So so true. We should all know exactly where we are going. I do...finally. Stay tuned....

alice in the garden

As a child (as we've discussed before), I was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland.  I also had a very active imagination.  I would play in my backyard on summer days, climbing through trees, bushes, etc...pretending to be Alice in the garden.  She was small and the flowers were giant and they talked.  This was a fantasy I couldn't help but re-create. 
Yesterday I got to feel, just a little, how Alice might have felt when I went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point.  I don't know what exactly I was expecting but it certainly exceeded every expectation I might have had.  And of course in true Vanessa fashion I took lot's of pictures...

  (one of my favorites)

 

water fountain in the Italian garden

you can see the statue at the very top

all the way down to the very bottom

the largest man-made water feature in the world

the large slab of concrete in the grass is a stage and they put on concerts here...how amazing would that be?

if you look closely you can see a Canadian goose who was hatching her babies

the view from behind the waterfall

when you first enter- this is the view of the entire garden

It's really too bad I never went to anything like this when I was a kid.  I could have had a lot of adventures here.

we're all mad here...

There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter. Which luckily I am.
I fell down the hole.

I applaud the film. The costumes, the make-up, the eery Elfman melodies, the Tim Burton (rather Dali-esque) magic dust sprinkled on every piece of the puzzle. It may not perfect, but what really is? I know there will be those that will rip this film to pieces. If any share my sentiment, we feel protective over our childhood love affairs that involved these curious characters. The mysticism, the beauty and the madness of it all. I was very young when I developed my adulation for Alice, and years later, this conviction has only grown.
Regardless of your opinion on the story of Underland, one thing rings as clear as a bell and cannot be denied. The details are stunning. Down to things you might never notice, like the bats that flutter to support the chandelier in the Queen’s castle.  I will have to see it again to notice all the things that I missed.
Are you the real Alice? The real Alice? What does that mean?

today...

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle! If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

Lewis Carroll

"..and then alice fell down the rabbit hole"

'Well!' thought Alice to herself, 'after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! 'I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) '--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. 'I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) '--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy curtseying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) 'And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere."
-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

sometimes I feel like alice...second guessing yourself as you are falling down a long tunnel only to find that you are in a strange world that you don't understand.

i really really love this music video. very neat. very alice-esque. figured now would be as good a time as any to post it.