Roses in Our Garden

Not all of them are in bloom yet,
such as Ballerina (which keeps getting
pruned by the deer) and The Fairy.
The range of fragrance goes from no smell,
tea, spicy, musky,
delicious fall-into-the-shrub-rapture floral,
to a grandma's heavy perfume.
The native Nutka roses that I planted years ago
have colonized a huge area into
quite the thicket and wildlife habitat.
And the delicate Rosa glauca (front row right) have multiplied into
grand arching monsters that make it difficult
to penetrate while gardening.
They have grown taller than the deer can reach now.
They seed so easily that they border on
becoming an invasive weed, lovely weed however.

Moving Day

Back to Fort Ward State Park this morning and new treats while on my walk/run. Mt. Rainier was fully visible today in all its snow cone glory. Way up ahead on the South Beach Road I could see a baby deer, so I ran as quietly as I could, hidden behind thick shrubs, to get a closer look while he was occupied with his meal. As I approached I slowed to a quiet walk and then the doe appeared along with a second spotted fawn. I just burst out loud with, "ohhhh, you are sooooo cute!" My voice got very high on the emphasized cute. The threesome looked at me for a moment and slowly made their way up their narrow steep deer trail into the dense forest. When deer rub their antlers on the tree trunks in my garden, girdling the trees, I am less than happy about their presence. When they gobble up my budding roses and loads of other shrubs I again am not too pleased. But when I saw that little family I couldn't help but fall in love with those sweet cuties.
It's a big day out in bunny world in the back yard. The orphaned bunny that I found in our garden last December has graduated from his temporary quarters and moved into the recently vacated big hutch. There is so much more to see in his new home. His new location offers a wonderful view of the Tan, a doe, that will be a new source of desire. I think he looked a bit frightened at first in his new house, but he will eventually enjoy the view and the expansive quarters. It's supposed to get warm today and tomorrow so perfect timing to vacate the shed where it gets quite hot in the summer. Both of our bunnies love roses and the climbing Cecil Bruner is now supplying an ample source for their munching pleasure. Happy new home sweetie.

It's a Brand New Day

My morning walk today was a delightful change from the usual. I had read recently that to be successful in maintaining an exercise regimen you should mix it up, and not do the same thing day after day. Well, I have been on pretty much the same path for many months, but today, today was a whole different critter entirely.
After dropping my daughter off at her new summer engagement I drove a short way to Fort Ward Park. Instantly there was a difference from my usual routine in that where I walked, for the most part, no cars could speed past me (I'm always hopeful the usual speeders are not distracted on their cell phone or whatever and mow me down). Just the sound of birds, barking seals, and the wake of the passing ferry braking onto the shoreline.
I signed up for a short run coming up in July with my daughter, my first race ever, and I thought I better get some substantive running time in. Through the woods, along the shore, past lovely old bungalows with views of Mount Rainier I had to stop for a few minutes to soak in the dramatic view. Just as I rounded the bend at my favorite part of the island where narrow South Beach Road is braced against the tides just above the edge of the sound I saw the distinguished massive figure of a mature bald eagle, which was being harassed by a seagull. He was sitting on the remains of an ancient pier surveying the tidal flats for yummies. His sturdy bright yellow legs and rapier talons were impressive with their telling strength. Just to my right, weaving its way through the blackberry bramble, was the flash of a goldfinch. I haven't seen a goldfinch in many years here. What a treat. And then, it was just this opera unfolding in front of me, a seagull with a clam in its beak flying at full speed dropped its booty onto the beach boulders. Success, he broke open the shell and ate the meat with ease. The seals were barking all the while off on the channel marker. The saturated smell of the lowish tide and the muskiness of the tall grasses in full efflorescence, still ladened with morning dew, added another dimension to the rich sensory experience. Mt. Rainier was only visible on its lower flanks as the top was enclosed in clouds. The ferries passed each other in front of me as they made their way through the narrow channel. I turned around with renewed enthusiasm and ran all the way back through the park to my car, a feat not easily achieved by this old body.
I'll be back tomorrow.
And on the cancer research front, great breaking news for those that were loosing hope, new findings from the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center has successfully beat metastasized melanoma into remission: http://www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/news/2008/06/18/T_cells.html

Have a good day!

Ripped Apart

My lovely Cercidiphyllum japonicum developed two leaders, probably after a storm that broke the initial leader, and has now ruptured right down the middle of its trunk. I know this state is an accident just waiting to happen. One big gust and one or the other halves is likely to fracture from the trunk and come crashing down on my five foot tall lilies below or worse on a passerby. I know I have to euthenize this tree but just like our old bunny that I had to put down last week this tree tears at a piece of me with its charm, grace and the years of nurturing. I bought it as a six inch tall sapling from the arboretum plant sale twelve years ago and now it is a thirty foot beauty. The lithe arc of its branches, the perfect cordate leaves, the mahogany colored emergent leaves, the perfect dappled light cast through its canopy, the butterscotch fragrance of the cadmium yellow autumn leaves, the all-at-once leaf drop...it's just such a gorgeous tree!

In some ways, not nearly so graceful, I feel like this tree. Fractured as my children don't need to rely on me any longer, fractured in my physical state (although in better repair than previously), fractured in despair about my ailing sister, fractured from the loss of a long held pet.

When I pointed out the structural problem of the Katsura Tree to my daughter she asked if we could plant another one in the same spot that is exactly the same size. That would cost a fortune to plant a fully grown tree. Fortunately, since I love this species dearly, I have bought many saplings through the years and have a younger smaller Katura that I can transplant to this spot once the big one comes down, although I'll have to wait until it goes dormant in the winter for a successful operation. I'm hoping there are additional pieces of my life that can also be transplanted to fill the voids. What shape they will take time will only know.

finished

I finished the cap for my sister this afternoon under an outburst of sunshine. Perhaps prophetic. The dreary weather has dragged on for so very long here and just as I finished knitting the long awaited sun finally appeared.

