Green thumb tests results: negative

This is very sad news for me to report. After a long, hard week of struggling my hydrangea is starting to look very dead. Leaves are wilting. Lots of brown is showing. If plants did rigor mortis it would be setting in about now. And to make matters worse my nice new laurel bushes are doing a sympathy death dance. The ground is mostly clay with some compost and topsoil that I tilled in, so at first when they started to go brown I thought I was over-watering them. But less water has not helped. They have withered like the grasses. I'm even too traumatized to take a picture.

The Montana Experience

These last few weekends have been busy for us. Two weekends ago we went to Seattle for a wedding. Last weekend Joel and I and another couple (Mike and Kathryn Church) drove to Bigfork, Montana to visit our friends Rachel and Hilary who are working there for the summer. Mike and Kathryn very conveniently have a boat and so we brought that too. We had such a blast, the temperature was great and although the water was frigid we still managed to get in some time inner-tubing. The water temp was great incentive to stay on the tube, believe me.
Rachel's grandparents own a lake-cabin right on the edge of Flathead Lake, and since they're out of town we were able to stay there. It's an amazing cabin with a fabulous view. We got to eat at a few different places in the adorable tiny town of Bigfork and walk to a fabulous view of river rapids. It was a wonderful Montana week-end experience.

Green Thumb Test

We've started noticing our yard this summer, and that's resulted in some changes. Joel and I have always hated the Juniper bush which spitefully takes up half of our front yard. During the winter we had so much snow that the juniper was covered, and for a few weeks I blissfully entertained the idea that it had vanished. But alas, summer has come and it is still there, as big and ugly as ever. Yesterday Joel started cutting branches off, and after filling one whole garbage can and two wheelbarrows he had barely made a dent. It's going to require some major work.


On a happier note, Joel and I shoveled up all the river rock which lined our front walkway and replaced it with dirt. I decided to relocate some daffodils which were in the way, but after uprooting those two or three plants I discovered a mass daffodil bulb graveyard below the earth. The first picture there is all the bulbs which I found (not even all actually, I destroyed several as I was digging) bathed and dried and waiting to be stored in a cool dry area until I think of where to plant them. And now I am scheming as to what to plant next to our walkway. What you see in the picture is a lovely hydrangea bush which sits near the front of the walkway beside the garage. Next to it is a little dahlia flower which really has no business being there, but it was so cute and I couldn't help myself at the store. So after those two buys I still have a good patch of dirt beside the walkway to plant in, and I'm debating over what shrubs to buy. I would like to get evergreens because I love having color in the winter. But there are also very few evergreens which I like. So I've been investigating and pondering and will post pictures once I've made my decision.
The other pictures are my planter in the front doorway-area, and Whiskey being helpful as usual.

Last, but not least

I thought I would end with some miscellaneous pretty (or fun) pictures we took along the trip.


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Two down, two to go

I hope this isn't a Maui overload, I thought it might be easier if I broke it up into smaller posts. Only two more to go! We took a morning trip to see what was supposed to be a very cool blowhole; however, the tide was not high enough I suppose, or the water was not rough enough, because the blowhole only managed a few meager spouts at best. But it was still a beautiful rocky area overlooking the ocean, and the view alone was worth the trip.



After that we went to the Olivine Pools, natural rock pools that overlooked the ocean. The biggest one was deep enough to jump into, although I had to get over my squeamishness at the thought of what little, pale creatures (possibly with pincers or teeth) might be nestled in the underwater crevices in those pools.

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Maui, cont.

Here I go again, I'm on a roll so I'm going to try and finish up our Maui section today.

We drove the infamously curvy Road to Hana (Dad was our fearless driver) which took almost the entire day. Some guidebooks say there are about 600 curves and 54 one-lane bridges. It's really not a good idea for people who get car-sick easily. But thankfully none of us threw-up and our car did not slide off the narrow roads into the steep ravines, and we got to see some very pretty waterfalls.


Along the road to Hana we stopped at the Hana Lava Tube. The cave was formed from liquid rock plowing a path through the earth and leaving behind plenty of neat rock formations (stalagmites and stalactites). They let you do self-guided tours (my favorite) and our guidebook recommended we turn our lights off inside the cave if we wanted to know what complete and utter darkness was. Some of us liked this more than others.

Back to Maui

It's been a very busy week, so I haven't had time to post anything, but I really do have loads of intriguing things to say (well, not really loads...). Before I move on to more exciting things around the house (like tulip graveyards and hydrangea bushes) I should finish up with Maui pictures.

One of our adventures on Maui was to the Iao Needle. The Iao needle is located in the middle of Iao valley (surprise, surprise) and is a neat, natural rock formation in the shape of a needle. It was once an altar to the gods, and as we learned on the way there this beautiful valley was not always so beautiful. It was the famous last stand of some native Maui warriors against King Kamehameha (Joel and I are considering this for a son's name). The natives were no match for the King's canon, and the body became a mass graveyard in a few short hours. Now the valley is absolutely beautiful, lush and green with fun trails and pathways to explore.