Seattle Garden Show

Nearly every year since the boys were little, my friend Suzie and I go to the annual garden show here in Seattle, armed with our cameras, on the lookout for new ideas to implement in our own gardens. In the background of this photo (above) and at the very end of this blog entry, is a "modern-shed," beautifully done, at 8x14'. Too big for my back garden, but more upscale that the $200 pallet sheds shown this past Thursday in the home section of the New York Times.



One of the displays on the skybridge, outside the show itself.

Part of a vignette that included beautiful driftwood and other spare feeling trees and rocks.

Since this year's theme was "Tell Me a Story," it's no surprise that there were toadstools in abundance throughout the exhibits.


Beautifully executed in wood, the pavers are actually made of wine bottle corks.

More of the same exhibit, in fact its frontispiece.

My favorite nursery was well represented in the show as well.


Part of the "Alice's Gardens" exhibit, from Innovative Landscape Technologies; the other part being "Alice's Labyrinth" created by our favorite Seattle composter, Cedar Grove.

This photo and the one below are both from the "Alice's Garden" side of the exhibit.



A living wall.

A remarkable canvas above this exhibit, but I could not for the life of me capture the second line of the canvas.

Belongs to Mr. Toad.

More from Toad Hill.

A section of an extraordinary exhibit from Christensen's Nursery.

More of that same exhibit.

And a side view of the Modern-Shed that I began this blog entry with. As I write this entry, it is snowing again in Seattle, lightly, but the weather is very cold. Not a gardening weekend, but then not far away either from many weekends in the garden.

"Be the change you want to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghadi

It was an historic week to be in Washington DC. Though most days were jam-packed, we had no meetings until 1pm on Wednesday, and so Larry and I decided to visit the Mall, specifically the north end. It was roughly 22 degrees outside with bright sunshine as we walked for about an hour. Here is some of what we saw.

The Vietnam Memorial, erected in 1982, is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture imaginable. To experience it, you walk down into it, a wall made up of granite panels with the names of all the American soldiers who died in Vietnam.

Larry is over 6' tall, so you tell from this shot how tall the walls are, and what the experience of going down in and then coming back up would be like.

Another shot, as I was walking into the lowest part.

It has been horribly cold and snowy in DC. Usually there are flowers and other gifts left near names on the panels.

From that memorial, you can walk directly to the Lincoln Memorial, which has a different kind of gravity and heft to it.

You cannot see Abraham Lincoln until you are well on your way up the steps. He is seated near the back of the memorial.

Photo is for scale, and I think from this picture that Larry must be well over 6' tall.

On one wall is the Gettysburg Address, and on this wall is Lincoln's second Inaugural Address.

This is part of the Korean War Memorial. Though I'm not crazy about the literal renderings of soldiers, I did like many parts of the memorial very much.

Who remembers that so many died in Korea?

This photo was taken on Friday morning, after I'd had several morning appointments and was taking a break at the National Gallery of Art, looking at a beautiful Impressionism show.

I got back to the hotel to check out before my last 1pm appointment just in time to see the crowds in Egypt go crazy with joy and relief. The world experienced a seismic shift. It is the largest single demonstration of the nonviolent principles that both Ghandi and Dr. King espoused. Add the power of Twitter and Facebook into the mix and you saw, in front of your eyes, a large group of people be the actual change they wanted to see.

"Some things you must always be unable to bear." -- William Faulkner

Whenever I visit Washington DC, I leave time to walk the Mall, usually the south end and often at night. I walk into Maya Lin's exquisitely simple Vietnam Memorial, a series of black slabs that slice down into the earth and back out. It never fails to move me.

Then I walk on over to a site that resonates with voices long past, with symbols of what is painfully best about our country. Eleanor Roosevelt asked Marian Anderson to sing here on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after she was refused by the Daughters of the American Revolution. It is here that Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis and so many others stood looking out at thousands gathered and stretched out past the Reflecting Pool in late August for the "March on Washington," where Dr King made his "I have a dream" speech. It's the same location where several years later I returned to participate in the Poor People's March. And it's where I took my five year old son, to read him Abraham Lincoln's words that are chiseled into the back wall of the memorial. It was difficult to explain to him that Lincoln was assassinated for what he had said and done as president of this country.


