Timber harvesting giant collects art trees?
On our way home from our earlier commute through rush-hour traffic… we took a lesson about just what this 20 miles “as-the-crows-fly” change in our geographic location entails. Indeed we’ve become “suburbanites”, instead of “Islanders”. We used to have only the ferry schedule to worry about before a familiar 20 minute drive into downtown. When we made a drive up the I-5 corridor last week, our trip became rather maddening inside intense traffic. This trip topped twice our old Island time.
We were driving to meet my long anticipated, but rather too-early-scheduled dental appointment, which, besides my regular cleaning & the repair of a chipped crown, l anticipated was going to include relining my denture. Thus, the appointment curiously become rather more a dis-appointment…
I began seeing my long-time dentist, who has had his office in Seattle’s Pike Place Market since when I lived two blocks away during my first four years in Seattle… Several bits of miscommunication & misunderstanding precluded accomplishing more than my cleaning & the repair to a crown, as scheduled.
Picking me up at our usual spot, I discovered that Stephen had just finished a similarly disappointing meeting, scheduled to coincide. We passed the art museum, eschewing seeing the IKAT exhibit we’d thought to peruse. We quit the city which has become increasingly annoying.
We spontaneously concurred to choose quieter time… wanting balm, home was calling.
Watching the passing terrain through the windshield, I realized we were approaching a place he had told me about, mentioning it as a destination he wanted to share… this seemed a perfect opportunity!
It is a Bonsai Museum… a collection held by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Corporation. It is displayed in a beautifully sited outdoor museum built near the now vacated national headquarters of the Company. I have appreciated seeing it along the I-5 a few miles north of Tacoma.
The low, live green roofed building is situated seemingly to straddle & hover over a wooded valley. Indeed, it seems to continue floating over the ponds of water lilies, in front & behind, as we drove past it to get to into the parking. There is also a contiguous Rhodendron collection, of many acres, which we will save for another time.
A bit of gentle walking along a hedge brings you to the entrance of the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection , a lovely corporate gift, charging no fee.
I’m sharing a random sampling of the trees on display, resting on concrete benches, so they can be supported while being watered every day. Simple walls visually background them, surrounded above by forest sky.
There was good signage, noting botanic notation, age & the creator’s name as well. I did not document well… too much to digest visually both outside & inside of the camera, in strong sunlight!
Balm indeed!