Phil Wood, Seattle's Garden Designer Extraordinaire

Phil  buying pepper pots for his family in Zhongshan (不错的古镇) outside Chongqing

Do you know Phil Wood?  If you’ve been around the Seattle Chinese Garden for 20 years or more, you should!  He started volunteer gardening at the Garden just after he adopted the older of his two daughters from China.  Soon Phil became a Board member and then Board president, helping raise funds after Song Mei Pavilion had been completed.  Phil is currently a Board member, head of the Horticulture committee, and head honcho (principal) at Phil Wood Garden Design.  

At this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show, I saw that Phil won the first place design award (again) for the Arboretum Garden, and decided we all needed to find out more about the quiet, mild- mannered master designer, friend, husband, father, and teacher – Phil Wood.

Phil sitting in his award-winning Northwest Flower and Garden Show landscape

Phil is a native north westerner, born in Seattle and raised in Bellingham and Kirkland.  He graduated from the University of Washington where he studied landscape architecture.  He lived on Orcas Island for about five years on his parents’ farm.  He discovered that gardens are art as he pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Cornish College of the Arts.

What drew him to plants and gardening was the large garden in Oregon City owned by his paternal grandparents.  He has fond memories of the beautiful flower garden, the creation of his grandmother.  Phil became interested in Chinese gardens when he visited the Sun Yat Sen Garden in Vancouver, BC.  He concluded that the culture that created that garden was a wonderful culture; he admired the sense of space and wonder around each corner.

Phil working at the Garden

According to Phil, gardening allows us to creatively and responsively interact with the natural world just outside our door.  Circulation (how visitors move through the garden) is the key to design.  Garden paths allow visual and physical access and organization to the garden.  Structures provide a place for people to gather.  Chinese gardens are popular gathering places – their beautiful paths and structures lead you to exploration and discovery.

Phil, daughters Anna and Lucy, and his wife Judy Mahoney

Not only does Phil enjoy gardening, he enjoys writing about gardening. For three years he wrote a Sunday column for the Seattle Times, “The Garden Designer: Phil Wood,” where he charmed his readers on topics such as how to perk up your winter garden, the intrigue of garden structures, and how to take some of the work out of yard work.  To browse Phil’s older columns, go to philwoodgardens.com and click on the Garden Designer archive below Phil’s photo.  

Today,  he continues to charm his garden readers with columns in the North Seattle Herald, Capitol Hill Times, and the Queen Anne News. 

Phil is looking forward to increasing collaboration with the South Seattle Community College horticulture program – complementarities and synergy!  And he’s always looking for more horticulture volunteers!

Written by Margaret Dodd Britton 

Seattle Mayor Welcomes Chongqing Delegation

Mayor Mike McGinn, Mr. Chen Heping and SCG board vice president Jim Dawson in the center flanked by garden board members and Chongqing delegates  (photo courtesy of Trade Development Alliance)

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, executives from Microsoft and Amazon, and leaders from the Seattle Chinese Garden and other organizations welcomed a delegation of Chongqing government representatives to Seattle on February 13. 

The 7-member Municipality of Chongqing delegation led by the Chongqing secretary general Mr. Chen Heping with Garden board members in front of the main gate.

Led by Mr. Chen Heping, secretary general of Chongqing Municipal Government, the seven-member delegation made it a priority to stop over in Seattle on their way to an international mayors conference in California. In late afternoon they visited the Garden to take a look at the site and see Knowing the Spring Courtyard before heading to a meeting with Mayor McGinn.

Mayor Mike McGinn with Mr. Chen Heping, secretary general of the Chongqing Municipal Government

At a dinner Monday evening, McGinn formally announced that he will visit Chongqing in late March with members of the Washington State China Relations Council, Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, Seattle Chinese Garden, Seattle-Chongqing Sister City Association, and several other organizations. In his remarks at the dinner, McGinn noted that our Garden “is a great physical representation of the strong ties between Chongqing and Seattle.” 

