The Japanese Gardens and SAAM--Seattle Asian Art Museum

Two highlights of the trip were visits to the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM), and to the Japanese Gardens in Washington Park.

The Asian Art Museum was simply stunning. They had a collection of fabulous artifacts that rivaled more famous contemporaries. No pics from the Museum, as they weren't allowed. Some of the exhibits that were of great interest to both J and I were: "Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective", "Pattern Richness in Modern Japanese Textiles", and "Discovering Buddhist Are--Seeking the Sublime".

As always, click on the pics to enlarge them...

These pics are all from the Japanese Gardens in the Washington Park Arboretum. The gardens are a beautiful 3.5 acres park designed in 1960. It was much larger than the city-block sized one in Portland, Oregon, and we had a great time touring them. The gardens gave me a lot of ideas for retro-fitting my much-in-need-of-work gardens!

The greenhouse/conservatory was remarkable, and there were many, many beautiful orchids! I took way too many pics...these are a few of our favorites.

And yes, there were fish! Lots of them. I took about 30 pics of them, there were so many different colors. There was a feeding frenzy, as there were a couple of home-schooled kids and their moms there feeding something to the fish. I had a good laugh.

The pic with J under the flower was to show the scale of that huge blossom! It was amazing.

Chris & Jeff Hit the Pacific Northwest!

So, J & I have been back safely in little ol' Vermont for 3 days now--and I'm already being pestered for blogging and pics! I took over 1,020 e-pics, and culled them down to a manageable 950+. I won't bore you with all of them, but I'll try to give you a time line of the trip with some highlighted pics.

Organizing the pics was the clog in the process of getting something online. We usually cull whilst enroute, but I wasn't confident with the detail quality with such a small viewing screen on the digital camera, and preferred to wait until we returned home. Surprisingly, the trusty old Sony Cyber-shot 3.2 mp still takes great pics, although I'm itchin' for a new one....

Now the pics are all categorized into folders with the days and places we went--let the blogging begin!

Part I: Seattle
Neither J nor I had been to Seattle or Victoria before this trip, and our trip to Portland, Oregon last November got us excited to venture farther north. A couple of travel shows highlighting Seattle, and Victoria and Vancouver (the city in British Columbia, not the island off the mainland of Washington state, nor the city in Washington state) got us eager to fly off to the PacNW.

Numerous contacts on Ravelry.com in Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver (city) offered dozens of tips regarding places to visit, things to do, and of course, LYS (that's Local Yarn Shops to non-knitters) and teashops to spend money at!

Most of you know that I suffer from migraines--and Seattle area contacts assured me that there would be some rain and clouds. Unfortunately for me, it was sunny almost everyday on the trip, and only one or two cloudy days. Boo hoo.

The weather was mostly cool though--mid-60's to low 70s. We brought shorts, but didn't wear them once. We rented a car (J drove), and the trip from the Sea-Tac airport into and through downtown Seattle was pretty cool, I must say! Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners play baseball) and Qwest Field (where the Seahawks play football) where very close to the main highway we were on. As a sports fan, it was pretty cool to see two major stadiums right in the heart of the city--easily accessible for fans.

We were pretty tired when by the time we got to our hotel on the northern side of town--the Comfort Suites--really close to the Space Needle. The guys at the front desk gave us a great tip for a Thai restaurant-Bahn Thai, which was about 3 blocks from the hotel. It was THE BEST meal I had had in a very long time, and the best Thai food I've ever had. We usually try Thai restaurants just about everywhere we travel, and this was the bomb!

These pics are from the top of the Space Needle. Stay tuned for a recap of our trip out to the Olympic Peninsula, a spiritual encounter with Wendy, of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, and onward to Victoria and Vancouver Island! Oh, and meet-ups with Nigel, Allie, and Jeanne! ; )

Cheers!

June Flowers: Clematis, Columbine, and Peonies

Okay, this is the last post before we're off to Seattle! I promise...

