A New Direction

Summer 2017

Just a quick update.

Life happened.

Claudette had settled into the front yard quite peacefully.

Two cars where the trailer once lived

And then she wasn't.

The trailer was sold to pay for daughter's term abroad.    To a wonderful young couple from Beaverton, who really understood Aloha trailers and ours was the one they'd been dreaming of.

Entry garden for a fuchsia lover

We have a tenant downstairs who needs a parking spot.   I focused on creating a shady grotto and a nice sunspot for her.  Both daughter's car and hers now sit side by side where the trailer once lived.

The Grotto in the entryway

And then, husband lost his job in April.  Six months of unemployment and weekly fruitless, frustrating job interviews later I brought him here to Lake Washington Institute of Technology where he enrolled in a program to update his credentials in User Assisted Design.  

As a "displaced home maker" I also enrolled in a tuition-free program.  In Environmental Horticulture.  Before my decision, I wandered the grounds, met two lively TAs, found out I would enjoy a spring session of landscape design and learn the Latin names and usage of 380 plants.  Most importantly, Don Marshall, the beloved founder of the program, would be teaching his 40th and final year here.  

I was in!  It was free!  Even the books and supplies!  Week-long passes to the NW Flower and Garden Show in Seattle!  Access to wholesale nurseries!  Field trips to marijuana facilities and the Amazon Spheres.  I embraced it with both arms and legs.

So The Trailer and the Garden?  There's still a Garden.  And there is still a Trailer.  Many different ones.  And outbuildings.  And a shipping-container-sized toolshed.  And lath houses and half-million dollar greenhouses and even an arboretum.  Another shed full of power tools and a moss-covered "she-shed" way in the back.  With a cafe and library steps away.  Because my garden is now a campus.  I'm gardening with experts and learning at a faster clip than I ever have in my life.  

At the beginning of this year my resolution was to broaden my social network.  I didn't know how I was going to do it.

Well, for better or worse, it's done now.   Of course I still have my own garden, minus the trailer.  My focus now is shaping it with my new-found knowledge.  And some help from my friends and expert advisors.

Ciao for now,  Claudette.  Happy Trails and Bon Voyage!