Tales from a travelling floral designer

There is something thrilling about seeing a flower in it's natural habitat.  In today's market, flowers are flown in from all over the globe.  It's become quite decadent, actually--sneaky too--as we defy the nature outside our own front door with peonies on our kitchen tables in the dead of winter.  So for me, travelling to the Portland, OR area was a treat on so many levels.  The city itself is called "The City of Roses" for its enormous test garden nestled atop an amazing perch overlooking the city (and on clear days, Mount Hood).  But for me it is the city of moss, or the city of ferns.  Moss is the kudzoo vine of the Pacific North West (albeit, native.) and it is literally capable of swallowing the entire city if left alone--there was a catchy advertisement running about a certain fat man in a red suit unable to land his team of reindeer on a slick, moss-covered roof! For me--a girl who adores a chunk of lush, pretty moss like some folks adore, say...their children...walking around in that misty, moss covered oasis was so dang magical!  But it didn't stop there.  Oh no.  There were ILEX berries growing on the ROADSIDE.  And Snow berries on the hillsides.  These are things which will never, not ever, grow here in Texas.  It took everything in me to suppress that ancient hunter-gather gene (or maybe it is the more modern version--the hoarding gene?) Either way, I wanted to gather it all up in my arms and never let go.  *Sigh*  I suppose there are worse occupational hazards than that....

Snowberries on Mt. Tabor.  Still holding on in December...

Ilex berries

Impossibly green ferns

I mean seriously, its a moss TREE.

They've got fog in great quantities as well.  Another rare Austin element.

Mt Hood, sunrise, from Vancouver WA

And sunset, standing ontop of Mt Hood, looking out at Mt. Jefferson.