I stumbled upon the Tulip Festival at Dow’s Lake today after brunching with the blogger formerly known as The Urban Pedestrian and currently known as XUP.
The Tulip Festival, it seems, is mostly about photographing your loved ones nestled against a background of vibrant tulips. Just about everybody was either taking a picture or having their picture taken. There were even special little photography stations, marked by camera pictograms.
Here are just a few of the many thousands of people who posed for photographs at the Tulip Festival today. (It feels a bit weird walking up to a stranger and taking their picture when they’re posing for a picture for someone else.)
Here’s a tulip painter. Lots of us were standing around taking his picture too.
It seems XUP is a bit of a rebel when it comes to pictogram prohibitions. Here she is, stomping tulips with her sensible shoes.
(Don’t worry. No actual tulips were harmed in the making of this blog post.)
Anyway. XUP and I had some good food and interesting conversations. We talked about things that used to be considered socially unacceptable but no longer are, things that will be considered socially unacceptable in the future, the revolutionary new dating paradigm, sustainability, excess, fake meat, vegetarianism, single parenting, the health care system, real estate, Value Village, the looming suburban crisis, cats, work, cancer, people who can’t smell, people who can’t feel pain, the increasing prevalence of autoimmune disorders, shoes, chicken pox, smoking lounges, and much much more.
Oh, the TF…
I do not miss it one bit.
Though it would be nice to see a tulip for real in my corner of the world. Spring is late, dammit.
Wow, I’m amazed you can remember so many of the things you talked about. Were you taking notes?? I might have remembered 4 or 5 and the rest would be “etc, etc.”
I’m also amazed that you can remember so much about your outings and social get togethers. You see, you really do have a great memory. Have a Happy Mothers Day.
You forgot Davio, the beer-bellied acrobat!!
Wishing you a very Happy Mother’s Day my friend.
g
Toni – nope, no notes – but we talked about a lot of things, and I probably forgot half of them (including, as XUP points out, Davio the beer-bellied acrobat who took an instant shine to XUP).
Merle – Happy Mothers Day to you, my most favourite step-mother ever!
And to Grace, and all the other moms out there, happy mother’s day. I know it’s a bittersweet day for many people, especially those who have lost their moms. Hugs to you.
We put together an STO expedition to Gatineau yesterday afternoon and while waiting for the bus watched a fairly decent number of people cycle through the tulip beds with cameras.
I don’t get the whole “picture with a tulip” thing, not even during the first spring we lived here did I ever get the urge to flop into a tulip bed and pose for a picture…… although I do have a friend who used to threaten his son with making him have his picture taken in them if he didn’t behave