Cooking in the gardens

We packed our passports and headed north of the river on Sunday to check out the Redcliffe food festival. Australia is big on its food festivals and they vary from small intimate gatherings to large corporate events. The atmosphere tends to vary inversely to the size - at the Southbank festival we've even been scolded by a stallholder for daring to taste a wine at a wine tasting and not immediately buying a bottle.*

The Redcliffe festival was a little different as it was held in the botanical gardens, with a twisty turn maze of pathways threading through beautiful woodland

Along with the food, wine, gardening talks and general knick-knack stalls were some historical recreation societies including a gypsy group 

and a medieval recreation society, one of whom gave a great talk on making mead

Hanging over everything and constantly chattering to themselves were the fruit bats that have made their home in the gardens 

I thought that bats slept during the day but these guys were early risers

 After a few hours we sought refuge from the crowds and went to the beach - it was beautiful Qld winter weather and I didn't see a single cloud in the sky all day. This is an aerial shot from the drone, although I'm not game enough to fly it over water quite yet.

 When I get the hang of flying it then I can try for some bat close-ups...

*The two of us shared very small tastings of a mediocre Shiraz and an overly sweet & fake tasting 'ginger zinger' wine put out by '2nd 2 None' wines. After politely refusing the suggestion to buy something at $17 / bottle that was outclassed by Dan Murphy cleanskins we were snappily asked 'why are you tasting them if you're not going to buy one?', which is kind of missing the point I think. We spent a few dollars more on a lovely Pinot Noir from a very friendly neighbouring stall instead. '2nd 2 None' are regulars on the foodie circuit - if you see their stall, just keep walking.