Dahlias and Lattes

 Have you ever seen a dahlia as big as your head?  They are an amazing thing to behold.

I haven't had the guts to try growing these beautiful flowers myself, and a friend of mine said growing dahlias is not for the faint of heart in our 5/6 growing zone.  But I have had the privilege of judging the photo competition at the 2019 and 2021 Dahlia Shows held at the Frederick Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park.  I greatly appreciate the West Michigan Dahlia Society asking me to judge their photo competition.  

After judging the photos, I get to spend time admiring the beautiful flowers filling the room and of course take pictures of them.  During my first time at the dahlia show I was quite speechless as I admired the amazing flowers filling the room.  You might think of dahlias as big, fluffy, showy flowers, but there is actually a lot of variety among dahlias.  The tiny, round dahlias remind me of Dr. Seuss trees.  Some blooms are speckled or almost striped.  Others have a more traditional flower shape instead of being poofy spheres.

It had been two years since I last visited the botanical garden and I was greatly impressed with their new welcome center that had been under construction during my last visit in 2019.  The structure has a sleek, modern museum feel to it.  

On the way home from the dahlia show I stopped by Full Circle Coffee in Byron Center.  I first learned of Full Circle last year before the pandemic lockdowns began and I have been meaning to stop by ever since.  I very rarely visit coffee shops.  I used to visit Starbucks occasionally when we still lived in Holland, but lately I make sure to visit locally owned shops when I'm going out for a coffee treat.  I used to always get a Chai latte because I couldn't quite master making one at home.  After buying a Chai tea blend from Adagio I am able to achieve a pretty decent Chai latte on my own.  I wasn't sure what kind of coffee I was going to get when I walked into Full Circle, but after a quick glance at their write up of special flavors sitting on the counter, I settled on their caramel and cardamom latte.  I have baked and cooked with cardamom a few times, so I was interested to try it with coffee.  The cardamom gave the coffee a warm, cozy flavor, and I appreciated that my latte wasn't sickeningly sweet.  So many times I've ordered some kind of coffee only to feel like I'm drinking a dessert.  I do enjoy some sweetness to my coffee, but I would also like for it to actually taste like coffee.  I hope to visit Full Circle again soon!

With beautiful flowers and tasty coffee, I had a lovely Saturday morning.