Leaving Home...

I've decided to try and keep a travel journal while travelling to TN. Since I'm doing this for myself, I thought maybe some of you would like to follow along as well. My posts will most likely just be random thoughts and notes not necessarily a consistent story...just so you know. :) Here is what I have from my first day on the road:

"I'm letting go of the life I planned for me and my dreams, I'm losing control of my destiny...

This is a giant leap of faith... the fear of the unknown beyond my comfort zone...

Giving into your gravity, knowing you are holding me... I'm not afraid." - I'm Letting Go by Francesca Battistelli

Stopped to get gas at Fred Meyer... was posed this question by the pump: "would you like to use your $.10 /gal rewards discount?" This seemed like a really stupid question seeing as I was about to set out on a journey that will take me about 2500 miles away from what has been my home for over 23 years!

It has been a beautiful day for a drive... crisp and clear with the sun shining all day. Saw beautiful fall color crossing the Cascade Mountains and then again when crossing over the Mountains in Montana. There was a lot of gold colored trees in Idaho and Montana... and I wasn't sure what they were at first. I finally got close enough to some and decided they must be Larches, because they looked like conifers. The color was stunning and I was able to take some pic to share when I stopped at one of the rest areas. I also noticed a light scent of pine lingering in the air when I got out of the car. It was a nice addition to the feeling that I was in the middle of autumn there.

Once I got to Missoula (my destination for the night), I met a family friend for dinner next door to my hotel. The food was delicious and it was nice to catch up with her. After dinner, we were discussing how far from Missoula, Bozeman is, and ended up getting some helpful info from a waiter who had just ended his shift. I then started out to go back to my hotel room, and the friend came out after me and said she was going to drive me back to my hotel (even though it was just next door). Apparently the guy we had chatted with, followed me out of the resturaunt even though he still had half a beer left at his table. I was thankful for her concern, and took her up on the ride. Now I'm going to try to get to sleep, even though the next door neighbor is talking very loudly (on his cell phone presumably) and get an early start tomorrow morning.

Here are some pics I took today...hope you enjoy.

The first pic is of The Gorge at Vantage, WA. The second is of the fall color in Montana.

Life is changing... a lot.

I'm sure most of you know this by now, but I thought I'd share some thoughts about my impending move cross country.

Yesterday a friend and came and bought my two large bookcases and my bed. This is the first time its really hit me that I'm really moving. I know this might sound weird, but its true! I've been planning for several months now, but in my mind I still had a lot of time before I leave. Now its only 3 weeks away... and its hitting me. This is for real. I've been reassuring my friends of this fact, but apparently I hadn't convinced myself yet...

Bellevue Botanical Garden

Today I went on another garden outing with my friend MintClartha. We went to Bellevue Botanical Garden, which I had visited before but she hadn't. It was perfect weather for picture taking, and we were excited to get started. The garden is quite large with various different types of gardens inside it. We visited the Waterwise garden first, and moved on to the Perennial Border. The Perennial border is one of my favorite places here. We saw lots of interesting beetles and bees on our walk through the border.

As it is August, all the hydrangeas were blooming, and there were many different types to see. The further we went, each one seemed to be a more stunning shade of blue or purple. We also saw some pink and white hydrangeas. After a nice walk through the woods on the Loop Trail, we walked through the Native Discovery Garden alongside the Wetland Ponds. In the Native Discovery Garden we saw such Northwest natives as, Oregon Grape, Bunchberry, and various ferns. From there we went through the Yao Garden, which is a Japanese style garden. It was very peaceful there, and contained lots of maples, ferns, azaleas, and hostas. We continued on to the Rhododendron Glen where we found a nice little kiosk to look up some of the plants we didn't know. The next area we came to was called the Shorts Ground Cover Garden, which also showcased an impressive waterfall feature. One of my favorite plants in that area was the Black Mondo Grass, in combination with the low-growing Persicaria. The last area we visited was the Alpine Rock Garden, which reminded me of some areas I had seen on my camping trip last weekend. Except there were some very different plants used in this garden. There were several types of sedum, some Creeping Thyme and campanula. Overall it was a very enjoyable morning, and it was refreshing to visit the garden with someone who loves plants as much as I do.

If you'd like to see more pictures from our garden adventure click here.

