This is our third Christmas in Australia and it still is a strange thing for us, to hear all the same Christmas carols and see all the same decorations that we would in Canada, but it is outrageously hot and just getting into summer! (How hot is it? We hit 38ºC on Tuesday, the hottest December day in 10 years in Brisbane!)
Six white boomers (the other two wouldn't fit in the picture)
The kids are getting out of school now, so our offices are a little less busy as parents take time off to spend with their kids, or to get ready for Christmas. There are still quite a few kids group activities going on, and almost every day at lunch there is a group of kids from either a school or a club, singing carols on the Queen St Mall. It is quite nice to hear the familiar music, but now our problem is sunburn, not frost bite.
Children's choir on Queen St Mall
We have seen some really amazing Christmas displays, including a sandcastle of Santa and his reindeer, along with an emu, a wombat and a fairly angry looking kangaroo. The sculpture isn't finsihed yet, but it is most impressive and we hope they treated the sand so that the artwork doesn't all disolve into a puddle in the next rainstorm.
Amazing sand sculpture
Not all the decorations are man-made, this is also the time of year when many of the trees are in full bloom. The frangipani trees are very pretty but the most impressive are the poinciana trees, with their brilliant red flowers. The trees have a beautiful canopy shape and provide lots of shade over a wide area. One of the most beautiful poinciana trees in our neighbourhood was recently blown over in a summer storm and they had to close two lanes of traffic just for the clean-up!
Poinciana Tree...this photo was taken just two days before it was blown over
Lovely and colourful frangipani trees
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