THE ROUNDUP PARTY'S OVER!!! :(

Wow! What a great weekend! It was so wonderful to get to know so many of you and see so many wonderful gardens!

What looked so restful and easy on paper ended up being a very full day and went on into a very full evening...nothing like a plant and seed exchange in the dark! Breakfast just continued the experience...

I am tired right now, so can't put into words how much I enjoyed each part of the weekend, but sum it up to say it was FANTASTIC! I didn't get the opportunity to take too many pictures, but I know that there were several cameras out on a regular basis, so I wanted to start a thread to share pictures and comments about our first ANNUAL PNW Roundup....we've got to do this again guys, so that everyone that missed this year can join in! (there is already talk of plotting winter seed exchanges, etc, so we will definitely have to try to get together again before next summer!)

I had to try to hog the posting of the thread, as I had the perfect picture for THE PARTY'S OVER....

Taken after our brunch....now I wonder who was the bad influence?!

ROFLOL Well it looks like those two had a grand time!!!

Great picture Julie!! Happy to hear you had a nice time.

Glad you had a great time!

Pictures, pictures, pictures. It already sounds like a fantastic party.

And I thought we had fun at our round-ups! LOL

What an amazing bunch of folks! I'm usually very shy around groups of people I don't know well, but everybody was so nice and so friendly, I felt right at home immediately.

We had a scare after most everyone had left or retired for the night- my husband had some kind of seizure or possibly a minor cardiac episode after exiting the hot tub. Lynn and Joey were great and helped us make him more comfortable, and Steve wound up being our knight in shining armor by taking us to the ER in Enumclaw when it became apparent that there was more going on than just dehydration and fatigue. He stayed there with us all night and got us back to Lynn and Joey's place in the morning. Thank you, Steve. We owe ya one bigtime.

ER couldn't tell us anything much, hubby needs to be seen by his doc ASAP. He's resting now and I'm keeping a close eye on him.

Medical emergencies aside, we had a wonderful time, and boy, I better get busy building more flower beds to get that truckload of plants I brought home in the ground! Not to mention about a ton of seeds... LOL!

Thank you everyone for being so awesome. Julie and Sharon, I'm so sorry we missed your breakfast and tour, but we were too exhausted by the time we got back from the hospital, and I needed to sleep so I could drive us home today. Hopefully I can come see your place soon.

Pony..Hope your Hubby will be OK. Thinking good thoughts!

Thanks, Bea. :)

Hey all this is Tilly Ha Ha ,as I did not go home, to tired car got loaded then I dreaded the trip home, little down time needed. Lynn is taking a nap right now, and I have her puter.
re how to send as yet, no one here to help me.

Tilly, SO not surprised that you chose to hang for a bit! I am still worn out after a wonderful two hour nap! I had to start this thread with the pic of the stray bottle...just couldn't resist! I know that you have bunches to add. I went through mine and have a couple of decent ones that I will post tonight, but can't wait to see everyone elses.

Pony, Read Steve's post this am and was shocked....glad DH seems to be OK! I missed you at our tour, but you are welcome here any time...besides, we have a date with daylilies this fall!

With my new budding (har har) daylily obsession, I will definitely take you up on that one, M'dear. ;) I did take a bunch of your daylily seeds from the seed table, too. (dang, I meant to do one last perusal of the table before leaving, but I forgot. Not that I didn't take a billion seeds as it was... hehe)

Lynn's place is so nice, and the motor home was so comfy, I totally would have stayed another day if I hadn't needed to get Tracy home. I can't remember the last time I was that comfortable when away from home.

Oh, and additional thanks to Joey for leading us to the freeway today- I was so frazzled I don't think I could have found my way out of there without him.

Thanks Julie, Who could not resisted that pic.( This is still Tilly) Will do better when I get home. But know that you showed the end let me start at the beginning. At least of my trip over.
Its funny, I have lived here for 20+ years and I have never been out this way before, so cool.
I got a small showing of MT Rainer, will driving I snapped this thu the window of the car.

Okay this will not will not work for me, I must of downloaded chip wrong. I will add my first day here later. What a bummer. But I hope the other chip works.

I'll post more later but just wanted to chime in on Pony's comment about Lynn's place being so nice and comfy. I slept like a queen both nights. I'm not usually that comfortable in new places and such. Lynn and Joey are fabulous hosts and made me feel so welcome and comfortable. I could have stayed there a long time! (Lynn is probably so glad I did not.) Lynn and Joey both went above and beyond. (As did Julie and Sharon, but more on the whole weekend later.)

