The Careless Gardener

Walkabout No. 57 | Bloedel Reserve
Bainbridge Island, Wa.
Sept. 20, 2012

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Walkabout No. 57 | lead us to the spectacular Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, Washington and blessed us with blue skies, warm winds, amazing gardens, breathtaking views & tranquil wildlands.

Fog | The Puget Sound was all misty & mysterious Thursday morning with fog so thick it was impossible to see anything on the ferry ride over.  Great clouds of mist raced across the meadow.

Place | The Bloedel Reserve is an internationally renowned public garden that offers 150 acres of natural woodlands and beautifully landscaped gardens.

Meadow | Strolling along the path through the meadow seems to transport you to another time and place.

Purpose | Although now quiet and at rest the barns & meadow give testimony to a former life.

Adventure | Every adventure does not need to be big.  Sometimes, just seeing the everyday in an extraordinary place can be an adventure.

Wildlands | Most of the Reserve's 150 acre's have been left in their natural state. Snags, stumps, nurse logs, limbs, moss and decay are signs of a healthy forest.

Life | In a great swath of undisturbed land it is easy to see how life when left, for the most part, to it's own devices, without interruption will create a world of self-sustaining communities.

Built | Simple, elegant and unassuming allows the built to coexist with nature without conflict or competition.

'Nature can live without man, but man cannot live without nature.' - Prentice Bloedel -

Path | There is nothing so irresistible as a path that leads you off into the quiet unknown.

Perfect | The economy of nature ensures that every curl, ever color and every petal is created for purpose and not pleasure.

"Live simply, so others may simply live."

-  Gandhi -

Darlingtonia californica | also called the California Pitcher plant, Cobra Lily, or Cobra Plant, is a carnivorous bog plant.

Beauty | Nature does not do beauty or ugly, nature simply does what needs to be done.

Vista | As you leave the dense woods, boardwalk & bog you step out of one world and into another.

Shared | Canada Geese stop by to grab a bite & enjoy some sun before the long migration to their winter feeding grounds.

'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'

- Cicero -

"The 'Amen!' of Nature is always a flower." 
-  Oliver Wendell Holmes -

| The Bloedel Residence | 

Charm | Old fashioned Sweet Peas sitting on a window sill soaking up the sun.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

                                                                                             - Lao Tzu -

Ramble | (vb.)  1. to wander around in a leisurely, aimless manner: 2. to wander or rove from place to place; roam

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." 

- Greek proverb -

Japanese Garden, Guest House & Stone Garden | The Guest house is a fusion which blends the features of a Japanese tea house and a NW Native American Longhouse

“The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth.” 

 Thich Nhat Hanh

  - Simple Beauty -

-   Sacred Beauty -

 - Quiet Beauty -

- Reflected Beauty -

- Still Beauty -


- Enjoy your day -