Rainbows & Tulip Fields

A classic rainbow, high in the sky from a low sun. The reddened light leaves the inner primary bow slightly denuded of blues. Just inside it is a supernumerary fringe announcing small raindrops. Between the primary and outer secondary is darker sky, the dark band of Alexander of Aphrodisias. Finally, the broader secondary of two internal reflections in each raindrop and reversed colours.

1000th OPOD - Tulip Mania ~ It's not often that a rainbow (and a double one at that) gets pushed into second place. This Dutch tulip field stretching across the flat Netherlands plain does it. An image by �d�m F�th taken last May. ©�d�m F�th, shown with permission

Tulip Mania ~ The Netherlands is justly famous for its tulips and tulip fields.

Tulips were possibly first cultivated in 10th Century Persia and were introduced to the Low Countries in the late 16th Century from the Ottoman Empire.

Tulips took off during the Dutch 'Golden Age' a period of unprecedented mercantile activity and domestic wealth. Tulips are often quoted as one of the first bubble episodes of financial abandon and irrationality. Perhaps? Prize specimens were after all very rare real as opposed to virtual objects and the bulbs generally in too short a supply for the large demand. In the late 1630s single tulip bulbs changed hands many times a day at astronomical prices. The bubble burst in early 1637.

Nowadays over four billion bulbs are grown annually and tulip bulbs and flowers are a very significant part of Dutch agricultural exports.