Raising Lanterns

Garden members and friends celebrated the close of Chinese New Year at the February 4th Raising Lanterns event in the festively decorated Chan Center. They bid on a wide and colorful variety of items in the silent auction (thank you to all our generous donors!) and enjoyed socializing over wine, tea and treats and listening to the lovely guzheng melodies by a musician from Huayin Performing Arts.

Many participated in the raffle for the beautiful plant container designed by Riz Reyes. Judy Koenig was the lucky raffle winner of the magnificent planter. The festival concluded with a procession at dusk to Knowing the Spring Courtyard, hung with beautiful big lanterns and sparkling with lights decorating the pine trees, bamboo stone, and gate columns. The sweet smell of wintersweet filled the courtyard with its tantalizing hint of spring.

Special thanks to event chair Ying Yin, silent auction leads Judy Koenig and Barb Bonamy, Benjamin Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Washington, for his loan of many beautiful lanterns, and to the many volunteers (15 with 5 friends!) from the Boeing Asian American Professional Association and other Garden volunteers. This was the first big event for our new intern, Kana Ueda, who started her 4-month internship as events coordinator for the Garden in December.

SCG board president Jon Geiger and vice president Jim Dawson with supporters Grace and Stella Chien

SCG Hosts WACE Awards Ceremony

Washington Association for Chinese Education (WACE) held their first awards ceremony at the Seattle Chinese Garden yesterday.  The competition for the awards, which solicited written and video entries on the importance of learning Chinese from middle and high school students across the state, generated enormous support and press for the fledgling, student-run nonprofit WACE.

Andrea Liu and Wayne Huang prepare to announce the WACE competition winners

The six finalists received their cash awards and honors in a ceremony held in the Judge Warren and Nobie Chan Education Center at the Garden.  The ceremony was marked with speakers, performances and community support for the hard work of the student organizers from WACE as well as the competition finalists.

Winners from left: Megan Lu (2nd), Kate Lipscomb (3rd), Lee Xie (3rd), Andy Lin (3rd), Mason Ji (1st) and Katarina Nguyen (2nd)

Tang Changping with Andrea Liu

WACE, co-founded and co-chaired by Skyline High School seniors Andrea Liu and Kevin Li, is committed to the belief that American students should be given the opportunity to learn more about China and immerse themselves in the Chinese culture (see previous blog entry Why Learn Chinese?).

Founded in March 2011 from an idea that stemmed out of the Chinese Cultural Club at Skyline High School, WACE now spans across seven schools and five school districts. They have received support from over 500 members of the community through their petition to bring Chinese into more Washington schools, including letters from US Ambassador to China Gary Locke and Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire.

Chunman Gissing

Sponsors Chunman Gissing, president of the Chinese Language Teacher's Association of Washington and Tang Changping, director of the Confucius Institute of Washington both spoke eloquently of the need for generating more interest in learning Chinese so students in our region will gain the competitive edge and global perspective needed to succeed in today's global community.

The grand prize winner was Interlake High School senior Mason Ji who wrote in his winning essay how "learning Chinese in an English-speaking society fosters self discipline and dedication, for it takes motivation and resilience to continue learning the language."

Kevin Li, Andrea Liu, and Wayne Huang from WACE, grand prize winner Mason Ji, and SCG president Jonathan Geiger

Garden in Snow

Board vice president Jim Dawson slipped out to the garden late this afternoon to capture the Courtyard in Seattle's first snow of the season, first of the new year. These beautiful shots call to mind two great poets across two great continents: Bai Juyi (772-846) and Robert Frost (1874-1963) both of whom shared a love for the beauty of simplicity and honesty, and a renown for their highly regarded realistic depictions of rural life, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. 

白居易: 夜雪

Bai Juyi: Night in Snow

已訝衾枕冷

復見窗户明

夜深知雪重

時聞折竹聲

Surprised to find, so cold, my quilt and pillow,

Then light I see from the papered casement window.

Deep in the night, so heavy it snows, I know, when

Bamboos go crack ~ a sound, now and then, I follow.

Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong. 
(Huang Hongfa) 譯者: 黃宏發

Dust of Snow

by Robert Frost 

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

Donor Wall Reflects Knowing the Spring Courtyard

Today, a photo montage of a few winter views around Knowing the Spring Courtyard...

