Washington: Roozengaarde during daffodil season

Seattle is currently gearing up for the possible return of Snowmaggedon, or heavier-than-usual snowfall that brings the city to a slippery skidding slowdown as the various hills that comprise the landscape of Seattle is rapidly transformed into hazardous slides leaving drivers and city crews to cope with the ensuant chaos. Businesses close or alter their hours as their teams are able to safely navigate their way in or are not so able to. Of course, all this slippery icy terrain is exceptionally beautiful as Seattle glistens under a blanket of frost, so it's tempting to go out and explore despite the potential risks. Also, given that the terrain varies wildly from one neighborhood to the next, some parts of town keep moving along smoothly while others come to a frigid halt as accessibility goes down. While it snowed a little earlier today, it was only a light dusting that set about to dripping away shortly after landing, but the portents are there. Winter is here, and snow is coming. 

Given the deep chill settling into the air around us, it's probably understandable that I'd rather reflect back on some sunny spring days when the daffodil fields were ablaze with the brilliant yellow flowers as the sun beat down, glowing warmly in the sky above. To partake in the sight yourself, you'd have to drive North of Seattle on I-5 for roughly an hour to Mount Vernon, where Roozengaarde resides. The farm is fairly easy to find using your maps and the information provided by their website, and parking is fairly ample, though I imagine it will fill up during peak visiting season and hours. I went on a weekday and the gardens were still quite bustling with a wave of visitors, soaking in the sunlight and admiring the assortment of blooms decorating the expansive grounds. Admission was only $7 at the time of my visit, though it may go up during their Tulip season, where the rainbow blooms are not only incredibly beautiful but exceptionally popular and bring in visitors from all over the region. After my own meandering stroll through the grounds, I can definitely understand the appeal, it was stunning! I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and would recommend anyone go at least once, and if Roozengaarde is full there are other, smaller farms nearby that would love to host you! After my time here, I headed towards Deception Pass for a hike, and during the drive, I passed several farms, one with a very friendly little lady waving excitedly as I drove by. Pretty idyllic scenery, for sure, and a wonderful respite from the hustle and bustle of the city, and the cold. Should you find yourself nearby, I absolutely recommend checking them out! Just, if you do, mind the signs. Please. They exist for a reason. Don't be like these assholes! You're a visitor, and the signs exist for a reason, so respect the signs and keep things pretty for everyone! 💘

Seattle: Volunteer park conservatory

Seattle is firmly in the grip of Old Man Winter's steely hands now, bringing that ominous monotone overcast lurking for what seems an interminable stretch of days to our skies, and ample moisture to boot. All those clouds like to bring their friends' drizzle, mold, and humidity along for the ride, lest we forget, so it's regularly damp outside. So, not only is it just cold, it's wet, and a bit squelchy out, but never fear! Having evolved and acclimated into this climate, Seattleites have a bounty of ways to stay warm and dry during the drearier of times thrown at them. One of my personal favorite options is to pop over to the Volunteer Park Conservatory, a stunning piece of architecture finished in 1912 featuring over 3,400 panes of glass and lush verdant greenery that's quite easily accessible in its prominent corner of the Northern Crest of Volunteer Park. Not only is the temperature kept warm and cozy for the plants all year long, making it a welcome respite from frigid temps, but they're among an increasingly shorter list of places where the parking is free! 

The admission fee is exceptionally reasonable, as well, at only $4 per adult, making it an awesomely affordable date option; bonus points because it's super photogenic so you can take all the cute photos! According to their website, you're more than welcome to take photos for personal use during your visit, but the use of tripods is limited to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and if you intend to do a full-on photoshoot during your visit you'll need to reserve time outside of their regular operating hours, so plan accordingly if you want to get more involved in your photography. It's an absolutely stunning environment and quite popular for engagement and wedding shoots, but also some really cool creative fund-raising events, too, so be aware that you might need to book out a little bit in advance. If you, like me, want to take lots and lots of photos during your visit, that's fine, just be mindful of the people trying to also enjoy all the gorgeous flowers on display. That's fair, right? No one particularly enjoys having to dodge a photographer's butt jutting out into traffic. 

 The conservatory is pretty spacious, too, as there are five separate houses to explore, each with their own precision-controlled climate to accommodate their delicate denizens, of which there are many! The oldest surviving part of the building is the ornate lunette or peacock window panel above the front door, with the rest of the building having been rebuilt over the years. The conservatory has been here since 1912, so she's gonna need some love to keep on protecting and preserving her vast assortment of foliage over the years. Whether you're a sucker for succulents or go mad for a good carnivorous beauty, you've got plenty to choose from here. There are so many gorgeous specimens tucked into each room it's hard to really set eyes on each and everyone in a casual stroll. It's worth taking your time and really stopping to appreciate, and, uh, smell, the flowers. It's well-worth the $8. Go! Get you some flowers! They do, in fact, sell some plants out of their gift shop, so you can quite literally go get you some flowers. And you absolutely should. You never know what you'll find!

