Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Spring Comes Early to the NW Flower and Garden Show
We interrupt this winter to bring you the Northwest Flower and Garden Show! Yes, it’s February – time again to head to the Convention Center where spring is alive and its fragrance fills the air! I did that yesterday and filled my senses with the brilliant reds and yellows in my favorite display gardens.
I loved the Pacific Fire Vine Maple with its beautiful red bark,
next to the yellow twig dogwood which pairs nicely with it.
I was also happy to rest my eyes on this calming white garden, one I might actually pull off myself.
Not that I try to replicate what I see at the Show; the gardens are always too lavish for mere mortals to imitate. But I do get inspired and always come home with a few tips or names of new plants to try. I also go to shop. There are hundreds of vendors selling their wares – plants and seeds and garden tools, art, jewelry, antiques, and books – I can’t say I wasn’t tempted by these.
My best purchase was a new hummingbird feeder which is already out and ready to feed those flying jewels.
So there you have it: another year of the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, one of the largest in the country and still going strong after almost 30 years. Another year of inspiration and a reminder that spring is near: it’s time to return to the garden. So I’ve started my to do list, mundane though it may be: thin out the herbs, transplant the roses, prepare the vegetable bed, and tend to my apple trees in hopes of getting more than the one I got last year. (Yes, you heard that right.)
Still, wasn’t it a beauty? There’s always hope when spring is here.
~ Susanne
Weekly Photo Challenge: Seattle!
For this week’s photo challenge, I will be your tour guide to Seattle, my hometown and one of America’s most beautiful cities. We’ll start with a picture I took from the deck of our cruise ship last fall, as we were about to depart for Alaska. I like the picture for the prominence given to the Space Needle, which in reality no longer dominates our city’s skyline but will always be its symbol to me. Even less prominent is the 1914 Smith Tower seen on the far right, once the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi, now barely a footnote in the city.
You’ll find equally beautiful views from Alki Beach, the birthplace of Seattle,
Including the Olympic Mountains to the west, floating above Puget Sound. A ferry will take you there.
And if you’re here long enough, you’ll likely catch a glimpse of that other local symbol that will only leave you wanting more.
So go ahead. Travel the distance south to Mt. Rainier and get up close and personal.
You’ll be glad you did.
~ Susanne
Synchronized Sleeping Cats
– Tiger and Benji
Good Morning from Benji
~ Susanne
The Rain the Park and Umbrellas
If you’re going to live in the Great Northwest and enjoy life at all during the long and rainy winter months, you’re going to want to invest in a good umbrella. You will likely have the small travel versions stashed here and there about the house or stuck in the trunk of your car for emergencies. You know the ones, with the short stems and uncomfortable handles that will pop up and over unbidden in a windstorm, but I am not talking about those. No, I’m talking about those versions with the nice handles and wide circumferences that you are proud to carry.
Recently my husband brought two new umbrellas home and allowed me to choose first. He knows me well and I happily chose the blue one with the polka dots while he went with the red plaid. We tested them out this morning on a long walk around Gene Coulon Park in Renton. Here Bob is modeling his red plaid umbrella at my request.
I’m sporting mine next to the cold and stony people. They could use one themselves.
The umbrellas had to stay up most of the time though occasionally the rain did stop. Either way, we enjoyed all the usual shapes and colors of Coulon.
~ Susanne
Winter Skies
After a soggy January, the rain finally stopped today and I was happy to go for a walk outside with partially blue skies peeking through the clouds.
While it still remained dry, I ventured out again at sunset to see my favorite winter tree.
Rain is forecasted to return tomorrow and continue on through the weekend. It’s winter in the Northwest after all.
~ Susanne
Rainy Days and Bridges
If you had reason to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on a dreary, rainy Monday as we did today, this would be your view.
I decided to make it into something more sunny and cheerful.
Fortunately these bridges didn’t let us down despite the wind and rain, unlike their predecessor Galloping Gertie, who twisted and crashed into Puget Sound the same fateful year she opened to the public in 1940. I remember her demise whenever we cross the Narrows.
~ Susanne
Historic Williams on Route 66
You heard of it? Maybe not Williams, but surely you’ve heard of Route 66, one of America’s first interstate highways, built in 1926 and running from Santa Monica, California to Chicago, Illinois. We stumbled across this preserved section of the old highway in Williams, Arizona on our way to the Grand Canyon last fall.
We stopped at the local Visitor Center, where we learned about all things Route 66, especially that part which runs through Arizona. Route 66 was called the ‘Mother Road’ in John Steinbeck’s classic book ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ During the Dust Bowl thousands of displaced travelers used the highway to find new lives in California. It was further immortalized by the hit song, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” and even had a television series named after it.
Afterwards we walked the few blocks in town and could have sworn we were back in the fifties. We weren’t looking for a room but if we were you couldn’t beat the rates.
We loved the colorful signs hanging from the old buildings, some reaching high into the sky.
Much of the highway no longer exists, having been replaced by other freeways, and many of the small towns and attractions that were bypassed died a slow death. But Williams survived. And though I wouldn’t have you make a special trip to see it, an hour spent here on your way to the Grand Canyon is entertaining and well worth the detour.
So go ahead. Get your kicks on Route 66.
~ Susanne
Delectable Variations on a Theme
On a recent trip I passed by these gorgeous cookies at the airport. Regretfully, I only photographed the beautiful macarons; I did not eat them.
I will not make that mistake again.
For this week’s photo challenge.
Variations on a Theme
~ Susanne
A Benji Kind of Morning
“Benji, did anyone ever tell you you’re the cutest cat ever?”
“Only you Sue. Before you, I was just one of the forty running wild in that house. Till they caught me and took me to the pound. I didn’t think anyone would ever choose me after they chopped my ear. Did I ever thank you for that?”
“Benji, you thank me everyday by being such a fun kitty. Seriously, you’re the best!”
“Even when I get in trouble like today?”
“Yes, Benji, even today. Even when you’re running wild like a crazy cat. You’re still so darn cute! But it would be nice if you could settle down just a little bit….”
QQQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
“Hey, get off the keyboard!!!”
“Sorry Sue. Didn’t mean to get in your way.”
“Yeah, sure Benji, sure.. But sometimes I don’t know what gets into you.”
“Like I said Sue. I can’t help it. I was raised by the crazy cat lady remember? ”
“Maybe that does have something to do with it Benji.”
“Sue?”
“Yes, Benji.”
“Do you still think I’m the cutest cat ever?”
“No doubt about it, Benji.”
“Thanks Sue.”
~ from the office of Susanne and Benji
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 