New Place

Its true, I've moved out of my parents house. Yes its been 3 months already and I haven't posted about it.... I have finally taken pictures of my bedroom and bathroom which I am renting. So from now on you can picture me blogging from my bed, since that is usually where I sit to work. :)

I'm renting a bedroom and bathroom from friends who just bought their first house. Its a townhouse and we live right near the mall and only about 5 min from my work (which is great!). This bedroom is slightly bigger than my old room in my parents house, and the closet is bigger (!!). One of my favorite things about moving out, is that I don't have to share a bathroom with 3 brothers any more. I don't have to work shower schedules out, or worry about them not replacing the toilet paper, or even about the messes they might leave on the counter or sink. I've been enjoying my independence, and expect to continue enjoying it even though I have been experiencing "family withdrawals". I still get up to see my family quite often though. In fact the past 3 weekends have all been spent either at my parents house or with my family camping.

Car Shopping

The time has come for me to get a new car. I currently own a 97 Mazda Protege that has over 100k miles on it. I have been doing lots of research online and getting price quotes from local dealerships through email. Within the last 2 weeks I have test driven a 2008 Ford Focus, Nissan Versa, Mazda 3 and a 2009 Toyota Corolla. My favorite so far is the Mazda. Oddly enough it was the first car I drove. Controls for wipers, lights etc are in the same places as my car. It was very comfortable to drive, and a nice quiet ride. I did notice that it was easy to quickly be over the speed limit because it accelerates so smoothly I didn't hear the shift changes as much. Next I drove the Focus, which was running for a great price. This year Ford has added a lot of cool extra features to the Focus. If you get the SES it has the Microsoft Sync system, which is a hands-free voice recognition system. I have to say this is a really awesome idea, however it seemed a little over-the-top for a car like the Focus. More important features like comfortable seats, location of the shifter stick and emergency brake were lacking. Last night I drove the2009 Toyota Corolla which has been re-vamped this year. I really like the look of it on the outside, and it drove pretty smooth too. The seats weren't the most comfortable, and I don't think any of my tall friends would have enough head room. Toyota is a reliable company, and the Corolla gets great gas mileage which is a huge benefit of late. The Nissan Versa is a sporty little car. It was smooth to drive and had quite a bit of getup and go. When sitting in it, I felt I was higher than in any of the other cars. I not only liked the look of the hatchback, but I also felt I could see out the back better. Overall I liked it a lot, and I've had several people recommend this local dealership. The low price makes it very tempting even though I like the Mazda best.
I'm finding that this decision isn't as easy as I thought it could be. Thinking about all the different aspects of buying a new car has been somewhat stressful, and I can't wait for it to be over. However it is fun to drive all these different cars! :)

NW Flower & Garden Show update

hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that if you'd like to see more pics from the show you can look at my web album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/leah.liebelt/2008NWFlowerGardenShow

NW Flower & Garden Show

This last weekend I went to the NW Flower & Garden Show at the convention center in Seattle. I went with a fellow garden-lover from church, Martha, and we had a wonderful time! She just recently moved to the area and had never been, so it was a new experience for her. This was my first year to actually spend a whole day at the show, and go to any seminars. I really enjoyed it even though I was exhausted by the end of it.

We began by viewing the Display Gardens. This is the most amazing part, because there are these gardens which make you feel like you are outdoors not in a big convention center. Martha and I decided that if we took our pictures just right, people wouldn't be able to tell we were inside at all. There were several I really liked, but my favorite was called "Weekend Adventures". It was a small camping/picnic scene in what looked like a native Northwest woodland setting. All the plants they used were natives or variations of natives to Western Washington. Another favorite was a fall harvest themed garden that incorporated a flower garden and a veggie garden together.

After we looked at all the Display Gardens, we walked through one of the three rooms of booths and then went to a couple seminars. The first seminar was "Part 1: Containers 101" and the second was "Part 2: Plant Palettes" both by Wendy Welch. Wendy Welch is a Container Designer who teaches classes at Swansons Nursery in Seattle, and at Edmonds Community College (where I went to school). I really enjoyed her seminars, she explained things in a very easy-to-understand way. In part two of the seminar, she showed several slides with ideas for plant combinations which I always find helpful.

We then ate lunch and continued our visit by looking at the container competition. Different designers and nurseries had each put together a grouping of containers with specific themes. One of my favorites was using succulents and bright colors. Another really neat one had a miniature theme. They made miniature garden scenes in their containers. Each was very creative. We finished off our time by walking through the remaining area of booths which included nursery booths with live plants for sale.

Overall I really enjoyed the show. The display gardens had some great ideas in them, and hearing Wendy talk about making containers made me want to get back into that.