Sometimes it is hard to believe that we all live on the same continent and mostly in the same country. The climates and regional foliage and wildflowers are all so different. Eileen was talking about not have really large pretty rhododendrins in her area. The mountain sides here are covered in rhododendrins and lovely mountain laural. The blooms are so pretty.
Vinton, Virginia
we have beautiful wild pink rhodies in the cascades and wild clematis throughout the mountains here and in the cascades. i don't think we have mountain laurel though. gini
gini in north idaho
We don't have the climatis. But we do have beautiful orange wild azaleas....and most of our rhoddie is a lovely lavender color and it has a lovely scent. We have big thickets of rhoddie and Mt. Laural that somewhat blend together. The deer love it as they use the thickets to make their beds.
i think i need to visit the east in the spring. i've only been there in late july when it is 95 with 95% humidity and spend most of my time in the air conditioning. gini
Gini
You need to visit the mountains. They are beautiful all season. But spring is definitely gorgeous.
Great photos Eileen. Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like you had a great vacation. When I was in college many moons ago, my mom & dad lived in Lacey, WA for a few years (just outside of Seattle). There was supposed to be a view of Mt Rainier from their living room window. I was there for 8 weeks in the summer and saw it only about six times! We did drive part way up to a lodge on the mountain. It was fun since there was still snow banks waist high in places in early June at the time. Seattle is really a lovely area, but since I grew up in Florida, I did not like all the rain. I live in Iowa now ... and sometimes we definitely have too much rain here for me.
Deanne Eisenman
Snuggles Quilts
Eileen, your pictures are beautiful. Makes me want to start packing!
Eileen~
Welcome back! IT was lonely without you. Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures and it sounds like you had a wonderful time. Now I'm assuming the "man" in the pics is DH.....and where are you?
North of Boston MA
Deanne, we were told by someone at the space needle that "the mountain," as Seattleites refer to Mt Rainer, is only "out" about 90 days a year. Sure wasn't coming out for us, though if we'd been looking in the right direction on the day we arrived, we might have seen it (we were headed out of Seatac - Seattle Tacoma airport - for Vancouver. It was sunny most of the time we were in Vancouver and cloudy/rainy while we were in Seattle. Even the natives said the number of cloudy/rainy days in a row was more than normal (we were there 5 days). Still, I loved the cooler weather and it didn't rain for long.
Diane, I still have to upload the photos from DH's camera - I'm mostly in shots on his. He was so busy taking photos sometimes that I couldn't resist taking pictures of him taking pictures or looking at the pictures he'd already taken! LOL I thought, "look up and enjoy the view!"
I'll try to get his photos uploaded & post some Seattle pictures tomorrow. I think I had too many shots of downtown Vancouver in the batch I posted already so I'll watch that with the Seattle pics.
Thanks, everyone, for the comments on the photos so far. It's not too hard to get great shots of such beautiful places. :-)
Nana, I think the northwest and the east/northeast have the right climates & soils for rhodies. My brother lives near Boston and the rhodies there are just as big as in the northwest. They were introduced to parts of Ireland and grow jst as well, if not better (?!) there, so much so that near Glenveagh Castle on the west coast they were cutting them down & burning them in 1994. The rhodies were spreading like weeds and taking over! My mom was really shocked by what they were doing as she loves rhodedendrons.
Hi there, Haven't been on in a long time - my mother was ill and passed away. Love the pictures - reminds me there are many beautiful things to see in this land. My "home" beach is filled with oil so I guess I'll stay in my mtn home of 19 years awhile longer. Your pics are wonderful.
Patricia
Deepest condolences for the loss of your mother. That is always so tough.