Are We Walking to Alaska

Are We Walking to Alaska
Are We Walking to Alaska - A True Story

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tulips

Nothing says rural in our area, like the tulip farms.  They stretch out along the roads of Skagit Valley.  All month long in April is the Tulip Festival - lots of people coming from miles away to view the tulips - buy tulips - take photos of tulips.  There are Bulb Farms that are open during the festival and you can enjoy ice cream, salmon bakes and much more.  We choose to view the tulips on a quiet weekday evening - rather than the mad rush, hustle and bustle of the weekends.  We have the roads mostly to ourselves, except for local traffic - whereas on the weekends there are hours long traffic jams everywhere.



Rows of tulips - as far as the eye can see

Layers of color

If you catch the flowers at the right time, they are in full bloom.  In just a week or two the flowers will all be removed so the plant can concentrate on building the bulb for next season.  These are, after all, commercial flower bulb farms.

I'd never seen this before - with two colors in the same row.  The bulb diggers will have to be careful when they dig these rows, so they don't mix the two color of bulbs together.

Yellow tulips almost fully open


I like to catch the odd colored tulip in the fields - red in yellow

And yellow in red

This one seems to be red and yellow

And pink in red

We spent hours driving around from field to field - they have signs pointing to the tulip route.  Then we stopped and had a car picnic (this year it is still chilly in the early spring, some years it has been warm enough to eat outdoors) and then home, remembering the lovely fields of flowers.







24 comments:

NatureStop said...

WOW!!! Those tulips are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.Have a great day!

Shantana

Pondside said...

I can't believe that another year of tulips will pass and I won't have seen your wonderful tulip fields.....next year, I guess! Thanks for the wonderful glimpse.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Absolutely beautiful JoAnn - just like the Dutch bulb fields. As you say -
the trouble is that everyone wants to see them so you go round in a file of traffic. Lucky you to live near enough to go on a quiet day.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Such beauty in your photos of natures' tulips for ODW ^_^

Judy said...

That would be a sight to see - tulips as far as the eye can see!!!
I love the pansies in the teacup in the next post, too!!

Jeanne said...

That was fun. I have never seen a tulip bulb farm.

Light and Voices said...

Where is this tulip bulb farm?
JM Illinois

LV said...

That would be like walking through paradise to see this. So very breathtaking.

Grandma Barb's This and That said...

What an amazing sight! Just beautiful. Thanks for sharing all the color. It brightened my day! There is still snow on the ground here and they are predicting more in the next couple of days.

Liz@ HomeandGardeningWithLiz said...

Oh my goodness how beautiful!! I would be I heaven seeing this :-)
What a treat to live close enough to see this in person.

Crispy said...

Beautiful....sigh,

Crispy

Debra at HOMESPUN: http://www.thehomespun.com said...

looks like you live in Holland!

You have so much in your area to photograph it is amazing! :)

betty-NZ said...

Amazing to see such volume of color!

Karen @ Beatrice Euphemie said...

Like a living tapestry! So bright and cheerful! Thanks for cheering me up today, JoAnn! xx

Shannon said...

I'm thinking of going this Friday. Are your photos from this week? It has been about 10years since the last time I went.

Kay said...

I just got back from there this evening! The weather was just right, and so were the tulips! Two years ago we went later in the month and were surprised that many of the fields had been dug up. This year there were still daffodils, which was a treat, too. I took about 300 pictures. How will I ever decide what to post!?!

Shannon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shannon said...

Good to know, thank you.

Carletta said...

What a treat for the eyes!
Would have loved to be along on the ride. I would have probably filled up a memory card or two. :)

Lynne said...

Beautiful! I like the "black sheep" tulips the best. What a site those fields must be!

Hopping by in the Rurality Blog Hop!

~Lynne @ a new Jersey Girl
www.rickandlynne.com/lynne

amanda said...

Absolutely beautiful!
Such nice, dreamy, spring images for me here in our gray week of continuous snow. :)

Allie said...

gorgeous! what a wonderful example of God's magnificent creation (:

xoxo,
Allie
http://framedbygod.blogspot.com/

Ann @thequiltingcats said...

Gorgeous! I love when nature mixes it up a bit like the red and yellow one. :)
Now I miss driving through Skagit Valley to visit my Uncle's house. :(

Kathleen said...

Hello from Outdoor Wedneday. What a wonderful sight! I'd love to see this in real lfe.