Spring at the Bellevue Botanical Garden

In my (pitiful) attempts to keep this from becoming an all-Malcolm blog, I am going to share some of the nature pictures I took on our trip to Bellevue at the beginning of March. Since it is almost Easter, I thought I would lead off with this lovely hellebore, otherwise known as a lenten rose (since they typically bloom during the Lenten season). This one was in a pot at a garden center, but my mother does have some in her yard. I love the delicate pink petals and the subtle green center on this one. 

I've mentioned before how much I love the Bellevue Botanical Garden - every season has something to offer. This time it was a bank of mini-irises and a new feature - the Ravine Experience.

They have built an amazing suspension bridge over a small ravine at the edge of the garden, so you can walk in the canopy. It isn't really that much in the canopy, since the trees in the ravine are huge, but you do get to look down into the ravine. And the bridge is pretty cool.

See - the trees are all around the bridge, but Western Red Cedars are pretty darn tall, and it would take a deeper ravine than this one to pull you into their canopies.

I imagine it will be a lovely, cool and refreshing spot to visit come summer.

In the more formal section of the garden is this happy little stream. I probably should have played around with my camera settings and tried to capture the water in motion better, but at least I stopped to look at all, I guess.

And I will admit that I was less than attentive to what this flower was, but I love the tightly bunched circle and the tiny individual flowers. The yellow really stood out against the browns and greys of the leafless branches.

You have to love the various textures on this branch. The flowers, the almost fluffy moss, and the harder, crinkly lichen.

I haven't had many opportunities to take pictures of anything other than Malcolm lately, but now that it is spring again, I hope to make time. Not that I have a problem taking lots of pictures of him, but I miss looking more closely at things.

Malcolm in Bellevue, Part Deux

 Here are some more pictures from our recent trip to visit the grandparents.

We didn't even coordinate our outfits on purpose! One of those mysterious family occurrences, I guess. Malcolm is taking after his grandmother and closing his eyes in family photos, although this time Grandma actually kept hers open.

I guess Grandpa didn't get the memo about wearing blue.

Grandma Betty and her dog Chi Chi go down to this park at least once a week to walk. This morning it was cold enough that Chi Chi needed her jacket. Malcolm took the opportunity to catch up on his morning nap.

Malcolm gets to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa almost every day, so he recognized and remembered them this time and didn't act all shy. But they don't get to hold him over Skype, so they were very happy to have him around for a few days.

Grandma's owl made him laugh. 

Grandpa let his beard grown out (much to grandma's dismay) just so Malcolm could pull on it. Malcolm duly obliged, although he doesn't look too sure about it here.

Another new experience on this trip was sitting in a high chair at a restaurant. We've taken him out to eat before, but until now he always sat in someone's lap. To him, the best part was the mountain of napkins to shred. He kept me busy, picking up the confetti, making sure he didn't eat too large of pieces. He behaved very well - no shrieking.

He also got a stroller upgrade while at the grandparents' house - now he can finally see where he is going! We really needed a new stroller- he only tolerates the old one, and won't let us use it for walks. It is not really meant for anything more vigorous than a stroll around the grocery store or the mall anyway. And he is getting too heavy to carry in the snuggli on long walks. This is much better, and assuming he will allow himself to be held down for that long, should last until he is 4 or 5 (I doubt he will allow that - I certainly didn't!).

Malcolm in Bellevue, part 1

 Last week Malcolm took his first airplane trip when we flew to Bellevue to visit my parents. I was really dreading the flying part, since he used to be very sensitive to pressure changes from weather systems, and I didn't want to be the parent that all the other passengers look at with loathing if he screamed non-stop. However, Malcolm was about as perfect a traveler as you can expect for a 7 month old. There was some crying and screeching when he was getting tired and bored while the plane was sitting on the tarmac, getting de-iced, but after shredding a Skymall magazine and a snack, he eventually fell asleep. No screaming at all on any of the take-offs or landings!

One of the purposes of this trip was to introduce Malcolm to his great-grandmother in person. He's met her on Skype, but that isn't the same as being in the same room together. She is 91 and no longer travels, so we had to go to her.

 It was lovely to have 4 generations together.