Foliage Follow-up, my visit to the Bloedel Reserve during the GBF

Who would have thought you could visit a public garden and have it be all about the foliage? Well at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island it is, and it’s a beautiful show. If you’ve been following my Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling adventures you may have noticed there’s been nothing but blue skies and lots of sun. Finally on the last day of our 4-day adventure Seattle made good on its rainy reputation, much to the delight of many. We woke to grey threatening skies and the moment we arrived at the Blodel it started to rain, really rain. Fortunately most of the group was excited to see it. Garden Bloggers had traveled from far and near, many coming from places that had been cursed with never ending sun and unbearable heat. A little rain was welcome. Besides when you’re looking at a moss garden doesn’t a little rain just make it even better? There were many different trails covering the 150 acre reserve, I didn’t venture to The Meadow, or Bird Refuge, I missed the Camellia Trail and The Woods. I did see the Moss Garden, Japanese Garden, Waterfall Overlook, The Reflection Garden and The Glen. Since we had to meet up for lunch at the Visitors Center (not quite in the center of the gardens) I wandered sort of willy-nilly around the property, order is relatively unimportant in such private space anyway, one should try to get lost! Look! In the shade a few nice Schefflera taiwaniana! Our visit was on a Monday, the day the reserve is normally closed and the grounds are tidied up for visitors. We got to see the lawnmowers out in force doing their relay accross the great lawn. Beautiful... I almost stepped on this! Here's Ann of the blog Amateur-Bot-ann-ist getting the perfect shot of the reflecting pool... Our stop at Bloedel included a photography workshop with David Perry. I was sure most of it would be lost on me, since I use just a simple point and shoot, not the fancy cameras I’d seen others toting around. Not the case at all! I was very pleasantly surprised, Mr. Perry had great things to say about most point and shoot cameras, and I learned a lot. It’s embarrassing to admit I’ve had it for 2 years but learned more about what it could do in those 45 minutes than I ever before. Here he is showing off a favorite accessory, a camera umbrella! Great for rains like we’d been experiencing that afternoon but also wonderful for a super sunny day, when the glare can make it impossible to see what you’re shooting. And remember when I claimed this post was just about the foliage? I lied. I did come away with a photo of this lovely magnolia flower, which I had to include. Just don’t tell Pam (from Digging, and our Foliage Follow-up founder) that I shared a bloom on my foliage post, do be sure to click on the link to visit her blog and see the links to all the other Foliage Follow-up posts!