tu? (1)

That’s what the cal­en­dar is telling us. As is the wind howl­ing through the trees, and shortly, a string of cold south-west­erly thun­der­storms and gales. Stay classy, Welly Weath­er God!

Leav­ing that aside, the our etern­al optim­ism finds expres­sion in the cel­eb­ra­tion of grow­ing things that is the Spring Fest­iv­al, to start at the week­end (through to 3 Octo­ber).

The first event is the annu­al Otari-Wilton’s Bush Open Day & Plant Sale, which any aspir­ing sub­urb­an­ite should be advised to attend early if they want to pick up the really good stuff. Early bird catches the hard-to-find horoeka vari­ant and all that. But even if you’re not a garden­er, the ‘Bush is a very nice place for a stroll, espe­cially on Open Days when after­wards you can reward your­self at the saus­age sizzle (and the last couple of years there’s been a cof­fee cart there too).

You’ll also stand a good chance of see­ing lots of tui, the occa­sion­al kaka, and prob­ably even a fal­con (and here, this author must insert a gra­tu­it­ous “please read this and then vote for the fal­con here”). To get there, just catch the Num­ber 14 from town; there are also some free trans­port options on the day if you can get hold of a prin­ted copy of the Fest­iv­al Bro­chure.

Anoth­er inter­est­ing-sound­ing series of events are the “Poetry in Lamb­ton Quay”, on every day next week and for most of the week after at 12:30 by the Braille Sculp­ture at Grey Street, and fea­tur­ing “some of Wel­ling­ton’s top poets”. Who these might be is not stated – which does add to the interest…

Most of the rest of the events are centred around the City’s vari­ous gar­dens, such as the “Grow your own Veget­ables” work­shop on Sunday; vari­ous walks and tours; and a kids’ tree-climb­ing class (yes, really – they’ll learn to do it safely, appar­ently).

So wrap up warm, and get out of the house!