Thursday 17 September 2015

A visit to the beautiful Laurel Bank Park

Yesterday a couple of friends and I took a walk through Laurel Bank Park which is just resplendent at the moment. There are so many beautiful gardens there that it is difficult to know where to start.


In one section of the park there is always a theme and the gardens are planted accordingly. This year the theme is Around the World and, as I couldn't fit in the three separate gardens in one photo, I took three and joined them together not quite successfully but you get the idea. The other gardens in this section represented the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Harbour Bridge and various flags of the world. We were there when the cherry picker arrived to take a photographer up high to take photos of the park from above where you get a wonderful view of the whole park and you can see the results in this link Carnival of Flowers - Laurel Bank Park.
I just had a look at those photos to see if we were in them as we were having a cuppa at the Croquet Club Hall   at the time but were on the other side of the hall from where the photo in the link was taken. They were serving up a Devonshire Tea for $5 with the biggest scones I have ever seen. On closer inspection we are in photo 4 walking down the path to the left of the lady with the blue t-shirt on. LOL! The photographer caught us on our way out of the park.



I took along my new DSLR camera as I haven't been using it and need to get some practice with it but also wanted to take some close-up photos with my little Canon point and shoot as it takes really good photos on the Macro setting. Can anyone identify the plant in the above photo? We were a bit stumped about what it is.


 As it was a really warm 27C day and there was a lot of glare, I would really disappointed with the photos I took on my DSLR as obviously I should have changed the settings to account for the glare so that's a bit of motivation to actually watch the online videos I have subscribed to and I might actually find out how to use my camera properly. 


This is actually a flower on the strawberry plants that are in the edible food garden in the park. I have never seen this variety before. There were also artichokes, brussels sprouts and lots of other veggies in this section.



Thomas the Tank is still there and hopefully one day I will be able to take my grandchildren to see him and perhaps have a picnic sitting in the carriages.


There were rows and rows of what I believe are double tulips  and they are absolutely stunning...


...and all the different colours blend so beautifully together. 



 This year the wisteria is flowering which I don't think it was last year...



...so we headed up to the Wisteria Arbour which is a lovely place to sit down and relax...



...during your visit as there are seats underneath...


... and you can just sit there and take in the beauty of this glorious plant. 



There are so many gardens that it is impossible to include them all in a post but you can
view those taken by the professional photographer in this link I mentioned before. There are 40 photos of the park there.

 


I will leave you with the photo of the first flower we saw as we entered the park. What a beauty and it gave us a taste of what was to come! Do visit this park if you are ever in Toowoomba as I am sure you won't be disappointed especially if you visit in spring. 


17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hmmm, I really don't know. Perhaps I should put the photo in Google images.

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  2. That wisteria arbor is stunning. Wisteria brings back so many memories for me.

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    1. I wish we had a plant here, Phil as it is so beautiful.

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  3. How very beautiful. A wisteria arbor would be so pretty. Love the photos.

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    1. The arbour wasn't flowering this time last year so it was lovely to see it in flower this time.

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  4. I love wisteria too and that standard is magnificent. Hope to stop off in Toowoomba next Thursday as long as we find a spot to park the van.

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    1. Hutchy, that would be a bit of an issue with a van that I have never thought of. I might ring the council and find out if there are any special spots for vans.

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  5. Lovely pictures Chel. That is an interesting looking variety of strawberry. I haven't seen it before either.

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    1. Sherri, we couldn't believe that it was a strawberry. So unusual.

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  6. Wow I've no idea what the plant is but I hope it's edible! Looked like a glorious day! I wish I could come up this year but its not going to work out. Xxkel

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    1. Pity you can't see the gardens,Kel. They are looking spectacular.

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  7. I think your photos are great Chel, especially the tulips at the end and also the 'panorama'. It will be interesting to see if anyone can identify the grape-thingies.

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    1. The photographer in the cherry picker did catch us as we were walking along the path. LOL!

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  8. I was there with my daughter today. It was beautiful! We travelled from her place at Redbank Plains, outer Brisbane and back again. I ended up purchasing some lovely daisies from the Clivea group behind the TAFE. They'll look lovely in my Hervey Bay garden.

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  9. Isn't it beautiful, Jane? We hope to get to see the Cliveas at TAFE in the next few days. I will have to buy another cream one and actually put a plant marker in it this time as we 'lost' the one we bought last year. I guess we will find it when it flowers eventually.

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  10. beautiful nanna chel, wisteria doesn't grow here, as it's just too warm, miss them, used to see those & hydrangeas in nearly every garden in western Sydney when i was younger
    those cherry blossoms? are also spectacular, what a gorgeous colour!
    thanx for sharing

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