Return to Bloedel Gardens, part 1

Earlier this summer Tina and I explored Bloedel Gardens on Bainbridge Island but due to lack of time, we missed about half of it, so yesterday we ventured out again to see the rest and to do more drawing there.

This is the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  It is not the ferry we got on.  It is the ferry that we missed by precisely one minute.  Thank you, Seattle traffic.

We had an hour to wait until the next one (we were second in line for that!).  So of course we got out our sketch pads.  This was the view from the dock:

And here is my sketch of it:

Finally we got on board the ferry, which takes 35 minutes.  I spent some time admiring the views, and then spent some more time collecting a bunch of the free tourist brochures and magazines the ferry service offers up, and then I spent some time drawing the only thing of interest from my seat.

We arrived on Bainbridge and drove out to the gardens, arriving around 11:30am.  We spent about half an hour walking around the section we had missed on our previous visit.  It included this lovely duck pond:

Which included this lovely duck (American Widgeon):

There were trails and boardwalks through a mossy, ferny woods.

And it was also full of mushrooms:

When we emerged from the woods, we came upon a bench in front of this reflecting pool. I ate my lunch there while reflecting.

At this point Tina and I split up to go sketching our separate ways.  First I explored the area around the old Bloedel mansion and its pond.

There I found some Water Striders:

Here is a video of a Water Strider -- true to its name, striding along the surface.

Part 2 will appear on Monday.