Greetings from Raleigh!

So , I survived the red-eye flight and made it through Raleigh and completed by first full day of the Garden Writer’s Association Symposium.

It’s the second day and finally there’s a spot with free Wi-Fi. I just got through the second day of exhibits, meeting vendors and scoring on some new plants to grow and try In the Pacific Northwest. Overall, I think it’s been a fairly successful and productive trip. We leave for our first tour in about an hour or so and I should really try and catch up on some more rest, but gosh….the opportunities to network and things I want to mention, the numerous small chats with all sorts of really friendly and courteous people who love plants as much as I do and even more so. While I’m still most certainly the youngest person of the symposium (minus the tolddlers who had to come with mom), I’ve been pretty good at standing my ground, being more eloquent in communicating what I do (which still is a mouthful) and just taking in as much as I’m comfortable taking in. At times, having travelled such far distances for a symposium, you must make the most of the little amount of time, but our schedule is quite packed making it really hard to see the city. We have many wonderful tours over the next two days. I hope I see more of Raleigh.
The smorgasbord of people I’ve meet has been quite tremendous. It’s been so exciting to meet and greet with people representing companies I’ve only heard of and faces and the physical presence of those I only knew by name. I’d go down the list, but I simply don’t have the time and I’m passing in and out here at the lobby the Convention Center.

I better hustle and get my stash of sample plants and this laptop back to my hotel room before our field trip. I’ll post more on my finds and stories in a next couple of posts.
Cheers y’all!

R