February 2, 2013

Aerial photos of tulip fields by Normann Szkop

Filed under: Nature,Photography by Branko Collin @ 6:52 pm

Normann Szkop is a French photographer living in Brussels. Two years ago he convinced an Irish pilot living in the Netherlands, Claython Pender, to fly him over the tulip fields of Anna Paulowna (a place, not a person) near the tip of North Holland.

The colourful results can be admired at Szkop’s Flickr page. Szkop took almost 100 photos from the air and several from the ground.

Although Anna Paulowna is a town, it is named after a person, namely the wife of king Willem II and daughter of tsar Paul I of Russia, Анна Павловна.

(Link: The Verge. Photo: Normann Szkop)

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April 16, 2009

Yellow tulip named after Spongebob Squarepants

Filed under: Nature by Branko Collin @ 9:13 am

Last Wednesday famous cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants got a tulip named after him in the Keukenhof flower garden. Under the watchful of eye of many a young fan and the great big yellow sponge himself, the flower got baptized with perfectly good champagne by Nickelodeon presenter Patrick Martens.

It took grower Jan Ligthart from Breezand 18 years to develop the tulip, writes De Telegraaf (Dutch). Presumably that time was not spent exclusively on this new tulip, as many companies have already paid the man to do the same. Ligthart told the paper it would take four years for the bulbs to arrive in Dutch stores: “The first bulbs are for the US, because they pay better abroad. It’s as simple as that.”

(Photo of a totally unrelated yellow tulip by Hisa Fujimoto, some rights reserved.)

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March 19, 2009

Keukenhof flower exhibition turns 60

Filed under: Art,Nature,Shows by Branko Collin @ 11:07 am

The Keukenhof flower exhibition, what Wikipedia calls “the world’s largest flower garden,” turns 60 this year. Last Wednesday Queen Beatrix opened this sixtieth edition, according to Blik op Nieuws (Dutch), which is themed ‘USA, New Amsterdam – New York, 400’ in honour of the claiming of the region by Henry Hudson in 1609, followed 15 years later by the foundation of New Amsterdam, which is now called New York.

Part of the exhibition is a giant flowerbed depicting the Statue of Liberty, which is not in bloom yet.

Photo by Nguyen Dai, some rights reserved.

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February 12, 2009

Don’t eat bulbs, warns supermarket

Filed under: General,Nature,Weird by Branko Collin @ 7:51 am

This is one of those inside-the-asylum moments: Supermarket Albert Heijn sells baskets with flower bulbs, and at the bottom it says: “For decorative purposes only, do not eat.”

Inside-the-asylum moment? A reference to the late Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books, in which one Wonko the Sane explains why the rest of us are living at the funny farm:

The sign read:

“Hold stick near center of its length. Moisten pointed end in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum. Use gentle in-out motion.”

“It seemed to me,” said Wonko the Sane, “that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a package of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.”

This is why he built himself a house that’s ‘outside’ the asylum.

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August 3, 2008

Flower-filled walk in Apeldoorn

Filed under: Architecture,Nature by Branko Collin @ 1:52 pm

Until August 30 visitors of the Triënnale in Apeldoorn will be able to walk the Royal Mile, a path lined with flowers on both sides. One half of the path contains annual flowers and bulbs, the other half—designed by Jacqueline van der Kloet—is planted with perennials. The organization claims that in total there will be 48,000 flowers and bulbs. The walk is located in Park Berg en Bos, entrance limited to holders of a Triënnale pass.

The Triënnale is a 100-day exhibit of “garden, culture and landscape” in and around Apeldoorn, amongst others in the CODA and Kröller-Müller museums, the Het Loo palace and National Park Hoge Veluwe, each location worthy of a visit by itself.

Via Blik op Nieuws (Dutch). Photo: Triennale.nl.

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