Wandering

Yesterday began with another bright clear morning. I walked the long way round to get the Saturday Age from the newsagent up in The Parade. People were looking at me strangely and I realised I was the only one wearing shorts and Tshirt...everyone else had coats and gloves. Perhaps I should have worn a sign saying I was from Melbourne where we are more familiar with these temperatures. (Adelaide has been having fabulous Melbourne Autumn weather all week). Anyway I took my arms and legs and The Age back to the apartment and lingered over breakfast reading all my favourite bits.

Ivy (villain) is confusing Nina (mc) and her brothers by being nice to them. But the confusion is shortlived, when they realise she needs them, if only to deflect attention from her purpose. After they are dismissed they climb through heating vents to overlook the ball. Why can they see two of the African Trade Minister?

This morning I set out for the parks surrounding the city, turning right instead of left. I've discovered that the trees I'd seen last week are part of an olive plantation planted many years ago by migrants.

I can't tell whether or not the trees still fruit, but they are a wonderful sight, both from afar and close up. The trunks are all knobbled and twisted, with tiny little 'caves' that must be home to myriad little folk.



Further on, I had to leave the path to avoid being knocked down by hundreds of runners on what I think was a cross country event. There were some seriously fit people making the run look like a saunter, and others whose panting breath echoed through the trees. Unlike last week, this part of parklands is cut into three by major city feeder roads. Each section of the park has its own atmosphere. The first, which included a football ground and aforementioned runners seemed to encourage vigourous activity.

The second, host to Alice and a lake complete with bridges was host to more gentile activity and I saw lots of families with small children and bikes.

The third, smaller park, was the venue of choice for a busload of seniors who were cuddling up to their cuppas. The area where they were huddling had a concrete area with a small concrete grandstand...performance space?

From this angle this twisted tree branch looked a bit like a upside-down camel, but rotated all resemblance vanished!

The Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange is a wonderful set of buildings, although no longer functioning as a market. I called in briefly at the weekly Rundle St market, but really they were just setting up and I wasn't in the market for jewellery or paintings...although I was tempted by some winged slippers.

Nina discovers that the plants she found in the conservatory can be distilled to make an inhalant which can cause total anaesthesia.

A sailing ship was drifting on the lake as I walked along the other side of the park. When it drifted too far away, a remote controlled tug would nudge it closer to shore and then let it wander where it would.