Grateful List May 15, 2010

What a wonderful, grateful week we have had. So much revolves around the projects we are doing here on Mayne Island... and there appears to be no end of projects here.

I am grateful for the new flowers that we see each week. While working on the front gate irrigation, these Fairy Ladyslippers invited us to take their picture. They are so delicate... a very tiny orchid.

“Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.” -Georgia O'Keeffe

I am thankful for being able to get irrigation water from the cottage to the front gate, so that Shirley can finally have automatic watering for the flower bed there. If it was so easy to do... less than a day’s work... why did it take almost three years to get around to doing this? There is still another day’s work to get the timer and valves set up, but we at least are watering it easily now.

I am grateful for the little rotor tiller that we got... it is electric and small enough so that we can easily lift it into flower beds and garden boxes. This saves Shirley a lot of hand shovel work. But she insists that it is NOT her Mother’s Day present! Ok. Ok.

I am grateful for my new private “reading rock” on the hillside below our bluff against the cliff. There is no telephone or other distractions, except for a noisy nuthatch!  This is my first self-timer photo with the D300. It doesn’t show much of the view...

but just while I was doing the self portrait, a ferry was passing below in Navy Channel.

“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.'' -Anon

I am grateful for the little nuthatch. She has a nest close to the rock on which I sit... and is insistent about me leaving so she can return to sitting on her nest of eggs.  She makes this "click, click, click" warning.

I am grateful for the new trail I am almost done building to this private spot. I have been doing this in lieu of walking. Less than two hours will see it done.

I am thankful for good luck finding flowers for our elevated flower boxes. The day we went to town to get them our ferry was an hour late leaving Mayne Island so our limited shopping time just got tighter. On the way to the ferry Shirley asked for 5 minutes to stop at Marigolds Nursery just to see if they might have the flowers she needed. We didn’t think we had time to actually buy them and still make the 4:15 ferry. But when she found what she liked, we took a chance and bought them. We made it to the ferry by 4:15, and on a normal day, we would have not been allowed on the ferry. The rules are that check-in is a minimum of five minutes before sailing departure time. I prayed that the ferry would be still running late so we could get home earlier and not have to wait for the 7:30 PM. ferry. Fortunately the ferry was running about 20 minutes late and we could get on. PTL!

I am thankful to have the tools to cut rock. When Shirley asked to have the California Lilac moved to the sunken garden area, the perfect place for it from a design point of view was unfortunately solid rock. Living here we are often never more than six inches away from bedrock anywhere on top of this mountain.

So, with my portable rock saw I knew I could cut out six inches... three inches at a time!

It would just take me an extra 60-90 minutes.

Once all the rock was chiseled out, there was plenty of room for fresh mixed soil and our California Lilac to grow.

This is the California Lilac at the far right of the photo... and it is doing just great in its new home!

I am grateful for the “free” topsoil and our friends great little trailer. We expected to get our normal 1.5 yards of topsoil in our truck... but John had his 10-foot trailer loaded for us when we arrived...another 2.25 yards . So we were able to get more than twice as much done on Friday with the extra dirt.  Thank you, John.

I am thankful to be able to see the end of the sunken garden project within sight. Less than two days will finish the rock wall... and we are almost half done planting the new terrace behind the wall.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend... and a great new coming week. 

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”-Eric Hoffer