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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We had kind of a "lost weekend" last week. On Saturday, Dave had to get up early and drive to Portland for a football telecast and didn't get home until after 11:00. Whatever I did that day must have been boring because I can't remember anything exciting. Because of Dave's long day Saturday, we kind of "vegged out" and didn't do much on Sunday.

We started the week for real by getting our flu shots on Monday. The North Coast Recreation District always has a clinic at this time of year for people who want to get their flu shots. So, Dave met me after my water aerobics and we got that over with. They were also offering DPT boosters and we decided "why not?". My arm is still sore from that one. But hopefully it will be worth it and we will avoid getting sick this winter.

Also, on Monday afternoon, I talked Dave into driving to North Plains to pick up a unit of compost for my garden. I had ruined the soil that was in the raised bed by putting walnut leaves in it for compost. That was a no-no, as walnut leaves suck the nutrients out of the soil. I should have remembered this from my Master Gardener's class. It dawned on me after I didn't have anything growing in the garden this year. I took all of the soil out of the bed and replaced it with new soil. I should have better luck next year. I really know Dave loves me when he will hitch up the trailer and drive round trip to North Plains (150 miles) to pick up a load of dirt for me!

I had back-to-back meetings in Tillamook on Tuesday. I volunteered to help with the Awards Banquet that the Master Gardeners who honor new "trainees" who just finished the class and people who has especially did a lot of work (they haven't learned to say "no" yet) for the Association. The banquet will be held at the Elk's Lodge in Tillamook and should be pretty easy as they do all the decorating and preparing of the food. The other meeting I attended was the Board Meeting for the Master Gardeners which is held every month. I am the 2011 class representative, so I mainly just go and listen. By the time I stopped and got a few things at Freddies, I was back home by 2:00 that afternoon.

We had a work party for the city park on Wednesday. It was mostly pruning and cleaning out the beds for winter. It is going to start raining soon so we wanted to get as much done as possible. We get so many compliments from out-of-towners when they stroll through the park that it makes us feel like we are appreciated. Besides, the women that are helping are a great bunch and we have a good chat and the time goes by really fast while we are working.

The trailer load of compost was waiting for me to shovel into the garden and flower beds, so I tackled that on Wednesday afternoon and spent a couple of hours doing that. What I didn't use in the beds, I put in garbage cans to keep until I need it. Boy was I sore from that laborious job. I had to get the trailer unloaded because this Monday we are going to need it to pick up about 30 Escolonia plants to be placed as a hedge in front of our house where we had removed all the cedar hedges last spring. More work to do!

We had a "date" night on Wednesday and went to the Rising Star restaurant for our usual burger and movie afterwards. This week's feature was a foreign suspense film called "Diva" and it was in French with English subtitles. It was entertaining.

We are still watching the flock of Goldfinches that are at the feeders. I thought that they would have flown south for the winter by now as the temperatures have been getting a little chilly lately. They're real hard to see in this picture because they've lost all their color and really blend in with the background now. If you look real close you can see - in addition to the birds on the feeder - another group "queuing up" on the fence. The squirrels and chipmunks haven't hibernated yet and we are starting to get some of our cooler weather birds arriving like the Junkos and Golden Crown Sparrows. I find it fascinating to watch the migration of the various species during the year.

Dave will be driving to Seattle on Saturday to attend the NWSS board meeting. He will have a passenger along so I won't be going. Norm Davis is also a board member and lives in Astoria so they take turns driving to the meetings. I am going to stick around the home front this weekend as next week I will be going back into Portland for Lara's Chemo treatment on Wednesday. It will be her last one and she is doing so well. After she gets her white blood cells back up, she will have her second mastectomy and reconstruction surgery - probably around Thanksgiving.