Catching Up - Our Great Neighborhood

Last Saturday night Ken and Vickie Summers had a housewarming party to celebrate their new house. It was so fun. There were neighbors there we know pretty well, like Daryl and Vonnie, and then people we never even met at all.

There are 3 people in this neighborhood who actually grew up in this very neighborhood. Merle, just around the corner on Honey Lane, Allen, across the street, and Steve, who lives behind us (refer to the pipe bomb scare last summer). Merle said when she was little there was a really mean lady who lived in our house, so they didn't play here.

Paul and Catherine, who live just at the top of the dip on Stan's side of the street, were there. It is always fun to see them, and they brought Catherine's 81 year old mother along. She is going to be moving in with them soon. She is really funny - I'm looking forward to spending more time with her.

What was especially fun was that everyone was giving Ken and Vickie a hard time about actually having a house that is finished! And new, and nice, and not cluttered with junk! Because everyone in our neighborhood is just as bad as we are about finishing projects. Lots of people have rooms without trim, doors without doorknobs, unfinished bathrooms.

There is a new couple with teenage children who just moved into Ken & Vickie's old house, and one of their mother's is living with them also - Ana is her name. She seems nice too.

I think I'll have a tea party.

One neighbor said she had gastric bypass surgery 15 years ago. She used to weigh 320 pounds. Now she weighs about 125. She has kept the weight off all this time. She said the highest she has ever gotten again is 175, but she knows of several people who have gained all their weight back.

Stan and Lori weren't at the party because they were off on a 3 day trip with a group of people in their Model A's or whatever their little old car is. To the gorge or somewhere. And their little dog Shadow just died too. So I won't say anything bad about Shadow. Actually, there was one good thing she did once. One time the goats or sheep or maybe all of them together escaped and they were running around the neighborhood. Shadow actually rounded them up and chased them home. She went just as far as the gate, saw them safely in, and then turned around and went home. So maybe she wasn't all bad.

Sometimes we think about other places we want to live, and paying someone to build us a small, new, finished house. But there is something to be said for living in a neighborhood where everyone is nice, and in 18 years we have had not one problem with any of our neighbors.

Today I picked a peck of peppers and popped them into the freezer.

Catching Up - My Lovely Garden

All summer long I have been, as usual, frantically working in the garden. There is more work to do than I can ever possibly keep up with. On weekend mornings, I get up, put on my grubby clothes, go outside, look around, and then go from one thing to another, rarely feeling like I really get something done, because it is never finished. Occasionally, when we have cleaned up the patio and have guests, and actually sit down and enjoy it, I realize just how nice we have made our back yard. But those times are rare. Usually I see the weeds and the work to be done, rather than how much we have accomplished and what a nice place we have created.

On Saturday morning, a few weeks ago, I did what I usually do. Only this time, I was in the middle of the vegetable garden, and all of a sudden, dramatically, I was struck by how lovely everything was, and I had to stop and just look. I felt elated. I tried to take some pictures of it at the time, but the sun was shining pretty brightly so it was hard to capture.









This is the arbor Rich made for me, leading on to the patio.





And this is my little bed of amazing zinnias that just bloom and bloom and bloom.















And my gorgeous red and orange and yellow peppers!

Uncle Bub comes to visit

Back a few months ago, I was talking to Rich's brother Bub on the phone. He mentioned that he wanted to come out to Oregon some time, that he had turned 65 and had never seen the ocean. So Rich and I got him a ticket, and here he is. He arrived late Saturday night. This was after a near catastrophe when he called Wednesday or Thursday last week because he didn't have anyone to take care of his dog, Dickhead. He and Rich ended the conversation with Rich promising to check with the airline to see about bringing Dickhead along. Instead, happily, Sharon arranged for a kennel at a very reasonable daily rate. Reports from the kennel are that they love Dickhead, and are treating him like a member of the family.

So Sunday we hung out at home. I was busy making tomato sauce and salsa. Sent Bub and Rich to New Seasons to buy lemon and lime juice for the salsa at one point. Bub was very intrigued by the high prices at New Seasons and wants to go back to take pictures of the meat case. Rich is going to take him to Whole Foods instead, which is much worse. My sister came out to join us, and we barbecued the fresh Wisconsin brauts that Bub brought with him. During all this time, Danny was in the process of moving out, to a house he is sharing with some other people in N. Portland.

Bub had promised to stop smoking before he came, because he knew I wouldn't allow him to smoke here. He ended up not getting acupuncture, unfortunately. Instead, he got some patches. Put one on on Sunday, but it made him a little nauseous. And he was still smoking. So by 10:00 at night, instead of being asleep, he was wired from all that nicotine. I gave him some Calms and then I went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, he stubbed his toe on a table in Oliver's room, where he is sleeping, because Danny had shuffled some stuff around while moving.

Monday we went to the beach, so Bub could see the ocean. We stopped first at Lincoln City, which is the first beach we come to when we take the road directly west to the coast from Newberg. The weather forecast promised 80 degree weather, but as is often the case when it is really hot in the valley (in the 90's), the fog hangs in over the beach and never quite burns off. So he could see the ocean, but could not see very far out into the ocean. After a brief stop in Lincoln City, we headed south, hoping for better weather. We stopped at Depoe Bay and Devil's Punch Bowl, then went to Newport.
We stopped at Yaquna Head Lighthouse, which was pretty cool, but because of the fog could not see much. We were hoping to see some whales. Then we had lunch at the original Mo's on the waterfront in Newport, and then decided to head back north as it just seemed to be getting foggier the further south we went. We went on past Lincoln City, and finally about 4:00 in the afternoon stopped at Neskowin, where the sun was actually shining on the beach, with the fog hovering just a little ways off. We stayed there for a couple hours, so he at least got to experience the beach. But neither he nor Rich wanted to even walk down to the water. Bub's toe was hurting him, and Rich's ankle is still bothering him.

On the way home, we had dinner at the Rooftop Bar at McMenamin's Hotel Oregon.

Tuesday we took it slow in the morning, then took the kayaks down to the boat dock in Newberg on the Willamette. We had a little picnic first with crackers and Wisconsin cheese, and Bub was drinking pop instead of beer.

He was also wearing shorts for the first time in 25 years. I had to get a little sunscreen for his legs from some other boaters - didn't want to add first degree sunburn to his little list of ailments! He was very cute.

All the photos of the beach and kayaking are on my public album in Picasa.





Bub ventured out a little and paddled around, so got to experience kayaking.















I think we're going to try another trip to the beach later in the week, and combine it with some kayaking, maybe in the little river at Seaside. We'll see how it goes...

This morning I sent the two of them off to Yamhill to get a load of mushroom compost for me. Then they are going to tour around Yamhill County while I stay home and work in the garden and do more tomatoes.

Drunk Robins

We didn't get a picture of them. Too bad. Last night we ate dinner out on the patio. Then I went over to pick a few grapes. Some had dropped on the ground, and there was a robin at the edge of the patio eating them. I stomped my foot at it, and it hardly moved. Sort of hopped into the garden a little. Then I picked up some of the grapes that had fallen to the ground and threw them out in the yard. A little later Rich came into the house and commented that the robins were all over the blueberries. (Blueberries have been pretty much done for a few weeks now, and he had taken down the bird netting.) Then he went out a little later and the robins were out in the middle of the yard. A whole bunch of them. Just sort of staggering around in a sort of stupefied daze. They were drunk from the blueberries. We were going to take a picture of them tonight, but there aren't any out there. The orange cat from next door was wandering around in their midst last night, and it didn't even phase them. I wonder what happened to them?