Comprising a Life

Several years ago now, and having been told by my neurosurgeon and oncologist that I had little chance of more than a year to live due to a brain tumor.  I decided to make what time I had left count and although I had visited many wonderful European gardens I realized that I had never visited some of our own American well-known gardens.  So I planned a trip to visit Longwood Gardens with a fellow horticulturist, friend and business competitor, Mike Levy. Mike had never seen Longwood Gardens either but he principally went along as a borrowed brain and legs as I was still pretty muddled from my surgery.  The first day we took a cab to the flower show which was a spectacular affair with extravagant exhibits of flowers and landscapes all forced grown to be flowering during the exhibit.

The next day brought with it a dramatic change in the weather and as I was to turn out, one of the greatest blizzards in Philadelphia's history.  It had snowed all night and in the morning the most amazing sight greeted us as we had coffee in the hotel lounge.  We decided that we didn't want to miss the rest of the flower show as we had only seen about half of it the day before.  So barely able to balance myself standing up and with Mike's help and a cane off we went into the weather.  It was in the wisest thing that I had ever done the days were precious and it might be my last great adventure.  The following photos of it are divided between scenes of the storm and scenes of the exhibits inside the convention center, which by the way included the exhibit of my good friend Chase Rosade's bonsai nursery. 

The color temperature of the photos taken inside the center are a bit off, due to the available light film type I was using.  Outside in the weather I was able to capture on film Mike and I trudging back to the hotel in the blizzard as the last forms of public transportation finally came to a halt.  I am curious myself to see how these turn out on the web page. Enjoy the pictures and the sure to leave any comments on my guest page.

Vaughn