Sunday Smiles: Spring is on its way!

Huh?  It’s September?  Already?!  Are you sure?  Yes, it really is September.  Normally at the beginning of September I’d be looking forward to the leaves turning pretty colours (which is pretty much the only part of autumn that I like) and very much not looking forward to the days getting shorter and weather getting colder and worse.  But this year, September means that spring is on its way and after the snowdrops in early August, flowers are starting to show their faces in the parks and the days are getting longer.  Yay!

Here are my very spring-oriented Sunday Smiles for this week:

• I was totally surprised to discover that there are magnolias here, and they’ve been in full bloom the past couple of weeks.  I love magnolias, they remind me of Louisiana (which unfortunately got rather battered by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac this week – my heart goes out to you, Louisiana) and also of our house in Norway which somewhat bizarrely had a stunning magnolia tree in the garden.  I particularly love the colour of these ones in Albert Park.

• The daffodils are also showing their sunny yellow faces, and it’s difficult not to smile whenever one sees them!

• My favourite bit of spring though, is baby animals.  Specifically lambs.  We went to One Tree Hill and Cornwall Park this weekend which includes a farm and it has lambs.  Lambs!!!  Oh my gosh, so cute!!!  I only just managed to resist the urge to take one home with me.

• It’s difficult to move on from such adorable lambs, but in non-spring related news, the Paralympics have started!  I haven’t quite finished watching the Opening Ceremony (but I’ve enjoyed it so far) and haven’t watched any of the events yet since I’ve been busy this weekend, but I’m totally excited about procrastinating catching up.  And discovering new sports to get distracted by watch.

• Viviane from At Down Under posted these stunning photos of Budapest this week.  I’ve never been to Budapest, but it looks beautiful and these photos make me want to visit.  A little impractical from New Zealand though, so that’ll have to wait!

• One of my best friends sent me this cute little shark cartoon, which made me laugh.  Poor white sharks, so much pressure.  (Cartoon source)

• Sticking to the shark theme, another of my good friends sent me a link to this Jaws-themed nail art.  I find nail art a little odd – how do people have time to create such masterpieces?  And how do they stop it from chipping??? – but these are seriously impressive (I love the swimmer).  And I’m pretty sure the shark nail could be used as a mini weapon.

• And finally – a little bit of self-indulgence here (sorry!) – I was Freshly Pressed yesterday!  Ironically, I hesitated to publish the post as I thought it might just be a bit silly to talk about the sound of gas cookers.  Looks like I was wrong (or that people enjoy silly posts about gas cookers…) and waking up to that made for a rather smashing start to the weekend!

What made you smile this week?