Red Poppies and Pink Peonies

Jello Mold Farm

While I was up in the Skagit Valley, I stopped by Jello Mold Farm to wander around the flower beds.  On this early June visit, I was especially taken with the red poppies and the pink peonies.

Garden shed with pink peonies, Jello Mold Farm

Bells of Ireland

Cerinthe

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National Letter Writing Week: Part 5

“The mail is our daily dose of promise.”
     — Barbara Holland, Endangered Pleasures

A neighbor's collection of vintage mailboxes

Detail, vintage mailbox

Old, rusted mailbox

Mailboxes used to be like treasure chests, holding the promise of letters from loved ones.  These days the pleasures of mail are dwindling — too many bills, junk mail, solicitations.

I was reminded of the pleasures of mail while reading a new book by one of my favorite bloggers — Turkish Delight & Treasure Hunts by Jane Brocket.  The entire book is a delightful romp back to old childhood classics. As the title implies, Brocket shares ideas for recipes, such as Pippi Longstocking’s Swedish pancakes, and imaginative activities, such as playing Poohsticks.  One of the chapters is called “Run Your Own Post Office,” inspired by the old bird house/mailbox in the garden of the March girls in Little Women.

“The P.O. was a capital little institution, and flourished wonderfully, for nearly as many queer things passed through it as through the real office.  Tragedies and cravats, poetry and pickles, garden-seeds and long letters, music and ginger-bread, rubbers, invitations, scoldings and puppies.”
     —  Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

New book by Jane Brocket

 

I wonder what surprises my mailbox will hold today.

Tulip Farm in Woodland, Washington

Holland America Bulb Farm in Woodland, WA

Barbed-wire fence and tulip fields

One of the volunteers at the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in Woodland advised us to drive about two more miles down the road to see the tulip fields in bloom.  I hadn’t realized that there were tulip farms in southern Washington.  This one was owned by the  Holland America Bulb Farm.  In contrast with the many tulip fields in the Skagit Valley north of Seattle, this operation was much smaller.  Instead of big fields planted in one color, the Holland America Bulb Farm planted just a few rows of each color, side by side, so the fields were a riot of bright colors. 

Mailboxes mimic the colors in the tulip fields

Patch of pink tulips

I particularly enjoyed watching workers cut fresh tulips in the field and gather them in baskets for sale.  What a beautiful setting for their labors!

Worker carrying her basket of cut tulips

Another basket of fresh-cut tulips

Fresh-cut tulips for sale