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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Finding common flowers at the Oregon coast today. 🌱 Pacific aster, Nootka rose, and crocosmia (I think).

A few blue Pacific asters with yellow centers, in dappled sunlight. Some salal in the background.

A single pink Nootka rose bud, with the rocky shore of the ocean in the background.

A spray of orange crocosmias surrounded by various foliage.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🌱My tomatoes have been plagued with cracking and blossom end rot this year. Hard to keep the watering consistent.😩 But there’s still enough tomatoes (and garlic!) to cook up this vat of spaghetti sauce. It’s a slow-cook type - in another 3 hours I can add the mushrooms and olives. 😄

Large pot full of chunky tomato sauce is cooking on a stove. An old wooden spoon with a chipped top is laying across the pot.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

🌱 It’s been a long time since I’ve grown salpiglossis. Happy to see them again! #Bloomscrolling

Three orangey-red blossoms with yellow throats, grouped together.

Three purple blossoms with yellow throats. Plant is growing in a flower box on a deck.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

🌱 Peas are up in two raised beds. I mixed in a little compost from my compost pile. That means most of the weeds are tomato seedlings!

Two rows of small pea plants. In between the rows are dozens of tomato plant starts.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

The patch of camas in the field is blooming. 🌱

Light purple camas flowers in a field of green grass.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Appreciating the vetch blossoms before I cut down the cover crop. 🌱

Light and dark purple vetch flowers surrounded by cover crop greenery: vetch, rye grass, and clover.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

🌱 Happy to see the Italian Plum trees starting to bloom, which they didn’t do last year. I’m hoping for a few plums, but they may still be too young to set fruit. Also, the warm week tricked some eager strawberries into blooming. 🫤

Closeup of three white plum blossoms in a row opened up near the trunk of the tree.

Closeup of a strawberry plant with two white flowers that shouldn’t really be blooming until May.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

The start of the hearts! 🌱 💕🩷💕

Branches of a bleeding heart plant with the pink blooms just starting. One heart hangs in the middle. Some of the leaves are still unfolding as well.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

🌱 I tried winter sowing for the first time this year and had success with calendulas, daisies, lupines, and hyssop. Hope they’ll transplant well because I’ve got some big empty flower beds to fill!

Several milk jugs filled with plant starts.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

🌱 Tried growing potatoes in bags this year but the plants died in the heat of summer. They’re now attempting a futile comeback 🙄

Two gray fabric bags with healthy, but doomed, bright green potato plants growing in them.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

🌱 The Mesa Red gaillardia is having a lovely fall revival.

Closeup of several orangish-red gaillardia blooms.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

🌱 The dahlias looked pretty after the morning rain. #Flowers

Close-up of a dark magenta-colored dahlia with yellow center, petals dotted with raindrops. A few pink impatiens are below.

Close-up of dark pink dahlia, spiky petals dotted with raindrops. Surrounded by pink impatiens and verbena.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Harvested most of the cherries - so it’s time for cherry pie!

Cherry pie with lattice topping and crimped edges, sitting on plaid tablecloth.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Usually the birds get all the cherries, but this year we get some too! Made a tasty cherry crisp from the first picking.

Line of bright red cherries hanging from a horizontal limb of the cherry tree.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

🌱 Enjoying the color of this yarrow.

Yarrow plants with many bright pink flowers.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

🌱 Last year I had to reestablish all the berries. This 2nd year I’m hopeful for decent crops. Raspberries have spread to fill the row. Strawberries are producing (slugs are consuming just as fast 😒). Black caps are blooming. Blueberry plants aren’t super happy, but I may get a few berries.

A large cluster of green strawberries that are just starting to get ripe.

A wide row of raspberry plants, some escaping the trellis. Raspberries are between bloom and berry formation.

Closeup of small blueberry bush. The small green blueberries just getting started.

Black raspberry plants on a trellis. Many of the canes are attached horizontally. The flowers are just starting to bloom.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

The azaleas and their neighbor rhododendron are blooming their hearts out this year. 🌱

A row of azalea bushes in front of the house, completely covered with dark pink blossoms. A few leaves are peeking out.

