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We have a fabulous new front gate!

Our Spring Garden

Despite many reasons for the garden to be a mess this year, it isn't.  Naturally, we had the incentive of Yessi and Brad's wedding in the garden on the 20th of April, but…

I also have been in the hospital five times, with three surgeries, in the past year.  That's made gardening on my part limited, but then there's Ed, Yessi and Brad, plus a friend or two, helping out from time-to-time.  Bless them.  I had surgery on the 15th of March and then on April 25th I had another hospital stay and another surgery, with the wedding sandwiched in between.  Low energy, pain and discomfort made gardening challenging, but check out our beautiful spring garden despite the hurdles. 

The greenhouse is full of greens and peas.  

The garden has an abundance of good things to eat, including broccoli, spinach, onions, beets, strawberries, asparagus raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb, and more.  Also, the plums, apples and pears bloomed profusely so we're expecting lots of fruit.  And then there are the grapes.  Last year I made raisins and I'm hoping to do the same this year.

View of our home from the second floor of our barn, looking east

Looking east through a small grove of bamboo

This maple is still small and in the territory of the Exbury azaleas, but I'm loving the red and yellow combination.

More color, especially my favorite garden color -- Green!

We do indeed live in a family-created paradise, with a garden designed by Fran, a home designed and built by Brad, and with Ed participating every step of the way, including doing the wiring.  

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Come Again Another Day!

Today, Thursday, 80% chance of Rain

Brad is still hiking for Green Trails Maps in the Glacier Peak Wilderness area.  There have been sun breaks, but mostly rain since he left  on Monday.  He is expected home later today or tomorrow and will no doubt look like one wet puppy.    He travels light so packs  a tarp, not a tent, and with so many miles on his tarp it is no longer without holes.  Plus, his mode of transportation is a motorcycle, so once he gets back to his bike, he will have a long wet ride home.  Yessi is back in China, and much missed by us all, but especially Brad who loved hiking with her.

Brad and Yessi on the bike earlier in the summer.
So much more fun with good company and blue skies.

I'm pleased Brad is such an expert outdoors person, so I don't much worry, but I do always want for him happiness and I know being soaking wet will not make him especially happy.  Wet spells:

 U N C O M F O R T A B L E !

and uncomfortable means unpleasant and unpleasant means unhappy.  So there you have it.    I can only hope my assessment is totally wrong and by some strange coincidence it is dry in the mountains while it rains here on Whidbey Island.  What are the chances of that?

Yet, while hiking is unpleasant in the rain, my garden smiles.  The rain was much needed after a very dry summer.  The garden has been thirsty.  I watered, but there is no way I can water the way Mother Nature waters.  For conservation reasons I let the lawn brown out and all well-established plants are left  to make it on their own.  But, new plantings, and I still have quite a few this year, must be watered the first two years or they will die.  So water I must, from time-to-time.

Watering the vegetable garden is always a necessity, but also has high payback.  This month we are eating beets, onions, beans, potatoes, kale, cucumbers and carrots from the garden.  Plus the apples have been prolific -- Mr. Ed has packed our freezer with apple sauce he's made and passed it out to the neighbors as well.  Earlier in the year we harvested raspberries, and more raspberries, along with lots of strawberries and blueberries.   We ate fresh asparagus for two months and the peas were abundant.  It's been a very good vegetable garden season!

Yessi watering the vegetable garden and delighting in the rainbow. 

Back to Brad's adventure in the mountains, I hear thunder off in the distance.

Gifts of Stone

Our family is always looking for ways to avoid buying another gift trinket for the many occasions gifts are required -- Christmas, Valentine's Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries.  Short of ignoring gift giving entirely, we've tried to celebrate with creativity.    We've made gifts or grown them.  We're particularly fond of gifts of food or flowers.  Handmade cards, a special meal cooked to order, or eating out are also nice ways our family celebrates.  But, somehow, the gifts of stones from son to mother, begun a number of years ago, are the creme de la creme for my birthdays, or any other occasion.  But, with a hiking-season-summer-birthday stones packed home became almost a tradition and a much-loved and wanted birthday gift possibility.

