I really think it is the whole delightful combination of flowers, fragrance, lessons, light, products, music and inspiration that draws me back. I get inspired to think in new patterns. Thinking is hard. Having an event that stimulates so many areas of my brain through all my senses kick-starts my year after semi-hibernating all winter.
My friend has a six-inch deep eco-lawn on her roof-all made of different kinds of moss. It grew all by itself and never needs maintenance. I’m not sure our roof will last any longer than the moss covered roof. I laughed at the drone and took the slip of information the sales rep wanted to give me.
I was still laughing over the drone when I got home and told my husband about it. He didn’t laugh. He looked at my pictures and asked questions then filed the precious contact information in his house-maintenance file. Sometime in the next year, we will have a drone flying over our house sprinkling moss killer on the roof. The garden show is life changing.
One of my favorite products at the garden show is the chocolate make by Forte Chocolates in Mt. Vernon Washington. I can’t say which is my favorite flavor, but the white chocolate with rosemary and pepper is one of my favorites. The Espresso Bean bar has flecks of ground espresso beans in it. They make an orange flavor and a honeycomb bar. I have no idea what the ones with nuts taste like because of my allergy to nuts.
Poor hubby fingered my stash of candy bars wistfully. “I wouldn’t think rosemary and pepper would be all that good.” He’s allergic to chocolate so he’ll never know. I got to thinking about how much I enjoy these weird flavored chocolate bars. Finally, from the depths of my brain, two ideas collided. I could make sugar cookies in my favorite candy bar flavors. I have lots of Rosemary in my yard. We have ground espresso beans. Hubby can get a hint of the wonderful flavors I enjoy in the chocolate bars.
So what keeps me going back to the garden show year after year for thirty-one years? The ideas and the brain stimulation pull me in. I see new ways to do things to make life easier or more fun. The garden show won my loyalty by stirring my sense of creativity.