Tag Archives: family

Lily’s Whidbey Weekend

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Lily LOVES Grandma and Grandpa! They are her best pals when they come down to visit. But she has never been up to their house. I imagined that she would love to run all over their huge yard and have buckets of fun. I knew I wanted to take her but hadn’t figured out the best time to make the trip.

The conundrum was solved when brother Kevin emailed and said he and his family were planning a trip up to Whidbey and those of us in that neck of the woods should come up if we can. I already has some time off scheduled, so I signed us up. But there were a few challenges: First, Maren is allergic to dogs, Second, Lily doesn’t really fit on the front seat of the truck. Tried to solve problem one by having Lily groomed the day we left. Good theory but the grooming knocked loose all of her fur and she was shedding worse that usual (at least it was “clean” hair that was coating everything.) Tried to solve the truck problem by building out the front seat with my duffel bag and laid a blanket across to make it even. It sort of worked but was still pretty uncomfortable the whole way up.

But once we got there, look at all this lovely yard to run in:

The View

A panorama of the view from the porch.

Mom and dads

Mom and Dad’s house on Whidbey Island.

lily shed

Lily checks out the potting shed. Still wearing the scarf from the groomers — so pretty and puffy and unfortunately shedding like crazy.

We spent Friday being lazy and then Saturday, Mom and I worked in the yard. Lily had a great time running around and then relaxing, watching us dig. Grandpa was weeding the driveway so she made regular trips up to see him and lick his nose.

Kevin’s family got there late Saturday night and Sunday after they went to church, we all walked down to Uncle Al’s place. Bridgette was cute and wanted to hold Lily’s leash on the walk down and got along just fine. Vivi was pretty timid about Lily but that was fine too cause Lily is pretty timid about kids. No drama yet.

Vivi swings

Vivi likes the zipline at Uncle Al’s place.

Bridgette

Grandpa helps Bridgette do the zipline while Kev swings with Vivi.

At Al’s, the girls had fun playing on the zipline, swing, etc. There was a tense moment when Bridgette was screaming on the zipline and Lily got over excited. Bridgette ended up with a scratch and both Lily and Bridgette went and hid is separate trees. They were both pretty gun-shy after that for a bit. But no blood, no foul as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, that night we all chilled out, Grandma made crab legs and we play with trains.

Chillin with the boys

After a day of lots of running, Lily chills out with Grandpa and Uncle Kevin.

Lily and I left Monday morning as I had to work on Tuesday and wanted to get all the booty Mom gave me planted ASAP. We said our goodbyes and off we went. The trip home, Lily was pooped so she found a way to get comfortable on the blanket pretty early on. But she was pretty thankful to be home! Especially when neighbor Charles appeared with a treat while I was unpacking the truck.

A Mother’s Generosity

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So, traveling back in time to the first year I lived here and my first trip up to Whidbey since living here and the truckload of booty Mom sent me home with, she gave me a clerodendron. She actually first got this vine that acts like a tree from Morning Side, the farm camp place she and Dad lived as caretakers for over 2 years on Vashon Island (this could be a VERY long story, but let’s not go there today.) Anyway, she sent me home with some starts and I planted them in the back retaining wall bed next to my awesome iron gate. Things get really tall in front of there, so I hadn’t checked on them since this spring.(want a peak at what it was doing then, look back at March posts.) I assumed all was well.

On this trip to Whidbey, part of the goal was to help Mom out with whatever she needed (payback for all her help this spring and also a chance to snag whatever she needed to get rid of through division, pulling, etc. — I’m not very subtle in my mooching). She wanted to clean out the bed around her pergola, which had a bunch of lavender, peonies, and, yes, the clerodendron (among other things).

pergola

Mom’s Pergola. Super pretty. She is working on a new option to get rid of the mesh fence.

clerodendron

This is a clerodendron. I really love it and am wishing mine was this awesome!

I officially fell in lust with the clerodendron and wanted to bring home a few more cutting since I felt that the ones she had already given me weren’t enough to satisfy, well, my lust. But the more we talked about this plant, the more I started to have the feeling that we weren’t talking about the same thing. Mine had lantern-like white pods in the spring and wasn’t being aggressive like what Mom was describing.
Last thing I did before leaving to head home was dig up a few clerodendron runners. I got home and unloaded the truck and discovered watering them would have been a better idea. They looked pretty sad. Fingers crossed they will make it.

But now that they were on the brain, I wrestled my way back to where I thought my clerodendron was planted. Hmmm … leaves are different, seed pods where those white lantern flowers were. I snapped a photo and sent it to Mom.

not clerodendron

This is not clerodendron

Nope, not clerodendron. In fact, “Oh, that is really nasty, highly invasive stuff. You should get rid of it right away,” she says. “And it has really deep roots.” Thanks Mom. Thanks for the nasty invasive weed! On the other hand, she did send me home with a truckload full of other awesome things, so I forgive her. Still chuckling over the fact I have been nurturing a weed for 2 years  — Not the first time and probably not the last!