May 25th GAYWINGS
I might have missed the blooming of the gaywings altogether, had I not hiked up along Willis Creek to check on the progress of the trailing arbutus seeds. The seed pods, the few that there were of them, were still green and much too small to be ripe. I am determined to collect some when they ripen this year, so that I might try to grow this fragrant spring masterpiece in my own garden.

The trip was not wasted, however, because just up the way from the arbutus I found a good sized patch of fringed polygala (Polygala puacifolia), more often known by the common names gaywings or flowering wintergreen. Both names are appropriate, for the flowers are indeed gaily-winged and the leaves resemble wintergreen leaves.

Blooming in mid May, a loose cluster of one to four rosy purple flowers appear poised for take-off from atop this little low plant. Protruding from the tip of the tube-like body of the flower is tiny pale purple bristle resembling a propeller. Two lateral sepals spread out to form the wings. The leaves, for the most part, are clustered at the top of the erect stems, with a few smaller scale-like leaves along its length. They are dark, stiff, evergreen, and elliptical, like wintergreen leaves, but are more olive in color and lack the fragrance and flavor of wintergreen as well.

May 29th PICNIC TABLE
The first big holiday weekend of the season is upon us, ushering in the summer. And it is hot. We celebrated by bringing the picnic table outdoors, thus completing our annual moving outdoors project begun in mid-April. Actually we have two tables out in the garden already, along with a handy well-placed stump or two at the hearth, so we move the picnic table outside in the summer mostly for when we have guests and also to make the indoors a little more roomy. We began the habit of bringing the table outside a few years back when it needed a coat of stain.

This picnic table we built back in 1984 when we first bought the property, even before we built our house. After taking measurements in parks throughout the area, we had our design. We cut the legs and supports from hemlock trunks and branches. The planks for the table and bench tops we had to buy. At the local lumber company we learned that oddly enough one by fours cost twice as much as two by fours (they are more finished), and neither measures an inch or two or four in either direction. I was a little skeptical about paying twice as much for half as much, but we bought the one by fours anyway. At home we put all the pieces together and lo and behold it was a table for midgets. Small as both Pete and I are, this was still too low. I had forgotten to measure the angles. So we went back to the parks and remeasured. Corrections made, we ended up with a fine table and a pretty good education in construction. The table remained that way (unpainted) for several years. One year we added a coat of stain. Just last year it was in need of paint again and we found an odd color enamel, somewhere between chartreuse and pea soup (Canadian style), in the reject bin at the hardware store for a buck. What a deal. That was our paint. Neon avocado.

Shortly after Pete finished the job, Tracy came to visit.

“Hey, great looking table! Is it new?”

Two weeks later Joe stopped in on his way to Boston.

“Build a new table? It looks great!”

The following week our neighbors came by with some surplus zucchini.

“What a beautiful picnic table! Could you build us one just like it?”

I tried explaining the odd color enamel over an old dark stain. I didn't think we could duplicate it. But they would hear none of it.

“Just like that, whatever it costs.”

So we tried. After stopping at over a dozen hardware and building supply stores and scouring their blooper bins for a similar color paint, we came close. Adding some yellow oil paint and a bit of black, we came still closer. We delivered it a month later with a vase of grasses on the table similar to the one we had on the table the day they fell in love with it. It still looks a little too green to me, but they like it. And we did it for just under thirty bucks; almost half the cost of our own.