wind | A Mélange of Contradictory Tendencies

Ok, I know, today is recipe day. I don’t have a good one, or one at all. Can’t think of a single thing.

BUT, we had a thunderstorm yesterday!! That’s kinda big news here in the Pacific Northwest. Every now and then we’ll get a thunderstorm, but it’s like ONE lightning strike and if you’re lucky you’ll hear the thunder.

This one was CLOSE, and we had more than three strikes that I saw. I know, three…well it’s better than one.

The clouds were building in the NE and so dark. There was a stark contrast to the West where it was sunny and clear. The wind picked up to 30 mph gusts and 20 mph sustained. If I would have been at my house I would have been worried about the trees. We have large old conifers that like to fall over. Our branches are the size of small trees.

In my sister’s neighborhood the tress are small, so I could watch them bend at 90 degree angles and not worry about it.

The rain came, sideways with the wind. I left my sunroof open. It wasn’t too bad, the sunroof was just popped not all the way open. In the minute it took me to run out and close it I got soaked.

The storm passed in about 15 minutes. That’s how fast the wind was.

We lost power for a few minutes. Long enough for me to start panicking about the food in the fridge. Thank the storm gods it came back on.

I enjoy a good thunderstorm. As long as everyone is safe! I have been in two that scared the CRAP out of me. One in MI, and one in ID. Both of those were remnants of a tornado. I do NOT want to be in one of those again. I remember the one in ID, I was driving through it and shaking so bad. Lightning was hitting all around us. The hail was inches deep. I had to kiss the bumper of a semi to get through it. I mean if that semi was 10 ft away I couldn’t see AT ALL! At 70 mph that was a scary drive. Good thing I have training. If it weren’t for the law enforcement training I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with him as safely as I did. During that storm the Snake River washed out a road and killed a retired police officer who was fishing, just feet from where we first ran into it. May he rest in peace.

Last year was the one in MI. I could see the anvil cloud early in the day. We ended up hunkered down on a golf course, of all places, sitting on METAL picnic tables that were covered. It rained so hard we had a flash flood. It’s so flat out there, driving 10 minutes after the storm was difficult.

Here’s to a good thunderstorm! Stay safe everyone!
Update: There are 5,000 people without power still. I just looked at our local news. There was a string of thunderstorms. Trees fell on cars, so far nobody was injured. I had no idea it was so widespread.
Update: One person injured. Not fun or a good storm. May they heal well and fast!

Gardening in the Pacific Northwest is actually quite the challenge. Right now we have had over 2.5″ of rain in 24 hours in one part of the state and expecting up to 3″ more in the next 24 hours. Needless to say, I am not out in my hip waders pulling weeds. Some of our “weeds” are actually quite pretty. I didn’t even know a few of my favorite flowering plants were weeds until my neighbor pulled them out for me. I was kind of upset, but she is Mary Poppins reincarnate. Her garden is so pretty it actually makes me angry. I don’t know how she does it. Oh yeah, she’s also an interior designer, and the inside of her home is perfect too. I just love her so much I want to SQUEEZE her SO HARD sometimes. No really, she’s great..really great. Lovely woman.

I used to love gardening. My idea of gardening was to pick out something really pretty, plant it and hope it lives. I have absolutely no idea of how design a garden, and I don’t want to. I don’t want a perfect hedge, or bordering plants. I just want pretty stuff that lives, and if it dies, like my little Japanese Maple, I decorate the dead tree with shiny stuff or shells. Now I understand zoning, and since my entire yard is shady I am stuck with ferns and hostas, sooo much fun, NOT.

Right now my entire yard is just mud and covered in giant rotting maple leaves. So all of my pretty things are gone, for now. I will resume gardening in May most likely. That is if I have a house. You see where I live, the trees have very shallow root systems. We have rain, non stop and wind. The wet ground and wind helps our trees fall over on a yearly basis. I have a cedar that is approximately 80ft hanging over my living room as we speak. Need to cut it down, along with the rest of the trees, I’m done with the pine needles and sap that turns into superglue when it dries onto my car and I’m done worrying about my ginormous trees falling on my house, or across the road and onto some hapless person driving by. Death by tree is not uncommon here.

I am constantly pulling buttercups, they are my arch nemesis along with blackberry bushes. WHO BROUGHT THOSE HERE??!! They are NOT native to the Pacific NW, and I hate them. They are almost impossible to get rid of. People burn them or “hire” goats to eat the bushes and roots. Neither one works for long. I don’t even want to eat them unless I’m starving. The only thing they are good for is security. Yep, even bad guys don’t want to run through our blackberry bushes, they will tear a person to shreds. So, I leave the ones by my fence along the road. Nobody wants to go there, and if they do they won’t make it out.

Gardening here also includes cleaning out the gutters. I have PLANTS growing in my gutters. I could probably grow all kinds of vegetables up there, but alas I need the gutters to actually do their job and remain plant free. I remember the first time I saw a bunch of weeds about 12″ high growing out of my gutters. I thought “NO WAY..only here, only ME!”.

I want to apologize for sounding so angry about gardening. I am staring at the rain and grey sky and there is no end in sight. The wind is gusting at 35mph and I’m not a happy camper, or should I say gardener.

I thought, ” If MJ can do it in a barren waste land how can I possibly fail?” Well I did and have and I don’t like it anymore. I have ivy. That takes care of my HOA…they can’t bother me, it’s IVY, therefore my yard is pretty. It’s like grass, but I don’t have to mow it and it’s green all year long. I love my Ivy.