We have had about twenty warm, sunny days in 2008 and today was one of them. Tom and I went to the arboretum at South Seattle Community College and walked through the whole thing without seeing anyone else until we were on our way out. I loved their conifer gardens, with a lot of trees that most people never think to put in their home gardens. There are so many small and big conifers, with golden foliage or variegation, compact or airy shapes, tall or ground hugging, that it made me wish I could start over in our yard and use conifers a lot more.
Some of the slow-growing cypresses, junipers, and cryptomeria were my favorites. Many of them still had nursery tags on them, which was strange, but it let me see that they can be purchased at a specific nursery that I don't normally go to.
In the alpine rock garden, also full of conifers in full sun, there's a manmade stream. We sat by it on a rock for a while in the sun and watched birds. We saw several cedar waxwings--a bird I wish I could attract into our yard--and a big flock of a grayish-yellow finches or sparrows we could not identify. They were all gregariously perching together on sparse, overhanging branches, and looked as picturesque as Christmas ornaments on the twigs. There are five birds in this picture:
Hummingbirds chased each other in and out of the scene. What the birds really wanted was water, and every so often a few of them would hop down into a shallow spot in the stream where we could not see them from our rock. In spite of being close to a road that we couldn't see, it was all so tranquil and full of bird calls that it almost felt like we were out of town somewhere.
We decided to see if this restaurant we like in the Fauntleroy neighborhood was open, and on our way we stopped for coffee at Jo-Jo's, a little hut in a convenience store parking lot, decorated with flowers and fringes, even with a tiny deck in the sun. The guy running it seemed like someone who you might see working at a Jiffy Lube but he was enthusiastic about the garden we told him we had just seen, and asked us if we've ever been to the big arboretum in Seattle, which he said he loves. You never know!
We had a late lunch at Endolyne Joe's and then visited a tiny park that overlooks a salmon ladder in Fauntleroy Creek, which we never knew about until today. We were just following our noses. It would be fun to live over there. The creek is so wooded that you can't see much of it. I want to go back after Halloween when apparently it is the peak migration time for coho. It's hard to believe salmon swim up these tiny creeks that you could wade in, that are only ankle deep, but they do.
Next we walked along the beach in Lincoln Park, along the Sound, and admired the driftwood and watched people swimming in Colman Pool. It would have been a great day to swim there because of the heated water and the sunshine. Too bad we didn't have bathing suits. While watching the pool people, with some woods in the background, we saw three ospreys soaring over the woods. They were moving so slowly that we couldn't see how they stayed up there without flapping. Beautiful!
If that wasn't enough, when we got home I couldn't stay inside. It was still sunny so I went out and dug a bunch of weeds. They were in an area right along our south property line, where I haven't landscaped yet and I want to put in another Woodchipstrip. I've been waiting all summer for free chips from one of two tree companies who put me on their list, but still nothing. I am going to have to call the guy I got chips from a few years ago, who charges a lot but at least shows up when he says he will.
I also dug out a lot of too-big plants from the tiny strip that is right up against the north foundation of the house--hostas and a couple of sword ferns. Now you can walk on the sidewalk next to it without brushing against leaves. I left a few ferns in place because they're so happy there, but I cut back their overhanging fronds. I'm not sure what I'll put in the new blank spots, maybe some very small ferns.
After all that I think we will sleep well.
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