The Unexpected Garden Tour
Debbie Teashon Flashback Thursday (2016)
I love finding the unexpected.
Last summer in 2015, I went on the Snohomish Garden Tour in the historic district. I was pleasantly surprised to find some unexpected art and other amazements.
Except for one curmudgeon garden host, it was a delightful tour. The plentiful gardens surrounding historic homes made it worthwhile.
The docents in each garden made people feel welcome and answered questions. I met one homeowner couple and enjoyed a pleasant conversation with them. All in a good day’s tour.
The day’s first order was crossing Puget Sound (I affectionately call the moat) via the Kingston/Edmonds Ferry.
The surprise came when walking through the Snohomish historic district; I came up to St. Michael’s Catholic church that was on the tour. At least, I thought it was a church.
A gazebo stood at the end of the narrow path. With too many people already crowded into it, I skirted around to a way along the building when I came upon a …
Buddha! There was a Buddha statue in a Catholic church garden. How odd, I thought. I encountered another Buddha clothed in moss and sitting in a birdbath filled with succulents under a chandelier.
It wasn’t until I was halfway through the garden that I realized that although the building housed a church in the past, it became the private space for artists Guzak and Blake of Angel Arms Works. That will teach me to read the descriptions before entering a garden!
I didn’t get the name of this fig tree loaded with fruit. This healthy-looking shrub also had a clematis growing up through its branches.
Finally, the crowds thinned out, and I looked at the arbor. A large grape vine covered it completely. It, too, was loaded with fruit.
Down the road in the Kerkley garden, a couple of folk art pieces caught my eye. I liked how the door with peeling paint looked abandoned, leaning up against the house, with a little angel sticking by its side.
In the Roberge’s delightful garden, two urns overflow with the white flowering Bacopa and flank the steps leading up to their porch. I like how they placed a candle in each one.
Finding the unexpected is the best part about touring gardens.