabin. We decided it was a good excuse to road test our "new" Subaru.  

It rained , starting shortly after we got north of Seattle, all the time we were in Bellingham, and most of the way back home. We had fun anyway. 

We picked Irene up near her dorm in the Ridgeway complex. Western Washington University is build between to forested ridges and spreads up hill on either side. In fact I was impressed by all of the wonderful trees we saw as we drove around Fairhaven District and down to Bellinghan Bay. We checked out two of the parks she walks to down by the bay, but the rain prevented us from venturing out of the car. She took us to lunch in the historic Sycamore Square Building in Old Fairhaven. What a wonderful old building. The Black Cat is on the third floor, but there was a moderrn elevator so we did not climb the wonderful staircases.

These are internet photos. I was busy.

This is where we sat.

This is the first floor atrium

The food was good and we had a great opportunity to catch up with Irene. She is soon to finish her freshman year already and has a summer job lined up at a girl scout camp an Hood Canal. She is excited to get paid for going camping!

We took her to a grocery store to buy her a few supplies for when the food is "too gross" in the dining commons. 

We left her about 2:30. Her classes were done for the day and she said since it was raining she would probably go to bed. College life. 

On the way back south we sidetracked to the Skagit Valley towns of Bow and Edison. In Bow we found the Samish Bay Dairy and Cheese Maker we had stopped at before and bought a very special 10 year old Gouda and a slice of cheese cake.

In Edison we stopped at the Breadfarm to get bread to go with our cheese. At home later that evening we added some canned soup to our bread and cheese for a very fine supper. 

Tom did all of the driving and he was very happy with the Subaru. The larger side mirrors mostly made up for not having blind side detection. The cruise control, once he set it on the rainy freeway, was wonderful, so much improved from what we had before, slowing down and resuming speed automatically. I set the onboard GPS and it worked great while we listened to my iPhone music. 

We are happy with our "new" car, and it was a good day trip.