Carnival of Flowers

Towoomba celebrates the Carnival of Flowers every year and every year I say I will go and see it...this year I did, my friend RaRa offered (maybe offered is too strong a word, more like agreed) to let me stay with her. 

RaRa spent 2 days sticking feathers on a 7ft chook, on a float for the parade, it looked amazing. I helped out by stuffing pot plants in to  holes on the sides of the float. ***just quietly they where a bit disorganized***

After hours of waiting around and heaps of walking the parade was ready to start - I was like a little kid it had been at least 20 years since I last saw a street parade. There were floats and vintage cars, dancers and street performers, kids and adults even horses and dogs. I took heaps of photos and waved and clapped with the rest of the crowd.

RaRa left me to explore Toowomba while she as she had work commitments, I walked for hours (wearing totally inappropriate shoes) I went to the carnival site where we had taken some slow shutter speed photos the night before (not very happy with the result as there was too much light)

I caught a train to the Food and Wine festival and watched Fast Ed cook some caramel for a very fattening desert, the afternoons music was good and the crowd was small. After a bite to eat (Hungarian Lagos - I have only ever seen this at the medieval fair before, I love it and was quiet happy to ignore the fat content - I had been walking for hours) I made my way back to RaRa's, she lives very close to the center of town - however the walk back was a killer - I also knew I was going to have to do this walk twice more!

A shower, a nanny nap and a cup of coffee later I was feeling refreshed and ready to start over, with a friend of RaRa's we walked back to the food and wine fair  - food and wine two of my favorite things, I was a bit bossy about the wine ***having just been to Stanthorpe where most of the wines were made*** so I let the others choose the food - YUMMMO, PHAT burgers - with horseradish. The crowd was much bigger - not a seat to be found. We listened to Ross Wilson - who was very good, followed by the headline act Mental as Anything (they had a few hits in the 70's and 80's) they were not so good - they played for over an hour before they did any hit songs, between songs Greedy Smith (the lead singer) tried very hard to be funny - he wasn't. My feet were screaming in agony on the walk home (we left before the band finished).

Not a good nights sleep, RaRa's 14 year old son had a mate over and they talked and gamed all night...I thought maybe they fell asleep about 5:30am everything went quiet. No they went out to get Maccas for breakfast.  This didn't stop them having a second breakfast of bacon and eggs when we got up.

Flowers, butterflies, ladybugs and photos what a good way to spend a Sunday morning, if my feet didn't hurt so much I would have loved the day. 

I am not very happy with the result of the photos I took, I was using the macro lens and I think I had my aperture to small so the focus was too narrow. Here is a few that I think turned out OK.... there were thousands of photos taken (OK hundreds)

I got a puppy

My Birthday has come and gone, HWMBO took me away for a few days to Stanthorpe in Queensland's Granite Belt. He wanted to visit a few wineries, I wanted to take photos and visit Girraween National park - the last time (only) was for year 11 school camp. This camp was one on the most unpleasant times of my school life, it rained, it was cold, my two friends were more interested in hooking up with some of the guys they virtually ignored me. We were made to do a walk up the granite rocks, this was either really hard or I was so lazy I couldn't manage. I am amazed I even wanted to go back.

We visited 2 wineries on our first day and spent lots of money, we stayed in a beautiful self contained cottage called Apple Blossom Cottage. The owner advised us to set and light the fire before we went for dinner as we would need it when we got home. Dinner was at very well known Italian restaurant Anna's. Dinner was very good hearty Italian lots of it. We also  sampled a lot of the local wine during dinner - I will say I was impressed.

I REALLY wanted to get up early for a sunrise at Girraween, but after a night of fine dinning, wine and grown up games, we both decided it was better to stay in bed when the alarm went off at ridiculous o'clock - I checked the temperature and it was 5.2oC  we snuggled back down and got to Girraween at 8am (not bad considering it was a 20min drive) the kangaroos and wallabies were enjoying the cool morning and didn't seem to worry about us at all- I am sure if we got closer it would have been another story.

We decided against doing the tough walk to pyramid rock, preferring the easier walk to the granite arch. This walk was like a stroll down the street, it was flat and easy. The wild flowers were just beginning to bloom so I was stopping all the time to get photos, I was changing lenses all the time trying for the perfect shot. 

