Retirement Redux

As of All Souls Day, Nov 1 2008, Ellen is also retired. After 30 years with the county, she is done. We had great parties welcoming many well-wishers, and now she has some days off..

So we'll have some adjustments as we get used to both being home all the time, but Ellen is already getting busy.

She's had the glass kiln cooking non-stop, and her first Ellen:Ellen sale of vintage button jewelry is next weekend!

The rain has returned to us, but most of the outside projects are competed. The structure for the copper fence is done, and Ellen will be adding glass elements.

Our schedue is filling up:

Early December - Munich

Christmas - Methow

January - Olympic preview Nordic World Cup at Whistler, BC.

March - Berlin to Prague

All for now, keep in touch.

Fall Camping

We finally got out to do some camping this month. This a great time of year to go, as the crowds are gone and weather is great. After visiting our friend Al in Bend, and hiking along the Deschutes River and up to Todd Lake, we headed to Elk Lake.

The lake is nestled between Mt. Bachelor, broken top and South Sister, a spectacular setting. The Point campground has sites right on the water where we could launch our kayaks. While the wind comes up in the afternoon, the water is still in the mornings and provided fine reflections.

As it was a full moon while we were there, the view across the lake was beautiful and always changing. It was so bright we didn't need flashlights to walk around camp, even late at night.

After trying to get to Waldo Lake and being blocked by forest fire crews, we returned to Elk Lake for a couple more days, and went paddling on Hosmer Lake. completely different from Elk Lake, it is rather shallow and filled in with reeds, water pickerel and water lillies. Lots of waterfowl live in the lake and it's rich in fish. The fly fishermen keep lanes open through the reeds through the lake, making water trails. Though the lake is big in acreage, it is mostly overgrown so the paddling area is small. We watched osprey sailing over the lake as they watched for fish, and tried to identify the many different kinds of ducks.

After more hiking near Sparks Lake and evening paddling we packed up and headed out of the mountains. We found more areas to explore on foot and by boat, so we'll be back the snow clears next spring.

High Summer

Well, it's really summer now and the garden shows it.

Sunflowers, oleander, tomatoes, all are now present and everything is flopping, topping out, overflowing, and generally enjoying the warmth.

So after the Cracked Pots exhibit i got inspired and put together my first metal "art" sculpture. A little crude, the cutting lines look more melted than cut, but the result is still OK; the kids froim the Chinese school loved it. Ellen said, "that's really something", high praise.

Eggplants have arrived as well. I love the purple-veined plants, the lavender blossoms, and finallt yhe plants, I especially like the Italian varieties like Rosa Bianca with lots of pink and white.

Summer means lots of watering. After the garage building, I had to replace the water lines to the back yard and the irrigation lines to the garden. Now complete, it hasn't been hot enough to really use it. Wait 'til next season!

Meanwhile the Castor Bean looks spectacular as usual. Dark purple leaves and bright red seed pods are always a hit. The Tiger Lillies are out, that remind me of the midwest, and I recently had a harvest basket of orange cauliflower, purple beans,
zucchini, eggplant, Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and squash blossoms. Not just photogenic, but delicious.

Visitors

Well. we've had many garden visitors this summer. We had the neighborhood garden tour , which was nice, and many friends came by to visit.

The most fun, however has been the kids from the Chinese language immersion school down the street. What a hoot! The school has regular lessons during the schol year; then they have summer school. The kids learn Chinese language and play all day long. I've gotten to know the woman who runs the school and she enjoyed seeing my garden, and thought the kids would like it, too. So, from two houses down the street, here they come.

The kids are mostly 5-10 years old, some Chinese ancestry, some Western, but all speak good Chinese, for a 5-year-old (better than me). They came down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand, to the front of the driveway, and sang a song, to get my attention. We exchanged greetings, Nie-Hauo's and Shie-Shie's, and headed for the garden. Their assignment was, to find as many different animals in the garden as they could, and write them down. We have many little ceramic critters in the garden - frogs, turtles, ducks, pigs, sheep, chickens, trolls, birds, ladybugs. They were then to list them in their Chinese names and how many they found. Of course, they had to investigate the entire garden, up and down, to finish their assignment. I'd not realized that since they were ohnlt 3-4 ft tall, their viewpoint was very different. They were able to spot critters that I'd long forgotten about, since they had become overgrown by foliage.

Also, there was a bit of a competition, and I'd hear someone call out "ducks over here", or "there are the frogs!" The pond, as usual, was a huge hit, as everyone was looking for real fish (they're shy) and watching the water. The boys were trying to figure out the mechanics.

The visit finished with another song, with lots of 'quack-quack-quacks' and waving arms, the duck song; and they linked arms and headed back down the street.

We've had a couple of visits now, two session, and they're a lot of fun.

Rose Festival

The Portland Rose Festival is long finished, but the show in our garden is going strong. The old Blaze rose in the masthead has been blooming for a month and now the Jackman clematis has joined it.

We just completed hosting the neighborhood garden tour and the climbing Altissimo (rt.)was also spectacular.

