July 2015, my family and I packed up our worldly belongings and headed north to Portland Oregon. Claire, Goldie the goldfish, Suzie Q our dog and I in the car. Mark and our bunny Amelia in a Uhaul. It felt like a mad dash to get on the road but once we did the miles slipped by and we fell into travel time with Goldie the first to shout out “Are we there yet?”.


A few weeks before the move I loaded up the truck with my pruning ladder and 30 trees. I had big plans for them in Oakland and now I have big plans for them in Portland! I covered them with burlap and they made the drive with only a few burnt leaves and lived happily with my sister in Portland until I could catch up to them.



The rest of the summer flew by in a whirlwind of unpacking boxes, keeping Claire busy and getting use to the hot summer weather. In September I was off to The American Conifer Society national meeting in Petaluma CA. It didn’t take long for me to go back to California! In October I was off to Durham NC to participate as an instructor for the NAJGA regional workshop at the Duke Gardens in the newly installed Pine Clouds Mountain Stream garden. Before long the holidays descended and Claire got to play in the snow and eat ice off of the fir trees.

We made it through our first winter and enjoyed the crazy growth that comes with a North West spring.


This brings me back to July. One year later. It has been a wild year. I miss everyone in California, my home for 15 years. But Portland has welcomed us with open arms and we are so happy to be here!
