'The wind rises' and upcoming garden tours

by aleks

• 'The wind rises' ( (Kaze tachinu, 2013) is a newest animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, a fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982), designer of the Mitsubishi A5M and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero;  aircrafts that were used by the Empire of Japan during World War II. It is an utterly beautiful and poignant historical drama about a boy who dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes... Some scenes appear like self-writing haikus: when Jiro walks onto a meadow filled with flowers and grass covered parts of wrecked airplanes after the war reminded me of an old verse by Matsuo Basho: "A thicket of summer grass / Is all that remains / Of the dreams of ancient warriors."

The film has quite limited distribution (about one movie theater per city in our area), so catch it on a big screen while it's still playing at Regal Meridian 16, downtown Seattle. The title of the film comes from a novel of the same name by Tatsuo Hori, who took a line from Paul Valery's poem, "Le vent se Leve, il faut tenter de vivre" – The wind is rising. We must try to live…

SJG • 4/10/14 - Prunus mume,
Japanese apricot in the Orchard

• Garden tour 1: when I was recently researching prunus mume (Japanese apricot) for a post on the bloom blog I contacted a local writer and researcher, Arthur Lee Jacobson ('Wild Plants of Greater Seattle', 'Trees of Seattle', 'Trees of Green Lake' and 5 other books) to let him know that I quoted from his article on prunus mume in my post.  In response the writer  kindly let me know about Arthur Lee Jacobson's Open Garden from noon to 6:00 -  'you can visit my garden in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood'; it's  this coming Sunday, April 27th - very interesting website and invitation here…

• Garden tour 2: Don't forget that our Unit86 Plant List group is conducting a class May Bloomers Garden Tour on May 10, Saturday, 10 am for all SJG volunteers, docents and staff. Also, our  Plant Committee prepared a handout for visitors, containing April blooming rhodies and azaleas, available at the Garden Gate; the Early May rhodies edition is coming May 1st, Late May rhodies on May 15th - enjoy them!

SJG • 4/10/14 - royal azaleas blooming under saucer magnolia in area H