The garden, other than the tomatoes and cukes, has not minded the cool temps. It has prolonged bloom times for the briefly blooming ones like Siberian iris and peonies.
Here is a sampling of bloomers today:

holes

i've never knit with such urgency before.
each stitch is a tiny prayer.
this will soon be a chemo cap for my sister.
hope the holes won't make it too chilly.
rowan calmer yarn.
i like the name of this yarn!

Vastlands

Ahh, the feel of some heat last weekend while in Pasco was a pleasant alternative to the recently dank Puget Sound. Driving solo for four hours, listening to great music, and traveling through the gorgeous wide expanse of Eastern Washington was so meditative. I love the open treeless landscape, the rolling grasslands, and the regular patterns of sagebrush dotting terrain punctuated by deep gorges. I feel so at ease in that vast landscape where the sky is uninterrupted and clouds, in all their variety, are more dramatic. I've never been to Montana but I appreciate Big Sky Country. That transition from sageland to Ponderosa Pine forests, more noticeable on the way back, is so dramatic and compressed while climbing up to the Cascade range. The photo above was taken out the car window while driving upwards of the speed limit just outside of Pasco. I stopped in Prosser to visit The Sewing Basket, a tiny very old house that is packed from floor to ceiling, in room after room, with the greatest collection of quilting fabrics anywhere that I have seen in Washington. I wish I could stop in there all the time for my projects. Here's what I picked while in this sweet shop.

My Lovelies, Well Just a Couple

Tulip 'Marietta'

Syringa 'Maiden's Blush'

This baby opossum has been hanging out in our garden
for the past couple of days.
He's quite tiny.
No sign of his mother around anywhere.
I'm not happy about him taking up residence
since 'possums are not known to be friendly to bunnies.

New Dress

One meter of four different fabrics were brought back from Shanghai from the famed fabric market for me to do with what I wished. I would have loved to have seen the floor after floor of fabrics! The market is famous for silks, cashmeres and wools. This filmy embroidered cotton fabric was a lovely choice. Thank you dear! I squeezed a dress out of the meter and lined it with a plaid cotton to give it some body. I used an invisible zipper, which I didn't realize I was buying at the time, and don't think I will ever buy one again. It was much harder to install than a regular zipper. I haven't hemmed the dress yet, but I'm thinking I will have a two tiered hem, with the plaid lining showing a little bit below the embroidered fabric.

New

I'm feeling a kinship to this Polystichum munitum as it reveals new growth a little bit at a time. I too am feeling renewed with a rigorous exercise routine that seems to be chipping away little by little at my maladies. Yeay. I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel at last!
Such sweet goodness in my woodland border!

Happy Plants

Oh the joy of spring flowers, but to add fragrance on top of that (v. carlesii!) is divine.
bergenia

viburnum carlesii

scilla
Some day I will make a scilla meadow like at Kew.
Vast blueness.
That dreamy image is a source of meditative contentment when needed from time to time.

Happy Earth Day!

I've been green even before there ever was an Earth Day. In a drought ridden childhood natural resource conservation was de rigueur. If you were a water waster you were worse than the devil. My favorite and most rewarding work as a landscape architect has been land restoration (reintroducing native plants into disturbed sites), and effectively planting thousands of trees, through my plans, throughout the world. Those trees will far outlive me, hopefully, and keep pumping out oxygen that someday my grandchildren will inhale. Creating habitat for wildlife has been a priority of mine since making warrens for jackrabbits to hide in from the red-tailed hawks long long ago. Now the vast array of song birds, pheasants, insects, snakes, deer (not always welcome!), raccoons (get out of here you tree branch smashing nasty critters!), and mice (I'd rather not invite them!) enjoy our planted thickets, abundant nectar, pollen, fruit and seed sources. I became a non-red-meat eater in college after reading Diet for a Small Planet, and have never ever wanted red meat ever since. It's funny how the reason for this decision was discussed on NPR today as something new, as a way to help the global warming problem, but global warming/pollution/resource depletion are not new concepts. Eating home grown food has been something I've done since childhood too, but now the eat local movement is taking off. I'm pleased that these sort of notions are getting more attention, but gosh it has taken way too much time to reach this moment of widespread consideration.
Here atop our porch column's capital is a Stellar's Jay nest. Mama sits there all day long, usually only her tail visible. She has built quite a fortress for her babies. She resided here last year, yet atop another capital. Maybe this year's site has a better view. Change can be good, as long as it is headed in the right direction.

Coyote

Dashing across the lawn and through the shrubs at a full clip was a fluffy tailed coyote this morning. I bounded off to the north window to take another look and sure enough there he was standing around looking for his next victim (usually a neighborhood cat). He was big and lithe with a tail that looked like attire that my grandmother wore around here neck.

What date is it?

I know it's April 18th, but looking out the window is a vision of December! It's snowing very heavily. The latest recorded snowfall for this region is happening right now! My serviceberry tree, magnolias, rhodies, columbine are all bursting with bloom and probably yelling out, "what the heck is going on here?!" It's amazing.
Here's a little felt project that I worked on recently.

hope

I don't want to be a whiner so I won't describe why my posts are less frequent other than using a word that haunts me from dawn until dusk and from dusk until dawn: pain. But there is hope. Daisy chain making, a meditation so idyllic, offers a dive into the pool of momentary pleasure that far surpasses any manufactured drug. Perspective is relative to a sibling of far more dire consequences. So fret not and see the hope. Enjoy the little daisies in life.