It’s rough getting winter storm warnings in autumn. The kids were out of school yesterday, with inclement weather days chipping away at their summer break before we even get to December.
But ice sure is pretty.
Little bluestem grass encased in iceTwo berries in an ice podIcicles are always funIced dogwood berriesGlad I didn’t cut back the hydrangea
I carried my digital camera in my suitcase to Boston for our Support Driven Leadership Summit last week, and I left it in my room at the Airbnb the entire time. I didn’t do much better with the camera on my phone, but I did capture a couple of memories. The leaves peaked while we were there over Halloween. Late October was a beautiful time to visit.
Paul Revere’s tomb, from a walk with friends along Boston’s Freedom Trail
A walk along the East Promenade in Portland, Maine
After Summit ended, Scott (my colleague) and I had a rental car and wanted to get out of town. We were going to go to Salem, but Scott’s from the other Portland (Oregon), and it was his birthday, and when we realized Portland was only a 2 hour drive, we decided to go for it while we were so close. It was rainy, just like the other Portland.
The garden is is peak bloom right now. Pollinators buzz busily, and the bigger butterflies are starting to find their way to the flowers I planted for them.
CleomeMonarch on milkweedBee coming in for the liatris (bottom center — I didn’t realize it was in the photo)Cabbage white on purple top verbenaMexican sunflowerBumblebee on lavenderShasta daisyMonarch on zinniaEchinaceaDillCleome and Miss Ruby butterfly bush
These are mostly just the close-ups. I published more photos on Andrea’s Gardening Blog if you like photographs of gardens and flowers.
What better way is there to reflect than to go on a hike? The day after Expo ended, Support Driven organizer Scott Tran and I wandered the Portland International Rose Test Garden while we thought about what went well at the conference and what we will need to improve on next year.
What a treat! June is peak rose season in Portland. We were surrounded by hundreds of rose bushes, row upon row down the slope of a hill. Every bush was drenched in blossoms, in white, yellow, peach, orange, red, pink, lavender. The only color not represented was blue, and the blue Hydrangeas made up for that.
Fluffy yellow rosePeach colored roseLavender roses 😍So many rosesMaybe my favorite.Rows of rosesSo pinkI love the backdrop hereMore peach rosesMore lavender rosesA whole hillside of rosesAnd a blue hydrangea
After reflecting quietly among the roses, we hiked through Washington Park to talk and plan. I had no idea there were even more treats in store. I’ve always wanted to go to northern California to see the redwoods, and it turns out there are redwoods right there in Portland. We hiked through a grove of them, and I was awed. I wish our son could have been with me to see them. He loves rain and trees. He’d fit right in in Portland.
It just wouldn’t be April without a photo essay of the status of the garden. Here’s where everything stands right now, after last week’s drenching rains: herb blossoms, shrubs in bloom, and perennials building up their flowers.
Creeping thymeDwarf lilacIndigo salviaYarrowSedumSome kind of asterEchinacea budThymeFlower box with petunias, alyssum, vinca, and marjoram
For the first week of summer, I brought our kids to my parents in Georgia, to the tidal playground of my childhood home. Before we arrived, my dad studied his charts to find the path through “the cut,” a serpentine route we navigated on summer days 20 years ago to get to an uninhabited barrier island south of us.
Riding through marshes on a rising tideMy parents and I wanted the kids to experience that boat ride, and the island at the end.
A beach to ourselves Angel wing Our island Palm tree roots and trunk
Sun bleached palm trunk
Riding in boats through salt marshes
Fallen palm tree on beach
Beach on uninhabited barrier island of Georgia
Marshes from the boat
Big sky, marshes, and a palm tree.
Tree trunk bench
The waters and the islands have changed quite a bit. Barrier islands migrate, and tidal waterways shift. But the ride, and the islands at the end, were as quiet, natural, and beautiful as I remember.
Sun bleached palm trunk
Riding in boats through salt marshes
Fallen palm tree on beach
Beach on uninhabited barrier island of Georgia
Marshes from the boat
Big sky, marshes, and a palm tree.
Tree trunk bench
Butterfly Mind 