This is first year in this house to have some one other than me and Lily here, so we sent a little crazy … a put an extra stocking!
3 stockings!
Lily was so excited she wouldn’t look at the camera — which is just how she always treats having her picture taken.
I am a terrible dog-mom! Lily has fleas and not just kind of but a total infestation! She is miserable and I am miserable. The house is covered and she is chewing herself raw.
It’s totally my fault. Because we had a really mild winter everyone has been saying this year is a bad flea year. Yet I lagged around and was lazy about giving her her flea meds — “oh, I’ll do it after she has a bath. But no bath today. Or tomorrow.” blah, blah, blah. Next thing we know — boom! covered!
And try as I might to get rid of them — pills, drops, baths, brushing — the little bastards wouldn’t budge. So off comes her hair.
Garbage can of gross! Thing was just crawling with the little nasty demons!
Poor girl! All shaved and looks like a deer.
She thinks she looks ugly and is sad at me! That face — “Mom, why would you do this to me?!?”
The following weekend after shaving her I was suppose to go to Colorado for my 20th high school reunion but fleas and finances derailed that plan. But the shaving turned the tide and things were finally getting under control. So to not waste my whole vacation we decided to head up to Whidbey and see the folks. And a major contributing factor was the heat wave hitting Portland. Time to go enjoy some ocean breezes.
Ready to hit the road up to Whidbey. She likes to ride in the car but this ride wears her out pretty quickly. She did fit better on the seat without so much hair!
Had a great few days resting and hanging out.
Mom and Dad’s on a July afternoon — Great place to sit back and relax!
Loving the sun on Whidbey — and getting a sunburn (which peeled and was really gross.)
Grandpa and Lily spent some quality time chillin on the patio.
Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us visit and risk getting infested with fleas. We had a great time!
It is being a lovely been a lovely year for lilies.
Yellow with yarrow
Lily with lily — kind of blurry
peach in back house bed with Shastas
Yellow at end of berm near sidewalk.
Purple in front berm
Yellow in back house bed.
Orange and yellow in front porch strip.
Orange-ish with magenta mums under plum tree.
Orange in front
Purple in front
Lily dog — my favorite Lily!
Feverfew is one of my favorite flowers. It is a comfort flower for me — reminding me of my childhood. My mom always planted it on the northside of the Loveland house outside my bedroom window. It has a very distinct smell — some people think it is gross but I like it. Plus it is cute and cheerful. When I started planning my first real yard in Portland at the rex Hamilton I searched everywhere for starts or seeds and couldn’t find it anywhere. Finally Mom brought me some she had saved from the Loveland house. It didn’t take long for things to get out of control.
Then when I moved to this house I somehow managed not to bring any feverfew plants with me and I felt like I was in the same mess. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) because of its tendency to spread seed like crazy, some plants came up in one of my pots. And next thing I knew it was everywhere — which in my first year garden I didn’t mind. This year, things are starting to look a little more established and the feverfew started to go bananas! Coupled with the chamomile that came up from seed from a plant Kaitlyn had put in one of my pots I have little white flowers with yellow centers everywhere!
The herb bed is overflowing in huge feverfew and chamomile.
The purple and red looks cute with all of the white little daisy flowers
The rest of the yard is looking lovely too. The Garden has been in for a month and so far, so good. Should be getting radishes soon.
The peppers are looking a little washed out but the beets, 2 tomatoes, carrots and eggplant are doing well.
Radishes and 3 tomatoes
Potatoes are still going crazy
squash, beans, arugula and onions. Pole bed with winter squash and cucs is looking a little washed out too. Needs nitrogen.
Bonus shoots of steps and Lily.
This little project is ending up really cute
Lily loving the sun
Nothing like the close confines of a car trip to showcase the pungent filthiness of Lily. It was a lovely, sunning, winter day, so she got a bath. Even after spending hours drying in the sun watching me work, she had still not decided if she was ready to forgive me yet.
Poorly Lily is seriously feeling sorry for herself and cursing my name!
Now all clean, she’ll get a brushing with the furminator (which for some reason, she does not love) and then she will beautiful, puffy and suggliable!
Lily is my sweet, sweet angel and we have tons of fun. OK, mostly she just lays around and watches what I am doing — she has excellent supervisory skills. Or she chills on the couch while I am at work and barks at the mailman, who she is sure is plotting against house and home. She also loves to bark at neighbor Charles and then goes and begs at his door for the treats he SPECIFICALLY buys for her (whore!). Usually she gets a walk at least 5 out 7 days, and when she doesn’t she has been in the yard with me all day and we are both pretty beat. She loves to meet me at the door and racing around the back yard barking at stuff. And she also loves belly rubs, eating cat poop and wookie yells when she thinks we are going for a walk. And even when she doesn’t want to sleep on the rug by my bed, she always comes and says goodnight before heading back to the couch. We have a pretty good thing going on here.
