Our Drive By Tulip Viewing

We've been self isolating for about 8 days now - and after several frenzied days of working on the flower beds, gardens, lawns, etc., our winter deferred maintenance was pretty much caught up.  Then the weather turned on us - suddenly cold and showery.  So a couple more days inside reading and watching the non-stop coverage of the covid-19 virus and we were beginning to get cabin fever.

We decided to take a drive up to see how the tulips were doing around Mt Vernon.  The drive up Highway 9 is very pretty - all along Lake McMurray, then Big Lake, and then out through the Skagit Valley on Highway 20.  The fields still look like lakes after the very wet January and February we've had.

Sadly, the tulip festival (like nearly everything else) is cancelled for this year.  You can see the tulip beds on the right of the Rozengratz sign are not in bloom yet.  It seemed like there were a lot fewer tulip fields this year -none were in bloom yet. 

The daffodils, however, are in full bloom and are quite spectacular even with clouds covering Mt. Baker so we couldn't include it in the picture. Our drive-by flower tour was still uplifting.  We always enjoy the Skagit Valley and it's beautiful farmlands with something growing nearly all the time.

Just before Conway, we found a field covered in Snow Geese.
All the places were we normally stop for lunch are closed, so we had to be happy with Kentucky Fried Chicken from the drive thru window.  Definitely strange times we're living in - like nothing I have ever seen or expected to see in my lifetime.  Hoping everyone is joining us in self-isolating so we can all eventually get back to our real lives.

Looking for Tulips

We knew the first week we were home was exceptionally wet - but it seems the months of February and March set all kinds of records for rain here in the Pacific Northwest.  Just about the time we are ready to pack up and head south, we got one of the famous stellar days that keep us all around.  Yesterday was gorgeous with blue skies and sunshine.

This is what our front walkway looked like - the green grunge was about an inch deep in places.  I spent 5 hours with the 3500 lb per sq inch pressure washer, and got most of the decks and walkways cleaned.

Same walkway after cleaning - things are looking up!

However, after Ron mowed most of the day and I did the pressure washing, we were tuckered out and decided to take a trip up to the Skagit Valley to look at the tulips. 



Usually by the end of March, the fields around Conway and Mt Vernon are tilled and planted.  This year, most are ditched to remove excess water from the muddy ground.

The daffodilss are still in full bloom - much later than normal,

Only the pink tulips are showing color at all.

We did see hundreds of snow geese still hanging out in the fields.

And the mountains looked like they had a fresh dusting of snow.  Definitely a later than normal spring around here.