Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Trevor's Birthday
Amy, Audrey and Eli made me a rather splendid birthday cake in the design of a football pitch - complete with players.
I enjoyed an excellent day at the National Gallery (the Italian Renaissance exhibition) followed by lunch at the Water's Edge and an evening at Canberra Theatre watching Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Here's a couple of pics of the kids helping me blow out my candles!
Monday, March 12, 2012
National Arboretum
A short drive from where we live a monumental project is underway to build a National Arboretum. It's high on a hill looking down over Canberra, with beautiful views. At the moment the Arboretum is only open one day a month, but I've no doubt this will extend as the development grows.
The 250 hectare area is being planted where much of the bush fires burnt during 2005 and the plan is for the place to have a 100 forests. The National Arboretum incorporates plantings of rare or endangered Australian trees as well as a patchwork of others and will also incorporate a pavillion and cafe.
We'd tried to visit last month, but an impending rain storm had meant that we turned our car around, but Sunday's sunny weather allowed us to have another look.
Currently there's not a huge amount there - a huge number of saplings, a really interesting 'water-wise' garden and a temporary visitor centre, but even driving round you can see that the place is going to be beautiful as it develops. We took a short walk up to the top of a hill to see a sculpture (which is named and spells out) "Wide Brown Land" taken from a line of a Dorothea Mackellar poem. Here's a rather good 3D picture of our view (not taken by me but worth playing with)
National Arboretum Canberra - "Wide Brown Land" in Australia
Here's some pics of our visit
The wide brown land for me
The 250 hectare area is being planted where much of the bush fires burnt during 2005 and the plan is for the place to have a 100 forests. The National Arboretum incorporates plantings of rare or endangered Australian trees as well as a patchwork of others and will also incorporate a pavillion and cafe.
We'd tried to visit last month, but an impending rain storm had meant that we turned our car around, but Sunday's sunny weather allowed us to have another look.
Currently there's not a huge amount there - a huge number of saplings, a really interesting 'water-wise' garden and a temporary visitor centre, but even driving round you can see that the place is going to be beautiful as it develops. We took a short walk up to the top of a hill to see a sculpture (which is named and spells out) "Wide Brown Land" taken from a line of a Dorothea Mackellar poem. Here's a rather good 3D picture of our view (not taken by me but worth playing with)
Here's some pics of our visit
The wide brown land for meHot Air Balloon Festival
During the Canberra Festival, Canberra plays host to a balloon festival, it claims to rank as one of the four biggest in the world. The only catch to it being that you have to be there before 7am to see the action. It runs for 8 days and is one of my personal favourite things in the Canberra calendar.
Mulch
We had a rather untidy and overgrown corner to our front garden. I think it had been gravelled at one point but the pea gravel had long since sunk and the cursed cooch grass which grows with unparallelled invasiveness had taken hold, which when combined with the branches of the trees had made it a bit of a no-go area.
Helped by Phil our neighbour I spent much of Saturday digging out the scruffy corner and filling it with mulch. Under the surface are 40-50 daffodils which should make a nice display in the Spring.
Here's a picture of Audrey and Eli enjoying their rock 'thrones' (discovered while digging) after we had finished.
Helped by Phil our neighbour I spent much of Saturday digging out the scruffy corner and filling it with mulch. Under the surface are 40-50 daffodils which should make a nice display in the Spring.
Here's a picture of Audrey and Eli enjoying their rock 'thrones' (discovered while digging) after we had finished.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Enlighten Canberra
For the last couple of years Canberra has hosted the 'Enlighten' festival, it's part of the Canberra Festival held in Autumn.
Enlighten is a series of events, over 11 attractions, designed to allow vistors to see exhibitions and performances at night. Most of the things laid on seem to be both interesting (and free!).
The weather here hasn't been great recently which I'm sure would have kept numbers down, but hopefully the festival continues to grow and develop in future years. If you want to see the programme - it's here
Tonight's weather was warm with a light breeze so after work/school we had a quick bite to eat then went along to the Museum of Australian Democracy. As well as hosting a really interesting children's play (about arches being built in Australia to celebrate Federation in 1901) there was free lantern making and the outside of the building was lit up with a range of stunning projections. As we headed home we heard a band playing in the Old Parliament House rose gardens and glimpsed a free outdoor cinema showing a series of short films
lantern making
projections on old parliament house
Enlighten is a series of events, over 11 attractions, designed to allow vistors to see exhibitions and performances at night. Most of the things laid on seem to be both interesting (and free!).
The weather here hasn't been great recently which I'm sure would have kept numbers down, but hopefully the festival continues to grow and develop in future years. If you want to see the programme - it's here
Tonight's weather was warm with a light breeze so after work/school we had a quick bite to eat then went along to the Museum of Australian Democracy. As well as hosting a really interesting children's play (about arches being built in Australia to celebrate Federation in 1901) there was free lantern making and the outside of the building was lit up with a range of stunning projections. As we headed home we heard a band playing in the Old Parliament House rose gardens and glimpsed a free outdoor cinema showing a series of short films
lantern making
projections on old parliament houseMonday, March 5, 2012
End Logging of Native Forest in Tasmania!
We found a postcard the other day protesting about the destruction of habitat in Malaysia and Tasmania by a Sarawak based company called Ta Ann.
If you want to know more about the damage they're causing then click here
Audrey got quite interested in the campaign and so I helped her write a letter of protest (she dictated I wrote, and then she embellished with some pictures and a bit more writing)
Not sure if it'll have any effect, but I thought it was a good go for a 1st letter of protest. Let's see if we get a reply...
If you want to know more about the damage they're causing then click here
Audrey got quite interested in the campaign and so I helped her write a letter of protest (she dictated I wrote, and then she embellished with some pictures and a bit more writing)
Not sure if it'll have any effect, but I thought it was a good go for a 1st letter of protest. Let's see if we get a reply...
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