Philly Flower Show March 2-10 Who is Going?

We will be going Friday. We checked out a train pkg. and got a pretty good deal. $141.80 includes 2 round trip tickets to 30th St. station, trolley to and from Market St., 2 General Admission Flower Show tickets and 1 year membership to PHS.
The turnpike toll is $16.50, gas would be $35.50, $20.00 parking, and $54.00 tickets. So for $21.00 we can enjoy the trip and not have to drive The Surekill Crawlway and no worries as to the weather. I remember coming home from one flower show in freezing rain, that was a definite white knuckle trip.
Ya'll enjoy, I'm sure we will. Ric

hahaha, how I wish there was a 'train' alternative to my paper route! Snow if we get any here should start after Tues route and hopefully melt or be cleared before Wed afternoon route.

Be safe all, have fun and take lots of pictures!

Ric and Holly, do they let you all transport 'plants' on the trains these days?

I'm sure that will not be an issue. The train allows 2 carry ons each. They are usually never crowded and we usually don't pickup much at the Philly Show, other than pounds from eating at a couple of delis at the Reading market. LOL Ric

So it looks like everyone is going to miss each other, since everyone is doing different days :(

Nice try, though! The train does sound like a good deal. :-)

I've been hoping for a "decent" snowfall all winter, as "Snowflake Girl" wants so very much to make a snowman... we got skunked last year, too, no snow to speak of. Now there's finally a real snowfall predicted... and it's messing with our flower show plans!!

We thought about going up tomorrow anyway and staying over an extra day... but we'd either end up dosey-do-ing between hotels or paying $$ for that extra night. So, I'm going to take a final look at the forecast in a few hours and possibly, reluctantly, call off the trip.

Silver lining is that we're going to take a holiday anyway and enjoy being snowed in together if we can't do the flower show.

Well we got slop rather than a foot of pretty snow, but the weather is turning sunny & pretty again today!

Aspenhill (Terri) and I are going to the show together TOMORROW! Hooray!

You're gonna love it!!!! Went today, will post pics tomorrow...I am tired!

Can't wait!

Photos
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1301563/

Great pics, FJ. Thank you for sharing.

You're welcome....I would have posted them here too but it just takes so darn long!

Jen, you must have really been in your element with all the tiny gardens and fairy gardens, etc!!!

I loved it!!!

any pics Jill and Terri????

working on it this evening if I can, Jen... it's such fun to see photos from different people and realize we each saw a different flower show... you saw some exhibits that we managed to miss completely, and even when we were shooting photos of the same thing I know Terri & I focused on different aspects of it.

The first photo I took, before we reached the hall entrance, has nothing to do with flowers at all, but it really had me ROFL, maybe because I'd packed along car snack and had had too much caffeine & sugar at that point.

I chuckled at that sign too! How funny!!!!!! I love cheese....I always say the cheesier the better

Cheese and bacon make everything taste better! LOL Ric

Ric--
Talking about bacon......my Wallmart sells Jowl bacon in their grocery--made from the bags of fat that hang down
around the neck of the pig--Jowls. It is not processed--I don't think--and comes vacuum packed,
the slices are the shape of half-moons, and it is so different and delicious. Pack. costs $2+.

See if you can find it...I save all bacon drippings too for future use...these have such a mild flavor.

G.

Did you know that every part of the pig is used in some way?...except the "oink!"

I do keep my bacon drippings and use them to flavor things. When I make home-fries I use a couple tbs. for the flavor and fry with EVOO. I have also used them in soups and stews. The drippings are just so high in NaCl. Jen, I know about using ever part, we used to butcher almost every year, and there is a use for the oink, it gives little children the giggles. LOL Ric

LOL, funny!

The jowl bacon is not salty at all--just a little bit...
It says it is 'fully cooked"....

Is the jowl bacon smoked? Seems I can never find a reliable source of smoked ham hocks around here... although the meat market in Mt. Airy does sometimes have bags of bacon "ends," which would probably work pretty well in bean soups.

I find I rarely add salt, as such, to anything I cook... instead, I use soup base (bouillon), soy sauce, bacon, canned tomatoes, etc.

I love how most of our threads turn to cooking/eating eventually. LOL

Jill--

I no longer have the wrappings for this batch of Jowl bacon. It comes so completely
vacuum packed that you have to, literally, cut off the front of it.
I do think it said "smoked" on it--but that flavor is not too detectable. Not is salt.
I wonder if ALL Walmarts carry the same goods????

As far as the smoked Hocks--you can get them in any grocery store--BUT--the "smoke" flavor
is not too genuine. Kind of artificial. In soups it should not matter...
IF you have, anywhere near you, an Amish market--their smoked meats are to die for.
I just got a smoked turkey thigh from them--and picked at it till it was all gone. DELISH!!!

Costco, Sams. and BJ's also all carry smoked Hocks.

Jill--Now--I am going to take you to task a bit.....and I apologize in advance--

You say you never add salt when cooking. The items you listed are ALL horrendously high in sodium.
Like Bullion cubes--ONE cube has 800-900mgs. of sodium. Soup base is also very high--
as ONE serving is what? A TBS? (I don't have any to look at). Soy sauce--just looking at my bottle--
serving size-1 Tbs=1070mgs. Sodium. I sometimes look at the "Soup Starter" bases--MAMMA MIA!!!!!
Canned tomatoes?--they are getting better on these. However--one serving is just 1/2 cup. and ~200-300mgs S.
One package of Oodles of Noodles soup is 1510mgs of Sodium. And to think I fed this to my kids!!!

