Pella, Iowa - Tulip Time

Friends and I joined a bus tour of Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa yesterday.
This is a little grouping of photos of our day there.

Pella is a Dutch community that celebrates their heritage over the Mother's Day weekend,
every year.

Enjoy!

This is our Pella tour director.

The following few photos were taken from the bus.

We spotted this group during our walk downtown.

These are photos from the program and parade.
You will notice a variety of costumes.

Street dancing.

Street sweeping.

The parade begins with babies!

There were many, many floats!

And here are some of the tulips!

Happy Mother's Day!

This post was created by, and is the property of, Shady Gardener.

I Got My Thrill...

Out My Windowsill!

(No Blueberry Hills here, sorry.)

A female Baltimore Oriole

This is the sunniest our front yard has EVER been at this time of the year!

If you click here, you'll see a post from last August that shows why.

Want to see another Mother's Day gift?
We need to approach the Sunny Corner Bed.

Isn't it a Beautiful Day????!!!

(I know there's a ring around my sister's tree, but our yard has such a slope!
The dirt was washing away from next to the tree,
so I put a double layer of rocks on the "down side," and
laid other rocks (the top ring) on the grass on the "top side.")

Nearer and nearer we get...

Yep! A bluebird house!
I told "Mr. Shady" that I didn't think we'd see a bluebird.
They prefer open spaces, right?
And besides, the wrens moved in around three seconds after the house
had been stabilized!
(Click on on the photo above to see Mr. Wren on top of the house.)

This past Sunday afternoon,
exactly one week after the bluebird house had been installed,
a real Bluebird peeked into the hole.
Noting that the house was already occupied,
he sat on the roof for a few seconds
(giving us a Great Show!)
before he flew away.


Forgive the photographer, I was getting tired of holding the camera in place!

And one last little video.
This one is extremely fuzzy, but I hope you can tell who it is!!!

This was a thrill and a half!

(Yep! A Scarlet Tanager!)

Nothing at all Shady today... except the yard that's near or under the trees, now that the leaves are in. ;-)