A Tiny Tiger's View of Paradise

Tiny Tiger insisted on accompanying me on my adventures on this day. He had two requests. He wanted to meet the little blue-eyed horse, and he wanted to tiptoe through the tulips. They seemed like reasonable requests, so I obliged.

First, we went to the horse barns and met the little gal with blue eyes. Tiny Tiger was astounded at how BIG horses are. Even very little horses are quite large to a small tiger. And the little filly, well, she's from Pennsylvania, born and bred, and she'd never seen a tiger before.

So she hid behind her momma for a little while before finally stepping closer to make friends. Even very LITTLE tigers might seem scary to a horse who's never seen one. But in the end, Tiny Tiger's gentle spirit and kind heart won her over.

And then we went to the Arboretum, and boy did we tiptoe through the tulips! The grand bulb display near the Sundial reaches peak around the last week of April into the first week or so in May. So it was beautiful in every way. Tiny Tiger even sat atop one of those fabulous orange fritillaries, until it tossed him off, like a bucking bronco! Sheesh! Who knew?

Tiny Tiger asked to pose among the pussy willow arrangements in a large planter, and we did that. But when I put him on the plant, a tiny catkin fell off. Tiny Tiger insisted we bring it home. It is his pet Catkin now. He says that he HARVESTED it. It is HIS to keep. And I can't deny him that, though I did explain that we typically do not harm any plants or take anything away with us from the gardens. (He's just a little tiger; he still has some things to learn.)

There is a view I like of the gardens, through the fence at the end of the tulip display. There are apple blossoms there, very pink and pretty. And so Tiny Tiger sat there, and took in the large view of the gardens (in a shot very similar to the one that won last spring's photo contest). He said in his opinion, it looked a lot like paradise. (For the flower lovers, there is another shot of just the tulips in the extras, in layers and layers of color.)

So here is a song to go with a shot of a Tiny Tiger's view into paradise: Mike Reno and Ann Wilson, with Almost Paradise.