We are away again on the trail of flower beds and gardens. But first an interlude. We have been the victim of a clothes line heist. Yes, Homealone has done a wash and hung things out to dry and low and behold someone has snatched items from the line! Never before has this happened to us. What has gone? Two towels. They could have taken the old stretched underwear, but no it was the two towels that we have had for nearly ten years! Lucky we have two spares on board. Homealone was ‘generous’ and thought it might have been a husband who was a bit confused and sort of grabbed them from the line as they were leaving the park thinking they were theirs! Argh, argh!!!

Back to the gardens.

First stop off was at the Boyce Gardens. This is an old property gifted to the University of Queensland by the Boyce’s who lived here for 60 years or so. It is a great property. Toowoomba by the way is a big bowl. The city CBD and commercial area sit in the bottom and the residential areas are on the fringes and ridges that surround the bowl. The Boyce Gardens look down into the bowl from the eastern side of town. It is a great rambling sort of place, order within disorder!

A change of pace then took us to Newtown Park on the western side of the city. Here lies the Queensland State Rose Garden. Newtown Park has been around for a long time dating back to pre WW1 days and hosting all sorts of community activities ever since. The plaques that abound tell all sorts of tales of the human adventures that took place in the park. World War mobilizations, community halls and activities, dances, croquet, horses etc. But these days it seems roses are the main go. Now roses are funny things and they just do not fit the timing of the Toowoomba Festival of Flowers! We had a little chat with a lady who seemed to be involved with the Garden, her line was ‘ we are all volunteers you know’. She gave us a brochure and explained that the roses were due to bloom October, not September! But we still had a walk around and there were a few blooms out, there are always early bloomers.

Third stop for the day was at Laurel Bank Park, back in the city. The gardens here were in great form. They had a dinosaur theme running through them. Many of the beds had ‘hidden’ dinosaurs in them that could only be seen when looking down from above. There is a stand in the park that allows you to get up a few metres and look down into the garden beds. Some pretty clever gardeners involved in this! The Loch Ness monster was even there peering out from under some flowers.

Pictures tell a story in a way words cannot. The Toowoomba Parks have been just so good! Excellent even!

Allthego has been having some teething problems with the blog. We have to work with some new design software. Why do things have to change! Photo inserts are a particular learning curve and some gremlins are causing some inconsistencies in the post layouts. Hopefully I will get on top of this shortly! I am told by the system that I need to do some tutorials on the new software. Mmmmmm. I have done lots of tutorials over the years and am getting past them!

More flower beds to come!