Happy Thanksgiving....may your celebration be full of family, friends,
food and joy - we have so much to be thankful for in this country right
now.....
And if you have relatives in town, or are looking for an outing over the long weekend, the gardens at the Chihuly Gardens and Glass Exhibit at the Seattle Center are gorgeous in the rain.
Honestly, I think I like them better now, for the drizzle and gray skies tones down the shiny, bright glass, harmonizing plants and art. Quiet, wet weather subdues the dazzling glass just enough so you can actually look straight at it....and the rain-slicked exhibit is as pretty a November garden as I've seen...
Designer Richard Hartlage created year-round gardens to set off the permanent glass, so there are plenty of conifers, evergreen grasses, small shrubs and ferns. Coral bark maples glow now they've lost their leaves, and bristly little dark-foliaged 'Prince' asters foam up around glass spikes...
If it's pouring rain you can stand inside the gorgeous glass house and look out at the garden, but I encourage you to get outdoors to stroll through and look closely....what a great gift this garden is to Seattle, a place to enjoy nature and art in every season.Take an umbrella (or buy one in the gift shop as I did), linger and enjoy the fresh air, however moisture -saturated, while submerging yourself in pure garden artistry. What a treat in November, and right in the heart of the city.
Coral bark maples are played up by a backdrop of evergreen magnolias and pines...who would have thought lavender would look so brilliant with coral, let alone with glowing chartreuse in the background?
The rhythm of the vertical spikes contrasts with jagged leaves of mahonia, the whorl of the old log and the glossy ebony of the "seal pups" popping out from beneath the log. I know this dates me (what doesn't these days?) but those seal pups look more like a bunch of L'il Abner Schmoos to me....
Even the darkest corners of the garden, with near-black glass and masses of Aster lateriflorus 'Prince' shine on a damp day..the asters should still be in full bloom for another week or two.
It's as if Chihuly and Hartlage conspired to draw the sun itself down into the garden...this was taken on one of the darkest, duskiest November afternoons ever
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