Sunday in the park with my mum

... and Spike too

I sat by the lotus pond in Sydney's Botanic Gardens, typing a long e.mail to my friend Pat in Edinburgh.  Spike returned from the souvenir shop with my mother who had selected four ... not one or two but four necklaces to take home as gifts.

We lingered by the lotuses, most of which were not in bloom.  Some had seed pods held aloft, perhaps ready to pop (if that's what they do).  Those pods remind me of alien species from 1950's B-movies.  Don't ask me why.  Here and there around the pond, mostly hidden among the vast leathery leaves, there was a splash of bright cerise where some flowers broke through the variegated green.  The brilliant pink of a world that my mother has come to share with us for a while: slightly exotic, often surprising and not at all like anything you would find back home.

The photo (not a little out of focus) was taken with my wonderful ASUS.  Clearly, one has much to learn.