cae3/ Anita says that she's a mom, wife, registered nurse and photographer.

Check this photo out larger in her Explored slideshow and see more of her lovely flower shots.

Here's her Flickriver.

Brian Gudas took several photos at the Veldeer's Tulip Farm in Holland the other day.

He has some cool photos sets including this beautiful collection of spring flowers (slideshow), the Coast Guard Fest and the Grand Haven Coast Guard's 50th Anniversary fireworks show. In addition to the sets, he has photos of everything from this amazing shot of the car ferry in Manistee to extremely detailed photos of ketchup.

Orange Tulip by markmarko

This weekend is the kickoff of Holland's Tulip Time celebration. The annual festival starts this Saturday (May 3, 2008) and continues through May 10.

The Tulip Time Festival's history page says that Tulip Time was introduced in 1927 at a Woman’s Literary Club meeting by Holland biology teacher Miss Lida Rogers. It's grown to be one of the largest flower festivals in the country and features plenty of tulips, music, parades and celebrations and explorations of Holland's Dutch heritage including Klompen dancing (video of Klompen dancers).

In honor of this event (and to check out a bunch of tulip photos) we're featuring a Tulip & Tulip Time slideshow courtesy the Absolute Michigan group on Flickr. One of the members of the group (artist Yolanda Gonzales of Grand Rapids) designed the 2008 Tulip Time poster.

You can read more about the history & background of the event from the Archives of Michigan and Tulip Time 2007 and 2006 from Michigan in Pictures.

Carving the Elephant by Josh Leo

Last week Holland hosted their own contest, and folks came from across the state to try their hand (and saw) at an age-old winter tradition. Teams from Grand Rapids Community College and Oakland Community College competed for top honors. Roving West Michigan video-blogger Josh Leo has the scoop in his excellent Holland Ice Sculpture Contest video.

If you're in the St. Joseph area next month, be sure to stop by the Third Annual Magical Ice Carving Festival Friday, February 16th and all day Saturday on the 17th. This event will be sanctioned by the National Ice Carving Association (NICA), who will oversee and judge two professional competitions for originality, artistic quality, technique, detail and design. While you're there, be sure to visit local merchants as they show off their finest.

We know we we missed other Michigan ice carving events - let us know which ones in the comments!