Araluen

Araluen is an eastern states aboriginal word for "singing waters", "running waters", or "place of lilies". it also happens to be a very nice botanical park tucked away in the south east area of perth. di and i (and her son sam) decided to explore araluen yesterday, after many weeks of discussion and "we really should go" comments. 

at the moment, there is a tulip "festival" going on. i use the term festival loosely, because, well, when you live near ottawa and you go to a tulip festival, it's pretty dang awesome, with bands and events. at araluen, however, it was more that there were tulips in bloom and they look awefully nice. we meandered around the park, (some 59 hectares. not that we walked that much). there were some beautiful gardens displaying an array of flowers and plants, both native and non. whilst walking about, we noticed a small train (well, sam noticed) that takes visitors on a short tour of the park for "a gold coin donation". clearly with a 2 year old in tow, there was no way we were going to miss a train ride!

the ride proved to be nice and somewhat educational. the park, we were informed, was created in 1929 for the Young Australia League (what's that? i don't know).  the founder of the park encouraged people from the YAL to bring back plants and flowers from places they visited- nationally or internationally- so that they could be planted in the park. luckily for them, araluen has an interesting climate, as it's in the "hills" of perth (again, loose term) and because of its' sheltered environment, it can actually support a variety of plant life. the botanic garden has been run by volunteers since the day it opened. though i should say now that the cafe is not... it is run by gougers. and the kiosk is run by folks who don't understand that a hot chocolate isn't challenging to make... especially when the powder is sitting on top of the coffee machine! (the woman told me they only do takeaways. i said "so no hot chocolate". she looked at me like i was a moron and told me "i said we only do take away. if you want that, you'll have to go into the restaurant". gosh! sorry. i didn't realize that instant hot chocolate was so different than instant coffee...urgh)

a few hours after we arrived, we had seen all that we could see. which turned out to be good timing for us as there were droves of people sprawled on the lawns. apparently araluen is a great spot for a picnic and a lazy afternoon. we would agree, except that it took us nearly 50 mins to get there. not really a short drive for a few hours of fun.

sadly, my camera battery died, so i don't have any fab pics of the tulips for the blog. i do have a few on my phone (and they look great!) but i'm not sure that i can get them onto the computer. 

overall, it was a nice morning and the tulips were lovely. but this was no festival. just good marketing. and bad hot chocolate.

xo