Driving through the beautiful French countryside, we couldn't help being thankful for the continuing great spring weather and the thousand shades of green in the fields, meadows, and mountains. At this time of year, the green is cut with vivid blazes of yellow colza, a plant that is grown en masse in France, Germany, Belgium as well as the Netherlands for its seed which is turned into cooking oil. With the windows rolled down, the scent of colza permeated the air as we drove by fields of it on both sides of us.
In the Netherlands we visited a number of places, including Leiden a cute university town with many cafes and canals...more canals than in Haarlem and Amsterdam. While there we visited the nearby Keunkenhof, a stunning garden/art space set next to the tulip fields.
Much to my dismay the tulip fields next to the Keukenhof's windmill had bloomed a few weeks ago due to the unusually warm winter and spring. As a result, the tulips were stripped of their colorful heads and all that remained were the greens of the stems and of course, the bulbs underground. However, the magnificent gardeners of the Keukenhof maintain the gardens and the greenhouses in full bloom during the season, so I was overjoyed to see all the color, shapes, and smells of spring flowers.
Even though the Keukenhof claimed yellow was the color for 2011, I was happy to find many pinks, and a hundred shades of purple. In the numerous greenhouses there were flowers of all sizes, shapes, and colors, each beautiful in its own way. For me and other photographers and flower-lovers, it was our heaven-on-earth. I couldn't have been more pleased with our visit, except maybe it would have been nice to see all the fields in their glory. Perhaps next time....
A picture is worth a thousand words. So I leave you here with some photos that I took at the Keukenhof. A dream realized.
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