I was trying to squeeze the last little bit of summer in today and thought to take the five mile loop through Point Defiance Park. On my way in I noticed the amazing display in the rose garden. So I looked around, parked and took a stroll. It is mostly roses, of course, but there were a fair number of dahlias in bloom and other plants as well.
Seeing a blue poppy has been on my life list and yesterday I finally saw one when I took dear daughter and her friend to the Weyerhaeuser Rhododendron Gardens in Federal Way. We actually went to see the Rhododendrons and while there were many still in bloom I feel like we missed the peak viewing by a couple of weeks. We were having a grandtime walking the trails and were admiring a small pond when a pleasant woman asked if we had seen the blue poppies. Ummm, no, guess we missed that section of trail. Thank you lady! The poppies are taller than I expected and there was some space between the stalks. They were just a little translucent and there was a bit of rain on some of the petals. The photos below feature the blue poppies, but include some other flowers and some Hilltop Artist glass work that is currently on display.
I needed a change of scenery and the Skagit Tulip Festival is in progress, so off I went. It was a little early for the full effect, but the daffodils are in full bloom. In search for actually tulips, I stopped at Tulip Town in Mt. Vernon. For $5 per person, there is easy parking, a wonderful display building with background paintings of Holland, a great outside display with a windmill and huge kites and tulip fields in bloom. There is also the possibility of a tractor pull.
I also snapped a photo of a field of daffodils which isn’t in Tulip Town.
Luminasia was the special state exhibit for the Washington State this year and the Luminasia exhibit extends until October 13th on the weekends (Friday – Sunday). It is a glorious walk through exhibit from Zigong, China, that is made up of 50,000 lights and fabric. It took nine months to create and build.
The Bellevue Botanical Garden (1200 Main Street, Bellevue) is really lovely and has the added bonus of being free. I explored some of the gardens today and it was tranquil and smelled good. I strolled through various gardens with my favorites being the kitchen garden and the border garden. I also wanted to see the ravine and suspension bridge, but I turned right instead of left. Oh well, next time! There is some significant construction going on and new delights are promised for next year. I’m already looking forward to visiting again! There website is here.
A local coalition of Tacoma Urban Landscaping, Downtown On the go, Coalition for Active Transportation, 35 Ways to Safer Streets, The Grand Cinema and the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council organized the yarn bombing on the chain-link fence on St. Helens Avenue at 6th.An article about the project can be found on the News Tribune Blog. In addition to the knitted flowers, there were real flowers, banners and the word Spring in fabric. While I was checking out the art, I was asked for money by a guy just out of jail with a DUI, I visited with two legit looking young men scoping out location for a movie and visited briefly with the man moving the Ferrari that was in his shop.
Van Lierop Bulb Farm at 13407 80th St EÂ Â Puyallup, WA 98372 is one of two bulb farmers left in the Puyallup Valley and it is closing its door on May 15, 2013. I stopped in today and it made me kind of sad because the store seemed rather empty. The fields are full of daffodils poised for blooming.
I really love the FlowerHouse at 618 South 15th Street (and South ‘G’ Street)! It is a temporary photographic art instillation by Duncan Price and funded through a grant from the Tacoma Artists Initiative Program (TAIP). Each window in this 1907, three story house (apartments?) has a full paned photography of a flower which is back-lighted.
http://tacomaarts.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/botanicals-are-ablaze-in-flowerhouse-on-the-hilltop/
http://www.duncanpricephotography.com/
 
 
Driving back from an estate sale, dear husband and I stopped at the seasonal produce stand at the northwest corner of South 72nd and Waller Road where Pipeline Road East cuts through at a diagonal. They had a bunch of fresh, local fruits and vegetables and some that they brought in like pineapples. Oh, and flowers, those too. We came away with wonderful raspberries and tomatoes and green beans and walla walla sweet onions. We also treated ourselves to old fashioned sodas (black cherry for him, blood orange for me).
I’ve been wanting to go to the Sequim Lavender Festival for years, but it seems like I always have had a conflict. But this year was looking good. Except that we left rather late and traffic into Sequim was awful and I we ran out of time. The festival downtown was great with more lavender stuff then I’ve seen for a long time. Next year I’ll go earlier in the day and right to the farms. Live and learn.
http://lavenderfestival.com/component/content/article/45-15thfestival
