Springing forward with Tulip Sunday

I woke up this morning and took a look at my iPhone, which read 7.30am. ‘Blimey!’ I thought, ‘Everyone’s still asleep apart from Alice and I!’ and so I crept downstairs and found Charlotte and Dan asleep in the living room (Charlotte had woken in the night feeling sick – thankfully it eventuated to nothing). I crept quietly back upstairs to play with Alice whilst the rest of the house slept in… and then I took a look at the clock in my bedroom, which read ‘6.30am’.

The clocks have gone forward an hour (at least the one on my iPhone did, the rest we had to do manually) and it’s now light till nearly 7.30pm.

So we sprung forward (some earlier than others) and celebrated with a visit to the wonderful Botanical Garden in Wellington for ‘Tulip Sunday’, which takes places every year as part of the ‘Spring Festival‘. It was really windy, but parts of the gardens were sheltered and at least the sun was out.

There was music playing throughout the gardens; by the duck pond, in the rose garden, at the Sound Shell.

And the Dutch culture was richly on display with gastronomical delights to delight the appetite, a model windmill and clog dancing in traditional costume.

We had a really beautiful time, with some baby ducklings being a very special highlight for the girls. They also had a lovely play with some friends that we bumped into, whilst Alice had a lovely nap cuddled into her Daddy’s chest.

On the way home we stopped in town for the girls to go to ‘Time Zone‘ (I can’t stand the place, but we’d promised them a visit – they play electronic games and win tickets, which they can then exchange for toys – very noisy, lots of flashing lights – they love it (I used to love – when I was a child and the games were a little less noisy and bright and were played with 1 and 2 pence pieces). Anyway, they were happy and came away with a ball and a barrel of monkeys. Alice and I happily sat on a bench in Cuba Mall looking at the pigeons.

This evening there was a real hint of summer evenings to come, with the girls soaking each other – and Dan – with some ultra-powered water pistols (Daddy’s purchase today – so he deserves a good drenching).

We really should have had a BBQ to celebrate the lighter evenings, but enjoyed a roast dinner instead. There will be plenty of BBQ’s to come, that’s for sure!