Another Bridge

Good morning, my friends. Saturday turned out to be another lovely day to get out and enjoy the weather. We had some errands to run in town, and we wanted to cross over the pedestrian bridge in Sherwood again. And we did a few other things not on the day's agenda. First...the bridge. We crossed it more mindfully this time. Mike, engineer and handyman that he is, was good company for this mindful excursion. He was appreciative of the materials and workmanship. So let's have another more mindful journey, shall we? Or don't. You don't have to come if you don't want to, but you'll miss out.

Of course I took pictures of the few blooming things we saw along the way. These are ubiquitous in this part of the world. They're wild asters...about the size of a dime.

Also, some purple clover.

Approaching the bridge, one first walks up this long ramp. You can see some bicycle skid marks. One assumes these were folks slowing on the downhill as they approached the end of the ramp.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the bridge allows pedestrians, bicyclists, and the like, to cross busy State Hwy 99W. It's one of the main drags leading to the Oregon coast, and so it's a very busy road. On one side is the Sherwood YMCA.

On the other side, Sherwood's brand new high school. Sherwood is a community of about 20,000 people, and so a new high school in such a small community is kind of a big deal. That's an Astroturf practice field in the foreground. There's another football field outside the frame and to the left.

And here is that busy intersection. With such heavy traffic, forcing pedestrians to cross the road here is dangerous, and it also holds up traffic unnecessarily. All those cars idling...lots of pollution too.

Okay, so let's pay attention as we walk across this time. And behave yourselves.

Okay here we go.

Looking up, it looks like this. Where it crosses the roadway there is fencing.

Mike was impressed with all this hardware. The portions that weren't painted were all stainless steel. It will not rust, and it will stay beautifully shiny for years. Despite the cost involved, this project came in below budget and ahead of schedule. Good on you, Sherwood.

And there was artwork every ten yards or so. I'm sorry about the shadows in these images. They couldn't be avoided. This first one is a goldfinch.

This is a scene from the historic part of Sherwood.

Hydrangeas.

This appears to be a country road, and I'm thinking those are cherry trees.

This is a trillium...my favorite wildflower.

Just some unidentified pastoral scene.

I almost missed these next two.

Okay, so that was fun. We turned around and walked back to the car. From there, we decided to stop off at a local nursery. It's time for me to choose my petunia baskets. This is usually a task we save for my birthday (in ten days) and/or Mother's Day. Since we were right there, we decided to stop in. They have hundreds to choose from and it’s hard to decide.

We selected this one. I like those bright red petunias, and I like the speckled ones too.

Mike likes the purple ones. They have a nice fragrance.

Now we're back home, and they're hanging on either side of the greenhouse window. The far ones attract hummingbirds, and it nearly drives the kitties crazy when they're in their catio.

It seemed like a good time to take a little walk around. Now that we were home, we let the kitties out. I caught Sadie taking a luxurious dust bath.

So let's see what's blooming, shall we? The lilac is making more flowers.

The Andromeda is putting on its best show of the season.

The azaleas are starting to open.

This is lithodora. I really need to weed around this. It has weeds growing up from beneath.

Here's another azalea.

The blueberries are starting to bloom. We're expecting sunshine all week next week, so it's a good time for them to bloom.

Check out this peony. I'm thinking another week, and we might have a real flower here.

These are wild strawberries. I dug some up with the heel of my hiking boot some years back. Now, they make a nice ground cover. They produce a small strawberry. The squirrels and the birds love them.

Also, we transplanted these potted marguerite daisies we bought when we went grocery shopping. I've tried different things in this particular barrel. I've had no luck getting any perennials started here, so I've decided to treat it as an annual.

In the greenhouse, the lettuce is sprouting. There is more than I'm showing here, but it's hard to see in these images. I planted five seeds in each container, and there are at least four in each one.

So, it was another day of almost no sewing. The only sewing I did was to make a little more progress on October's block for A Year in the Garden.

Today, I'm going to get outside and do some weeding. After that, I should have plenty of time for sewing. I want to get a start on my head rests. Mike and I have discussed how long and how wide they should be, and I have a plan in my head about how to do this. I'll take pictures as I go, and I'll report back on my progress.

I'm hopeful y'all are getting some nice spring weather wherever you are. That sunshine is good for the soul.