Preview: NWFGF

I took 245 photos today.

No, they are not all in this post.  I have just gone through and culled a few, maybe 50 or so. The rest will perhaps appear over time. 

This is the week of the big Northwest Flower and Garden Festival, an event looked forward to by many a garden enthusiast here in the Northwest. Last year my garden blogger friends Peter and Alison told me about the media preview, open to garden bloggers, so this year I applied for credentials. Today Tom and I went in for a media preview of the display gardens. Last minute primping was going on in the gardens and scoop loaders were scurrying around with loads of dirt - garden soil - but we got an opportunity to view the display gardens without the crowds in our way.

I'll be posting photos of the display gardens in the coming days, and we will actually be attending the show on Thursday. Today will just be a "preview".  (Click on any photo to make them bigger, for more detail.)

The entry garden in the lobby is presented by the Flower Growers of Puget Sound, and it is always a very special greeting and an amazing display of spring beauty. 

 This is the 30th anniversary of the show, so there is cake!

Marianne Binetti, local garden writer and host, was our guide through the display gardens. 

Here's a peek inside the display floor door. 

We had over an hour to view and photograph the displays, and then some of us lingered to see what else we could see. 

The floral arrangement contestants were setting up.

I got to talking with this young woman who asked my opinion about placing one last gloriosa lily 

She liked my suggestion and followed it. With the light coming in from the windows behind it is hard to photograph these arrangements, but they were all lovely. 

And then those windows drew me outside into the courtyard of the Convention Center,  also part of Freeway Park, which is built right over the I-5 freeway.

We loved this stone installation set in front of the Convention Center. Great contrasts in texture and form. 

Then we walked back up town to Westlake Park, and sat and rested our feet for ten minutes. It wasn't raining!!!!, so we had decided to walk down to The Market for lunch. 

These are hot house tulips, grown in greenhouses in the Skagit Valley, the same area where the tulip festival will be held in a month or two, 

We had lunch at Lowell's in the market. 

This was our view from our table. 

After lunch we walked through more of the Market

and up past the "flying fish" stand

then outside on the new Market extension with views of Elliot Bay

and the city.

We stopped in at Beechers to taste the Flagship Cheddar, and bought a wedge. 

Crab at Safeway, at $5.77 lb, is a much better deal than at the Market. 

Then we walked back up the hill to the light rail station and headed home. But since we couldn't get parking at the station this morning, we had another mile to walk back up hill to get home.

We got our exercise today. 

Stay tuned for more of the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival!