The Pansy Trials

Working at a nursery, Wing Nut gets to have all manner of adventures. Sometimes it's scooping up red wigglers out of the worm bin. Once in a while, thankfully not more often, it's getting flattened to the ground by a runaway cart full of gallon pots of lavender. On occasion it's catching small frogs hopping among the plants. Once it was helping relocate a killdeer that had decided the nursery driveway was a good place for its nest. Now and again it's getting the opportunity to express her creativity by designing flower displays, planting up a very expensive antique pot that a customer brought in, or helping with the junior gardeners' newsletter. And then sometimes it's getting a weird skin rash on her arm THAT THE DOCTOR THINKS MIGHT BE LYME DISEASE!!!

Why oh why couldn't she just be happy at her old job, sitting at a desk in a posh purple ergonomic chair and enjoying the medical insurance that would have covered her if for some twilight-zone-like reason she had contracted LYME DISEASE??? Actually the worst thing that ever happened to her on THAT job was when she gave herself quite a shiner after picking up the phone receiver and clocking herself in the eye with it. Sometimes I worry about that girl!

But I digress. Last week she and two of the other flower shed girls embarked on yet another adventure. They took a road trip to Henry's Plant Farm in Mill Creek, WA. Once a year, Henry's has an open house and invites their nursery & garden center clients to come visit and check out their pansy trials.

--Hey! It was my road trip and my pictures, so why are YOU telling this story?

--Because you hadn't gotten around to telling it and I wanted to post the pics of the flowers you brought home.

--Okay, okay, but let me add some thoughts too! And did you have to tell everyone about the phone-to-the-eye incident??

After a lovely picnic lunch under blue skies and warm sun, we toured some of the greenhouses at Henry's. One huge greenhouse was dedicated to the pansy trials -- a show of new selections and upcoming varieties. We saw rows upon rows of beautiful and colorful pansies, violas, and panolas.  We learned that a panola is a cross between a pansy and a viola, with the best features of each plant. The panolas have a face that is smaller than a traditional pansy, but larger than a viola.  The sales rep told us that panolas sell really well in our area because their faces hold up better during our wet, rainy winters, whereas the large faced pansies droop under heavy rain.

Then we chose 3 flats of special beauties and took them back to the nursery. It was really hard to limit ourselves to only 3 favorites since there were so many amazing and beautiful colors.  Perhaps we should have taken K's van instead of A's new car -- we could have gotten more! ;-)

Of course I had to buy two of the varieties we brought back!

Pansy 'Fizzy Lemonberry'

Viola 'Mickey'

Not only are Fizzy Lemonberry and Mickey beautiful, but they are gloriously fragrant too!  Sigh...

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

Where in the world are the Wenches?

Any guesses?

Here are a few hints...

We visited the longest island on the Pacific Coast in the lower 48 states.

We crossed the most photographed bridge in Washington.

We ate amazing shellfish.

Why don't we go to the beach more often?

Lake Washington, Lake Union, the Ship Canal, Salmon Bay, Shilshole Bay, Elliott Bay, the Puget Sound, the Straight of Juan de Fuca, the Pacific Ocean, water infuses everything here. We come in contact with it every single day. I walk along the Ship Canal most days on my way to work. Before she began working with plants, Wing Nut would daily cross the Ship Canal and walk along Lake Union on her way to  work. Perhaps because of this constant daily contact, we hardly ever go to the beach. In the four years we've lived here we've been to the beach maybe four times. And we've yet to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean.

So today when we woke up expecting clouds and rain, but instead found blue skies and sunshine, we decided it was time to feel the sand under our bare feet--no socks, no sandals. Diva Dog isn't much of a swimmer--she's actually a bit of a drama queen when it comes to getting her paws wet. But she does enjoy all the interesting smells and a good game of chase.

We strolled on the warm sand. We dipped our toes in the chilly water. We sat and enjoyed feeling the warmth of the sun on our faces.

We even found some cool purple rocks.

As we headed back to the car we both had the same thought. We're going to make an effort to get to the beach more often.

--Curmudgeon

Eagle Watching

Every winter, hundreds of eagles come to the Skagit River to feast upon the spawning salmon. We drove about 2 hours northeast of Seattle into the foothills of the Cascade Mountains to see some of the majestic birds.

It was cold and gray, but that is apparently better viewing weather for eagles. When it's warm and sunny, they soar up and ride the thermal currents. A few professional photographers (with enviable cameras & lenses) were there as well as bird watchers. They told us the majority of the eagles had moved on to other sites; we were about a week or so late. We did manage to see, at a distance, about 10 eagles, mostly sitting in the trees. There are two eagles in each photo below.


Here are some close ups on the eagles.

One eagle did fly ovehead and I was able to snap a series of pictures of it. With a little computer wizardry, I was able to make this panoramic photo.

We also saw a great blue heron standing on a tree stump near the river's edge. It stood very nicely for me to take its picture.


There was a bit of snow on the ground, so we romped around with Diva Dog. We drove to a park recommended in our dog guide to let her stretch her legs (and ours) for a while. We saw some amazing trees, ferns, and other foliage.


It never ceases to amaze me how green this state is year round. I'm also frequently amazed by the natural beauty here.

From Season's Greetings & Bah Humbug...

JOYEUX NOËL!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

We had the 2nd snowiest Christmas since 1947. We got a whopping 3/4 of an inch. Visit Pasado's Safe Haven and check out their Home for the HOWLidays event to see what we did on Christmas Day.

Volunteer Park Conservatory

A few weeks back we finally made it to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. It was a gray afternoon and rain was threatening. But the conservatory provided warmth and shelter from the rain. We spent a couple of hours exploring the 5 houses--palms, cacti, bromeliads, ferns and orchids.

The Chocolate Flower Farm

This weekend we headed north to Anacortes and Whidbey Island for a little vacation. The weather was perfect! We stayed at a dog friendly B&B, Island Tyme, right outside of the little town of Langley on the southern end of Whidbey Island. Diva Dog seemed to enjoy her time on the beach! We also did some hiking.

Double Bluff Beach, Useless Bay

Mt. Rainier

The woods at Greenbank Farm

Island Tyme B&B

For more photos of our trip, click this link to our Whidbey Island photo albumn on Ofoto.

While in Langley we visited the Chocolate Flower Farm which is a small specialty nursery. They specialize in dark flower/foliage plants including some that smell like chocolate. They also make chocolate candles and soap. Of course we couldn't leave without acquiring a few more plants for our garden!

Penstemon raven

Euphorbia tasmanian tiger and blackbird