A Fondness for Festivities

Never one to miss out on miscellaneous festivals (or to invent new ones when needed) I decided last Tuesday was as good a day as any for our First Annual Tulip Festival. We were never able to celebrate the blooming of tulips when we lived in our previous house as our carefully planted tulips were annually consumed by maurauding deer. Here, we have been lucky so far. I know that the day is not far away that the local deer will discover cultivated culitvars and practice a sort of scorched earth policy but until such time, let us now praise famous bulbs!
The red flowers (above) were dominate. I planted several clusters of the red and a smaller offering of white. We also had white tulips for indoor enjoymeny provided by the cut flower garden. The tulips all bloomed rather quickly once they sent up buds as the weather has been remarkably warm. But at least we got to admire them!
We had food color themed to reflect our flowers: salmon and strawberries and red wine and tomato salad. It was simple and delicious and after the week (or two) that we've had working and running around like maniacs, it was good to slow down and watch the flowers grow. Maybe there should be a festival a week; don't they celebrate various saint's days (or other excuses for a good time) in Europe? Sounds like a healthy idea to me!