At least we know our local tax dollars are going for good things.  The local fire fighters officially opened their new station today after decades is a truly ratty old facility.  We attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and toured the very cool, modern building.  Love it.

Trisha at new North Bend Fire Station

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• North Bend’s new fire station 87 opens… (ValleyRecord.com)

We’ve had our driveway edged with some of the many rocks harvested from our planting efforts over the years.  I finally took the initiative to replace the tired-looking rocks with some brighter, more formal looking, dry-stack flagstone–2 tons worth.  The result is beautiful. Here’s the final product (with a before view in the inset).

After a truly dreary final two weeks of May we were treated to one of those stunning mild Northwest spring days. Sunny, low 70s, light breeze….  Our plants, of course, are in their glory.  Most of the rhododendrons have finished flowering but the summer bloomers and annuals are still popping out.  The aquatic iris in our little pond are enormous this year:

Iris

The forecast for the month looks marvelous; I see only a couple of suggestions of rainy days.

About eight years ago we did a complete overhaul of our front entrance landscaping.  Over those years, the beautiful Hinoki cypress and ground covers overwhelmed the space to the right of the front door.  We had the Hinoki removed with many evergreens we had cut down at the end of February.  Trisha finally came up with a new design using a cool bird bath, a climbing hydrangea, Lonicera, and a low pot for annuals.  I added a low stone edge and voila a new entry space.

We finally took the step to do a big weeding of trees from out lot.  Most of the remaining firs are over 2o years old and crowding each other.  By the end of the day tomorrow, 14 trees will be gone and I’ll have a ton of clean-up work to do.  I’ve had to move scores of plants to keep them from being crushed by falling branches or trampled by the workers.  We are looking forward to see how our gardens do with more light and air and which plants will need to find new locations to accommodate for the changes in sun exposure.

We’ve always liked quiche but gradually drifted away from making it because preparing crusts is a bit of a nuisance.  I’ve recently begun experimenting with Bisquick and other Betty Crocker and Pillsbury products to shortcut the crust-making step.  Today I whipped up a delicious ham and broccoli quiche in just about an hour.  The Bisquick crust was passable but I’ll continue to test other options.