On the Flikr page you can also see Cecile Bruner, Cocktail, New Dawn, Ellen's Joy, Mozart and Bonica views.

L., Ellen's Joy R., Mozart

Break Time

It was time for a break from the to-do list at home, so we took a week off for a trip. I'd never been to the Olympic Peninsula, so we went on a loop out to Astoria, up the west coast to Kalaloch beach and the rain forests, then to Victoria, B.C., and back down along Puget Sound.

We started with a visit to our friends the Wentworths in Astoria. Wonderful hosts, with a house overlooking the Columbia River, we enjoyed the local farmers market, attended a play, wandered the downtown sights, and kicked back with their dog Lily and friendly cats. We got to stay in 'Ellen's Annex' (formerly known as 'Maureen's Suite'), and look forward to more stays in their home.

Next we stopped at the coastal enclave of Kalaloch, in the Olympic National Park. With no other community nearby, it feels very wild on the beach. The seastacks and tidepools proved great for exploring. We hiked the beaches, up the trails into the rain forest, and visited Lake Quinault. There lots of eagles perched on coastal trees, and gigantic trees (and stumps) in the forests).

If you follow the signs to "Giant Spruce Tree" on the road, the first thing you see is this stump. Just beyond is an enormous tree, big enough to hide in. There were lots of wildflowers blooming on the trails including bog lilies (skunk cabbage). It's clear there is much more to explore here, but the area is vast, and remote. Most of the area is either National Park or Indian reservation, and access is limited. We finished up this part of the visit with a ramble through Port Angeles, WA, where the ferry departs for Canada.

We took the passenger ferry over, as we can stay central to the harbor and did not need a car to sightsee. Victoria is a charming city, wrapped around the central harbor. The neighborhoods are known for their gardens, and the city is bike and pedestrian friendly. Our next trip, we'll bring our bicycles over, and ride the many bike paths through the countryside. We can bring our bikes over on the ferry with no trouble and no reservation. There's a also a lot of kayaking to be done, but we generally go further north for those trips. This time, we just walked, and walked. The Empress hotel, on the harbor, is one of the grand Canadian Pacific Hotels and the landmark of Victoria. It shares the site with the Parliament buildings and the Royal British Columbia museum. We skipped Afternoon Tea at the Empress ($60) and instead had tea and scones with clotted cream at Murchies (tea purveyors to the Queen). Quite lovely. We also visited the exhibit of native totem poles at the museum, many of which are outside. Others collected starting in the 1820's are in an indoor display, and show a great variety in the native cultures. Upon visiting the harbor area again we found a native carver from Tofino working on a carved canoe paddle including orca, eagle, salmon and moon signs. If you visit us, you can get a better look at it on our living room wall.
After getting our now heavier and more numerous bags packed, we headed back over the Straits. Picking up the car, we also visited Port Townsend, WA and headed for home. It's Rose Festival time in Portland, so of course the cool, wet weather has returned. On the plus side, none of the plants baked in the sun, and I still have time to plant tomatoes.

Progress

I've been making progress on many projects. Most of the plants that came out when the garage went in are now back in the ground. Unfortunately, I visited some spring garden sales and found new things to add. Most will end up in pots, but others - well, I'm looking for space.




A new small path under the apple tree is begun to place some of these. Replanting the orphans has finally opened up the vegetable beds for planting, so I can get the tomatoes in. Also the compost bin, the second vegetable bed and one of the rain barrels are complete. I got the greenhouse cleaned out - it harbored many things that can now be stored in the garage. It also harbored overwinter some small creatures; most of the the mess has been cleaned out.

In the meantime, the warm weather (finally!) has mad the garden bursting with green, and now the clematis and peonies are opening. The roses will start in another week or two. More pics on my FLICKR page.









Meanwhile, we add to our lists, of future Things to Do, and Places to Go
In no particular order:

Things to Do

• Habitat for Humanity
• Growing Gardens
• Obama Campaign
• Accordion practice
• ESL Teaching

Places to Go

• Germany
• Antarctica
• Cleveland
• Nepal
• Vancouver 2010
• Costa Rica

First, the Garden

After last year's new garage construction, many plants came out of the ground and now need new homes. There's re-configuring the veggie garden space (as the garage shades a bigger area) planting along the new fence, re-designing the entry (replacing the picket fence with a copper / fused glass creation), installing the rain barrels on the garage, and re-configuring the pathways. Fortunately, the lousy cold weather has given me more time to move plants. But a few 60+ days would be nice to get started.

Ellen's been busy with her fused glass, so I have to get busy with the copper work. I thought I'd get away from furnace profiles and metallurgy, but now it looks like it will be handy!

In the Beginning

Many things await my attention as I begin retirement. Copper works, Glass fusing, metal torch work, and Giardino Babbito are all activities I've dabbled in for many years while working full time. And travel, of course, will be more easy to schedule with none of those pesky vacation time limits. Photo selections of each are forthcoming, but for now, Let the Adventure Begin!