12-22 Happy Solstice, Darwin!

Bromeliad at the Botanical gardens.  Red for the sun, going or coming.

We celebrated the Summer Solstice by sleeping in and then going sightseeing at the Darwin Botanical Gardens.

The gardens are beautiful. They are full of plants, as Botanical Gardens should be, but it wasn’t all cultivated and tidy. The well-groomed paths ran between bushes, through green houses and under giant trees. In places, the jungle was growing and doing its thing with only a few plaques to show that we were in a garden at all. In other places, fountains shot jets of water in the air and a lilypad pond had 2 different colored flowers. Jason and I both got distracted by the spinny toys on the playground. I couldn’t figure out how to get off mine once I got it spinning. The gardens were a perfect blend between botanical garden, state park and city park.
Lilypads and pretty flowers at the Botanical Gardens.

It is fitting to me that I spent my Summer Solstice playing in the sun.

It is even more fitting that I left Vanuatu 2 days before the Winter Solstice. My family has celebrated Winter Solstice for years by inviting over family and friends and making merry in the darkness of the longest night. We celebrate the change in the year and make ready for the new year by thinking about things we have or want to leave behind. I’ve left a lot behind, but I am taking more with me.

Hanging on by a thread
Or by many threads.

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