Barb's Weblog

The 18th Annual Northwest Flower and Garden Show was such a wonderful event! This is a picture Lowie took of our favorite garden, one of 2 that featured old cars. The 24 display gardens were REALLY great this year, after a couple years of nice but not amazing displays. I always love the show gardens and some years they can move me to tears or laughter, and this was one of those years. There were those great old cars, a castle carved in sandstone, a fireplace with a sheet of water flowing behind it(or infront of, depending on your perspective), a wonderful enormous jade boulder from China that had some serious ju-ju greeting us from the south lobby entrance. Just wonderful. Many beautiful things to relate!

There were polite gardens, wild rugged gardens and each was more beautiful than the last. One little courtyard garden had 3 little stone tables and seats gathered in a circle, decked out with champagne and presents and flowers, and I found out later that it had contained an wedding! One day was for each party, which actually took place in the exhibit! Bachelor, engagement, bridal showers, then on saturday the actual wedding took place amidst the thousands of show attendees! On sunday it held honeymoon promise, and I have to say THAT was a very active and creative use of a garden vignette. What great inspiration for those looking at designing their own special garden spots. I wish I could have seen more, but it was one of those years that took every bit of my attention to make it work out profitably in the end.

Thats not to say it wasn't as much fun as one could legally have! Lowie and I laughed til we were stupid, ate room service and Taco Del Mar daily. I fed a brave squirrel treats in the morning on our daily walk thru 'Murder Park' as we like to call it...at night we fell in with a gent from Amsterdam some nights for escort thru the potentially frightening park (actually its 'Freeway Park') and only had to walk it maybe once totally alone. The first nite I saw 2 garden type guys heading out and I asked if we could walk with them Turned out we'd been neighbors the very first year. I always carry a huge drill and Lowie carried my pocket knife (silly!). One night she fiddled with the thing and pulled out the teeny phillips screwdriver and said "Should I use THIS?" I said, "YEAH! I'll screw him and you can UNscrew him!" and brandished my drill. Really, a weird old woman like me carrying a big drill thru the streets of Seattle provides quite a bit of late nite protection...I look even stranger than the street folk and they veer off and turn away as I lurch by, tired, hungry and lugging a huge leather bag and a big red drill. I have had people choose to ride a different elevator than the one I take, it looks so odd.

Works for me, most definitely.

I actually only got a single walk thru the gardens, on the first night. I tried to get back over there, but sales were down by about half of normal and attendance seemed WAY down so I stayed close to the booth and did my very best to be available to answer questions and help people make choices. Two of my very favorite magical items sold, and lots of my new girley flower stuff. My new mabe pendants did well.

My booth neighbors were awesome! Across from us the guy we call Magic Man regaled us with silly magic tricks heavily canted to his scary weird religion. We have been neighbors before, and knew to ask for magic. On one side were greenhouses being sold by a youngish couple that kept us in stitches all week with their charming humor and happy banter. On the other side was a German painter of gorgeous landscapes. He was born in West Berlin and filled with interesting stories and answers to my questions. We shared a love of electronic music and European music of all sorts...we also listened to old Uriah Heep, Art of Noise and all sorts of electronica on his computer before customers came in each morning, artists both old and new. He made me a pile of cds to listen to, in trade for my choice of new music for him...I choose 2 Rammsteins, an Eisbrecher (I call them Rammstein-Lite) 3 Apocalypticas and a couple Pat Methenys.

He patiently fielded my incessant and probably annoying questions on sentence structure and language, since I have been trying to take German language lessons on the computer after a year of being baffled by 60 year old german grammar books and poor Rammstein lyric translations found online. I blame it all on Rammstein! I simply HAVE to know what the text is, its so wonderful and strong and romantic.I can feel that those translations are missing key emotions, but don't know enough to be clearer about them. And with my German lessons being strictly in a stolen moment and very irregular, its hard to get very far. All the german I know I learned from Rammstein...scary thought, no?
I am basically increasing vocabulary without a clue of how to use the words yet! I can't say I am any better now after the painter's patient help, as my spoken German is awful...I simply can't seem to HEAR how he makes the words so soft.

Its a fascinating language.Especially interesting for me is that they seem to make up compoud words all the time, which is a habit of mine as well, so I come to itnaturally. I know people consider it harsh and dark, but to me it sounds all soft and round and warm. Steffan the painter thought that was nuts but to me his speech was so soft and nice when he pronounced things for me and helped me see where I was going wrong. We'd take a song lyric(Jana had music on for set up nearby inthe mornings) I'd figure out a translation and he'd laugh out loud(gently, tho) and explain why a german would NEVER say THAT.

I just have so little opportunity to study.There are so few free moments. Mom, Shadowfax, constant storms,power on, power off...Rats devouring everything in sight, Haole, Tiko, Boots...all the stuff I have to do daily and still find time for the year's contracts, orders and the rest. Not to mention the house and laundry and zillion daily chores. I don't know how people do it! I feel like I am a supreme juggler and balancing act!

This weekend which is our 34th anniversary of Living in Sin. Wouldn't mind going somewhere if the snow and wind permit. I am not prone to driving much in ice or snow, I love my car too much to risk her life (and mine) so I bought dinner-makins today when I shopped for Mom and me(SHOOT! I forgot my favorite red wine!)in case tonite's weather gets nasty and I end up not heading into town. I do have 4 items to ship to a bride in Oregon, so I guess I can still get in there and get the tasty wine for me. If the weather is icy, well, I will go slow. I know better than to test the patience of a bride! They have too much to deal with already!

Well all in all the show was so much fun, I saw my darling Jesse, tried to fix him up with a pretty girl; saw Logie and tried to fix him up with a pretty boy.I saw several NWCA staffpeople and craftespeople, old favorite customers-become friends, neighbors from the island and friends from the Dog Park. I got my daily Big Doug Hug which is like comfort food for me. I saw several very old and dear friends from my youth at the Portland Saturday Market so there were tears and laughter, lots of "ohmigawd-remember-when's" and a few "ohmigawd-its-a-miracle-we-survived's". I went from a teenager to the nut I am today because of their love and support. Bobette came by, I blogged her husbands passing last year. After 11 years of caring for Chico, she looks beautiful and warm and far younger than I remember.

I did a fun trade for some artsy scarves and a painted kimono and best of all, a young woman I have known since she was a tiny girl came and sang 4 songs for me on sunday in her nearly-professional Operatic-voice. This child has gone from bouncy child to curvy and talented college aged diva in just a few years, and she is Met bound. Her mom suspects it was the lily-pollen...its definitely something wonderful at work. I get to be the one to make her something wonderful for her debut...remains to be seen exactly what, I will have to work with costumers to create her jewels...but I am very much looking forward to it! Watch for her! Anna Maria Moriolo. She will be taking the world of opera by storm within a handful of years, I predict! I don't know anything about opera but I DO know a fabulously lovely rich voice when I hear it, and she is a true show-stopper!When she is not just being sweet and silly in sneakers and jeans.

OK I will go now, and let you rest your eyes. I must polish these things for my bride to be or risk her ire! NOT my idea of fun!

Barb

9:27 AM — e-mail me your comments