Thank You

My heart sister sent me this gorgeous bunch of roses for my wedding anniversary. I thought I’d share them so you can enjoy them with me :0) If only you could smell them too. They’re divine!

[Heart Sisters is a program I participate every year, run by a church group in my Nana’s town, but there are women from all over Queensland that take part. We meet every valentines day to meet our previous year’s heart sister and to get a new one. Basically there is a big bunch of women, and we all fill out a questionnaire about ourselves and pop them into a basket. Everyone picks one out, and that is your heart sister for the year. Each month you are meant to send a little note of encouragement or a little gift to your heart sister. Some heart sisters really spoil each other (like mine does me!). It’s all done anonymously, and you don’t meet the person who’s been writing to you until the reunion on valentines day. It’s so beautiful to get those little notes and bits of encouragement each month, full of warm fuzzies! It’s such a lovely thing to be a part of.]

More Carnival

Well we did end up hitting the street parade yesterday. It was pretty good (apart from the annoying people that think it’s okay to light up their cigarettes in crowds of thousands.. but that’s a rant for another post). It was loooong! And hot. There were some really good floats, and there’s just a certain buzz of excitement that only comes from one of the main streets in town being closed off and everyone being allowed to walk on it willy-nilly.

Mayana seemed to enjoy the proceedings – especially if they had drums and music!

This float was based on the one used in the very first carnival of flowers street parade.. and the lady in the middle of the photos was the very first carnival of flowers princess (or whatever it is they call them!)

Mayana wasn’t too sure about the Storm Troupers!

In the end, it all got too much for her…

Today we went back out to the park for the markets and some more flower photos:

Some dropkicks in this city had thought it would be a fun thing to do to go and wreck some of the gardens. There were a few bare patches where plants had been pulled up and gardens run through. The organisers had managed to neaten it up enough that the overall effect wasn’t ruined too badly. I just can’t get my head around why people do things like that!

Anyway, aside from that, we have had a lovely weekend, it’s been nice to finally get to one of these carnivals, and have some fun family time together.

How was your weekend?

Carnival of Flowers

We have lived in this town for nearly four years, and we have never been to a carnival of flowers. So we decided, since we were going to be home while this one was on, this would be the year. We decided to head down today, because the rest of the weekend is going to be super busy.

Unfortunately our camera batteries died, so I didn’t get as many photos as I would have liked, but I got a few lovely ones of the botanic gardens section of Queens Park. They were so gorgeous!

We went into the Flower Food and Wine festival too. It was pretty good. The flower exhibitions were fantastic. I was so inspired by the creativity of some of the arrangements.

The wine… well I wasn’t really in the mood, and the few I tasted were reasonably mediocre. I hate that.

The food.. again okay. There wasn’t enough yummy gourmet stuff… I think the only thing on offer to taste was olives, and I’m not a huge olive fan. The food and wine festival that we went to a few months ago was far better on both the food and the wine.

The entertainment was pretty good. Mayana quite enjoyed the visiting Korean dancers and drummers. Well, the drummers mostly. While they entertained her, she entertained the rest of the crowed, by clapping, bouncing, stomping her feet (she was standing up on the chair next to me), singing/yelling and laughing throughout the performance. Let’s just say she had many, many fans.

It was a good day, and we’re thinking of heading back out tomorrow to watch the parade..

Zoey's Very Famous Flower Photos

From the beautiful Jonica Gardens