Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
Here’s a special little treat you can find on forest floors around here if you’re sharp-eyed. I love finding these fairy slippers (calypso bulbosa) around this time of year.
They grow among the leaves and duff. You can see how small they are. They look like something a tiny mythical creature might wear as a corsage.
It wasn’t just a puddle. It was dirt heaven! It was churned up! There were great big clumps! There was mud! Mud!!
And Mom was a veteran. She knew what to expect. She had a camera. And clean clothes in the back of the car.
The wedding’s over. The guests have gone home. The honeymoon’s over. The pressure’s off. The perfect time to get your wedding pictures taken. And what prettier setting than the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival?
During the Sequim Lavender Weekend we have everything from lavender lemonade to lavender ice cream. But we arrived too late for the Tulip Buffet. After taking in all things tulips, we were curious about the tulip buffet. Tulip salad? Tulip casserole? Tulip burger and tulip fries? Or perhaps tulip tiramasu? Maybe next year.
You want to get something down low. How do you go about shooting? Classic squat?
The bend-over?
Or, perhaps a variation on a favorite yoga pose?
Here are some examples of why the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a flower lover’s delight.
Two big tulip growers in the Skagit Valley welcome visitors and we quickly found our favorite: RoozeGaarde. A $5 admission fee gives wandering privileges through beautifully planted gardens. The views are stunning.
RooseGaarde has been in business for nearly 60 years and is run by the five sons of the original owners, immigrants from – where else? – Holland. The gardens are replanted each fall with nearly 250,000 flower bulbs, a process that takes about 10 weeks. Their catalog claims they are the biggest bulb grower in the U.S.
A local innkeeper told us that with bus tours the gardens can see up to 15,000 visitors a day, making the mantra “get there early” good advice. Despite the steady flows of people everyone we met here was uniformly friendly and courteous.
There are plenty of fields for driveby viewing so it’s not necessary to pay to view. But this is a great spot to see labeled specimens, get planting ideas, and experience the wow factor of professional designs.