Board treasurer Alan Chinn with Courtyard reflection on donor wall (Yvonne Chinn photo)

Board president Jon Geiger with brother Stephen and family from Boston in front of family donor bricks

Ferns sprout in bamboo shoot rocks

Last leaf clings in the Courtyard

Root, stark against pristine white wall

Grays balanced with browns

Song Mei Ting framed by winter grasses

First Donor Wall Bricks Set Today

Miguel Aparicio and Dan Johnson from LP Tile install the first set of bricks

Dan Johnson and Miguel Aparicio of LP Tile are installing 269 bricks on our first donor wall this week. The tiles are being set with a fast-setting thinset and will then be covered at night with thermal blankets for the curing process.  Miguel and Dan, both West Seattle residents, were pleased that weather conditions were holding strong for the project - dry with even a few sun breaks. (Miguel revealed some exciting Christmas news about his family – he and his wife, who have four sons, are expecting triplets!)

Reporter Patrick Robinson from the West Seattle Herald came by to cover the story (in photo above, conferring with program director Julia Freimund). These donor bricks, which help build our community gem, will be seen by the Northwest community and by visitors from around the world as they come to visit our growing project. 

The wall would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of all the brick campaign members and key volunteers including Nora Chan, Benjamin Lee, Steve Locke, Jing Wang, Ken Anderson, Noah Dubose, Sarah Dean, Katie Yuen, Allan Chinn, Chip and Charles Ragen, Jon Geiger, and Jim Dawson. The Garden is also thankful for the more than 200 individuals who purchased bricks to be placed on this first phase of the wall.  West Seattle Herald

Thai Master Movie in the Courtyard

Actors Julie Digiacomo and Jeremy Horn in front of the entry gate

In the great tradition of martial arts film making, comedian, actor and writer Simon Kaufman has created a character of epic proportions in the mythical tale describing the legend of The Thai Master. Its story describes the training and adaptation of one of the most deadly ancient weapon forms. Can power of such magnitude exist?

Director R.C. Muraoka (left) working with his assistant director on the script with actors in the background

This Fall, The Thai Master production company and film crew rented Knowing the Spring Courtyard to work a few scenes from this spoof on martial arts – a parody on old style Kung Fu movies fighting with the ridiculous weight loss and exercise contraptions promoted on late night TV (such as Shake Weights, resistance bands, thigh masters, and ab rollers), making fun of the cheesy exercise infomercials promoting these gimmicks.

Thai Master production crew and martial arts actors working a scene 

For two days, a professional director, camera crew, lighting tech, fight choreographer, and many kung fu martial arts students and actors filmed in the Chinese Garden with the Courtyard as its backdrop.

Actors Digiacomo and Horn 

As far back as July of this summer, the Garden was contacted by writer and star Simon Kaufman from New York city about using the courtyard for the filming.  The location is an ideal backdrop and, as has been discovered by local news crews and cultural programming directors, the acoustics are fantastic. After ironing out a few of the details and logistics, the film crew set to work.

"We find ourselves in the dojo as the young Thai Master meditates, learns, trains, and prepares himself to accept the awesome power that will be his covenant for life.  He devotes his full being to learn the secrets and harness the power of the dreaded weapon that will make him the one and only Thai Master."

"As the Thai Master's power grows, Grandmasters from other clans come to challenge him with an array of weapons that would be more than just a workout for a mere mortal.  The Thai Master is up to the tests and defeats all those who dare flex their muscles against him. The Ab Roller, The Shake Weight, The Cross Crunch, The Easy Curve, The Magic Circle, and the Perfect Push Up, are some of the enemies our hero must defend himself against.  Danger lurks around every corner." 

So begins the seven-minute film... I'll keep you posted on its progress.

Total Eclipse of the Moon

Early this Saturday morning there was a total lunar eclipse, a rare celestial phenomenon – the last one before April 2014. Heavy cloud cover made viewing difficult, but starting at 6 am, the moon turned a deep shade of red, a sliver of the crescent shadow highlighted before clouds obscured the burnished orb. (Play the video below while reading further...)

