Perennial Border in July

I know, I know; it's been a month since I was here.  A lot has happened since then.  We were so busy getting ready for the Enumclaw Garden tour that there was little time for self indulgence.  They sold over 700 tickets.  Crazy day that was!
If you have seen the blog before you know what the border looked like in early spring.  Silly me!  I thought it was pretty THEN.  This is it today.  Something new opens every day.  Truth be told, I will be doing some serious thinning in the fall.  For now?  over the top is just fine.
Ross is working like a mad man on the monument for the college.  It's in the clay stage right now.  I'll see if he's okay with me posting images.   It seems the college has plans for a lot of publicity so it may be hush, hush for now. 

An Excuse for Art

Believe it or not, I have been IN the garden.  Yesterday was rain, break, rain, break, RAIN, no break.  We just trudged on.  I must admit, some of it was selfish on my part.  My husband was home and I really wanted to take advantage of his help.  He ran the chipper shredder while I hoed, weeded, trimmed and cleaned the ponds (yuk!).  It's amazing how a very large pile of debris can shred into such a little, tiny usable mound.  However, when there has been time I've been in the studio stacking glass and ceramics.  It has become an all consuming urge.  There isn't a Goodwill within 30 miles that I haven't visited.  The big (BIG) question is "how good are today's adhesives?"  Time will tell.  Some of the tauted ones have too much flex for the mid section. There have been some casualties.  Learning curve.  You also have to ask yourself when do you have too many.  Clusters may be the answer.

Opposites

Forgive me if you see this twice.  I just finished writing about it but everything disappeared.  I think I'm starting over...
This is a coupling we planted last fall.  You never know how things will come up.  Correction:  WE never know.  I have friends who would plant with abundant confidence.  In any event, this seems quite pleasing.
No gardening today.  The weather is pretty stormy and unusually cold.  Fun day in the studio but now I have to go try and get super glue off my hands.

New border

This is our new perennial border.  Things are just beginning to open.  Next year we will be pre-emptive and add some supports before things grow.  There's a lovely duo of poppy and delphenium that will be a collapsed blob once we have rain.  "The man" on TV says that's tomorrow.  I tried a wire cage today but I think I made it too short.  After wrestling it into  place it is unlikely it's coming back out.
We had 40 people here Saturday and another 20 or so on Sunday.  The first group were all here for a sculpture bronze pour.  The second group were photographers.  It was odd to be in the garden with folks that weren't interested in discussing plants and/or plantings.  To think, I was once one of them.  Oh how things change.

some art...

Now for some of the art side.  This is the view from the #1 tee box at the Enumclaw golf course.  I have since made some modifications so you may have to see it again.  It's about 20x30".  We were there one sunny morning about 6:45AM and the view was like magic.  Can't say the same for my golf.  That's why we go so early.  Bad golfers (me) slow down the golfers behind them.  Didn't matter that day.  I was thrilled that this captured what we saw.
Today started with assembling of a crazy cake I'm attempting.  Once Ross falls out of bed we're going to attack the course again, then a visit to a new gallery in town that opens tomorrow followed by time in the garden...again.  It's endless.  That said, it is really quite beautiful this time of year.  Once Ross has time to edge I'll start posting images.

Garden Equipment

Equipment!  the bane of a gardener's existence.  With a map of the day you strike out with monumental plans.  What's that?  the weed eater won't start?  That's okay.  You own TWO.  Ahhh, the old one starts right up....and runs for about 10 minutes then, with no warning just murmurs down to nothing.  At the exact same moment your spouse is standing behind you with the other gas tool, the one that was working perfectly fine 15 minutes ago, and it won't start.  You realize how wonderful tools are that depend on nothing more than your body movement and willingness to use them.  Shovels, rakes, hoes; they all fall into that category.  Unfortunately there isn't enough time in one summer to attend to all the maintenance if you resort to that (like your old body would hold up!).  What to do?!?  Right!  remove one glove, throw it to the ground, utter some juvenile expletive and begin the daunting task of figuring out the proper offering to the Tool God to make them work again.

The Monument

He came through!  This is the model for the Veteran's Monument.  The center basalt stone is 4 feet high and about 30 inches across so that gives you some idea of the scale.  Ross keeps saying "they are size 24 boots".  Not.  They are approximately 24" soles I believe.  Each facet of the stone will have a branch of the service sandblasted on it.  There will also be some little surprises but I'm not going to tell you what they are just yet.  The photos will reveal them as the project moves forward.