Eli's turns 13!

Eli turned 13 yesterday. We both shed a tear together that his Mum wasn't here to celebrate with him, she'd be so proud about the kind and generous boy that he's become 

Eli's birthdays always land in the school holidays here in Australia and that makes it slightly strange as he then doesn't go to school to celebrate with his friends. I've never worked on my own birthday (I always take a day's leave from work) and this year it felt appropriate that I should take the day off work for Eli's birthday as well.

I have a Friday lunchtime football kick around in Yarralumla with some guys. I've played with them for the last three or four years but the group has been playing for much longer. People come and go but the core group of probably around eight or nine of them remain and it's usually a competitive (if slightly over-serious game). 

I offered Eli the option of going to the zoo or Questacon (Canberra's science museum which we haven't been to for years due to covid) but he opted to come along and play football with me. He invited one of his mates which was nice. Both the boys ran their legs off and as it was a warm and sunny lunchtime and I wasn't having to dash back after an over-long lunchtime to a work meeting we all had a good time.

In the evening we went to Guild in the city. It's a board game and pizza place and it's always packed. I'd luckily booked before we went. I'd read that Canberra locals had been a bit slow in returning to restaurants and cafes but this wasn't the case with Guild. 

Our friends kindly bought Eli an incredible cake and we were one of the last tables to leave at the end of the evening.

Eli had a football game on Saturday morning (the next day). His team won 5-2 against Cooma in a hotly contested game. Eli made a couple of great saves. I'd made cupcakes for the kids to help celebrate Eli's birthday and Eli enjoyed sharing them round.

As a footnote it was lovely to receive cards and presents from people all around the world. Some quite amusing ones too. Sadly nothing from Eli's surviving grandparents who haven't been in contact with him or Audrey and I for several years.

Eli handing out his cupcakes

Eli and his team celebrating a hard fought win

Enjoying cake at Guild

Nature photography, wellbeing workshop, Lanyon Homestead

Some time ago I signed up for a 'Wellbeing workshop' which was a photography morning run by a local photographer, Ben Kopilow on behalf of ACT Historic Places.

The workshop had an early start (7am) which was a bit punishing for a Saturday morning especially as it was held at Lanyon Homestead, an original homestead dating from 1829 in the extreme south of Canberra and probably a 30 minute drive from home.

It's been a couple of years (mostly due to covid) since we've been to Lanyon we've been to a few Christmas carols there as it's such a nice setting with the rolling hills of the (somewhat unfortunately named) Scabby Ranges behind it.

Audrey did a photography elective at the end of Year 8 and so she joined me at the workshop - Eli had a pre-season game of footy. 

I'd just bought a new lens (Sigma 30mm f1.4) and I'd struggled through websites and youtube videos to choose it. It was quite an investment but a definite upgrade on the kit lens that came with the camera. I'd used it a little bit over the preceding fortnight (I'd climbed up Mount Tennent for the first time) but I was still very much a novice in terms of its capabilities.

After a hurried breakfast and dash in the car we made it down to Lanyon for the 7am start time. Fundamentally I'd made sure to remember my camera (and to charge it the night before). The light at that time was beautiful (sunrise was around 7.05am) and I could see why they'd picked the early start. The host, Ben was a really friendly and unassuming guy and he took us through a few fundamentals.

The plan was that we'd walk round the property and he'd accompany us on our first couple of stops to answer questions, but then would leave us to our own devices to take photos. Either way it was great having a professional on hand to ask questions.

There were a range of cameras on display, some people had big lenses and expensive gear whereas another couple were armed with small digital cameras it didn't seem to matter. 

Ben's big lesson was to take your time. It's true in a life with a million calls on your time and a camera on every phone it's easy just to snap shots and not worry about composition or the make up of the shot. He left us with a (valuable) information sheet, which started with the following;

Creating an image with intent - thought process and check list

The first step to creating better images starts, not with rules or formula, but with a few questions

What about his subject or scene is interesting to me?

What am I trying to convey about this scene or subject by the photo I'm about to take

Am I just recording a memory for myself, or do I want to show others how I see the world?

There were a number of other questions that we were to ask ourselves.

The checklist concludes with a quote from Leonardo Da Vinci 'Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication'. I liked it.

Anyway, we walked round the garden and Audrey took some shots, some were good, some were not so good, some dark some well lit. We sought the help of Ben and found him to be ever so helpful. He critiqued what we'd done so far. Interestingly some of the ones we'd thought to be poor he thought were good, he looked at a couple I'd taken (and had been proud of) and remarked 'anyone could have taken those'. I realised Ben was right.