The moon took on a reddish glow, as some indirect sunlight continued to reach it after passing through the earth's atmosphere.  A lunar eclipse happens when the earth blocks the sun's light from reflecting off the moon, casting an eerie shadow over its surface. The moon, following its orbit around the earth, passes directly behind our planet (as seen from the sun). And so we have a total eclipse of the moon. During a total lunar eclipse such as we had this morning, the moon is obscured completely from view. 

As I watched from my early morning vigil, I was reminded of Ray Pfortner's moon shots in the Courtyard last month, during the full moon we had here in November in Seattle.  These photographs call to mind the powerful pull of the moon, seen and felt all across the globe.

Photographer Ray Pfortner captured Knowing the Spring Courtyard while teaching a photography class at the Garden during a full moon shoot.  After the total eclipse today I thought of how connected we all are, watching the moon, miles away from each other...

Miles Away From Light At Noon

Total Eclipse Of The Moon

Many Reasons To Believe In Life

Just Listen What It`s Telling You

(Enigma) 

Chinese Garden Inspires West Seattle Students

Bones of Earth form mountains

Timeless pines know many stories         

Bamboo dances with the wind
Fourteen fishes paint the water
                                        Alia                               An Ode to Tang Dynasty Poets

In the Waterside Pavilion, Chunman Gissing talks
with students about writing Tang-style poetry.

Alia beautifully captures the spirit of Tang Dynasty poetry, as did John and Madison, all sophomores in a world history class at Chief Sealth International High School (CSIHS) in West Seattle.

Teacher Paul Fischburg introduced Tang poetry into the curriculum to acquaint his students with traditional Chinese culture. The class read poems such as Li Bai’s famed Road to Shu, and each student chose a favorite poem from an anthology, wrote about the feelings it evoked, and created a poster board to illustrate the poem with art or photos.

On October 21 the class was ready for a field trip to the Seattle Chinese Garden and a poetry writing session. First stop for a little inspiration — the 15-foot-tall gleaming white marble statue of Li Bai near the South Seattle Community College library. This statue, a gift from famed Sichuan sculptor Ye Yushan, will be moved to the Garden when construction is completed.

Two students work on their poems.

After a tour of Knowing the Spring Courtyard by docent Sandy Marvinney, the students gathered around long-time volunteer Chunman Gissing, a former Chinese language teacher. She delighted them by explaining how her mother taught her poems when she was a little girl, and offered tips on the rhythm of four- and seven-line Tang poems. 

With an assignment to write about anything that inspired them, the 30 students gathered into small groups around the courtyard, just as Tang poets might have gathered with friends to write poems 12 centuries ago. 

Freezing water blankets like snow

Blustery wind makes us shiver

Icy rainwater stings sharp

Hunched over teeth chattering cold.

                                        Madison

As the chilly morning turned to drizzle, the class moved into the Chan Education Center classroom, where Chunman had set up a beautiful display for a traditional tea service, including flowers, an array of tea and teapots, and Chinese snacks. 

Chunman Gissing serves traditional Chinese tea.

As the students one by one shared their poems with the class, Chunman shared the warmth of tea. 
I sit alone with nature.

Am I really alone?

The sun masks the moon.

The clouds hide my shadow.

                                  John

“A big challenge in a world history course is how to connect to people and places not your own. Getting students out of the classroom and into a place that expresses another culture is a great way to do that,” Fischburg said.  “Writing poems in the Garden setting gave students a chance to explore Chinese culture on a personal, heart level. The students truly embraced this learning experience. "  

As a final lesson assignment, Fischburg asked the students to write about how they experienced the Garden. One student truly captured its essence as inspiration for inner reflection.

Here I was able to sit and relax and tune into the sound of raindrops hitting the ponds, rocks, and nearby trees. … the architecture and designs of this garden were beyond calming. … Being able to sit and be alone with your thoughts for a while is one of the best things a person can do…  These gardens allow me… and anyone else, to separate from everything and just let the thoughts flow. Saying I love this garden would be an understatement.   Antonia

Posting by Sandy Marvinney