The Wild Honey Buzz: How to Thrive in 2025: Birthday Month Edition: Flower Farms, Road Trips, Music Festivals & More

Zinnias at Bailey Farm, Snohomish Washington

Happy September - Wild Honey's Birthday Month, National Honey Month and month of the Fall Equinox.

August was a whirlwind of summer activity with visits to flower farms, the state fair, a botanical garden, a labyrinth, a campus where guide dogs for the blind receive training, an island in the Salish Sea that we've never visited before, a poetry reading, baseball game, art galleries, and a Labor Day "Music Festival" (aka protest). I also enjoyed several dips in the refreshingly cool waters of Lake Washington on the days when the temperature climbed into the upper 80's, and yoga and pilates sessions on the dock.

Below are some photos of my summer adventures. I have some exciting travel plans for September that I look forward to sharing about in my October blog post.

I accompanied my daughter and this beautiful boy named Craig to visit the campus of Guide Dogs for the Blind in Boring, Oregon where the dogs receive their training beginning around 18 months of age. She volunteers as an assistant raiser for the guide dogs. I have so enjoyed getting to know these incredible animals and the incredible people who work with them.

On a road trip to Hood Canal in WA, we stopped at the Saint Andrew's House Retreat Center in Union and discovered this unique labyrinth made of oyster shells! It seems that wherever I go, a labyrinth finds me!

Isn't this little ferry boat so cute?! It is the Pierce County, WA ferry that we road to Anderson Island which is a 20 minute sail from Steilacoom, WA and is the southernmost island in the Salish Sea. It reported a population of 1,302 people in the 2020 census.

Andy's Marine Park on Anderson Island, WA

Arts in the Garden Show at the beautiful Bellevue Botanical Gardens in Bellevue, WA

What is summer without a trip to the ball park? Go Mariners! We were able to plug in our seat numbers on the Mariners website and get this awesome photo of our family cheering during the game against the Padres!

Yoga on the dock with my awesome teacher, Adrian. Namaste!

Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, WA...yummy corn on the cob!

Hanging out with the cows at the fair. Moovelous!

Aztec dancer performing at the fair. The dancers invited people from the audience to join them in a friendship dance, and my daughter and I accepted the invitation!

Attended my 8th "Music Festival" (aka protest) on Labor Day with a flower-themed sign and some dahlias from my garden to give to fellow patriots like this wonderful woman. Joy is resistance, and so is art! Thank you to everyone who is taking action in defense of democracy!

Love this sign! Too many ICE holes out there!

Loved visiting this farm with someone I love whose name is Bailey!! We enjoyed picking bouquets of colorful zinnias.

How delightful to run across this sign in Snohomish Washington! Being a bee nerd with the nickname of Wild Honey and seeing a bee sanctuary with the names of two of my favorite humans made me smile! The bee sanctuary is a private garden.

One of the many art galleries we visited this summer was Alki Arts in West Seattle where we had the good fortune to obtain a painting by legendary Northwest painter, Gary La Turner.

With poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha after her reading at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church as part of their "Summer of Palestinian Visibility" series. The poems in her book, "Something About Living" are inspired by her Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian heritage. In the bag is my gift of a watermelon, a fruit that contains the colors of the Palestinian flag and often used as a symbol of Palestine.

And finally in writing news, I was amused to received this colorful review of a couple of my poems from a reader...thank you, KB! You can read the poems on my website.

Wishing you a wonderful start of fall here in the Northern Hemisphere and spring equinox for our friends down under.

Much love,

Marianne (aka Wild Honey)

P.S....

We moved to a new house last October and discovered we have a "bee tree" in our front yard! This crepe myrtle tree is now blooming and if you stand underneath it, the buzzing of bees is so loud! Some folks call my husband Mr. Honey and the two of us "The Honeys" due to my nickname Wild Honey, so it's only appropriate that we'd have a bee tree, LOL!