It’s 2012 and I love living in the Northwest.

Today, instead of being buried in snow on January 1st, I planted primrose in one of my garden pots.

And I enjoyed watching the dozens of birds at my feeders… including a sweet hummingbird who is so happy I have left out a small feeder for him (in the pot with the primrose).

I also discovered a few other blooms in the rock garden. And wondered if the little blob on my finger was a bug…

… or a tiny slug.

It was the latter.

He’s cute, but will grow into a garden menace so I flushed him down the toilet.

To ring in the new year, I also spent some time playing my new Tibetan bowl.

I have been a bit distressed to discover that my formerly perfect pitch is currently off by 1/2 step. When I first played the bowl, I was sure it was an E-flat or even an E. But it’s a D. AGH!

I downloaded an app to help test/retrain me and I am consistently 1/2 step too high. I know what the note is – it’s just a half step off from the rest of the world. It’s unsettling and I hope that I can come back into tonal alignment (or whatever it would be called).

By the way, I started a new blog awhile ago and have made a resolution to update it regularly. It’s called:

FlowersMakeMeHappy.com

It is devoted entirely to my love of flowers, and it’s where I will post lots of my flower photos. I also have a facebook page where I post additional photos, and twitter feed for it. Follow me 🙂

So, how did you bring in the new year?

If you know me well, or frequent my blog, you are aware that there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of reasons why I love living in the northwest.

Today I share with you reason #37 (which is a completely arbitrary number):

Bamboo

I love bamboo, and love that that it grows so well here.

Over the weekend I discovered Bamboo Gardens in Redmond – a nursery which not only sells bamboo, but has lush, beautiful groves of several varieties planted on their property.

I spent over an hour wandering about with my camera, feeling very ‘zen.’

I wish I had somewhere I could plant my own bamboo forest…

I’ve been such a slacker. I’ve taken tons of photos and have lots of things I could be writing about but I just haven’t. No excuses. Just haven’t done it.

No promises, but I will try to rectify that – starting with this entry about a wonderful visit from Ashley & Kennedy in April.

Since their flight arrived at 7pm, our first stop was dinner at Machiavelli’s, where Kennedy ate a huge plate of pasta..

The next day, Kristin joined us as we made the short trek to Mt. Vernon for the tulip festival.

The tulips were beautiful, as usual, but it the weather wasn’t. We faced what felt like freezing cold gale force winds.

Kennedy tried to be brave.

She managed a smile while cuddling with mom.

More soon. Or at least sometime…