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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Garden Murders


Or the View From My Porch

Wednesday is the day the local weekly newspaper, the Chinook Observer, comes out. The coming weekend is going to be busy if gas prices don’t keep folks away. I was mistaken about the price of gas here on the Long Beach Peninsula or else it went up in the night Monday night. Yesterday when I took Amy to rent movies (a Tuesday ritual) it was $4.55. Well, you can get quite a bang for your gas buck if you come to the Peninsula this weekend there's so much going on. On Saturday there is the Beach to Chowder run, a 5K and a 10K run/walk followed by complementary chowder for participants and $5 for spectators. That will be happening at the Bolstad approach in downtown Long Beach. The run will be followed by the Doggie Olympics for dogs of all abilities and pedigrees so throw Fido in the car and he might get a medal if you don’t in the run. Garlic lovers listen up. This weekend is also the NW Garlic Festival which is being held at Sheldon Field in Ocean Park at the North end of the Peninsula with music, food, and various vendors. http://www.funbeach.com/events/beachrun/index.html

The folks who own the place across the street were working on it yesterday. No, it's not the house in the picture above, although a contractor lives there, too. It’s a big pink garage with a tiny apartment rental attached. I’m glad they aren’t out there yet this morning. He’s a contractor so ought to know what he’s about, but they were having a rather loud disagreement regarding how the shingles were going on.

There are many Victorian houses within sight of our porch. There’s a particular one two blocks down that my daughter-in-law, to use her words, drools over. It has the fish scale shingles, a bay window, and twin behemoth oak trees flanking the front yard. An elderly lady used to live there. Sometimes her little white poodle would play in the white picket fenced front yard. When she moved along an architect and his wife, a retired school secretary, bought the place and we knew it was in good hands. A year or so ago the architect passed away, too, and his wife moved closer to their children. I don’t know who owns the place now, but sometime in the last week and a half they had the top half of the ancient oaks cut off, leaving two large pillars in the front yard. Someone was even more upset than I for red paint has been splashed on the sad trees. I don’t approve of vandalism, but I understand the sentiment. This was our first garden murder in the neighborhood. The second occurred yesterday.

This morning is just gray without the mist. It would be a good day to finish up the mowing I got started on yesterday afternoon once the heavy mist lifted and the sun came out. Unfortunately just as I was getting started on the chore our mower died. Now the mower is probably six years old so it is not as though it is brand new or anything, but the thing is, this is the second electric mower that has died when in my hands. It’s a good thing I could only text-message my husband regarding this death. Needless-to-say I am headed to Astoria to purchase a replacement this morning in the hopes that it will a) fit in my Neon and 2) I can get the lawn mowed before he comes down on Saturday without murdering anymore lawn mowers!

The triangle patch of lawn in the picture above (by-the-way it was taken with my cell phone and isn't half bad) is what Dave is coming to work on and where Lorraine's hollyhock seeds will ultimately go. It will be my garden of remembrance.

10 comments:

Lorraine Hart said...

I'm so sorry to hear about the oaks. That made me very sad.

The hollyhocks will need some support as they get tall and heavy. I look forward to seeing each step of the work...and then the finished memorial garden. I'll have to see if I can get cuttings of the butterfly bush to root for you too.

Lorraine Hart said...

You know...one nice row of stones down the middle...and you'd have a peace sign!

Stephanie Frieze said...

As a matter of fact, I've asked a friend to come and help me make stepping stones from broken china (I have a bag full)and intend to put them in the garden. You've given me an idea as to arrangement! Good eye, Lorraine.

JosephMcG said...

You are moving into photo/artist space... could this be the beginning of a new career...
powerful story... change, death and dying, unjust actions... wonderful... I was struck by the change in ownership of the home... reminded my of my own mortality... such reminders are bitter and sweet...

Thank you, Stephanie

Stephanie Frieze said...

Thank you, Joseph. I hadn't thought of it, but it also ties in with my mother being ill. She's 86 and even if she recovers from this infection she's got some other conditions that we've become aware of. Nothing lasts forever, not even the trees.

JosephMcG said...

loving and being loved are forever-- each moment you spend with your mom is forever... this morning, as I was praying, I became aware of my mom's presence and I felt safe, like I did when, in my fifties, I would come to her home and sit on the floor right next to where she was sitting in her chair... we would quietly watch tv together and absolutely nothing in my world of confusion and pain made one bit of difference in those moments...
your mom will always be there with you

Stephanie Frieze said...

By all means, love is the only thing that lasts forever.

Stephanie Frieze said...

My family feels that I must confess that I am not just the murderess of lawn mowers, although I have killed two in about six years. This Spring I have had two waffle irons freak out and die along with a TV give up the ghost. I'm not taking the wrap for the TV. It was 10-12 years old and never worked right. I do feel bad about the waffle iron, especially the one here in Ilwaco because it could do pancakes or waffles and wasn't very old. When I was a child my father would have either fixed it himself or taken it to a shop where someone else would have fixed it. Now we have planned obsolescence in just about everything and the folks who could probably repair them don't live here.

JosephMcG said...

You are too courageous... if I can get a good pot of red beans with hot links properly done by way of crock pot, I think Moses has come down and touched my life with his staff...
there you are wrecking everything but the tv...
Go on, there, tool wrecker and life maker...
you are doing very well (love your sense of humor)

Stephanie Frieze said...

Joseph, you crack me up! Fortunately my crock-pot remains unscathed. You'd be able to hear taps playing if something happens to it.