Washington: Icy Winter's Morn

Is it cold where you are or are you gliding into the dog days of summer? Here, now, it's pretty chilly, with winter's grasp holding firm over the Puget Sound and surrounding regions. Clouds in various shades of grey generally dominate the skyscape, though there are the occasional bursts of blue and hints of the sun's warmth breaking through to remind you it still dances out there, just beyond the blanket of moisture hovering above. While it's generally just shy of cold enough to snow, we still get ample rain that, in the coldest hours of the darkest portions of the evening, can freeze over to a delicate frost decorating the world when we wake. Depending on the morning after, the frost can last for a surprisingly variable window of time before dissolving into steam in the sun's rays. Like I said above, though- it's rarely cold enough to snow, with the chance of it snowing on Christmas day somewhere around 7% or lower. That's generally a good bit more likely than in Vegas, where they average only 2 inches of rain per year (whereas the Seattle area gets an average of about 37.5 inches of rain per year).  I'm no statistician, but even I can see the odds of a white Christmas in Vegas are exceedingly slim- though it has happened, once, in 2008, so it's not an utterly impossible thing, just exceptionally improbable. Not so improbable as to get your ship to the restaurant at the end of the universe, but certainly improbable enough to note. 

Antho and I, of course, have been luxuriating in the cold and ambient moisture in this variable and transforming an environment. Waking to a bright, cloudless morning with our world metamorphized by a glittering profusion of ice droplets is fascinating, and new.  While we slept, a giant came through and dropped fistfuls of glitter, or perhaps a fleet of faeries flew in with an army of bedazzlers and spackled everything they could in shimmer. But again, like most of the magical things in life, this beauty is fleeting and as the rays of sunlight dance across the droplets they begin to lose form and evaporate, disappearing into the ether.  All this hydration means that the plant life, at least that hardy enough to weather the declining temperatures, is still thriving. We were surprised to find these brilliant pink blossoms bursting into abundant bloom after the rains started sweeping the area with more vigorous regularity. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into the fleeting beauty of the beads of ice on this brisk winter's morning!

Seattle: AJ's Day out in Green Lake

These days, my job has me scurrying all over the city of Seattle to attend gigs, so I've been getting a lot of time behind the wheel exploring quite a lot of the city's streets. One day I might be out in SoDo working at an LGBTQ+ automotive shop, the next I might be working in a small bungalow in the heart of the university district. I'm not complaining one bit, because what better way to get to know a new city than by traversing it on a day to day basis? Sometimes I even find myself way out in Kirkland or making a special trip into the heart of Occidental Square. Driving through the city has given me the opportunity to witness protests in action, sea-planes gliding into the city, countless squirrels scampering and given me a glimpse into the inner workings of businesses I might never have set foot in otherwise. It's absolutely fascinating, and while I can't divulge too much about any particular place I work in, the surrounding neighborhoods themselves have endless surprises to offer. Given the nature of my work, flexibility is a major plus, and thankfully I consider that to be one of my strengths. Antho, too, has needed to be quite flexible these past few months as we've been sharing the van due to my Volvo being in the shop. After the drive from Vegas, and years spent living in the dehydrated den of sin where temps above 110 degrees Fahrenheit are normal during the summers, and her only form of tending coming from drunk questionably qualified friends of the family, the old girl was in need of some serious TLC. In fact, after getting into her transmission my trusted mechanic informed me that my situation was primarily caused and then exacerbated by the misguided efforts of the drunken sailors who'd poked around the engine prior. The poor mechanic sprained his back and given that he's a one-man operation, that slowed his progress on repairing the old girl quite a bit... Thus, our shared vehicle situation has extended on and on, a fair bit longer than we'd initially intended or hoped, but being flexible is a strength in this life we live.  

When you're always on the go, days can rapidly bleed into each other, a procession of driving along seemingly countless winding little roads, navigating parking in new corners of the city, and cloudy sunrises and sunsets all melting together. Every so often, though, Antho's day off will align well with a gig of mine, allowing him to escort me to my work and then explore a new area. His work keeps him closer to home, after all, so I've seen much more of the city, and I like to try to re-balance the scales when the opportunity arises. I had to spend a few hours working in the Green Lake area, so he dropped me off and went exploring at the nearby parks. He found a Japanese confectionary, squirrels galore, fall foliage in fiery shades of red and orange, and so much more! We hope you enjoy this peek behind the scenes of our adventures. 

