montage tuesday: kent town botanical

I suppose this could count as a "Montage Monday"... but only because today is the Easter Monday holiday given that yesterday was ANZAC Day. It's all very confusing... all I know is I only have three days of work this week, and it's going to see both very short and very long.

Given that I'd only left the house for two out of the four days of this bumper long weekend, I decided that I really needed to take myself outside today and get some Vitamin D rather than sitting around at home sinking Homer Simpson style into my little red chair.

So after a somewhat slow start I headed off to Kent Town in search of some street art that Ma and I happened past on Saturday... that then turned into a wander up and down Little King William Street not so much in search of street art, but just looking for interesting backstreet architecture.

When I was done with that, I drove over to the Botanical Gardens with the general plan of wandering around... naturally because it was both a nice day and the last day of a long weekend every other man, woman and child had decided to do the same thing, so parking wasn't easy... but at least I actually paid attention to the sign on the ticket machine unlike the woman in front of me who loaded it with coins... when I realised there was a sign saying "free parking on public holidays", I didn't bother. Silly woman.

I went in via the Conservatory Gate (near, as Sheeba used to call it, The Bicentennial Cervix)... and just intended to walk on by as usual... but I noticed the tickets were only about $5, so I took myself on a little tour around the Conservatory... lots of interesting photos involving light, shadow and leaves...

And that kinda became a bit of a theme... light and the way it reacts to leaves, flowers and the camera.

I was very thankful I'd taken both a bottle of water and my hat though... I think that without my hat I certainly would have ended up with a sunburned head... it was decidedly warm!

After wandering through most of the areas I usually wander through in the Botanical Gardens I was headed past the bamboo when I heard a familiar sound from the trees... a sound I haven't heard since November last year in Sydney...

But could it really be? Or was it just birds making stupid noises?

I followed my ears... came across the bridge... and there they were... bats! Over Summer I remember reading something either in relation to flood or fire or drought or rain that the bats had moved down this way from northern climes... but I didn't know that they had stuck around.

And yes, I know that they're not great from the perspective of what they do to the trees, and they are as noisy as hell... but there's just something about them when they launch into the air even during the middle of a sunny day (when the hell do they actually sleep?)... and standing with the sun behind them so that every time they took off their wings became this golden backlit wonder... it was just gorgeous.

I was also suffering from some serious Large Camera Envy... so many people out and about with bigass cameras with bigass lenses on them... I WANT ONE! And then I need somebody to show me how to use it properly...

Anyway... my camera's battery eventually gave up... so I took that as a sign that it was time to give up and called it a day.

A pleasant end to a very long weekend I have to say...

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