What flutters by?

 'What flutters by?' is the theme this year at the beautiful Laurel Bank Park during our famous Carnival of Flowers.  I love this park as the displays are always quirky and unlike the classical beauty of Queens Park which is one of our other premier parks. 

My friends and I visited the park last week before most of the tour buses arrived and it was already busy. Unfortunately some of the plants weren't flowering then.....

 

...like many of the Foxgloves and all of the Hollyhocks as we have had a cold winter this year but I imagine more flowers are putting on a show this week as we have had several warm days. 

There are always masses of tulips to look at complete with windmills along the way.

There is a viewing platform in the park from which you can get a better view of each of the gardens in the themed gardens and I also found that looking through the lens on my camera helped to make it clearer but, of course, the photo that is usually taken from a cherry picker is the best one of the lot but I think that is only published in the daily newspaper which we don't buy. 

If you live in the region and would like a pleasant day out then there is still plenty of time to see the gardens as the Carnival doesn't finish until the end of September. 

We held our very last Simple Living Toowoomba workshop this month. It was only fitting that our 'founder' Margy was the presenter and so we shared morning tea while we had a chat about what we had learned over the last 10 years since the group began and then some of the ladies made a gratitude book. Margy had been inspired by Ann Voskamp's book 'One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are' which she brought along to show us. 

There was a lot of fabric, etc. to choose from but I am terrible at keeping up with diaries and the like so I didn't make one as I knew I would start off being enthusiastic and then forget to add to the book regularly. 

Margy brought along a couple of books she had made which were already filled up. Some of the ladies still want to meet up to keep in touch so we will get together every six weeks or so at a friend's house. We have learned a lot over the last ten years and have covered so many topics that it was hard to think of something new for each month. So it was time to finish. 

I watched some of the pomp and ceremony of the Queen's funeral and don't the British do that so very well. The bagpipes always make me tear up as my grandfather was a piper in Scotland who used to wake up the Laird of an estate each morning apparently. Must have been the days before alarm clocks I guess. LOL!

Another wet spring and summer forecast has been announced and residents have been asked to prepare once again for flooding which must be devastating for those in flood zones as they have already been flooded at least twice. A couple of years ago we were having bushfires. Stay safe everyone!