Birthday Booroomba

I really like Booroomba Rocks. I think I've been up there three times now and I'm always blown away by the view back over Canberra and out to the Brindabella Mountains. I climbed up there on my birthday together with a friend, Andy who is staying with us at the moment. It maintained my philosophy of never working on my birthday.

Booroomba is only 30 minutes out of Canberra, but not many people venture there. It's a steep climb from the car park which probably takes about 30 minutes but the view at the top is spectacular.

We ran into a group of walkers at the top and they kindly sang me happy birthday and gave me a piece of carrot cake. I also had a cup of tea and some biscuits in my bag which made for a well earned rest at the pinacle of the rocks.

The rain caught up with us as we were descending, but it was only a shower and we reached the car without getting too wet.

Audrey Jam

A lovely lady called Kathy who used to work with Amy used to regularly drop us off jars of (beautiful) home made jam. The kids used to call it 'Kathy Jam'. Sadly (for us) Kathy is about to move to pastures new, but before she goes she gave Audrey a lesson in jam making (along with a great recipe).

 

It's so nice to have people around who are still so caring and interested in the kids.

 

Strawberries are cheap at the moment so we made a decent batch. Audrey loved making the jam and carefully chopped measured and boiled things. I helped her put the jam in jars. The kids eat it at a rate of knots, but we should now be ok for a month at least I figure!

Audrey shows off her Audrey Jam!

Enlighten

Canberra's Enlighten festival grows bigger by the year - I think the plan is to make it bigger than our other big festival Floriade which this year was a pale shadow of what it's been in previous years.

Enlighten is all about lighting up Canberra's national buildings - everything from Old Parliament House to Questacon is bedecked in light displays and every year they seem to be just that extra little bit better than the year before.

Combined with the festival are a number of shows and music events, but these mostly run at the weekend. Recently they've tagged on a night noodle market which attracts a fairly hipster crowd and offers a range of Asian influenced foods. It occupies a slightly odd elevated position by reconciliation place.  Again the noodle markets have grown year on year but they've been fairly savvy at reducing queue sizes which have been a problem in previous years.

We popped in after school/work to have food from the noodle markets and then wandered round some of the fabulous lights. It was a warm and balmy evening and made you realise why Canberra is such a great place to live when free festivals like this happen on your doorstep.

Here's some pictures;

The National Portrait Gallery had a photo booth which took your picture and projected it on the side of the building (very clever!)

 I'm bottom left (with the cap), Eli is top right (dabbing)

Audrey has a phone smile!



An amazing cloud made out of lightbulbs - the rain was light pulls which you could turn the lights on and off with!

Purple and white soft serve was a hit!

Canberra Show 2017

We took our annual sojourn to Canberra show last weekend. It was possibly the first time I'd actually paid for entry as for a couple of years we've won tickets. It's fairly pricey for families, but actually once you get in it's pretty good value and we spent almost the whole day there.

It's on a large site in Canberra and we were grateful to the little train that ran you around if you waited at the stations and squeezed on. There's a lot to see from art and craft to rides and of course a whole menagerie of different animals.

We rode in cars, watched a lumberjack show and assorted cat and dog displays and also spent a long time making lego. A really fun and busy day out.

Eli fist pumping with the lumberjacks

A dog show in progress

Audrey having made a lego hand and bracelet.

Bubble Soccer

At Eli's rugby training this evening the kids were allowed to play 'Bubble Soccer' basically football where you were encased in a gigantic inflatable bubble. The kids had loads of fun (Audrey enjoyed bashing rather than being bashed). It was really funny to watch them as the football was soon abandoned and it essentially just became a bash-em exercise.

School Swimming Carnival

The school swimming carnival is kind of a big deal in the school calendar. I had a meeting at work that ran right through the event (annoyingly!) but luckily got away to catch the last 40 minutes.

 

This was the first time that Eli got to compete (races are only from year two onwards) and he placed first in all of his races (50metres breaststroke, freestyle and butterfly). What's more remarkable was that he didn't bother entering the backstroke as it's 'too easy'.

 

Anyway enough of my brags (Audrey got an excellent third place in the breaststroke, but was a little bit annoyed about her brother bringing home the glory)

 

It was lovely to see them do so well. It's a great environment too with loads of grandparents and parents cheering their kids on. I got a bit teary driving home that his Mum hadn't been there to see him. She'd have been so proud. Well done little man.

 

 

Gold in them 'thar hills!

The first time I've planted potatoes but despite quite a long growing period I've been really pleased with the outcome..(just dug these few up for a meal but there's plenty still in the ground)