It’s all downhill from here now, eh?
Not really - summer has just begun! But this morning when I was walking the dog it popped into my mind that besides Labor Day, the next big holiday is Halloween! I’m sure the enthusiastic neighbors will start putting up decorations soon.
Our holiday was pretty quiet, at least until the lawbreakers started lighting fireworks off in every direction. They’re illegal pretty much everywhere in our county, but that doesn’t stop the revelers from earnest attempts to blow off their fingers or set the neighbor’s house on fire. Once it started getting dark there was a non-stop low rumble of explosions, along with the nearby pops and whistles. It was really weird, unlike any 4th of July of the past. There were very few signs of fireworks around, most people clean up the mess right away - unlike in Oak Harbor where the morning after was always a big mess.
Other than the cacophony of explosives, it was a decent day. Both of us had been feeling a bit down for a few days, so decided to live it up with Michael’s homemade margaritas. Hot tip - to avoid poor decision making and a hangover, buy the 375ml bottle of tequila! Just the right amount of fun, and we were buzzed enough not to care that the Chinese food we had delivered was the worst ever. So bad. I’m not sure my fried shrimp had any shrimp in them, to be honest.
Another 4th of July finished. Yay.
Nolan came to visit the day before, and I finally had a chance to take a walk with him to get some expert tree and plant info. I see all sorts of interesting things when I’m out with the dog, but don’t know what they are. He solved a couple of mysteries for me!
First, we sidetracked to check out the burned up RV that we could see from the overpass. Yikes!
It’s a good thing it was parked where it was, and not on the side of the road next to the grass! Just a few days ago there was a large grass fire over the hill (out of view on this shot), started by a car fire. I just read about another grass fire a bit to the south. It’s going to be one of those years.
Then back on the planned walk, so I could finally learn what this tree is! It is huge, and unlike any other tree in the area. HUGE! The house to the left is not small by any stretch of the imagination.
It took Nolan a bit of poking around online, but he did figure it out - it’s a Copper Beech. Long ago somebody planted this tree when it was just small, and it grew and grew and grew. The trunk is massive. I love this tree!
He also identified some Kudos Gold Hummingbird Mint that I had admired in somebody’s garden. Apparently it comes in a variety of colors and they’re all lovely! I’d like to have some in my garden.
It sure is great having a personal botanist! Next time he visits we’ll have to walk some different blocks for another round of NAME THAT PLANT. In a fitting twist, on the walk we found a mini-greenhouse available for free on the sidewalk. Nolan even carried it home for me! Now I need some plants.
Pre-pandemic we would have been camping at Newhalem for the 4th of July, and we’re really missing sitting out in the forest. For a variety of reasons I won’t get into we’ll probably not take the trailer out again this year, but we do want to get away. The solution we’ve set on is to try out renting a cabin at Rasar State Park for a couple of nights in September. Rasar is one of our favorite parks, on the banks of the Skagit River a ways up the North Cascades Hwy. The cabins there are pretty nice, and the one we’ve rented is so posh it even has a bathroom! We’ll still have to bring a stove to cook on, but I’m quite looking forward to staying in a proper structure. Click here for some photos of the cabins and a review of the park. The weather could be really nice or it could be pouring rain, but it won’t matter because we’ll have a cozy little place to stay.
Until next time, I’ll leave you with some fireworks you can enjoy silently:
Flowers of Fire: Illustrations from Japanese Fireworks Catalogues (ca. 1880s)
Of the many intriguing images in these catalogues, it is their inclusion of complex figures, which seem pyrotechnically impossible, that most captivates the contemporary eye. To understand these scintillating and unfamiliar forms (daylight bombshells, parachute light-balls), it is helpful to go back into the annals of a British fireworks dynasty. Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework Making (1922) is written by a man “the eighth generation of a family of pyrotechnists”: Alan St. Hill Brock, a descendent of John Brock, who founded Brock’s Fireworks Ltd in 1698, publisher of the catalogues under question and still in existence today. According to Brock the author, daylight fireworks originated in Japan and were not really “fireworks” as we have come to know them. Instead of pyrotechnic effects, the daylight projectile contained “a grotesque balloon in the form of an animal, human figure, or other form, which, being open and weighted at the lower end, becomes inflated as it falls and remains in the air for a considerable period.”
Cheers!
~Anne
That is a mighty tree!
Glad you got to see your boy and booked that sweet cabin!
I’ve never been to rasar and it’s so close to me! It would make a perfect weekend getaway. Also, my first thought when I saw the greenhouse was “mushrooms!” I saw one set up for growing up different culinary mushrooms at a home and garden show once.