My favourite flower has always been the tulips. And I know there is a Tulip Festival here every year. But I never thought of going... I didn't believe in paying to see flowers...

But our day ended very early, had a nice picnic of packed sandwiches from the deli. We had to think of a nice place to go and The Tesselar Festival was having their Children's Day that day. So we decided to go anyway.

Mum was very excited with the rows and rows of beautiful colourful tulips. They were indeed a delight to look at.



Meredith had her fun at the activities organised for the kids....she was at the storytelling with Fairy Monica and got a fairy dust on her forehead. She also did some craft...making a little purse which is now in the dump and which I paid $5 for.

But we enjoyed the day....very much....a day with the flowers....who wouldn't?

The next day, we headed down to Katandra Gardens...a garden managed only by an elderly couple. They started in 1974, builded a little shed as their house, they said they had no money then. Now, it has expanded to an 8 acre Australian wild flowers garden, including a little lake they dug up themselves. The host, Bob also told us how he would want to get as many planst from all over Australia as possible, even travelling to the dessert! That was some inspiration!

I am not into wild plants and never thought much about them. But this trip has made me changed my viewpoint... there's so much in nature's wonder!!

This is the first interesting plant we saw....called a Grass Tree...get it, its like grass growing on a tree. Did you see its flower in the middle hidden among the leaves? Meredith was the first to spot the flower.



The Thomasia... it gives off a delightful scent....we smelled it first and then went sniffing for the plant. Where did the smell come from??

This is the lake they dug up which now houses some grebes. Grebes can dive underwater and resurface again some distance away! And they do make a loud noise! The brown patch in front of the lake is a new bed ready for low-lying plants...

This is an example of low-lying plants... they need something like this so that the view of the lake would not be blocked...

The grass....soft and dry...we just sat there forever...enjoying the lake and taking in the beauty of the surroundings...

This flower has so many shades of orange and pink... very pretty!


This is the Lime Majik... so soft-looking...

And this was interesting...the nature of which plants grows first...When I saw this, I understand why some of the trees in the streets are already blooming while others are still bald since winter!

I didn't get the name for this...but it looks like purple tissue paper growing on the tree!

Just so neat the way the leaves grow...and an occasional flower in the middle of nowhere!

This is a little lily...looking frus but definitely not! Just the way the photo turned out...

It was one of our best days! What an amazing garden!