Friday, July 27, 2012

A story about princesses and millions of tulips

Every year in May, nearly three million tulip bulbs bloom throughout Ottawa. The Canadian Tulip Festival was born out of a friendship between Canada and the Netherlands. During WWII, Canada granted refuge from the Nazi occupation to the Dutch Princess Juliana. During that time, she was due to give birth to Princess Margriet. The maternity ward of the Ottawa Civic Hospital was temporarily declared international territory, so that Margriet would be born in no country, and would inherit her mother's Dutch citizenship.

Every year since, the Dutch have sent Canada tens of thousands of tulips as a token of their gratitude, with the rest purchased from Canadian and Dutch distributors. Lucky for me, some of them are planted right outside my work. The last shot was taken along the canal during a bike ride (a very Dutch activity indeed).

I'd love to hear - does your hometown have any funny/inspiring/heart-warming stories?

xx








 

Pants - Hand-me-down (Tuzzi) (last seen here)
Shirt - Thrifted (Carolyn Taylor) (last seen here)
Blazer - Thrifted (George) (last seen here)
Necklace - Dynamite
Earrings - Gift
Sunglasses - Andrea Jovine via Winners

7 comments:

  1. katie_quarterman27 July 2012 at 14:00

    I loved your little history lesson, Im a bit of a history nerd and love learning new things. (I never knew that about Canada and the Neatherlands, that's a very endering story!) The flowers are so beautiful, tulips are so lovely.
    Your earrings are fantastic, they really fit in with the nautial/preppy theme! (Love that blazer!)

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  2. Love the story of the tulips! They are beautiful and a great backdrop for your photos. How lovely to work so close to them!

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  3. love the colours of this outfit!so beautiful.you look really nice.

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  4. kat, you look radiant among the flowers! :) i like that tulip story. i don't know if where i live has stories like that. your outfit goes with the red & white tulips wonderfully. nice blazer. i have one that looks similar to yours. those seahorse earrings delight me.

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  5. What a sweet story - I can't believe I had never heard it before! Thsoe tulips are just lovely, and you look so sweet posing amng them, too :)
    xox,
    Cee

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  6. I love that blazer! And that all beige look is beautiful with that pop of red in you necklace!

    XO
    www.pearlsandpaws.blogspot.com

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  7. wow! Kat these pictures of you are stunning! I have to say I love the title of the post : )

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I genuinely enjoy reading everyone's comments. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!