Spring Fling Finale

It's hard to believe that a week ago today I was waking up in Chicago and boarding a bus for an activity-filled day of Spring Fling. Since I've returned home, I've been very busy catching up here--watering the garden, napping, weeding, napping, planting more homeless plants, napping, mulching, and . . . did I mention napping? As a result, my intention of carefully sorting through all my photos to choose the best ones to accompany a sparkling, comprehensive commentary of the weekend's events never materialized. Instead, here's a last look at Spring Fling with minimum narration and minus blog links for the sake of time.



Early arrivals on Thursday were treated to a tour of Rich's Foxwillow Pines in the northern suburbs of Chicago, a huge and amazing place. No wonder Mr. McGregor's Daughter loves this place! Rich himself greeted us warmly and entertained us with lots of colorful stories besides impressing us with his extensive knowledge of everything conifer-related. Laynee (left), Carol, and Dee (backs to the camera) took it all in.

A walk through back paths brought surprises at every turn, including giant hostas, and muddied our shoes.

Back at MMD's, a few more arrivals took the later tour of Squirrelhaven. At this point in the weekend, I wasn't sure about bloggers' wishes for anonymity, thus the back view of (l-r) Tina, Lisa, Gail, and Frances with MMD and her "apprentice gardener" facing them.

After the "scenic route" to the hotel that night--we were "too west of west"--it was straight to bed for an early morning train ride to the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Beckie and I opted for a later arrival at the Garden, which didn't allow us much time to see such a large area. We decided to first take the tram tour to give us an overview of the place, and I'm glad we did, because I believe this is the only way to see the large prairie area of the Botanic Garden. I learned so much more about the prairie; for example, there are actually three types of prairie, including the marsh prairie, which probably originally covered the land where I now live. Unfortunately, I don't remember the other two--the small notebook and pen purposely put into the large purse for taking notes remained at the hotel most of the time:)

The tram tour also gave us a glimpse of areas we weren't able to visit, like the Japanese Gardens. These, along with the Model Railroad Garden, will definitely be on the "must-see" list the next time we visit the Chicago area.

So many plants to ooh and ahh over, especially those Icelandic poppies I think we have all pictured. My eye was also caught by these simple Canterbury bells. I love the colors, but mainly I was excited to see them since I planted some seed given to me by Cheryl. I hope mine turn out this well!

The waterfall garden was another compelling place. Beckie and I climbed to the top, drawn by the rushing waters, and admired the view. Suddenly we realized we had only 20 minutes left to get back to the trolley for our return trip back.

Hurry, hurry down the slippery uneven slabs of rock--don't slip!

Hurry, hurry through the garden with trough after trough of potted annuals. Ok, time for one picture--but next time we will take time to see this area in entirety, too! We did make it to the trolley in time, fortunately.

On Saturday, most of the group began the day with a morning tour of Rick Bayless' garden in the heart of Chicago. After a sumptious buffet at Andie's in Andersonville, our first stop of the afternoon was at a community garden in the heart of Chicago. Surrounded by tall, older apartment buildings, this garden was a testament to the best of volunteerism and good will among gardeners.

Next, a stop at Carolyn Gail's garden where there were ample opportunities for everyone, including Jessica above, to take photos of a fantastic urban garden.

And some time to chat. Linda, aka Garden Girl, was one of several Chicago Gardeners who deserve many thanks for organizing such a fantastic weekend.

Before we left, Frances was the lucky winner of one of Carolyn Gail's paintings. I know Frances made sure this lovely artwork was well-cared for the rest of the bus trip:)

The final stop of the afternoon was at the Lincoln Conservatory. While others visited the fabulous lily pond and other areas of the Conservatory, several of us chose to hike a few blocks to the nearby Peggy Notebaert Museum to see the butterfly exhibit. Being a butterfly lover, I didn't regret my decision, but only wished that vanity didn't get in the way of wearing much-need reading glasses: the camera was on the wrong setting for much of the visit, resulting in blurs of color instead.

We were told upon entering that the butterflies were "awake," and they certainly were in a constant state of motion. This blurry photo must be shown, though, as Lisa explained we were watching a mating dance.

Changing the camera settings resulted in a few good photos, but no i.d.'s have yet been made.

