Eyes Are Burning
Tag: plants
A Well-Worked Canvas
Tiptoeing Through The Tulips!
Yesterday, my wife Susan and I ventured down to the Annual Bowral Tulip Time Festival which has been running since 1960.
The centrepiece of the Festival is Corbett Gardens, where they plant up to 100,000 Tulips and 15,000 Annuals each year. Across the Shire, they plant another 40,000 Tulips.
Apart from the Floral attractions, there are Brass Bands, Choirs and an array of garden-related sculptures and other forms of Art as well as market/food stalls.
If there is one sticking point, judging by the reviews on various sites, it is the $12.00 entry fee as it is a relatively small area.
When compared to the Floriade Festival in the Nation’s Capital, Canberra which is many, many times larger in area, the $12.00 fee becomes questionable as entry into the Floriade Festival is free. Some activities inside Floriade do cost, but that is up to the individual.
The Bowral Tulip Time Festival has more of a ‘village-feel’ to it. I think $5.00 would be plenty if they had to charge at all. It seems to have become a real money-making exercise.
I have been to the Festival many times before and thinking back, I remember a time back in the 1980s when there was no entry fee and I arrived there just after Sunrise. The gardeners allowed me in (prior to the opening) so I could take some photographs and I spent 1 1/2 hours doing just that. Bliss! It wouldn’t happen these days, though.
Still, it was great to go and visit after several years absence. I made the choice to leave my DSLR at home and just shoot with a camera phone. I was glad I did this as there were just so many people there. The colours (as always) were so vibrant and the background sound of the Brass Band and then the Choir created such a wonderful atmosphere on a glistening Spring day!
Written by David Johnson
1 October 2018
Cacti and Succulents – A Love That Blossomed!
It suddenly occurred to me this weekend whilst visiting the Succulent Garden at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens again, that I had never written any articles on this Blog in relation to my interests in Succulents.
My interest in Succulents blossomed out of a gift from my Aunt Beryl when I was 14, back in 1977. It was a Euphorbia, which sadly passed on some time ago, not being as hardy as Aunt Beryl who is still going at 92 years of age.
From then on, Succulents were around in one form or another at home. I started to group them together in large, flat pots when I was in my late teens and imagined one day of having a sprawling Cacti and Succulent Garden.
It would be a good time to point out that Cacti are Succulents, but not all Succulents are Cacti – but that is another article for another time. I particular favour Cacti but love all Succulents.
When I married in 1997, we bought a property that was 5,609 square metres (1 1/4 acres) about 100km (62 miles) South West of Sydney, Australia.
I ended up with a 35 square metre (42 square yard) Cacti & Succulent Garden with up to 120 plants in it. It was a labour of love to construct and I tinkered with it over the 16 years we lived there.
Currently, I have approx. 80-100 plants which are currently in pots, where we currently reside. When we buy our next place, I feel sure that David’s Cacti and Succulent Garden 2.0 will become a reality and I am surely looking forward to that!
Written by David Johnson
16 September 2018
Communicating Creatively 