The air was infused with a heavenly scent…

I took a drive, after dropping Charlotte in late to school yesterday (she’s a diligent, hard working student – but is unfairly afflicted with hay-fever). I ended up at the Lady Norwood Rose Gardens in Wellington. I was pretty sure the roses would be in bloom by now (I’ve been away on holiday and only back in Welly for a couple of weeks… so it’s been a while since I visited the gardens).

As I drove into the rose gardens, hopeful for a parking space (as they are limited from now through till the end of summer), I was rewarded with the sight of a multitude of colours. The dark cloud hovering in the distance I gave a firm ‘sod off’ stare to and found the one remaining parking space (my hopeful vision of ‘believing a space would be there’, came good).

I opened the car door and inhaled, deeply (as a mother always does before moving children from a confined space into a public arena). The scent that met my nostrils was one of heavenly goodness (a rare treat – as it’s normally the scent of ‘something going off’ in the car, or under a child’s bed, or in an elusive corner, sometimes under the sofa, or in the fridge even, and the bin, definitely in the laundry basket… say no more).

The rest of my rose garden experience was everything one would hope for… a nice stroll, children playing hide-and-seek (without me losing them and without any damage to rose beds), a genteel chat with some lovely old ladies about the science of roses and inter-breeding (or whatever they do to them to get amazing duel coloured roses from one plant) and a latte at the cafe without my children spilling anything or cracking any plates.