{"id":21328,"date":"2015-04-09T12:40:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T19:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=21328"},"modified":"2015-04-09T12:40:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T19:40:07","slug":"a-cemetery-comes-to-life-with-tulips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/a-cemetery-comes-to-life-with-tulips\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cemetery Comes to LIfe — With Tulips"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"White
Tulips as raindrops were part of the Merritt College Floral Design Department’s “Puddle Jumping” design.\u00a0Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Every year at Easter\u00a0time an\u00a0Oakland, California, cemetery comes to life\u00a0— with tulips.<\/p>\n

\"At
The 2015 Tulip Exhibition with “Steel Tulip” by Nona Tai of Floral Design Studio<\/a>, Fremont. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of the tulips\u00a0are growing out of the ground, the handiwork of the cemetery’s groundskeepers. But a week or so ago\u00a0dozens of them showed up\u00a0in one-of-a-kind bouquets, the handiwork of local florists, garden clubs, and design students.<\/p>\n

The occasion was the Friends of Mountain View Cemetery’s Annual Tulip Exhibition.<\/p>\n

If you miss the outdoor tulips this season, not a problem. Mountain View is a destination unto itself at any time of year. Designed by\u00a0Frederick Law Olmsted (of New York’s Central Park fame) 150 years ago, the place is jumping with dead celebs, including Ina Coolbrith, Julia Morgan, Frank Norris, Bernard Maybeck, Bill Knowland, and Trader Vic Bergeron.<\/p>\n

Armed with\u00a0a visitor’s map, you too can\u00a0know where the bodies are buried.<\/p>\n

By now my faithful readers know that I’ve got a thing about tulips<\/a>. So, of course I dropped everything\u00a0last weekend,\u00a0including getting ready for upcoming author events for <\/em>Wrestling with God<\/a>, to take in those tulips over at Mountain View. <\/em><\/p>\n

BTW, Ginny Prior wrote some kind words for <\/em>Wrestling with God in my old newspaper, the Contra Costa Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

\""Steel
Nona Tai’s “Steel Tulip” up close. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\""Happy<\/p>\n

\"Orange
Variegated blossoms were popular at the Tulip Exhibition this year. Above: Kay Wolff of Kay Wolff Design, Berkeley, worked tulip bulbs into her plan\u00a0for “Fusion.” The bulbs are just \u00a0visible underneath\u00a0the very orange blossoms she chose. Left: A tipsy “Happy Hour” by Anges Kang of the Piedmont Garden Club. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Tulips
My favorite design\u00a0at this year’s Tulip Exhibition was “Puddle Jumping” by the Merritt College Floral Design Department. This part of the rain-evoking — invoking? — design was suspended over the Tower Chapel’s entrance. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A “Puddle Jumping” raindrop dripped along the chapel’s outside wall. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Tulips<\/a><\/p>\n

By now my faithful readers know that I’ve got a thing about tulips. So, of course, I dropped everything to take in a local tulip show last weekend. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1425,1426,187,34,1427,914,1428,706,82,959],"class_list":["post-21328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-cemeteries","tag-dead-people","tag-death","tag-dont-miss","tag-easter","tag-floral-design","tag-merritt-college","tag-mountain-view-cemetery","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-tulips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}