SKAGIT SCENERY: We took a field trip today - with the "field" being acres and acres of tulips.
For years I've known April is the height of tulip season for the many Washington state tulip growers, yet I've never managed to get out to the fields and take it all in. Today, we changed that!
Mount Vernon, a little more than an hour to our north, is a hub of tulip growing. In fact, if you point your Web browser to www.tulips.com, you get the online home of our destination today, RoozenGaarde
RoozenGaarde is a division of Washington Bulb Company Inc., the largest bulb grower in North America. According to their Web site, they have 1000 acres of fields in the Skagit Valley. The company is owned by the Roozen family, which has been growing flowers in Holland and the U.S. since the early 1700s.
There are tulip farms all over the valley, but we zeroed in on RoozenGaarde's 3.5 acre display garden planted with over a quarter million bulbs. There was a stunning array of tulips to ogle, from traditional, 'cup' shaped ones above to spiky, multi-colored pretties (Greigii), like the ones below.
These fringed Fabios were fabulous!
Some of the blossoms were petite, while others were a faceful when you stopped to smell them.
These Queensland tulips were like furry pink peonies.
Some of the tulips were just past their prime (off with their heads!) ...
and others had yet to start their show. ...
But most of the flowers were at their peak of perfection.
There was a little labyrinth to explore.
The kids had no trouble finding their way to the center.
We also found tulips in a few funny places. ...
We admired tulip-surrounded topiary ...
and appreciated the patterns in the plantings, like this garden, where a stream of hyacinths winds through the taller tulips.
You knew we were going to stop to admire a tulip named after our city! It's pointy, like the Space Needle.
This crimson beauty commanded attention. Her name is Valery Gergiev.
I really loved these Salmon Parrot tulips, so named because the petals resemble the ruffled wings of a parrot.
Of course, a couple of non-tulipy things around the farm caught my eye. I liked the past-their prime daffodils drooping in front of rusty old farm equipment.
42: Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a moving history lesson in the form of a major motion picture about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. The movie "42" had gotten great reviews, and it was certainly 8 thumbs up from the four of us. Highly recommended.
Last week, the Library of Congress was nice enough to send me an email full of resources related to Robinson. We'll be using those in the days/weeks to come.
BAD NEWS: As we were strolling around the fields of flowers this afternoon, I began to hear snippets of others' conversations around us. Something about terrorism. A bomb. Closing bridges. An explosion at the finish line. "Something really bad has happened," I said to Christian, who whipped out his phone, got on the Internet, and learned of the bombing in Boston.
When we stopped for a late lunch after the tulips, the TVs in the restaurant were showing the news, including footage of the explosion. What struck me more than anything was that in the video, I saw dozens of people running TOWARD the danger. And it struck me that on a very bad day, there were some very good people doing very brave things.
Skagit Valley ships tulip bulbs to Holland who then repackages them and ships them back so buyers can say they were imported from Holland. That's TRUE. Also, tulips originated in Africa.
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