When I started this blog over eleven years ago, I treated it like a public journal, and all my posts were “live.” That worked well for commenting on the news, for commenting on poetry I was reading, and for showing local flower pictures I had taken the same day. For better or worse, that’s no longer true. I’m seldom “live.” When I write about novels or book-long fiction, I find it impossible to make any kind of meaningful comments until I’ve finished the book and thought about it for awhile. Nor am I able to present all the photos I’ve taken on a two-day, or two-week-long vacation.
So, here I am in the midst of showing photos I took on last week’s trip to Malheur and to the Washington Coast. But I want to take time out to give Tacoma locals a heads-up that last week’s heat spell has caused many rhodies to bloom in The Point Defiance Rhododendron Garden.
Even if you’re spoiled by seeing your neighbor’s rhodies’ bloom, it’s hard to surpass the beauty of rhodies blooming amidst an old-growth forest, where they naturally occur (at least here in the Pacific Northwest).
Typically, it’s these native pink rhodies that produce first, but apparently the heat spell bypassed that stage because there’s a wide variety of colors in bloom, ranging from the deep reds,
to vibrant pinks,
and delicate violet rhodies.
Even though many of the rhodies still haven’t bloomed, it’s hard to imagine that the garden is going to ever be more beautiful than it is right now.
