Meerkerk Gardens on Whidbey Island.

 We arrived at our family cabin late morning Monday morning, got settled in, and spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the cabin garden. 

Tuesday we designated as a play day. After a late start, my usual mode of operation, what with difficult mobility, new pains, and PT exercises to do, we drove up island to our first stop, Meerkerk Gardens.

Originally this was a large private garden in the woods belonging to the Meerkerk family. She was a weaver and textile artisan and a friend of Tom's mother back when they were alive and living on the island, so we have a little history here. The property was donated for a public garden and more recently is was updated with new plantings of rhododendrons and azaleas in a viewing garden. Those  shrubs are now mature and glorious during their bloom season in May.

Two bumbles were stuffed into this rhodie bloom. Were they mating, sleeping, or dying? It was not  mine to know. 

There is a huge, mostly wild garden here too, scattered with very old rhododendrons that were in the original garden, and we have explored some of it in the past, but it was just right for me to stay on the smooth pathways this time and enjoy the new portion. 

May will soon give way to June, and there will be new blooms, but it's always hard to say goodbye to the joys of May.