This week I tried for seven days in a row going to the beach. I made it five times for walks and meditation. It was really nice out there.

Rip tides occure where the water flows back into the sea. I spent the week walking barefoot in the ice cold water and enjoying the beach very much. Jase was home on a Tour de France vacation before working over a week+ straight on a new project.

A couple of days ago the police and social services arrived, and maybe the latest group are being evicted. It’s hard to say, but this RV is right on my fence line and if it caught fire for some reason it would burn down my house. All they ever had to do was not park on my fence line. I would also appreciate not being watched but can’t have everything.

My tarp project to stop them watching me while I worked out back, at least a little bit.

The privacy fence here is NOT a shared fenceline, it is 100% on my property.
Trying to block the view of the RV on my fence line so I can go into my backyard.
view out of the back window of my house.
Windows were covered this day, but a lot of times they’re not. Sometimes they’re even open. They also have dogs that roam free. The mustard we planted is coming along.

Garden Before And After Photos

BEFORE: Gazebo had dry rot and was falling down
BEFORE: Neighbor helped us pull the gazebo down but we were left with – what do to with the space? Neighbor also helped us cart the debris to the dump! Good neighbor.
AFTER: still establishing a garden but hopeful
I had really low expectations for being able to garden in this space as it was mostly sand and blackberry vines (volunteer invasive sort)

I bought some raised beds online, but they turned out to be much larger than anticipated. It took a long time to find fill debris and to buy enough soil to fill them up. The one closest to the woods if full of wildflowers and a few onions and leeks. The closer one has carrots, beans and some flowers. My neighbor across the street always grows Nasturtiums each year, and they’re gorgeous and apparently deer / elk proof, so I put a lot of those into the garden this year even though I prefer poppies and my favorite flower of all: Zinnia. The foxgloves grow native here, and I had them in my yard, so I just popped a few over into the garden, and they seem happy.

Sea Holly Project

I’m attempting to grow a type of magnificent thistle called Sea Holly – it’s gorgeous in its color and dimensions / angles of foliage. They are really difficult to start from seed however so gosh, I will keep you updated if I get anything at all to grow.

My kids and I were out over in Ilwaco and a flower bed had them planted, and I was enamored with how they looked. The kids looked up the species online, and I ordered the seeds (white and blue) from eBay.

Next project is I would like to make a hypertufa bird bath with a little fountain in it.

This week I’ve been drinking Chameleon cold brew coffee and barley tea which I actually was able to locate in the local Walmart. It’s a staple in Korea and I enjoyed it a lot when given a juice box full on the plane to Taiwan.

I’m suffering with fatigue and heart issues again, so I am planning on changing my diet – but I always am. I’m rather disheartened by it all. I would like to do the Starch Based diet as laid out by Dr. McDougall but every time I eat a hearty portion of starch I develop flu like symptoms and fall into a deep sleep. Every. Single. Time. It’s absolutely devastating in the morning and destroys my day. I normally have an apple and peanut butter and coffee with a little milk for breakfast. When I was younger I could have oatmeal or pancakes but definitely not now. Last night I had chicken and noodles made from squash along with some peppers, onion and cilantro. It was spicy so put a little sour cream on it. It was very good. I feel quite guilty eating meat however, and I’m unsure of the quality of it – but I might have to adopt a lower carbohydrate diet as carbs are no longer uh’ doing too well for me.

Obligatory Cat Photos

Hime-Kun
Merizaki Wakako-Kun
Hemi and Wookie, Poutou is on my desk in the retirement box. He spends most of his time either pulling at his hair, seeing things that aren’t there and sleeping. Mostly sleeping. He’s an old, old man.