We've Been Busy! - The CobraHead Blog

Well, I’m a little bit embarrassed that I haven’t written any blog entries lately, but I think I can get away with using the “I’ve been busy” excuse. It’s true! I have! We all have!

Since early February, CobraHead has had an event nearly every weekend. Garden show season started off with a bang for us at the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo in Madison. The next weekend, Geoff and I were off to Virginia Beach for the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show. The show was definitely more “home” than “flower”, but we still had a good time. One of the fun events at that show was a dog stunt show. Every performing dog had been rescued from a shelter, and they all performed amazing tricks.

Bad Pic, Neat Trick!

Anneliese and Geoff at the Booth

While in the area, we had the opportunity to visit the Norfolk Botanical Garden. The Camellias were in bloom, and they were lovely.

Camellia Flower

Camellia Tree

If you ever find yourself in Virginia Beach or Norfolk, I recommend a visit to the botanical garden.

The very next weekend, Judy and I were in Hartford, Connecticut for the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show. It was our first time exhibiting in Connecticut, and the response was good. The weather was icy and snowy on Friday, but the die hard gardeners would not be kept away.

Yar, Buried Treasure!

Judy and Anneliese in the Booth

Connecticut is also where I made up a drinking game involving knit and crocheted scarves. Take a drink every time you see someone wearing a “Fun Fur” scarf. For you non-knitters, “Fun Fur” is generically known as eyelash yarn. It’s a novelty yarn that has lots of little strands that stick out and look like very brightly colored fur. I noticed that I saw a significant number of these scarves walking by, and I decided to make a game of it. Now, I use the term “drinking game” very loosely — we’re only drinking tea back there in the booth!

While Judy and I were in Connecticut, Noel and Geoff were in LaCrosse, Wisconsin at the Midwest Organic Farming Conference. I hear they had a good time, and I’m sure they’d be happy to tell you all about it.

The next weekend, Noel, Judy and Geoff headed out to the Philadelphia Flower Show while I stayed back to hold down the fort. I wasn’t home too long before I shipped off to Boston for the New England Spring Flower Show. The Philadelphia Show and the New England Show both last nine days, and this year they overlapped. Geoff had to leave early from Philadelphia to meet me out in Boston.

The theme this year at the New England show was “Rhapsody in Green”. Many of the landscape displays demonstrated eco-friendly tips and ideas for people to implement at home.

Melting Earth

I particularly liked this sculpture called “Melting Earth”, by Sean McDougal. It was on display at the Safe Lawns booth.

LG-BAGZ-IT

Here’s our friend Larry from LG-BAGZ-IT demonstrating his residential sized bag. Wait, what’s that little hook peeking out of the side pocket of the mini bag?

While we were out there, Geoff and I had the chance to check out Boston a little bit. For some of the best pizza you’ll have on this continent, check out Pizzeria Regina. We also had a couple of hours to spend at the Museum of Fine Arts. I’m told they have a great impressionist collection. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to get to it. My favorite part (of the parts we got to see) was the musical instruments room. There were a lot of brass, woodwind and stringed instruments that I was just itching to take out of their cases and play. I’m pretty sure the museum staff would have been rather upset if I had tried.

I had the luxury of spending over a week at home after returning from Boston. There was still a lot of snow on the ground. While waiting for it to melt, it snowed again. And again. For anyone not aware, south central Wisconsin has had a record amount of snow this year. It’s also been a particularly cold, long winter, too. So I have to say that even though I usually love snow, I wasn’t at all upset about being sent to Austin to join my brother at the Zilker Garden Festival. I was happily wearing flip flops within a half an hour of my arrival in town.

The Zilker Garden Festival is a really fun, laid back little show that’s held at the Zilker Botanical Garden. There are a lot of plant vendors and art sellers, and (this being Austin) there was an abundance of live music for everyone’s enjoyment. Music styles ranged from marching bagpipes to mariachis to good ol’ Austin-style blues rock.

On Sunday morning, I took the opportunity to walk through the botanical garden and take a few pictures.

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