If You Have Spring Fever, Look at These!

At first glance, it looks like a giant child armed with a box of crayons has been set loose upon the landscape. Vivid stripes of purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green make up a glorious patchwork





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 Yet far from being a child?s sketchbook, this is, in fact, the northern Netherlands in the middle of tulip season.









 The Dutch landscape in May is a kaleidoscope of color as the tulips burst into life.












The bulbs are planted in late October and early November.  More than three billion tulips are grown each year and two-thirds of the vibrant blooms are exported, mostly to the U.S. and Germany.












Their dazzling colors are thanks to the years in the 17th century when tulip mania swept the globe and the most eye-catching specimens changed hands for a small fortune.










  But like a Rainbow, this colorful landscape is a short-lived phenomenon.  When the flowers are gone,
the land will be cultivated for a rather more mundane crop of vegetables.











The Netherlands produce more than nine million bulbs a year.





Ready for Spring yet?   I know I am!   SHALOM  Y'ALL - 
                              Twyla

Dare To Be Different

               This is one of my most-favorite-ever watercolors.  I painted it over three years ago, and it remains a favorite.  I painted this when I saw a bunch of tulips in the flower bed right by my doorway.  All of them were the same, except one.   I felt akin to the different tulip;  I have never quite "fit in", sometimes to my chagrin and sometimes to my relief...
                ...to my chagrin, back in my highschool days when everybody wants to fit in; I was the artistic type, the one who dressed differently, the all-A student who did NOT participate in student council, because it was too clique-ish...
               ...and, to my relief, throughout my Christian walk I don't WANT to fit in!  The LORD tells His people to be set apart.  And, I am set apart.  I am the orange tulip. All praise be to God.
               Dare to be different!
                                                                                       Shalom Y'all!     Twyla