Sunday, April 27, 2014

Adventures 2014 - April: Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival



      In 2011, I visited the Keukenhof Gardens near Lisse, Netherlands.  It was an amazing experience, and I did write about it here in the post For the Love of a Tulip. As returning to these amazing gardens is not an option at this time, I chose a tulip festival close to home.  This month's adventure, the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival.

Some History

      Lehi, Utah is located about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City.  In 1996, Alan and Karen Ashton bought some vacant land and started building their non-profit Thanksgiving Point. Alan Ashton is the co-founder of Wordperfect.  The Point more than doubled Lehi's population as the Point's popularity caught on.  Soon other businesses and new housing developments surrounded Thanksgiving Point.  One of the neighborhoods is called Pilgrims' Landing.  For more information see www.thanksgivingpoint.org

      The Thanksgiving Tulip Festival is on about 50 acres of gardens with about 250,000 flowers, or at least tulips.  I was not thinking I would be impressed as Keukenhof is not much bigger and has 5-6 million bulb flowers. However, the gardeners at the Point have done an amazing job. At Utah's spring season is very iffy - warm one day, snow the next - is it wise to check the Thanksgiving Point website and the local weather for festival times and temperatures.

1,000 Words

     I took more than 200 pictures, and will include a few here.  I loved playing with my filters, so there are duplicate pictures with different settings.  It makes for a very different view.  Bees and other insects see with infrared light, so they see different colors we cannot.  I like to think that I am thinking like a bee when I use filters.  Enjoy the photos.




















I love this picture.









This last picture is out of order, but to put it where I want it will delete all my work.












Natural Colors with Flora and Fauna


















 
















 
Water Features