Happy Mardi Gras! It was Fat Tuesday yesterday, according to the good folks at Gumbo Kitchen, so they threw a shindig that involved bands and buskers and dancers and beads and picnics and sunshine and a second line marching band that led everybody, Pied Piper-style, down the tree-lined path beside the Melbourne Cemetery, and back again.

↑↑ We arrived just as the sun set and the band was warming up, so we were all over the marching and dancing right away. Madeleine busted her best “twirl” moves, which made forward motion somewhat challenging, so I had to keep picking her up and running through the grass to catch up with everyone else.

↑↑ Back at the cemetery gates, we settled in for a picnic while buskers entertained us from under a nearby tree and the sun set behind the little semi-circle of food trucks that kept everyone happy and well fed.

I’m recovering from a stomach bug so wasn’t eating, but for everyone else, there was delicious fare from Gumbo Kitchen (of course), Beatbox Kitchen and the Brulee Cart for desert. Mr B opted instead for a piece of giant, doughnut-shaped cinnamon cake that was dressed in purple, green and gold icing. Is this a Mardi Gras thing? Does anyone know?

↑↑ You’ve never seen a child happier with three strings of coloured beads than my little Madeleine, but she was generous enough to share them with her baby brother (despite his mild consternation and ultimately-futile protests).

↑↑ When Way Past Bedtime started to take its toll on both children, we bundled them into the pram. Jazz bands were preparing to take to the main stage, a few people were already up and dancing again in the grass. It looked like loads of fun.

That night, walking through Carlton North under old trees and past even older buildings, the ferocity all gone out of the sun and cats starting to roam the alleyways… walking with my family as Mr B hummed and Harry sucked his fingers and Madeleine waved her beads in the air… that was one of those sublime “grateful” moments that took me back here all over again. Perfect.

ps. About the photos… Apologies that the quality isn’t great. My camera is in being repaired so I borrowed my father’s old camera, BUT I managed to bring the good lens and forget to bring the actual camera, AND earlier the same day my iPhone died… so I was snapping away on Mr B’s old phone.

ps2. Want to see us at Fat Tuesday, last year?