GBMD: The Bloedel Reserve


Pre-Portland Fling, it was an absolute delight to have the chance to return to the Bloedel Reserve, my personal highlight of the Seattle Fling in 2011.

I felt very privileged as I walked through the Reserve again on a not-open-to-the-public day with board member Stacie Crooks as our guide. I believe the above quote is very much at the heart of Prentice Bloedel's lasting legacy there and it also helps to convey its sense of place. It also sums up neatly the biophilia hypothesis, proposed by E.O. Wilson, which I often come across in my public planting researches.

It was great to return... in sunshine rather than rain this time. You'll find a summary with links to all my yummy 2011 posts here, but in the meantime, here's a small selection of this year's photos below.



I'm always blown away by the height of the trees in the Pacific North-West, even though most of what we saw was secondary growth forest.

Here, Stacie (left) and our pre-Fling trip organiser Marty Wingate provide some much needed scale against the trees around them.

However, you should note I couldn't get all of the trees' height in the picture.

The Bloedel Reserve is the most magical of places - in sunshine or rain.

My thanks to Stacie and especially to Marty for everything they did to make our pre-Fling trip so memorable.


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