Rhododendron covered with purply-pink buds and blooms. Azaleas are lurking in the background.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

The promise of azaleas to come! 🌱

Azalea bush with new leaves and covered with dark pink flower buds.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Not happy with the healthy spring growth on the invasive blackberries, thistles, bindweed, and grass in the garden. Wah! 😫 Here it looks like they are joining forces. 🌱

Mulched ground with various healthy looking pervasive weeds.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

🌱 Two columbines growing in the strawberry beds. Rose Kirigami and blue and white Clementine. When I bought the Clementine, I thought it was just one plant. Bonus! #Bloomscrolling

Columbine growing in the corner of a raised strawberry bed. The plant is covered with deep rose and pink flowers. And surrounded by strawberry plants in bloom.

Blue and white flowers growing up from a clump of greenery in a raised bed that’s mulched with straw. There are strawberry plants around the columbine.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

The Bleeding Hearts are now in full bloom. 🌱 #bloomscrolling

A stem full of pink, heart-shaped flowers in a row.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

🌱 Happy to see the violets blooming! Planted last year and survived a close shave.

Many small purple flowers blooming amidst a clump of greenery.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Planted a tray of flower seeds on Sunday, then gave them an accidental steam bath.🫣 Hyssop seeds said, “Yeah, baby!” and started coming up on Monday.🌱 Hope the other seeds are as forgiving!

Tiny sprouts of hyssop coming up in seed-starting trays.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

🌱 A little more is happening around the place: daphne is finally blooming (wish I could attach the scent), received my bare-root Hood 🍓 strawberries, there’s new growth on the raspberries planted last year, and the rhubarb has appeared!

Groups of pinkish-purplish blooming daphne flowers amidst the green leaves.

A bag filled with bark mulch and barely recognizable strawberry plants.

Looking down from the top at new growth at the base of a raspberry plant.

A dark pink nub of rhubarb plant emerging from the otherwise bare dirt.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Here are the daffodils that are up: a neat row of yellow daffodils in their tidy beds, with a few yellow and orange blooms for variation; a solitary daffodil that’s gone off to live amongst the blackberries; and the rebel bloom that refuses to conform!

Two daffodil flowers with yellow outer petals and orange inner petals.

A single daffodil plant with surrounding blackberry cane. It has multiple all-yellow flowers.

Daffodil flower that has white, yellow, and orangey petals, but not always the right size, shape, or place. Probably a double or triple flower.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Not even the Daphne is blooming here yet. 🙁 So here’s a pretty peony from the past.🌱

Peony in full bloom with pink outer petals and pale yellow inner petals.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Yesterday I went to Territorial Seed, shopping list in hand. I usually buy mostly veg seeds, but this year I want to try growing more flowers from seed. 🌱

Shopping list surrounded by colorful vegetable and flower seed packets.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

I’ve made two pies in the last three days. A French Silk pie with a hazelnut cookie crust and a lemon meringue pie. I’m obv not a great pie decorator, but they tasted good!

Pie topped with browned fluffy meringue. The peaks in the meringue are curled and darker brown. The pie crust is crimped.

Pie in glass pie plate. A little of the chocolate pie is visible underneath the whipped cream topping. There are chocolate curls and heart shaped candies decorating the top for St. Valentine’s Day.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Thanks to a dry spell, I’m two steps closer to having the new strawberry 🍓 beds set up. Because gophers decided to move into the garden last year, I figured I would spend some time and money adding wire to the bottom of the beds to discourage them (and the moles). Will it work? 🌱

Garden area, roughly 15 ft by 10 ft, covered with pieces of cardboard.

The same cardboard-covered area, now with wooden raised-bed frames installed in a contiguous pattern.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

🌱 A nice #SundayYellow sunflower (and friend) from a past year.

Closeup of a yellow sunflower with a yellow center. A small light-colored spider is sitting at the bottom edge of the center.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

🌱 I’m off from work today. That deserves some cheerful poppies! Happy Friday!

Three large bright-yellow poppies blooming on one plant. Several buds are nodding downwards, waiting their turn.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

🌱 Starting to prepare this area for some strawberry beds. 🍓Hoping for a few dry weekends. I swear this ground is half clay and half river rock. 😕

Sixteen square feet of bare dirt and small rocks surrounded on two sides by pole and wire garden fence. The ground is worked up.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

A tiny surprise on my yarrow plant!

Tiny cluster of light purple yarrow flowers surrounded by feathery leaves.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

This is from a few years ago when the wisteria was eager to reproduce.

