In Memory

In memory of those we love, miss and are thinking of today.
We are not there, cannot leave flowers
beside those places you lay last
but today, as always
you have living residence in our hearts.

Lakewold Gardens

Yesterday I walked Lakewold Gardens in Lakewood, WA for the first time. It was a beautiful day and there were only a few people spread throughout the vast grounds. Spending time on pathways filled with old established Rhododendrons was my goal, and proved to be a real treat.

What I didn't expect was how lovely all the grounds would be, nor that the show stealer, on this day, would be something entirely different than the rhodys.

As you can see there were many fun things in bloom.

And fun places to get lost in thought.

And then I caught sight of the back of the house,

and the porch running the length of it, 

draped in wisteria blooms. 

A couple of other women and I gathered under the arbor 

for a time in stunned silence. 

Magic. One of life's perfect moments.

Lakewold Gardens is a wonderful place to be outdoors, 

take in some lovely scents 

and enjoy all the peaceful garden nooks, brooks and vistas. 

The house and 10 acre grounds sitting beside Gravelly Lake have been the site of many weddings and events through the years. Rather than try and fill you in on all the interesting history of Lakewold, I'm including links below to the garden, it's history and The Garden Shop.

Another GREAT reason for visiting Lakewold Gardens is The Garden Shop which sits just to the right as you enter the grounds. I've enjoyed many a cup of tea and conversation with Vickie, the proprietor, over the years, while poking through the wonderful selection of unusual plants and tools available there. It was fun to see her again yesterday. I left with a Diggit 2 garden tool for weeding. It looks a bit like a fern trowel with serrated edges, and a serious grip for those of us whose hands aren't as good at grasping as they used to be.

I'll leave you with just one more view of those Wisteria flowers. They followed me home and filled my dreams last night. Truly. Take a look at the links below and see if the magic of a digital stroll through Lakewold doesn't do the same for you. There is an interesting film short in the history section worth watching. 

Sorry for the over imaged post. Just be thankful I resisted posting all the pictures I made there. Yikes. Be sure and click on them for a bit larger view if so inclined.

Lakewold Gardens

Lakewold Gardens History

The Garden Shop

Spring Staples

Each of our locales has a favorite, or many, harbinger(s) visually trumpeting the arrival of spring. In the Northwest of WA, one of my favorites is the Rhododendron. Their varieties cover a broad span of colors and sizes. Fortunately they remain popular among growers, gardeners, parks and on. Some of my favorite rhodys have been seen at old homestead sites, huge and drenched in color. Many of those growing on our property, decades ago, were whacked back in a CA raised, pruning frenzy. I learned the hard way that CA gardening practices didn't translate cross-region. 

And yet, rhodys are quite forgiving. There were two growing right behind our house for many years that became so big, without annual pruning they would overlap a portion of the roof. As those rhodys and I aged together, their annual haircuts became more of a project than I could accomplish. Two years ago I cut them down to the ground, knowing without anything more than roots they would be goners. 

Another lesson learned. If determined enough a rhody can, and in this case did, raise itself from the dead. Or mostly dead. (Hat tip to "The Princess Bride) As I type, there are four flowers forming on that bush which now stands about two feet tall. Mostly leafless and misshapen, none-the-less it has mustered up it's strength, with no assistance from me, and is determined to bloom. Moxie, that. "Most" of the rhodys I so severely pruned all those decades ago, returned as well. However they were pruned to return, CA methodology notwithstanding, by leaving leaf clusters, etc. 

It gives me a glad heart to see the power of plant life. Today I have taken the day off and am going for a walk through Lakewold Gardens in Lakewood, WA to surround the camera and I with rhodys for a time. They are one of my favorite spring staples. Hope you find a moment or two in the day for a bit of color as well.

(The images above were taken of rhodys growing beside an older home in Gig Harbor, WA.) 

Another Sunday Dawning

I thought you might be interested in seeing what kind of activity can occur on the Puget Sound early on a Sunday morning. The image was taken two weeks ago from the moorage area in the Town of Manchester with the City of Seattle showing in the background.

I have posted photos taken from this same location at other times. Though the Seattle skyline doesn't change noticeably, everything else does; light, wildlife, ships, people, weather and mood. Turning sharply to my right was another tanker, which I will post later. 

There is something quite eerie about standing on a small floating marina walkway taking photos of moving ships which appear as large or larger than the skyline in the distance. Unsettling. It seems I never get used to it. If in search of a way to feel quite small, this spot will do it. 

Another Sunday dawning at Manchester is only hours away. 

Almost

Almost Saturday...

Nesting time.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

To you Dear Mothers

and the women who step up when you can't.

Your loving ways

leave soul prints

that live for generations.

Waking Up

Boats are afloat

the sun is shining 

and everyone I pass is smiling.

We in the northwest 

are warming up

and waking up!