A Saturday in the Garden With Irene

Actually, we were in lots of Gardens.

Jill got recruited to help take Isaac's scout troop on an overnight camping trip. We got to keep Irene. Since we had planned to visit NPA Open Gardens in the northeast Seattle area, we just took her with us. 

For the most part, I concentrated on sharing the garden experiences with her, taking only a few photos. 

Here we are on the deck of the Brenneman/Harris garden, a place we have visited before. 

 The next place was new to us, just opened for the first time. It is in the stately Ravenna District. This is the garden of George Cooper

 Irene and I discussed the use of color here. She pointed out that the bush (smoke tree) had purple leaves too. 

 Just up the street is the Ferris garden, which we visited for the first time last year. 

 Until it got too wet, Irene continued to try out all of the garden seats, as well as taste all of the cookies left out for visiting guests.

 The Ferris garden is bordered by Ravenna Park, part of a link of parks running through Seattle. 

 By the time we got to Beda Herbison's garden it was raining lightly but steadily. 

 The last garden we visited was the McNulty/Walter garden, also new on the tour this year. It was magnificent. 

 Unfortunately, in following our GPS through a circuitous route, we fell into a speed trap. Where we had been in a 35 MPH zone, for two blocks, downhill, we were apparently in a 25 MPH zone. Officer Friendly followed us into the driveway at our destination, which was right around the corner from where he must have picked us up. I took photos while Tom waited for his speeding ticket. Apparently Officer Sneaky was happy to fulfill his daily quota and didn't care that we were just trying to find our next garden. The City of Kenmore will be $166 richer when we send them our check. Good thing the gardens were free. 

 We decided not to think about it and enjoy the garden until we got back into the car and read the amount of the fine. Sheesh!

 The use of color here in this garden is wonderful, especially in the seating areas. It was raining steadily now, so we didn't sit. 

 Irene enjoyed one last cookie before we headed for home.

 Back down south of the city, it hadn't rained! So we proceeded with our plan to finish emptying out the shed and helping Irene turn it into her flower shop for the summer. 

 She sorted through the treasures that had been stored in the attic, culling out a few "not needed" items. 

 Then she set things up just the way she wanted them.

 And began working on new signs for the shop. 

Later in the day, we ate pizza and watched the Sounders lose their away game in Dallas. Then Irene and I watched a movie, Malificent, that we found free on Xfinity On Demand. She loved it. I thought the costuming and imaginative, fantastical characters were very interesting. 

Now Irene is tucked in her Gramma's house bed, and I am soon to retire to mine.