Wisteria vine with no leaves, but many long green teardrop-shaped seed pods hanging down like ornaments.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Had time and good weather to do some garden cleanup this weekend. I’m in the middle of revamping the garden, so the raised beds in the middle are serving as temporary compost piles. Still so much to do! 🌱

View of vegetable garden area. Mostly bare ground, but also shows a tomato cage with mostly dead tomato plant, a strip covered with bark mulch, wooden raised beds filled with garden debris and a strip of grass at the edge. There are also hoses waiting to be removed, a black trash can, and various vegetables scattered around.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Something my mother dredged up from her stacks: 50 year old Consumer Reports reviewing four “compact” cars. The winner? The Chrysler Duster. 🤨

Line drawing of mid-70s style car. Text says Duster et al.

Line drawing of mid-70s style car. Text says Maverick.

Line drawing of mid-70s style car. Text says Hornet.

Line drawing of mid-70s style car. Text says Nova.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

🌱 I’ve brought the shrimp plants in for the winter. For about a month it’s snap!snap! snap! as they spit out seeds. That snap is pretty powerful - I picked up a seed today that was five feet away from the plant!

Picture looking down at two shrimp plants with sparse foliage, but many orangey red shrimp. In the foreground there is a closeup of two shrimps. They seem a little smug about their seed-spitting prowess.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

I usually don’t see fuchsia seed pods before the birds get them! 🌱

Two bright pink fuchsia flowers hanging down from the plant. Hanging between them is a small seed pod, which is a smooth shiny dark pink capsule.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

🌱 Facing at least ten gloomy days of rainy weather ahead, I’m thinking back to last month and the pretty flowers at a hotel in Hood River, OR.

Flowerbed with cheerful pink dahlias with a yellow center, dark red ones above them. Lighter and darker orange marigolds are on the left side. The flowerbed is built up against a rock wall so it has a vertical dimension.

Flowerbed rising vertically against a stone wall, which is in the background. There are orange and multicolor marigolds with a single dark pink zinnia among them on the left side. Light pink and white zinnias, (I think) on the right side, with a stream of white alyssum flowing through horizontally through the middle. There are also large rocks amongst the flowers.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

The last rose of the year. I don’t think the bud will have time to open.

Close-up of purplish-pink rose in full bloom with foliage around it. A small bud appears behind it.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

Baking crackers today. Cheese crackers - yum! Graham crackers - meh.

Six rectangular golden-yellow cheese crackers, poked with holes.

Messy stack of light-brown rectangular graham crackers.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

🌱🎃👻 My garden sits in a field. I work there alone, my only company the dry whispers of dead grass. It has a sturdy gate, unmoved by wind or gravity. But one day as I approached the gate, hands full with a heavy load, the gate opened itself wide, timed exactly to my steps. To invite me in.

Happy Halloween! Yes - this spooky garden event really happened.
The picture looks into a garden that is surrounded by a high pole and wire fence and is in a field. The metal wire gate is open, inviting you in as well! The inside of the garden is a fright, full of end-of-season dead or dying plants and unfinished projects. A few orange pumpkins can be seen. Outside of the gate is dead grass all around with a bit of green showing through. A mostly dead walnut tree lurks in the background. Overhead are dramatic clouds in a mix of white to dark gray, highlighted by sunlight.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

🌱 Just harvested all my wee pumpkins. All of them adorable, if I do say so myself!

Twelve orange mini-pumpkins of various sizes sitting in a group on the weathered wood deck.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

It’s going to freeze tonight and this little strawberry runner thinks it’s the perfect time to bloom! 🥶🌱

Strawberry plant in a pot on the deck with a runner hanging over the side. The runner has two blooms and a tiny strawberry on it.

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

🌱 Gophers moved in this summer. ☹️ They rampaged through the garden, digging up squash and corn plants, and killing the tomatillos. 😡 But they came in useful today when I needed some fill dirt for the fence line. Their little mounds got repurposed!

Three mounds of dirt in a grass field, compliments of the gophers.

Mounds of relocated dirt along a wire fence, thanks to the gophers!

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Slow_to_Pique @slowtopique.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

Gophers moved in this summer. They rampaged through the garden, dug up squash and corn plants, and killed the tomatillos outright. 😡 But today they came in handy because when I needed a little fill dirt for the fence line, I repurposed their mounds!

Three dirt mounds in a row in a grass field, compliments of the gophers.

Mounds of dirt along a wire fence line, compliments of the gophers!

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