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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

As usual, another busy time for me this week. It started when we said goodbye to our friend Bobbie Recio and her friend Danielle. They had come from Willits, California and spent a few days at our place during Bobbie's annual return to her old stomping grounds here in Wheeler. They left Friday on the next leg of their trip that would take them to central Washington.

We had our annual city-wide clean-up day on Saturday, so Dave and I spent most of the day helping out with that. I was handling the recycling stuff that came in and Dave was making house calls with his trailer for people who were unable to bring their trash to the city parking lot. In fact, we had more house calls than we had drive-ups this year but one guy came back three times with loads of stuff in his truck so I felt like I was beginning to know him! It was a fun and tiring day and we managed to fill two huge dumpsters with trash and a third one full of metal for recycling.

After the clean-up was over in the afternoon - and since the trailer was still hitched to the car - I had Dave drive out to Mohler and pick up a unit of compost for my flower and garden bed. It is still in the trailer with a tarp covering it as it has been raining ever since. Hopefully, if I get a day of sunshine I will get out and get it spread.

Sunday was the solar eclipse and so we invited two other couples over for the viewing. But since it was cloudy outside, we had to settle for watching it on a website. It was interesting to watch but I only noticed a slight change in the lightness to darkness outside during the eclipse. We had a good time visiting with our friends just the same.

On Tuesday, our Garden Club car pooled for a nursery trip to Sauvie Island to a couple of places north of Portland. Of course it rained like cats and dogs and we all got soaked. The first stop was at Cistus Nursery where we had a guided tour of their grounds and then afterwards we had a chance to buy plants from their nursery stock. They had some very exotic plants but also some that would work well at the coast in our environment. The next stop on our field trip was at the Blue Heron Herbary where they specialized in herbs with over 30 varieties of lavender that we could choose from. The owner treated us to tea and gave us some "extra" plants of cucumbers and zucchini that she had grown. Then it was off to Scappoose where we stopped a couple more places; Joy Creek Nursery and Means Nursery. Joy Creek was a little expensive but Means was amazing. They had a wide variety of plants at Means and their prices were very reasonable. I had most of my annuals that had wintered over so I didn't need to buy anything but I made a mental note to go back there next spring. I did come home with a few things, a lavender plant, some blue fescue grass and a tiny carnation plant that I couldn't resist. We didn't get back home from our field trip until 5:30, so it was a long day.

Meanwhile, the wildlife has been exciting to watch. We noticed some elk cows were out on the tideland near the bay by themselves where they had given birth to their young. They always seem to go off by themselves to calve. The rest of the herd joined them later this week and most of them came out onto the island so we had a great view of them. The weather was good so we had perfect conditions for watching. In fact, we had a lot of cars stopping by the road next to our place to take pictures. That's always fun to see, because most of the traffic seems to just roar by our place without bothering to look at the view. Anyway, the little ones were frolicking on the shore right in front of our house and that was fun to watch. Dave also spied an eagle perched on a nearby tree looking for a meal. I don't know why we don't see more of these beautiful birds, it seems like it would be the perfect spot for them.

The Park and Rec committee had our regular weekly work party on Wednesday, between showers. The six of us managed to get the flower bed by City Hall all cleaned up and trimmed. It went really fast and it's more fun when everyone is able to help. After lunch, I drove down to Tillamook to help get the Master Gardner's plant sale ready for this coming Saturday. We are having it at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds in the Animal Building and - as you can tell from the name - it needed cleaning up before we could move the tables in and get ready for all the plants to arrive. The next day, I drove down to Tillamook again to help arrange all the plants and look for slugs. I managed to find a few too. The guys brought in the plants from the greenhouse where they were stored and some people delivered their plants that they grew. We were overwhelmed by the tomato plants. We must have 200 plants! We had to arrange them in order and today we will price everything. It is a big job, but we have lots of help. Tomorrow is the BIG sale. This is my second plant sale this month so I feel I am getting pretty good doing this.

Well, there is a three-day weekend coming up and that means lots of people and traffic on the roads. The weatherman is predicting nice weather by Sunday so I hope that happens. The granddaughters are coming down too so I am looking forward to seeing them.