Best Laid Plans

After breakfast, Christine elected to drive me across to Brunswick where I was going to spend a couple of hours with Nina before heading to the airport. Nina had said her son Taji would drive me and her to the airport, which was very kind. Nina and I spent a couple of hours chatting, looking at the house she has newly moved into, and generally catching up.  We allowed plenty of time to get to the airport, so of course there were no delays.  I had already checked in. I had no luggage to check in so went straight to the departure lounge and waited for my flight.  I was delighted to find that the middle seat, next to my window seat on the right side of the plane, chosen to make sure my shoulder was protected, was vacant. So plenty of space. I was less than delighted to have a small child behind me who kept pushing at my seat and, along with her sister, squealing and yelling.  A request to the female parent seemed to get a slightly calmer period for a short time but then...

After a very good sleep and refreshing myself with coffee and breakfast, Christine and I headed towards the Botanical gardens.  We parked near the observatory entrance and started by looking at the observatory and its history, the buildings nearby and then headed for a little electric bus trip around the gardens, which Christine had pre-booked.  We were the sole passengers on the first trip of the day so had a delightful private tour with a very personable driver/guide. Our guide pointed out many of the key features including some fabulous individual plants, including the witch's  finger tree and bunya trees, which I don't think I had seen before. He also pointed out a tree, whose name I cannot remember, but it's green trunk and branches actually photosynthesize. I had assumed it was merely moss growing on the tree. He also pointed out a leafless Acacia with stems that photosynthesize. During the tour he mentioned the large Lake, formed when a deep straight channel was du...