Day three: Kite Festival

Darebin Council put on a free family event, Kite Festival 2010, at All Nations Park in Northcote. With the car out of action, our alternative option for the day was cancelled -- being to watch the dog trials at KCC park. Instead, we caught a train and then walked a couple of km each way to the park. Summer-like heat and perfect blue skies with a gentle cool wind made for perfect kite flying conditions, and perfect photography and general fun-having conditions.

I've never been to a festival like this. Everyone was happy, the sky was filled with colourful kites and the crowds were friendly and jovial. I ran into an old school friend which was somewhat of a blast from the past. Even dogs were welcomed, though we had left ours at home. I doubt Paddy would have appreciated the heat and crowds anyway.

The kite teddy stole the show, afterall, who wouldn't fall in love with a huge blue flying teddy with his own honey pot!?

When Teddy came down, a little girl went up and said hello. Hey, who can blame her, I would too!

The sky filled with kites made for an impressive sight.

We waited several minutes for Tubby the Robot to make his appearance.

Dogs enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Kite flying wasn't restricted to just the youngsters in the crowd.

An African band played to the crowd, encouraging people to get up and dance.

One dancer gyrated and writhed to his own song.

We left a bit before closing and made our way back to the train station. We were a bit tired, but plenty happy.

This little (well, big actually) greeted us at the front door.

For dinner, we tackled our freebie marrow and made a great marrow casserole. It turned out much better than we had hoped. Chris joined us for dinner after having fixed the alternator belt on the car (he's awesome!) and we chatted about food, money, television and whatever else took our fancy.

I had a fantastic day!