Bloedel Reserve

What if. You knew. You. Wouldn't you. Know. In 1951 Mr. and Mrs. Prentice blow Dell purchased and moved to this

elegant 150 acre estate. And in his later years of retirement Mr. and Mrs. Blow Dell created this reserve whose primary purpose Mr. Blake Bell's own words is to create and maintain a place where people enjoy natural beauty as evidence by plants. It was specialize in the wild flowers shrubs and trees native to this area and the woods fields and streams which are their natural environment. Recently the blood elves moved to Seattle. They relinquish their life interest in the house and property and have generously opened to the public. The blow Dells have two children and Jenny Wright one of their daughters talks of her parents vision in creating this tranquil and artistic retreat. For our North West I do think it was. It was a right. My mother had the bright idea to make. The house. The visitor center. Doesn't have the institutional love and the.

You know predictable visitor center would have. It has a more of a house like look and the designer tried to keep it very much and my mother's taste the kind of furnishings would be. The kind of thing that she would have picked out. So it is very successful in that way I'm you know I would think it was. Exactly the right decision to have it be located where. The reserve is composed of many interesting features is a bridge marshal a Wild Bird Refuge. There's a Japanese house and garden. There is a walk through a ravine with wonderful rhododendron in the spring. There is a a room in the forest a reflection pool that is laid in a very formal way surrounded by use in a very

rigid geometric fashion in the middle of the forest and many other beaches. I think that they looked at. The reserve of that property. In the beginning as kind of. The way an artist would look at a canvas a blank canvas. I know my father feels strongly that it shouldn't be didactic and he's against labels and it should be scientific in any way it should be much more aesthetic and much more contemplative. That sort of mood should be conveying. That expression. I've a written mission just for Christmas. This is a place

where we have all kinds of precious little ones. Ground covers. Flowers. And botanical garden is set up was led was another intrusion. Things are classified but it's tempered relative and beauty artificial at the same time. The fact that there are. Great areas. That have absolutely no development I think makes it the kind of place and will people will find unusual. And. Original. Recently a visitor to the reserve was

inspired enough to write a little haiku a Japanese poem about his experience and I can't think of any nicer kind of response and I think that's what my parents were looking for was that people would go over there and get be refresh to be inspired or have some experience that they just wouldn't have in any other way.