Seattle: Japanese Garden

It probably goes without saying, but just in case you need to be reminded, I'm absolutely and utterly enamored with the country of Japan, from the beautiful scenery of the natural landscapes to the dense urban sprawl of Tokyo to the kind-hearted and incredibly generous people I met along the way, there's something just so magical about the place. Given this state of affairs, it should come as no surprise that when I learned of Seattle's Japanese garden, conveniently located within the gorgeous and expansive Washing University Arboteum, there was no doubt that we had to go. The 3 and a half acre park was constructed under the guidance of Juki Iida, a renowned designer of Japanese gardens, during the 1960s and has remained a fixture of the Seattle gardens scene ever since. The Emerald City itself is home to roughly 6,000 acres of parks, so even if you're not much of a Japanophile the city will have something green and gorgeous to appeal to you. This is a city that takes it public greenery seriously, and for that, among other reasons, I'm all the more in love with it. 

There's a reasonable fee for admission, but as I said, it's reasonable. You can park for free at the Arboretum nearby, which is a rare gift to find in Seattle. The grounds are meticulously maintained, and while it was a rainy day during our visit there were still plenty of people walking about taking in the beauty of the place. It was still the midst of fall during our stroll, so shades of red, orange and yellow burst through the green to add a spark of vivacity to the surroundings. It was an absolutely lovely stroll, even in the drizzling rain, and I look forward to seeing the garden again under the light of another season! It definitely gave me some hard nostalgic pangs for my time living in Japan, and for that, I have to applaud the designer. They knew exactly what they were doing since they were a professional designer of these gardens in Japan! 

There are plenty more photos to come, but if you ever get the chance to visit the gardens in person I seriously encourage you to do so! There's only so much I can capture in a photo, after all...

Washington: An assortment of shrooms and blooms

Life, uh, finds a way.

Never, in my experience, has that proven truer than here in the Pacific Northwest. Life abounds, multiplies, squeaks, squawks, shouts and slithers. There are vines crawling up any tree or surface they can get hold on, moss and molds fuzzing up on an astounding (and annoying, for home owner's) array of surfaces, and the mushrooms...oh boy, the mushrooms! While Antho and I have both invariably dabbled in the psychedelic kind at one point or another during our younger years, we're still quite fascinated by the sheer variety in shape, color, and size of mushrooms in all their forms. There's no shortage of mushrooms to be found up here, where the ambient moisture allows ample soft, decaying woods and roots for the mycological oddities to feed upon. Did you know that the mushrooms we see above ground are actually just the fruiting bodies and that the overall body of the mushroom is hidden underground? It's kind of like seeing only the apples but not the apple tree... And while we'd occasionally find some form of fungi growing in Nevada, it was rarely this varied or colorful! We've found deep purple mushrooms snaking their way through the yard, tracing the path of a tree root, and nearly trampled itty bitty little white caps barely the size of a pencil eraser! Then there are these big, fluffy pancake looking beasts that seem to happily lay claim to the yard, too, before suddenly recoiling into themselves and collapsing, like a dying star, except their final collapse withers away into a displeasing brownish-black sludge of unmistakable decay instead of a supernova. I suppose that's the preferable, route, though, as mini-supernova wouldn't make a pleasant yard-find. 

Anyway, improbabilities of physics aside, mushrooms are super common to find up here. They come in a startling range of options! You shouldn't eat any that you find without being supervised by a trained professional! Yes, you can become a professional mycologist. Mushrooms can, and do, make excellent food options and can be absolutely and utterly delicious, but there are simply SO MANY KINDS of mushrooms out there, and many look SO similar, that you really should leave it to a knowledgeable professional to select edible mushrooms when foraging. There's the handy Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS for short) for Seattle and Puget-adjacent residents, who are happy to teach and inform new-comers and the cap-curious in their clinics and classes.  I'm sure other areas have their own fungi-fan-clubs, too! I've met people who were fascinated by the fungal forms all the way over in Japan and Korea, along with Stateside, so I've no doubt there's plenty of resources if you're willing to dig a bit!  

These guys are just a scattered sampling of the various finds we've stumbled upon in our own backyard. Enjoy!

Vegas: Early summer garden

One of the things I was most excited about when we moved into our micro-apartment near downtown Las Vegas was the garden growing out back! While the intense heat doesn't exactly make the area an ideal climate for growing, especially when combined with the often sandy or exceptionally rocky soil, it is possible to grow things.  There's rarely a shortage of sunlight due to the sparse cloud cover and even rarer rainfall, so you'll need to supplement with lots of water and make use of a raised bed (such as this one), a climate controlled green house, or some other method of sheltering the plants from some of the intense sunlight. Believe it or not, plants can sunburn, too! As "too much of a good thing" is true-ism for humans, it's also true for many plants. That first summer upon moving in, the raised beds were doing quite well. There were squash, who's happy blossom is shown above, along with eggplants, green beans and peppers! We planted some green onions and pumpkins, but the pumpkins got dug up by our roommates to prevent them from taking over the garden...after that, we stopped trying to do anything with the garden and left it be. They had their system, and we figured it's best we stay out of their way!

