When Leslie’s friend Mary visited from Boston,
I wanted to do something we hadn’t already done so I decided it would be a good time to visit Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, a place I’d wanted to visit for a couple of years now.
Not knowing what to expect, I packed a simple 100mm lens, figuring that I’d probably want to take pictures of flowers and that’s my favorite lens to do that. As it turns out, I could have used my birding lens and my wide-angle lens, too. But my 100mm lens allowed me to capture some of the beauty of the reserve.
I was surprised that the reserve included a prairie, a pond, wetlands, a deciduous forest, and an old-growth fir forest. The reserve manages to combine a well-manicured trail with a rugged old growth forest.
Wild iris flourished in the pond and the wetlands,
and wild roses lined the path in the deciduous forest.
Less common flowers, like these,
could be found further on. I’ve never seen a lily quite like this,
and I know absolutely nothing about this plant
except that it struck me as being quite beautiful.
I was so impressed by the reserve that I bought an annual membership.