Tulip Festival!

Livia (not looking very happy!), Mommy and Fredrik

The Canadian Tulip Festival is held every year in Ottawa, Canada at the end of May.  This year Livia and Fredrik were able to attend.

This is touted as the world's largest tulip festival, featuring over one million tulips and an attendance of more than 500,000 visitors annually.

Crowds attending the festival

According to Wikipedia, large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city for this event.  The festival also includes music, speakers, and all kinds of good food to eat.

 The blossoms speak for themselves.  Aren't they beautiful?

Are these Delphiniums?  I'm not sure

 A few different kinds of flowers snuck into the tulip festival, I see...

I'm not sure what kind of flowers these yellow ones are, either, but they're beautiful.  Anyone want to weigh in?

My favorites are the red and pink and purple tulips below!  Don't they look like they were painted by a master artist's skilled hand?

Oh yes!  Love these!

The tulips have an interesting story, and are a reminder of World War II, when Canadians gave refuge to Princess Juliana of the Netherlands and her daughters.  In thanks, the Dutch people sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to the Canadian government in Ottawa.

Princess Juliana gave birth to Princess Margriet while she was there (1943), and in 1946, after the war, she sent another 20,500 bulbs to Canada, asking that a display be created for the hospital where she had the baby.  The Dutch have continued to send 10,000 more bulbs every year since.

I think that's lovely.

Aren't they just gorgeous?

Years later, the festival began and a series of outdoor music concerts were later added to the fun. Although some years the cold and rainy weather has been a problem for the concert venues, the festival has continued through the years.  It looks like the weather was beautiful this year.

I love these photos.  My nephew Daniel took them.  (Thanks, Daniel!)

To quote Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The world is charged with the grandeur of God"!

Now that we've seen the flowers, we need to stop for a snack, don't you think?  There is Bongou Lemonade (Bon Gout: good taste, get it?) to quench that thirst.

Fred and Livia wait their turn for some lemonade

No Festival would be complete without a Beaver Tail, or Queues de Castor!  BeaverTails are a fried dough pastry, individually stretched to resemble the tail of a beaver.  BeaverTails are a Canadian chain  of pastry stands.

Beavertails come topped with a variety of yummy toppings, such as whipped cream, banana slices, crumbled Oreos and (my favorite!) Nutella.

Fred diving into his BeaverTail

Sounds good, doesn't it?  I'll have two.

Livia and Fred enjoying their Bongou Lemonade

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of the Tulip Festival.

Have a great week, everyone!