Tulip Festival

April in Skagit Valley is tulip time.  This year the blooms were delivered by nature three to four weeks later than last year's mid-March presentation, following our cold winter and cool spring.

For the second year in a row, I have visited Tulip Town to view its fantastic array of field tulips-long rows of brilliant color in multiple shades planted across fertile fields surrounding their establishment.  If that weren't enough of a draw, there are the gardens surrounding the buildings, the tulip arrangements displayed along an interior mural wall in front of paintings of Holland, and a unique gift shop would tempt any discerning browser.

This year I took my neighbor and friend, Margarette.  At 86 years old, she couldn't manage much of a hike into the tulip fields, but everything else was achievable and she was delighted with her first visit.  We relaxed with a cup of tea after viewing all of their displays.  What could be a more delightful afternoon?  I feel lucky that over my entire life, I have been blessed with the friendship of older women.  Their presence in my life has always been such a comfort in the core of what I call "my mother yearnings."  Theses photos are just a few of the many photos of the flowers that I took.  They inspire awe and demonstrate only a portion of what nature sings to me daily in this lovely place we call home.

   

Victoria Butterfly Gardens

There is a place in Victoria that fascinates me to the point of utter delight:  Victoria Butterfly Gardens

It is a place the creates the epitome of relaxation and delight for visitors as it releases 600 to 1200 butterflies a week into a man-made garden space the size of three basketball courts.  In a humid, tropical environment created with natural plants, ponds and a tiny stream, a world of up to 70 species of butterflies float through the jungle foliage around you.  Some even land on your hair, shoulder or hand as you admire or photograph them.  Their life cycles are carefully demonstrated from the chrysalis form of the butterfly inside a hard case, until it changes into an adult emerging to take flight with fluttering wings.

If this were not entertaining enough, there is more.   Two pink flamingos watch orange koi float by as they feed in a stream.  A blue and gold macaw named Shadow says "Hi!" as you pass beneath his perch, while red-footed tortoises ease away from your feet at the edge of their domain.  Carefully confined within boxes that provide a perfect environment, shy but gorgeous poison frogs of multiple colors watch your every inquisitive movement.  Pond turtles adorn a log in the middle of the stream, each vying for a perceived perfect portion of its wood.  Ms. Jigs, a large green iguana, spies on you from above the path through her part of this jungle.

At the entry to this world of wonder, there is an insectarium where you can watch leaf cutter ants create their own world of continuous labor.  Feeding upon leaves, they only attack a particular leaf for one day.  Then, genetically programmed to preserve their food source, they move on to the next leaf.  Carrying back each piece cut from a leaf to their "nest" (pieces sometimes larger than themselves), these tireless workers provide food to those maintaining the nest.  They even have a disposal site for their waste.  If an ant falls into that site, it never returns to the nest, banned for the good of the colony.  Further critters occupy this area:  metallic green Derby's Flower Beetles, Giant Forest Scorpions, and a Malaysian Dead Leaf Mantis, to name just a few.

I love this place.  Twice there, and twice charmed.

Inspiration

In Victoria, B.C., there is a tiny world located on a portion of the ground floor of the Empress Hotel on Humboldt Street called "Miniature World."  Here one can view everything from fantasy lands to historical worlds in miniature, all done in 1:12 scale or smaller.  There are historical versions of towns representing Dickens Olde London Towne of 1670, the Great Canadian Railway of 1885 from coast to coast, European World War II battle sites, and Barnum and Bailey's circus extravaganza.

If this were not enough, worlds of Fantasy Land like Space 2201, Titania's Palace, The Enchanted Valley of Castles, and Camelot are all portrayed.  Last, and certainly not least, are dollhouses that truly defy description with their intricate decorations and portrayals of 1880s life.

We have been there twice, most recently on this trip, and the attraction continues to amaze us.  To that end, we have decided to try our hand at making miniature dollhouse rooms to amuse both ourselves and our great-grandchildren.  Isn't retirement great?  You can choose to play around with anything that interests you!  While not easy, nor inexpensive, what could be better than to travel into a magical world of imagination that leads wherever you wish to go?

Bart's Pub Victoria BC

After a long walk at Butchart Gardens, it is traditional for us to have hearty English fare.  The place of choice is Bart's English Pub in Victoria.  Our favorite is their Shepherd's Pie.  Mixing carrots, peas, and chopped beef with a savory beef gravy, then surrounding it with mashed potatoes and a sprig of rosemary, nothing beats this baked dish.  They serve it with a salad, and we indulged in a dark ale beer-the first in a long time.  Satisfying?  Beyond a doubt.  Some things in life (and in Victoria) are a mandatory.

