Visiting the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island

When Leslie’s friend Mary visited from Boston,

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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.

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Wild iris flourished in the pond and the wetlands,

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and wild roses lined the path in the deciduous forest.

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Less common flowers, like these,

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could be found further on. I’ve never seen a lily quite like this,

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and I know absolutely nothing about this plant

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except that it struck me as being quite beautiful.

I was so impressed by the reserve that I bought an annual membership.

4 thoughts on “Visiting the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island”

  1. I’ve never been — which is kind of shocking, now that I think about it. Thank you (again) for the inspiration. I believe that Theodore Roethke died in a swimming pool at what is now Bloedel.

  2. Loren,

    I have visited Bloedel many times in the past — great place. Do you know about Lakewold Gardens? Not as grand, but still interesting. I believe one of the women connected to Bloedel, and one of the women connected to Lakewold were sisters.

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