We continued with a new found sense of purpose. We re-shot some of the pictures we had taken based on the advice Ben had given us and we noted the improvement. We took them back to him and he reassessed and gave us further tips and hints. Towards the end he showed us a technique of moving your camera when you take a shot to create an abstract image. Some photos just looked blurred, but some looked like real works of art. It's something I'll continue to experiment with.

The two hours went quickly and both of us enjoyed it. I was proud of Audrey as she took some great photos and was the only teenager there. We drove back home definitely better photographers than when we arrived.

Here's a few of the shots Audrey took.

Ben actually thought this was the 'shot of the day' based on photos he'd seen by others. He really loved the lines of colour. In truth it was probably more of an accident than anything, but I can see what he means and it was clever of Audrey to take it

This is from the cook's cottage and a second photo which Audrey 'cropped' in. Ben felt there's too much light to the left of the photo (caused by the window) but he was still impressed that she had chosen to crop it.

This blur is a deliberate technique to have a slow shutter speed and then move the camera as you're taking the shot. I actually really like the effect.

If you want to see all of the images they should be available here.

Captain Eli

After a couple of football seasons interrupted by covid, it's good to see Eli back and training with Woden Valley FC - the club had a shirt presentation last night.

The club has a great culture with a focus on player development and support for kids across all age groups and skill levels.

Eli has been made captain of his team for the forthcoming U13s season (I suspect because he's the most vocal of the whole team 🗣) but in reality it runs deeper than that as he's always so supportive of his team mates win or lose.

A sunny day at Forest Park

Audrey wore her new horse riding shirt for the first time in today's lesson and looked really smart.

The group went on a trail ride which meant that I didn't get to watch them do the usual circuits of the arena. When she returned from her ride Audrey told me that the girls had cantered quite a lot on the ride which is good as otherwise the well-worn trail ride route can get a bit familiar.

 

8-a-side footy

COVID brought a sudden end to last year's football tournament and following a couple of months of sport-free lockdown it started again with the West Canberra Wanderers 8-a-side tournament. It's a fairly low-key affair and the competition isn't the stiffest but it's a good warm up to the proper season which will start in the new year.

Eli's team started with a 6-1 win in a fairly one-sided affair. It was a beautiful evening though and nice that everyone got a bit of a run-around after the lengthy lay-off.

 

Hashemoto at Smiths Alternative

Sunday was cold and rainy, but also 'International Make Music Day'. I'd spotted Hashemoto were planning to play outside of Smith's Alternative in the city and with not much else planned for the day the three of us headed out to watch them.

Smith's is a great live music venue. It describes itself as having a 'boho vibe' which I guess means that it probably needs a bit of a lick of paint and the assorted bookshelves it has around the venue support a cluttered and eclectic range of tchotchke - from goldfish to manekin heads. I've seen numerous bands and comedy shows there. The owners are always welcoming and I like it's slightly grungy, yet welcoming feel.

The rain fell hard as we crossed the light-rail tracks of Northbourne Avenue to reach the place, and although it's got a covered walkway, I wasn't really sure how an outside gig was really viable. Fortunately the band had reached a similar conclusion and so the inside venue was quickly cleared - the seats that were stacked due to the covid lockdown were quickly re-distributed and a dustcover removed from the piano in the corner.

The venue however was restricted to 20 guests (I guess on a good/non-covid night it could probably hold four or five times that number).

Hashemoto are a three piece - Damo, Bec and Potsy who play the guitar, piano and double bass respectively. I've probably seen them at least half a dozen times I guess in and around Canberra. They make great harmonies and they're all clearly very accomplished musicians.

People who didn't make the 20 limit sat outside and the owner did his best to open up curtains and windows so they could enviously watch us and Hashemoto inside.

The kids surprisingly endured it. Eli enjoyed it more than Audrey (who is more accustomed to k-pop) but it's hard not to like their music to be honest.

After a couple of hilarious encores (one where Bec stood to sing with the others and then realised a few bars in that she was supposed to be playing the piano and ran back to take her place) we said our farewells and headed out.

On the way back, Audrey sated her k-pop desires with some BTS lemonade she bought from the excellently appointed emart Asian Supermarket which is only a short stroll away from Smith's and Eli bought himself a t-shirt from Target. All three of us therefore headed home after a successful Sunday afternoon out.

