The story of an arbor.

Howdy, I'm back!

It's been a crazy, awesome, amazing summer.
But I have a background story to tell.
It's the Story of an Arbor.


Years ago, over 25 years ago, when we moved to the island I had not been a gardener. I began poking around the garden at our rental, planting a few things, enjoying the rhododendrons, clematis and rhubarb. A few years later we ended up building our house and then I had a whole bare yard to landscape. I loved to drive around the island and spot colorful gardens. I especially loved to find white rose arbors.

One beautiful day in May I decided to photograph my favorite, over there on Falk Road on the East side of the island.

As I began snapping photos, I noticed an elderly man standing at the end of the walkway behind the fence. I quickly went over to him to tell him what I was doing (and ask permission after the fact!).

He warmly said, "Come in, come in!" I then met his wife who suffered from a bit of dementia but was as warm as her husband. They gave me a tour of their vintage house and yard which I immediately wanted to buy!! The dining room had windows that viewed Puget Sound and Mt. Rainier.

Yes, he had built the arbor.
He had also built all the picket fences around the property from old sewing machine crates! He had been a sewing machine salesman for years and kept the crates. He'd built birdhouses, too, that dotted the property. "Bring your husband over," he said. He wanted him to take any arbor measurements he needed in order to build me one.

And hubby did, almost an exact copy.

With our youngest son's help, he built the arbor and a picket fence.

Yup, I hand dug the shape of the garden and began planting.
I think I fell in love with gardening right about then.

Things began to grow!

And grow!

And grow!

Until one day my young niece looked at the garden and named it The Wedding Garden all the while dreaming of getting married there someday.

But when she married 5 years ago, she needed a bigger venue and chose a gorgeous farm setting.

I didn't dream that one of my sons would get married by The Wedding Garden. Um, they just don't talk about that stuff much while growing up :)  But to our surprise and delight, our oldest son got engaged this summer and our soon to be daughter-in-law loved The Wedding Garden.

So we busily got ready.

New pickets and fresh paint.

We had painted the arbor (and house exterior) last summer, thankfully!

Until all was complete (well, as much as a garden is ever complete!)
And on September 7 our son married in front of the arbor.

(Photo credit Christin Spradling)

It was an amazing day.

Thank you, Mr. Hamro, for generously sharing your handiwork. You would have been delighted to see what became of your inspiration!

If you give a gardener. . .

. . . the garbage to take out she will see a weed in the lawn.

When she sees the weed, she'll get her weed tool from the greenhouse and remove the weed.

When she is removing the weed she'll see the clover that has encroached on the bed around the shed.

When she sees that clover she'll begin to pull it.

When she begins pulling it she'll decide she needs another tool, the sharp one.

When she is using the sharp tool on the clover she'll decide she needs gloves.

When she is getting the gloves out of the greenhouse she'll see the kneeler pad.

When she sees the kneeler pad, she'll grab it.

When grabbing the kneeler pad, she'll see the cultivator.

When she sees the cultivator, she'll decide she needs it, too.

If you give a gardener a weed tool, a sharp tool, a cultivator, a kneeler pad and gloves she'll decide she needs the long handled edger too.

When she has the long handled edger in hand she'll begin edging the entire length of that side of the garden by the shed.

When she is edging that entire bed, she'll hear mosquitos around her.

When the mosquitos she heard begin to attack she'll quickly put away the weed tool, and the sharp tool, and the kneeler pad, and the cultivator, and the long-handled edger, and her gloves.

When she puts away her gloves she'll go back into the house to finish cleaning up the kitchen.

When she is cleaning up the kitchen she'll realize the kitchen waste can is still on the porch.

When she realizes the can is still on the porch, she'll retrieve it.

When she retrieves it, she'll see it needs a new liner.

When she sees the can needs a new liner, she'll put in a new liner.

When she puts in the new liner, she'll look out the kitchen window.

When she looks out the kitchen window, she'll see a weed in the lawn. . .

TRUE STORY

Journaling

Oh my, I have SO much to tell you all but it'll have to wait until another day.

  Then I'll be blogging like a mad woman.

In the meantime I want to write a bit about something I mentioned on Facebook. I'd been having a couple of days of anxiety - the kind where you can't seem to catch your breath and thoughts swirl around in your mind.  I am talking about a generalized anxiety that you can feel physically and your mind cannot rest. 

I have thankfully learned to journal. 

This type of journalling is basically pouring out anything and everything you are thinking. No correct spelling or sentence structure. No "good girl" ways of explaining things. Just the raw emotions including words like "I hate. . ." or "I am afraid. . ." or that "makes me so angry. . ."

No one will ever read these words (I am burning my journals before I die - haha!!). It is real, unedited emotions being released and it is quite amazing how it diffuses the anxiety. My counselor taught me to do this so even though I am not an "expert" this has been so helpful to me.

The second thing I do is make lists.

I am a list maker to the core. I love lists. I love to cross things off my lists. I am very visual so I need to get those to-do's out of my brain where they rattle around and into a concrete form. The beauty of lists is that many things that cause anxiety need to be seen in black & white. 

