Life and Flowers

Spring has very much been in full effect for a while. Between pollen being everywhere and the temperatures, generally, warming, we’re slowly making our way towards what looks to be a very hot summer. El Nino is going wreak havoc by all accounts, I just hope we don’t have fires similar to those that hit just before COVID. Weirdly, I can very much see my life in two parts, pre and post-COVID and they were very different. I suppose a lot of people could do the same but it wasn’t until relatively recently I sort of looked back and went ‘yep, it really did change a lot.’ Some of it is obvious, some of it is more interpretive and only recognisable after the fact.

Life is very much a routine at the moment although now that the football (soccer) season is over, Sunday’s are a little more relaxed though I do miss playing. We had a good season by all accounts. Finished in the top 4 but couldn’t make it beyond the first knockout round of the finals. I’m hopeful we can repeat the feat next season and, on a personal level, it was one of my better seasons so it’d be nice to build on that next year. Twelve gave soccer a go this year too, however, the team they was playing for didn’t win a game all season and that made it tough, at times, to have fun. Still, they stuck it out, as did pretty much the whole team and whilst the jury is out on whether or not they will play again next year I hope that they do.

Floriade

Since it is spring and I’m in Canberra, it meant that Floriade returned. However, with ten seemingly having a dancing competition pretty much every week in September, including one in Wagga Wagga, it left our visit to almost the final week. It was pretty as usual and the new ferris wheel mixed things up as the gondolas also span around as well as the wheel itself. I didn’t take too many photos but what I did is below.

Wagga Wagga

Speaking of Wagga Wagga, the dance competition was fun but it was a long way to go for effectively five minutes of dancing. Ten’s troupe didn’t place at all, which was suprising given the judging criteria, but we had a great time all the same. We travelled down the day before, counted all the trucks as we went which increased exponentially when we got to Wagga thanks to all the truck dealerships! We hit the local pool and treated ourselves to a fancy dinner before turning in for the night. The day of the comp was wet with heavy deluges for most of the morning but that thankfully cleared up by the time we had to head home after their performance. Our trip home had a stop in Junee so that we could visit the chocolate factory where ten made giant feckles for both herself and her sister.

It was a lovely weekend.