Dahlia Update
Sep. 24th, 2012 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botiasThe dahlia trip was wonderful. The drive up the coast is breath-taking and the weather was perfect. The Mister laughs when I squeak in fear as I negotiate Highway 101. In places it clings to the side of a crumbling cliff twenty stories above the ocean. It's OK that he laughs because I only do it to make him laugh, but all that immense blue space IS scary, and you can tell that the road only exists because some very smart people with a lot of money have taken it as a personal engineering challenge. Our last real kid-free vacation was 12 years ago, and though we lived far away at the time, it just happened to also be a free-wheeling road trip down the same coastline. At the time, we knew that life was going to be changing. We were starting a family. We were also dissatisfied with where we were. We had good jobs, good health, but were greedy enough to want something different. Our 1999 trip was a vacation, a survey of cheap Oregon motels, and a last hurrah, but it was also to scout out towns on the coast for a new start. I started out this trip with nothing more in mind than playing hooky and seeing some beautiful flowers, but once we were on the road it felt like closing a circle of sorts and it was good.
The Swan Island Dahlia Festival truly had vast and spectacular fields full of beautiful dahlias. Even better, all the varieties were clearly labeled. I've got a wish list. Happily, the Mister didn't seem too allergic.
*stares* I recommend it.
Hee!
Welcome to Chez Botias. The Mister warned me that he could find no available reservations for camp sites on Labor Day weekend. And verily, on Friday night we were forced to sleep in a good hotel with the most wonderful mattress and fluffy duvet because we could not find an open camping spot that close to Portland. But on Saturday we turned our backs on civilization and drove south down the coast until we finally found a campground with a few open sites. Tents have come a long way since my summer camp days. This one assembled in moments, was completely self-supporting and had no loose pieces and pegs to lose. Also different than my summer camp days was that the Mister and I watched a movie on his tablet and I got a phone call from my mom. Also, I want to record here something that NEVER happens. We were stuck in traffic due to a wreck in a semi-rural area, weekend traffic backed up for a mile; I took a completely blind detour and it brought us out just past the wreck. I suppose it has to happen sometimes.
This was my dahlia garden today with a ginourmous shadow from my ginourmous hedge. Winter is coming. All of these flowers are gone now. After taking the picture, I took an armload into my kitchen for bouquets and composted a bunch of others. If the flowers aren't cut the plants stop making buds. Most of my new plants have flowered and I have some new favorites that I hope to divide and have more of next season, a few are still to surprise me. I feel like it's a very good start and am looking forward to next season. The rental is still partway through the repaint. I like to think it would be done if not for the bad cold/flu we all caught. Right now that wall is in its orange phase. Its final color will be more coral. What's the point of home ownership if you can't paint it My Little Pony colors?
The Swan Island Dahlia Festival truly had vast and spectacular fields full of beautiful dahlias. Even better, all the varieties were clearly labeled. I've got a wish list. Happily, the Mister didn't seem too allergic.
*stares* I recommend it.
Hee!
Welcome to Chez Botias. The Mister warned me that he could find no available reservations for camp sites on Labor Day weekend. And verily, on Friday night we were forced to sleep in a good hotel with the most wonderful mattress and fluffy duvet because we could not find an open camping spot that close to Portland. But on Saturday we turned our backs on civilization and drove south down the coast until we finally found a campground with a few open sites. Tents have come a long way since my summer camp days. This one assembled in moments, was completely self-supporting and had no loose pieces and pegs to lose. Also different than my summer camp days was that the Mister and I watched a movie on his tablet and I got a phone call from my mom. Also, I want to record here something that NEVER happens. We were stuck in traffic due to a wreck in a semi-rural area, weekend traffic backed up for a mile; I took a completely blind detour and it brought us out just past the wreck. I suppose it has to happen sometimes.
This was my dahlia garden today with a ginourmous shadow from my ginourmous hedge. Winter is coming. All of these flowers are gone now. After taking the picture, I took an armload into my kitchen for bouquets and composted a bunch of others. If the flowers aren't cut the plants stop making buds. Most of my new plants have flowered and I have some new favorites that I hope to divide and have more of next season, a few are still to surprise me. I feel like it's a very good start and am looking forward to next season. The rental is still partway through the repaint. I like to think it would be done if not for the bad cold/flu we all caught. Right now that wall is in its orange phase. Its final color will be more coral. What's the point of home ownership if you can't paint it My Little Pony colors?
