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.