But every once in a while I worry she is feeling neglected — the looks she can give when I leave and she knows it isn’t for work (she always knows!) can break my heart! In the summer, I didn’t want to bring her with me cause my little black truck can get crazy hot fast. But now that things are cooling down, I let her run short errands with me. No worries about getting all of that girth up into the cab — she flies in like it is her birthday surprise!
She is looking pretty sad cause we are home after running errands. But she was all smiles on the road. She did get kind of twitchy when I ran into a shop really fast — acted like she thought I had abandoned her.
So she likes the car but she usually isn’t very interested in where we end up. I tried taking her to the dog park, Sauvee Island, etc., a few times and usually we get there, she runs around for less than 5 minutes and then comes and stands by me like she is ready to go. Since she doesn’t really play fetch, doesn’t do water, and after the sniffing, isn’t really into other dogs, it gets boring for both of us pretty fast.
But I do like to take her with me when I go and hang out at Shirley’s house and since that is where Lily used to live, I know she is welcome. (Other friends’ houses, things can get sticky — haven’t risked a Cosmo the cat and Lily introduction yet, and often where I go is not where I stay and don’t want to leave her alone in a strange place while we are out playing.) Lily is always thrilled to see Shirley but then she quickly remembers this is the evil place that caused her to lick half of her arm hair off. Part of me thinks it is good for her to remember how good she has it now. Shirley’s other dog Merlin is Lily’s arch-enemy — only Merlin is too dopey to understand. They don’t really fight, but that is because Lily hides under the table. But she does get really clingy with me and will even sit outside the bathroom door to make sure I am not leaving her there.
Lily quickly remembers why she doesn’t like it at Shirleys — Once her hellos to Shirley are over she is ready to go.
The arch-enemy. Not plotting evil but just a spastic doof. He is a collie like Lily and can be smart but usually he is just a pain in the butt.
Shirley’s little boy Logan almost always gives me a lecture about how Lily is his dog and I can’t take her home with me again. Then he forgets and, much to Lily’s relief, I take her home with me again.
The storm at the end of September put a full stop on summer. Week before it was hot sultry summer; the week after the air had that crisp autumn bite. Suddenly it was foggy in the mornings burning off to golden afternoons and darn right cold nights. Like I said, the yard was starting to wind down for the year. Especially the garden. The tomatoes all split and the bean vines turned soggy. Time to rip out the garden. And try a winter garden for the first time. So after working 10 days in a row, I finally had a weekend (no one to blame but myself since I AM the person who does the scheduling now.)
Everything got ripped out except the carrots (which have been long, big and delicious), arugula, late august planted peas and radishes.
I threw in some brussels sprouts, leeks, onions, a winter lettuces, just to see. However, the next morning I discovered that bare dirt equals neighborhood cat litter box — Lily was in heaven. So not sure if anything is going to grow or I will be just smelling cat-poop breath this winter.
After sorting the garden, I wanted to get some bulbs in. So last spring, I toured the awesome tulip fields up by Mom and Dad’s and the master plan was to order some bulbs from those farms and have the folks bring them down. But the timing and my vacation lazy foiled that plan. Plus I was nervous about the squirrel epidemic we seem to have going on in this neighborhood. Seriously, there are about a bazillion of them — much to Lily’s delight. She has biffed it on the garden beds and fences numerous times trying to get one. Thankfully she gracefully pretends it didn’t happen and jauntily returns to smile at me. She really isn’t serious about catching them, she enjoys the chase. But the nasty little rodents can be mayhem on bulbs. And, swear on my soul, the more I spend on bulbs the more likely they are to find them delicious! So instead of the fancy Skaggit County tulips, I went the Fred Meyer route. But what I lack in pedigree, I am making up for in volume! So I planted a 152 bulbs in the front yard this weekend (and destroyed my bulb digger in the process). If the squirrels don’t eat them all, I should have a colorful spring.
60 tulip, 60 crocus, 24 hyacinth, 8 paperwhites. There are already some daphs under the window and grape hyacinth by the drive way, otherwise those would have been included in the mix.
While things are finally getting a little easier, they haven’t been great. New guy is getting there but needy and pointing out that all of our training materials are basically crap. We haven’t had a new hire in 5 years and a lot has changed in that time. And we are launching a website redesign and no one really remembered that staff needs to be trained, so “Merridee is good at training, she’ll do it.” Thanks guys! After months and weeks of stress and drama, I am desperate for a break. Thankfully I do the scheduling now. So I put myself down for a week off — and just in time for my birthday and the first anniversary of me in the house.
Her favorite trick is to rest her chin on the side of my bed and whine when she thinks I should get up. She HATES it when I read in bed before getting up in the morning.
So the first three days of my vacation it rained — a lot! Which was the perfect excuse to lay in bed, sleep and be lazy. Lily HATED it! She was so confused when after she whined for hours, I would get up, take her out, feed her, wander around for 10 minutes and decide go back to bed. She would come and check on me every hour or so and I would try to explain to her that she gets to sleep all day all of the time and now it was mummy’s turn. I would manage, driven by guilt, to get up long enough to take her for walks when there was window when the rain paused. But for the most part, pile of lazy! Loved it.
