TIP-TOE THROUGH THE TULIPS

Rhiannon and I took our annual excursion to Holland, Michigan, a bit early this year. We traveled up to one of our favorite Michigan sites last Friday because with the early spring, the tulips are at peak right now, several weeks prior to the annual tulip festival! This windmill "De Zwaan" (the swan) is old and much, much larger than it looks. It's currently under construction so we couldn't tour it. I have toured it twice before and the huge wooden beams and incredible engineering in this masterpiece are truly awesome. It is a working windmill that grinds flour and last I knew, the miller who works the windmill is a lady that had been trained in the Netherlands! This attraction is not far from Lake Michigan and catches some of the breezes from the lake.

Aren't these flowers gorgeous? I love this picture taken at Windmill Island, my personal favorite spot in Holland. I think I will eventually try to paint this picture. As a little girl I was always fascinated with windmills and even made up imaginary stories of how I was going to go to Holland and live in a windmill! I did eventually see one from the airplane when we landed in Amsterdam on our way to Africa in 2004. Since then I've learned of a several-greats-grandfather born in Rotterdam in the early 1700's. It all means more to me now!

More of the gardens at Windmill Island.


Another, smaller windmill at Windmill Island.



When we entered the area the gatekeeper said there were over 120,000 blooms!
This is just a fraction of the blooms to be enjoyed at Windmill Island. This city is such a treat! This field I am standing in is only one of many floral extravaganzas in town. The city park is planted with beds of tulips, the medians in many streets in the residential areas are blooming with tulips amongst fruit trees. Other major gardens in the area offer bulbs for sale as well as wooden shoes, costumes from the different provinces of the Netherlands, fudge, delftware, and Dutch baked goods. Each year we order more tulips for our gardens. With so many varieties available it's difficult to choose. We usually purchase five new ones each year.

Just recently I heard that Holland, Michigan was named among the top "happiest" towns in the country. It's easy to see why! How could you keep from being in a good mood with all this beauty surrounding you? Blessings, LORI

SOME REAL GOOD DIRT!

Well, it's that time of year again! Time to plant tulips! It's an act of faith in a way. You plant them in the fall and trust that they will come up exactly as planted in the spring. This is a picture of me showing off the prettiest (an appropriate description for dirt?) compost you ever saw. We made this mixture over a couple of years just by saving our kitchen scraps, cleaning the coop occasionally, and adding leaves and yard debris. Makes dirt all the more precious when you know you worked to reclaim it! These 50 bulbs of 5 different colors that we planted today were purchased during our trip to the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan earlier this spring. We've been waiting for a hard freeze before we planted. We were discussing today whether our great, great, however-many-greats-grandfather and his family were tulip farmers while living in the Netherlands. Just this week we uncovered a bit of information that indicated that the family originally fled from France to Switzerland to escape persecution. Later they moved to the Netherlands where this grandfather was born in the 1700's. Eventually some of them came to America. We are blessed because of their courage and determination. I am so thankful for the earlier generations that left us a legacy of faith.

As we delve into more family history my faith is strengthened in discovering such truths. Clint's family has long known their history of fleeing religious persecution, coming from Switzerland to America in the 1800's. And....just today we learned an amazing tidbit of information that I think is the most amazing yet! Care to guess what that might be? I will post on this in the near future!

Meanwhile we are enjoying the return of our grandchildren and daughter in law from Colorado Springs! Blessings, LORI

STRANGE STUFF ON THE CLOTHESLINE AND SOMETHING IN THE DIRT!

I'm excited to finally get the pictures on the blog--the ones I wanted to post yesterday and because of technical difficulties, I could not!

You will notice my clothesline is decorated with my newest spun, skeined, and washed 100% Alpaca yarn! Whoopee! This is an accomplishment for me.

Also yesterday, Rhi and I planted 30 tulip bulbs. It is best to dig a big hole several inches deep and quite wide and sort of scatter them. It was a lot of work since our soil is not all that cooperative. It has quite a bit of clay and it's been dry here until the last few days. We are hoping for the best with the tulips come spring. We planted three varieties. They are Rhi's favorite flower and so she is really looking forward to them. If we can keep the critters from carrying them away, biting them off right before blooming, digging them up, etc., we'll be all set!

Hope you had a lovely Sunday. Readers--please post a comment on what your favorite flower is! I had a little guessing game last year about mine and no one guessed after alot of clues. Mine is hollyhocks. What are yours?

AN AMAZING TRIP!

I wanted to share some of these really amazing pictures with you from my latest trip.Get ready for one of the prettiest garden tours you have ever seen! Just browse through the pictures and enjoy,see if you can guess where I went, and then read the post at the end.

























On Tuesday, Rhiannon and I went to Holland. Holland,Michigan; that is! It's tulip time and wow, what wonderful sights we saw there! Rhiannon's favorite flower is the tulip and she was just having a great time taking these photographs. We visited a tulip farm and wooden shoe factory and saw where the beautiful Delftware is made (I love dishes!). I toured a working windmill. You see it in the pictures. I was amazed at the inner construction and complexity of this beautiful several hundred year old structure!

We had a great day and wanted to share some of the beauty of God's creation with you. I kept standing and gazing at the never-ending tulips and thinking that if someone was depressed, it would be good for them to come and just gaze at the tulips and realize God's intricate love and creative design. Surely that would minister to a discouraged person's heart if they really thought about it long enough!Blessings, LORI