Flower shows

The weather continues to be fickle and uncooperative, and we're in the midst of another weekend (and a long weekend at that!) filled with chilly, damp, and distinctly un-spring-like weather. Despite these obstacles, Canberra's flowers are soldiering on, determined to demonstrate that they, at least, know what's supposed to be happening when October rolls around in Australia. The gardens on our walk from home to preschool and back again are full of color and beauty, making the walk take twice as long as normal as we stop to look, sniff, exclaim, take pictures, and occasionally congratulate a gardener who comes out to see what the uproar is and stays to accept a few rave reviews.

They're getting some professional competition, though. We finally made it to Floriade this week, even managing to pick one of the few proper spring days we've had so far to do it. Floriade is Canberra's annual spring flower show, and as the largest in the country (and, apparently, the southern hemisphere), attracts visitors from all over Australia and beyond. In addition to thousands of flowers in huge, colorful displays, Floriade also features offerings of public art and performance, a pavilion full of cool stuff for sale, in many cases by the people who manufactured it, and the kind of really excellent coffee two mums were gasping for after herding two preschoolers and an almost nine-year-old around for a couple of hours.