We had a great day today. Mostly clear skies, soft breezes, no rain -- it was cold (33 degrees Fahrenheit) at first but it warmed up.

First, I decided it would be the perfect day to air the bedding. So I did. Hung everything -- pillows, comforters, linens, wool mattress pad -- on the line first thing. Saturday's rain had settled the dust in the driveway, so the only thing that blew through the bedding was cold, clear mountain air. Mmmmmmm.

Then I decided to take advantage of serendipity and reclaim some forest. When I arrived home this month, Puget Sound Energy guys were up here with a backhoe, bulldozer and front-end loader, tearing up the old road up from the power lines that the Forest Service had blocked off a few years ago. They were laying plastic conduit from the nearest tower to the USWest phone exchange in the office here for some cockamamie scheme to have the power lines call up the repair office and let them know a line is broken. Whatever. The upshot is that I won't know when Gert and Mary are out of power any more.

In any case, when they were finished, they had restored the berms at either end of the road, replaced the really big rocks in an arrangement that is just as effective in stopping traffic but is also more aesthetically pleasing to me. They left the roadway in between level with an inch or more of loose soil on top.

Oh, did we like that. What a perfect opportunity to replant a wide swathe of wildflowers and edibles. Very carefully, I cut off the beargrass blossom stalks so the seeds wouldn't shake out and carried them to the bareness and swung them wide scattering seeds all over. Then, I addressed my overgrown rockeries. I dug up three kinds of penstemmon and divided them. I dug up aquilegia, erigeron, yellow violets, arnica montana, phlox, foxglove and silver leaf. I divided everything and replanted the rockery and then took the extra and put it in beside the rocks, on the berm and around the firepit seating. Then I took some of the wild strawberry and raspberry runners and stuck them in here and there.

Then I brought in the bedding, made the bed and took my shower. Time to slide between the sheets. Tomorrow, I'm going to move a Nootka Rose. The hole this side of the berm is slanted the wrong way and will hold water during snowmelt, so I'll divide the marsh marigolds and monkeyflowers and plant them where the ground will stay most moist the longest.

Pleasant dreams....

[ by J. Higgins-Rosebrook ]