ByGD
Tucked in behind an office park in Federal Way, the Pacific Bonsai Museum is a treasure trove of carefully maintained bonsai in a series of outdoor rooms with pale walls and raked gravel floors. Their hours are limited and the location is unlikely, but it’s a beautiful space that inspires even active little kids to contemplation.
ByGD
I visited the Reykjavik Botanical Garden one July, and discovered that it looked a lot like any Seattle garden in May. Lilacs and rhodies, spring bulbs – the usual. Probably quite an achievement in that cold climate, but ordinary to gardens from warmer climes. There were some interesting near-arctic natives. And then there was this. The Himalayan blue poppy, Meconopsis. Stuff of legend and 4-inch pots costing $10 or more. I have tried so often to grow them, and never with any success. But here they were, happily blooming in Reykjavik.
ByGD
When we went to Japan in 2010, we gave our then 5-year-old daughter a camera. She took this picture of the gardens at the famous Golden Temple, Kinkaku-ji. Although the temple is as stunning as promised, I was most impressed with the gardens, which are possibly the finest gardens I have seen in Japan.