Because I missed the sunrise shoot, I asked HWMBO to come back for the sunset over the rocks and some star trails ( I had not tried this before and thought the rocks would make a good foreground for star trails) all day this was planned until 4 pm when he pointed out a flaw in my plan - the sunset was 5:30  but the stars wouldn't be out until at least 7pm. So we compromised - dinner at the pub and star trails.

Well the star trails were a complete fail. I needed more time, a blanket, a cup of tea, a chair and someone who was happy to wait. I look at it as a learning experience. I will try again when I have more time or am camping so I don't have to drive anywhere.

Lucky the next morning was not so cold, on our way out of town HWMBO wanted  to visit a small town that was known for its Artisans and art work. Apparently not any more there was two shops open in town - the post office and a factory warehouse clothes shop. I think once the highway bypassed the town, everything closed down. So we went to an apple farm and brought some cider and apple products. (unfortunately it was too early for lunch and too late for morning tea, the apple pie looked and smelled divine)

We stopped in Warrick for me to photograph a beautiful church, the lunch by the water at Springfield lakes. There were swallows nesting on the speakers outside the cafe, I am thinking of using one of the photos for my challenge photo this month - the signs of spring. (the other challenge is self portrait I am still thinking about that one.

Ok the heading of this blog is I got a puppy - because I did.

We got a Golden Retriever puppy named Lilly, she is 13 weeks and the prettiest ball of fur I have ever seen. She has such a nice nature, she is egar to please and she loves me unconditionally. Our previous dog was H's Lilly has bonded with me, when ever something scares her or she wants to sleep she looks for me. She has spent more time asleep on my feet than anywhere. We planned for her to sleep on the tiles in case of puppy accidents.This lasted about 10 mins she cried and barked until I caved in and brought her upstairs to sleep next to me. She will sleep there until further notice.

Lilly will be the most photographed dog. Especially went small children are 

around. 

   

Sexy Shoes

Yahoo…finally I have reached my goal weight, 16 weeks, 13kgs. I am one happy camper. Ideally I would like to lose 4kg more, although I don’t think I will. I was pleasantly surprised at how good I felt when I was weighed, I thought it would be a so so feeling, but I did the internal happy dance and felt very proud when everyone at weight watchers cheered for me. I got a gold star. I promised myself a new pair of shoes when I reached goal weight; the plan was a comfortable pair to wear everyday. This is what I bought…I feel sexy I am going to look sexy now.

I was told everyone needs one pair of red shoes in their cupboard. I love impulse buying. HWMBO does too!

I had another wonderful weekend, full of photography and friends. Saturday afternoon RA RA from Toowoomba came down and we went to the new Botanic Garden in Maleny, I got my best bee shot ever and the views were to die for, it costs $11.00 to get in, but it is private property. We spoke to the owner for a few minutes, he is from South Africa after moving to Australia he was disappointed in the lack of gardens, so he created his own, after opening a few times for the garden tour he was convinced he could open to the public. By charging an entry fee he can continue the good work.



One of the many flower photos I took on Saturday



The view of the Glasshouse Mountains well worth the $11.00



This is the best photo I have of a bee, the small size doesn't do it justice. I am gong to print this one for myself.



Sunday saw us out of bed early for a cooked breakfast by HWMBO then on the road for a photo shoot with the Free Spirit Dance & Music School, they invited us to photograph their rehearsal as a two way help, we get to practise on real live dancers and they get photos for their website and promotional material. It was a fun day for all of us. There was 6 photographers and mirrors everywhere so it was a challenge to keep out of everyone’s way and not get yourself or anyone else in the mirror.

Nice chat and lunch at the Palmwoods hotel ruined by the fact Ra Ra tripped on some uneven concrete and hurt both her knees and hands. She will contact the pub because her shoes were ruined in the fall.

She tripped on the corner - I hope they come good, it was a nice pub. The food was good and the service was excelent. It was hard to watch them not want to admit there was something wrong when she fell

After a bit of first aid at home Rachel was preparing to go when our Mentor rang to see if we were keen for a sunset shoot at Point Cartwright, hell yes if he is driving from Monteville everything must be right for a good photo….you would think. There were wispy clouds, the tide was out, there were rock pools to reflect the sky….but nothing there was no colour, no magic bust of sunrays NADA.

This was the best I got…pretty happy anyway

I had another random person contact me to buy one of my photos…Full Moon at Point Cartwright. Woohoo. 

AND I have a date set to do the photos for my colleagues wedding in February 2013.

Life is good.