#rootofourlove

Tulips always seem to find us, or perhaps we find them because we love them so much.   We're chasing them all over the globe. Haven't we all had a crush on a bouquet of tulips now an then, or on a single bulb of the most magnificent strain of colors we couldn't imagine nature produced such a thing?  I certainly have, it's even been "our" flower as a couple.

And so, it was downright punch drunk love for us while living in Seattle and experiencing the intensely colored fields of Skagit Valley nestled in the Cascade Mountains.  Then, we moved to Holland and things got more serious.  It's real love this time, our field of vision so flat that there is no horizon in sight, just endless fields of color and love.

It seems, though, we've gotten to the root of our love, now that we find ourselves on vacation in Turkey.  The Dutch are the most celebrated tulip growers in the world, but they weren't the first to fall in love with the bulb, called the "King of Bulbs" by the Turks.  In truth, the Dutch discovered the tulip while trading with the East, specifically in Turkey, during the 17th century.  The tulip became so popular in Holland during this era that one bulb could sell for as much as one house.  But it was the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire who adored the exotic, fragile and fleeting quality of the tulip bulb.  Our hotel is right next to the gardens of Topkapi Palace (centuries-old residence of the sultans) where the annual tulip festival is in high gear.  We could have been at Keukenhoff Gardens . . . but we are definitely not!

But of course, #rootofourlove offers up a double entendre, for it is these two playing in the gardens of a 15th-century Ottomoan palace amid the tulips who are the true root.of.our.love.