Birthdays sort of sneak up on you, don't they? At least mine seems to arrive earlier each year!
Anyways, here's another one and even if you don't necessarily want to know about it, others seem to delight into reminding you that you're a year older again, thank you very much!
Just kidding, things got off to a fun and surprising start on Thursday morning when I was serenaded by the walkers group and was handed a bunch of lovely cards! Awwww.....how sweet, like I said before, they're such nice people!

James prepared me a fantastic breakfast, a home made egg-and-bacon Mcmuffin equivalent, and then drove me to the coffee roasting company here on the Island for a triple shot Latte (just what you need to get over the one-year-older shock!)

Next on the agenda was to drive the tulip route in the nearby Skagit Valley!







Skagit is the largest tulip producer of tulips in North America and is home to 1000+ acres of Skagit Valley tulip, daffodil, and iris fields.
The tulip route is part of the yearly tulip festival that is held each year during the month of April. It is during this time of year that the fields of tulips (and daffodils) begin to bloom and car tourists can drive through the region to see these many fields. In addition, throughout the festival, there are fun events and plenty of attractions to visit.

Some of the growers like Roozengaarde have display gardens which are fantastic for photos as you can see in this post. There are also options for purchasing tulips and other varieties of flower.




 



It depends a little on mother Nature if the flowers are sooner or later each year but there's almost always something blooming.
We had picked a rather cold and rainy day but the advantage was that we didn't encounter the thousands of people and tour buses that show up when the sun is out! Especially on the weekends, we've been warned, it can be very, very slow going.







I felt very much 'at home' this day since I actually come from the part of  Holland (the North-west) where most tulips are grown, so I'm very familiar with the scenery!
As a school kid I used to work in the fields ''beheading' the flowers after they bloomed and in the barns to 'peel' the bulbs to make some pocket money for the summer.

For lunch we headed to the Conway Pub where, we were told, they would have the best hamburgers and fried oysters in the area!
We were also warned not to expect to much of an ambiance or to dress up since this is basically a 'biker joint', an old barn that you might not pick to eat at if you don't know about it!






I had the delicious fried oysters which had a great flavor and still a good "snap" to them. Not mushy at all and with a nice crumbly fry texture.
James went for the excellent oyster hamburger and Esther tried to get her mouth around a yummy blue-cheese burger.

A true Hess birthday. Its all about the food!

For desert we went to another place that was recommended to us, the Snow Goose Produce market, a little farther down the road. Among all kinds of beautiful fresh, local and organic foods they sell, what one of the tourist brochures calls 'immodest', ice cream cones!

They bake the cones themselves and the whole thing is nothing less than divine.....

To work off this calorie laden day we busted our tails in Esther's yard this week!
James finished the raised planter beds and together we put them into their designated area in a sunny spot at the south side of the house. James worked until 8 o'clock that night to fill them all with dirt!

Want to hear something funny?

Those four smaller beds are actually made from the old wooden shipping boxes that were used to transport windows for the glass house that James and his Dad added to the house some 18 years ago! I guess it pays to never throw something away! James had to cut them up a little , throw away some rotted parts and give them some stain but they came out great!

I continued my 'battle against the weeds' and finally start to feel I'm making some progress.

Some 'before' areas

Some 'after' areas