But after 3 days, the weather and I had seemingly done our thing and was ready for reality again. It was still pretty soggy outside, so I decided I couldn’t tolerate another winter waking up in such a poopy brown depressing room. I had been hemming and hawing about what color to paint my room for months now and couldn’t really decide, which is why I hadn’t tackled it yet. I needed something bright to battle the dark winter months. AND CEILINGS SHOULD BE WHITE. So I went with a color that had worked well in the other house — bright yet soothing — Chapel Wall, which is basically cream. Boring I know, but also bright yet soothing.
I strung out the painting process over 4 days. 2 days for ceilings and 2 days for walls. For a 9×13 foot room, that is really milking it. I took lots of breaks, made some lovely food and pondered future arrangements for after. Also contemplated decorations, since I basically didn’t do any decorating in that room when I moved in. By Friday of my vacation I had finished up, and managed to do all of the styling that was going to happen at this point. Not a decadent sanctuary, but a huge improvement on what it was.
Once again, my furniture doesn’t really fit the space but I love it all too much to get rid of it. The mirror was Grandma Hanson’s, the dresser I got in middle school, headboard I refinished, lamp and books were Grandparents Doman.
I took the closet doors off when I first moved in. I have hated closet doors for years. But I knew at times the mess inside does need to hide, so I hung the curtain rod I insisted on bringing from the Rex and then lost one of the finials for in front of it.
I don’t really like my standing mirror anymore but I don’t have room in my bathroom to do my make-up in there, so it had to stay and be inconvenient. The Renoir poster was a present from Kevin when he was an intern in D.C., so is 20+ years old and looks like it. The hanging lamp I inherited when someone left in the basement at the Rex (I have suspicions but that makes me want to keep it more — bitch owes me.) Blanket my mom made me, little table and then purple shelf.
Got the lace curtains hung at the correct height and then put the old bathroom shelf in the corner to hold all of the books and bed stuff. I don’t love this bit but am to cheap to shop for anything new at this point.
I am keeping my eyes pealed for something awesome to hang over the bed. Also contemplating the pros and cons of another hanging light, maybe something from Ikea — keeping my options open.
There is no way to get around that the last 2 months have been incredibly stressful. The only reason I have any sanity left is forcing myself to de-stress by ripping things up in the yard and sweet, sweet Lily. Her nagging me to get out of bed or take her for walks, listening to all of my rantings and giving me snuggles and kisses has kept me reasonably human.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I finally hired someone to fill our open position and vacation season has tapered down. I know I’m not out of the woods yet – still have to train new guy and there are still challenges, lumps and bumps that are not resolved and all of my projects and plans are still out there — but it has to start getting easier soon. That is my logic when looking at the improbable sunflowers. As mentioned, I threw a pack of seeds in the ground that Eric Murray got last year as part of a wedding invitation. The seeds were all busted up and not remotely promising, yet they grew — a lot. Now they are over 8 feet tall and lovely. And they will bloom any day now. I love sunflowers. Their cheerfulness forces me to smile. So I am smiling, knowing that brighter days are on their way.
They are 8 feet tall and ready to bloom and making me cheerful. Not to mention Lily, basking in the sun.
When I came up with my master plan for the herb garden, I wanted everything in that bed to be either edible (but not vegetables) or flowers that had a medicinal uses — basically not just another flower garden. I was hoping to plant all kinds of herby things that I had never grown before. Part of my inspiration for this was from one of my former tenants — Kaitlyn, who was really into herbs and making tinctures, etc. When we lived together she was volunteering at a farm garden and was always bringing home stuff I had never heard of. So I thought it would cool to start growing some of these things too.
Off to the happiest place in the world — Portland Nursery — I went with a shopping list of the fun I wanted to get. Of course they had all of the basics — basil (6 kinds), sage (4 kinds), oregano, thyme, blueberries (4 kinds!), strawberries, lavender, mondara, etc. But I wanted new things too. However when I started browsing around, they didn’t really have anything that I would consider special. Sad. So I came home and started planting away, including all of the herby things I had brought with me.
I plopped my bounty in the ground but things looked pretty bare.
The blueberries are between the long walk and the patio, with chamomile and callengula. Transplanted a chive, but still not enough to fill things out. So the compromises began, starting with a trellis of morning glory that can up from seed.
I moved some lilies from a pot and put in some more monarda and Hyssop (from Kaitlyn). The pots will have herbs that are notorious for getting overgrown — lemon balm, oregano, mints.
After planting everything I had on hand, I was frustrated and didn’t want to run all over town finding plants that fit the plan. So it has kind of become a free-for-all. But it is finally looking less sparse. I think this will be a work in progress bed and I will move the plants out to other places when I find things that are more inline with the original goal.
It will do for now. Doesn’t look terrible and I know that things will grow.
The Overall[s] Adventure 
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