Royalty on the lake

A couple more photos of the Queen's visit from my friend Robyn (thanks Robyn!). These ones were taken on Thursday, as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were travelling on the Admiral's Barge from Government House (the residence of the Governor General, and where the Queen stays in Canberra) to a special viewing of Floriade at Commonwealth Park.

Dancing on water

In a lily pond in Commonwealth Park, there is a strange flock of birds.They have long steel stilts for legs, and remind me of somewhat raggedy brolgas, although the sculptor - Alan Gauir - hasn't specified what species they are, or given his sculpture a name. He won first prize in the 1991 Floriade sculpture competition, and have remained to keep a beady eye on things.

Floriade 2011: not the flowers

The 35 metre ferris wheel is a great way to see the floral patterns on the ground:

The street organ is at Floriade each year (and the operator takes requests):

Where there are flowers, there are butterflies ...

The reptile display was a big hit. And so were the gnomes:

Floriade 2011: around Nerang Pool

 

Looking across Nerang Pool, with the Captain Cook Memorial Jet in the background.

 

Black swans on Nerang Pool.

Floriade 2011: the flowers

Floriade

We headed into town today to visit Floriade, a huge celebration of Spring and annual display of floral design in Commonwealth Park. This year we had a special reason to visit: my daughter was involved, together with a team from her school, in helping to plant some of the million + bulbs back in April, although she wasn't quite sure today just which ones were hers!

Floriade has a different theme each year. This year is was a Feast for the Senses, and while at ground level it wasn't always clear what each garden bed represented, from higher up you could see a giant coffee cup, a huge chilli pepper, a decorated cake, flames on a barbecue, and other food-related symbols, all created from tulips, hyacinths, bluebells, ranunculus, irises, violas, pansies, poppies and more.

There was also a Victory Garden, carnival rides, a children's area, plenty of places to eat, and a special area devoted to garden gnomes :)

I'll have more images from Floriade over the next week or so.