This beautiful stepping stone was for my birthday this year.  It came from Glacier Peak Wilderness
on the back of Brad's BMW motorcycle, roped onto the passenger seat.

 Finding a home for a new treasurer is always an important part of receiving the gift.  It needs to be "planted" in the garden in the perfect spot.  The stone above earned a place in the middle of our little upper pond.  Because of the moss we don't want it stepped on often but the stone is there for the occasional need to get across the pond without going around, or for maintenance purposes.   Because this location is a shady nook in the garden, the moss will grow and deepen and no doubt ferns will decide to join the moss too.  Perhaps one day this stone will  look more like a small fern island.

Small stacking stones from the Cascades.

The larger stone these little stacking stones are resting on is a chair shaped stone.  It arrived by truck, as part of a larger load of garden stones, but was hand selected by Brad.  It was placed at our stone entry steps for a place to pause and rest and enjoy the garden on entering or departing.  The small stacking stones are on a small shelf while the sitting part of the stone is to the right (above).  Brad carried the stacking stones home from the Cascades in his pack.

 

A sweet vignette.  Origin unknown, but beauty and sweet addition to the garden
worthy of the effort to tote them home from a hiking or kayaking adventure.

This big beauty holds a very special place at the edge of our upper pond.
It is the "lookout" for viewing the pond and stream.

Early on in our construction project we needed  large mossy stones to help nestle our ponds and stream into the landscape.   The one above was one of our first.   After an outing to Belllingham this lovely stone came home on Brad's pickup, on top of a load of construction materials.

These stones present me with the dilemma of memory loss.  I don't exactly remember the origin
of this beautiful little garden art piece.  The concrete with the hole was a Brad find, as were the stones.  The stack was created by me at our entry.

The big boy!  Large, heavy and a beast to load into Brad's pickup and a beast  to unload or move.  

Sometimes the gift is too big to be moved far.  This big stone, carried home from the Olympic Peninsula, sits on the edge of our drive.  It has a two fold function in that key location.  One is to please the eye.  The other is to stop a runaway car from ending up in our home.

A stone with a mantra carved on it came from Nepal.

When Brad gave a presentation at Wander on Whidbey about his Nepal trek, one of the attendees asked him whether he regretted carrying this heavy stone home from Nepal.  Brad's incredulous response was, "It's for my mom!"

These five mantra stones also came from the trip Brad took to China and Nepal in December 2012.
They came back in his backpack, along with the painted stone above, to live in our garden here on
Whidbey Island 

Mt. Rainier spike

This spike stone was carried down off the mountain several years ago when Brad hiked the Wonderland Trail at Mt. Rainier.  When he was unloading it from his pack, after packing it for miles and miles, he dropped it and broke off the tip.  Glue fixed that problem, but initially he was one disappointed guy.  It had a prominent place in our Saratoga garden and again, now, in our Grace garden.

There have been other stones we've brought home as our treasures.  On a kayaking trip, several years ago, we collected pocketfuls of stone from a small island, small stones like medallions, with holes in them that we combined with beads for making hanging art. Pockets have been stuffed with special stones for special events.  When our golden brown dog, Roshi, died, we collected stones of his beautiful warm brown color to make an alter for him.  White stones from a Whidbey Island beach were added to our garden to honor a friend's wedding.  Agates, whenever seen, are collected to add to a jar to adorn my desk.  Special touch stones are picked up to ride with us in our pockets for good luck.  We stack stones everywhere.  When asked if I have a collection I say, "No.  I don't collect things." But really, when I think about it, I have quite the rock collection.  Little thin rocks from the ocean; pretty colored ones from the mountains; beautiful mossy ones from the forests; glassy clear ones from the beach;  heart shaped ones wherever we find them; large landscape rocks; stepping stones; and large, small, and in between sized stones for our stream and ponds.  It's not a collection, right?  It's a garden!

