70 BIRTHDAYS AND SPRING JOY

Road to Hurricane Ridge
70th birthday portrait by Nathan
With all the peculiarities of life and time now, I’d planned to ignore my 70th birthday May 4 — and Nathan’s 40th on May 5.. I was going to celebrate when ‘it’s all over…’

Nathan’s time here changed my mind…with so much to celebrate, I’m cherishing every day. Yesterday gave Nathan and me the amazement of snowbanks on top of Hurricane Ridge…clear road and snow boundaries higher and higher as we climbed in the car. We have a way of saying ‘another perfect day’ which was our message at the end of hospital days…and here we are, another perfect day indeed.   Another gift:  radiation going steadily,  I am 25% through because my treatment sequence has been lowered from 36 days to 28 days.

Garden notes: daffodils crisp and fragrant still, few withered. I’m given the birthday joy of seeing hundreds of daffodils from March and April remaining hale on the first week in May. Yes, it has been cold…but the flowering goes on, and my happiness goes on with it. A few daffodils are still opening..
‘Sweetness’ and ‘High Society.’ My nursery purchase today: Bobbex deer repellent — one got into the fence last night and munched the pansies, leading to this verse:

Out there where the tulips grow

I see a fine and well-fed doe.

I wave my arms to see her run,

Because I haven’t got a gun.

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SEVEN HUMMINGBIRDS WITH A MOUNTAIN BEAVER

Surprising on this Easter Morning, a mountain beaver emerged from the ravine and set about methodically collecting big dandelions from the grassy drainfield. He worked steadily, yanking and piling, carrying the plants firmly as he returned to his…bower?
Burrow? I’ve not seen one here for the last 6 years, and here he lives now. This is an ancient member of the rodent clan, about the size of a small cat, an herbivore.  Native here, they are generally shy forest or edge-forest dwellers found only in the coastal  Northwest into BC, Washington, Oregon and northern California.  I’ve no idea whether ‘he’ is appropriate–this could be female –perhaps George Pinyuh, retired WSU horticulturalist and my boss and teacher during years of work, would know –he first showed me the photos of one he’d seen in Bellevue,  hiding in a window well.   Look up this intriguing creature under Aplodontia rufa.

Obviously,  I did not take this photo.  My visitor was nearly hidden by long grass as he gathered dandelions.

The seven hummingbirds, competing for 8 feeder ports,  ignored the excitement.

Moving forward:  My path now includes ongoing radiation and chemotherapy,  daily for seven weeks.  I started last week,  and have overcome my startled feeling about the machine,  a Varian TrueBeam.  TrueBeam,  I admit,  sounds like an elf in Tolkien  — however, this is the size of a medium auto,  brilliant white,  and new to Olympic Cancer Center as of April 12.  One of only 56 in the world,  it works with precision, aiming at the target area with more accuracy than previous iterations of this machine.   I’m amazed that it has fetched up in Sequim where it can help my healing.

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HUMMINGBIRD NESTERS

Living here, with sparkles of other living beings all around me, I’ve been most enchanted this week by the hummingbirds. Nights stay cold, into the 30s, and I wonder (as always) where they tuck in for nights. A group of about five, 2 males and 3 females, visits the feeders from dawn to dark.
Watching them slurp nectar, a sort of scoop-up-with-the-tongue action, pleases me…sometimes they stop and wipe their beaks against the fence after drinking.

The most fun comes from observing the females pluck little bits of cattail fluff out of the mesh bag. I’d read that they use it for lining nests. For the last three years, I’ve hung the bag and watched. They come immediately, and often —picking up two beaksful and flying off toward the western quadrant of the woods to the biggest Douglas firs. I have never seen a hummingbird nest here — they are in the taller reaches of the trees — but I get to watch the females gathering nest linings. The males, absorbed in chasing each other, ignore the busy females. What fun.

A week of appointments and planning –hooray, as of Monday this week the drain and I have parted company. After 11.5 weeks I am not sorry to be without it, and I thank Dr Hart for zzzippping it out so efficiently. A repaired leak –thankfully.
Radiation starts, probably, next week –Nathan will arrive about the time it does and tow me to appointments, at least the first 5. The clinic has real flowers in their vases (always a good sign) and caring staff who want to help with whatever happens. On we go. Thank you again for your words and thoughts.

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FIVE HUNDRED CRANES

Bits of paper, pieces of hope —Lee Cooper sent 500 peace cranes today, gathered from those she and Bill have folded over time…their home holds, always, a basket of cranes in progress. Some of the cranes sparkle, some show Christmas images, many simply hold their wings open in blessing. I feel blessed, I am blessed…and Lee says they now begin to fold the other 500. I started a basket for cranes when my sister was here; she can fold them accurately and quickly, but my basket holds only 6. Seeing the cranes in the window, against firs….cranes flying in rain, cranes flying in fog.

Tomorrow I’ll meet the radiologist and set out on the next part of the journey. I feel strong and strangely calm…that is, of course, because it hasn’t started yet. Thank all of you for being yourselves, and thanks to Lee and Bill for the winged hope.

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FRAGRANCE ABUNDANTLY

If you happen to walk along Broadway in front of Swedish Hospital (the main building), you may be diverted as I was yesterday by plants settled into challenging locations –all seem to have been installed about 15-20 years ago.  Care now consists of regular sweeping of the asphalt beneath the plantings.  The most astonishing –three large Daphne (Daphne odora, probably ‘Aureomarginata’) smothered in hundreds of blooms, thick enough that branches were nearly invisible. This plant, grown carefully, tucked into light shade at my old Seattle garden, was stuffed into concrete planters in roaring full sun. The fragrance of citrus, jasmine, honey –better than any perfume –made me wonder about picking some to make a lei before my appointments.
Grow this if you can, admire it if you don’t. I did not pluck a one. My mother, observing me when I lived in Baltimore for graduate school, saw that I would walk the alleys and come home with bouquets, saying ‘they hung out over the fences.’ She said ‘they’ll get you for pretty larceny.’ Perhaps that led to my joy in sharing flowers.
Dr. Michael Hart, the surgeon, says ‘every tube you lose is good news’ and I’m down to one left –the PCCc line is gone, oh boy. Appointments to set up radiology on April 5;
I plan to be just one more busy patient, setting the diagnosis aside and thinking of each day being closer to completing necessary treatments. THanks to all, Mary

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