I thought this was a Buckeye at first, but on closer inspection, I'm not so sure.

This has to be the most colorful butterfly I've ever seen;

it's certainly not one I would see in my garden.

Not to be completely outdone by Frances' butterfly magnetism, one small butterfly

chose to land on my leg . . . and then he flew to Frances:)

My intention was to also take lots of photos of the bloggers who attended Spring Fling, but somehow I never did. Saturday's dinner of authentic Chicago-style pizza did give me a chance to get a photo taken with Monica (left) and Beckie (right). Sorry, ladies, being very unphotogenic, I chose the most flattering photo of ME.

All too soon the weekend came to an end, and with just a few hours left on Sunday morning, Millenium Park seemed a logical place to return to, being within walking distance of our hotel. The fountain with changing images drew many visitors both Friday evening, when this photo was taken, and Sunday morning when little ones splashed happily in the shallow water.

The breathtaking river of salvia in the Lurie Garden, pictured on nearly everyone's posts, including a previous one of mine, was hard to capture in a photo, even though I tried from many angles.

Also difficult to capture completely were the hedges surrounding the gardens, meant to symbolize the "big shoulders" of Sandberg's poem "Chicago." Note the couple in the righthand corner of this photo--we saw several brides and grooms having their photos taken in the Lurie Gardens.

There's more to the Garden than just the salvia, however; one area is devoted to prairie plants, including this "Prairie Smoke." I first saw this on one of Mr. McGregor's Daughter's posts as well as seeing it in person in her garden. I know I'm not the only garden blogger who wants to add this plant to my garden!

And for a more traditional plant-lovers, the Lurie also had the perfect white peony.

Like any typical tourist, Beckie and I couldn't resist a final stop at "Cloud Gate," aka "the Bean," for a reflective photo of the Chicago skyline. Besides all the wonderful people we met and all the interesting places we saw, Chicago has even more to offer and has a beautifully landscaped downtown. While it won't be the same as Spring Fling, Beckie and I are already talking about returning to the Windy City to see all that we missed this time!

Garden Muse Day: Chicago!

Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders . . .

from "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg

To Sandburg it was the "City of the Big Shoulders," to Sinatra it was "my kind of town," to others it is "the Windy City," but to over 50 garden bloggers this past weekend Chicago was the beautiful and gracious city that hosted this year's Spring Fling. I'm still a little bleary-eyed and coming down from a sensory overload, but I wanted to share just a few highlights of this wonderful weekend.

Garden Muse Day is sponsored the first of each month by Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, and this month it is particularly exciting as we actually got to see her garden in person!

Carolyn Gail was gracious enough to invite all of the Spring Flingers into her garden and home.




I had admired her orange perfection iris on her post, but all of her irises were beautiful, including these yellow and purple ones.

It is one thing to see a garden or parts of it on a blog, but quite another to see it in person. Some of you may think this photo looks familiar--Mr. McGregor's Daughter showed a similar photo on her blog one day as part of the "Through the Garden Gate" meme. A few of us who arrived early on Thursday were able to tour Squirrelhaven as well, and I was amazed at how large it was! A picture may be worth "a thousand words," but the real thing is worth ten times that.

The weekend was jam-packed with so many activities that it may take me awhile to remember everything we did. But I won't forget the highlight of Friday's tours--a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Beckie and I made the mistake of opting for a later arrival and barely had time to skim the surface of all this fantastic place has to offer. The English walled garden was one of my favorite parts . . .



. . . as was this field of poppies. I have a feeling you're going to see a photo of this on every Spring Flinger's blog:) This planting of over 4700 poppies made an impression on everyone who saw it.

But the best part of the trip had to be meeting "old friends" and making new ones. There was certainly never a problem striking up a conversation with someone I'd never "met" before! Bus trips to gardens as well as dinners and lunches gave us a chance to meet new people and learn more about bloggers we thought we "knew."

For example, who knew that Frances was such a butterfly magnet?

And, of course, a good blogger is never without his or her camera, ready to take advantage of every photo opportunity as Nancy, Gail, and Frances demonstrate here in the Butterfly Haven at the Peggy Notebaert Museum.