We love rocks, stones, pebbles, boulders -- all gems to us.  All express love in this family.

~~~

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.

Lee Iacocca

The Peace of Grace!

 Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ 

There is nothing like a health scare and 27 days in the hospital to make one more than grateful for home, community, garden, friends and, most important of all, family.  Blessed indeed am I!  And, as I'm sure Emerson knew, although nothing can bring peace but one's self it sure helps to have all the wonderful trimmings.

The beautiful community of Langley street-dancing at Choochokam Art Festival

In late April, feeling great and strolling the garden with my cup n' pup, I suffered a surprise visit called a rectal prolapse.  Off to Whidbey General Hospital Emergency where I ended up having emergency surgery three fold in nature.  First, a hysterectomy due to an enlarged uterus and  a large fibroid creating space problems.  Second, to fix the rectal prolapse problem.  Third, to remove two colon tumors found in the process.  Although the initial reason for the hospital visit was unfortunate and exceedingly unpleasant, I can only be grateful for the problem as it led to the discovery of colon cancer.  Fortunately the cancer was  stage 1 with no nodes involved so no chemo or radiation is required and my prognosis is very good.  But a bit of a scare, nevertheless.  This entire procedure required an 8 day hospital stay. 

Once home, although sore, I felt great for three days before I started vomiting and feeling quite horrible.  Back to the hospital for the wonderful experience of adhesion.   Although adhesion is exceedingly common, who knew?  I sure didn't but it is particularly common after abdominal surgery.  Off to surgery again to correct the adhesion problem followed by 16  long, long days in the hospital before it all played out.

Home again.  Sigh of relief!  But then, after enough time that I though I was home free, here comes the vomiting again and back to Whidbey General.  This time it was partial adhesion and bowel blockage.  Yikes!  Another stay in the hospital but for only three days.

So here I am home again and feeling great and enjoying family and friends.  The secret is to keep the darn adhesion from reoccurring but there seems to be no silver bullet for that.  I drink my green juice and watch my intake and take flax and fish oil and vitamins, along with other good stuff and keep my fingers crossed.  Plus I walk and walk and walk.  The jostling is good as is the gravity.  Adhesions can occur again and again but I'm now working on being well and not sick so I'm maintaining hopeful thoughts. 

Brad, Fran & Ed celebrate Father's Day between my hospital visits
Mother's Day was in the hospital for me and Brad was in California hiking Big Sur.

Very much a part of our lives, sweet Yessi enjoying the garden

A lovely welcome back to the old-neighborhood- in-Seattle party.

And, then, did I mention my home and garden located on Grace Lane.  What pleasure they provide and how lucky I am to have had the luxury of working with my family to create this wonderful sanctuary.  Brad our designer and builder performed magic and Ed even got his computer-fingers dirty working the dream.  And I, although I didn't know it, created a garden that brings me, and all who live here or visit, a retreat of  peace and beauty.   So through sweat, tears, disagreements, hard work, broken finger nails, sunburn, sore muscles, frustration, laughter, hugs, and a clear vision or what we wanted, we created this oasis together -- Peace on Grace.

Our pond and water catchment system provides in-town habitat and beauty
 as well as being very valuable in handling our site's storm water 

Lush and inviting.

Our nestled home of many parts.

Insatiable Passion!

I don't really plant for color but for texture, shape and year-around interest.  So, given my pronouncement that "green is a color too" it seem like I have lots of non-green color -- STILL -- in my garden.  A quick walk around the garden resulted in several beautiful vignettes.

Japanese Iris 

Water Lily

Water Iris

California Poppy

Kalmia

Fuchsia

Fuchsia

Blue-Eyed Grass

Dianthus

Sun Rose

Potentilla

Anemone

Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation.  It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart.  

