I realize I've been gone for 10 days, as my last post was the 7th. Since Friday, my Verizon internet has been out. Some faxed order to disconnect my service was made when I called after my phone/internet bill doubled. A manager was not willing to honor the 'bundling' offer I had signed up for, saying they didn't have the offer any longer, and I went round and round. The rationale used was if I wouldn't have signed up for the Freedom Basic, Essential, Bare Essential, or other company sign language plan without my phone services of voice mail, call waiting and Caller ID to try the new higher speed internet for the same amount I was paying, then they would just put me back on the original plan, that was now much more expensive. In not honoring their flyer, rep's representation and lack of recording the new 'plan', I used up a good part of one morning, and racked up several hours on the phone. I was to have no internet until tomorrow night after 6, so I'm glad another error apparantly occurred. Ah the travails...
I enjoyed pruning the pear tree out front yesterday. I'm getting quite a burn pile. I want to make a fire pit so I can have an occasional marshmallow roast or conversation pit, overlooking the lake at night. I have a lot of overgrown miniature green plum trees. I hate to severely prune and take them out, but the fermenting fruit each year, loaded with yellow jackets to walk through when taking the compost out, is just too much. I wish I had my fruit dryer, but the electricity here, provided by West Oregon Electric, charges the second highest rates in the nation.
Vernonia has a very short growing season because of late and early frosts. We are the 'pocket in the woods'. This year I want to make some raised beds, and get the greenhouse fixed up. The old mill windows are used in two sides of the greenhouse, but around 6 need replacing. The roof is dismally built, also, and needs repair. It has to wait its turn. It is picturesque, having an old Western type of board front. The old panel door has peeling paint that I treasure as an art form. A single red rose bush grows to the right of the door. I need to plant the Spanish lavender on the other side. I grew a bunch of baby trees. Every spring there's a sale at the old Hi School Pharmacy in St. Helens. Maybe I should get there again this year. I want to see about some Dogwoods again, and maybe some more Deodara Cedars. The gingko was planted by the old Maple stump, over some kind of buried garbage pit. The more I dug, the stranger it was. The little pine has overgrown its pot long ago. I tried to give it away, even to the city for the park, but it hasn't happened yet. So many loose ends.
As a person gets comfortable in their new surroundings, seasonal plantings and trees and gardens can be put in. I love tulips, hyacinths and daffodils. Spring is just over the hill. The primroses are already pushing blooms. We are a bit later than the Hillsboro, Beaverton or Portland areas. My Australian Mint Bush bit the dust the year I moved here. I really miss running my cupped hand up a stem and smelling all the lovely mint. Moving from a 2.38 acre 3 story family house to this little cottage has been a whole new experience in overwhelm, and things are not done fast enough. Sometimes it's like watching myself fail in slow motion. I have learned acceptance, and made a plant funeral home. I love creating with plants and flowers. Perhaps I'll get the berm in before I pull up my roots, lined with low-growing lavender, with a droopy cedar tree for the focal point. I'd like to make a bird village. The snow and black ice really grounded me this year. I think I'll be looking for a roommate, so I can be in warmer climates next winter.
No comments:
Post a Comment