Waiting For Texas Wildflowers While Taking A Virtual Trip To The Skagit Valley Tulips

The wildflowers have been slow to bloom this Spring in Texas. While the wildflowers are blooming, Texas is at its most colorful. And then the wildflowers fade away and basic drab returns.

It is harder to cultivate flowers in this climate than my former Western Washington climate. Which, I suppose is why you don't see big flower displays and giant hanging baskets hanging from posts along downtown streets like you do in Washington.

Right now, in my old home zone, the Skagit Valley, the 27th Annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is underway. It runs from April 1 -30. Around a million tourists will descend upon the Valley during the festival. This past weekend the throngs caused bad traffic jams, backing up on to Interstate 5, in Mount Vernon.

Helicopters monitor the Tulip Traffic flow. You can take bus alternatives to get out to the fields. The Tulip Festival does a pretty good job of keeping the traffic flowing, but at times the system gets overwhelmed.

The Skagit Valley is one of the most fertile, productive agricultural areas in the world. All sorts of fruits and vegetables grow there. In recent times tea fields have arrived. I believe this is the only location in America that grows tea.

The Tulip Fields were brought to mind because last weekend Perry Mason's little sister, Lori, drove her dad up to the Valley to take in all the color. This caused Miss Tess, former Valley Girl, currently in Northern California, to ask Lori if she'd taken any pictures. Like me, it'd been a few years since Miss Tess had seen the Tulips.

Ironically, I was in the Skagit Valley, April of 2008, but we did not drive out into the part of the flats were the Tulips bloom. Did not even cross my mind. However, I did go to the cool new Farmer's Market, that is part of Miss Tess's family's agricultural operation. That is where I learned tea is now grown in the Valley, with the Sakuma Brothers venturing over to Japan to see how to go about cultivating tea leaves.

After reading Tess lamenting Lori's lack of photo documentation, I took a virtual trip to the Skagit Valley and took some pictures. I then put them on my Washington Blog. If you have Google Earth, on your computer, you can take yourself on a virtual trip to the Skagit Valley and click on a lot of Tulip pictures.

While you do that I'm having myself another cup of Sakuma Brothers Skagit Valley Tea.

I'm homesick.