Overall, the garden was pretty productive throughout the summer and a portion of the fall, though it grew a bit wild and the fruits were growing more sparse or over-ripe. There was enough bounty that we were all able to enjoy some of it, though I barely touched it since it was their garden. It was fascinating watching as it flourished and then began to recoil for the cooler months, productivity and vitality waning. There was a patch of wildflowers who's lifecycles similarly evolved as the months passed.  It's important to have these natural cues around us, to be exposed to a world beyond screens. Not only is it good for your health to eat your fruits and vegetables, but you get health benefits simply by being around them, too! So go on, get out there and check out your nearest public garden if you don't have your own! You might be surprised at what can grow in your area.

日本 [Japan]: 春の日 Spring Day

Believe it or not, one of the most enjoyable ways for me to spend a day off from working at Tokyo Disney Sea was simply to wander around, or ride my bike through, the surrounding town of Urayasu. I was quite lucky to be given the opportunity to live, entirely on my own, in an apartment provided by the company in the residential area of Urayasu. Most Disney cast members were housed in the Disney Village, where they were insulated against the native Japanese and instead surrounded by their fellow imports. While I'm sure there's a lot to be said for that experience as well, I was very happy with my immersion. Urayasu is a smaller suburban town outside of Tokyo proper, and it's a popular choice for young families looking to settle down. Given this nature, there were many schools and family-friendly features to the area that made it all the more quaint and lovely to explore. Even in my first week I couldn't help but notice how frequently you'll see small Japanese children out and about on their own, whether they're commuting to school or simply playing outdoors. All those rumors about safety? For the most part, they're absolutely true. I never felt threatened while exploring Japan, and even when I was unlucky enough to be assaulted it was by another foreigner, not a Japanese person, so that's something. The respect the Japanese have for one another, whether it's exemplified through the use of headphones and quiet chatter on trains, or the cleanliness of shared spaces, is something to admire wherever you wind up. 

This family-forward, community-first approach means that even the youngest school children are encouraged to feel like active participants in their community. Friendly signs hang from school fences greeting the morning, and familiar cartoon characters are eagerly painted onto neighborhood flowerboxes for the enjoyment of all. The bright, primary colors provide a sharp contrast to the pastel pinks of the blooming cherry blossoms in spring, adding to the childish feel of enjoyment. It's hard not to feel carefree riding your bike through the scattered shadows of an incomprehensible burst of flowers cascading down and perfuming the world around. 

Japan: Salarymen and Sakura

Time is a peculiar thing, isn't it? We often look at it as this linear thing, one event sequentially leading to the next, from point A all the way through to point Z, or point Zed, depending on your preferred parlance. Then there are those, whether they be authors of fictitious works like Kurt Vonnegut and his Billy Pilgrim (who became unstuck in time), or scientists who ponder quantum entanglement and what these things mean in the larger scheme. While conventionally time is viewed primarily in this linear fashion, I'm much more fond of Vonnegut's approach myself. In Slaughter-House five the main character, poor bumbling Billy Pilgrim, was abducted by the strange species known as Trafalmadorians, who are not limited to the third-dimensional perspective on time and it's passing. This abduction, coincidentally, leads to Billy becoming decoupled from our hindered human view of the timeline, offering profound insight and also a fair bit of awkwardness, as he has no foresight of when he's going to wake up in the course of his life prior to it happening. This non-sequitur style of timing, however, gives Billy an incredible perspective on time and life, perhaps an unintended gift from his abductors. To quote from Vonnegut:

"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist."

What, if anything, does all this have to do with cherry blossoms and businessmen, you may be wondering. As of the time of this writing, my time in Japan has already slipped into the past by several years, and every time I'm reminded of this fact, that I lived in Japan 4 years ago now, it seems so surreal. It feels like only yesterday I stepped foot off the plane in Narita, unsure of what came next. The lessons and experiences I gained while living in Japan, while separate in the timeline, are still with me. An appreciation for the changes of the seasons symbolized perhaps most abundantly in the short-lived flowers of the cherry blossoms lives on in me to this day, every day. I thrill at the changing shades of autumnal leaves, do a little happy dance when I find the first matsutake mushroom making an appearance or the first blooms of spring breaking through the monotony of a winter's day. In this way, I like to think I'm a little bit like Billy Pilgrim, the confines of a three-dimensional experience of time dissolving around the edges slightly, reconnecting me to a previous time in my existence. In a very real way, the blog serves that function, too, by allowing me to create a sort of time capsule of photographic and literary evidence of existence. It's not much, but so it goes.