Another highlight of the trip was the Lurie Garden, part of Millenium Park. This wave of six different varieties of salvia was so impressive I must have taken 20 pictures of it and still couldn't capture its magical effect.

In the Lurie I also found another "must-have" plant--this baptisia. I know I've seen it on some of your blogs, but again it's not the same as seeing it in person. I'm smitten with it and now am trying to find a place for one in my garden.

It was truly a wonderful weekend, and it will take me several days to sort through all my photos and collect my thoughts enough to thoroughly cover Spring Fling. But there are plants to be watered and some still needing a home in the garden and there are blog posts to be read, so this short post will have to do for now. A big thank you to all the organizers of Chicago's Spring Fling for a weekend I will always remember!

ABC Wednesday: Special S's

Today's ABC Wednesday is brought to you by the letter S, which represents someone very special in my life . . .

. . . Sophie

Sophie is no longer a puppy, in appearance at least, having more than doubled in size since she came to live with us three months ago. She turns six months old on Saturday and just last week received her diploma for completing Level I of Puppy Training Class. I had hoped to take a nice picture of her with her diploma, but she was too entranced by a bumblebee flying over my garden. Fortunately, she wasn't able to catch it.


According to her diploma, Sophie has learned to "Sit, Stand, Walk on Lead, Stay, Off, Come, and Polite Manners." Well, at least she demonstrated that in class. At home, it's often another story. Because we have such a large yard, we've allowed her to walk off leash quite a bit until she suddenly discovered birds flying over the fields. On several occasions I've had to trudge through muddy fields in my ratty blue bathrobe trying to retrieve her. Nope, no picture here of that; I'm just hoping none of the neighbors have one either. Obviously, we need to work on the command "Come, girl," so I've signed us up for Level II of Puppy Training. Both Sophie and I could benefit from more training. For example . . .

. . . I need to learn not to leave a roll of toilet tissue within reach of Sophie.

But even this mess pales in comparison to the day she ate right through the cord of my brand new vacuum. Fortunately, it wasn't plugged in, and I now have a real appreciation for Sears' 30-day no-questions-asked replacement policy. Then, of course, there was the week I spent in Arizona, when she ate a 6-foot long strip out of my hallway carpet. That makes worry somewhat about leaving for four days this weekend . . .

At the same time, Sophie has learned to be a little more mannerly around the younger grandkids. Both 5-year-old granddaughter and 4-year-old grandson (above) love to play with her now that she will settle down for them. Youngest grandson, not-quite-two, is still a little wary of her rambunctious behavior, though; Sophie certainly didn't win any points with him either when she stole his bag of cookies last weekend.

But like the toddler that she is, she is an angel when she's asleep!

S is also for Sunshine. After complaining a week ago about all the rain we have had, we've now enjoyed a full week of welcome sunshine, enabling the farmers to get much of their crops planted. I've also planted a lot of seeds in the new butterfly garden and finally got the tomatoes and peppers into the vegetable garden. I've made a big dent in the "pot ghetto" in front of my garage, although more plants somehow keep appearing there:)

The rest of these are going to have to remain homeless for a few more days, because I am leaving Thursday for a long weekend in Chicago--the second annual Spring Fling. For those not familiar with this term, Spring Fling will be a gathering of over 50 garden bloggers from across the country. We'll be visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden, the famous Millenium Park, some private gardens, and, of course, enjoying some social time, discussing--what else but gardening and blogging!

I am so excited to finally meet some of my blogging friends! I have formed so many wonderful friendships through blogging, and all of you have encouraged me, given me helpful advice, and even sent me some seeds and plants (the subject of a later post). Of course, not all my blogging friends will be in attendance, and I hope this will be just the first of many meetings with all of you. I want to mention one friend across the pond in particular today--a big congratulations to Liz, who just found out she is going to be a grandmother for the first time!

And just to show how wonderful my blogging friends are . . .

. . . I received a Surprise in the mail today--an early birthday present from a dear UK friend. A lovely necklace, plant markers, and two books will certainly be put to good use. Hmmm, she must be psychic; I think I'd better read the top book immediately:) Thank you so much, Cheryl.

Four days at Spring Fling means I will be incommunicado for several days, but I will catch up with all of you when I return. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and thanks to Denise Nesbitt for sponsoring ABC Wednesdays.