I’ve been a bit of a social butterfly.
Good job we’ve had some rain so that the allotment can struggle along without me. Thanks however to Di for removing the shade cloth from my carrot bed now they have germinated.
Enjoyed a lovely couple of days with friends Simon and Lisa at Mt Tamborine who took me out for a celebratory Birthday Dinner and the next day helped me understand the settings on my new camera. Then off to the flower bed to get some macro shots and this is what happened next ..
Scruffy gets in on the act
Back to Brisbane for a wonderful party hosted by son and daughter-in-law. Thank you Jenny and Steve, you thought of everything and really went the whole hog!
Up early on Sunday to catch the coach to the Carnival of Flowers at Toowoomba. This is an annual event which runs for a week when the spring flowers are out. The camera got another work-out and it’s been hard to decide which pics to include from the 100 or so I took. Here is a tiny taste.
A visit to the Clivia Society
One of the floats from the carnival
Just one of the private gardens on display
Monday morning and the start of another week. Enjoyed sharing the first day of the school holidays with grandsons.
Back to the allotment tomorrow. Better take a couple of big buckets with me – there’s going to be plenty to harvest.
Retirement can be great fun. (I think I’ve just found the name for my next blog.)
Allotment Adventures with Jean 
Sep 24, 2012 @ 21:02:38
I’m a sucker for flowers. They are just wonderful. Enjoy your family.
Sep 25, 2012 @ 07:45:09
Thank you for visiting Deb. I have really enjoyed the past week with family and friends. However, I have been slack about the photographic scavenger hunt and even though it’s overdue I still want to do the ‘shelf’ one. I have enjoyed checking out others interpretation of the subject.
Sep 24, 2012 @ 21:10:53
Flowers always seem to be smiling… perhaps they just make you feel happy. Thanks for the comments about my photos. He is still a cute little boy. (I admit to a Nana bias)
Sep 25, 2012 @ 07:49:41
Hi Marion. I too am a Nana and I have a certain bias. It’s OK. I enjoyed spending time with my little grandsons yesterday. It was a lovely day in Toowoomba on Sunday with all the flowers. The council did a wonderful job in my opinion with islands in the middle of the junctions covered in a mass of bedding plants. When I got out of the coach at Picnic Point once we hit the top of the range, I took in a breath of fresh air, looked at the beautiful flower beds up there – it felt so GOOD.
Sep 24, 2012 @ 22:15:41
Our cliveas that we discovered under a mountain of blackberries are just about to flower. We have had torential rain here in Tassie of late and we are making hay while the sun shines and planting out everything that we can before the soil sets to concrete. Lovely photo’s Jean and another great post 🙂
Sep 25, 2012 @ 07:57:28
Thank you for your kind words Fran. You know I have never been particularly interested in cliveas before but when I visited the clivea show, and then saw these same flowers through all the gardens in Toowoomba I just loved them. Hopefully you’ll post a pic of your own cliveas on your blog. I’ll watch out for it. After months without rain we’ve had a little in the past week. But the ground is still pretty dry underneath. I love planting out when the ground is moist, in fact I enjoy planting out in showers, so easy to slip those little seedlings in and know they stand a chance! Hope you managed to plant out everything while the ground is still manageable.
Sep 25, 2012 @ 20:51:15
Thanks Jean, I doubt that we will get all of our 900 potted plants out BUT we just want the main lot in the ground so that we can sort out what we don’t want still to give away and then repot the rest so that they will be easy to manage and a much smaller water bill come mid January when the sun is scorching the earth and our heavy clay soil is cracked and parched and rock hard. We have had more than our fair share lately of rain. We haven’t had much all winter but now, we seem to be getting winter and spring all together! I took a couple of photos of the cliveas but the camera is in the shed (lol forgot to bring it in when I collected the eggs… I got carried away with pulling out forget-me-nots and promptly forgot all about it! How ironic is that! ;)). Hopefully Pingu the shed chook doesn’t take any photos in the night 🙂
Sep 25, 2012 @ 03:11:09
Glad you’ve had some rain. After three days of sunshine we’ve now got gales and rain. The Carnival of Flowers looks great. Hope you’re getting to grips with the new camera.
Sep 25, 2012 @ 08:02:23
Yes it’s wonderful to have some rain after so long. Probably not enough to really wet the ground, but it’s a start of what promises to be our storm season as we go from spring into summer. The Carnival of Flowers was great, visiting these wonderful gardens and parks the variety of colour just made me feel so GOOD.
Sep 25, 2012 @ 19:20:49
Hi Jean
Thanks for stopping by my blog. You are also a keen gardener like myself so I’ll be stopping by. I love the photo of photographer apprentice.
Sep 25, 2012 @ 19:42:42
Thanks for visiting Sarah. Scruffy is my friends little dog, once I lay down on the grass to take a photo up he jumped onto my back. I couldn’t carry on for laughing. Fortunately my friend had her camera handy.
Sep 26, 2012 @ 03:49:11
Hi Jean. The flowers look fabulous!
Some places here in the Uk have had a months worth of rain in one day yesterday and it has been the wettest summer for years…isn’t nature strange…or is this global warming?
Sep 26, 2012 @ 07:56:52
Strange weather. But I’m pleased for the folk in Toowoomba during this carnival week that the weather up there has been settled. The bedding plants looked (as you have said) fabulous.
Sep 27, 2012 @ 09:26:01
Scruffy has something in common with my kids, likes to sit in odd places!
Oct 01, 2012 @ 13:59:24
Love your blog and photos. Had to laugh at the dog photo.
Oct 01, 2012 @ 16:18:53
Thank you for visiting Stacey, pleased you enjoyed the pic of Scruffy.