The expression, “I need a vacation from my vacation” rings true as we empty + clean our travel-worn camper, catch up on wash, shift through mail, and attack 5 weeks of rampant garden growth …..(aka weeds). Â All the while, my brain is on creative overdrive, processing the amazing, relaxing, sometimes stressful (when I lost my wallet + the storm broke our awning pole), 5 state adventure hubby and I just completed. (NY, PA, IN, OH, WV, KY).
So many highlights:
- Attending the Garden Writers’ Association Conference in Buffalo, NY–wow, so happy I made the trip. Â What is it? Imagine 5 days of nonstop immersion in all things gardening. Sessions on garden writing, blogging, using social media, and garden marketing, Then tours of Buffalo Gardens, a “Frank Lloyd Wright” Home, a daylily farm, Sustainability plantings at a Dentist office, the Botanical Garden, and the Olmsted Park System, among others. Â Add a gigantic hall of garden vendors highlighting the latest plant introductions, seeds, garden tools, and more. Â Now imagine going home with said plants, tools, catalogs, seeds and you can see why we were all in garden heaven.The best part though was participating in this whole experience with 350+ other garden lovers from all over the US. We were garden bloggers, marketers, authors, photographers, communicators, plant wholesalers, speakers, master gardeners, artists, garden magazine editors and more. Â So much inspiration. Nice to meet some of my favorite authors and garden bloggers and to discover new ones to follow. I will share these in a later post. I especially enjoyed discussing garden walk marketing ideas with Jim Chalier, Sally Cunningham, and other Buffalo Garden Walk participants. Much appreciation for all they shared graciously. Â Of course, I plugged our Cooper Young Garden Walk 2018 shamelessly to anyone who asked….lol.
- Visiting family in Pittsburgh + Kentucky (including a cousin I haven’t seen in 30 years)
- Riding great rails-to-trails with my hubby and seeing him knock off his bucket list more “100 mile state rides” (PA, NY)
- Seeing the eclipse in it’s totality
- Discovering that our dog really does travel well, even in a small camper
- Love our “cargo lite xtreme camper”–perfect size for our downsized family–however, we definitely over-packed, next trip will be lighter
- Resolving more of the genealogy puzzle with my sister
- Having Hubby join me in retirement.