And Pony, I'm so sorry you and Tracy went thru that. I'm hoping everything turns out okay with him once he sees a doctor this week. I'm hoping it was just the excitement of being with all us DGers that put him over the edge and that it's nothing serious.

Thank you Gwen... it was good meeting you, and I hope we can all get together again soon, because that was a fantastic group of people. (and oooh I got good loot! LOL! I got tulip bulbs and tupperware and plants and seeds and plant marker stakes... it was like Christmas!) ;)

I am having (Tilly) a problem posting, This is the arrival at Pix's. Second try, if this doesn't work I will wait till I get home.

Arriving at Pic's

Many, many thanks to Lynn, Julie, and Sharon for a marvelous PacificNW roundup! You people went above and beyond the call of duty with your planning and hospitality, and especially with your food preparation! I would not have been able to plan that in a year's time. What a spread! I hope you can all get a well deserved rest after all this fun. Everyone had such lovely gardens to walk through as well, each one different and each one lovely.

Sharon and Julie, if you have time to post the recipes for the salsa and the frittatas from this morning, I'd like to have them. Yummy!

Pony, I do hope Tracy will be well and that what happened was just a fluke from too much excitement, too much hot tub, and the pure disappointment he must have felt upon being informed that Summerkid would not be there to put him through his paces! LOL! Seriously, let us know how he is doing. I'm glad to hear you went home with loads of plants, as it should be. Don't forget you are invited to come by and see the garden.

I went home with many nice plants as well and thanks to all who brought them. I go on record to say that I came home and put them directly into the ground where they belong! Net additions to the pot ghetto: 0!!!

Well, up from a glorious nap, and I figured that I would throw my measly group of pics out there to give those that weren't able to join us a small sample...

Friday night there were only a few of us...Tilly, Gwendalou, Lynneweidman & DH, Azorina &DH, PNWMountaingirl, and myself and my hubby. It was a wonderful start to a wonderful weekend, and the only really relaxing part of the weekend! Chilli on back deck and an early evening was what the doctor ordered. Good thing, because then came Saturday!

Yeah Mary! I didn't have any of our arrival. Gwen was a doll and volunteered to drive all of us from Fri out to Pixy's on Saturday am. Her yard was so wonderful, it was hard to pry us out to get us to Lakewold! Katie59 and Katye went straight to Lakewold, and found out that they had actually scheduled a docent to give us a tour! (I had e-mailed ahead of time just to let them know we were coming..they took the rest into their own hands..but I am so glad that they did!) So....off to Lakewold Gardens we scooted.

Our tour guide was a retired forest ranger named John (someone else can fill you in on the technicals of his background as I don't have the correct terminology) and he was wonderful. He not only could answer almost any question regarding the trees and shrubs we saw along with the rich history of the house and garden itself, but he was very personable and patient as well.

Yeah Pixy..pot ghetto zero increase is wonderful! One of us will be more than happy to post the recipies in the next day or so. Really glad that they were enjoyed!

Listening to John at Lakewold....

I for one am going to be eternally grateful to Melissa for suggesting adding a Lakewold visit to our events. The gardens are GLORIOUS and it was incredible walking through them. I could have easily spent a full day just wandering and admiring, and this is suppposedly it's "off" season. John said that they have around 950 rhodies and azaleas on the grounds....can you imagine what it would look like in April and May?

Exactly the reason to revisit Lakewold late April.

The statuary was glorious....such history!

Katye--Absolutely NO question about it!!!!

No question at all!

We got back to Pixy's at GASP! 2:00...and those of us in Gwendalou's "taxi" reluctantly shortcut our time at her house and headed for Mt Tahoma so that both groups would have time to visit. After a grueling trip through South Hill traffic (Thanks again Gwen for doing that drive...we all owe you for being the one to deal with that!), we made our way to the nursery. Talk about in the middle of no where, and aboutbeing somewhat (or maybe even more than somewhat) apprehensive of what we had gotten ourselves into! Our entrance into the nursery was not at all what we had expected, but after our little treck through his woods, what wonders we saw in Rick's nursery! It was incredible to see the selection of beautiful alpine plants that he had, and they were displayed beautifully! There were so many wonderful plants that just called out to be touched....

And Rick himself was fabulous! His passion for and knowledge of his plants was stunning. It was as fun talking to him and learning about alpines as it was admiring the plants!

This is my new "must do" project....a crevice garden! I can't wait to set it up...and yes, I came home with the first plants for it!

