Sunday, June 2, 2013

The scent of Roses

I usually don't think it's all that great to read about the boring details of someone's day to day existence.  Like how you had a cold and the cough lasted for weeks or you had to spend a little more than expected on those car repairs or how that new roughage regimen is starting to work.......etc.  But there are some regular day to day's that rise above the usual.  Plus I took a whole bunch of pictures and need a place to put them.  So bear with me. 

I am sitting writing this post on the "lanai" from the bouncy chair overlooking the garden in full display.  Our favorite radio station (KRVM...catch in online!) is on the "Magical  Mystery Tour" and Janice Joplin is singing "Bobby McGee".....the first song I ever learned to play on the guitar.  The scent of roses, fresh from a rain and warmed in the sun, along with the freshness of new mown grass wafts over me, pushed by the wind. My partner in crime has just served me a delicious lunch of PBand J washed down with milk and fig newtons for desert.  I solved the entire crossword. And the swallows are darting around caching bugs and making nests.  All the work and effort and difficulty of the winter seem to have vanished.  All would be perfect except for my left knee.  I'm sorry to break the lovely reverie with a medical departure, but I did say there would be some boring details....I'll make it short.

I hurt my left knee somehow.  It may have been the clutch on the riding mower, it could have been the extra gardening, powerwashing, shop vacuuming, cleaning etc that I did getting ready for the open house or it could be just an aging knee with an overweight owner in her 60's.  It was hurting for awhile when I went to the local N.P. got an x-ray and started physical therapy. 

It got worse.  Maybe it was running after and tracking down kids at school and playground duty, maybe it was my gardening jones or maybe that outlet mall and rose garden visit with Ann and Carol.  Or maybe it was learning the East Coast Swing at dance class.  Anyway, at Jeff's urging I made an appointment at a sports medicine/orthopedic clinic.  It's famous for fixing UO football players so how bad could it be?  Well, long story short, they found inflamation, fluid and swelling. Jeff was there to hold my hand and boy did I need him.  I got a big needle stuck in my knee and they drew off fluid and injected two kinds of corticosteroids.

 Then we went to a wedding!

Due to a series of unavoidable events (not pregnancy), Emily and Fred decided to get married on Friday, May 31.  So after work I prepared a bouquet and two bouteniers, changed clothes and Jeff and I (he of the all day running around, hand holding, and mowing duty) headed up the freeway to an obscure address in Salem for the ceremony.  It turned out to be a small house set up as a private chapel and it was perfect.

What a lovely and heart-warming celebration.  There wasn't a dry eye was they exchanged vows, hugged as a family and we all danced to "At Last".  Wow!  We took Ruben home with us for the night and Emily told us this morning that she was a little shocked to wake up this morning hungover with a ring on her finger!

Anyway, back to the lanai.  I am on light duty.  Jeff is running my errands and I have only been in the garden for four or five rounds of weed pulling, watering, deadheading and rearranging.  I really want to do more.......but Jeff will give me dirty looks and I do want to heal and now the radio is playing a song from my personal top 10.......Won't be Fooled Again by "The Who".  I guess I'll just sit here with ice on my knee and post pictures. 

First the wedding:

Pinning the boutineier

The happy couple

Don't pin me, Grandma

What a lovely family

Mom and daughter

Jeff holds Fred up


Color coordinated


Ruben already knew how to be a ring-bearer

It's official



And now a whole bunch of flower pictures.  Hope you enjoy (if not, feel free to skip) I'll leave them small for the sake of bandwidth, but you can click them to make them larger



Spring Rainbow

Awakening climber

Bouquet

Westerland climber

Louise Clements

Blue Butterfly Delphinium

Freddy and the Giant Foxgloves fertilized by Jeff's fish water

Tamora

Back Rose bed

Backside of L shaped bed

Abraham Darby

Hot Cocoa

Julia Child

Violets

What a Peach

I think its Rouge Royale clematis

Westerland and Midnight blue bouquet

Zepherine Droughin

Lupin and Rhody

Giant Hostas

Will the foxglove reach the roof?

Compassion climber

Mr. Lincoln--super smelly

Avenue of roses

Looking over the valley

Sweet Chairiot mini rose

Tiffany

Knockout rose

View from the bouncy chairs
Ready to take Max to the airport

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Back to Humbug: May 3,4 and 5

The weather report for the weekend was for hot weather.  Even on the Oregon Coast.  I was ready for a camping trip and my enthusiasm convinced Jeff.  We put the camper on the truck on Thursday and added the J and K Adventures decal that Robert and Betsy gave us for our wedding. It was a wonderful addition to the camper.

 By Friday when I got off work we were ready to head down the road, with one addition to the usual items......this time we had to take Freddy with us.  It wasn't just our first camping trip of the year, it was Freddy's first camping trip ever!

Our ultimate destination was Humbug Mt. State park just south of Port Orford.  But it's a long way down the road and we were both exhausted.  As usual, we just went with the flow and with Jeff dozing in the seat beside me, I drove to Sunset Beach State park which is just south of Charleston.  We had spent a few wonderful afternoons on the protected beach there, but never tried the campground.  It was a lot closer than Humbug.  It was starting to get dark as we found a space with privacy that wasn't to far from the bathroom (and not far enough from the screaming children taking up residence in the yurt across the campground).  At any rate, hungry, tired, cold and frazzled, we put up the camper and I magically created a delicious meal in record time.  Jeff was so impressed, he even built a fire and we enjoyed a quiet evening after the "monsters" finally exhausted themselves and went to bed.  The hot weather hadn't arrived and I was glad we had lots of blankets.  How wonderful it was to sleep in our comfortable bed in the camper.

In the morning, we had a quick breakfast, grabbed a few last minute items (how could we have forgotten towells?) and just about noon, pulled into Humbug.  It was breezy, but warm.....a nice combination and we wasted no time putting together the camp, making sandwiches and heading for the beach.


J and K Adventures has a new sign


The beach at Humbug.....so private

101 bridge

Seagulls enjoy the fresh water

Me and the wild Lupines

 
The sand was so hot, we cooled our feet in the stream.
After our walk, we went back to camp to good ole space 49 to enjoy rest and relaxation.  Warm wind, hot sun, a crossword and a comfortable chair soothed our souls.  Before long it was naptime.  Then time for a hot shower.  For dinner, we had steaks over the open flame and asparagus and salad.  Love that camp cooking.  Then, another walk to the beach for the glorious sunset.  I have rarely in my life been able to sit on the beach at the Oregon coast at 8 pm without a coat.  It was amazingly balmy.

We found out it was best to put Freddy up on the bunk to keep him out of the way of the cook.

Shirtsleeve sunset

Amazing (as usual)

Freddy the camp dog

Coffee and bacon--yum!

Fred is eager to sample breakfast

The next morning we took our time getting up and going.  After breakfast and putting everything away, we went up Hiway 101 and stopped at Floras Lake.  I convinced Jeff that we needed one more hike.

 Floras Lake--Windsurfer haven

Hiking across the sand to the beach--tough going.

We made it!

Floras Lake is only a sand berm away from the ocean. Floras on the left, ocean on the right.

The ocean at Floras Lake has a deep booming sound.  The sand is different....coarse with lots of little pebbles.  We enjoyed the hike, but walking over the sand was difficult and by the time we got back to the truck we were really tired.  Time to drive home.  But what a wonderful trip we had.  Freddy's first camping trip was a success.