Ah Spring! Floriade 2010 and Friday Fertilizer prompt.

G'day,
I haven't been in my blog for a while. I just wanted to record for posterity some of the pics I have taken recently and said I would post on here, so here tis'.
This is also my entry into the "Friday Fertilizer , flaunt your flowers" prompt run by blogging gardener 'Tootsie Time". You can find a link to her blog and the other participants on my side bar. Click on the picture to get there.
It is spring time here in my part of the world and things are looking up. We have water, rain, lots of it Ya Hoo!. It is warming up and sunny most days, with bits of rain in between to succor the earth. The days are getting longer, slowly and I am no longer doing most of my afternoon shift in the darkness. AND...... there are flowers again. Beautiful lovely wonderful flowers.
Anyway.... the photos. The first one above is from a trip I went to Sydney about a month or so ago to meet up with my sister and Mum. It is taken from the window at the Watson's bay pub where we sat to watch the sunset. Pretty huh. Sydney harbor is surely one of the nicest harbors there is. That flouro sign you can see is to Doyle's seafood restaurant, a famous Sydney icon. This is the original one but they have opened another at Darling harbor in the city.
This photo is taken at Dixon street mall in Sydney . It is in china town. This man was on stilts and covered in a skirt of fake flowers, he was collecting money for the church in Korea of some such from what I could decipher from his halting English. I thought Hmmm, well that's o.k, even if the money does not end up there I understand. That is my Mum covered in flowers. She is 88 now, soon to be 89 in November. Not too shabby for her age eh. The fat one with the big nose is me. Hahaha.
O.K. The rest of these pictures are taken at Floriade, here in Canberra. Floriade started last Saturday and runs for a month. It is an annual event to showcase gardening and flowers that attracts a lot of visitors from all over Australia. They have displays and demonstrations and talks,and freebie concerts but most of all they have Tulips and spring flowers, millions of them.
The man doing the street theatre is juggling a couple of very large sharp knives with that fiery baton.He chose my husband Pete to assist him, it was a great laugh. Pete and another guy had to pull out the cans that he had that platform on before he balanced on the table. He was a Koorie man from The Alice, going by the stage name of Dusty Boots.
Beautiful rhododendron in the park, flowering at the exact, appropriate time to be admired by the floriade crowds. This plant would have to be the most photographed flower in Canberra at the moment, people were everywhere capturing it's beauty.
Meet some locals from Lake Burley Griffin. Grazing from the fresh spring grass beside the lake. Our beautiful black swans. They are native to Western Australia but these guys are part of quite a few who live here all year round and are accustomed to the two legged big critters, who frequent the park here.
What show would be complete without a petting zoo and little two legged critters to interact with them. This very young baby goat was absolutely exhausted and as with all very young things slept through all the excitement. Lots of children were patting him/her and he didn't take a bit of notice. So cute. I loved watching the children's faces as they interacted with the animals.
These fiberglass Zebras were part of the floriade display. They were done by a local artist, the herd was originally placed as sculptures out on the plains of Lake George which lies between Canberra and Goulburn. Some vandals decided to deface them and smash them up so the remaining Zebras where removed. Nice people to do such things and a very sad reflection on their type to behave in such a way.
This is part of the display of flowers at the back of the stage. As you can see there are many more flowers yet to open. They have to last a month.
Taken from the top end of Floriade near the display tents. This is one of the main beds. That blow up thing is a big paint brush.
The next lot of pics are of work done by fashion students making dresses solely from plants and flowers. These are just a few of the mannequins on display.

The mermaid above looks a bit aggressive, pity mannequins can't smile.
I think this one (below) is my favorite.

These next pics are inside the tent dominated by the orchid society. I loved the way the big display was done . It has green willow branches woven around the roof of the tent and flowers woven through them and rising up and across from the two main displays at each side of the stage.
Preeeeeety.
This display of orchids was the center piece in the tent. Spectacular. You can see a bit more of the woven willow at the top of the tent here.

Some rarer specimens. Don't ask me their names.
And last but not least, a pure pristine white orchid.
That's all for this post.
Bye
Love Linda.