Christianson's Nursery, La Conner Washington

This is one of most aesthetically pleasing places to visit in the Skagit Valley. There are several boot scrapers scattered about to rid yourself of any remaining bits of heavy, caked on winter left clinging to your boots, weighing you down.

Visio Divina

I sequester myself in the garden,

an antidote for headlines
repeated over and over again --
as if only despair and destruction
could make the front page news.

Inspect the throat of a flower,

study the stamen, pollen, petals,

and hairs, or peer into a pear 

or blueberry blossom 

until you finally figure out

how bellybuttons on fruit begin. 

Or sit with a star magnolia 

who blooms without her leaves. 

Stay until the light

 penetrates the white 

and covers the day 

with ease.