Rainy Days and Mondays

Sunny Sunday gave way to rainy Monday, but I was determined to not let it get me down.

We drove north up Whidbey Island, enjoying the new greenness, eagle flyovers, and the scenery at Deception Pass.  Then we crossed over the Skagit River into the Skagit Valley.

The tulips are late this year, so there are still fields of color to be found, but it was raining hard, so we headed straight for one of our favorite places - Christianson's Nursery.

We managed to easily spend an hour in the beautiful place, checking out the gift shop and all of the plant-filled greenhouses. 

When the rain let up for a bit we checked out the plants not under cover.

We bought lots of plants.  This is just part of the haul.

You never know when treasures will find you, and this one jumped out at us in the gift shop. It's a beautifully illustrated Mother Goose.  We have a weakness for lovely children's books.  This one came home with us.

While Tom paid the bill I took a few macro photos of tulips, thinking they might be all I would get to get up close to.

We headed to Mount Vernon and found a coffee shop/deli  for lunch.  Across the street we saw these antique shops.  It was still raining and indoor activities sounded like the way to go.  So we did dilly-dally in this lovely shop.

I liked it so much that I was pleased when I found another treasure to buy, this 1940's McCoy jardiniere to add to my pottery collection.

 We checked out the shop next door,

and then drove a few blocks to an antique mall we remembered from some years back.  Antiquing had replaced tulip touring and we were having fun.

By now it was after 3:00 so we went to find a few flowers.

I love how this house uses tulips in the landscape.  It probably belongs to one of the bulb farm owners.

We passed up the display gardens, not wanting to pay the $5.00 to slosh around in the rain.  Instead we drove around  and I hopped out to take a few more photos.

Notice the yellow tulips blossoms on the ground?  As a variety begins to fade, it's off with their heads, so all the strength can go into the bulbs.

We stopped by the barn where I had taken my photo contest winner two years ago.

On that day it was sunny and warm, and the barn was surrounded by tulips.  Bulb fields are rotated each year and have to wait at least three years before they can grow bulbs again.

It was time to head home and as we left the rainy valley we captured this field of daffodils and the sodden skies.

The farther south we went, the better the weather got.  My eyes sought out the beautiful greens in the greenbelt along the freeway south of Seattle.

It was dry and almost sunny when we got home at 5:00.  Good.  Tuesday we begin our spring gardening.  We have lots of plants to plant.