Just took some pics of the gardens because these will all be gone-by when we return from the trip. I had more varieties of columbine this year than ever before! I would see other plants along the roadside and remember to come back when the seed heads were ready to scatter their seeds. Then I'd snip a couple of the heads. I have a double pink, double white, single white, a crimson red, and a couple different shades of purples.

I have a purplely clematis on a white light post, and a crimson red against one of our decks. The purple one always starts opening up about 2 weeks prior to the red one. Oh, I do have another huge single white--but it's just budding now. I think it is a II. Clematis are categorized into I, II, and III, according to their blooming time. Mine are all I and II's as I don't think we have a long enough summer in this part of Vermont for the III's.

Our peonies were really slow this year.

They'll be on the last leg of blooming in a week or so. One is just starting now!

And we have the Japanese Irises. I just transplanted the white one 3 years ago and already it's as large as the purple ones! I'm going to mix them up the next time I transplant.

They tend to die-out in the middle, and should be separated every 5 or 6 years or so.

Trip to Southern Vermont

As a follow-up to the Vermont Knit Camp II, I wanted to post a couple pics from my drive down and back.

As always, clickety to embiggen (the pics) --->

Vermont is a beautiful state, and I love southern Vermont too, although I don't get down to the Bennington area more than every 10 years or so!

For my many out of state friends, Jeff and I live in northwest Vermont (Jericho, 12 miles northeast of Burlington), Bennington is on the southern Vermont border with Massachusetts.

I took an alternate road down, parallel with Route 7, which is a N/S main highway.

There was less traffic and stress, and went by some beautiful lakes and lovely farm area, and through the historic area of Southern Vermont, namely Manchester, Hubbardton, and then Bennington.

The pics of the houses are in Manchester.

Enjoy the pics!

Vt. Knit Camp II

Last weekend, June 6-8, I traveled down to southern Vermont-Bennington, to be precise--for the second Vt. Knit Camp gathering for members and friends of the GLBT-Knit listserve (e-mail) group I've been a member of since January.

I have many fond memories: the wonderful, talented, and lively group of women and men (mostly women); the fabulous handknit garments/articles that they brought for show-and-tell, or were working on; and the un-for-get-able food! I'd have to say that, hands-down, Charlton's "chocolate cream pie" was THE hit of the weekend! (Sorry to all the other entries, which were fabulous too!)

Sidebar: Charlton said he was bringing a "chocolate cream pie." And, as he's in the greater Boston area (Somerville), I just assumed it would be similar to a Boston Cream Pie. But, nope. It was a chocolate cream pie. Literally. No, it was really like semi-hard chocolate fudge--with a hint of cream, and in a crunchy crust. And, did he bring just one, little, itty-bitty pie? NO! He brought TWO HUGE PIES and one small pie! (I'm getting a migraine just writing about it!) I had to take 3 migraine pills: one each day, in order to consume some each day. I even brought a piece home for Jeff, which I ate most of...

The runners-up were Melissa's Mac 'n Cheese, Carol Ann's brownies and quiche, and Ann's Granola. Sorry if I misspelled any names here, new friends for me. Also sorry if I omitted other foods, seriously, it was all wonderful!

I'm posting a couple pics of the people and the garments. Jeff and I are leaving for Seattle and Victoria on Tuesday so I have to make some quick and dirty posts now. I have lots of cleaning and packing to do! A lot of my pics came out blurry: it was in the low 90s for weather, and I don't know if my camera was miffed.

Pics: As always, clickety to embiggen (the pics)-->

Top right: Charlton, ala chocolate pie fame.
Second from top: group shot on the last day.
Third from top; Gigi from Montreal models her fabulous cabled sweater. The details were fantastic!
Middle at right: Sadia from Bennington displays her spindle-spun yarn. Very nice!
At right: Melissa S. Shows off her very nice top/shrug. Beautiful!
Next: Fudge from Ithaca warms up with MY cashmere/alpaca/merino triangle in triangle lace shawl. Soft.

I will be posting more pics after the Seattle trip. Just wanted to share some of these with ya'll.

Props to all from the knit camp! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of you and hope we meet again!