~Karel Čapek, The Gardener's Year, translated by M. and R. Weatherall, 1931

Home for a spell...

Between trips, Brad and Yessi spend time on Whidbey Island. They have a little cottage where they're creating a garden and home plus they play on a huge rope swing with happy delight.  Yessi took her turn at experiencing a riding mower for the first time.   Brad delights in exposing her to new adventures, both on the trail and on the domestic scene, as I'm sure she did when Brad was in China.

A lovely dinner at the cottage

Brad on the rope swing

Yessi on the mower

Brad did some bird block work on our buildings.  The determined birds looking for good nesting spots had actually pecked away the metal mesh covering the ventilation holes to give them access to our buildings.  Each night was full of fluttering and chirping birds, leaving us uneasy about the state of our insulation.  As Brad climbed around on ladders, Yessi crawled around on her knees helping me achieve a weedless garden again.  Almost an entire month of neglect due to my hospital stay and the garden was a mess.  In April I thought I had every weed under control and all pruning up to date.  At the end of May control was not at all part of the picture.  A month of a little rain and a little sun resulted in lots of weeds growing, shrubs growing and trees growing.  I was welcomed home to an enthusiastic jungle.  It was almost impossible for me to enjoy my cup n' pup for the neglect I saw.     Thank you Brad, Yessi, Ed and a few dear friends who helped me get my garden back into presentable shape.

Soon this adventuresome twosome will depart again.  But, for now it is wonderful to have them around helping out with chores.  

 

Brad working on bird blocks

Yessi watering the vegetable garden

Back home in my garden

This is the building that has dominated my life this past week.  An interesting turn of events Saturday morning, April 27 resulted in a quick visit to Whidbey General for emergency care.  The care was in the form of surgery, including a hysterectomy and removal of tumors on my colon.  The tumors were malignant but that bad news was followed with the good news that the cancer was Class 1, none of the 14 nodes were involved and there was no indication of escape.  After an eight day stay at the hospital, I'm home again, and what a glorious place home is!!

P.S.  Due to digestive tract adhesion, after spending three glosious days at home, I returned to the hospital for another 16 days.  More surgery!  I'm now home again recovering and loving my home and garden more than ever!

Whidbey General Hospital

This morning I wandered around the garden in pure heaven to be in this treasured place.  A garden and home for healing in amazingly beautiful 80 degree weather!

Tree Peony in full glorious bloom

Almost over but still beautiful, barberry in foreground with Eddy's White Wonder Dogwood behind it.

Solomo'n Seal

Pond with Camas Lily in bloom

Deciduous Azaleas at the base of the living room window

Grace on Grace

As we depart for the NW Tandem Rally in Salem, Oregon, and then continue on down to Yosemite,  California to meet Brad, we leave a beautiful, beautiful garden at home.   Here on Whidbey Island the spring has been wet and cool.  People might be complaining but the garden is delighted.

Japanese Iris

NW Rain

As I think of Brad, hiking the PCT in the hot, dry, hang-onto-your-water-supply, Southern California landscape, here in the NW it is raining, and will be raining, according to all forecasts, for the next week.  Although the sun and blue sky-beauty of the past 10 days has been wonderful, so is the rain.  The garden is, suddenly, perky again, the soil has returned to that dark, wet-looking, deep brown color.  The plant foliage once again has that lush wet look -- the usual look of a NW spring is back.

Fredley Creek from the Bridge

Fredley Pond from the Bridge

Fredley Pond and Fish from the Bridge

Fredley Garden from the Bridge

Fredley Vegetable Garden from the Covered Patio

This evening we had BBQ chicken for dinner, with corn on the cob (probably from California) and a huge green salad from the garden (topped off with an avocado and walnuts, also, probably from California).  We ate, all the while missing Brad, as we watched the rain fall.  My dinner grateful, a tradition of many years, was for the rain.  It is lovely!