Daniel J. Hinkley

plantsman – author · speaker · horticultural consultant

Summer 2022

Order Plants To Go or Visit by Appointment

Order plants online for pick up at Windcliff or make an appointment to shop the nursery onsite

  • Journal
  • Events
    • Lectures
  • Plants
    • Windcliff Plants
    • Windcliff Plants To Go
    • Monrovia Collection
  • Books
    • Recommended Reading
  • Services
    • Speaking
  • About
    • Press & Publications
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Essays / Anybody Want a Peanut?

Anybody Want a Peanut?

August 11, 2009 By Daniel J. Hinkley

IMG_7447Inconceivable, in a Princess Bride sort of way.

I am just back from a three day hike into the Olympics to escape the heat. Escape the heat in the Pacific Northwest, he says? Preposterous. “Inconceivable,” as performed, spitting in indignation by Vizzini (Wally Shawn) in the movie ‘Princess Bride.’

Vizzini: Inconceivable!
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

With three dear friends, I hiked the Seven Lakes Basin loop, a 25 mile round-about to the High Divide and back again to the Sol Duc River valley. Two of us, along with my partner Robert, had participated in the first Indianola Triathalon on the day prior. At 6 a.m. the following morning, I was off to damage my knees further still.

Westley: A few more steps and we’ll be safe in the fire swamp.
Buttercup: We’ll never survive!
Westley: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.

IMG_1519It was splendid. I wish I could transport all of you to the moments, of high voltage expanses of Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja spp.), Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus), Delphinium(elatum), Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum), Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) as well as that cross-continental, endearing tart known as Trautvetteria caroliniensis. I will not deceive you. It was steep and hot and my muscles were weary from the beginning. We worked hard for the privilege.

Buttercup: You mock my pain!
Westley: Life is pain! Anyone who says differently is selling something.

Ok, so the timing was not perfect. The heat wave brought on a tsunami of insects. This was not a minor annoyance, which I generally consider such things, but a full frontal, arthropodic assault. As it developed, contrary to how I wish to express my respect for living things, I became quite joyful in dispatching mosquitoes and biting flies.

Inigo Montoya: You seem a decent fellow… I hate to kill you.
Westley: You seem a decent fellow… I hate to die

We ate very well as all of us like to eat very well. Collectively we suffered the weight of onions and garlic, eggplant and cabbage, in order to savor a high altitude cookoff. The effort of the hike, of course, made our meals better still. We even had a glass of merlot with our spaghetti.

A herd of Roosevelt Elk felt the heat as we did, which was both gratifying as well as fascinating. Unfortunately, not captured in this video clip was the play between the calves of this mammalian aggregation and a feisty raven which landed nearby.

We arrived home on the evening of the hottest day on record in the Puget Sound. Robert had ready cheeseburgers and fries and double chocolate shakes after a collective dip in the Sound to cool and refresh. I felt very pampered.

Buttercup: Farm boy… fetch me that pitcher.
Westley: As you wish.

Later, I discovered that the fruit laden vines of our tomatoes in our vegetable garden had been damaged by the heat.

I must repeat this….. After a collective dip in the Sound to cool (48F) and refresh, I discovered the fruit laden vines of our tomatoes in our potager had been damaged by the heat.

In the Pacific Northwest? I cannot rest. This is so weird. It is what we feared! Too hot for tomatoes? And even potatoes!

Inigo Montoya: You have a great gift for rhyme.
Fezzik: Yes, yes, some of the time.
Vizzini: Enough of that.
Inigo Montoya: Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?
Fezzik: If there are, we all be dead.
Vizzini: No more rhyming now, I mean it.
Fezzik: Anybody want a peanut?

Filed Under: Essays

Previous post: A Tree, Farewell
Next post: Shards of Spring: Fragments of my Imagination

Subscribe

Get Dan's Journal posts via email.

Journal Categories

  • Essays (54)
  • Expeditions (32)
  • Heronswood (7)
  • Plants (16)
  • Videos (4)
  • Windcliff (12)

Journal Archives

Featured Journal Post

Northern Vietnam, March 2016

I had the pleasure and luxury this spring to travel to Vietnam with my colleague Scott McMahan and … Read More

Featured Plant Portrait

Bark-a-lounger Botanists

June 2020 Video Garden Tours

Enjoy virtual garden tours with Dan and Assistant Director Ross Bayton. See what is blooming at … Read More

More Plant Portraits

Daniel J. Hinkley

Teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, nurseryman, naturalist, gardener.
Above all, he is committed to solid and sustainable horticultural practices, above average garden plants, landscapes of distinction and raising the collective awareness of the diversity of plant life on Earth as well as the magic and mysteries of our natural world. Learn more…

Copyright © 2023 Daniel J. Hinkley, Heronmedia · Site by LND · Hosting by BuzzBuzz