"We don't have enough money" ends up with a list of what needs to be purchased and how you will pay for it. Or not! Black & white, this is what we can or cannot afford.

"The whole house is a mess" ends up with a prioritized list so the things that are bugging me the most get accomplished first. Sometimes the other things on the list don't matter after that.

Maybe this will be helpful to someone out there. I buried my feelings and anxiety for years which resulted in major depression. Through counseling I've earned some tools to head off relapses.

I am thankful for those tools and sweet health.

A set back

I was so excited the other day when I saw this:

The painting was done, tape removed, and hubby was installing the lights.

But then this happened:

A little touch up always needs to be done after removing the tape but in this case the paint failed in the area of new sheetrock. For some reason the primer did not adhere to the wall. Hubby could just peal it off like butter. After all his hard work!

 Things were looking so good (not that my phone camera can capture it in low light).

Hubby talked to a painter friend about all the possible causes.

"Unknown cause"

So back to square one with hopes the paint doesn't fail in other spots around the room.

The toilet remains on the porch.

Plumbing parts here and there.

But you know what? It doesn't matter because we've been helping our son get ready for an appraisal. 

Hubby has been over there helping build/install and I got to help him choose and plant over 30 plantings!! 

Such a privilege and so fun!!

And with all the rain lately the gardens are bursting at the seams. We live in a pretty green part of the world because of that rain.

I need to do some harvesting today. 

When I see this I decide I am not quite ready for a condo :)

I'd rather be gardening Part 2

Thought I'd show you more reasons the house projects are neglected, heh-heh.

Hubby and a neighbor cut up a tree that fell due to a rotten base. That's the tree I heard fall one day without hearing any chainsaws before hand. That tree alerted our neighbors to a couple of hazard trees that need to be removed as well. 

We got to bring some home for future firewood.

See that whole front row of logs including some double stacked? I moved all those from the grass, by myself, and lifted them in place.

"Cue Popeye arms"

That was after I edged the grass and weeded.

I am almost done with edging the gardens.

This is the edging my hubby did a few years ago to keep the gravel contained. I love the use of brick.

This bed in front of the house has been troublesome for 25 years. I don't know how many garden designs I've done there only to have them fail. Almost complete shade now. I am considering digging it all up, again.  Maybe not this year. Sometimes I just put out pots of impatiens with fingers crossed that the deer won't find them.

You may see a container to the far right. That is a hydrangea I've thought of planting there but I am afraid it is too shady to get any blooms.

But look - the strawberries are turning red!!!

The robins were eyeing them so I covered the bed with netting.

And suddenly the wild huckleberries are ripe!

Wild huckleberries and blackberries always make me feel at home.

And my own bathroom. 

I'd rather be gardening. . .

Remember the master bedroom re-do?

Or the bathroom remodel?

Yes, those projects still exist but are very neglected right now because the garden is where I'd rather be.

Instead of painting the bathroom last weekend, hubby and I got all involved in outside projects.

I've been getting the gardens edged.

I use these tools to get a crisp edge that I can then easily keep neat the rest of the season.

I like to mark the edge with the garden fork since any mistakes "heal" quickly. Then I use the edger tool to cut a deep trench. That keeps the grass from encroaching into the garden too quickly and gives me a great workout!

I am almost finished edging all the garden beds and then I'll need to mulch the exposed soil.

Hubby limbed up some branches that were reaching too far out into the yard including an extremely long maple branch.

The pile grew and grew.

And in case you are wondering, this is how I've been living since my bathroom was demo'd MONTHS ago. :)

Yes, I could paint the bathroom so hubby can install the toilet, lights and sink but 

I Hate To Paint.

And I'd rather be gardening.

Sweet garden surprises

What a gorgeous day with a warm breeze and blue, blue skies!

I would really like to take down some trees so more of that sunshine reaches my gardens. I am so jealous of friends with sweeps of blossoms. Peonies, delphinium, roses, lilacs - big, fragrant blooms!  What I get are a few blossoms here and there unless it is a very happy, weed-ish plant. Or native beauties like these foxgloves.

So, I walked around the garden today finding spectacular flowers even if they were soloing it. Like this poppy (that I don't remember planting). Just one bloom but so gorgeous.

Or this columbine whose colors I love (hey, I see two blooms!!)

 How about this vine I popped into a planter? 

Cannot remember what it is but what an interesting blossom.

I had read that Mimulus looked like little orchids so I gave them a try. Such a sweet surprise.

How about bit of coral bells in a deep red?

 And I am so tickled to finally have my prized Just Joey rose inside the deer-fenced garden. Such a color and so fragrant.

With all the remodeling going on, I kept my deck planters to a minimum, which isn't easy, I tell ya!

I am very, very fond of nemesia and used several varieties plus succulents and perennials I already had. Hopefully they will all last for most of season.

If not, I will have to visit the plant nurseries again.

That could be trouble!