Gig Harbor Garden Tour

 We spent the day Sunday touring some lovely and varied gardens on the Gig Harbor Garden Tour. SIL Jan Reeder is on the organizing committee and it seemed like a great way to spend a mildly sunny day and support her cause.

I didn't try to document the gardens. I just wanted to share some pretty pictures. There was plenty of pretty to share. 

I loved the use of sedums in the hillside garden.

Extensive rockeries and hardscapes allowed for full enjoyment of this view. 

So many wonderful uses of stone.

Tom blended right in to this blue and yellow garden.

Fun yard art.

Lovely shade garden, and by then we were happy for shade.

We saw all six gardens, liked them all, and then I was ready for a rest, and another one of those iced mocha frappes with caramel drizzle from Starbucks. :-)

Respite

 When the national news is hard to take, take a walk in the garden.

You might even find a friend there. 

Back Home Again

 Since we returned home last Wednesday evening we have combined being busy and resting.

Thursday we had an appointment to have a new windshield installed on the Subaru. When the dealer installed new wiper blades, and then we drove in the rain to Bellingham, the blades scratched a big arc on the passenger side. The dealership refused to help so we went through our auto insurance and eventually got the job done for $100 deductable. With saefty feature cameras, new windshields have to be "callibrated". Who knew.

Then I tried to shop for new sneakers since mine are wearing out. Size 11 Wide Nikes, or anything else in womens, are impossible to find. I found some on line. I hope they actually arrive and they fit.

We have been combining gardening and resting and going places.

Garden abundance. 

Tom's mini-Hosta collection.

Friday was breakfast out, then grocery shopping, then some yard work. Saturday was morning Garden Club and potluck lunch, then resting and catching up inside before going to the Sounders game in the evening. 

Yes, I went to the stadium! No one else was available, my physical therapist had urged me to try it, and there I was on the Link.

Because of track repairs, we had to get off two stations early and catch a shuttle bus. OK, I did that. The we had to walk a bit farther to the stadium. Yep, did that.

It was tricky dodging people who don't watch where they are going, but I avoided contact and Tom was right there just in case. After 78 minutes of game time, with the Sounders behind 2-0, they came alive and scored 3 goals in 12 minutes to win the game in an exciting finish. Then I made it back home, bus to train to car to 11:30 arrival. Now we were hungry so we ate ice cream and read online reports of the game.

It was a Pride recognition match.

Sunday was slow, but I did put in two hours of garden work. I watched the US Mens National Team win a match against Bolivia and some Olympic qualifying Track and Field. 

Now most of the Monday house work is done. The laundry is calling me to get busy before we stop for lunch. 

Home is where the work is, but we'll pace ourselves. 

Country Roads, Take Me Home

 The Willamette Valley was my home until I went away to college in Seattle. We lived on a small farm between the towns of Canby and Molalla. Molalla was where we went to school. It was our home town. 

On Wednesday afternoon we drove across the valley from Woodburn to Molalla to find a small nursery and display garden we read about in our Open Garden Book.

Driving around in the valley I loved seeing the crops that are still flourishing  in this fertile valley. Some are more recent types of crops and some are the same as they were 60 years ago.

Everybody loves  Marion berries.

Mt Hood is "the Mountain" in this valley.

The nursery just on the edge of Molalla was small but with nice plants. The display garden was lovely.

What to do with old plates. 

Spice bush, with wonderful blooms. 

What I loved most was being able to be up close and personal with these magnificant oak trees. These Oregon oaks dot the valley with single sentinals in the fields and in wonderful groves like this.

When we left this garden we were just a short drive away from The Pioneer Cemetery, where my parents rest. We paid them a visit. 

Then we began the long drive back to Seattle.

It was a great little trip.