We made it to the Tulip Festival

Me and Judy

Yesterday morning Judy and I headed to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, on as late a date as I've ever been, and lo and behold, we were at the beginning of the bloom, if you can believe it. The past two years we had an early spring, and in 2015 the flowers were about where they are now by the end of March! By the end of April they were all gone. Not so this year.

Daffodils amongst the tulips

Judy was especially anxious to see all the different varieties of daffodils, and she hoped to find just the right ones to plant in her garden for next spring. You can see how beautiful the tulip and daffodil fields are right at this moment. We wandered in happy enjoyment, appreciating the incredible variety that the RoozenGaarde gardens provided us (for a fee).

More tulips, hyacinths, and trees in bloom

Although there is another outfit, Tulip Town, along with lots of fields of tulips planted, I have always gone to RoozenGaarde and gotten all the eye candy I could handle. After wandering for awhile in the gardens, we walked into the back fields to enjoy the seemingly endless fields of tulips.

Pretty red tulips with mountains in the background

We had partly cloudy skies, which actually made it easier to photograph the beauty all around us, and it also added interesting cloud formations. Every once in awhile we'd have both sun and clouds making for some enjoyable pictures.

Not quite open

It seemed like the darker colored tulips were late bloomers, but one thing the designers like to do is mix them up, early, mid- and late-bloomers all together in the gardens, and my only regret about going yesterday is missing the moment when the vast majority of the fields would be at their peak. It was a very small regret, though.

An assortment of colors

I'm not sure why I like this picture so much, but I notice that my eyes were drawn to this assortment of colors and varieties all mixed together. Plus there was that huge field of daffodils behind them that added even more delight to the old eyeballs. By the time we left around noon (after three hours of wandering), I was astounded at the sheer numbers of people who had arrived on a Monday to see the flowers. I would never have been able to get pictures without hordes of people if we had waited.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the tulips as much as we did. Spring has rolled around once again and my heart is filled with joy at all the beauty surrounding us. I love this place!
:-)