Gentle reader,
One of my family’s traditions is to drive about town leading up to Christmas looking at all the Christmas light displays. There’s an especially large one held at Queen’s Park in my home town, and it was quite the show. Some of the pieces were a little random to me, but some were truly amazing.
The lights were everywhere you could possibly imagine to put lights! And all varieties. Those candy canes were all made of some bizarre fuzzy stuff that was difficult to photograph, but looked really cute.
Some seemed completely arbitrary and non-Christmassy. Kangaroos? Sailboats? Wombats? Demonic owls? Umm… okay… I guess they were going for an “Australian Christmas” thing, but I never really got that sort of thing (I never really understood the whole “Easter Bilby” thing either).
In the middle of the whole display grounds was a giant blue light christmas tree set in the center of a pond! It was quite spectacular in person, and the reflections in the pod were magical. (You can also see more random lights like the windmill and the Eiffel Tower).
My favorite part though were all the orb lanterns. They were strung through many of the trees and were just beautiful. Some were solid orbs that changed colors and some were wire frame spheres wound with fairly lights. It made me feel like a gnome living in the trees or something.
Even without the light displays, it’s a really lovely park in it’s own right, and a few little reminders of that could be found in quiet little corners.
And lastly, Toowoomba’s not called the Garden City for nothing! There were some amazing flowers and foliage about the place too.
There’s at least another chapter of December Travels to come, and it’ll definitely be craft-related, never fear!
In the meantime, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and everyone traveled safely! Many happy wishes to you, and thank you for taking a bo-peep at The Shy Lion in 2011, and I hope you’ll stay with me in 2012!
– R
theshylion.wordpress.com 
Lovely photos =} Glad to see your holiday was festive and full of Christmas cheer!
It was! It was great to see my folks. I hope yours was fantastic too!
Welcome back! Lovely to see your holiday photos… I quite like the festive owl, actually. We have some Japanese owls on our Christmas tree, also a vintage Christmas skunk (he’s very cute).
I think owls are an all-season, all-purpose, all-occasion motif. Owls are always the right answer! I actually love that this owl is kind of demonic too. ^_~
The best (funniest) Christmas lights display I saw was in Cootamundra when I used to live there. Some inspired home owner has strung fairy lights all over the Hills Hoist and then strung a few dozen Barbie dolls dressed as angels along it.
When one of the kids who lived there spun the clothesline the Barbies would fly around in a circle. it was hilarious.
Now that’s resourcefulness! At least there’s some thought in it instead of just vomiting lights over their house.
That blue Christmas tree was a stunner! I made our tree by making a large triangle from bamboo and then attaching long, straight sticks from our hazelnut trees within the bamboo frame to create a lattice effect. In between the lattice diamonds I hung glass baubles that I crocheted over from Pip Lincolne’s pattern…so the effect was very homemade and cute. Best thing is, I’ve packed it all up this morning and my ‘tree’ just sits flat against a wall upstairs until next year (I made it 3 Christmas’s ago). So we don’t have much in the way of Christmas lights where I live, but I do love the glitter and glow too. I’m looking forward to 2012 & have started the year by ordering 9 balls of extra fine Merino on a clearance special….yeeee haaa!! 🙂
Sounds like you’re all set for 2012, Melissa! Perfection!
That sounds like an amazing idea for a tree. I might have to pinch that… hehe
so so pretty! when i was a kid, we used to to a light show on a river and the reflections of the lights were mesmerizing!
happy new year raynie!
Happy New Year, Robbie! I hope you have an amazing 2012! ^_~
Lights on the water are always a good combo. I think I spent the most time watching the tree’s reflection in the pond. It’s kinda magical!