Lilies

It's been an absolutely spectacular summer for my small lily plantation (it's a small plantation-- about 4 dozen plants--but the lilies are enormous).  The first set, which bloom in june mostly, were absolutely abundant in buds, with 4 and 5 foot tall stalks holding up to 16 large buds and then 16 flowers, although not all blooming at once.  The second set, which are the ones that have a lot of scent, bloom in late July and August.  They have been very tall--several of them over 6 feet--and they too have had multiple flowers, though not above 7 or 8 on any one stalk and most fewer.  But over all they are just amazing.

They're an easy plant to grow.  Like tulips, they are bulbs, but they don't have hardened outsides so they are sensitive to sitting around in wet soil throughout the winter.  You want to have them where there is good drainage.  But other than that and feeding them two or three times during the growing season with miracle grow or some such ordinary fertilizer, they just provide their own motivation.  And then they produce your astonishment.  See below!

I buy mine from a place in Oregon, I think, called B&D Lilies.  They're a very nice lot of people who provide good information as well as good bulbs.  They'll send you a free newsletter if you ask, or a beautiful catalog.  The bulbs are a little on the pricey side, but they multiply over the years and if you have sun and good drainage, you're likely to have many more than you originally bought over 5 or 6 years.  The orange ones below started out with only one bulb, and now there are six stalks, each with multiple gorgeous orange lilies.

 The white one with the yellow ribs below is 8 inches across and divinely scented.

 The yellow ones above are quite tall and the double pinks below them are not tiny flowers: they are just quite a ways away.

 Rose gave me this 2.5-foot tall vase: absolutely necessary for lilies.

All orange, all the time.  Started with one, now there are six stalks with 8-10 flowers on each one.  Actually, there's very little time in my life in the summer to do anything but look at the lilies.

Seabright Farm and Cottages or Something

Ed and I went up to Seabright the other day to see how things were going up there.  There's lots going on and they have tours every day from Wednesday to Sunday.  Some things were pretty surprising.  The place has been featured as having splendid ocean views.  But the primary view you see as you drive down the entrance road are several two story houses between you and the ocean.  I had understood that the houses would be relatively small, but these three don't look small and they certainly look like they're in the way of a potential buyer's view.

 There's a lovely little reconstructed house (above) which is being used for a sales office.  It's filled with old Point memorabilia of sorts; or at least old furnishings for a very nice nostalgia touch.

And a big barn is going up.  I don't know what the buyers of these 58 (?) small-ish lots are going to be doing in or with a barn; I don't think it's for horses.  But who knows, maybe Point Roberts will become a center for square or contra dancing.

If you've got some free time, it's worth taking a look at it.  Just to see what they have in mind.  Not exactly the Point Roberts we are used to.  More planned, I suppose.  And planning is not exactly a word I spontaneously associate with Point Roberts.

The Border Changes Its Policy (or one of them, anyway)

A few weeks ago, news of a petition to urge the U.S. Border station here at Point Roberts to remedy the problem of the increasingly problematic long lines at our entrance to home circulated.  The number of Canadians who come here for visits to their cottages, to their gas stations away from home, and to their package delivery stores away from home continues to increase, though the number of entry-ways and the hours of the Nexus lanes remain unchanged.  There's not much you can do if every car must be at least visually checked to make more cars go through the same five lanes and the same hours.

Et voila!  A petition is signed by those of us here on this side and in no time at all by U.S. Customs standards, the hours are changed.  "What? " they say.  "You need more time for Nexus lanes?  Why did you not say something earlier?  It is of course our pleasure to meet your needs."

And now, I am told, the Nexus lane coming into Point Roberts will be open from 9 am to 9 pm.  Quelle surprise!

Easing out of June

Last week was the Summer Solstice and we went to a neighborhood party in the company of about 200 other folks.  I think a lot of the people must have come from some other neighborhood, though.  Roast beef, pig, turkey, probably a swan or two and maybe a venison, though I didn't see any of the latter two.

A potluck dinner provided by 200+ people makes it very hard to know what to do with your plate when you get to it.  Are you supposed to take a half-teaspoon of each of the 45-50 salads at the salad table? at the dessert table?  etc.  Or what.  It's a hard party for people who have trouble making choices, which may just be people.  There weren't very many kids there, which was probably to the good because my kids, if they are typical, were never very good at making choices between more than 3 things.  But now that the world offers us so many choices, maybe people have gotten better at it, but I haven't.  The party proved that.

In any case, it was a memorable event of people, food, cars parked everywhere, music and general and constant movement, including cow-sculpture rides and trips on the motorized couch.  And a generous gesture on the part of the hosts.

Weather Vagueries

Last Saturday was the first day of the Community Market and it was a reasonable start.  Here in Point Roberts, we tend to start slow and improve over the course of the run of whatever it is.  So we've got about 12 weeks or so to populate both the vendors and the shoppers at the Saturday Market.

However, this morning was the 2nd week of the Saturday Market.  It is 10:30 now and the sun is shining brightly, but I am not at the market looking out for the New Library's interests, but am sitting at this computer, looking out the window, and wondering why I'm here and not there.

This is another of the problems of Point Roberts events: it frequently looks like it might rain very soon, and somebody has to decide whether to go with an outdoor event or not.  This morning, the Market Organizer called the day for rain at about 8 am, sending all the vendors a notice that it was cancelled.  And it seemed not a bad call.  But by 10, the sun was shining brightly and the sky was clear of clouds (at least at my centrally located house), and obviously the Market should be on, except that all the vendors were presumably at home and not at the Market.

Grrrr!  So frustrating.  But, a decision needed to be made, and the Market Organizer is the person to make that decision, and she made it on the best information she had.  But, I hope people will try us out again next week, assuming that it isn't raining, or looking and feeling like rain, not to mention the weather reports that all said 'high probability of rain in Point Roberts beginning at 10 am."

Two Things

The first is that the Fire District meeting reported that the volunteers had turned up 6 unauthorized yard burns in May.  People!  Be apprised that you need a burn permit when burning yard waste and that it costs all of about $3.00 and it's good for a couple of days.  And act accordingly.  As one who has twice been visited by firemen when doing burns WITH a burn permit, I'm pretty confident in saying you probably don't want to have them drop by when you DON'T have a burn permit.

And some very good news!  The Community Advisory Committee is setting up to appoint a sub-committee to revise the P.R. Character Plan, which is the puzzling document that apparently aims at making Point Roberts most resemble a small town with all the aesthetic charms of 1918, not a period that particularly lives in memory as a stunningly creative architectual moment, I think.  E.g., when we get a new library, it's supposed to have a gable roof, because that's what we would probably have had in 1918.  Ah, the death of rationality in a single document.  Of course, I suppose they could revise it to require that all outdoor signs on businesses use incandescent light bulbs.  Assuming anyone has one any more...a sign or an incandescent light bulb.  Take your choice.

The First Lily Blooms

and very much brightens our life.  A friend tells me that lilies are referred to as 'the queen of the garden,' which I didn't know, probably because I'd never grown lilies before.  (Well, they pretty much grow themselves, although I do feed them as advised by B&D Lilies, which is my bulb provider.)  I have somehow found myself responsible for about 4 dozen of these plants which do multiply over the years.  And some of them don't make it through the winter because my landscape is pretty wet.  But over about four years, I've netted 4 dozen, anyway.  And the stalks with the most buds (16-18, the most efflorescent--and I've never thought to use that word in relation to flowers but surely that is where it had its birth) are the ones that bloom in June-July.  So we are headed for some lily abundance.