A walk down memory lane

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Martha Stewart’s column completed our lineup in December 1999 when I was collecting features to run in our new Home &Garden section. I was thrilled.

“We got Martha!” I said to my colleagues.

“I hate Martha,” sniffed one.

“Oh, phooey,” I said. “Everyone loves Martha.”

If I only knew.

But I didn’t know and I plunged ahead. Since we started publishing our Home &Garden tab every Thursday in February 2000, it has been challenging plenty of times and difficult once or twice, but mostly it has been lots of fun.

Who wouldn’t want to work on a story every week that calls for a dozen gorgeous photos, that peeks into homes we would never normally see or looks over the fence at gardens to dream about?

Along the way, we’ve learned a lot, made new friends and heard some great stories.

Some stories really stick with you. Our favorite was Mariano Ortiz and his wife, Traci, who we wrote about in May 2004.

Ortiz, a beginner gardener, transformed his plain Arlington yard into a showcase by ignoring the rules and by working until it was too dark to see.

His enthusiasm was contagious. He was modest about his work, but proud of his garden. And his hobby carried him through a rough patch when he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Mariano and his wife are the kind of people you want for your neighbors, who rise above the ordinary by making the world more beautiful even when facing hard times.

Our encounter with the Ortizes left everyone feeling better about the world.

Then there’s Marilyn.

Marilyn was a 30-pound, 30-inch koi. She was creamy yellow with skin the texture of the candy called Circus Peanuts.

Marilyn was our favorite fish.

Andy Wineke met Marilyn at Moorehaven Water Gardens in south Everett while researching a story on koi and koi ponds.

And we almost missed her – she was sold that weekend to a buyer from Vancouver, B.C.

If Marilyn was our favorite fish, our favorite photo shoot took place in my dining room.

H&G writer Debra Prinzing had purchased $300 worth of Fiesta-ware (the only time we ever did that, really!) and dropped it off at my house.

Sally Birks, who designs the pages of H&G, brought the props and Stephanie Cordle brought her camera.

We three girls spent four hours art directing a dozen cups, saucers, bowls and pitchers in my dining room. We never get to art direct, so it was a treat and the photos turned out great. That’s Sally’s green and white napkin under the orange pitcher and my dining table under the napkin.

If the Fiestaware shoot was one of the easiest, one of the hardest was early on when we went to Snohomish to photograph gardening expert Mark Henry’s yard.

Veteran photographer Dan Bates had a hard time, the weather was bad and the cat got out. When Dan came back to the paper, he was tired and frustrated – but the job was done.

Or was it?

By the time he went to work on them, the images were lost. Gone. Adios. Sayonara. No photos. Dan was crushed.

Crushed and bummed out. He had to call Mark Henry, who was none too happy with us, and ask to be allowed to come back. Henry graciously agreed and the results were stunners.

Probably better than the first photos.

What’s up next? Well, the usual stories on home tours and holidays, for gardens and the people who plant them.

It never gets old.