Spring at Butchart Gardens-Victoria BC

There are not enough words to describe how beautiful Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, can be in the spring.  Though we were probably a week or two early based upon the lengthy and cold winter we've experienced, the flowers were divine.  With this trip, we have experienced three of the four seasons in Victoria.  Now, without further delay, is a visual walk through Butchart Gardens:

 

Canada is 150 years old in 2017 and the gardens are over one hundred years old.  The entrance leads past the cafe (which has yummy food) and a sign that is decorated by season with flowers.

We were on Vancouver Island to celebrate Jim's daughter's fiftieth birthday.  She had never been to Butchart.  What a wonderful reason to go!  Plus it was sunny when we arrived.  A blessing for an outdoor attraction and the first sunny day we have seen in quite some time.  Divine intervention!

There is sort of a looping walk throughout the park.  The sidewalk winds from the entrance past beds of flowers like these pink, blue and white examples on the left, along a path that climbs up to a fir covered knoll overlooking the original limestone quarry that existed here before this became a garden.

There is a small log cabin room with a window that overlooks the quarry (below.)  It yields a commanding view of the gardens lining the walls and floor of the old digging grounds.

Now it is hard to imagine what the quarry must have looked like from the outlines you can still discern of it.

There were cherry trees in bloom, daffodils and tulips in abundance, and fountains to delight the child in all of us.  Everything in the garden seemed to be surging forth anew exhuding the sheer joy of life.  Who could not believe in the eternity of things in the face of such a display?    

 

Ponds evoked the feeling of looking at a Claude Monet painting.  A deer family (comprised of carefully pruned plants) seemed real while grazing upon the newly green grass below our path.

It would be possible to take a thousand photos on the first loop of the tour alone.  And yet there was more...  

This statue of a young woman in awe of what is before her is one of my favorites in the park.  What a view she has 365 days a year.  But who needs statues when there are water fountains and gazing balls to entrance you?  This adorable child could hardly be enticed to continue further along our path.  Within the glass mirror-like ball, we are reflected as we watch with her mother.

Pansies are a symbol of remembrance.  Do you suppose she will remember them or the ball?  I'll bet on the latter!  There is a Chinese dragon fountain and a Japanese Garden within Butchart Garden. Both are intriguing.  I believe my fascination is with the Japanese Garden as it winds down to the waterfront and a bay.  There is a new waterfall statue of a tiny dragon holding a glass ball that I'd like for my garden but I doubt they'd let me have it.

Finally, there are the Italian Gardens near the original home.  These were the start of the whole endeavor.  If I were a billionaire, I'd buy this place.  I'd still let the public come and visit, but I'd save one day a week for myself.  A day to wander through, and enjoy every special spot within the park, like the wonderful woman who had the vision to begin this place-one potted flower or plant at a time.  It proves that no matter how tiny, or how big you dream, one step at a time (or in this case one plant at a time) can make a difference for the millions that follow along behind you.

Lummi Island Sunday Drive

This Sunday was a rare, and much appreciated, sunny day in the extended cool and rainy spring we are experiencing.  What could be more enjoyable than to take a drive in the convertible?  We did.

After a bit of consideration, we decided on a short drive north to board a six-minute, 22-car ferry for a ride to Lummi Island.  Situated just west of Bellingham, the island has a land area of a little over 9 square miles with eighteen miles of country roads.  The island has a permanent resident population of about 820 people that doubles in the summer.  It offers two restaurants, a post office, one grocery/general store, a vintage 1919 elementary school, one church and a fire station.  Because of the short ferry ride, which operates on a regular and convenient basis for a round trip price of twenty dollars, this is an easy and affordable trip.

We drove along the coast on the almost empty road encircling the island with a stop at the Willows Inn for a light lunch.  Roasted vegetable soup and a boudin sausage consisting of pork, liver, rice and seasonings paired well with crackers, bread and French press coffee.  The food was delicious amid delightful furnishings with gorgeous views of the San Juan Islands beyond gleaming in the sun.  What better way to escape from weeks of remodeling and rain?

The trip offered views of bare tree limbs against a blue sky, miles of shoreline, and the slow awakening of trees and fields from winter's grip all gleaned from the unique experience of riding with the car's roof down.  Even an apple blossom branch in a vase provided inspiration-yet another subject to paint.  Life is good in the slow lane of Lummi Island on a Sunday afternoon.