Tulip Mania in Washington State

Did you know that Washington State is a major tulip-growing region? Yes, in the Skagit River estuary there are tons of tulip farms. And we went to Roozengarde Farms where you can bury yourself in tulips for a mere $15 per person. You can enjoy an ornamental tulip garden, filled with all kinds of exotic tulip variants. And you can stop by the side of the road and enjoy acres of tulips in full bloom. And, even midweek, there are tons of people enjoying the tulip fields.

Crowds and crowds of people, all enjoying the remarkable diversity of the tulip plant. What a glorious thing it is to see people enjoying the magic of Spring. The camera is looking eastward across the Skagit estuary towards the foothills of the Cascade mountains.

Then we went to the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum in La Conner, Washington. We saw "The Quilt Road: Contemporary Korean Quilts." These quilts are mainly quilts-as-paintings-on-the-wall. If you, like me, think that most contemporary art is Sick and Wrong, it is a beautiful and liberating thing to experience these artworks that seem to know nothing of the nihilism of modern art. They communicate a joy in life that you won't find in your average rooty-snooty art museum.

And why not? Why is there no joy in your average rooty-snooty big-city art museum?

Could it be that when you mix art and politics you get politics? You may well think so: I could not possibly comment.

Here's something to ponder. For weeks, as I take a Wednesday walk around Green Lake here in North Seattle, I have been worrying about the clash between flocks of our good old American Widgeon, and marauding flocks of bad-tempered Canada Geese. You see, both widgeon and geese like to graze on the grass at Green Lake. But today the American Widgeon had disappeared, leaving only the suspicious-looking Canada Geese, almost certainly foreign agents of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Mounties. But maybe those American Widgeon have flown north, over the border into British Columbia, there to bring forth a new generation of good old American Widgeon to gladden our all-American hearts. But I fear that up in Canada they will be singing:

American Widgeon, stay away from me
American Widgeon, mama let me be

I just hope that Our Justin doesn't freeze their bank accounts. And the Mounties don't trample them, like they trampled the old woman in a mobility scooter in Ottawa the other day.