BONSAI SOLSTICE

One of the trees viewed by flashlight at the Pacific Bonsai Museum's Bonsai Solstice.

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The Pacific Bonsai Museum illuminated the edges of its paths in luminaries this evening and invited the public to visit with their flashlights. TWT, The Wife, and The Child headed into the dark, followed the paths, and were promptly deluged with rain that started once we at the outside exhibits. But this being the Pacific Northwest, we did what any native does, we continued on in the wet, cold, and dark as though it wasn't really raining.

It was fun running about in the rain with flashlights blazing, trying to read the exhibit placards. There was an indoor conservatory of tropical bonsai that provided a refuge from the rain, as well as a tent set up with outdoor heaters and hot beverages—coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.

There was something mystical and holy about shining light upon these miniature tree forms as we approach the longest night of the year, trying to make out their shapes and scientific classifications and general names in the dark.