Sunday Salon---Moving in the right direction

World War Bonsai: Remembrance and Resilience

Weather: Overcast with light sprinkles.

Cottonwood, Rhododendrons, and Bonsai, oh my!

• Cottonwood---It is snowing! Well, it looks that way. It is actually cottonwood seeds transported ingeniously by the wind in little fluffs of cotton. Everywhere!
• Rhododendrons---It is a beautiful time of year in the Pac NW with differently colored rhododendron blossoms blooming in nearly every yard. Yesterday we visited a local botanical garden that specializes in these beauties. I ended up taking more than 60 photos. The collage below is just a few of my favorites.
• Bonsai---At the same botanical garden was a display of bonsai trees dedicated to Japanese-Americans who were forced into internmentcamps during WWII. The display was called "World War Bonsai: Remembrance and Resilience." Many of the Japanese-Americans had to abandon prized bonsai plants when they were rounded up. After the war, it took years for the bonsai art to get up and running again. Several of the trees we admired yesterday were made into a bonsai in 1950. My favorites were the two blooming plants: the azalea (upper left) and the wisteria (lower left and right). If you live in the Seattle area, I recommend that you visit this exhibit before it ends. It is at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way.

  

  Part of the bonsai exhibit
  

Rhododendron blossoms

 

Upcoming road trip: This coming weekend we are moving our daughter back to California. After a year of COVID lock-downs she is going back to work in person. After we leave her we will visit my brother and his family on the other side of the state and will have a reunion of sorts with my other siblings. Later that week we have rented a cabin on Lake Tahoe for a few days of relaxation. On our way back north we will drop off and visit Don's brother and my mother. It's been a year since we've seen everyone and we are looking forward to time together with loved ones. Since we are taking two cars and there are three drivers we have an elaborate plan for rotating who is driving and  who is resting to make it fair. I will be the swing driver moving back and forth to both vehicles. Since we all like listening to audiobooks we will have several cued up. I will have three books, whereas the others will each listen to just one. Here is the plan:

• Don and Anne:  End of Watch, the third book of the Bill Hodges Trilogy by Stephen King. We listened to the first two books together last year.
  
• Carly and Anne: The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. We both like this author.
  
• Anne alone: Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford. An upcoming book club selection. Plus I'll have one book in reserve, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy. Wouldn't want to stuck without something to listen to.
• Print books I'll bring along for the trip:
• Everything Sad is Untrue by Nayeri
• Around the World in 80 Trees by Drori
  

Birthdays: Last weekend was Don's birthday, this weekend we are celebrating Rita's 33rd birthday. Right now the family is assembled playing games on our old Wii set waiting for the steaks to cook. The carrot cake is decorated with a side of Cecile Brunner roses---sweet, small little climbing roses. We had these sweet roses in our yard when I was child and I told myself if I ever found a plant, I would buy it. I found it two years ago and this year the plant is full of tiny, fragrant buds.

Cecile Brunner climber rose

On the lighter side:

 

And the required cat photo: It's all about perspective.

-Anne