When I return next month, the new memorial to honor Dr. King will be nearly finished. It will stretch my walk to the northeast end of the Tidal Basin, near to the FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Monument. Like the Lincoln Memorial, visitors will be able to read what Dr. King said.

Faulkner is right that there are some things that can never be born. For me, a college kid from a small town in northern Iowa, it was and is inconceivable that some elements of our society were so filled with hatred, anger and mental illness that men who spoke to what is best in us were murdered. We are shaken now by what we have seen in Tucson. I have only to remember that my college years included the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. As I listen to Dr. King's words being rebroadcast today, it's clear just how far we still have to go.

Moments of silence.

It is hard to know what to say once the moment of silence is over.

Imagine how senators and members of the House of Representatives must now have to consider their public appearances, especially at home with constituents, where they have usually not had any form of protection.

While we continue to follow the critical condition of Congresswoman Giffords and others still hospitalized, we mourn the deaths of others at the event. The story of the 9 year old girl born on 9/11 who had just been elected to her student council is particularly poignant.


The real question is where do we as a nation go from here in our characterizations of one another?

"I am easily satisfied with the very best." -- Winston Churchill

It is a new year, a concept that appeals quite a bit to me every time it comes around.

We all work with cycles, whether it's the seasons we see reflected in our gardens; or the house-keeping we do each week; or the quarterly or semi-annual maintenance jobs we perform at home and at work. A year is just a longer cycle than others -- and it offers us the chance to start anew, to turn the page, to become a better person. Customarily we think of the end of a year as a chance to make resolutions that will be carried out in the new year.

At the Santa Fe think tank, we were offered the opportunity to divide a circle into slices, each reflecting some part of our life. For me, there were six: personal relationships, creativity, health, books, finances, and business. It was suggested that once a year we review the slices and then set 2-3 specific goals per slice. We'd then try to find the most important goal in each slice and carry it with us as we went through the year, as a reminder of what we were trying to do.

A summary of my most important goals for 2011 looks something like this.

Personal relationships -- lunch or coffee three times a week with a friend or colleague.

Creativity -- concerts once a month and exhibitions twice a month

Health -- train twice a week, and add yoga twice a week when possible.

Books -- finish draft of new book by end of Q1; design concept and sample by end of Q2; locate commercial publisher by end of Q3.

Finances-- develop multiple revenue streams from ASA.

Business -- become a federal contractor by end of Q1.


This last goal is testing my patience and fortitude. In order to become certified by the government, there are a number of online databases you pass through. I'm 80% of the way done, but I must say that I'm still learning codes and acronyms. The learning curve is steep.

Aretha Franklin.

Aretha Franklin has been singing since she was old enough to stand up in her father's church on Sundays. She's been recording since at least 1962, about when this photograph was made. I have loved her and her music all through the years. It's not enough to call her the "Queen of Soul," though she certainly is that. She is also the voice of gospel and often the most credible blues singer since Billie Holliday. She's even pinch hit for Placido Domingo, singing in his key, not her own.

She is the voice who sang Barack Obama into office, richly gathering the hopes of millions of people that cold morning through the song she sang. She was the youngest ever recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors award in 1994. She is the first woman ever elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And she will forever be the waitress from "The Blues Brothers," asking for respect.

I should explain that I try to post videos of her work at least a couple times a week on Facebook. We don't know how much longer she will be with us, or whether we will ever hear that entirely recognizable voice again. She has pancreatic cancer.

In case, you're not on Facebook, here's a link to Aretha singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at the Obama inauguration two years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhc6KVrhj4Q

Happy Christmas, Everyone!

A few Christmas Eve photos of the lights which shone brightly, despite the rain...

A view through our front window last evening....and

for the 32nd year, luminaries shown brightly along the sidewalks of our Ravenna neighborhood, despite the rain.

Our friend Suzie took our holiday photos for the third straight year. She is a lot more fun than Yuen Lui, and we like the photos.

This we decided to be our formal Christmas card photo, since all three of us are smiling and there are no weird twitches.

I like this one of James, whom we are so happy to have home with us for the holidays. Very best wishes from all three of us to you, with hopes for a more peaceful and brighter New Year.