This month's calendar                         Archives                            Our Google Calendar                   

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

How about giving me another day. I promise I'll update this before Saturday the 5th!

Between the rain showers that we have had this week, summer managed to somehow slip in. It's not that we don't need a shower of two, but we had some really big downpours. I managed to get the Heather that I bought a couple of weeks ago planted so I could take advantage of some of the rain to keep them happy.

Dave took this interesting picture of a sunset this week. It just goes to prove that we can have lovely sunsets even on a cloudy, rainy day down here. This one managed to squeak in under the clouds and reflected on the water.

We got a load of bark dust last Friday so that I could refresh the area along Gamble Street. It had been a couple of years since my last application and I needed to put more down. Unfortunately, it doesn't last forever. There is a place near Tillamook that sells bark dust at $20 for a huge scoop and that sure beats paying $3.99 a bag for it. Dave hitched up the trailer and off we went. I was hoping just one load would do the job and I should have listened to Dave as he said it would take more. As usual, he was right as we were about 10 feet short of doing the whole area along the street. He had to go over the next day and get another scoop (another 40 mile round trip in tourist traffic) and I haven't heard the end of that. I got it all spread with the help of Dave and his Kubota and it sure is looking fine around here.

The countdown for the Garden Club to tour my place was getting closer and I hadn't even touched the inside of the house. I also wanted to clean the deck, so on Monday I tackled that job. I got some of that "30 Second Outdoor Cleaner" and sprayed it on the deck and then waited a while and hosed it off. Bingo, that stuff really works and it saved my back and knees from a lot of scrubbing by hand. It almost looks like new.

Tuesday was the much-anticipated Garden Club tour and would you believe it was raining? How could that be? The weatherman promised me a nice day and instead it poured! I was expecting about 20 people and was planning on having them out on the deck after the tour where they were going to eat their lunch. I ended up hurriedly moving the tables and chairs all inside and we managed to squeeze the 20 club members into the living and dining room! And then, an hour after the last people left, the sun came out! It all worked out just the same and everyone said my garden looked great!

Speaking of the garden, the vegetables are coming along. I have lots of "green" tomatoes coming on, the snow peas are just about ready to pick, we are having fresh lettuce every night for supper and have eaten a handful of strawberries. Oh, the bounty of my labor!

We had to take the new Expedition into Beaverton on Thursday to have the "Crystal Fusion Windshield Protection" and the "Northwest Protection Package" done. It was part of the special deal that we ordered. It was an all day process and so they gave us a loaner car to use. Since we didn't want to hang around the service department all day, we drove the loaner to Hillsboro where we met with some of my high school classmates for lunch. They meet once a month and I try to make it when I can. Dave likes going too because he knows some of the guys from my class because they attended Pacific University together. After the luncheon, we ran a couple of errands and made it back to Beaverton just in time for them to finish up with the car. On the way home, Dave let me drive his new car for the first time and it is really a dream to drive. It practically drives itself!

Next week we will have three of our granddaughters down for the week. We are meeting them at Elderberry Inn and Lara and Greg are handing them over to us until they can come down later that week for the 4th of July celebration.

Oh, and one last thing. This week marks the 10th anniversary of Jan's Journal. I started writing this as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends when we moved to the coast . That of course was long before "Facebook" and other forms of "social media", and even though I do some of those things too, I still like to be able to write things on the journal the way I like to write them. And as long as you like it too, I'll keep this going...maybe for another 10 years!