Clean-up On Aisle 2

Next weekend MeMa and I are hosting our annual staff party for my office, a nice low-key evening of dining and conversation in the garden. With a lot of work the gardens are looking great and especially the hardy banana which were topping out at about twelve feet. Did I say were? We had rain for the first time since June and with the rain we got wind, lots of wind. The next day the gardens and pathways were covered in debris from the Redwood and the poor banana looked as though someone had braided its leaves.

Hardy Banana as it looked before the wind.

I had no choice but to cut most of the leaves out while trying to sort through the mess.

I was quite surprised to find a flower had formed for the first time. Must have been the mild winter and long hot summer.

Patient Gardener

When it comes to container gardening the patient side of me usually doesn't show, I want instant gratification so I cram the largest plants and lots of them to give me a look that I had envisioned.
This large stoneware pot that I gleaned from work when they did some office redesign work brought the patient gardener out in me. I was walking through the garden and stopped in front of this corner of the garden that was empty and immediately thought of this big container that was sitting in the driveway. After it was manhandled to the back garden, filled with potting soil, I plopped the bronze statue (selfie) that our son Ian did of himself depicting one of those educational periods of his life. Then it was off to the nursery for a canna, a six pack of burgundy delight coleus and two potato vines, one green the other purple. All very small and very unlike this gardener but I sat back and envisioned the future.

May

June

August

"Work Van"

A short time ago I posted this shot of my work van being hauled off to the auction yard, poor old thing died in its sleep....truly.....I went out the next morning to go too work and it wasn't breathing.  I loved that van, we were a good team.  MeMa tolerated us both.
While we were in Disneyland a  few weeks ago I received a call from my father...........

"Hi....this is your Dad." ( He still hasn't figured out the whole caller ID thing)

"Yes...I see that....how are you?"

"Wonderful!"  ( he is always wonderful) " I just bought a new car"..............?..........

"That's nice.........Good for you Dad! What did you do with the Saturn? Did you use it for a trade in?"

"No....I took it to DMV and got new plates for it and all the paperwork done and I left both sets of keys on your kitchen counter......it's yours now."

My new "work van", 2009 Saturn

 He may be generous to a fault but at 82 my father has not changed one bit, still looking after his kids.

Love you lot's Pop's

No Place Like Home

Our trip to Disneyland was wonderful partly because the weather was so perfect and when we came back home to the heat I had a busy week at the office. Home and office are air conditioned so the extreme temperatures did not bother me. MeMa's time off is drawing short so we decided that we would spend a week at the cabin. So we packed up dogs, canaries, food and clothing for a week of relaxing in the woods.

The first few days were fine and we were able to get busy on the list MeMa had made up.......

            1. Move and re-stack firewood

            2. Clean out bedding cabinet

            3. Wash windows

            4. Clean gutters and roof

The heavy winter rains washed the ground out from under the firewood stack that was kept in the front parking area.

We moved that pile to the back of the trailer and under the overhanging roof for protection from the weather and for easier accessibility. Now, old bald guys who are sent out in inclement weather for more firewood only have to tip toe across the deck, grab a log or two and back to the comfort of the fire without nary a drop of nastiness on ones bald head. The pile on the left is coming home to Menagerie Manor as they are too long for the cabin stove but perfect for our fireplace.

And just look at all that extra parking

Cleaning gutters was easier than cleaning the roof because I could stand on a stepladder and reach everything. The roof was harder and required MeMa's expert climbing skills while I stood on the deck and cheered her on. Pretty good for a 61 year....er...58 year old.....er ......what are we telling folks dear? I forget.....

By mid week the temperature started climbing to 107 degrees and at nine pm it was 91 in the cabin and no breeze to speak of. All I could think of was the air conditioning back at home so we packed what we would need, closed up the cabin and headed back to Portland.

Until the next drama....

Earlier in the year I sadly posted about the tragic loss of my beautiful Japanese koi fish, eight of them ranging in age from 12 years to 24 years.  All of them purchased as three inch fry and chosen for certain color patterns so each of them very different from the other.  At the time of their death most of them were over 12 inches and some were over 20 inches.  After raising them for so many years like most of you raise a dog or a cat we were very attached to our pets, each had a name and all were very tame and could recognize us over a stranger in the garden.  When someone new would come stand and look at them they would swim to edge and when they saw that it was neither MeMa or myself they would become very agitated and swim to the far side of the pond.
Only Athena survived and it was touch and go at that.  But survive she did, although it has been a lonely time for her as koi are very social creatures.  Fortunately for Athena there was one more survivor, a lonely brown tench which is a British species of carp.  I also tossed three small goldfish in as well.  They had been living in the small pond I have in the greenhouse.
We talked about purchasing more koi but decided that we should purchase larger fish as we would never see them grow to the length and age of our old ones.  I took last Wednesday off as in the morning I had to go into the hospital and be violated in order to see if the whole bladder cancer thing was still not an issue.  I don't have to be violated for another six months, so all is well.  So feeling quite good about myself, we went in search of some koi.  Keeping in mind that the last time I purchased koi was eighteen years ago the prices had tripled if not quadrupled.  I am just not prepared to pay three hundred for an eight inch fish.  As we drove up to the last place on our journey we both saw a sign that read "buy two koi get one free".  They had a pond full of very large koi but they had prices that ranged from 800 dollars to several thousand dollars that we quickly walked away from them.   We finally found our koi special, but they are not the large koi we envisioned purchasing.   However they are also not the small fingerling's that we purchased many years ago, they are at least another inch longer. We purchased two and got the third free but once again picked because of color pattern so they are all different from one another.

From the top left in this photo are two of the new koi then our sweet survivor, Athena and the orange fish at the bottom is one of the greenhouse goldfish and just to the right of Athena's big wagging tail fin is the third koi.   Athena is one happy koi.

My water lilies have flourished so the gate has been removed from the channel that connects the two sides of the pond and the koi have complete run of the entire pond.  Peace and tranquility have returned to Menagerie Manor.....until the next drama.