Spring Has Sprung - Sakura-Style

It's been a long time since last I posted... and for good (and bad) reasons. Firstly, I've been pretty busy this time around with our daughter, C-chan, who has just clocked up her 7th month! Secondly, work has been a bit hectic of late (as it should be). But finally, I've just been spending what online time I've had on G+ rather than blogging.

That, I hope (and keep telling myself) will change. And so, let's start the ball rolling with something that happened just now. Cherry Blossom season. Well, actually, the cherry trees have been blossoming around Adelaide for a while now, but our cherry tree has only just hit peak now. So I thought I'd just liven up blog with a few of my shots of our own Sakura down South....

Hanami - the Japanese tradition of going out to watch the cherry blossoms (amongst others)... but is really just a good excuse to get totally drunk with your friends and workmates...  is a tradition in our house. Normally it means us setting up a picnic rug and table under the blossoms and eating a homemade picnic hamper, and me of course knocking back a couple of beers (suitably Japanese in origin).

This year was looking a little grim weather-wise, and indeed it's been blowing a gale, and when not blowing a gale, it's been raining, then sun-shining, then back to the gale part. Thankfully, today (a public holiday here, for Labour Day) the weather turned a treat. Beautiful sunshine, not too hot, not too cold. Just right (though it did get a little chilly later in the day). So we quickly revised our plans and grabbed the picnic gear. Hanami time was here again!

Now I was going to also throw down a few of my favourite pics from the season... in no particular order. But these were shot over two days, and the weather really did change around a lot (hence why you will notice a very dark grey sky in some of the shots).

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

 

Spring Fashion - A Flower Homage

Well it's Spring time now - officially - and I thought what better way to celebrate it than through a bit of a homage to our Spring flowers that have done their duty once again this year, and given all of us a lot of joy... and me with a lot of photography practice. I have to say that our garden's not so good, and we don't tend to grow anything too exotic (in fact out the front we largely plant native ground covers to combat the droughts we've been suffering over recent years). Still we try to have a bit of a splash of colour here and there.

Here's a set of photos of our Spring fashion show - taken over the last 3 or so weeks... so some of these were particularly early Spring plants. I'll put names to faces shortly - but in the meantime, have a go at identifying your favourite ones (some of them are pretty easy!)... and while you're at it, leave a comment as to your favourite flower (or just favourite photo).

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So go on, let me know which is your favourite (if any), and you never know what you might get as a thank you note.... 

And next post I'll most probably let introduce you to yet another facet of all things AdelaideBen.... but that will have to wait. Time to get back to work!

Adelaide Show Teaser - Part 3

After a day at the show, you can start to just wonder how you managed to pull through. Fairy floss, deep-fried "things" and a good amount of caffeine (or related products) is a common reality. We'd actually thought we'd head off back home around 5pm-ish, but L-kun seemed to be doing just fine so we figured why not stick around. And we did - in fact to closing time (around 9:30-ish from memory).

Now at one point, T-chan let me go off and take some photos whilst she looked after L-kun. I haven't taken much in the way of night shots, and the Showgrounds is a little bit like cheating (with all that electricity pumping through the lights, it's hardly night-time). Anyway, I thought I'd just indulgently put up some of the photos... not that exciting, but I thought I'd throw them up for the hell of it.

Didn't quite get everything exposed just right on the one below - yeah, should have thought about a multi-exposure, but I was working against the clock.

The good thing about the Show is that you get both good light, but also lots of movement. Makes for some interesting effects.

A slightly different perspective.

I do love the CARN-Evil!... who wouldn't? The funny thing is that I've never been in a good haunted house. Do such things exist?

Speaking of haunted houses.... I loved that this one was in Live 3D. Of course, we're all in live 3D, but I'm sure that was part of the humour. I hope.

Colour and movement...

And it wouldn't be a Show if there wasn't Show Food. And lots of it. Why is it that after 8 hours in the Show, we can still go back for more sugary goodness?

I wonder if they remembered to smile?

Did I mention anything about my fear of heights? Not for me... even though this is a tame one. Comparatively.

And then, it was fireworks time. L-kun loves fireworks, and I guess he gets that from his parents. The Adelaide Show fireworks are run both in an early evening and end-of-the-day format. L-kun got a double serving.

And was looking for more well after they had finished.

Or were we simply following the crowd?...

So that was my fairly quick tale of our night at the Show... and I didn't even mention anything about Show Bags. Hint - expecting to get good show bags at the end of the show is an exercise in futility! However, L-kun came out of it happy, and Mum and Dad came out without too much damage to our wallets.

With just over a week before the Show starts again... we're charging ourselves up mentally - and physically - for the coming onslaught. Stay tuned.