The sad part about 'hidden Sodium" is that you don't taste it like you would if you actually added salt
on or in something you are cooking. But in all the "processed" foods--IT'S IN THERE!!!!
I LOVE coarse Sea salt--just sprinkle a few grains on something--and when you bite on it--it is so awesome.
Being aware of all this is probably why I do not eat canned foods or processed foods, or carry out foods.
Why take BP pills if i am not going to do my share to be healthier about what I eat? It would defeat the purpose.

I bring a bottle of water, which I leave in Sally's car, when we go to Chef Lin's.
Driving home--I drink almost all of it. The Sodium in Chinese food just gets to me!

Sorry to digress on the topic so much....it is just such a sensitive issue with me.
All one has to do is turn any can or container over and read the nutritional info. box.

OK! I am off my soap-box....now gonna run and hide.......G.

Gita, don't run & hide, just re-read what I posted, please. I'm sorry it wasn't clear. I said I didn't "add salt, as such" -- meaning I didn't grab the salt shaker when I was cooking, but "instead" added one of the high-sodium ingredients I mentioned. Jim refers to soy sauce as "liquid salt." :-)

If I'm going to add more.. let's call it "salty flavor" to a dish, I'd rather add something that has both salt and another flavor to it, like soup base or bacon. When I'm making our spaghetti sauce, I don't add the browned hamburger until it's nearly done... rather, I get some beef flavor working in the sauce by adding beef soup base rather than adding salt.

We fortunate that we don't need to watch sodium closely with every meal. I think for us the salty stuff is generally balanced out by fresh ingredients, a matter of moderation (just like everything!). Add soy sauce to a pan loaded with veggies & chicken, served over plain Uncle Ben's rice -- still a healthy meal. Pizza, or (depending on choices) Chinese Buffet -- not so much. It's hard to dine out and stick with a healthy diet... Most places are offering some good options these days, but still it's the fat and the salt that make things taste really good to us, so that's what sells... another reason to cook at home!

Joyanna likes all kinds of legumes, so she and I often have some sort of rice & beans with our lunch.. sometimes canned beans (which, like tomatoes, have gotten better about sodium content), but more often something we've cooked up from dried beans. So please don't worry that I'll look back and say, "Mamma Mia! What I fed my kid!!" ROFL As my grandma always said, "They grow up anyway." :-)

Here's a few of ours. This first pic is not a statue, but an actress posing. We both really like the container gardens, this year the format seemed to be more uniform, not as whimsey.

I especially like floral arrangements and this green wall was neat.

The raymondevisonclematis.com display was just grand. Reportedly showing how compact clems can dress up small town or city gardens over time. There's an example of casual effortless gardening. LOL

Lovely photos! Thanks, Ric.

I don't remember seeing a lot of clems at garden shows. It must be difficult to get them to bloom just at the time of the show.

More MAF dears caught in the lights while enjoying the show. It was a great show and I ain't lion. The individual plants were as usual exceptional. These garden trout were available for purchase in the vendors area, a mere $80 each. They're probably very long lived but I'll pass on having my own school.

We're definitely in need of a new and better camera. I like shooting available light, but since having that vertigo a couple of years ago I sway a bit. Even when I use a mono-pod I don't always get the best shot, I wonder if I could get a deduction for a new one from the IRS, write it off as cost of aging. LOL

Ric--

ALL beautiful shots----Did you finally sign up under your own User Name?

For a while there--I thought there was a new person, named Ric, who just jumped in
and posted pictures....Silly me! This "other" Ric also lives in Dover!

I finally put 2 and 2 together.....I'm slow--I know.....

I have the best results using the setting that is defined as: "Landscape". The camera focused at infinity.
I take all my indoor pictures using this setting--and never use the flash.
Close up--far away--the whole room, whatever...They all come out very nice--NO yellow, as it could be w/o a flash.

The icon for this setting (on my camera) are mountains with a clear background.
Do you have this setting? Try it!

I have a "Nikon Coolpix Touch Screen"--a feature i HATE!!!! Wonder if i could disable it somehow ????
It takes pictures if I even brush my finger over the viewing screen. Or if I just put it down on the table...
No wonder this model was on clearance. It is very annoying! Just paid $ 79 for it....I think...

Gita

Funny how there are some shots that I'm saying to myself "I don't remember seeing that!"
My camera doesn't like low light conditions even when I change the settings, some pics I took over and over and then just deleted them, too dark

...and when I used the flash--it did not go all that far. Still too dark...

That is why I use the Landscape setting. It works the best I can get. G.

Thanks for posting all the pics folks. It must be so hard to choose what to shoot.

Don't bother the dears, they are just browsing a little and will move on without causing damage...

Thank you for sharing the pics. Great shots!

I still have some to post. Will try to get them uploaded this evening.

Did you happen to get a pic of the arbor made of branches?

I got one of the children's garden tunnel - is this what you are talking about? I'm disappointed with most of the pictures, I can't seem to hold the camera steady and most of them are blurry.