Counting down the days

 Well, who would have thought that the Carnival of Flowers would go ahead in 2020 but, short of an outbreak of COVID-19 in our city in the next few days, it will start on Friday. Visitors to our parks have already started arriving and the weather has been fine and pleasant so far.

As Queens Park is across the road from the Cobb and Co Museum where the Saturday Farmers' Market is held, I often go for a walk in the park after buying my fruit and veggies to see how the Carnival flowers are coming along. By the way if you are visiting Toowoomba next weekend the Farmers' Market will be held on Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 2pm. 

I was hoping to see some of the gardeners at the park to ask when they plant their foxgloves and hollyhocks but they took off before I got the chance to talk to them. 

The colours of the plants are many and varied and there would be something there to please everyone I am sure. 

As the wattle and violet are Toowoomba's floral emblems the colours of Toowoomba are gold and purple as seen in the garden of pansies above. Actually you can usually buy a wattle and violet ice cream at the Picnic Point cafe during Carnival week. 

Good old petunias always make a nice show and are so easy to grow. 

I just love the foxgloves and have bought some seeds to plant when I find out when is the best time to plant them here. 

A few weeks ago my hubby had an angiogram and couldn't garden for a few days so I dragged him along to Laurel Bank Park to see how it was progressing. At that stage it was already obvious what the theme for this year is .....'Family Time'. 

I just love this park as there is always a theme and it isn't as formal as Queens Park so do pay a visit if you are in town over the next few weeks. Of course the park looks more spectacular now than it did when we visited a while back when I took the photos. 

Last year we saw the beautiful double pink hollyhock in the above photo and I was surprised to see it was already flowering a few weeks ago in Laurel Bank Park as my hollyhocks won't be opening for a few weeks yet. I really need to talk to the park gardeners and pick their brains about planting times.  

Personally I will be steering clear of the parks and shopping centres for the next couple of weeks so as to avoid the crowds. However,  as most of the visitors are older people I am sure they will be very mindful of keeping safe and be considerate of others. Most of the indoor events have been cancelled so the parks should be a safe place to visit.

How is everyone going with the Blogger changes? I have just had to revert to the old interface or whatever it is called so that I could add labels to this post  as I couldn't add them in the new version. I really don't like changes in the technology field.

Have a great week everyone!