The gardens are planted

 We have been having some beautiful sunny days recently. The cold nights give way to warm, almost balmy weather so we visited one of our most popular parks today to have a look at the preparations for the upcoming Carnival of Flowers which will be held in Toowoomba from the 15-24th September at the beginning of the Queensland September school holidays.

The gardens have been planted and in a couple of months will be a blaze of colour. Some are already flowering but the park gardeners know their stuff and have had lots of experience with adverse weather events, vandalism and so on in previous years but always have the gardens ready on time for the thousands of tourists who come to visit.

I know there are lots of 'grey nomads' who read my blog who travel around this beautiful country so if you are intending to view the gardens in September it is a good idea to come the week before it actually starts as it is not quite as busy then. That is unless you want to watch the parade on the Saturday.

 

There is netting over two of the gardens for some reason so I am not sure if something has been eating the seedlings. The gardeners always have a backup in case seedlings 'disappear' and do some quick repairs at times I imagine. 

Apart from the gardens there are other events on at this time including the steam train ride to Spring Bluff which, for some reason, I have never been on and I should have taken my children when they were little. However, this year I am going to buy tickets and get on that train with all the hundreds of families with little children and ride down the Toowoomba Range in the train :-) I just noticed on the Carnival website that is called  a diesel-hauled train....is that the same as a steam train? I guess not as there is a steam train coming from Brisbane on the Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, tickets are on sale on the 1st August for the train ride to Spring Bluff if you are interested.

 

Also coming up is the Jumpers and Jazz Festival in Warwick which runs from the 20-30th July. We were there last year and it is very interesting especially if you are into knitting and crochet.

 

I wrote a couple of blog posts at the time. Be sure to wear your woollies as it can get cold at that time of the year. 

If you have never been to Stanthorpe and happen to be planning to visit our region next weekend then go along to Snowflakes in Stanthorpe from the 30th June to 2nd July. Stanthorpe is one of the coldest cities in Queensland and even had snow a couple of years ago.  Apparently tourists from the warmer areas flock there in winter to 'enjoy' the cold weather. Go figure! By the way the above photo was taken on our front lawn last year but the frosts in Stanthorpe are much heavier.

There are always events being held in our inland area and it is a great place to live. I do love going to the coast for a holiday but wouldn't like to live there as I don't think I would appreciate it as much if I did. Then again....perhaps I would.