There was a very camouflaged sea lion trying to rest on the beach! Everyone including myself almost ran right into him! He was invisible in my peripheral vision because I was trying not to fall on my face on the beach boulders. Before I knew it, he came out of nowhere, swung his head around and gurgle barked, scared the crap out of me
Plant status report — Conclusion (because InstaGRAM won’t let me post vertical and horizontal pictures in the same gotdamn post
1. Full view of shade garden with the Mock Orange planted a year ago. Fastest growing shrub I’ve planted. It might be in a slightly too shady of a spot to flower much, but that’s ok I’m planning on putting one out front too.
The biggest headache about the shade garden is that sooner than later I’m going to have to commit to removing the rest of the FUCKING weed cloth the previous owners put down. To plant these specimens I just sloppily ripped out 2-3’ diameter sections after shoveling the couple inches of newly developed soil and slicing it with a razor blade. Seriously, please never put down weed barrier. It is not a permanent weed solution and becomes a nightmare down the road.
Plant status report — Addendum: Shade garden
1. The salal I planted in Jan is blooming! I didn’t expect that this year. They are also fairly difficult to establish. The shade and detritus provided by my neighbors’ big gangly Norway spruce helps a lot. Also the fact that my soil is a magic concoction of silt, clay, gravel, sand, Montana topsoil, and rocks.
2. The maidenhair ferns I planted in Jan are living it up. I think there’s internet lore about how hard it is to keep them alive, but for some reason I think that’s from people who grow them indoors?!?
3. Some beefy mushrooms that I think sprouted overnight and are already getting munched on. First spring mushrooms I’ve seen growing around here! Thank you wood chip nutrients!
Plant status report —
Everyone seems pretty happy these days! Except for the coyote brush and deer brush that I planted last fall and winter. I think they may have gotten too bogged down.
1. Maple chilling next to the prairie junegrass and tufted hairgrass clumps
2. The irises that were here when I moved in seem more productive this year, I wonder if it’s because I added wood chips around them
3. Maple loves the tall foliage
4. Tons of raspberry canes that have all sprouted from *one* that I planted last summer (probably going to need a root barrier strip installed 😬). They’re duking it out with the thimbleberry sprouts
5. Lots of unripe pink currants coming in
6. Last year there was one almond on the almond tree. This year at least a dozen!
7. The Oregon tea tree has doubled in size this spring. I’m glad it’s happy, they’re moderately difficult to grow
8. Sword fern planted last year is definitely happy under the north eaves
Stevie, aka Steve aka Stevie Weevie aka Teevie aka Sergeant Lieutenant Steve aka Stephanie Germanotta aka Steve the Queen aka Miss Petite Feet (with a stompy, feminine step) passed peacefully in my arms today. She had been battling end stage chronic kidney disease since January.
I first met Steve when I moved into my friend’s house in October? 2016. She was 3 or 4 years old. She had been abandoned there by a previous roommate. After spending 700 bucks at the vet to treat an injury on her wrist, I had the talk with my friend and asked who Steve’s guardian should be. He agreed I was doing a good job of taking care of her.
Her favorite things were string toys (Worm Girl is one of her nicknames), Greenies (cat treats), especially when it involved fishing them out of one of her treat puzzles, laying in the sun in the driveway, laying anywhere in the sun actually. Salmon was her favorite cat food, and bacon and Goldfish crackers were at one point were the only human foods she would accept a little treat of. I’ll never forget the time I found out she liked bacon because she jumped on the kitchen table and tried to abscond with a piece!
She was the dominant figure wherever she lived and was proud to be a protector, even as a small but mighty blue-eyed, spotted brown tabby. She didn’t have a good start to life but I made sure the rest of it was as good as possible. She was the first animal friend I was the guardian of in my adult life.
Quick trip to Shoreline for Xmas Eve Fam Time. My favorite gift is this cat munching on garden gnomes for my ever growing kitschy grandma-inspired garden deco that my dad got me. I only took 3 pics, my cousin Lisa with the tree, my aunt and uncle’s doggo, and the leftover lutefisk (which was pretty good this year I gotta say). The drive was of course extremely eventful, with intermittent heavy rain, sun, rainbows, people slowing down to 45 mph before their exits, accident-dodging (was able to exit right before a recent crash and hop in front of it by getting back on the freeway), and a person who stole a cop car on I-5 right before I headed home, of which I counted 40 cop cars going northbound all through Seattle. Next year I’m buying a train ticket for sure
Today I got three free street trees planted thanks to Friends of Trees! And since my neighborhood is in the priority group for street trees this year, they come with free water during the first 3 summers. An Oregon White Oak, Incense Cedar, and Willamette Valley variety Ponderosa Pine. All natives but only the ponderosa and oak are on the Portland Plant List/count towards my Backyard Habitat certification. The cedar and pine will get up to 200’ tall. Prob not in my time here, but it feels and looks so much better out here now.