Rick's gardens were a fascination of color and texture...and he said that this is the boring time of the year to visit as not much is blooming. I was nowhere near bored!

This pot just fascinated me!

So then the rush was on to get back to Lynn's and start the evening festivities. That was the end of my pictures, so will be the end of my saga for the evening. Even after the nap, I am sooooo ready for bed. I do want to tell you all again how wonderful it was getting to know you. This is one of the most fantastic groups of people I have ever been introduced to!

OK guys...more pics!

Night!

Well I too woke up and plan on going to bed after this nap. LOL
Great weekend Lynn's house and layout so far in her garden is unique with many garden slices of beauty, glorious falling away of terrain, and backdrop of a beautiful home. Complete with a huge "Man Cave", "Girlie Greenhouse", and Patio social center that was filled with love and joy the last two days.

We didn't schedule the docent!! He was just there waiting for the group to show. Lakewold was very hospitable and it WAS a nice surprise to have someone lead us around.

I have to echo everyone's posts about the good time. We were sorry to have to leave on Saturday night and it would have been impossible to find our way back to the freeway if we hadn't had directions from Joey. We had no idea where we were.

I have pictures to share, too, but after this weekend (I just got home from some other stuff), I'm wiped out. Heading off to bed soon.

Lynn, Joey, Rarejem, PNWMountaingirl, & Pixydish---Thankyou so much for hosting the RU. It was so great meeting everyone and being able to finally put faces on names. The food, field trips, plants and garden tours were great and I hope this is the start of many more events.

Pony I hope that all is well with Tracy. We missed you both this morning.

Thanks, Linda. He's sleeping now, and I'm fighting the urge to check on him every five minutes. hehe.

Yes, Pony. I'm sorry to hear about your scare. The only time I ever fainted was after drinking and hot tubbing. The docs weren't worried and said it was something like a vaso-vagal reaction. Hope that Traci hears something simple and straightforward like that.

Hi Pony, very sorry to hear about Traci's scare. :( I hope it turns out to be nothing serious. Enjoyed meeting both of you yesterday as well.

I'd love a copy of your pumpkin-cranberry bread recipe sometime, too, if it isn't too much trouble. Yummy!

Thanks, Katie and Susy. I hope it's nothing serious, too.

Susybell m'dear, ask and ye shall receive. (I usually print a bunch of copies of this and take it with me whenever I take that bread to a party because people always want the recipe. I just plain forgot to do it this time.)

Cranberry Pumpkin bread
-------------------------------

1 16 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
1 cup mild molasses
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs

3 3/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Mix first 5 ingredients in large bowl
mix remaining ingredients in separate bowl, stir into first bowl gradually until well mixed.

Divide evenly into 2 greased and floured 9x5 loaf pans

Bake at 350° for 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Wow, that was quick! Thank you so much! Pumpkin breads are my very favorite.

Rick sends his wishes that Traci is Ok too.

Everyone, great pictures so far.. I'm really looking forward to more pictures-I got so scattered I didn't take a single one.

It's funny, DH had met one or two of you before, but now that he's met all of you, I think it'll be easier to get him to more events. Course, I'll have to be careful. Getting him into plants might mean I have to share space in my garden beds-horrors!!! ;)

Me too! I was so careful to make sure I brought my camera and extra batteries, then never took a single photo. *smacks self in forehead*

First, Pony, so sorry to hear about your DH's style of attendance - honestly, I'm sure the party at the A&E was nothing compared to what was going on at the RU! But sometimes men just get an idea in their heads........Hope he, and you are feeling much more comfortable now. Speedy recovery to both. And well done Sofer - you are a champ.

AND now to everyone else - this, so far, looks absolutely FABULOUS!!!! I can just imagine all of the other DGer's throughout the country grrrring in envy into their soil conditioners this morning and thinking about relocating to the PNW, even if just temporarily, at the time of the next one! Everyone of them! Tills, more photos, please, quickly, quickly, must see more.

A gentle request - as absent one, may I have the run down of who is who on a group photo - I would love to be able to put names to faces.

So looking forward to more more more!! Lovely.

I second Laurie's request......names to faces please.

Pony....hoping everything is o.k., unfortunately I know all too well about scares. And I also know about taking a camera and never using it. LOL

Steve....I knew you were a hero and you make great collages too!!

Laurie, I told Tracy that next time he should just tell me he didn't want to go to a gardening party... no need for such theatrics! ;)

Pony, that made me laugh!