Hashemoto brightening up a rainy Sunday afternoon

Pig Hill

During isolation we've been collecting 'trig points' in and around Canberra.

I've been careful not to drag us too far outside of the confines of the ACT as the Namadgi National Park is currently closed due to the bushfires and I'm conscious too that if one of us comes a cropper on our walks and twists an ankle/falls down a ravine etc that we could end up being an unnecessary burden on the health system at a time when they need it least.

Trig points are a common site at the top of hills and Canberra has an exceptionally large number of them. From what I can gather as the city expanded trigs were positioned at the top of hills/mounts so that surveyors could get an accurate measure from one point to another. From every trig point you (should) be able to see two more - hence establish a triangulation and thereby build roads/buildings accurately and plot the landscape on maps.

There is some debate as to exactly how many are in the ACT. There's somewhere around 80-100. The complication is that it's not clear whether some are truly 'trig' points or just rocks at the top of big hills and many others have been lost due to the fires (in 2003 and 2019/20). Sadly not all of the trigs are accessible and are now on private land so are tricky or impossible to reach. A few of our walks have curtailed either by huge barbed wire fences or warning signs.

Somewhere along the line Canberra started using 'quadripod' trigs. They are four legged structures with a large black circle on a pole at the top. Presumably the circle is used to sight the trig and I can only imagine that surveyors used some kind of tool/binocular type of equipment to 'spot' them.

Most of these Trig Stations are part of the ACT Precision Zone, a national geodetic survey and adjustment carried out in the early 1970s. The ACT Precision Zone and its associated marks have been the primary control for all new development in the ACT since the early 1970s. The accuracy of ACT Precision Zone marks is 1 in 250,000.

Autumn days are definitely here in Canberra. We've only had a couple of frosts to mention so far, but the nights are closing in and the mornings are chilly. Nevertheless Sunday's weather was beautiful - with a high of 16 degrees predicted the three of us headed out to Uriarra to find the somewhat un-exotically named 'Pig Hill'.

In researching the walk I saw that until fairly recently the hill had been used as a hang-gliding and paragliding jump-off. There's not many clues as to why it had stopped, presumably the landowner had objected.

I'd planned to go via the Uriarra Road then Mountain Creek and Doctor's Flat Road. On the map it looked a fairly straightforward option to commence our walk. Sadly when we reached the gate I'd intended to enter there were really big 'Private Property' warning signs.

It's always hard to know what to do with such signs as Australia doesn't seem to have 'rights of way' in the same way that the UK does. Unlike the network of paths which give walkers access it's often far less clear in Australia where you can or can't go. It's ironic that given the expanse of the country many beautiful walks are effectively restricted or closed to the public.

I'm not a big fan of trespassing, mostly because I imagine farmers with dogs or guns so we drove a bit further along Mountain Creek Road and found another fence without signs. I parked and we began our walk.

It was a fairly decent trek - I suspected early on that we joined up with the path we had been warned to avoid, but we were on a decent gravel path and not causing anyone any harm. I still had a few reservations about it and after walking for about 30 minutes a guy caught up with us on a quad bike.

He didn't seem bothered about us being there. In fact he was more puzzled as to why we'd be trying to walk up the hill. I explained we were trying to reach the trig, but understandably that didn't make too much sense to him either. 

Anyway he zoomed off on his bike and we continued to trudge upwards. A couple of the stretches of the road were pretty steep. I'd forgotten our drink bottles (an absolute sin in Australia) but I figured it wasn't that hot (had it been I'd have turned round) and we carried on.

Eventually the path took us through some beautiful woodlands and after a couple more very steep inclines we came out in a clearing at the top of Pig Hill. In all it had taken us a about two and a half hours to get there and we sat and enjoyed soup and a roll.

The view from the top was spectacular. The beauty with all of the trigs is that they afford lovely views, but Pig Hill is particularly wonderful as you have a 360 degree view across the whole of Canberra. There's a lookout tower up there as well (presumably from hand-glider days) and a pole which looked like it had formerly held a windsock.

Coming down was a lot quicker. We jogged a few sections simply because the terrain was so steep. At one point the road was blocked by some black bullocks, we gave them a wide-berth which meant trudging through a fairly squidgy swamp, but in hindsight I think they'd have been ok. 

We reached our car and headed home. We'd walked just under 12km and apart from wet feet from the swamp/marsh and the carelessness of forgetting water bottles it had been a really enjoyable day.