Tulips

For years, try as I may, I cannot get my tulips to fully bloom before the damned squirrels eat them. Now, I’ve never been much of a gardener…plant it, if it grows—good, if not—try something else. Actually, I subscribe to Gallagher’s philosophy: If you water it and it dies, it’s a plant; if you pull it and it grows back, it’s a weed!

I have a copy of Stanley Marcus’ second book, “Quest for the Best” standing by in my reading room for occasional reference. Written about 1979, Mr. Marcus’ words seem now like a nostalgic window on a much more genteel past. He discusses a variety of finer things and laments the degradation of our circa 1979 society.

In one of the paragraphs I read the other day, Mr. Marcus extolled his patrician enchantment with the tulip fields of Holland when seen from the air. He waxed on and on about the astounding colors. Now, I’ve never seen much of an early Spring riot of color from my own tulips; however, from the few I’ve seen survive the damned squirrels, I could grasp what he was relating with his words.

At an earlier time in my life I might have planned a special excursion tacked onto a European trip to see something like those tulip fields blooming in Holland. However, these days with travel a PITA, I’m content to look it up on Google. And so I did, and the picture above is what Stanley Marcus so enchantingly described over 30-years ago.

The picture below is more representative of my own experience with tulips.

Adios